Ep 102 Transcript: Becoming the Expert Your Audience Is Already Looking For with Christine Blosdale
This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors in spelling or inaccuracies in the spoken words.
Shauna Lynn Simon (01:49.998)
Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business Podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. Today's guest is Christine Blosdale. She's also known as the Expert Authority Coach and is a five time number one bestselling author, an award winning radio personality, and the host of the Expert Authority Coach Podcast. And with over 25 years in personal branding, magnetic marketing, and multimedia, including creating content for brands like America Online and Microsoft.
She helps entrepreneurs, coaches, authors, and thought leaders step into their brilliance and become the go-to authority in their field. Her style is simple, easy, and my favorite part, it's fun. And most importantly, it's effective. So we're going to be talking about how women can go from invisible to in-demand, build authority without burnout, and get seen in a way that actually feels authentic. She is speaking our language, so Christine, welcome.
thank you so much, Shauna Lynn I'm very excited about being with you today. Thank you.
I've been looking forward to this conversation because, we just had a little bit of an off-camera conversation about the importance of understanding your authority and being able to project that authority out there. And at the same time, there's probably some people who are wondering, like, what does this actually mean? So if someone's meeting you for the first time, can you tell us what is it that you actually do?
Right. Well, you know, I used to be like a lot of my clients that come to me and I used to say, what do I not do? Right. I'm a writer. I'm an, you know, I'm a published author. I'm a speaker. I do this. I do that. I help people create podcasts. It was all these different things. And then I realized that my messaging was being diluted by all of these really cool things that I like to do. And I have a lot of women come to me.
Shauna Lynn Simon (03:10.382)
How do we sum this up?
Christine Blosdale (03:37.182)
And they're in the same boat. They're very creative. They're very talented and they can do many things as we're women. We can spin a lot of different plates. But what I've what I've found over the years is that that message gets diluted. And what happens is your potential clients or customers are completely confused and they really don't know. They might like your posts or they might like, you know, "Oh she's cool. She looks cool. She seems cool."
Multi passion is the name of the game, yeah.
Christine Blosdale (04:07.128)
but they don't know what it is that you do for them. And so my job is to take this person that comes to me with all of these great talents and says, okay, let's, let's whittle it down. Let's work on your branding and your messaging. So it's very clear what it is that you do. And what I do is I help people either create their expert authority or expand it so that they're rock solid in who they are.
when they go out in the world, when they do their social media posts or they do their blogs or anything like that, they're very clear in what they offer and how they can help people. You have to be clear on that. If you just say, you know, I graduated, know, I was awarded this fat or the other. People do not make that connection. You got to tell people what you can do for them. And I've been doing this now for many years and I see such growth in women.
I'm very excited and happy when my clients reach a point in their career where they say, you know what? I get it now, Christine. I'm really good at this. Now, all those other things that you're great at, that will come into play later as you're working with your clients. But you don't need to tell everybody everything, if that makes sense.
That makes perfect sense. I started, so my first business was a home staging business. And because I'm in this creative field and it's kind of like decorating design, but it's for real estate and it's all these different things that I was kind of had my hands in. All of a sudden people now want me to help them with their retail displays, help them to set up for a trade show, help with their window displays, help for planning their wedding, all these different things that.
on the surface looked like they all kind of fit into what I do. But at the end of the day, I started like adding all these things to my website and my website just had this laundry list of things that I did. And it was in at the end of the day, the core thing that I wanted to do was home staging, you know, like I want to, I want to help you sell your house. So all these other things are great to have. And so when I finally took all that extra stuff out, it was hard. not going to lie. There's, this FOMO of like, but
Shauna Lynn Simon (06:18.092)
If I take all this stuff out of my profile, how will people know that I can also help them pack up and declutter their home or just do a color console? How will they know these things? But zoning in on what it is that I actually wanted to offer, what was the most profitable for me to offer, where I was truly the expert, that was when the sales really started to take off. So I hear what you're saying, but I think, especially as women who are multi-passionate,
We're creative. We're wearing a bunch of different hats. We don't want to ever miss out on things. There's probably a little bit of scarcity going on there. And then the other thing that I wonder if you run into, though, is just knowing what I deal with with my clients often. They're like, I'm good at this, but I know that I'm the best. the word expert might not land. There is people. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about how you help your clients to embrace that expert part of them.
