Ever notice how surgeons don’t put “Heart Expert 🫀” in their LinkedIn bio?

They’re too busy, you know, doing actual heart surgery.

Yet scroll through LinkedIn for 30 seconds, and you’ll drown in a sea of “thought leaders,” “visionaries,” and, my personal favourite, “expert strategists” who love to say, “We’re all just making stuff up.”

Here’s the thing: A surgeon can’t just “make stuff up” during open-heart surgery. An engineer can’t “wing it” when building a bridge. A pilot can’t say, “Let’s see what happens” during takeoff.

But marketing “experts”? They’re playing a different game entirely.

(Business, creative, design, sales etc. included)

You see, real expertise – the kind that keeps hearts beating and planes flying – is bound by physics, biology, and complex rules. If a surgeon puts your kidney in your elbow (spoiler: they won’t), you’ve got problems. If an engineer ignores gravity, that bridge isn’t winning any awards.

But in marketing, design, and business strategy? We’re playing in the realm of perception. And that’s where things get interesting.

Take Red Bull. Their drink tastes like someone bottled anxiety, yet they sell billions because they own the concept of “human performance.” That’s not biology – that’s brilliant perception management.

As behavioural economist Daniel Kahneman points out in “Thinking, Fast and Slow,” humans make most decisions based on emotion and mental shortcuts, not rational analysis. Real experts understand this. They know they’re working with perception, not physical laws.

Here’s the irony: True professionals — doctors, engineers and pilots rarely announce their expertise. It’s implied through their actions, demonstrated through their work, and evident in their thoughtful approach to complex problems.

Meanwhile, these self-proclaimed ‘business experts’ keep outdoing themselves. My favourite is the ‘Expert of Experts’ – which might be the most delusional thing I’ve seen since someone tried to sell me a bridge in Brooklyn.

The same type of folks who claim “nobody really knows anything.”

Really? Tell that to the surgeon during your next bypass operation.

The Dunning-Kruger effect explains this beautifully: The less someone knows about a subject, the more likely they are to overestimate their expertise. Real experts tend to be more aware of what they don’t know.

So next time someone introduces themselves as an “expert,” ask yourself: Would you trust a surgeon who starts every consultation with “Trust me, I’m an expert”?

Probably not.

Real expertise whispers. It doesn’t need to shout.

And if someone tells you, “We’re all just making stuff up,” maybe don’t let them near your company’s strategy or your heart.

P.S. No “experts” were harmed while writing this post. Their egos, however, might need some attention. But don’t worry – I’m sure there’s an “ego healing expert” on LinkedIn somewhere.