What's your version of "Un-Certified"?
Melinda Livsey, a fellow brand strategist, recently added an Un-Certified Manifesto to her site. I thought it was pretty brilliant because while she doesn't believe certification is inherently a bad thing, it can add a lot of unnecessary pressure to how we run our business.
We believe creativity comes from curiosity, not expertise, she says on her page.
If you're offering a service that you love for clients you love, that's fun. If you're suddenly an EXPERT at what you offer, for some that can bring up all sort of imposter syndromes, doubts and even cause us to censor ourselves for fear of being judged. Even if you're still offering that same service you love for those same clients you love.
Expertise is not bad. That's not where I'm going with this. Learning, certifications and degrees aren't bad. But if that's the only thing that we're relying on in order to allow us to move forward, that can get sticky. It can cause us to feel like we'll never be good enough because there's something more to be learned, someone else who's been doing it longer or someone with more awards.
Instead, if we can focus on what is unique to us, how we provide the best result to our clients and who are the types of clients that we most enjoy working with, then it becomes more about the joy of collaboration. The curiosity to improve, not because we need the next certificate on our wall, but because we want to see how we can improve for our own sake.
Un-Certified, to me, also gives us the freedom to learn was we go. The best way to practice what we've learned is to actually practice it! And if we're too afraid to provide a service while we wait to become experts, well, it's never going to happen. Being confident enough to say I know my stuff AND I'm still learning just lifts this weight off my shoulders.
This concept really resonated with me, but maybe for you it's something else...
What does your version of an Un-Certified Manifesto look like? What do you believe in that may perhaps be entirely opposite to what others in your field believe?
