Sharing is Caring (and It’s Great for Your Business)

Gatekeeping isn’t a business strategy. Thought leadership is.

In many industries, there’s a lingering belief that keeping your knowledge under lock and key is the best way to stay competitive. While protecting trade secrets makes sense, gatekeeping every piece of information might actually be holding your business back.

Sharing knowledge ✨strategically and generously✨ isn’t just about being helpful, it’s about positioning yourself as an expert in your field. Done right, it can also grow your business in ways you might not expect.

Have you ever noticed how some of the most respected experts in any field are often the most generous with their knowledge? They’re not doing it out of boredom or pure altruism, they share because it builds trust, credibility, and a reputation that opens doors to many opportunities.

Take Seth Godin’s Seth’s Blog, for example. His blog has become a go-to source for many marketing professionals. Each post distills years of experience, and his sharing made him a trusted voice in the field.

Gary Vaynerchuk’s blog is another great example. He has spent years documenting his entrepreneurial journey, openly sharing both wins and failures and turning that transparency into a business strategy. That consistency helped grow VaynerMedia into a global agency, led to five bestselling business books, and even played a role in the rise of NFTs with VeeFriends, which has generated over $300 million in sales. His approach proves that sharing isn’t a weakness. It builds credibility, trust, and a following that actively engages with and invests in what you do.

There’s all sorts of sharing that can be a win-win situation for all. It’s not only personal brands but whole companies as well. Let’s take one of our favourite media outlets as another example. Besides great journalism and opinion pieces, Raconteur also publishes reports. They are always amazingly well-designed (shout out to their graphic designer) and, of course, packed with tons of insights and high-quality research & data. It’s an obvious win for us, as readers, but how does it help the company itself? Well, you can collab with Raconteur and become a partner or a sponsor for their next reports.

HubSpot is obviously well known for their free ebooks, templates, or free courses (also ones with certificates). I see it as teasers they use to create community, share knowledge & positive brand impact, and engage more people with their platform. This surely helps them grow the actual client base as well (and also helps with cross-promoting the platform on all their social channels!)

When our team at Maneuvre wrote The Ultimate Founder’s Guide to PR, we shared the same actionable advice we give to our clients: frameworks, strategies, and insider tips that some agencies might consider “too valuable” to make public. We are not really worried about making Maneuvre redundant. Instead, we saw it as a chance to show the world why our agency excels at what we do.

And guess what? We didn’t lose any clients. In fact, it helped us connect with new ones who discovered our work through the book and reached out with some additional questions.

It turned out that sharing wasn’t a risk but an advantage. And it’s one more businesses should take.

Next time you hesitate to share an insight or tip, consider this: withholding knowledge might protect you from competitors in the short term, but it can also prevent you from being recognised as the go-to expert in your field.

When you share, you’re not giving away the crown jewels, you’re showing the world you know where they are.

So, what have you done lately? And what impact did it make?

Think about it. After years of experience, you have probably collected plenty of valuable knowledge that could genuinely help others. Sharing it not only highlights your expertise but also shows you’re confident enough to put your knowledge out there. It signals that you’re not afraid of being copied because your true value lies in the depth of your expertise and your ability to keep evolving.

If this resonates with you and you’re ready to start sharing, we have one last resource to recommend. HubSpot has an excellent guide on how to start a blog. It will walk you through the entire process, from choosing a niche and platform to creating engaging content and promoting your blog. It’s perfect for beginners and a great starting point to get your ideas out into the world.

And when you do, please let us know!