Experienced or Expert?

One of the many conversations we have over at Forgotten Entertainment is about being expert members of a community. Even writing that sentence makes me feel like a big phony. To me, the term "expert" comes with a lot of baggage, some probably self-imposed, but I'll get to that.

Forgotten Entertainment is a digital media company that focuses on podcasts and internet series. We've produced our own in-house podcasts with Forgotten Cinema & Yet Another MCU Podcast. We've partnered with the other podcast creators to build new podcasts (Yet Another Star Wars Podcast and On the QT.) We've helped build podcasts from the ground up with Yet Another DC Animated Podcast and brought on already-produced podcast content with The Nomcast and Bohemian Geek Studies.

We're also in the video business. Most of our videos are off-shoots of our podcast content with The Matinee and Now Renting being from the Forgotten Cinema Brand as well as the Recommended Reading and Everything You Should Know is from the YAMP brand. Personally, I'm from the fictional narrative field. I've written and directed short films, features, web series and more, so creating visual content is in my wheelhouse. It's all storytelling.

Proclaiming myself as an expert in this field, for me, comes with an air of superiority and I hate that. Some people like it. Some "experts" love the influence they hold over people. At the end of the day, I'm just a creator like everyone else. I create content and look for ways to promote it like everyone else. I read the same articles, the same listicles telling me what I'm doing right and wrong, the same multiple blog posts about the "perfect" way to use social media, the same essays about the benefits of spending money to make money. All from experts. All from people who have learned how to make money from other creator's desire and passion to make content.

My self-imposed baggage. Through all the short films I made, the web series I created, the books I've written, the podcasts I've developed - there's one constant, a business model that pops up from these endeavors. "Experts", who were once creators like all of us, selling us on a way to make our content shine and get noticed. These experts have the foolproof, multiple step approach to get your content seen by "influential" people and then you'll be on your way to make money. But if you want to make that money, you need to sign up and pay for an expert's class, event, educational packet, meet and greet, symposium, etc.

And that's why I shy away from becoming an expert in a field. I don't want to make money off the backs of other creators. I'd rather make money alongside creators. I'd rather collaborate, make content, and share in the joy of earning a living while doing what we all love.

I'm definitely an experienced storyteller. But I'm no expert.