Curse of knowledge in business: why your expertise feels obvious (and how to stop undercharging for valuable skills)

When you're brilliant at something, it stops feeling like a skill and starts feeling obvious. Here's why the curse of knowledge makes experts undervalue their services, and how to recognise what people will actually pay for.

For ages I didn't pivot my business because I'd downplayed what I actually do at The Ops House, surely no one's going to pay me for doing things that feel this obvious, this logical, this basic?

I couldn't have been more wrong about what clients actually value.

What is the curse of knowledge in business

The curse of knowledge is when you've done something for so long that it stops feeling like a valuable skill and starts feeling like the norm that everyone must understand. You forget what it was like not to know these things in the beginning, you assume everyone else operates the way you do naturally, you think your hard-earned expertise is "just common sense" that anyone could figure out.

Meanwhile so many people out there have absolutely no clue what you're banging on about, and honestly they have no desire to learn it either because they just want someone who already knows to sort it out for them.

That's where you come in as the expert, except you've convinced yourself it's not worth charging proper rates for because it feels too easy.

The invisible competence problem for service providers

When you're genuinely good at something, things just work smoothly, and when things work nobody notices the skill involved, including you. I see this constantly with UK service business owners, consultants, and coaches who undervalue their expertise:

The HR consultant who thinks employee engagement frameworks are "obvious" when they're absolutely not to most managers, the leadership coach who assumes everyone knows how to facilitate difficult conversations when that's a specialised skill, the operations specialist who believes process mapping is basic stuff when it's actually complex systems thinking, the content strategist who thinks structuring a content engine is straightforward when solopreneurs are drowning trying to figure it out.

You've made the complex look simple through years of practice, that's mastery, but you've mistaken it for "not special" or "not worth much."

Invisible competence is lethal for pricing because when you don't value what you do, you either don't charge for it properly or you undersell it dramatically compared to the value it provides.

Why expertise feels obvious to the expert

Here's what I've learned about the curse of knowledge, your expertise feels obvious to you precisely because you've earned it through significant investment. You've earned that skill through years of hard graft and deliberate practice, pattern-spotting across dozens of different client situations, extensive trial and error where honestly it was mostly error at first, expensive mistakes you'll never make again because you learned from them, and repetition that's turned conscious effort into unconscious competence.

What feels completely natural to you now was once confusing, overwhelming, and genuinely hard when you were learning it, you've just forgotten that difficult learning phase entirely.

Your potential clients haven't forgotten because they're living in that confusion right now, actively searching for someone who can make it all make sense without them having to become experts themselves.

The curse of being too modest in UK business culture

British business owners have a particular flavour of this undervaluing problem because we're culturally conditioned not to "show off" or "big ourselves up" in professional contexts.

So we systematically downplay our expertise with phrases like "oh it's not that complicated really," "anyone could do this if they just tried," or "I'm sure you could figure it out yourself eventually."

Stop doing this immediately.

This isn't humility or politeness, it's self-sabotage dressed up as British modesty, and when you downplay your expertise you're actively devaluing years of experience, confusing potential clients about what you actually offer and why it matters, making it harder for people who desperately need you to find and hire you, underselling yourself financially compared to the value you provide, and reinforcing imposter syndrome about your legitimate skills.

What clients are actually paying for (not just the deliverable)

People don't pay you for the thing itself or the tactical deliverable, they pay you for much more valuable outcomes:

Relief from not having to figure it out themselves through trial and error, speed because you can accomplish in 2 hours what would take them 2 weeks of struggling, confidence that it'll actually work instead of being another half-finished attempt they abandon, brain space back because it's completely off their plate and they can focus on their actual expertise, pattern recognition you've developed across multiple clients and situations, and mistakes avoided because you've already made those expensive errors and learned from them.

Your "obvious" solution is their impossible problem, that gap between your competence and their confusion is exactly where your value lives.

How my content engines nearly became free work

Take the content engines I've been building for clients, it's become a regularly requested service, and honestly I nearly didn't offer it as a paid service at all because it felt too simple.

What I do isn't the creative bit that feels impressive, it's the operational structure underneath, the systematic framework, the repeatable systems that turn one piece of content into multiple formats without the client losing their mind or burning out.

That's where all the pain actually lives for clients, especially for solopreneurs with minimal time but maximum need for consistent visibility.

For many people who aren't naturally content creators, that operational shift alone changes everything for their business, they go from "I should probably post something" panic to consistent strategic visibility that actually generates leads.

But I nearly gave it away for free because it felt too simple, too logical, too obvious once you understand the system.

