Meet Michelle Mazur

 

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michelle Mazur. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michelle below.

Hi Michelle , thank you so much for opening up with us about some important, but sometimes personal topics. One that really matters to us is overcoming Imposter Syndrome because we’ve seen how so many people are held back in life because of this and so we’d really appreciate hearing about how you overcame Imposter Syndrome.

I used to think I had imposter syndrome.

I’d walk into rooms—online and off—and immediately felt like I didn’t fit in. Who am I to be here? Should I tone it down and not tell people about my experience? Make myself “accessible” and “relatable.’

One day, a businessman told me flat-out: “Maybe don’t use the title ‘Dr.’ It can come off as intimidating. No one will want to hire you.”

What the heck? How could something that I worked so hard for be a liability and not an asset?

That was the moment it clicked. This wasn’t imposter syndrome. This was the business world trying to tell me that my expertise was the problem. I don’t think we talk enough about that. Especially for women, especially for people with deep credentials or real-world experience—we’re constantly asked to make ourselves smaller.

What helped me wasn’t fighting imposter syndrome.
It was realizing I wasn’t the imposter.
I was just in a space that wasn’t built for people like me.

So I stopped trying to fit in. I built something different. A space for experts who are tired of being overlooked, underestimated, or told they’re too much. Turns out, the moment I owned my expertise… was the moment my business started to thrive.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I lead a community called The Expert Up Club, but I didn’t set out to build a community. I created it because I was tired. Tired of watching brilliant experts—people with decades of experience, advanced degrees, and actual results—get overlooked while the loudest voices with the flashiest marketing book clients.

My background is in communication—I’ve got a PhD in it, actually—and I’ve spent my career helping people articulate complex ideas so they land with clarity and conviction. And what I’ve learned is this: if your message isn’t doing the heavy lifting, your marketing will always feel like pushing a boulder uphill.

That’s why I focus on messaging first. Not tactics. Not trends. Not chasing algorithms. Just clear, strategic language that shows people why they should hire you now.

The Expert Up Club is where that clarity happens. It’s a community of practice for solo business owners who want to market in a way that plays to their strengths and doesn’t run them into the ground. They start by creating the message that gets them hired for their expertise and then right-sizing their marketing so it actually works.

Right now, we’re gearing up for a new sprint inside the club focused on refining your core message during a turbulent economy. I’m also quietly booking spots for my Done-for-You Marketing Message Service, which is designed for business owners who want to figure out their message fast so they can start leading more clients to their offer.

My work isn’t about making you sound more polished. It’s about making your message unmistakable and positioning your work as necessary, not nice to have.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The first? Communication. Not just knowing what to say, but how to say it so people care. That skill came from my academic work and years of teaching—and I’ve watched it change everything in business. You can have the best offer in the world, but if you can’t clearly articulate who it’s for, why it matters, and why now? You’ll stay invisible.

Second: Discernment. The ability to tell the difference between what looks good and what actually works. I’ve wasted time and money on shiny strategies that weren’t built for someone like me—someone with real expertise. Once I stopped trying to market like a web celeb and started marketing like a strategist? My business started to thrive.

And third? Tenacity. Building something with integrity takes longer. Period. But if you care more about lasting results than fast validation, you’ve got to be willing to keep showing up—especially when it feels like no one’s clapping yet.

My advice for folks just starting out?

Don’t skip the message work. Don’t buy into the myth that visibility leads to credibility and client. It’s the other way around.
Learn how to communicate what you do clearly. Trust your gut about what’s right for your business. And don’t be afraid to take the long road—it’s the one that actually leads somewhere.

Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?

My ideal client is an expert. Not a self-proclaimed one—but someone who’s spent years honing their craft. They’ve got real-world results, advanced degrees, certifications, and loads of experience. They’ve typically pivoted from academia, corporate or a therapy practice to build a business that used all of their unique gifts.

They’re not new to business. Most have been in it for 5+ years. They’re great at sales conversations and client delivery. What they’re not great at is translating their brilliance into clear, compelling language that actually gets people in the door. They also think marketing sucks (and who can blame them, it never worked for them like they thought it would).

What makes them ideal for me? They are smart, thoughtful, and big thinkers. They don’t believe in the “proven formulas,” and they know they aren’t “one funnel away from 7-figures.” They are also the misfits who never felt like they belonged anywhere because they were always the smartest person in the room.

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Image Credits

Jenny Boyle
Terri Burke

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