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- [00:07]
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This is Help Wanted, the show that makes your work work for you. I'm Jason Pfeiffer, editor in chief of.
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Entrepreneur magazine, and I'm money expert Nicole Lapin. On Tuesdays, Jason and I answer the helpline and help callers solve their work problems.
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And on Thursdays, I give you one way to improve your work and build a career or company you love.
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And it starts now.
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Do you want to attract new business or just better jobs and opportunities or just really valuable relationships with really valuable people? Well, either way, here is one of the best ways to do it. Give away your knowledge. This may sound like a bad idea, like, won't people just steal your work and not pay you? Won't they abuse your time? But in fact, the opposite is true. When you give away your knowledge, you build trust and authority, and then people want you more. Today on Help Wanted, I will show you how this works and how to use it to your advantage. But to start, I'm going to tell you about someone who did not do this and how it led to the most awkward interview of my career. So let's talk about the man who wouldn't Give. In about 2009, I interviewed an incredibly successful boxer. Not going to name him here, but you know his name. Very, very successful boxer. One of the world's greatest. And you might think that this sounds fun, at least, I guess, if you like boxing, but it was not. I worked at Men's Health at the time. I was a junior editor at Men's Health. So I did this thing that we asked all major athletes basically what I would do at that job, which is that I would go to famous people and I would say, hey, could you share one of your workout routines? I mean, that's what our audience wanted. And usually people were really happy to share something. Basically, everybody I asked shared something. But when I asked this boxer, well, this boxer said, I'm not telling you that. If I share my workout, then my competitors can copy it. I don't give away my secrets. I tried to get this guy to share something, anything. He would not. That was. That was the end. That was the end of the interview. And I left thinking, this insecure man does not know what makes him great. Because here's the thing, that guy didn't succeed because of his training. He succeeded because of his ability to put that training into action, which is hard and not easily repeatable. Just because you train like a world champion boxer does not mean you can fight like a world champion boxer. Which means that the world champion boxer could have Given it all away, he just chose not to. But there's another way. So here it is. I was recently telling this story to Dan Norcia. He heads partnerships at a company called Pilothouse and he laughed because he thinks the exact opposite of that Boxer. So some context here. Pilothouse helps brands improve their e commerce and they're very good at it. They've driven more than $500 million in business for clients. And how do they do that? What levers do they pull? What secrets do they have? They'll just tell you. They publish tons of instructional materials like a newsletter and a podcast, both called dtc. They'll do social media live streams, helping founders improve their websites and they even appear regularly in my group for CPG founders. I have a group that I help early stage CPG founders along with some other co founders of mine. It's called CPG Fast Track. Anyway, the Pilothouse crew is just so eager to show up in that community and just help members. They never pitch a thing. They just help showing people how to increase their direct to consumer sales step by step, stuff like that. Anyway, here's what Dan told me. He said when we give away our knowledge, people are grateful and they trust our thinking. Then they try to implement this stuff themselves and get overwhelmed. And that's when they want to hire us. This is what that Boxer did not understand. Your knowledge may be valuable, but your ability to execute is actually everything. When you're confident in your abilities, then knowledge stops being the thing that you protect and it starts being a tool that you can use to attract others. So let's talk about putting this into practice. Imagine giving someone a penny and then as soon as you give them the penny, it just turns into a hundred dollar bill. That is kind of what it means to share knowledge. It is cheap for you to share because it's just stuff already in your head. And it is incredibly valuable for someone else to receive because it can transform their business or life. That's what makes knowledge incredible currency. You can give away your knowledge without much effort or sacrifice and reap outsized rewards for it. And here are three ways to do that. Now. Number one post on LinkedIn. Maybe that sounds predictable or perfunctory coming from me, a guy who really loves posting on LinkedIn. But hear me out. LinkedIn's algorithm specifically values knowledge and