Are you in a state of Dormant Brilliance

[Music]

[Applause]

when people learn that i’m a nurse

quite often they assume that my work

includes

passing out medications following the

orders of a doctor

are only providing direct patient care

and while these responsibilities are all

extremely essential

to the role of a clinical nurse nurses

are also

leaders and innovators and practitioners

in fact being a nurse taught me how to

become an expert

an expert in communication an expert at

understanding

very complex systems and an expert

at problem solving you see all these

skills that come in handy as i

courageously started

a healthcare consulting firm and as a

consultant

i solved the very same problems that i

mastered

as a nurse but now as an expert

you see i’ve come to learn that no

matter what industry you’re in

or what professional title you have we

all have an inner expert

my intention is for you to walk away

today

knowing how to awaken your inner expert

you see awakening my inner expert wasn’t

an overnight process

it’s been a complete life’s journey

a journey of self-discovery of

self-reflection

and really acknowledging and stepping

into my full worth and potential

in 2019 i wrote my very first book

called the power of

expertise and i shared how i

transitioned from nurse

to healthcare consultant and in that

very moment

everything would change i mean i

completely disrupted the traditional

role of a nurse

let’s just say the floodgates of

outreach started to pour

into my inbox and still to this day

i received messages and emails from not

just

nurses but doctors and pharmacists

and health care professionals from all

backgrounds

curious to know how they can take their

experience

and apply it to becoming consultants

so i started to have conversations with

these very intelligent minds

and after having so many conversations

i started to notice themes in the talks

that we were having

there are themes of discontentment

themes of

burnout in their current role and a lot

of themes of frustration

frustration because they’ve done every

single thing society said they needed to

do

in order to be successful they’d gone to

school received

numerous degrees they landed great

careers in fact many had multiple

accolades

but yet they still came to me feeling

like something was missing

they were still searching for their

options

it became abundantly clear to me that

these very intelligent minds

were in a state of dormant brilliance

and i can relate because i’ve also

experienced

being in a state of dormant brilliance

where i found myself searching for my

purpose and searching for options

although i had a very great career as a

nurse

but i was searching for options that

only my inner expert could create

if you’re unfamiliar with dormant

brilliance let me provide you with a

definition

dormant brilliance is when you are

completely unaware

of the skills the gifts and the

expertise

that you possess that make you a

complete force to be reckoned with

you know how to solve every single

problem

you’ve mastered every skill in the book

and as a matter of fact everyone around

you sees you as an

expert and a resource but you

so in other words you’ve completely

downplayed your own

superpowers

so you live day by day and hour by hour

and minute by minute in the shadow of

your inner expert

so reflecting back and thinking of all

the conversations that i had

and continue to have with these very

intelligent minds

i’m not surprised that they felt

discontentment

and frustration and burnout

because what i know to be true about

being in a state of dormant brilliance

is that you always feel like you’re

searching for your life’s purpose

so no matter how amazingly smart you are

or how many people praise you for all

your accomplishments

you have failed to do one important

thing

awaken your inner expert

i remember when i was first introduced

to the concept of an expert

it was an undergraduate studies in

nursing school

many many years ago

and we were learning about dr berner’s

novice to expert

nursing theory and in dr patricia

berner’s

theory she introduced you to the phases

of how you become

an expert it started off with you being

a novice

and then you transitioned to advanced

beginner

and from advanced beginner you became

proficient

then competent and then you graduated to

being an

expert now this is where the fireworks

are supposed to go off but there were no

fireworks for me

in fact it would take years and momentum

and some trial and error

but i would become an expert

and not just because of dr berner’s

theory

but because i did the hard internal work

that it would take to force myself out

of a state

of dormant brilliance to awaken and

acknowledge

my inner expert

for so many years i felt like i was

disqualified to be an expert

because i myself harbored false truths

about what an expert looked like

about the credentials an expert had

so before we move forward i want to make

sure that we dispel

any myths about what it takes to be an

expert

number one being an expert doesn’t

require you to have a harvard degree

or any degree at all for that matter

in fact what is required is that you be

extremely

knowledgeable about the subject matter

of your choice

the second thing i want you to remember

is that being an expert doesn’t

necessarily have to be job related

being an expert can be birthed from your

inner passions

this means your inner expert could be an

author an artist

a life coach a chef the key is to be

guided by your inner expert

and the last thing i want you to

remember is

being an expert has no age limitations

or

restrictions our youth

are so intelligent and knowledgeable

the sooner we as parents allow our

children to release their inner expert

the less time they’ll spend as adults

searching for options

and searching for their purpose

so now that we’ve released those false

truths that you and i

have both been harboring i want to share

with you how you can awaken your own

inner expert

the first thing we have to focus on is

self reflection

self-reflection is when we have to ask

ourselves a lot of tough questions

questions that will require us to be

almost painfully honest with ourselves

and how we respond i had to ask myself

questions like

are you happy in both your professional

and your personal life

and if you’re not happy what’s going to

make you happy

do you feel fulfilled

and if you don’t feel fulfilled what’s

going to make you feel

fulfilled

for me i had to look directly in a

mirror

and acknowledge the fact that although

i’ve had a very gratifying role as a

nurse

there were aspects of my job that didn’t

make me happy

that left me feeling like something was

missing

self-reflection forced me to dissect

what i didn’t enjoy

so i could focus on what i did enjoy

and those topics i mastered i became the

expert

the next thing we have to focus on is

self mastery

self mastery much like self reflection

requires us to ask ourselves

a lot of questions as well but these

questions are a little bit different

these questions help you tap into your

zone of genius

i had to ask myself questions like

what gifts do you possess that others

praise you for

what knowledge do you have that can be

shared with the world

what skills do you possess that can be

shared with others so they can hit

their goals i’m quite sure there’s many

of you

here today who’ve been operating as

experts for years

in a dormant state one thing that i want

you to remember is that your inner

expert is a thought leader

thought leadership needs to be shared to

influence

change that’s powerful

the next thing we have to focus on and

this one’s a big one

it’s removing conditional restraints

and newsflash if you’re not familiar

with conditional restraints

we’ve been conditioned by society to be

generalists

not experts so in order for me to

release my inner expert i had to

completely remove society’s version of

what success

looked like in the road map i needed to

take in order to be successful

this meant i had to completely free my

status quo

mindset completely

also removing conditional restraints

from me

looked like not waiting for permission

to share my expertise

and i’m going to share something that

i’ve never shared publicly

but removing conditional restraints also

looked like me

dropping out of a phd program because i

had been conditioned to believe

that i needed the credentials of a phd

to validate that i

was an expert that was another false

truth

i would soon realize that the only

validation that i

needed would be the results i generated

from those i share my expertise with

i needed no permission no validation

and no additional credentials to be the

expert i am today

and the same applies for you too

and the very last thing that we have to

do to step out of a state of dormant

brilliance to awaken our inner expert

is to acknowledge our value

the moment you acknowledge your value is

the moment that your inner expert begins

to breathe

this is that pivotal point where you

acknowledge all of your own attributes

that no one else can bring to the table

but you

in fact this was a life-changing moment

in my own life

when i realized that i am an asset

my skills my gifts my expertise

are all valuable

along this journey i’ve come to realize

that

the moment that you step out of the

state of dormant brilliance

and you truly awaken your inner expert

that’s when you’re living out your

life’s purpose

just imagine where will we be without

experts

experts who unite us

experts who show us how to improve

experts who solve complex problems

experts who show us how to laugh

and also experts who show us what’s

possible

in this moment i asked you to close your

eyes with me

and as you close your eyes imagine

yourself walking into a room

with a beautiful full-length mirror in

front of you

i want you to walk closer and closer to

that mirror

and start to peer in your reflection

gaze into your eyes and i want you to

listen to my voice

you are an expert

your skills your gifts your knowledge

and expertise need to be

shared with the world to influence

change

it’s time to awaken your inner expert

now open your eyes

thank you

[Music]

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