Fake It Till You Make It? No way.

I just got off stage at an event for Tekmetric and I'm still running on adrenaline. Standing up there in front of a room full of sharp, experienced people, made me realize that “fake it till you make it” doesn't work.

Before I went on stage, Todd Weston came up to me and said, "Man, I gotta be honest with you — I had sleepless nights over this." He'd taken a chance putting me up there in front of a room full of industry professionals, and up until that moment, he wasn't sure how it was going to go. Speaking in front of a room full of people who know their stuff is no joke. The pressure is real, and Todd felt it too, even from the sidelines.

But when I got up there, I didn’t feel nervous at all. I know my subject inside and out. I know hospitality. That's my whole thing. I don't dabble in ten different areas. I don't spread myself thin trying to be an expert in everything. I do hospitality. I live it, I breathe it, every single day.

So when somebody challenged me on stage, when they asked me something tough, I didn't trip over my words, or have to search for an answer. It was just there. That’s what happens when you actually know your craft!

Todd pulled me aside after I was finished speaking and said, "After seeing you on stage — you just owned it." And I'm not saying that to brag. I'm saying it because that's what mastery feels like. Not faking confidence. Actually having it, because you've put in the work.

Why Faking It Always Backfires

Look, I think we've all been in a room where someone is clearly winging it. They're using big words, they're talking fast, they're doing everything they can to sound like they know more than they do. And everybody in that room knows. You can feel it.

Here’s the thing: you cannot fake expertise in front of people who have expertise. It just doesn't work that way.

I'd rather get caught not knowing something than get caught pretending I do. Those are two very different things. One makes you human. The other makes you a fraud.

What To Do When You're Not the Expert in the Room Yet

Now, here's where I want to talk to the people who maybe aren't at that expert level yet — but they still have to show up, still have to speak, still have to operate in spaces where people are going to ask them hard questions.

My advice is to keep it real, lead with humility, and just be yourself.

Don't try to sound smarter than you are. Don't try to speak in a tone that isn't yours. Don't try to mask what you don't know by talking around it, because people will see through it every single time.

What actually builds trust is being honest about where your knowledge starts and where it ends.

If someone asks me something that falls outside what I know — like if it's a finance question — I'm not going to stumble through an answer and hope nobody notices. I'm going to say, "You know what, I don't have that one, but Matt does. Let me get you that answer from Matt." Because Matt went to school for years studying this stuff. Why would I try to compete with that? Knowing what you don't know is just as important as knowing what you do know. Maybe more important.

How You Actually Get to Expert Level

There is no shortcut. There is no one seminar, one book, one weekend course that makes you an expert. It doesn't work like that. You can walk out of a training feeling fired up, ready to take on the world, and by the time you're back at your desk you've already forgotten half of what you learned. That's just how human beings are wired. That's reality.

The difference between people who stay good and people who get great is that the great ones never stop. Constant training. Constant reinforcement. Constant checking in on the fundamentals. You can never just arrive and say "okay, I know it all now." The person who thinks they've figured it all out is the most dangerous person in the room.

The Adam Coffey Moment

One of the highlights of this whole event for me was getting to spend some real time with Adam Coffey.

About a year and a half ago, Bill recommended his first book to me. Said, "You need to read this guy." So I bought it. Read it. And now here I am sitting in a car with him, asking him anything I want.

That doesn't happen by accident. That happens because you keep showing up, you keep learning, you keep putting yourself in rooms where you can grow. And Adam — this guy I was looking up to from a distance not long ago — already gave us a few pieces of advice that are going to save us a lot of headache going forward.

That's what happens when you stay humble and stay curious. The right people start showing up in your corner.

The Takeaway

Know your craft. Master it. Do the work every single day.

Be very, very clear about what you know. And be just as clear — maybe even clearer — about what you don't.

Don't fake it. Don't perform it. Don't try to be someone you're not in front of a room full of people who can see right through it.

Just be you, at whatever level you're at, with the real knowledge you actually have. That's what people trust. That's what people remember. And that's what actually lasts.