Avoiding An Expiration Date

It’s fun to consult in a hot topic area—you’re constantly in demand, you can charge what the market will bear and there’s a real energy to it. The only downside? Eventually, the party will end.

On the other hand, you could dig yourself into a niche without an expiration date—where you can keep building your reputation and client base into infinity if you wish.

Jonathan and I dive into the pros and cons to each approach:

Evergreen expertise and content vs. those with an expiration date.

How to distinguish yourself with evergreen content—and why your voice and point of view are clear difference makers.

Avoiding the purist view that we absolutely have to invent something that’s never been thought of before—and what to do instead.

Side-stepping the eventual conversion of your hot market knowledge into a commodity—or worse (our sympathy to Flash developers).

The magic of moving up to a higher level topic that is relevant to your current audience—and how to do it.

Quotables

“Maybe you localize a topic about marketing or sales into the technology landscape that didn’t exist five years ago. If you’re careful about how you straddle that divide, you could still create very evergreen, but up to date content that stands the test of time.”—JS

“It’s really easy to say let’s go do evergreen content, but to distinguish yourself, you’ve got to really slice and dice it in such a way that you’ve got something new to say, or it’s new to a different audience.”—RM

“I’ve probably read 200 books on sales and marketing. It’s stuff that software developers would rather eat glass than read. So if I can bring that to them in a funny way, or a way that resonates with them, or using language that doesn’t repel them, then that’s super valuable.”—JS

“We can’t come from this purist view that we absolutely have to get something that’s never been thought of before.”—RM

“Some of these more evergreen topics are going to be like fundamental truths of human nature, human behavior.”—JS

“It’s a lot easier to get attention when you’ve got the newest sexiest whistle—everybody wants to go hear it.”—RM

“When you’re being cutting edge, you’re co-opting the hype that some product or technology has built up and you’re just strapped to that horse.—JS

“When your consulting is based on a new technology, over time more people are going to know what you know, so the price of your expertise goes down and eventually becomes commoditized.”—RM