196. Your Expertise Is Enough: Why Chasing Trends Is Killing Your Credibility

Feeling invisible online—even though you’re damn good at what you do?

You’re not alone.

This episode is for the expert entrepreneur who’s tired of performative marketing, tired of chasing trends, and tired of trying to look the part instead of just being who they already are.

Because here’s the truth nobody’s saying:
👉 More content doesn’t mean more trust.
👉 You don’t need to perform to be seen.
👉 Your expertise is enough.

In this episode, I’ll show you:

• Why the traditional content playbook doesn’t work for expert service providers
• The 4 mindset shifts you need to break free from the content machine
• Real-world examples of leaders who show up with authenticity and win
• My 3-part Standout Moments Framework that lets you grow visibility without selling your soul

🔥 Plus: I’ll reveal the #1 mindset shift that’s helped my clients turn quiet authority into magnetic visibility—without posting every day or trying to go viral.

🎧 Listen up to reclaim your voice, your time, and your impact.
 And remember—visibility isn’t about doing more.
 It’s about showing up like the leader you already are.

Ready to turn your expertise into visibility and demand—without feeding the content machine?

📞 Schedule your FREE “Standout On Video” call here: standoutcall.com

Because when you start showing up with clarity, confidence, and the right content—your ideal clients won't just notice you. They'll choose you.

Thanks for tuning in. If you found this episode helpful, share it with another expert entrepreneur who’s ready to stop blending in.

Episode Transcript

Brad Powell (00:00):
If you've ever opened Instagram or TikTok and
thought I could never show uplike that, this episode is for
you, Because here's the truthmost marketing advice ignores
you don't need to act likesomeone else to become visible.
It's not about being a dancingbear on TikTok.
This is about building trustthat actually converts, and in

(00:23):
today's episode, I'm going toshow you why being yourself
online is a smarter visibilitystrategy than any of the trend
chasing marketing tactics, andwhy your expertise is more than
enough to build trust,especially right now.
So welcome to episode numbertwo of the new season of the

(00:44):
Standout Business Show.
I'm Brad Powell, and if youmissed episode number one, I
talked about why posting moredoesn't make you more visible.
So definitely go back and catchthat, because it sets the
foundation for everything we'recovering next.
All right, so let's get started.
I want to get one thingstraight next.

(01:05):
All right, so let's get started.
I want to get one thingstraight you are not the problem
, but the content marketingplaybook being pushed at you.
That is another story.
Most of what's being taught wasbuilt for content creators, not
expert entrepreneurs like you.
We've ended up in a bizarroworld where trust the thing that
really drives sales is beingtraded in for attention.

(01:26):
You're told to perform, to postevery day, to chase trends, to
entertain, but you're not aperformer, you're the expert,
you're the authority, and you'vealready built trust offline.
Now you just need a visibilitysystem that lets your trust
scale.

(01:46):
So there's some shifts thatneeds to happen from the old
school, more traditional way ofmarketing to the new way, what
I'm going to call the new school, and I'm going to mention four
of these shifts.
So number one is we need tomove from this idea of let's be
everywhere to be unmistakablewhere it counts.

(02:09):
And number two is a shift fromthis idea that polish equals
authority to presence equalsauthority, and so showing up as

(02:32):
a human being, as an actualperson.
That is what's going to growyou more than all the
professional polish that makesyou look less human.
Here's a good example of this,a short video by Kathleen Booth,
who is the senior vicepresident of Pavilion and she's
talking about how to show up asa human in our increasingly
AI-driven world.

Kathleen Booth (02:48):
Do you want to know the best way to make sure
your audience doesn't think yourLinkedIn post is AI-generated?
Make a video.
There has been so much talk onLinkedIn lately trying to sniff
out whether posts are created byAI people looking for em dashes
or overuse of emojis.
Side note, I do both of thosethings all the time when I'm
writing posts myself.
Stop playing detective and stopworrying about whether posts

(03:11):
are AI generated and startreally just trying to connect
with your audience.
In this case, the best way todo that is to make a video and
show who you are.
Show yourself, share yourunique insights and your point
of view and who you are, andthat's how you're going to
connect with people.
That's how you're going to makea point and that's how everyone
is going to know that thecontent you're creating is you
and not artificial intelligence.