Well, some of that what comes into play many times is a bit of that imposter syndrome and for those people who are going, my God, it sounds like a disease. Okay. First of all, a lot of people deal with imposter syndrome and I'm not going to say suffer from it because having it means you're, checking yourself a bit, right? But here's the thing. It can hold you back and it's held back. So many really talented people. The other thing to remember is not only does it affect a lot of people,
but it really affects people who are overachievers. These are folks who don't just try something or half ass, you know, I'm going to just start a business. These are people who really thoroughly educate themselves. They get training, they have certifications, they're overachievers, right? They do as much as they can. And so it's even more on the line when they feel that they're going to be an imposter.
Usually it happens when we're asked to stretch when we're to do something that we're not used to doing that maybe scares us a little bit. Sometimes it might be I have some clients who oh I've been asked to speak to be the keynote speaker at this event and I've never done it before and I'm terrified Who am I to address these 500 women? You know and I and I'm like, whoa, hold on. Hold on first of all that imposter syndrome. What happens is
Christine Blosdale (08:43.084)
It's a primitive thing we have in our brain. We're so worried about being kicked out of the cave, right? In many, many millennia ago, we were in tribes and we were terrified of being kicked out of the cave. So we adapted. We said, I'm one of you guys. I'll help you do this. So that I'll do everything. Right. And the fear was that if we got kicked out of the cave, we were going to die. So your imposter syndrome is there to actually
Self-preserve you okay, so don't be so hard on yourself if you have that the thing is that you're gonna find out is that you're not gonna get kicked out of the cave if you stretch yourself, you're gonna meet new people you might even create a new tribe There's a whole bunch of people out there that are gonna resonate with your energy, but they're not gonna know about you. They're not gonna feel that energy unless you step in to that uncomfortable space, whatever that is. Maybe it's writing your first ...
Right. So I encourage people, don't be afraid. I have lots of strategies that I do when I'm working with my clients. And the biggest thing, the biggest mover on the needle is to tell them it's not about you. And they go, I just hired you to work on my brand and my I said, listen, it's not about you. It's about the people that you say you want to serve.
So you don't show up you're not helping them and you're not you're not growing them and their business you're not Showing up for them and think of all those missed opportunities. So we focus the attention on your Potential clients and customers not on you and how you look. I'm too old. I'm too this I'm too that I'm too fat. I'm too and stop it stop
And none of that. Yeah, there's so many superficial things that I think we can often get hung up on. Someone said to me very early in my career, and I can't remember who it was that said this. And I know that this wasn't the first person who said it. I believe there was someone famous at some point who said this. And I can't remember who it is, and I apologize for that. But essentially, in order to be an expert, you just have to know more than they do.
Shauna Lynn Simon (10:55.342)
And I love that because I think what you were talking about with the imposter syndrome and with feeling like who am I to do this? Well, who else is going to do it? Who do know who's better qualified for it? And like you were saying with overachievers, they especially tend to feel a little bit stretched at times from their comfort zone because I think the challenge is, are you familiar with the Dunning-Kruger effect?
I've heard of it. I've heard of it.
I love this for explaining it's great for explaining imposter syndrome and so many things in life in general. But the Dunning-Kruger effect is basically two dudes. I'm going to butcher the story of this, but feel free to look it up. A couple of dudes way back when, I think it was like in the 70s if I'm not mistaken. And they studied people and how they react in psychology to things. And what they essentially figured out is that the more you know, the more you learn, the more you know, and the more you know, the more you realize you don't know things.
Or it triggers like, I just learned all this stuff. now there's so much more that I don't know. The people who are not avidly learning tend to get a little bit stuck and feel like they know all the things that they need to know. so essentially, and I apologize if anyone takes offense to this, but the layman's way of kind of putting this is that the people who tend to be at a lower achievement level essentially don't have the intellect to know
Yes, I have heard of this. Yes
Shauna Lynn Simon (12:21.614)
that they are low achievers. Whereas the high achievers know that they're a high achiever, but they see everybody else being higher than them because they keep identifying knowledge gaps as they keep learning. And I think that this is something that I know so many people do and contributes to the imposter syndrome because like you said, like we're, we need to gather all the information. We need to find out all the things. And then all of sudden we get stuck in this cycle of, I need to know more and more and more. And at the end of the day, do you know more than the people you're teaching? That makes you an expert.
And I'm not saying to stop there, to be clear.
No, no, because we're always growing and we're always learning and that's the that's also the sign of a good teacher and a good coach is having the ability to learn along with your clients. You don't want to be that guru that you don't want to be that person that that holds all of the knowledge for everything. It's impossible, number one, but you can improve your techniques and your communication style.
And I find that I use story and analogies that people can grasp hold of. If I'm talking about something and I make it too technical or too advanced for them, they're glazed over and they're like, I don't even know where to start. So then they're already giving up. Right. But if I keep it into simple terms and that's what I try and do. If I keep it in very simple terms, people can grasp it. The same thing when I was a kid in school, I had a sixth grade teacher.
