It’s 5.30am in the morning as I write this here in Miami. I left a grey and rainy London yesterday and landed in glorious sunshine around 9 hours later.

I’m here to attend a mastermind event over 3 days and I’ll be sharing the key takeaways with you over the coming weeks.

But my post covid body is a little the worse for wear, so I’m suffering the jet lag more than expected!

Anyway – more on that later…today I wanted to talk to you about a terrible thing I watched the other day.

Quite by accident, too.

It was a YouTube clip that somebody had posted online of a highly misogynistic ‘influencer’ who became famous for spreading sexist ideas to vulnerable teenage boys.

I am not going to name names because if you Google him, I will only be giving him more publicity.

Anyway, in the video filmed a few years ago, this man was proclaiming himself a genius.

He explained that his thought processes worked at a ‘much higher level’ than most people.

Then he proceeded to spout some very idiotic stuff that made him sound like an angry ten-year-old.

To give you context, this guy’s not a scientist, philosopher, author, academic or political mastermind…. he’s an ex-Big Brother contestant who got kicked off the show because he hit his girlfriend.

Instantly, I thought…

That’s the ‘Dunning-Kruger’ effect in action!

Have you heard of this phenomenon before?

It’s what happens when someone is so lacking in knowledge and self-awareness that they hugely overestimate how clever and skilful they are.

I’m sure you’ve seen this in your life before – especially if you spend any time on social media.

There are some people who are so utterly convinced of their brilliance they cannot wait to share their ‘hot takes’ on almost any subject that comes their way.

They are confident about their intelligence because they are blissfully ignorant about how much they don’t know.

So they don’t realise how stupid they sound to smart people.

But it works the other way, too…

The more intelligent you are, the more aware you are of the things you don’t know…

This tends to make you humbler and more prone to self-doubt.

You feel like you couldn’t possibly share your thoughts, skills and experiences with the world because you don’t know much more than the average person.

For a huge number of people (quite often women, I have to say), the Dunning-Kruger effect becomes a trap that stops them from fulfilling their true potential.

They don’t realise how much they DO know, or how skilled they really are.

I know this, because many women I talk to about course creation tell me that they’re worried that they’re not expert enough… that they’re not experienced enough…. that they’re afraid of being “caught out”.

They think that their skills and experiences aren’t particularly special.

Surely, what they know is all OBVIOUS?

Who would pay them good money for THAT?

But that’s the Dunning-Kruger trap…

Don’t fall for it!

You are underestimating your natural gifts

Let me give you an example…

Imagine that you’re in a group of five students who are being taught graphic design.

Within the first week, you’ve completed your first design project.
But you’re disappointed.

There are bits you don’t like about it, and it pales in comparison to the work of all the brilliant graphic designers you have admired.

So you begin to worry that graphic design is not for you and that maybe you should give up.

In contrast, there’s a brash young man on the same course who is happy with his results and proudly boasting about his design acumen.

But you notice that his project isn’t finished yet and looks really amateurish.

This is the Dunning-Kruger effect…

The brash young man doesn’t know enough about the principles of graphic design to realise his mistakes…

He isn’t naturally skilled enough to get a project done in a week…

And he hasn’t seen enough examples of the good stuff to know how much he needs to improve.

Because he is ignorant of all this, he’s delighted with his progress and thinks that graphic design is his true calling.

On the other hand, it came easier to you.

You were naturally skilled and knowledgeable enough to get the work done.

But you were judging yourself to a far higher standard because you knew a lot more about the principles of good design.

Therefore, you underestimated your skill, talent and knowledge.

It’s YOU who should be the graphic designer.

Your self-doubt and uncertainty are not a result of you being rubbish at it…

They are actually a symptom of you being a more capable and talented person.

The same goes for course creation.

Don’t assume that what you know is obvious or that what you do in life is just “common sense” or will come naturally to everyone.

You might be surprised by how little most people know.

Why you know more than you think…

When you do something regularly enough, it becomes second nature to you, and you forget that it requires any skill at all.

Bookkeeping, using Microsoft Excel, coaching a hockey team, writing a poem, growing strawberries, training a puppy…

If you do any of these things for a year or two, you’ll know a LOT more than the average person.

What’s more, when you are into a hobby, job role or family situation, you will absorb a lot of information about it, even if you don’t realise it.

You naturally develop antennae for the subject matter and pick up tips and advice wherever you can.

Books, magazines, TV and radio programmes…

Social media feeds, YouTube videos, email newsletters and blog posts…

Talking to colleagues, superiors and experts… or just other people in the same situation.

These all feed into your store of knowledge, bit by bit.

It grows and grows almost imperceptibly.

You probably don’t appreciate how much you’ve accumulated and how much is beyond the understanding of most beginners who want to follow your path.

And you have every ability to share what you know with others.

So before you throw away a perfectly good course idea because you don’t think you’re smart enough, skilled enough or experienced enough… remember the Dunning-Kruger effect!

It’s likely that you’re underestimating yourself.