We Need YOU, Not Another Guru

Exploration over expertise. Curiosity over credentials. (Plus, the story of a fashion history icon.)

Welcome (or welcome back!) to Multifaceted. I’m Jess Barker, here exploring what it means to find direction and fulfillment in a multi-passionate creative life. ✨

Digital collage featuring a Shakespearean costume I made and illustrations from the cover of Patterns of Fashion 5 by Janet Arnold et. al.

Living across the street from the library, you’d think I’d be able to send back my books on time.

Sure, I’m close enough to look out the window from my cozy reading corner and watch other people pull up to the drive-through book return. But no, I don’t want to give back something I’m in the middle of reading. (Sorry not sorry!)

Even so, my most recent stop at the library saw me dutifully handing back a super interesting and only slightly overdue¹ book about the neuroscience of creativity.

Once I get my hands on another copy, I’ll keep learning about what our brains do when inspiration strikes. And then I’ll try to write about it in my book. Maybe I’ll write about it here, too.

Although cognitive science has always fascinated me,² I’m certainly no expert on the subject. But writing is my way of processing information. Taking handwritten notes straight from each chapter is great; mulling them over and trying to piece together my newfound knowledge in an article is even better.

I’m not going to let a lack of expertise hold me back from writing about an interesting topic. None of us need hefty credentials or PhDs to learn and write about cool topics – or to explore whatever creative ideas we’re drawn to. All we need is a little patience, plus a lot of curiosity.

I was super inspired by something

Dan Blank

, author of The Creative Shift, said in a recent newsletter about building a platform primarily around curiosity.³

He shared examples of creators – mostly vloggers and photographers – who’ve become popular just by interviewing strangers on the street. The point being, if we follow our curiosity into topics we’re passionate about, we can create interesting work that others will enjoy.

Now, ambushing strangers on the street for an interview isn’t exactly my style. But Dan’s point stuck with me because I am constantly trying to soak in new perspectives on the topics I’m passionate about. And I’m constantly learning. (Even if it means holding library books hostage!)

I’m forever collecting bits and pieces from here and there, hoping to process them and make them into something new. That’s what the creative process is all about.

Sometimes, I have something genuinely new to present. Other times, it’s enough to share my curiosity. In those moments, I can tip out the basket of shiny little nuggets I’ve been collecting, saying, “Hey, check this out with me!”

On the whole, we’re getting a little tired of “gurus”: the Insta-perfect artists, glossy influencers, and hyped-up life-hackers who promise we can make our lives as perfect as theirs.⁴ They make it look and sound like they have everything under control. And they’ll occasionally throw out a “vulnerable” story once a year to ground their image in reality.

The thing is, these gurus are successful. So, it seems like the only option is to follow in their footsteps. We assume we, too, have to position ourselves as experts and pretend we have all the answers – even while we’re just starting out – or else nobody will take our creative work seriously.

I’m all for “fake it ‘til you make it” when the situation calls for a confidence boost. But when it comes to faking so hard to become someone we’re not…? Ehh.

If we’re just starting out in something, isn’t posing as an expert kind of fake? And boring? Why can’t we be explorers instead? Swashbuckling adventurers, even?

Maybe it’s because I’m creatively ambitious, but I feel like most of the advice for creatives that I come across online suggests positioning ourselves as experts. (And this advice always assumes the main creative goal is $MaKiNg MoNeY$, because nobody is talking enough about hobbies and passion projects.⁵)

Perhaps this sounds familiar:

So, you’re doing something creative… Well, what VALUE are you providing? What CREDENTIALS set you apart? What problem are you THE LEADING EXPERT at solving? What TESTIMONIALS can you share?

Blegh.

Of course, these are all great marketing-minded questions to answer. I work as a marketing writer; I get it. But not every ounce of the creative process needs to be marketed, positioned, and branded this way.

Sometimes we just want to make art and hope it’ll be received by others. Whether they find our work validating or challenging or inspiring or whatever – it only matters that they find it and spend a moment with it.

We don’t have to bend over backward to prove our authority and expertise for this creative cycle to happen. (Especially if we’re new to something!) We can show up as fellow explorers, inviting others to walk alongside us.

After studying costume design and coming away with more questions than answers, I packed up and flew off to grad school in the Big Apple to study fashion history at NYU. But, somewhere in the middle of it all, I lost the thread of what I went there for.

I was surrounded by people who wanted to have encyclopedic knowledge of the field. Active and aspiring museum curators, experts in particular handicrafts, one-day history PhDs, and others striving to make impressions as authorities in one thing or another.

I was surrounded by experts-in-the-making. I respected and felt inspired by what they were doing… but it wasn’t for me. I wanted to be an explorer.