Who was brilliant at making things understandable because she kept it simple. And when you're able to grasp what the concept is in a simple way, then you can try different things. Well, let me try this. Let me explore this. But if it's too complicated, we shut down. Right. So that's the key is, is being able to communicate what you do know. You want to communicate that in a way that people can get and grab and the stuff that you don't know.
Christine Blosdale (14:19.478)
Say, let's go on a journey. Let's figure it out.
I really like what you're saying here because I think you're hitting on a really important point, especially when it comes to messaging. I think there's so many brilliant business owners who feel invisible and they'll say like, but I'm doing everything right. I'm doing all the things like quote all the things. And the challenge is of course that they're not necessarily like hitting on the right notes. I know I've found where people come to me with their messaging and I will not proclaim to be a messaging expert necessarily, but I know a lot of the do's and don'ts. And if I'm reading
any sort of branding or marketing that comes through with all these flowery words. And I'm still looking at like, but what do you do? I don't know if I can figure that out because you, you know, and I work with a lot of interior designers and interior designers want to create this luxury feel for things. they curate these wonderful experiences when you walk in a home to make it feel like blah, blah, blah. Like, okay, so you help renovate homes like
And I know that I'm oversimplifying it, of course, but, I also, I'm an interior designer myself, but for me, the things that I focus on, the reason why my clients come to me is because I love space planning and dealing with accessibility specifically when it comes to space planning and universal design. So those are things that people are going to come to me for. Can I do all the rest of the stuff? Yeah. But this is why people are coming to me and I focus on that. And I use the words like space planning, accessibility and universal design right in my copy all over my.
Yes.
Shauna Lynn Simon (15:48.694)
all over my website. But I find that people are trying to use fancier words and instead of calling themselves an interior designer, they are a home stylist. No one's searching on Google for a home stylist.
They're not, they're not. And it's also, and here's the thing, you know, when it comes to, you're the brand. Yes. And this is what I try and explain to people. It's not all the degrees you have. It's not where you went to college. It's not all of the certifications that even you have. It's you are the brand. so with you, Shauna Lynn, I mean, you, have a standout brand. Okay. Not only is it the way you look and appear, but also your energy.
your energy imprint. And if you notice for myself, a lot of, and now this photo was taken a long time ago. I'm showing you for those that are not watching this, but you're listening, I'm a photo. I'm showing a headshot, right? And this is one of the most important things that I tell my clients. said, if you want to be an expert authority and whatever, get yourself a really good headshot that expresses you and your energy, your energy imprint. Now, if you look at this photo,
You can't even see my eyes because I'm, I'm, have an expression on my face. That's pure joy. have headphones on and I have a microphone in front of my face. Right. So immediately, you know, it's something to do. I don't know. She's got a mic. I don't know what she's doing, but it's something to do with, with speaking. Right. Okay. That's cool. But the expression on my face is that elation. It's that joy. I'm not in a serious pose in a three piece suit being all, you know,
Being very serious. I have joy in that image and that image has gotten me through more doors and more interviews more being on summits and being invited on panels and all of that stuff that image has Opened doors for me because it's a reflection of my energy and who I am my brand So the same thing with you have a brand You could be selling sandwiches
Shauna Lynn Simon (17:50.442)
Absolutely.
Christine Blosdale (17:56.652)
And people will just be attracted to you because of your energy. that's extremely important. People can use all the ChatGPT long expletive, you know, long worded descriptions of what they are, but they need to actually show, their, energy that they have and do that in very careful, carefully thought out words, not just something ChatGPT spits out.
Yeah, and I think you're bringing up a really good point here. AI is fantastic. I use it all the time. Couldn't even imagine my life without it at this stage. It has really simplified my life, but AI without human touch doesn't take you far enough. I find, so a lot of my clients, for example, they can tell someone else about me and they will sing my praises, give an absolute rave referral that people are like jumping to work with me. They're not even calling anybody else like, no, no, like someone's just told me need to work with you.
but they can't do the same thing for themselves. Yes. So how do you get them to sell themselves the same way they might be selling like some sandwiches or their coach or whatever?
Yes.
Christine Blosdale (19:01.132)
They need to work with me.
I that's the obvious answer.
Yeah, no in in you know, even just having a strategy call with somebody 30 minutes in 30 minutes I can bust down Break down who you are What's missing right? You might be thinking that it's this, know particular aspect of my business That's really important and I'm gonna promote that all over the place and that may not be what people actually need and want I give the analogy of Here it is. I give the analogy of
Most business owners we're trying to sell a stapler, right? And this stapler is the most amazing thing in the world and it opens up and, Hey, and this month, an extra special deal for you, get 50 % off this stapler, right? So you were shoving down the throats of the people, this stapler and what they really want is a sandwich. don't want a stapler, but we're, but we've been trained in stapler.
Technology and we've you studied it and we we have our whole programs. We have a program We have a course around the stapler listen if people don't want the stapler You're not gonna connect with them. So you need to figure out what your Clients and customers if they want a sandwich give them a damn sandwich
Shauna Lynn Simon (20:21.678)
It's so funny because I really thought what you were going to say is that they just need like their papers attached to each other and no, you're like, no, they need a sandwich like the stapler, but you're, you're absolutely right. We're often trying to sell them what we think they want. Yeah. Yes. You'll add it. Sometimes you do have to sell them what they want, give them what they need. There are times where what they think they want is not actually what they need. That
No, they don't even need the stick!
Christine Blosdale (20:37.222)
And that's a mistake.
Shauna Lynn Simon (20:49.218)
but you can't have like stapler versus sandwich. It might be that they feel like they want a particular type of sandwich, but actually what they really want are these results. So we're gonna give them this other type of sandwich. I don't know, that was a tear. I went off the rails with that one a little bit, but yeah.
If potential people, if they, let's say, want to create a beautiful home environment and they know that they need this, they're gonna need to have you or someone like yourself explain to them that it's achievable and that you're the best person to come to. And it's gonna be an enjoyable experience. So all those other scary stories of people maybe...
charging too much money and then, and then it looks like something out of Ikea showroom, know, those types of stories that's important to reflect to people and say, with me, this is what you're going to get. Right. Right. So, but you need to find out what it is that they actually want for an example is to is during COVID I was very busy. a lot of people had a lot of time and they were on Zoom and they, they needed to upskill, but a lot of people wanted to create a podcast.
It was an explosion of people wanting to a podcast. So my, one of my big, you know, bread and butters of my career was showing people how to create a podcast to market their business. So I did a four week program and that was my stapler, right? My stapler at the time, it was actually at the time it was a sandwich because it was what people wanted, but then out of COVID after COVID when life kind of gets back to normal.
What I found is that people did not want that stapler podcast. They wanted help on their business and their brand. needed better messaging, better branding, better offers, all of that stuff. Their websites were, you know, just missing the mark. So that's when I pivoted and said, you know what, can I help you create a podcast? Of course. And is that part of developing your expert authority? Of course.
Christine Blosdale (22:55.064)
But not everybody is meant to have a podcast. Not everybody has the fortitude or the commitment to have a podcast or the personality. You got to have a personality to be a podcast host. So what I found is that that was part of my menu of things that I could offer, but that was not my lead. Right.
I like that. OK, yeah. And I like that you kind of zoomed out a little bit, but you're still focusing on your core and your core messaging. So you haven't like changed your audience or anything. You just kind of zoomed out a little bit. I want to dig in a little bit with just talking about the podcast. That's one way to build authority. I want to talk about some other ways to build authority. We're going to do that right after this short message.
All right, welcome back to the Real Women Real Business podcast where we are talking with Christine Blosdale and she is the expert authority coach. And we're just diving into exactly what's going to build that authority. So one thing, of course, is podcasting.
And I will admit a lot of my clients like I just need to get on a bunch of podcasts or just need to start a podcast. And sure, that is definitely one way to build authority. It doesn't it's not an overnight success necessarily. Very, very few podcasts are an immediate overnight success. We've been at this podcast almost two years now and it's going great. I have zero regrets about it, but it doesn't automatically make me the all time guru about all things. So what are some other ways like you've been doing this for over 25 years?
Shauna Lynn Simon (25:05.634)
What's sort of the biggest shift that maybe you've seen and what actually creates authority these days?
So yes, creating the podcast. And again, that's not for everybody. Right. Yeah. And just so you know, I mean, the, I think it's an average of seven episodes that newbie podcasters do before they quit. That's, that's a lot of people, right. They'll only do about seven and they go, Oh, I'm not a millionaire yet. So I just got to give this up. Right. And, and the thing is it's the long game when it comes to that. Now podcast guesting on for some of my.
not saying don't do it either.
Christine Blosdale (25:41.058)
For many of my clients, I do recommend that they get booked on podcast shows, but not just, don't, you don't just going to get on a podcast show and have a go down story land lane and talk about all this great stuff. have to have a strategy and it needs to bring people back to you and your services or your business. Or if you're an author, it needs to bring people back to buying that book. Right. So there needs to be a strategy with that. So podcasting in general, I love it. It's great.
