I'm going to answer a question almost every expert eventually asks when they start creating content. Are you ready for it? How much should I actually give away? What if I teach people too much?

What if my competitors copy me? What if customers learn how to do it themselves? And you want to know what my answer is? Probably more than you're comfortable with because most of what you're protecting isn't actually the reason people hire you. The information is already out there. You can learn how to

invest on YouTube. You can learn how to sell a house. You can learn how to replace a roof. You can learn how to run Facebook ads. And with AI, a lot of people are just kind of phoning it in, you know, letting AI do these things.

But at the end of the day, you can learn how to build a website or you can use AI to build a website. You can learn basic law and you can also learn cyber security. You probably, if you really wanted to, could learn how to split an atom. So, if information alone eliminated the need for experts, most

professional service industries would already be gone. But guess what? They're not. Because information is not expertise, and information is definitely not execution. Hey, what's going on? It is the Follow-Up Media podcast and this is our content machine series. I'm Christian Lee, CEO of Follow-Up Media.

What is Follow-Up Media? Follow-up Media is a full-ervice creative agency and studio infrastructure company. We handle our clients content creation, distribution, execution. We have four studios in the Atlanta area and expanding. But essentially, we are a fullervice agency and we handle

traditional marketing and we handle modern-day marketing in the attention economy. We're also an AI agency and a sonic branding agency. And you might go, "Okay, slow down. You guys are wearing a lot of hats." Yeah, we wear a lot of hats and we fill a lot of roles, but we don't do it by wearing multiple hats at

the same time. We actually have departments and divisions and we have the best of the best heading up those departments and divisions which is why we are able to you know be so broad in our services and in our delivery. But today we're going to talk about what you should teach, what you should protect,

why businesses hide way too much, and why your willingness to educate may actually become one of the greatest competitive advantages you have. You see, last episode we opened what I call the expertise vault. We talked about any industry, any business, the amount of unrecorded, undocumented content you

have within your company at your disposal at any given moment, at any given day. And we talked about all the valuable information trapped inside your company in your sales calls in your customer questions, objections, case studies, meetings, processes, successes, failures, also years of experience. And

we talked about documenting all of it. But once you start documenting it, another question immediately shows up. Okay, Christian, now what? How much of this do I actually put online? And that's legitimate, right? because you don't want to give away your secret sauce. Because if you spent 20 years

learning something, the idea of giving it away for free can kind of feel insane. You paid for that knowledge. Sometimes literally, sometimes through mistakes, sometimes through years of experience. So today, we're going to separate knowledge from competitive advantage because they are not the same

thing. So let me start by telling you something that's going to hurt your feelings. Most of your secret sauce can already be found on Google, YouTube videos, Reddit discussions, AI answers, books, podcasts. The locks fall off.

Businesses love the phrase secret sauce. Our proprietary process, our methodology, our unique approach, our system, and sometimes that really does exist. There are absolute trade secrets, proprietary technology. There are formulas, algorithms, pricing models, confidential data, and processes you

should protect. I'm not suggesting Coca-Cola publish the formula for their Coke products tomorrow. But for most service businesses, the thing you think is secret is probably not that secret.

Let's use marketing. Could I sit here and tell you how we think about YouTube? Absolutely. And we do. I can tell you that you need a clear thesis. I can tell you long- form content creates depth. I can also explain repurposing and I can teach you how to think about titles, thumbnails, retention, SEO,

distribution. You could take notes on every episode of the series. Does that mean tomorrow morning you suddenly have follow-up media? no. Because knowing what to do and being able to execute it consistently, two different things. Let's use a contractor. A contractor can explain exactly how a

kitchen remodel works. The demo, the electrical, plumbing, cabinetry, countertops, on and on and on and on. Does the homeowner now want to spend four months managing 15 subcontractors?

I mean, a resounding hell no, he doesn't. If anything, the homeowner now understands why the contractor charges what they charge. Education increased value. It didn't destroy it. A financial adviser. An adviser can explain diversification, asset allocation, risk, compounding, retirement planning,

trusts, all that. Does that mean the client suddenly wants to become their own portfolio manager? You guessed it, no. That's why they're talking to you in the first place.

Some might, most won't. Because knowing the concept and knowing how to apply it to your personal finances, two very different things. I could go into an attorney. I could go into it and give you examples of all those things. The answer is no. Because if they were interested in doing that, they'd already

be in school to do it and they probably wouldn't be having the conversation with you now. People go into certain industries and careers because they're interested in it. You can't know everything. So that's the paradox. The more clearly you explain what you do, the more valuable it can appear. I

literally could go through every industry. You could call one out and I could give you all of it. Nobody is going to want to become that. And I get this objection, but my competitors can copy me. They sure can copy your information. They cannot instantly copy 20 years of judgment, experience, market

volatility that you've been through, your upbringing, your experience of going through school, what you've seen, what you haven't. Information is transferable. Judgment is earned. Okay, that's your framework. Your secret sauce usually isn't the information. It's

knowing what to do with it. The secret sauce is not having your information. It's knowing what to do with it and then putting action behind that. Because you can know how to do something. That doesn't mean you're going to wake up in the morning and go and do it.

