Are You The Smartest Person In The Room?

 -You’ve probably heard the phrase that, if you’re ever in a room of people and you’re the smartest person in the room, you need to get out!

You should be with a group of people who are all smarter than you – that’s how you learn. And I agree with that.

However, yesterday, I was in a room, and I needed to be the smartest person there. Let me tell you why.

So, with the digital agency that I founded and run, We Make Stuff Happen, I got to do a half-day workshop yesterday with a great new company and its marketing team. They have won awards, been on Drago’s Den, and got a deal! They are seriously cutting the mustard when it comes to marketing, but they want to go higher.

They actually approached us to take them higher with an integrated digital strategy. So, I’m looking at all these Gen Z & Millennials in the room. They know their stuff. I’ve seen their stuff. It’s good. And they were looking for me for advice. So I had to be the smartest person in the room, in all humility. And, you know, within an hour, we were taking their storylines and marketing to a place I don’t think they’d ever thought of. By the end of 2 and a half hours, we had like 3 months’ worth of strategy mapped out that was just mind-blowing great.

I got into my car afterwards, and I thought, dang, that was fun! Sometimes, I think what we do is that we underestimate the experience that we have in what we’ve accumulated in our lives. The experience that we’ve seen, as I spend a lot of time on social not necessarily creating content, but studying, watching what’s working, watching what’s not working. So that when I do come to a client who needs to up their level of game, I can do that.

And how can I do that? Because up here, in my thought process,  I know they need me. I know I’m an expert. And there’s a great phrase I used to hear.

“If I call you, I’m a salesman, but, if you call me, I’m an expert.”

They called me. I went in and we blew the doors off the possibilities for them for the next 6 months. We had some ideas for their strategy that I’m going  back in a couple of weeks for another workshop. It was that good.

Sometimes it is okay to be the smartest person in the room. Own it. Live your greatness. Share it with all humility. Take people to a place they couldn’t get to by themselves.

That’s the definition of leadership: taking people to a place that they couldn’t get to by themselves. Nothing wrong with that. In fact, it’s awesome.

So, do you want to be the dumbest person in the room? Sometimes – in a mentoring capacity. But when you are the smartest person in the room, live it, own it, make the most of it, and people will thank you for it.