Brad Powell (03:32):
I want to point out in Kathleen's video that that
was very impromptu.
She was obviously doing it at atime when there were a lot of
other people around you can hearbackground noise going on and
she just decided I've gotsomething to say, and so I'm
going to say it right now, whileI'm thinking about it.
And this actually leads intoshift number three, which is
that, instead of talking more,you want to say what matters.

(03:56):
And the fourth and final onethat I want to mention is that,
instead of creating more, youmove into capturing the right
moments.
And here's another example Iwant to share this one by Chris
Savage and Brendan Schwartz,which are the two co-founders at
Wistia, and they are capturinga moment when they're actually

(04:17):
on a retreat for all their 190employees.

Chris Savage (04:22):
So it's been 19 years to the day since we
started Wistia.
We have the whole company here,most of the company here in
Colorado, for our annual offsite.
It's pretty incredible we're atyou can probably tell we're at
Red Rocks.
It always is really striking tome.
You know we see groups ofpeople in person, but to have
everybody together is soenergizing and joyful, like look

(04:44):
at this, what the hell is goingon over here?
That's great.
That's the people team creatingsome kind of experience for
each other.
I think a lot about the factthat there's 190 people in the
company and it's once a yearthat we get to see everybody.
You get used to seeing thenumbers and the numbers can get
big and it's just like areminder for me of like there's
real humans behind all of thisdoing their jobs, caring,

(05:07):
building things.
I find it like very humblingand really awesome.

Brad Powell (05:11):
So why does this matter so much?
If you've been doing content inthe old school way, you're
leaving money on the table everytime a dream client scrolls
past because they didn't feel aconnection with the real you and
clients can feel the differencebetween trying to perform and
showing up in your zone ofgenius.

(05:32):
So here's my take you don'tneed a script In fact, I don't
let my clients use a script,that's not allowed.
You don't need to go viral, youjust need to be real.
Trust is built when you sharewhat you actually believe in,
not what you think is going toperform well, and you'll build
more trust when you show up likeyou do when you're in the room

(05:56):
with your clients, which is calmand clear and confident.
So here's the mic drop truth.
You are the single mostvaluable marketing asset for
your company and the mosteffective branding is being
known for something real,something human, not just
something that is popular.
I want to share two real worldexamples of experts that I've

(06:19):
met who've leaned into beingthemselves and have seen great
results.
The first example is fromMarina Krivonosova, and I
interviewed her back on episodenumber 152, if you want to go
back and check out the wholething.
So in this short video she'stalking about using your
personality and the personalconnection when you are doing

(06:42):
any kind of content marketing orinteractive networking on
LinkedIn.

Marina Krivanossova (06:47):
You've probably gone to some kind of
networking dinner where you'retrying to, you know, schmooze a
potential partner company.
Where you're trying to prove toa potential partner company
like, hey, look, we're reallygreat, we're awesome to work
with, you should work with us.
And odds are you're not justsitting there at that dinner for
three hours being like look atour forklift pictures, look at

(07:08):
our forklift videos.
That's probably not what you'redoing.
You're probably asking oh, hey,man, how was your trip here?
How was the wife doing?
How are the kids?
You know what I mean.
You're probably having thosemore intimate conversations.
You're probably connecting onthe basis of did you watch the
game last night?
Oh, wow, you know, youroutfit's awesome, I really like
your outfit.
Where'd you get it?
You're having those humanconversations and, at the end of

(07:30):
the day, yes, it matters whatyou do for business, it matters
how good your product offeringis.
The stats matter, the factsmatter, but those personal
relationships are going to playa huge role in whether or not
those potential partners turninto real, concrete contract
signed partners.
And I look at B2B networking onLinkedIn and B2B content

(07:51):
creation in the exact same way.
You have this opportunity tostand out without even needing
to be at those networkingdinners.
You can do it from the comfortof your own home, or from the
comfort of Tahiti, or from thecomfort of, you know, your local
cafe, really anywhere you want,if you take advantage of using
personality in your content onLinkedIn and just online in

(08:13):
general.

