The Subject Matter Expert’s Curse: 1 Lesson You Can Learn from Elon Musk to Help Get Over Fear

Two weeks ago I was sitting in a small office room, with a handful colleagues from Sales, Product, and Operations. I was the designated Marketing ‘expert’ in the room.

The purpose of the meeting was to chat over some plans for an upcoming event we were creating.

Everything was going as expected.

Then I got asked a marketing related question which I didn’t have an immediate answer to. All of a sudden I felt that everyone was staring at me…waiting, waiting and waiting on my answer which was not coming anytime soon.

Have you ever felt that fear come across you?

I used to think I had to have an instant answer when asked a question on marketing or it would make me look stupid.

Thankfully I got over that limiting belief.

The ‘Manual of Me’…What makes you, you?

A few years ago, before a meeting with some people I had never met, I was introduced to something called “The Manual Of Me”.

It asked me to share answers on the following…

How I like to work:

• What are my working preferences and styles?
• How do I like to be communicated with?
• What can others do to help you feel most effective in your role?

What do you need to know about me?

• Is there anything I need others to be mindful of?
• Is there anything I would like to share about my background or homelife?

And something I shared with everyone that day was that I was a ‘reflective’ person. Sometimes I like to take time to think before giving an answer to a question. I don’t want to just ‘blurt’ out the first thing that comes to mind, to make yourself look good — when it could have the opposite effect.

This reflective personality is not a sign a weakness. It’s what makes me, me!

And more recently I saw this ‘refelective’ personality when Elon Musk was being interviewed. In this interview he pasues numerous times to think.

You can watch Elon Musk’s ’21 second long pause’ by clicking here

Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos are fans of the reflective personality too. Give it a try sometime.

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