And that's the distinction between information and execution is where this entire conversation changes. Information used to be valuable because it was scarce. Now information is almost free.

We can go back 30 years. If you wanted expert information, you had limited options. Buy a book, hire an expert, take a class, call someone you know. Information kind of had friction. Today, you can ask a question into your phone and get 50 answers in seconds. AI takes it even further. So, the competitive

advantage of simply possessing information is absolutely disappearing. That doesn't mean expertise is disappearing. It means the value is moving up the chain. And that's the critical distinction. Let's say you want to lose weight. There is no shortage of information of some gym rat telling you

what he did or what he knows. And it doesn't have to be a gym rat. It could be a trainer. It could be a a wellness coach. It could be anybody who just eats right because everybody's got an opinion. You could have information for the next 10 years to consume. There's just no shortage of it. Eat better, move

more, sleep, manage calories, lift weights. You probably knew most of that already. Why do trainers still exist? Because execution is hard. And people self-motivating sometimes is even harder. Accountability matters.

Customization matters. Judgment matters. Now move that into business. You can search, how do I negotiate a commercial lease? There are guides everywhere. Does that make an experienced commercial real estate attorney worthless? Of course not. Because what happens when clause 7.3 just so happens to conflict with

clause 11? What happens when the landlord changes the economics? What happens when the market changes? And what happens when your particular deal has risk that the generic article never considered? That is where expertise lives. The internet can tell you what usually happens. Experts help you figure

out what should happen here. That's why businesses need to stop protecting basic information because it's like gold. Basic information has been commoditized. Judgment has not. Experience hasn't.

Context hasn't. And execution will never. Those are the things you sell. I'm going to put something on the screen. This is the expertise pyramid. Level one is information.

What is true? Level two is process. How is it generally done? Level three is judgment. Which option makes sense here? Level four, experience. What have we learned from doing this repeatedly? And level five, this is where wisdom comes in. What do we know that isn't obvious until you've lived through it? The lower

you are on this pyramid, the easier it is to copy. The higher you go, the more differentiated you become. Simple. The internet owns information. You own judgment. If your business advantage disappears because someone watched a 3minut video, you never had much of an advantage. So now we can

answer the real question. What should you actually give away? Here's the simplest rule I can give you. Give away the what. Give away the why. And be very generous with the how. What? Why? How.

There's an old marketing idea that says give away the what. You're gonna sell the how. I can say that I think that's outdated. Today, you should probably give away a significant amount of the howto. Because audiences are smarter.

They expect substance. If all your content says, "Here are five reasons cyber security matters. Call us to learn how." That's not really education. That's an advertisement pretending to educate. Show them something. Teach them. Walk them through the thinking. A real could explain exactly how they

prepare a listing. Photography, staging, pricing strategy, market analysis, openhouse strategy, the negotiation. Give it away. because the buyer still doesn't have your network, your judgment, your local market experience and your negotiation skills or your time. A financial adviser can explain

how diversification works. They can explain asset classes, risk. They can even explain how they think about rebalancing. The client still needs personalized analysis, execution, and monitoring, accountability, and judgment. At Follow-Up Media, I can tell you exactly how we think about content.

I can tell you how we structure shows, how we create clips, how we think about YouTube, and how we build content systems. That's easy. That doesn't eliminate the need for follow-up media.

It helps people understand what a good content system actually looks like. And I'll tell you, you go on any of these social platforms, the things that you look at frequently are constantly in your feed. And I get marketing companies that are I guess you would say competitors of ours in my feed every

time I opened up a platform like constantly. So I get to look at what other people are doing. There's a million people out there. But that doesn't mean they're going to execute like Follow-Up Media will. And I guarantee you they won't.

I'm confident in that. Just let us show you. Follow-up media, we will serve our clients better than they've ever been served in their life. in any service industry. Better than the HVAC repair guy, better than the car dealer, better than the car service, better than the painter in terms of

paying us for a service. The way we communicate, the way we deliver, the way we execute, the way we consult and advise, you get so much extra from us just for being a client.