Brad Powell (08:14):
The second example I'll share is with Rob Gilbert,
who I interviewed back inepisode number 112.
He's someone who's a greatexample of completely being
himself online.
He's always sharing hisquirkiness and his
idiosyncrasies, and hispersonality is always coming
across in a really strong andpositive way.

Robb Gilbear (08:35):
We go on LinkedIn and search for life coach over a
million hits.
Same thing for mindset coaches.
Same thing for leadership coach.
What is going to help you standout and what's going to help
you connect with people that youactually want to serve, that
you're excited spending timewith that.
When you see them in yourcalendar, like, yeah, I can't
wait to chat with this person.
There are people who connectwith you your quirks, your sense
of humor, your perspective onlife, your values and that's how

(08:57):
you end up attracting,connecting and working with
people who you genuinely enjoyspending time with.

Brad Powell (09:02):
So now, if you're wondering how to do this and
wondering what you should besharing, I'm going to share my
standout moments framework, andthere's just three parts to this
.
Part number one is say thethings that other people are
unwilling to say.
So what this looks like is youwant to take a stand.
What do you stand for, do youstand against?

(09:24):
You want to bust myths Likewhat are all the best practices
out there that you know aren'tactually working anymore.
You want to challenge theindustry norms.
Where in your industry, in yourfield, do you go against the
grain?
And lastly, I'll say you wantto name the monster, the thing

(09:45):
that you're standing against andthrowing rocks at and helping
your people throw rocks at.
So, for example, the monsterhere on the Standout Business
Show is the content machine, andit's this big problem that we
all face of avoiding becomingfuel for the content machine.
Pillar number two is you want toshow what others are unwilling

(10:09):
to show.
So in this case, what you'redoing is you're building trust
through transparency.
Experts become trusted faceswhen they do things like share
behind the scenes, when they areshowing case studies.
You know with real clients andthe real results that they're
getting, and they're revealingexperiments that they're running
, what are you learning, whatare you testing, what are you

(10:32):
refining along the way?
All of this is aboutdocumenting your expertise, and
you want to use video becauseyou want to show, not tell.
And that's really one of thefundamental rules of video Show,
don't tell, all right.
So pillar number three is bemore human, and be human in all

(10:55):
the ways that you show up.
So you're building trustthrough your presence.
So, instead of performing,you're going to lead through
your lived experience andinstead of using scripts, you're
going to speak in your realvoice and everywhere you can,
you want to humanize the process, even share what's messy or
what's not quite done yet.

(11:15):
All of this stuff makes youmore relatable and when you
become more relatable, youbecome more trustworthy.
This framework, the StandoutMoments framework, is exactly
what I help expert entrepreneursdo inside my Mic Drop Moments
program.
I help capture the clarity andpower of how they already show

(11:37):
up in real life and bring it tovideo without overthinking,
without over-scripting andwithout over-sharing.
And if you've been wonderinghow to do this for yourself,
then I'm going to invite you toschedule a free standout on
video call with me.
On the call we'll take a lookat where are you currently not

(11:59):
very visible online and why?
The hidden opportunities inyour business, where trust
building content is alreadyhappening but you're just not
capturing it yet, and the exactstrategy that I recommend to
turn your expertise intovisibility and demand in a way
that fits you and your business.
So if you're ready to startshowing up in a way that stands

(12:21):
out without feeding the contentmachine, go to standoutcallcom,
grab a time and I'll see youthere as we wrap this up.
Here's my final takeaway for youyour expertise is enough.
You can stop chasing trends andstart sharing your truth.
The fastest way to build trustis to show up as yourself,

(12:43):
because when you're aligned withyour values and what you
believe in, people feel it andthen they lean in.
So now that we've covered howto show up, next time we're
going to explore exactly what tosay, because a lot of experts
fall into the trap of beinghelpful but forgettable.
So in episode three, I'm goingto show you how to share ideas

(13:07):
that actually stick and startattracting clients who quote
your words right back at you.
And here's my final thought youdon't need to be someone else
to stand out, just show up likethe expert you already are, and
it starts with capturingstandout moments that are
already happening.
So remember, this season we areditching the content machine so

(13:32):
you can keep making a biggerdifference by doing business
differently, and I'll catch younext time.