advice. That is the language that they use there knowledge and advice. I have seen this validated in my own work many years ago. For example, my LinkedIn posts were either promotional or inspirational, but neither worked. Then I Got specific and tactical and the response was large. I just crossed 200,000 followers. LinkedIn is my number one source of newsletter subscribers. Maybe you subscribed to my newsletter and you found it on LinkedIn. If so, thank you. And I regularly get DMs from people asking to work together. Sharing knowledge on LinkedIn is simple. Just think about the last time that you gave advice to a peer. Did they find it useful? Well, turn that advice into a post and then try that once a week. You are sending out a bat signal that literally says here is what I am an expert on and here's why you should trust me. So that's number one, the first way to share your knowledge. Here's number two, Take the call. Do people ask you for advice? You know, even if it's just somebody fresh out of college looking for some help, give it to them. Seriously, what's the harm? You lose a little time, you give away a few ideas. That is a small price to pay for potentially enormous value. You. About a year ago, for example, an acquaintance invited me to lunch. He had an interesting new project and wanted my thoughts and I had lots of them. He then asked if I would talk to his team. So I said sure. Soon we were chatting regularly for no money and no specific expectations. But relationships were built and fun was had. And now they are paying me for monthly consulting. Of course it doesn't happen like this all the time. Most meetings go nowhere, but some create lots of value. It's why I have come to treat time the way a venture capitalist invests in startups. You put a little time into a lot of things and while most of them flop, a few will produce life changing roi. And importantly, that ROI does not have to be financial. I'm busy like you are, so I can't take every meeting or help everybody. So before I agree to a call or meeting, I always ask myself, do I see how this relationship could be additive? And then I define additive. Maybe this person helps me think better. Maybe they add joy to my life. Or maybe they're working on something that someday I would like to work on too. Whatever it is, as long as I know, then I know what to do next. That's the second way. And now here's the third way. Proactively. Teach or trade. Look, you know something that other people don't. So why not offer it? Don't wait for people to ask you, just offer it. Two examples spring to mind, both from friends who used to work in media. I'll call it Teach and Trade. So here's Teach Teach. My friend Sam was once a reporter, and then he got a job at a small law firm. Now, lawyers are notoriously bad writers. So Sam had an idea, because Sam knows how to write, so he could host a writing workshop for his lawyer colleagues. He offered it to a few lawyers, they told a few more, and soon Sam was hosting monthly workshops, making him extra valuable. And now trade. Annie used to work in media and then started a cookie company. Kind of different. She didn't know that much about making cookies or selling cookies, and she needed some help with branding, but she could not afford a branding agency, so she approached one with an offer. She said, I could help you get more media attention for your work and you could help me rebrand my cookies. The agency agreed. They swapped knowledge. Everyone won. Remember what makes you most valuable. Look, that boxer would never do any of this, which is too bad, because that guy knew things. So please don't think like that boxer. A true champion should be able to give away their knowledge and still beat anyone who copies it. Because victories aren't built on knowledge alone. They're built on execution. And that's where you are unique. Your knowledge is simply the evidence of your greatness. When you give it away, you only become greater. That was something that I originally wrote for my newsletter. It's called One Thing Better each week. One way to be more successful and satisfied and build a career or company that you love. You can find it, well right here on Help Wanted because I always read them here on Help Wanted. But you can also find them in your inbox a few weeks earlier than you'll hear them on Help Wanted by going to One Thing Better email. That is a web address. Just plug it into a browser. One thingbetter email and hey, that newsletter is free. So is Help Wanted, as you can see, giving away knowledge. Help Wanted is a production of Money News Network. Help Wanted is hosted by me, Jason.
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Pfeiffer and me, Nicole Lapin. Our executive producer is Morgan Lavoy. Do you want some help? Email our helpline@helpwantedoneynewsnetwork.com for the chance to have some of your questions answered on the show. Show and follow us on Instagram @MoneyNews and TikTok@MoneyNews Network for exclusive content and to see our beautiful faces. Maybe a little dance.
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Oh, I didn't sign up for that.
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All right, well, talk to you soon.