And when they realize how much execution is involved, many of them conclude, I don't want to do all of this, right? I could tell my client all the things we're going to do for YouTube. Yeah, if they had six months and, you know, a ton of time, like they could learn it. They don't have to hire us. But are they

going to do it? Probably not, cuz I can't even get them to post a social media clip. I don't want to do all of this is what they're going to say. Exactly. Education creates informed customers. Informed customers often make better clients.

Here's a practical rule. teach principles, frameworks, common mistakes, questions to ask, how decisions are made, what good looks like, what shitty looks like, and what buyers should expect. Your philosophy. You want to protect your confidential client information, your trade secrets, your

proprietary code or formulas, sensitive pricing mechanics, legally protected information, internal security information, anything where disclosure creates genuine competitive or safety risk. Right? That's important. Teach people enough to recognize good work and educate them so they can point something

shitty and spot it before they go down the wrong road. then be the company that does the good work. It's that simple. But there's another reason people hesitate to teach.

They think teaching makes the customer less dependent on them. In many cases, the opposite happens. And I'm going to explain why. The more a customer understands your job, the more they often understand why it costs what it costs. People often assume transparency is going to hurt their pricing. I think

bad transparency can good education often does the opposite. Imagine somebody walks into the podcast studio, our podcast studio, and sees cameras, microphones, lights, and a table. They think you charge what for this? But then you explain audio engineering, camera matching, lighting, switching, recording

redundancy, editing, color correction, audio mastering, clipping, distribution, thumbnail design, YouTube optimization, file management, quality control. Now the price has context. Same price, different understanding. The customer sees a countertop then learns about templating, fabrication, material waste,

transport, installation, seam placement, reinforcement, finishing. Suddenly they understand why one quote is 4,000 and another is nine. It's that simple. Apply it to your industry. I could bore you with the same industries that I always reference, but it's the principles. If the customer thinks your work is simple,

that's a dangerous place to be because then they're not going to want to pay your price and maybe that customer is not right for you. But it's also the way you've educated them or lack thereof, right? If you just say, "We're going to come in here, we're going to remove that and uh it's going to be nine grand,"

they're going to go, "Well, you make it sound really easy. The details matter. The work matters. Every step, every variable, every potential challenge you run into is all en wrapped up into that price. Teach enough for them to understand the difference between cheap and valuable. That is how you win. And

here's an objection, but won't educated customers challenge us more? Yes. Good. The right customers should ask better questions. Better questions create better relationships.

Mystery doesn't always increase value. And sometimes mystery just makes your price look expensive. And this brings us to competitors because this is usually where somebody says, "Fine, I'll teach customers, but I'm not teaching my competition." And let's talk about that.

You're right. Your competitors can watch your content and they can copy your ideas, your website content, your text. And I still think you should publish. This fear is real. You publish a framework. Your competitor watches it.

You explain a strategy. Someone copies the language, runs it through AI, tries to tweak it to make it their own. You launch a concept and two months later, somebody else is talking about it, maybe with a stronger marketing push than you.

Welcome to business. If something works, it gets copied. The question is whether copying the visible part gives them the actual advantage. And I'm going to tell you, usually it doesn't. Because someone can copy a restaurant recipe.

Can they recreate the restaurant if they have the ability to the financial funding, the actual motivation to execute the team? Can your competitors recreate your sales team? I mean, maybe.

I mean, they could try to maybe poach them. Someone can copy your website in about two seconds with AI, but can they recreate your reputation, your Google reviews? Someone can watch this entire series. Can they recreate years of building studios, producing clients, handling clients, making mistakes,

learning what works, hiring teams, fixing disasters, and doing it repeatedly? Probably not. And if they can, good for you. Because guess what? This world is big enough, especially in my industry. There are enough people that need us. There's room for more. And I welcome that competitive edge because

without competition, clients and customers wouldn't know good from bad, right? And sometimes I got to deal with that. Sometimes they've been burned so many times that, you know, even in the meeting they're thinking, "Okay, expectations are low here. We're probably going to get somebody that

starts strong out the gate and then it's going to start trailing off. Communication trails off, deliverables trail off." Okay, but then once we deliver and they're like, "Wow, this is a whole another level than what I've ever experienced before." Differentiator.

They can't copy how you get there. They can copy the answer. They can copy the road map. They're they can't copy our evolution, our leveling up, our journey as a company, as a person, whatever. And something else is going to happen when you're the one consistently teaching.

You become associated with the idea. And that matters. The market tends to remember the person who teaches consistently, not every person who repeats it afterward. So the risk of hiding may actually be greater than the risk of copying. Because while you protect your ideas, somebody else is

educating your customers. And whoever educates the market, it often gets positioned as the authority. I could go through the real world examples industry by industry. I'm just not even going to do it because let that last few sentences sink in. It matters. Your biggest risk isn't that the competitors

steal your ideas. It's that they steal your audience while you keep your ideas hidden because you think you have a secret sauce or you think you have a secret that you don't want others to copy.

