Are Medium Writers Supposed to be Experts Now?

And what are you an expert in?

Are you an expert in the topic that you write about? And, what makes someone an expert in something anyway? Is it years of practice? Life experience? A college degree?

I think you could define expertise in different ways.

According to Indeed.com,

An expert is someone who achieves exceptionally high performance levels on a particular task or within a specific subject matter. They are also typically one of the most informed people in their field and achieve far beyond what the average person does.

So, if you are a subject matter expert, that means you know more about your topic than most other people do.

According to an article by Kristina God, she is a real marketing expert.

Since I write mostly about parenting and mental health, I could say I am an expert in those. Because I am both a parent and have a mental health degree.

I would also be an expert in Psychology, Religious Studies and Paralegal Studies, since those are my degrees.

I’m also an expert in US School Finance and Federal Grants Management since I spent 10 years working in that industry. (Though who wants to read about either of those topics, I am not sure. Let me know if you’re interested in a bunch of articles about direct vs. indirect costs.)

Are we all supposed to paste our resume into our Medium profiles now to be taken ‘seriously’ as experts in what we write about?

And what about, like Linda Kowalchek wrote today, those of us who are experts in life experience born from the school of hard knocks? What kind of degree do we get for our battle scars?

Let me know what you think in the comments! Do we all need to start flaunting our expertise now to keep our place in the writing community?

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