I had entered the program out of a deep desire to learn and quench my curiosity. And I hoped that, through learning and exploring, perhaps I could become some sort of interesting, useful, creative member of society, in my own way.

But the voice of EXPERTISE was incredibly loud. So loud that I could no longer hear the curious little explorer inside my head. So loud that, when I did not magically become an expert in one specific thing, when I did not desire the path everybody else desired, I felt I did not belong.

Looking back on this experience now, I think perhaps I might have belonged – maybe in a different corner of the same room. Because I now see that some of the most important contributors to the field started out as true explorers.

Like the late Janet Arnold. She’s basically a legend in the field of historical fashion research because of all that her books have taught us all about the cut and construction of period clothes. But she started out as an educator who felt she didn’t know quite enough. And so, she set out exploring as much as she could.

Janet meticulously researched and photographed period garments, poking around inside them – at first to deepen her own understanding of how they were made. Endlessly curious, she examined thousands of archival pieces and generated her own archive of 300,000 photographs, plus a great many illustrations (now held by the School of Historical Dress).

Eventually, she used what she’d learned to develop historically accurate sewing patterns from the clothes she studied. Her work resulted in a series of densely-packed books offering nearly 350 patterns based on antique garments. Many of which are nearly 500 years old, and so rarely exhibited that only a select few will never get to see them in person, much less examine to figure out how they were made. Through those books and patterns, the rest of the world can study and replicate those period clothes, too.

In short, Janet Arnold started as an explorer and ended up becoming a foremost expert in her field.

I wanted to share this story partly because I’m a Janet Arnold fan. After all, I made a Shakespearean costume based on her patterns in college (it’s in the feature image above)!

But mostly because it shows that, at a certain point, enthusiastic exploration can tip over into expertise.

So, whenever we find ourselves looking up to someone thinking, “Wow there’s an expert. I guess that’s where I have to start” – let's remember, expertise is not where we start. It doesn’t even have to be an end goal. It’s just where we might one day end up if we keep exploring and sharing along the way.

If we’re writing about a topic, we don’t have to prove that we know it all. We don’t have to write a fancy bio declaring how we got some special, official permission slip to create. Instead, as a starting point, maybe we can just say we’re exploring the topic and sharing what we’ve learned so far.

That would feel kind of nice, right? A little less pressure, maybe.

It takes a lot of confidence to go out there and tell people you’re worth listening to even when you’re not an expert. But, when you focus on promoting your curiosity (not your credentials), people will think of you when your topic comes up. Doesn’t matter if you’re not an expert. They’ll send articles and screenshots your way. They’ll tell people about you. Suddenly, you’ll be the go-to person in your circle for that topic, just because you kept shamelessly promoting your passion by saying, “Hey, check this out with me!”

In many ways, we’re all simultaneously experts and explorers: We all have our zones of experience. And (hopefully) we’re all still pushing the boundaries of our understanding, expanding into new territories.

So, where does this leave you in your own journey? Are you:

• An explorer who’s just embarking on something new?

• An explorer slowly building momentum in one area, or maybe pivoting into another?

• An experienced explorer who needs to push your boundaries?

Where are you feeling the pressure to expert-ify? Where are you embracing your inner explorer?

You tell me! I’m curious where everyone’s at right now.

As for me, I’ve been testing the waters, making mistakes, swinging the pendulum back and forth, and listening in to find my own voice. But, right now, I’m most excited to embrace the spirit of exploration in how I show up creatively.

As highly attentive readers may’ve noticed, I updated the tagline at the top of my newsletter as a reminder (to myself) that I’m here to explore.

Grab a knapsack and maybe you’ll join me? 🙂

1. Our library generally has an extraordinarily chill and generous return policy. Books are auto-renewed for months on end; patrons aren’t fined for overdue items. It’s dreamy! But since this title was on loan from a different library system, I only had it for a short while.

2. Fun fact: My cognitive science professor in college was the person who introduced me to the idea of being a multi-passionate, renaissance person. Best elective ever.

3. Thank you,

Amanda Aaron 🇨🇦

, for passing me a free month's subscription to The Creative Shift. I wouldn't have discovered this little pearl of inspo without it!

4. Case in point: I remember reading a post in

Bella Foxwell

’s newsletter, Making Time, under this title and subtitle — “It’s Time to Unfollow the Instagram Coaches: Their shiny promises are a big distraction.” I can't remember all the details as it's gated now, but I DO remember thinking, “Hm, yeah, 100%.” And some ~300 people liked the post. So, yeah, a lot of us are “glossy guru"-ed out.

5. Some notable exceptions in my newsletter feed lately:

izabela raczkowski

’s “You Should Get Some Hobbies,” and a piece written by

Michelle Pellizzon Lipsitz

+

Holisticism

called “be more confusing, actually” which hilariously calls out the merits of living life as a “Project Person.”