Questions to identify what you're undervaluing

If you're sitting there thinking "well everyone knows this, it's really obvious," stop that thought immediately and ask yourself these diagnostic questions instead:

What do I do that consistently makes clients say "I had no idea that's how it worked" with genuine surprise? What part of my process or approach do people always seem surprised by when I explain it? What have I been explaining for free in discovery calls that I should actually package and sell as a service? What do colleagues or peers ask me about repeatedly because I "just get it" and they don't? What feels completely effortless to me but exhausting or impossible to my clients? And most importantly, what have I been giving away for free because I didn't value myself enough?

That last question is the killer one that reveals where you're leaving money on the table.

How to stop underselling your expertise and skills

Track what people actually ask you for repeatedly

Not what you think they should want based on your positioning, but what they repeatedly request, complain about, or get stuck on in real conversations.

Notice what feels "obvious" to you but clearly isn't to them

That's your expertise and experience talking, that gap is exactly what you should charge premium rates for.

Reframe "simple" as "streamlined" in your positioning

You've made it simple through years of experience and refinement, that simplicity is valuable because it saves them time, not worthless because it's easy for you.

Price for the outcome and value, not the effort or time

It takes you 3 hours because you've done this successfully 300 times, that expertise is worth more not less than when it took you 30 hours as a beginner.

Stop apologising for being good at things

"It's really straightforward actually" is not a compelling sales pitch, own your skill and communicate the value it provides confidently.

The business pivot I should have made sooner

I spent months offering strategic business management services because that felt more "serious" and professional, when what people actually wanted was operational relief and content systems that work reliably.

The OBM positioning felt more impressive and substantial, while the content engines and systems work felt too niche, too specific, too simple to be valuable?

Turns out specific and simple is exactly what sells to busy business owners, nobody wants complex solutions that require them to learn new skills, they want their specific problem solved in a way that doesn't require them to become an expert too.

I'd downplayed the very thing people needed most because it didn't feel "enough" or impressive enough to charge proper rates for.

It was more than enough, it was exactly right for the market need.

Common expertise undervaluing patterns in service businesses

Operations and systems expertise

Operations specialists think "everyone can build systems" when most business owners are drowning in operational chaos they can't see how to fix.

Content strategy and marketing

Content strategists assume "creating a content plan is basic" when solopreneurs are paralysed by where to even start or what to say.

Leadership and facilitation skills

Leadership coaches think "facilitating difficult conversations is obvious" when most managers avoid these conversations entirely because they don't know how.

Process improvement and efficiency

Process consultants believe "spotting inefficiencies is simple" when business owners are too close to their own operations to see what's broken.

Technical expertise in any domain

Technical specialists assume their knowledge is "common sense" when clients are desperately Googling for someone who actually understands their specific problem.

How the curse of knowledge affects your business pricing

When you undervalue your expertise because of the curse of knowledge, you set prices based on effort rather than value, you give away strategic thinking for free in discovery calls, you include too much in packages because "it's easy to add," you hesitate to raise rates because "it doesn't feel hard enough," and you struggle to articulate your value proposition because you can't see what makes you special.

This pricing psychology keeps you undercharging compared to the actual transformation and relief you provide to clients.

What you're actually selling: transformation not tasks

Your clients aren't buying your time or your task completion, they're buying transformation from their current confused overwhelmed state to a state where things work properly.

They're buying the confidence to move forward without second-guessing, the relief of having an expert handle what they find impossible, the speed of getting results without the learning curve, the pattern recognition from your experience across multiple situations, and the mistakes avoided because you've already made them.

That transformation is worth significantly more than the few hours it takes you to deliver it.

Stop hiding your expertise behind false modesty

Maybe the question you need to ask yourself isn't "why would anyone pay me for that?"

It should be "what have I been giving away for free because I didn't value myself enough?"

Because I guarantee there's something you do regularly, something that feels completely logical and obvious to you right now, that someone else is desperately Googling at this exact moment hoping to find someone who just gets it.

That someone they're searching for is you.

Stop hiding behind British modesty, stop undercharging for valuable expertise, stop convincing yourself it's not worth much because it feels easy to you now.

It feels easy because you're bloody good at it after years of practice, that's the entire point.

Give your head a wobble, recognise your actual value, then charge accordingly.

Need someone to tell you what you're actually good at and how to position it properly? That's exactly the kind of strategic thinking partnership I provide, helping service business owners see their invisible expertise and charge what it's worth.

Get in touch and let's have a proper conversation about what you've been underselling.