With a background as a Fitness Expert and a Life Coach I get to meet some pretty awesome people. I recently met a fellow Fitness Professional for coffee so that we could do some brainstorming, get to know each other better and see where our work could align. I’m all about collaborations and partnerships, I truly believe we are all more successful when we help each other (that’s a post for another time).

And what came up in our conversation has come up in a few different conversations recently and so I feel that it’s an important topic to write about. So, what did we talk about? We were talking about different ways that this Fitness Professional could generate income in her business. As a Personal Trainer it gets really exhausting training people one at a time (a similar experience that many Life Coaches face). You have to train a lot of people in a week to make a decent living. As I learned more about her background and her passion it seemed so clear to me, why don’t you offer workshops for other Fitness Professionals around these areas of expertise that you have? Her response, “can I do that”? Which was then followed up by questions around is she qualified, who would want to hear her speak, what does she have to offer? All those self-doubting questions.

That got me on my soap box in a real hurry….

1. You have your own unique blend of education, training and experience. Nobody has the exact same combination. That makes you unique. That makes how you see things and interpret things unique;
2. Any time you teach a person something inevitably some of it will be new information and a lot of it will be things they’ve heard before. But as I’m sure all of you can appreciate, when you go to a learning event you don’t retain everything you hear and you certainly don’t apply everything. We remember and implement whatever information seems most relevant to our current circumstance. You take a similar workshop years later, your current circumstance is different and therefore what you remember and implement will also be different. Relearning information is actually really important;
3. You may describe something or say something with the exact words that someone in the audience needs to hear for that concept to make sense. Think about your own learning experiences. You likely learned about a topic from a few different people and there will be that one person who says it in such a way that your brain instantly gets it. You could be that light bulb moment for someone else.

And a few days later I was listening to a presentation by Suzanne Evans and she touched on a similar topic. One of the things she reminded us of is that to a second grader a third grader is a God. There will always be people who know more than you and there will always be people who know less than you. To the people who know more, there will likely be some reminders in what you say that they needed to hear. To the people who know less than you, they will be in awe with how much you have to offer and contribute.

So, regardless of your industry, there is always an opportunity to share your unique education and experience, to remind people of information that perhaps they have forgotten and to inspire the people who are following in your footsteps.

Who are you to share your wisdom, insight and expertise with others? Who are you not to?

P.S. If public speaking scares you to death, get help. Join a Toastmasters group, find a speaking coach, whatever you need to do so you can feel confident.