And in that time of you sitting there holding on to something, guess what? Now you've lost competitive edge. You've lost customers and someone else has gained traction. And once you stop worrying so much about your competitors, you can start thinking about the audience that actually is going to

matter. And that's your future customer and your current customers. One of the best things your content can do is teach your customers how to evaluate companies like yours, like us.

Very simple. This is one of my favorite forms of thought leadership. And I'm not a big fan of the word thought leadership, even though I find myself saying it because it's like it's just it's kind of an easy description to kind of, you know, you're an exper you're a leader, right? Whatever. Teach the

customer how to judge your industry. Teach them what the scams are, the the downside of of contractors or people in your industry so they won't make a bad decision that cost them time, money, leverage, etc. Teach the customer how to judge your industry, not just why you're great. Tell them what questions they

should ask every provider. Tell them red flags to watch for. Tell them what cheap providers leave out. and tell them what quality will actually look like. And then you can tell them how pricing works, how the timeline and what is realistic. Tell them what promises should make them suspicious.

Because something interesting happens. You educate the customer and they use your criteria to evaluate everyone else, including you. Does that sound risky? It isn't. If you're actually good, if you actually stand by your product, your service, your deliverables. Imagine you're a contractor and you tell

homeowners, "Here are seven questions you should ask before hiring anyone. Insurance, permits, change orders, timeline, subcontractors, warranty, references. Now, every competitor gets evaluated against your framework. Five questions to ask anyone before trusting them with your retirement. six questions

to ask an attorney before you sign a representation agreement. These are all moments that separate you because most people won't do that. Most companies won't do that. The highest level of marketing isn't telling customers why you're better. It's teaching them how to recognize what's better. What's true,

what's false. Without false information, you wouldn't be able to recognize true information. If your content only contains facts, AI will replace you. That's a fact. 10,00 is now abundant. As I've said, opinion is scarce. That's becoming incredibly important because if all your content

does is define things, explain basic concepts, repeat information, anybody can get online from anywhere. You are useful, but you're not necessarily memorable. Being a leader requires judgment. This is what I believe. This is what I've learned. This is where our industry gets it wrong. This is what I

do. This is what I wouldn't do. That is what makes the content yours. If you take real estate, staging can help sell homes. Fine. Thought leadership. Most sellers overstage homes because they decorate for themselves instead of removing friction for buyers. Now we have a

viewpoint. Right? Now there's a lens. All right. And here's an objection. But what if people disagree? Good. Thought leadership without disagreement is usually just information. You don't need controversy for the sake of controversy. But you do

need a point of view. If everything you say is universally agreeable, you probably aren't saying very much and people are not going to really hold value to what you're saying. And that brings us to the final question. Okay, how do you know where the line is?

When have you taught enough? Those are good questions. And here's the line I want you to remember. Give away the map. Sell the guide. Give away the map. and you sell the guide.

Very simple. I love when you think about maps and road maps and I use it, you know, all the time with clients. If we bring this back to episode 7, you open the vault, right? All your content. You started documenting questions, processes, stories, mistakes, experiences, and now you're asking how

much do I share? My answer, share enough to make them smarter. Share enough to remove confusion. And you want to share enough to demonstrate judgment. Share enough to define what good looks like. That is being generous, right?

Share enough to help someone who may never hire you. Because generosity builds trust. And it's not all about get them in, get their money, right? Remember what people actually pay for.

They're going to pay for speed, execution, communication, judgment, personalization, accountability, access. They pay for someone who has already made the mistakes. The map might tell you how to climb Everest. You still probably would want a guide. A YouTube video can explain a legal process.

You're probably going to still want an attorney. A podcast can teach investing. You're going to want to pay for an advisor. A video can teach you how to build your own studio. That doesn't mean you're going to take the time week after week with your family life, your work life, and build a studio. You may still

hire follow-up media because you want it engineered, designed, installed, tested, and working without spending 6 months walking through mistakes. That is the distinction. Content is not supposed to eliminate your value. It's supposed to reveal it. And if educating your customers makes them realize they

don't need you, maybe they were never the right customer. And that's okay, too. But you still offered information and it still helped. And that could get a referral. Great content qualifies. It doesn't just attract. It creates informed buyers. And informed buyers are often your best clients. Stop hiding the

expertise that makes you valuable. Open your vault. Teach, educate, and give people the map. Then build a company worth hiring to guide them through the journey.

Super simple. Thanks for listening to the Follow-Up Media Podcast. This is The Content Machine, episode 8. Hit subscribe, hit notify, join the community, leave us a comment, ask a question. All our information is in the episode description.