I asked a few friends, colleagues and my family a weird question, which was ... What do you think I am an "expert in"? What I was curious about was, how do people perceive me? What did they think I was an expert in, and where do I add value? I've long been the 'go to guy' when you have an IT problem you can't beat. My knowledge is both deep and wide and when you combine that with my ability to quickly research, while looking at the big picture and delving into the detail there aren't mainly small to medium size IT issues I can't resolve. Not trying to big note, but it has always been my thing, I've been doing this for 30 years now and have worked on some amazing projects. The question I found myself asking was, for other people, was that all I was an expert in? This was especially important when I considered the future of this blog. I want to be of interest to an audience, but equally I want to write about things that I am not only interested in but also passionate about. So when their email answers started to come back, I found the answers both interesting and insightful. My family answers were representative, but also pretty honest especially considering we work together so I share them here. My wife Sonya said ...

"I think you have a whole list of things that you’re an expert in but here are your top ones. - Computers - Human interactions - Being kind - Forgiving - Guidance But most importantly- you are an expert in handling me :-)" I especially like the last bit, but it's not true, no one can handle her :-)

Dad said ...

"- Sales and marketing - Business insight/strategy - Internet and web as a developer and “consumer” - Technology - Software development - Commentator on all the above"

Mum said ...

"- Lateral thinking I would say is a great skill you have"

And finally my sister Adrienne said ...

"- Hmmmm cooking pizza with the kids...pancakes too. In business- seeing the hidden opportunity in the big picture. I’d say bumper cars, but na, if I’m the expert you have to be wannabie" ha ha ha She dreams ... bumper cars? the challenge has been accepted.

OMG same question, but such diverse answers, what I got from that was ... 1, What people perceive as expertise is not based on my education, but on my experience. Deep, long term experience, all of these areas are things I could tell endless stories about. Sure I've studied, read endless books, but most importantly I've lived, I've made mistakes and I've learnt from them. 2, Not everyone values the same things from you. 3, Surprisingly, most of the things mentioned are things I am passionate about, but they've become "normal". What is noticeably absent are the things that currently excite me and I love learning about. 'The environment', 'the complexity of relationships', and 'design'. I guess the important thing to remember is being interested, and being excited about something is not the same as being an expert. I now know where I have to focus if I want build my credibility in these areas. As I yesterday watched a webinar by Brendon Burchard I considered this feedback and what I found really interesting was that he proposed that one of the measurements of an 'being an expert' is 'can they earn large amounts of money'. This caused a conversation with Danny about what we are worth on an hourly basis. We could easily see times we were worth at least $1000 an hour and I can point to times I've earnt or saved someone well in excess of $10,000 for less than an hour of my time. So from that I got one last thing... 4, There is a huge difference between having, and using your expertise vs presenting yourself as an expert. I have been very successful and am happy, but I haven't packaged myself as an expert. I'm going to think more about that, and although I don't want a "hyper focused" blog, I will refine it so as to make it easier for an audience to get value. I definitely want to be the absolute best version of me, rather than a lessor version of someone else. Thanks for reading ... My thought now is, what are you and expert in? How about asking people my weird question about yourself? Even better share your thoughts with a comment below.