It's important and you can repurpose the content. So if you're a host you could repurpose those episodes into Modules for a course or chapters in a book same thing if you're a guest on a podcast show Repurpose that content take that what you've been saying and you're in your element because you're talking to a great host like Shauna Lynn and take that content and repurpose it you can use it for
social media, can get clips, highlight clips, and the host is gonna love that you're sharing their show on your social media, right? So those are a couple ways, and it shows that you're an expert authority because you're a guest on a show, right? Let's say that. The other thing is I was in broadcasting, I was in radio for 20 years, and as a producer and as a host of a a prime time drive show, and I got lots of pitches from
people from publicists and the ones, the people who got to be moved to the front of the line were people that had either a media kit or a website that gave me a lot of great information about exactly who they are. They even would have a sample of them speaking. Cause I need to know how you talk. If I'm going to invite you to be on the show with me for an hour. the people who really moved up to the top were people who had written a book.
And if it was a best seller, hallelujah. But having a book is one of the most important ways to put your plant, your flag of I am an expert in a topic. This topic of the book. it's something that you can send podcast hosts, radio show hosts. You can send them the book, but just the mere fact that you've written it tells me a lot about you. Okay.
Shauna Lynn Simon (27:59.97)
Does it count if I've almost written like three books? That doesn't count, no?
No, you need to write that book. And it's not as scary. And people go, because I did too. Before I wrote my first book, I thought it was going to be so hard. you only Tom Clancy kind of people write books and I got to get a publisher. No, no, no, no, no. You can self publish. You can be on Amazon tomorrow. Right. And you don't need to write a novel. You can write a, know, a lot of my books are tiny. They're tiny books. They're guides.
Finish that, yeah.
Shauna Lynn Simon (28:32.428)
Yeah.
They're easy to consume. They're easy for me to publish, relatively easy for me to publish. And I'm not even a writer. I'm a talker. I take my speeches, my webinars, my workshops, I take them and I turn them into enjoyable, fun reads. Right? I'm working on my sixth book now.
my goodness, good for you.
Yeah, and I figured it out finally that you know, was I've written many books on podcasting and about podcast guesting and then of course now social media and branding with the latest book, but the new book is and I finally I finally go i'm taking my own advice as an expert authority coach, and it's called the expert authority code And it's all about all the things that you can do the little steps and the things that you can
put on the shelf and say, don't need to do that right now, but these things I could get, get done in a relatively short amount of time, to become that expert authority. So I'm very excited about that. I'm in the process of it right now. So I'm very excited about, creating that. But, yeah, a book, a book is a, is a great way to expand your expert authority. Another thing you can do is if you have a unique title or a program that is your signature program.
Christine Blosdale (29:54.198)
I highly recommend that you trademark it. If you notice my title is Christine Blosdale It's the expert authority coach. I had that trademark not so much because I want to be the only expert authority coach in the world, but it's because that little TM tells people that I'm professional and that I took the time to trademark it, spent the time and the money and
I am it's for the long haul. It's like a McDonald's, you know, you see the golden arches you go. that's a brand. So if you can do that with either your title, not so much your name, but your title or a signature program that you have, it tells the world that you're a professional and that you're an expert in in that particular field. It helps.
Great idea. We actually had, I believe her name was Anita Marr, if I'm not mistaken, the trademark angel on as a guest on our podcast earlier. It was last year. And yeah, like she really kind of brought it home of how important it is to trademark things for protecting yourself for your intellectual property and everything else. But I like what you're saying, though, about the added bonus of it's not just going to protect you, but now you've got that extra authority. And it says, I think this is so important. It says you're a real business.
Even if this is still your side hustle, whatever it is that you are doing, no one wants to hire someone for their side hustle. They want to feel like they are your big priority. I mean, I've got, I still do interior design work, for example. Every one of my design clients wants to feel as though their project is the only project I have on my plate. Meanwhile, of course, you're navigating at least a couple. I try not to take more than two on at a time because of how much time I spend on my coaching.
Same thing with my coaching clients. Each one of my coaching clients, they know I've got other clients, but they want to feel like they're the most important one. So if I'm coaching, if I'm just getting into coaching, I'm not, been doing it for over a decade now, but let's say I'm just getting into coaching and I'm taking on these clients. I might have to say to them like, I only have limited availability to meet with you. And it might be because I'm working a full-time job while I'm getting this coaching thing off the ground, but they don't necessarily need to know that I'm trying to get this coaching thing off the ground. They want to feel like they are in expert hands.
Shauna Lynn Simon (32:09.326)
So the more legitimacy we can put behind it, absolutely. Again, it's just one of those little extra tips to add authority. So it's not necessarily like a medium or a venue to getting your messaging out, but it's just a little extra notch in that. yeah.
It's important like you said it's important when you are working with those people that you are a thousand percent focused Yeah, right and really good coaches and really good Leaders and teachers are people that make you feel that you are the most important thing during that time and you know what listen Energy time is valuable to me. Okay, so if I take somebody on and that's what I say is
I have to decide if I'm going to take somebody on as a client. If I want to spend those two, our sessions are two hours. Every single session is two hours because we get a lot done in that two hours, but we need that time together to get a lot of stuff done. like, I'm an overcompensator.
But during that time, it's 100 % or 1000 % focused on them and their needs. not any, I don't talk about anybody else. Only, I'll only mention another client if I think that they'd be a great JV partner, know, a joint venture partner or something like that, collaborator.
Yeah, for sure. And I think that that's important as well. And I think people need to know that you're working with other people. I think it's a nice thing for them to know, but they want to feel special still at the end of the day. Now, what is OK? So we talked earlier about, you know, the people who want to do all the things or say they're doing all the things and they're not quite landing because maybe their messaging is off. Maybe they haven't really zoned in on where their expert authority is. Let's say they've got all that figured out and maybe they're not honestly writing a book right now, but they want to try some other visibility strategies.
Christine Blosdale (33:36.824)
Yes, absolutely.
Shauna Lynn Simon (33:58.88)
I'm interested to know what's a visibility strategy that you don't usually recommend, especially for like busy business owners, even if everyone else is like, you got to do this. Because think a lot of people, they think they got to do all the things. I know we talked about this a little off camera as well of like all the things that people say they need to do. But I want to hear from you. What is the one thing that you would say like, don't do this? If this is something that you're doing a ton of, don't do it if you're super busy.
Especially when it comes to your offers keep it very simple If you have if it's like a menu and you are if you go to a place to eat and the menu is 18,000 pages long and there's all these different things to eat many times You're not gonna pick anything or you're gonna pick the thing that you absolutely know There's a deli in Los Angeles called Jerry's Deli and I loved going there The food was amazing, but the menu was insane and I would look at it and I go
And there was all these great things I could try, but you know what? I went with the thing that I knew I'll have a Matzo ball soup and potato pancake. That's what I order or always ordered because I was overwhelmed and I've, I've seen clients and they have an offer and it goes on and on. get this, you get that and this and that, and it's so much stuff that it dilutes the message. You could just make that offer be focused on one thing. Right.
Now, once you're working with that client, you can bring in, like we were talking about, you can bring in all those other great things that you do. But for sure. But really, when it comes to doing that in the offers, I tell people, please keep it simple. It's too confusing. So that's important. The other thing is, is a lot of times people like to throw everything they can at the wall to see what sticks. I'm going to try this. I'm going to try that. It's too much. And not only are you going to get burned out, but
people who are seeing your messaging are gonna get confused as well. really we don't have a lot of time to make that connection with people and to make that memory or to stand out. So you wanna take those opportunities and make it valuable so that people understand what it is that you're offering. The other thing is, is speak the language of your people, right? You may know a lot of stuff in your head and...
Christine Blosdale (36:14.574)
You have a PhD in whatever But not people who are might be interested in working with you. They don't have those that terminology They don't have that know-how and so you need to come to their level and speak in their language if that makes sense
Absolutely. And I know people think that that'll dilute the message a little bit like, but I want to sound smart. I want to sound like I know what I'm talking about. You can do that without having to talk over them. You can still talk to them and with them without talking over them. Yeah. And I think a lot of people tend to confuse authority with influence.
as well. And of course, everyone wants to be the next influencer. yeah, there's that. But I think that there's ways of doing on such a smaller level. I love the idea of what you're talking about, though, of just paring down the number of offerings, because the other part of that, I follow a lot of different people online. And the ones who remind me what they're doing on a regular basis are the ones I tend to really gravitate to. I like seeing the same message just in
16 different ways over and over again because it lands better with me than the person who one day is talking about this thing and the next day is talking about this other thing and the next day is talking about this other thing. And it can be challenging. Like I know for myself, I have one of my companies is an online training company. I have literally thousands of courses. I think if you include the micro trainings that I have, it's just like all my old webinar replays and such. It doesn't mean I'm out there promoting every single one of them. I have my core courses.
