MARKETING
Consuming Content
SOMETHING THAT has been on my mind lately as a business owner is the idea of mastery . The idea that if you are an experienced businessperson and you have been in your trade for five years or more , you have knowledge to share that 99.9 percent of people simply do not have . Unfortunately , many business owners do not feel as though they have anything to offer to the majority . In fact , many of us see ourselves as still learning . Very few , if pressed , are going to say they have nothing to learn .
According to Malcolm Gladwell , anyone who has 10,000 hours or more performing a certain skill or trade will be world class . Well , at 40 hours a week for 50 weeks , you are hitting 2,000 hours a year in your trade , on average . That means that after five years , you have already accumulated that 10,000 hours you need to be considered a master of your trade . That mastery , whether you realize it or not , is valuable to people and should be shared . There is a segment of the population that would find that knowledge useful , and it can be seen as a duty to share it if for no other reason than the sharing of knowledge helps make the world a little bit better overall .
There are two primary reasons why sharing will create value :
• It will make your audience more informed and better able to make decisions .
• It will position you as a thought leader in your industry .
To you as a business owner , the second reason is likely the one from which you will see the largest benefit and is likely the reason you would begin to seek out ways to distribute your knowledge . Fortunately , there are a ton of ways to accomplish that . The best one is through content marketing . To clear up the first objection before you can even utter it aloud : content marketing is more than just writing blog posts . What it is is the distribution of your information into the world , regardless
26 | CARLEPUBLISHING . COM