Published by Gbaf News
Posted on December 12, 2017
8 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
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Dan Peachey, Commercial Director of patent translation services, Intonation, speaks to those who have positioned themselves as an expert in their field, to discuss the cliché of ‘Fake it until you make it’.
Dan knows all too well that if you want to maintain a positive relationship with stakeholders and position yourself as an industry leader, then ‘faking it’ just doesn’t cut it.
Here are a number of reasons of why it’s important to avoid the cliché – helping you to put your best foot forward in 2018.
Provide Value
David Vallance, Communications Officer at Lease Fetcher sees right through the ‘fake it until you make it’ mantra.
“The old adage ‘fake it until you make it’ only lasts for so long. Say you talk yourself onto a stage at an industry conference. What then? How are you going to blag your way through it?
Real reputation comes from providing value to your audience. Insights, advice and leadership provide a strong foundation for positive reputation but they only come through genuine expertise in your industry.”
Daniel Rowles is an author and digital marketing trainer at Target Internet; he echoes the thoughts above. Here he highlights the importance of becoming a real expert and how this benefits reputation:
“Whatever your industry, becoming known as an expert is almost invariably going to be one of the best routes to building and enhancing your reputation. When a person becomes widely recognised as an expert, they will find all sorts of business-enriching opportunities opening up to them, from conference and podcast appearances to media commentary. Once you’ve become known as an expert, you will find that your success becomes self-sustaining. The hardest part is getting there!”
Be genuine
Becoming a genuine expert isn’t going to happen over night and there definitely isn’t any shortcuts.
David Vallance, provides his tip to achieving expert status:
“Take it slow and learn in manageable chunks.
You see, when you come into an industry blind, it can be tempting to try and learn everything at once. However, if you keep hopping from subject to subject, it’s really difficult to learn enough for it to become useful.”
Rana Shahbaz, business owner & consultant, discusses the benefits of being genuine and shares her number one tip:
“Stop selling and start “helping” your audience. The better you get at solving the problems of your audience, the more authority you’ll gain in your niche. My best tip for becoming an authority expert would be to pick a niche (smaller the better) and become a go-to person for that niche.”
Trust
Danny Hall, Director, FSE Online Ltd, believes it’s important for clients to trust you and the hard work really does pay off:
“In our opinion, the biggest benefit of establishing yourself as an ‘expert’ in your field is that clients feel like they can immediately trust you. Because you’ve already proven your worth in your industry, they are comfortable in your abilities and confident in what you can offer them. Other businesses can spend weeks, months and even years trying to prove themselves to a prospect – but an expert will already be held in high regard. In our experience, this makes it easier not only to attract new business, but also to secure it.”
It’s easy to think you need to know everything to be an expert, contrary to popular belief this isn’t true and you can avoid a lack of trust by focussing on one thing rather than becoming a Jack-of-all-trades.
Danny Hall continues:
“We would definitely say that mastering one or two key specialisms is much more important than trying to become a Jack-of-all-trades. Spreading yourself and your business offering too thin can lead you to under-deliver, which means that the client often loses trust in you, placing you in a much weaker position.
It’s tempting to try and be everything to everyone, but the businesses that succeed are always those who have a clear idea of what they’re good at and how their talents can set them apart from the competition.”
Intonation really understand the importance of knowledge and expertise, they often get other translation agencies coming to them for advice! If you’d like to find out more, or if you’re interested in their services, you can visit their site here.
Dan Peachey, Commercial Director of patent translation services, Intonation, speaks to those who have positioned themselves as an expert in their field, to discuss the cliché of ‘Fake it until you make it’.
Dan knows all too well that if you want to maintain a positive relationship with stakeholders and position yourself as an industry leader, then ‘faking it’ just doesn’t cut it.
Here are a number of reasons of why it’s important to avoid the cliché – helping you to put your best foot forward in 2018.
Provide Value
David Vallance, Communications Officer at Lease Fetcher sees right through the ‘fake it until you make it’ mantra.
“The old adage ‘fake it until you make it’ only lasts for so long. Say you talk yourself onto a stage at an industry conference. What then? How are you going to blag your way through it?
Real reputation comes from providing value to your audience. Insights, advice and leadership provide a strong foundation for positive reputation but they only come through genuine expertise in your industry.”
Daniel Rowles is an author and digital marketing trainer at Target Internet; he echoes the thoughts above. Here he highlights the importance of becoming a real expert and how this benefits reputation:
“Whatever your industry, becoming known as an expert is almost invariably going to be one of the best routes to building and enhancing your reputation. When a person becomes widely recognised as an expert, they will find all sorts of business-enriching opportunities opening up to them, from conference and podcast appearances to media commentary. Once you’ve become known as an expert, you will find that your success becomes self-sustaining. The hardest part is getting there!”
Be genuine
Becoming a genuine expert isn’t going to happen over night and there definitely isn’t any shortcuts.
David Vallance, provides his tip to achieving expert status:
“Take it slow and learn in manageable chunks.
You see, when you come into an industry blind, it can be tempting to try and learn everything at once. However, if you keep hopping from subject to subject, it’s really difficult to learn enough for it to become useful.”
Rana Shahbaz, business owner & consultant, discusses the benefits of being genuine and shares her number one tip:
“Stop selling and start “helping” your audience. The better you get at solving the problems of your audience, the more authority you’ll gain in your niche. My best tip for becoming an authority expert would be to pick a niche (smaller the better) and become a go-to person for that niche.”
Trust
Danny Hall, Director, FSE Online Ltd, believes it’s important for clients to trust you and the hard work really does pay off:
“In our opinion, the biggest benefit of establishing yourself as an ‘expert’ in your field is that clients feel like they can immediately trust you. Because you’ve already proven your worth in your industry, they are comfortable in your abilities and confident in what you can offer them. Other businesses can spend weeks, months and even years trying to prove themselves to a prospect – but an expert will already be held in high regard. In our experience, this makes it easier not only to attract new business, but also to secure it.”
It’s easy to think you need to know everything to be an expert, contrary to popular belief this isn’t true and you can avoid a lack of trust by focussing on one thing rather than becoming a Jack-of-all-trades.
Danny Hall continues:
“We would definitely say that mastering one or two key specialisms is much more important than trying to become a Jack-of-all-trades. Spreading yourself and your business offering too thin can lead you to under-deliver, which means that the client often loses trust in you, placing you in a much weaker position.
It’s tempting to try and be everything to everyone, but the businesses that succeed are always those who have a clear idea of what they’re good at and how their talents can set them apart from the competition.”
Intonation really understand the importance of knowledge and expertise, they often get other translation agencies coming to them for advice! If you’d like to find out more, or if you’re interested in their services, you can visit their site here.
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