How to Find Your Expertise: 4 Places It May Be Hiding

“I don’t think I know anything special enough to teach.”

A lot of people feel this way because they think expertise has to be proven with a fancy title, degree, certification, or having given a TED Talk.

But some of your most valuable knowledge comes simply from the things you’ve learned just living your life and helping others. This means you’ve developed expertise through what you’ve picked up from your work experiences, how you solve everyday problems, and the ways of doing things you’ve developed along the way.

Learning how to find your expertise is really about learning where to look.

What Does It Mean to Find Your Expertise?

I remember at the very start of the pandemic when everyone was doing their thing online (making masks to sell on Etsy, starting YouTube channels, creating digital products, etc.), I joined a business coaching program. Part of what we were told to do was to work in our genius zone.  

Well, that was traumatic for me. I could not figure out what my genius zone was. I was on the floor, practically crying and frustrated because I didn’t know what my “thing” was. Everyone else had a thing: business development, healing, fitness—you name it. Everyone knew what their genius zone was. But not me.

I was told by one of the ladies in my group that maybe I was the next Oprah Winfrey because she uncovers and interviews and raises up other people. And that was her skill. It was her genius zone. I liked that idea. But how do you wrap that up to sell it? (Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t mind being the next female media mogul.)

So, to me, “find your expertise” means recognizing the knowledge, skills, processes, and experience you have and identifying what you could help someone else understand or do. It means finding your genius zone.

The challenge is that once you’ve done something for a long time, it often stops feeling like expertise. 

It simply feels like it’s just how you do things.

Don’t ask yourself, “What am I an expert in?” Instead, ask:

Where does my knowledge show up in everyday life?

I’ll help you out by sharing four places you can look to find your expertise.

1. People Keep Asking You About the Same Things

One of the clearest signs that you have expertise in an area or a topic is that people ask you the same questions over and over, again and again.

Think about the questions that people need just a minute of your time to ask. Or that they email you, call you, or text you about.

“How can I get my resume past the first screening?”

“What do I say if a client objects to my proposal?”

“Can you show me how to keep my files organized?”

You probably barely notice these questions anymore because the answers come easily to you. But something being easy for you doesn’t mean it’s easy for everyone else. If several people have asked you some version of the same question, then pay attention.

Repeated questions are useful clues because they show you where other people already see you as the expert.

2. You Solve the Same Kinds of Problems Over and Over

Questions are one clue. Problems are another.

Think about the situations where someone comes to you with an urgent problem, and you just…know what to do. For example:

• You’re the reliable coworker everyone calls when a spreadsheet calculation doesn’t add up because you know the secret buttons to push to fix it.
• Your sister calls you before every major purchase because you always know which questions to ask so that she won’t accidentally lose a fortune.
• Your friends send you their resumes, trip itineraries, budgets, garden plans, or business ideas because you’re always good at making them better.

If you were to look back over the last several months, how would you answer this question:

What kind of problem keeps showing up with my name attached to the solution?

Any problem you’ve solved over and over again usually points to a skill or technique you’ve improved over time.

3. You’ve Developed Your Own Shortcuts or Ways of Doing Things

Shortcuts are easy to overlook because they can feel too simple to count as expertise.

But most shortcuts you create or use come from experience.

You tried something the long and convoluted way. You figured out the frustrating, slow, confusing, or unnecessary steps. Then you found a better way to do it – your own little hack:

• a template you use every time you start a certain project
• a three-step process for something other people make much more complicated
• a checklist that keeps you from forgetting important details
• a system for organizing information quickly
• a simple way to make a decision that used to take you hours

You may think, Doesn’t everybody do it this way?

I’m guessing, probably not. And that makes you an expert.

4. You Can Spot Problems Before They Happen

Being experienced also gives you foresight. Which means you have another valuable kind of expertise, which is knowing what tends to go wrong. 

Have you ever had to tell someone:

“Before you do that…”

“Make sure you…”

“Watch out for…”

“I learned this the hard way…”

You may have witnessed someone about to make the same mistake you’ve made before. Or you may have simply been doing something long enough to know where people usually fail or get stuck.

Either way, you now know something a beginner doesn’t.

That kind of knowledge can be incredibly valuable because it helps someone avoid wasted time, money, or frustration.

How Do You Find Your Expertise Through Patterns?

Once you’ve answered the four questions above, it’s time to figure out what keeps showing up. You’re looking for patterns to help you find your expertise or at least help you to put it into words.

Several experiences that seem unrelated at first can point to an underlying strength that you have if you look closely.

For example, maybe you:

• help coworkers simplify presentations
• edit friends’ resumes (not sure why this resume example is on my mind today 😆)
• explain complicated information clearly
• create instructions that are easy for other people to follow

Those may look like four separate skills, but the underlying pattern could be that you’re good at making complicated information easier to understand.

Or let’s say people always ask you for help planning their projects. You’ve developed your own unique planning system, and you can usually tell where a project is likely to get stuck.

The broader pattern might be that you’re good at turning big ideas into manageable steps.

This is why finding your expertise isn’t necessarily about creating a long inventory of everything you know how to do. Looking across all of your experiences can help you identify the recurring themes underneath them.

Those themes give you language for what you do particularly well.

Why Is It Important to Find Your Expertise?

Once you can see and name those patterns, you can then decide what you want to do with them. I’m going to brain dump a few ideas here for you.

• You might want to share something you know well and love to talk about, and maybe create a blog about it.
• You could teach something you’re good at, document it, turn part of it into a workbook or digital product, develop a workshop, create a resource, or eventually write a book.
• A process you’ve refined over the years could become a framework that you teach in a webinar. 
• You could take the lessons learned from your years of experience and turn that into a coaching program. 
• A subject people always ask you about could become a podcast.

You don’t have to decide what every idea will become. They will all become part of your body of work regardless of what you do with it. Recognizing the patterns in your expertise gives you a useful place to begin.

Instead of starting with a blank page and asking, What should I create? start with:

What do I already know, and which parts of it do I want to build on?

Over time, those pieces can begin to connect into something bigger and position you as an authority.

FAQs: Find Your Expertise