are all kind of centered around similar themes and those are the main ones that I promote. Even that is still hard enough to be zoned in without but it's still fairly diverse. So I know what it's like to try to like but someone might need this other thing that I have here. Sure but are you really going to land with them if you talk about 16 different things in the same week? It's I guess you're gonna lose me that's
Christine Blosdale (38:08.878)
And it might be even just reframing it because I have the same thing where I have a lot of my master classes that webinars and workshops that I've done on let's say ChatGPT and how to become a podcast guest and How to use Canva all these different things and I was like but people want all these things so the thing is that if you package it and You call it, you know business tools for
you every entrepreneur, every entrepreneur needs these business tools or these marketing tools. Then it's a little bit easier. It's a basket and you can have all those goodies in the basket, but you're not just saying we do this, we do that. We do. They can go into that basket and they can look and they can go, they can check off things. I, I want to know about ChatGPT. I want to learn more about Canva, those types of things. Right. So sometimes it's how we, how we package it, how we, how we put it all together.
instead of selling them all as individual things. Package. Yeah. So for the interior designer that does all the full home renovations, you're going to package as a full home renovation as opposed to getting down to the nitty gritty details of every single element of what it is that you're doing. Yeah. That doesn't necessarily relate to them. So what do you say to someone who's saying, OK, but there's already so many experts out there. It's I love hearing like the it's a saturated market. That is that is like the top phrase I keep hearing these days. The market's over saturated.
Exactly.
Shauna Lynn Simon (39:36.642)
What do you say to them?
Yeah, if I had a dollar for every time I heard that I would be sipping a piña colada on a resort beach somewhere, right? that kind of is defeatism. It's a scarcity mindset. And it also tells me that you don't really value who, who you are and what you do. Okay. Because you're comparing yourself and that is where imposter syndrome reigns. It's in that comparison mindset. Are there other really?
business coaches out there. Yeah, there's thousands, tens of thousands, I don't know, hundreds of thousands. A lot of people are business coaches, but is there anyone who is like myself or you? No, there's nobody that has the experience that I have. 20 years in broadcast radio where I interviewing business owners and leaders, right? And I've done all the hustle. I've done the mistakes. I've started my own business.
I did the mistakes in starting my own business. So with that, with that experience, you have a knowledgeable base that you can help people with, but also nobody else is, has your personality. Nobody else has cats, you know,
Nobody randomly showed up in their podcast now. Nobody.
Christine Blosdale (40:54.062)
Has the education I grew up in Los Angeles and I'm I mean I'm 61 right now But I grew up at a time that was actually really cool in Los Angeles. We're a multicultural hip city where I got a lot of influence from My international friends and family members. So your unique imprint nobody else has So you have to go into it knowing that and being confident in that
What I say to people do I know everything no? How boring would that be but am I am I extremely good at what I'm damn good at what I do Yeah, that's and that's confidence. That's not arrogance. That's confidence
Yeah. And I think that we all bring something unique to the table. there is plenty of different, people can ask ChatGPT for practically anything now. Whatever service it is that you offer, someone can go to ChatGPT essentially and ask them to do the same thing. So you've got to give them a reason to come to you and say, I remember I used to be able to say, or I used to use as part of my marketing, sure, you could Google like how to declutter your home in 10 quick, easy steps.
or have me come in and do a consultation and give you an actual report on it. Nowadays, it's not even just Googling and getting something generic. It's ChatGPT, which is a whole different level of advice that it's giving and resources that it's pulling from something that Google never fully had access to. Like I said, there's a place for AI, but we want to ensure that people are going to choose us. AI will not take your job if you continue to show up in a way that AI cannot replicate. And I think that's key.
Yeah, and AI is brilliant, ChatGPT in particular, and perplexity in those types of models. But when it comes to inspiring people and motivating them, that comes from personal stories. And unfortunately, or fortunately, these AI programs don't have that personal story. They don't have the memories of being on the school playground and somebody saying something that hurt your feelings. So that when you're talking to somebody and you go, hey, you know what?
Christine Blosdale (42:59.52)
I know what it's like to feel like an outsider or I know what it's like to have my feelings hurt when somebody says something. Maybe they didn't mean it, but I took it, you know, really hard that it doesn't have that. And it doesn't have the. voice, right? Your voice is your imprint, your energy as well. And so I just, try to appeal to people and say, you're very unique and the world needs you and you need to show up.
because there's somebody out there that needs exactly what it is that you offer. But if you're not showing up or you're saying, well, there's so many, the market's saturated or there's everybody's doing a podcast, then those people are not going to be reached. And that's a shame. That's a shame.
I couldn't agree more. now if someone wants to be known for like one thing in 2026, I think you've got a fantastic offer as well where you've got an expert authority quiz, right? Can you tell us a little bit about what you've got for our listeners?
