Before I semi-retired I specialized in email marketing. I helped clients create newsletter content plans that worked across all their marketing channels. I created their templates. I wrote content for them.

Then I made myself obsolete. I showed them how to handle it on their own.

Knowledge Is Power

There are two sides to this statement. One side says keep all your knowledge to yourself, so you can be essential and more in demand. This point of view is restrictive, based on fear and scarcity.

The other side says sharing your knowledge is more powerful. This point of view is expansive, based on trust and abundance.

You can guess which side I’m on. I believe knowledge is far more powerful when it can be used. When I can share some of my knowledge and help someone else be more successful, the net value of that knowledge increases.

Knowledge kept secret is about as useful as a fabric stash that is never used. That fabric is pretty on the shelf but has no other purpose. Take it out and make a quilt with it, and you have created so much more than just a pretty thing. You have something that can wrap a person with love and warmth.

Knowledge Has Value

The more you know, the more you can do. I became an expert in ezines because I was curious and interested. The more I knew, the more I wanted to learn. The more I knew, the more I was perceived as an expert. The more I was perceived as an expert, the more people asked me questions that I was able to answer.

Here’s the big takeaway. The more I shared, the more I learned! No matter how much I “gave away”, I always gained a little too. I gained a stronger understanding of how my knowledge could be used. I could see where people were likely to struggle – it wasn’t always where I had struggled! That gave me new opportunities.

Knowledge from an expert has a higher perceived value. An expert knows the right way AND the wrong way to do things. Knowing how to void pitfalls is definitely valuable!

Why Did I Share All That Information?

I think it is essential for a business owner to know how to do everything. Knowledge sets you up for more success later. A business owner who knows how every part of the business works can focus on the most important areas.

My clients were able to do their own newsletters for as long as it made sense for them to handle that marketing task. Once their businesses grew larger, they had a solid system that they could easily turn over to someone else. Plus, they had a clearly defined process that made it easy to get a new hire up to speed.

My willingness to show clients how to do their own ezines led to more success for me. As they became more successful, partly due to their awesome ezines, I was an obvious choice to take over their ezines – and other admin tasks.

Sharing my “how to” knowledge placed me firmly in the position of expert. Helping my clients – and even people who would never become clients – placed me front and center whenever they had an opportunity to share a referral.

Obsolescence is a Good Thing!

By teaching others to do the first stage work, I cleared the way for me to do the next stage. The people who feel they need to hoard or protect their knowledge miss out. They are less open to learning from non-experts. They miss out on essential perspectives. They eventually hit a ceiling once they have learned everything within their reach. Then they get stuck because they don’t know how to expand their reach.

How can you make yourself obsolete?

If you’re ready to move to a different stage of work, I encourage you to give this question some serious thought!