How to Monetize Your Knowledge in 3 Simple Steps

The research is clear – teaching what you know to others is a proven way to learn faster, understand better, and sustain higher levels of momentum and motivation.

I see monetizing knowledge as a form of teaching, from developing courses to running events, creating lead magnets, and even posting your most basic ideas and thoughts on social media.

So, what's the easiest way to monetize the knowledge you’ve gained over the years?

It starts with the first step of reflection.

• How did you get where you are now?
• How did you overcome obstacles people might also face?
• What do people tend to ask you over and over about your area of expertise?
• What are some of your frustrations around the topics you know a lot about?

Think about these questions more deeply. This is where you get to decide what knowledge you’d like to monetize.

"I’ve coached lots of people with knowledge they didn’t even realize they had!"

Maybe you acquired your knowledge by accident. Asking these questions will help you uncover your best opportunities for knowledge you’ve acquired that people would pay to learn from you, especially the longer it took for you to acquire the knowledge yourself.

Take a previous client of mine, Kate, for instance. She’s a health coach who’s been eating the same breakfast for years. It took her a long time to find the perfect blend of convenience, nutritious, and tasty but she found it and kept making it so she could more easily stick to her own health goals.

People want to know these things!

Whether that’s how you grow your social media following and create awareness for a paid offer like Kate or share a paid offer like a pre-done meal plan that incorporates all of your best choices in one simple place.

This brings me to step two, which is to choose how to monetize your knowledge.

I’ve created something called the irresistible offers framework for clients that walks through these steps more specifically. Here's the gist of it:

• Start with the end in mind. What do they want to happen once they’ve acquired the same knowledge you’ll be sharing with them?
• Decide to sell direct or indirect. You may not want to add another offer to your current business model. So, maybe you partner with others to deliver an online course, get paid to add your expert opinions to a blog or community, or even develop a membership or events where people can get access to your knowledge regularly without too much effort!
• Optimize the delivery model. What platform will you use to fulfill orders? What will you charge for it? How long it will take people to see their ideal outcomes? How will you sell it? There's a lot to consider, each with its own learning curve.

Step three is deciding why you’re monetizing it, which is the most important step.

• Do you desire to change something or share a unique perspective?
• Are you being asked a lot of the same things repeatedly and see an opportunity to help more people by streamlining how you share your knowledge?
• Is there something that comes easily to you that others struggle to do?
• Are you simply trying to create additional streams of income?

To get closer to your why, complete this sentence:

“I’m excited to share my knowledge to help people achieve ______________ by ______________ because ______________.”

For me, this sounds like: “I’m excited to share my knowledge to help people close more sales and stop guessing where they'll meet their next customers.”

I’ve had clients with why’s like this:

“I’m excited to help more people heal their mind, body, and soul by becoming reiki masters so they never have to rely on others to connect to their own joy.”

“I’m excited to summarize all the research I do in my industry on a quarterly call to save people dozens of hours and bring them more clarity as I generate more income and authority in my industry.”

“I’m excited to support nonprofits with subscription-based graphic design services and help them reach more donors and share their mission in more spaces with confidence.”

“I’m excited to develop a course on leadership that I’ve perfected over 20+ years to help companies nurture people to grow from within their organization and grant more people opportunities to thrive in their work, while doubling my revenue.”

As you can see, there are many ways to monetize your knowledge.

The key is deciding what fits you and your brand. What comes naturally to you. What you enjoy. And, above all, what people want, find useful, and will happily pay for once they know about it.