For most of my career, I’ve been wrestling with the same question: How do you turn what you know into something of value?
And inside that, what allows one person to cut through and have a flourishing career while others with similar experience and expertise don’t?
That’s been a personal challenge and a common conversation I have with clients and colleagues. But that’s not a simple question to answer because it includes a wide range of issues, such as:
- What is expertise?
- How does our identity shape what we see?
- How do you build authority?
- And where does wisdom come into this?
And more recently, what impact does AI have? How does that shape what value to create?
The Limits of YouTube and Social Media
Lately, I’ve noticed something missing in my own work.
Over the last few years, I’ve made a lot of videos on YouTube about expertise, authority, meaningful work, and experience.
Those ideas are still important to me, but I noticed something about the format itself.
The desire to be seen and visible on social platforms pushes us to present packaged and polished answers. As a result, it promotes tips, tricks, tactics and hacks.
But while that is useful, it misses something fundamental to how we learn: conversations.
Why Conversations Matter
Conversations matter, but not the usual conversations we have to get things done. Instead, conversations to explore, dissect, uncover, reveal and poke at questions we don’t know the answers to.
I often retreat to the safety of isolation and self-reflection. But I know I often have my best ideas in conversation with other people. Either they say something that triggers a thought, or words fall out of my mouth in ways that I hadn’t considered before.
This is how we learn conversation.
But conversations like this are risky because no one knows what will be said next. But that’s precisely the opportunity. This is when rough diamonds are unearthed – and often when you least expect.
Your Experience is NOT Your Resume
And in exploring ‘experience’, that’s where I’ve stumbled onto something much deeper and richer.
I started out thinking ‘your experience is your resume’, but already, after just the first two conversations, I’ve had to completely rethink this.
For instance, Anthropologist Michael Henderson has shared the idea of delaying interpretation and how too many of us jump to meaning too quickly.
And mindfulness teacher Mark Molony has shared how our experience and training can get in the way of perception.
From this, I’m beginning to think we misunderstand what our experience actually is.
And when it comes to building authority, I’m wondering if it’s actually a slow process that can’t be rushed.
An Unfolding Conversation
While many years ago I created a previous podcast with over 100 interviews, this set of recorded conversations will be nothing like that.
There are no agendas, no self-promotion, and no answers to provide.
Instead, it’s an open conversation between two people thinking out loud, exploring different ways of seeing the world and trying to understand how our experience shapes how we live and work.
And as a listener, you can watch that conversation unfold.
If that appeals, then welcome to On Experience.
More from On Experience
If you like what you’re read and would like to dive deeper into On Experience, then are some recent conversations to read next:
