let your ideas rest
offer what is truly needed
serve by listening
Create a content plan. Share your knowledge with others. Convey what you’ve learned. Share valuable information. Serve your readers. Deliver to your audience.
These are the common refrains of advice in every realm in which I work.
Whether the audience is real estate agents, coaches, yoga teachers, creatives, or “course creators” the emphasis is on finding ideas for content, creating the content, and shipping it regularly.
The big idea it to add value through the information and knowledge you share.
The buzzword of 2022 is “edutainment.” Snappy Instagram reels or TickTocks. Short punchy blog posts peppered with emojis, formatted to facilitate viral sharing.
There are any number of people who are ready to teach you how to create ideas and put them out into the world more quickly.
To be clear, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with this. We want to be stimulated and entertained. If there’s a way to package your message in short soundbites to make it fun and catchy, all the better.
And if you need help creating ideas, I’ll be happy to offer my services. With over 1700 blog posts and over 4 years of daily blogging, I have a proven track record in consistently creating and shipping content.
That said, lately I have been wondering if in this push to commoditize information we are missing the bigger picture of what is truly needed.
We are past the Information Age. Nobody needs more information. The information that once created transparency now obfuscates what’s relevant.
We are starving for wisdom. But wisdom cannot be taught. We cannot learn wisdom from someone else. We must listen to it as it emerges from within.
And this is where the real value-add lies: we need people to listen.
Human beings want to feel seen and heard. If everyone is creating content, who is listening?
In my work as a real estate broker and coach, I used to believe that the “value” I brought to a relationship with a client was the insight and advice I offered. The expertise honed through decades of experience. This is certainly valuable and relevant at times.
But what my clients appreciate most is the space I hold.
My clients don’t need me to tell them what to do. They have the answers they need within them.
I add the most value not through what I say, but by listening to what my clients say, and reflecting back to them what I hear.
This type of reflection is how we can hear ourselves think, how we hear our best ideas and deepest wisdom.
Maybe it’s time to develop a listening plan instead of a content plan.