Hey Reader,

You’ve probably heard at least one of these this year:

• “AI can do that for me.”
• “Isn’t that just common sense?”
• “It costs how much? It can’t be that hard.”

All three say the same thing: you know that thing you spent years mastering? It’s not worth much.

Meanwhile, a woman selling a course on how to yap on camera made $7 million (and guys, she’s got no idea what she’s doing).

It’s demoralizing.

Right behind that feeling is the temptation to prove yourself. You list more credentials, explain for longer, and give more away for free, all to convince someone your work is valuable when you already know they don’t value it.

F.U. to that. It’s a game you don’t want to win, because the prize is a client you had to convince.

I know the temptation well. I’ve been feeling it lately too. (Someday I’ll tell that story…but not yet)

The last time I felt this way, I was five years into the speaking industry, where speakers were treated as interchangeable and asked to work for “exposure.”

I hated watching my clients get treated like commodities, and I knew I couldn’t keep going the way I had been. I also felt I was supposed to be doing bigger work, but I had no idea what it was.

I never won the argument with that industry. I quit fighting it, and I wrote down what I noticed. That turned into a book called 3 Word Rebellion.

Then the book came out, and I got a new one:

(If you tried doing the 3 Word Rebellion on your own…you know how hard it is).

There will always be another one of those. You could spend your whole career answering them.

The annoying part is that they’re a little bit right.

What you know is easy to get now.

AI can produce a decent version of it in seconds. If you sold only knowledge, “it can’t be that hard” would be a fair comment.

That’s why proving backfires. When you set out to prove yourself, you reach for more knowledge: more credentials, longer explanations, more free advice. You end up competing on the one thing that got cheap.

Judgment and taste don’t fit on a list of credentials. People have to see them at work, and a point of view is where they show.

(I’m writing a longer piece about this shift right now. More on that soon.)

When a potential client comes across your point of view, they stop. They SEE how you think, and they want a conversation.

To them, you’re the only person for the job.

Seven years on, I can see that being fed up was the start of my point of view. So if you’re deflated right now, pay attention to what did it. That irritation is raw material.

This November inside The Expert Up Club, we’re running a 30-day sprint where you turn what you’re fed up with into a point of view and a 3 Word Rebellion®. It kicks off November 12. Private tours run November 2–5, and booking closes November 1.

​Take a look at the Club and book your tour →​

Yours in rebellion,
Michelle

P.S. Proof that taste can’t be handed over in a set of instructions. This is the cake from my book launch party in 2019:

The bakery was given the book cover to recreate. My friend Rachel took one look, laughed, and demanded a second cake:

Same book cover. How hard can it be? 🤣​
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Dr. Michelle Mazur Message Strategist & Founder of The Expert Up Club ​YouTube / 3 Word Rebellion Book​

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