So this is really cool and what it allows people to do is to have 30 minutes with me and we're break down what your expert authority is or if you don't know what it is we'll help you on that but it's a just a 10 question quiz it's fun it's these are questions you should be asking yourself anyway if you're in business it doesn't matter what kind of business you're in these are questions that you should be asking yourself and there's no
failing or anything like that. It's not a stressful thing. basically just walk, I go through the quiz with you and then we go over the results and then I will give you, and I work intuitively, although I don't market myself as a psychic at all, but I work very intuitively. So if I see something that's a banger winning title for you or direction that I think you should go in, I'll tell you it's recorded for you as well. So you get that for free and it's all, it's all free. And,
Christine Blosdale (44:51.0)
They can book that in. They could book it tomorrow if they wanted to. They could book that in at freeexpertauthoritycall.com
Perfect. And we'll make sure that that link is in the show notes as well. But if you're listening to this, take her up on that, you're to get 30 minutes with Christine, not to mention all the results of what's actually coming out of this quiz. Absolutely do not miss out on this. I know from just from this conversation, there is a ton that you can pull out of someone in 30 minutes. I guarantee it. Like there's I can only imagine what you do in these calls. I might have to set up a call myself for that matter.
Look at all we covered in just our conversation.
Christine Blosdale (45:26.84)
Girl, come on!
Yeah, you don't know, right? I mean, it's always fun to kind of see. But also, I think the other thing that's great about this is sometimes we're too close to it. One of the guests we had on the show, Deb Mitchell, the phrasing that she uses is it's like trying to read the label from inside the jar.
yes, yeah.
Love the analogy of that. Like it's so true that sometimes you're just so close to it. I'd be interested to know what someone else sees looking at things because sometimes that's the issue. And I actually I worked with Deb on some of my own messaging and I had it like 80 percent of the way there. But I can't figure out how to get out of what I know, what I want to communicate to what they want. Like it was just bridging that gap. So working with someone like yourself to help bridge that gap.
to understand like where is my authority? Where should I actually be focusing? I think so many people have gone a lot of different directions the last few years and in the 2026, this is the year to really hone in on where your expert authority is. I think this is a great way to do it.
Christine Blosdale (46:25.686)
It's the, need to do it. And right now is the perfect time. And when you're very solid in who you are and what you offer, then you can also do what I think is going be very powerful in 2026, is collaborating with other expert authorities. Don't go it alone. know, Superman by himself is cool, but when you get the whole Marvel gang together, you know, you got Batman, you got Wonder Woman, you got all this great energy and you can play off of each other's audiences. And I think you.
Yes!
Christine Blosdale (46:55.052)
you bring to your clients and to the world a much better product, but also more skills that they can learn when you team up with people. But you can't do that until you're very solid on who you are.
And so true. And I think that actually this is one of the underrated strengths of women is that women are very much tribe people. Like we are about our tribe and our squad and we do well with collaborating and we're more powerful when we can collaborate as well. just if we can enhance. I mean, I have my success partners that I work with in my program who dial in on specific areas. So all my clients that are in my group coaching program not only get my expertise, but they get it from all my success partners as well.
on their areas of genius. so I think that, yeah, that collaboration, I think is going to be huge in 2026. OK, so if someone's listening to this episode today and they're going to walk away, can do one thing based on what we've talked about today. They put one thing into action. What's that one thing that you want them to take away from this?
I really want to meet them. I really want to know. seriously, love and 99.9 % of my clients are women. Do I have male clients? Yes, I do. So if you're out there and you've got a business and actually I just brought on a new client from North Carolina, a gentleman who's looking to expand their expert authority. But I really, I love meeting new people and I love seeing that spark and that light.
that light bulb go off with people. So I think that's really important. And the next thing is to dial in and think about the fact, like we mentioned before, are you offering a stapler when your potential clients and customers really want that sandwich? And you need to figure out in your world what the stapler is and what the sandwich is.
Shauna Lynn Simon (48:49.31)
That's a solid question to be asking themselves. Just taking that objective look, step outside of things a little bit.
It'll change their business. It'll completely change their business.
Yeah, completely agree. Christine, I cannot thank you enough for joining me today. shared so many great ideas and thoughts in here. And I really hope that our listeners will take you up on your offer and book that call with you.
It's been a pleasure, Shauna Lynn You're awesome. Thank you so much for having me.
thank you. All right, and if you're listening to this episode, what we're saying here today is resonating with you, then I hope you will continue to tune again each week. We drop new episodes every Tuesday at 7 a.m. Eastern time. And please allow me and my guests to continue to be a part of your journey. Don't forget to leave us review. Subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts. And until next time, keep thriving.