The announcement just came through. Someone in your field, someone with a fraction of your training, is the featured guest on a podcast about the exact topic you’ve spent years mastering. Or she’s on the panel. Or she’s the one quoted in the article. And you’re sitting there thinking, “I know I could do a better job than that.”
You’re angry. You’re also a little embarrassed to be angry. And underneath it all is one question you can’t put down: why can’t anyone see the difference?
If that’s where you are right now, I want to start by saying this reaction makes complete sense. You know what you know. It stings when nobody else seems to see it.
When Someone Less Qualified Gets the Spotlight
I want to tell you about a coach I know. She had studied, earned certifications, and worked with pregnant and postpartum women for years, including working with them in the hospital. She really knew this field.
Then another coach started targeting the same audience after getting pregnant herself. Because that coach was more visible, she began getting asked onto panels about postpartum and pregnancy. She was invited onto podcasts. She became the person people called on the topic.
The first coach got really, really triggered, because she knew that she was way more qualified to help this particular group of women. When she told me about it, this is how I’d describe her: she honestly was angry. She was annoyed about it. She thought it was unfair. And she couldn’t understand why people couldn’t see that this person didn’t have the necessary knowledge to be an expert in this field.
What hurt most was simple. She didn’t get recognized where this other person did, because of the visibility of that other person.
If you’ve felt anything like this, you’re not being petty or vain. What you’re feeling is a real gap between how much you know and how much of it people can actually see.
How Hosts and Journalists Actually Choose
When you understand how people get picked, the situation starts to feel a lot less personal. It’s a pretty practical process.
Think about what a journalist or podcast host does when they need someone for a topic. They do a search. They look online, they see who is talking about this topic, they see if they like how this person talks about it, and whether they seem knowledgeable.
Then they pick. And the more visible the person is, the more they have to go off on. And the less risk it is for them to actually have that person come on their podcast, or guest post on their website, or be interviewed, because they already know what that person stands for.
That’s the part that is hard to hear. The host isn’t weighing your certifications against your competitor’s. They usually never see your certifications at all. They see what’s online, and they go with the safest choice based on what they find.
So you need to accept that in this day and age, the person who is more visible will get the interviews, will get found. Your expertise only counts once people can see it.
Both Things Can Be True at Once
Here’s what happened next with that postpartum coach, and I think it’s the most useful part of her story.
She realized that while she was disappointed and angry that this other person was getting more of the attention, she also hadn’t put in the effort to actually make sure people knew why she was so knowledgeable, or why she was the better person to get picked.
Both of those things were true at the same time. The other coach really did have less expertise. And the first coach really hadn’t shown hers.
You’re allowed to stay annoyed. You don’t have to pretend the situation is fair. But once you can see the part of the gap that is yours to close, you finally have something to work with, and that’s where things start moving again.
The Honest Question to Ask Yourself
When clients come to me frustrated about this, my honest question is: are you ready to be visible? Because it is something that you need to commit to.
Then try this check. If somebody who doesn’t know you looks you up, would they know exactly what you stand for? Is it very clear who you help, what your expertise is, and why you are the person they should be contacting?
Go and look for yourself, as if you were a podcast host searching for a guest. When you objectively look at the body of work you’ve put online, does it represent you, your expertise, what you do, and who you help?
If the answer is “not really,” please don’t read that as a judgment on your character. Most of the coaches and consultants I talk to say the same things: “I’m not a writer.” “I’m not a content creator.” “I’ve tried posting but I can’t stay consistent.” Falling off after a month says a lot about the setup you were working with and very little about you. You were trying to do this on top of serving your clients, starting from a blank page every time.
But it does mean something needs to be built. And that goes further than posting online once in a while, or only posting when you actually need a new client. This is about creating a body of work.
Start With the Questions You Already Answer
Don’t worry, the first step is smaller than you’d expect.
The postpartum coach started small. She simply took the questions people were asking her frequently, the ones she knew from experience these women were worrying about, and she started posting the answers.
That’s it. You already have this material. It’s sitting in the questions you answer every week on calls, in emails, and at the end of sessions when a client says “Can I ask you one more thing?”
A simple first step you can take today: write down three questions your clients keep asking you. Those are your first posts.
Then the work is to keep going. Consistency is what turns “she knows her stuff” into “she’s one of the experts on this.” I’ve seen this with another client who works with parents of gifted kids. When she posted continuously and then pitched bigger news outlets, she immediately got accepted. Very quickly she became known as one of the experts on the topic.
Nothing about her expertise changed. People could just see it now.
This is exactly why I built HeySuna. Most coaches don’t struggle with knowing what to say. They struggle with saying it week after week alongside real client work. With HeySuna you start from ready-made content ideas instead of a blank page, pick the ones that appeal to you, and answer questions in a five to ten minute interview. That interview becomes blog posts, newsletters, and LinkedIn posts built on your own expertise and point of view.
If you’re ready to be visible, sign up for a free HeySuna account, take your first interview, and start creating that body of work. The next time a host goes searching for an expert on your topic, you want them to find you.