Let me ask you a question, if you were planning to meet with your financial advisor tomorrow, and he/she asked you to bring a list of top five assets, what would you bring along? Take a minute and write them down, did you do it? If not please do. Now, you probably wrote down your home, vacation property, bank accounts, IRA/401K or other retirement accounts, Stocks/Bonds, jewelry and other investments. Did you include your Content as Assets that you create as part of your business? If you did, that’s great! If you did not, why not? Don’t feel bad, most people don’t value their content as assets. My goal is to show you the potential value of your content so that you’ll not make this mistake in the future. If fact, I would assume that you might put them at the top of your list.
Let me start with the most important reason, every other asset you listed value is not under your control. Home value is based on comparable prices of homes in your area. Stock and Bond prices are controlled by the market. Similarly, retirement accounts with combinations of stocks and bonds are market driven. If you look at any other asset you have, you will probably find that you have no control its price.
You Control the Value of Your Content
Here is where your content as an asset wins. You have complete control of its price. I know you might say “but the market sets the price of my content”. That’s what a lot of people think, but it is a big, fat LIE. You set the price and then it is your job to convince a potential buyer of the value your content brings and why it is a bargain. If you offer a piece of your content at a certain price, and a prospect comes back offering to buy it at a lower price, YOU can either take it or walk away.
I recently heard someone during a presentation say “The most valuable thing that I have is what I know!” While I believe this, as a concept, to be true, knowledge does not have any value until you get it out of your brain and create content that you develop and deliver. There may come a time, in the distant future, that Dr. Spock’s Vulcan Mind-Merge becomes a reality, but until then, you have to get your ideas and content out of your brain and into some type of document or media.
You Choose How to Share Your Content
Once you have this content, you have the ability to publish it anywhere, anytime and in any medium. You can bundle it with other content and create a book that you can sell, create videos and webinars that you can sell. If you create a video of your webinar, you can offer it over and over and over, each time charging a new group of people who want to learn what you are doing. Doing these types of things is how your content becomes an asset.
If you would like to know more about this subject, I go into more detail in my new book “Spin Your Content into Gold” available on Amazon. In the book, you can take advantage of my bonus PDF where I describe all the tools and systems I use in my daily work.
In my next post, I will explain the importance of creating content and then spinning it into gold especially for your future.
If you have any comments or questions, leave me a comment below.