How I Make Money With The Knowledge Gap
And you can too
What is the knowledge gap?
I developed this concept to help people understand the power of learning: every time you learn or achieve something new, you create a knowledge gap, as you are one step ahead of someone else. No matter how small, we all create knowledge gaps throughout our life, with our accumulated experiences. The more we learn, the bigger the gap.
The knowledge gap has value
My theory confronts the old paradigm that you need to be a subject matter expert in order to monetize your learning.
There are always people who are ahead of you in the journey and have more expertise and credentials, but there are also people who are a few steps behind you and see value in your knowledge and experience. They would like to learn what you know, follow the method you used and bridge the knowledge gap. That value can be monetised, because anything that has a perceived value can become a utility.
It’s Keynes law of market: demand creates its own supply.
The knowledge gap in action
Here are some examples of how I monetize the knowledge gap:
- Personal branding: 8 months ago I started my journey of creating digital content and building my own brand on LinkedIn. Although it’s early days, I have gained 5,000 followers and I write articles about personal brand on Medium that target newbies and generate a small but growing revenue.
- Becoming a freelance: after 18 years of corporate life, I became a freelancer and started to build different streams of income. Knowing that many people want to reinvent themselves, I wrote a concise actionable ebook called The Lemon Tree Mindset: 19 lessons to reinvent yourself. I broke down the process I used to draw a new path so that anyone interested in starting the solopreneur journey can replicate my method. The book is now on Amazon Kindle generating a passive income.
- Business know-how: having worked in retail leadership for 10 years in Asia, I didn’t want that knowledge to go to waste as many businesses see value in the hands-on experience books can’t teach. I listed myself as an expert-on-demand for consultants like Atheneum and GLG and I get paid per hour on ad-hoc consultations related to my area of expertise.
- Self-improvement: the past year has been a period of transformation for myself. I ditched the corporate world, started writing, became a public speaker and I’m just getting started. Many people feel trapped in their current life and are looking for change too. I launched a newsletter on Substack as a hub where I share everything I do, from my tips on writing and publishing, to my knowledge on Medium and LinkedIn. Although I just started it, I already have some paid subscribers and hopefully the base will grow as I continue to develop it.
What is your knowledge gap?
We all know more than we think and we have the power to create the knowledge gap ourselves. If you are passionate about a topic, learn more about it, build expertise, gain more experience and broaden the gap. The bigger the gap, the bigger the money, it’s that simple.
Above are just a few examples that work for me but we all have the potential to monetize our knowledge:
If you are a parent, you can write short stories about raising children.
If you just started exercising and losing weight, you can write a blog to journal your progress and motivate others.
If you love drawing, you can publish your sketches online and sell them on marketplaces like Pinterest.
If you are studying a new topic, you can write weekly articles on your newsletter about your learning and tips.
The only rule is to be transparent about your knowledge, so that you don’t overpromise and under-deliver. I can’t promise you I can teach you how to be a best-seller on Amazon because I am not one (yet!) but I can definitely share how I published my first ebook with a detailed step by step. Be honest about your journey and people will relate.
Key take-aways
- You know more than you think: identify the knowledge gap.
2. You don’t need to be an expert to start monetizing your learning and experiences, you just need to be 1 step ahead of somebody else.
3. Every new step helps broadening the knowledge gap.
4. The bigger the knowledge gap, the bigger the prize.
Are you ready to take 1 step?
“I write to right” — Veronica Llorca-Smith
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If you want to build a personal brand effectively and start your freelance journey, check out my ebook on Amazon. Click below to read the first chapter for free:
