In many types of businesses, it’s helpful when the owner has gone through what their customers are facing. I shared a few years ago how that can work well, focused on Rory Vaden’s popular idea of “you’re most powerfully positioned to serve the person you once were“.
However, there are a lot of cases where that’s not necessarily needed. In many cases, you’re able to serve from a different angle, rather than having gone through the same experience as your client.
For example, we built a beautiful website for Crowebuilt Homes, despite having never owned a firm like that before. They’re the experts on what they do, and we’re the experts on making them look great online.
In Seth Godin’s new book “The Song of Significance“, he simply says this:
“It is possible for a middle-aged man to work at a pantyhose company, for an adult to design toys for toddlers, and for an oncologist in perfect health to help a cancer patient.”
If I need to visit an oncologist to get cancer treatments, whether or not they’re a cancer survivor themselves doesn’t matter much. They could offer a bit more empathy, but the details in fighting cancer are complicated (and different in so many cases), that book smarts are far more valuable than personal experience.
Professional coaching is similar, where most years fewer than half of NFL coaches actually played in the NFL
If you have experience in a way that could benefit others, that’s certainly a great value that you can offer, but don’t discount someone simply because they don’t have direct experience — they still may be quite good at what they do.
