I just spent several hours creating a new page on my website. I titled it "Client Love". It's a small collection of testimonials from clients who have said kind and generous things about my work over the last big handful of years.
I've served many more clients than I've received testimonials. Partly that's because I forever forget to ask for them and still don't have systems in place to collect them. It's also partly because sometimes client sessions are wonky, hard, not enjoyable and I wouldn't want to elicit a testimonial from that person anyway.
Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn.
I've always found it somewhat difficult to explain what I do. I can tell you that I use two tools, a personality profiling tool called Human Design and a stress reduction tool colloquially known as 'Tapping'.
I usually tell people I'm a 'coach' because they need a label that makes sense to them. (Think personal development or life coach, not sporting coach.)
But that barely touches even the surface of what I do.
Really, what I do is look deeply into people's souls, ask them questions they've never been asked before and help them create a life, moving forward, that's better than they thought was possible.
My clients and students are brave people. They tend to be on a spiritual journey of self-discovery. They are emotionally intelligent, kind, and humble people who often do therapeutic or healing work as their profession as well.
They're my kind of people.
(This is a selfie of me from some time in the last fortnight. Obviously, I can't show you a photo of me working with a client (#confidential) nor can I show you my professional photo I use on my website (as my partner took it, not me) but I'm hoping this photo shows you my kindness and my presence - two things that are absolutely required for the work I do. Because it ain't just about knowing things and being smart, it's so much more than that.)
Now, am I an 'expert' at what I do?
'Expert' is an interesting designation. In the world of Human Design, I most definitely look like an expert to someone who has just pulled their birth chart for the first time.
But I've only been working with this tool for 11 1/2 years. I know people who have been working at far greater depths within this body of knowledge for twice that long. And when I read the stuff they teach, I either learn something new or struggle to understand how they know what they've shared.
I think it keeps me humble, to be honest; there's always more to learn.
However, when it comes to 'Tapping' (the most well-known version of this being EFT - Emotional Freedom Techniques), I'm probably pretty comfortable claiming expert status at this point.
Why? Well, I can now pick holes in the work of all of the world's leading experts in this field.
I can see the limitations in their work. I can see where they're not being as efficient, or safe, or grounded in their work as they could be.
And because of this, I'm no longer willing to be trained by any of the most well-known and well-respected 'Master Trainers' in this field.
Egotistical? No. I don't think so.
I think this is what it looks like when you've used a tool a lot and you've looked at it from every angle. And you can see where it's brilliant and useful and life-changing. And... where it falls short.
To make the Tapping I do both personally and professionally better than everything I was taught within the field, I had to go learn from people outside the field.
Now, I think the Tapping I am doing is truly incredible. And I'm willing to stand up and say so.
And what about when I put these two things together?
Well, in that respect, I still feel like a baby. And yet, almost no one in the world has a decade-plus of knowledge and practice with one of these tools, let alone both.
So, the weaving together of the two might be new but since there may be only a few thousand (?) people on the entire globe who know how to put these together, again, I'm going to look like an expert, but really, pioneer might be a better term.
Galen asks several questions in his Weekend Experiences Community. The one I chose to 'speak' to this week was this:
What are you an expert in (or think you are an expert in?) Explain.
If you like the idea of writing a post, in English, each weekend, Galen has been at this for years and doesn't seem likely to stop anytime soon. So, check out the community, look for his new post each Friday and see if there's a question you'd like to answer. Be sure to follow the rules!
<<< And Galen, I'd 100% come to a BBQ at your house if we were anywhere nearby. Why? Because I like that you make me think in new and different ways, and seem to be able to hold both a fierce stubbornness based on your own values, without belittling others when you disagree with them. Which appears to be often :P >>>