Why Experts Should Rethink Saying “Thanks for Having Me”

I couldn’t help thinking about this phrase “thanks for having me” after watching probably the 50,000th interview on CNBC to which I’m usually glued when the stock market’s open and either commending my skills or chuckling at my mistakes.

When I hear a guest conclude a segment saying “thanks for having me,” it sounds to me like they’re saying thanks for turning me, a nobody, into a somebody who finally has something important to impart.   Thanks for making me now into a somebody  . . . for giving me a lift, an exhilarating ride on the air wave with you to finally that notable place, somebody hood.

Simeon Gutman is somebody who is a smart retail analyst at a firm I look up to, Morgan Stanley.  He held my attention and admiration the other day, distracting me from tedious work for a couple of interesting, insightful minutes. 

He was on CNBC predicting the bigger retailers would keep getting bigger now at an even faster clip thanks to AI tech reinforcement providing clearer data and  even robots to manage their data centers.

I was paying rapt attention as I had read Gutman covers stocks with a 62.36% success rate and an average return of 3.03%.  I’m listening as I have my investor eye on retailers from Walmart to Target, Cosco to Kroger.  And I’ll never forget Lowes. 

With still relatively high interest rates slowing home sales, people are staying put longer in their aging homes needing constant fixing up, therefore owners are spending more on repairing and replacing things from washing machines and dryers to big screen televisions and lawn mowers.  

But what does Gutman say when at the end of the interview he’s thanked for all the knowledge, wisdom and experience he just shared?   He responds with a phrase I hear much too often on TV: “Thanks for having me.” 

To me that phrase sounds like thanks for rescuing me from Indifference Island . . for this exposure handout to share what morsels I have . . . for yanking me out of the shadowy dullness of obscurity . . . for giving me, a grateful beggar such a tip.   

That’s what “Thank you sooooooo much for having me” sounds to me.

No!  No thank you, my dear interviewees.  You are experts, already somebody’s.  You’re loaded with important content, maybe even wisdom, which you’re gracious enough to share for free on TV.

So, when your CNBC host or whatever network or podcast host thanks you, it would be more appropriate and wiser to say “you’re most welcome” or “my pleasure” or “nice to be with you and share what I know.”  

Anything but “THANKS FOR HAVING ME.”  

Please put that phrase away into a chest up in the attic somewhere and next time when concluding a TV interview, smile confidently and say to the interviewer who’s thanking you: 

“My pleasure,” making it sound like you were lucky to have me as your guest because I sure as hell know what I’m talking about.