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900,000 vs. 9 (And Why It Matters for Your Business)

Here’s a thought that’ll stop you in your tracks: It takes roughly 900,000 minutes to become a board-certified dermatologist. That’s years of medical school, residency, grueling exams, and countless patient interactions to master the science of skin.

But here’s the kicker—if that dermatologist skips the 9 minutes it takes to make their patient feel truly seen, heard, and understood, they’ve essentially wasted all 900,000 of those other minutes.

Seth Godin wrote about this recently in a characteristically brief blog post, and it hit me hard. If you’re not familiar with Seth, he’s one of the most influential marketing thinkers of our time—author of 20+ bestselling books including Purple Cow and This Is Marketing, and he’s been publishing daily insights on his blog for over two decades. He has a gift for distilling complex truths into razor-sharp observations.

This insight isn’t just about doctors. It’s about every single one of us who have spent years—decades, even—building expertise in our field.

The Expertise Trap We All Fall Into

You’ve invested enormous time becoming excellent at what you do. You know your industry inside and out. You can solve problems in your sleep that would stump most people. Your technical knowledge is exceptional.

And that expertise? It can become your biggest blind spot.

I see this pattern constantly with business owners and executives. They’re so focused on demonstrating their knowledge, proving their value, and showing why they’re the expert that they forget the fundamental truth: people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

That sounds like a motivational poster cliché, I know. But stick with me!

What Those 9 Minutes Actually Represent

Those 9 minutes aren’t really about time. They’re about presence. Connection. Making someone feel like they matter more than your next meeting, your overflowing inbox, or the fifty other things competing for your attention.

Think about your last interaction with a customer, client, or team member. Were you fully there? Or were you mentally drafting your next email while they were talking? Were you solving their problem, or were you solving what you assumed their problem was?

Here’s what I’ve learned the hard way: Your expertise creates value. Your ability to make people feel understood creates loyalty.

And in business, loyalty beats expertise every single time.

The Math That Actually Matters

Let’s do some different math. Say you’ve spent 20 years building your business expertise. That’s roughly 175,000 hours of learning, failing, succeeding, and developing mastery.

Now imagine a competitor who has 15 years of experience—still formidable, but less than you. But this competitor spends those crucial minutes making every customer interaction feel personal, understood, and valued.

Who wins the long game?

The one who combined expertise with connection. Every time.

Your technical excellence gets you in the game. Your ability to make people feel genuinely heard keeps you in business.

Where Most of Us Go Wrong

The irony is brutal: the more expert we become, it becomes harder to slow down enough to truly connect. We see patterns quickly. We know the answer before they finish the question. We’re often already solving the next problem while they’re still explaining the current one.

That efficiency? It’s costing you more than you realize.

I caught myself doing this last recently with a colleague. He was explaining a challenge, and I jumped in with the solution before he had finished. My solution worked. But I could feel the subtle shift in the relationship. He got my expertise, but he didn’t feel heard.

Making the Shift (Starting Right Now)

Here’s what I’m working on, and maybe it’ll help you too:

Before every important conversation, I pause. Literally pause and remind myself that the person across from me didn’t call me just for answers. They called because they needed to be understood.

I’ve started asking one more question. Even when I think I know the answer, I ask: “Tell me more about that.” Or “What does success look like to you here?” It adds maybe two minutes to the conversation. The insight and connection it creates? Immeasurable.

I watch for the moment they relax. There’s this visible shift when someone feels truly heard—their shoulders drop, their tone changes, they lean in slightly. That’s the moment when real problem-solving can begin. Everything before that is just positioning.

Here’s My Take

You’ve invested massive time becoming excellent at your craft. That expertise is valuable—essential, even. But it’s not everything.

Those 9 minutes of genuine connection—of making someone feel seen, understood, and valued—that’s what transforms expertise into impact. That’s what turns one-time customers into lifelong advocates. That’s what builds businesses that last.

The question isn’t whether you know enough. You do.

The question is: Are you present enough to let people feel it?

What interaction this week could you approach differently?