Nowadays it seems like everybody making content is a former Navy SEAL, PhD, Kung Fu Black Belt Champion, 2x New York Times Bestselling Author, Top Ten Podcast Host, Guinness Book World Record Holder, Spaceship Entrepreneur, etc…
Then there’s us, ordinary folk.
We got no Harvard. No Stanford. No cum laude (whatever the heck that means!) or letters after our names.
We can’t brag about being employee #13 at Facebook while writing blogs on productivity. We don’t know where in California Silicon Valley is. I used to think it was called Silicone Valley for all the fake California breasts!
Who are we to think we can blog with authority (the only type of blog worth having) when we are just a bunch of nobodies?
Delusional! Insane!
And…the feelings described above are what I refer to as “Nobody Syndrome.”
Nobody Syndrome: A persistent, deep-seated feeling that you are inherently unimportant, unworthy of success, without authority, and having nothing of value to say.
“Who Am I To Write This?”
Nobody Syndrome is a first cousin of Imposter Syndrome.
Imposter Syndrome has been written about ad nauseam so there is no reason to cover it in-depth on this blog, besides: it is my opinion that Nobody Syndrome holds us back in writing and in life way more than Imposter Syndrome. “Who am I to____? I’m just a nobody.”
Solving “Nobody Syndrome” for life is beyond the scope of this article, but we are going to learn how to solve it when it comes to your blogging, so you can write kick-butt blog articles, make money, and be free.
Everybody Starts Out As A Non-Expert (But Can Become An Expert)
You can probably be sworn-in, in the court of law, as an expert witness in at least one subject–probably something to do with your day job.
How did you become an expert in that thing?
Well, it certainly wasn’t the degree. Nor the first day on the job. Nor the first year on the job.
It was from showing up, day after day, year after year; until one day you noticed all your coworkers coming to you for advice and senior leadership seeking your opinion.
Also, in this thing you are an expert in, do you know everything about it?
Of course not! That would be silly to even suggest.
Why, then, when it comes to blogging, do so many would-be bloggers think they need to know everything about blogging from Day 1?
I remember how hesitant I used to be: “I just need a little bit more research for my first blog post until…until…until…”
Until what?! I graduate from Harvard with a PhD in blogging?
I wasted so much time.
This is what you do: pick a subject you like, grab bluehost hosting (with a free domain through this link), write and write and write, and before you know it news reporters will be contacting you for a quote as the subject expert on an article they are working on and Wikipedia will be linking to you.
I listened to a podcast about a guy that makes $10k per month blogging about insurance. Is he an expert? No. He merely looked for a subject he thought he could make a lot of money blogging about and got to work blogging!
Being an “expert” doesn’t matter! Just write, write, write and write with authority–you must write with a tone of authority.
“Who am I to write this?”
I’ll tell you who: a blogger that is dedicated to his craft and will write and write and write and then will write some more until he is considered a high-level expert on his chosen niche, and then he will write some more.
Write, make money, be free.
“But I’m A Bad Writer”
Look, writing isn’t brain surgery, where you have to do it right the first time, every time.
You can take as many stabs at a sentence as you would like before hitting the “publish” button. You can even publish stuff that isn’t your best (and for some mystery I just cannot fathom, it always seems to be my mediocre stuff Google loves).
If you love reading, you can become a good writer. You just gotta keep typing words. You’ll get better.
And truth be told, being a good writer isn’t a prerequisite for being a good blogger, there are two things people are looking for in a blog:
- An answer (even if they don’t know exactly what they are looking for)
- Writing that makes them feel something*
That’s it.
“But How Can I Be A Writer When I’ve Never Even Been A Navy SEAL”
Yes, men love reading about war and love taking advice from those that have been to war.
Including yours truly.
That’s why we love Jocko. That’s why we love reading Jack Carr.
And that’s okay. They are winners at the highest level for the highest stakes and it is good to take their advice.
Also, anybody that has read Shoe Dog: A Memoir By The Creator Of Nike knows the success of Nike was hugely influenced by war books and war strategy, even if Phil Knight had never gone to war himself.
The point being: you don’t need to be some extraordinary badass to be a good blogger. You just need an unhealthy obsession with delivering the best content in your niche to your readers. Read Invent & Wander by Jeff Bezos for tips on customer obsession.
Hemingway had a high school education. Stephen King lived in a trailer. Eric Carle was conscripted by Nazis to dig trenches and later managed to get to New York to start a new life with just $40–perhaps the ultimate nobody, and now children across the world read his masterpieces every day.
The Number One Way To Overcome “Nobody Syndrome” Is To Make $10,000 Per Month Authoring A Kick-Butt Blog
The main mental block for too many men is that they believe they have to be a “somebody” before they are allowed to create.
“I have to be jacked before I can write about fatherhood.”
“I have to be rich before I can write about finances.”
“I have to be a PhD before I can write about history.”
You absolutely do not need to be any of that to get started.
All you need is breath in your chest and a determination to keep moving forward until the goal is achieved–$10,000 per month blogging.
*Yes, even bad writing can move readers emotionally. And yes, even strong, masculine men desire writing that moves them–that’s why Hemingway’s For Whom The Bell Tolls, A Farewell To Arms, and The Old Man and The Sea are still devoured by men almost a century later.