You Don’t Have to Recreate the Wheel: It Doesn’t Matter if “Someone Else Has Already Done It”
A client was recently talking to me about how hard/scary it was to create content because everything she wants to say is already out there on the internet.
And, she’s not wrong. The internet is full of information.
Which is great, but that means that I have to comb through all of that information to find what I’m looking for.
No small feat.
But, if someone I trust compiles all the information I need for me, I will happily pay for that because it saves me time! And the information being free elsewhere doesn't matter to me.
So, first of all, let’s be clear about what’s important here.
Whatever you’re thinking of doing, don’t worry about being original. You’re not.
I 100% guarantee that whatever you want to create has already been created.
And that’s okay.
People aren’t looking for something that’s completely new.
They’re looking for established things in your voice or organized from your perspective.
An easy way to sabotage ourselves is to think that we have to create something from scratch, but that's rarely the case.
Most of the time, whether you're creating a class, a product, or expanding your services, the point isn't to come up with a brand new thing all your own, but to assimilate and organize information from someone else.
That's actually what experts do.
Experts take information from a lot of different people and put it together in a way that creates a new understanding.
That's it.
Now, we can go into a whole copyright discussion here, and obviously if you need to give credit to someone, you give it. But for the most part, you don't need to recreate the wheel, and this bit from comedian Ismo illustrates this perfectly.
There is absolutely nothing in this video that is new to you and yet, I bet you’d be willing to pay to see him live because of how he presents this info.
You’re not paying for new information, you’re paying for his perspective.
He's not telling us anything we don’t already know.
There really isn't any new information here.
But, he's organized it and assimilated it in a way that creates a whole new understanding (and a fair amount of belly laughs) for us.
So, don't worry about coming up with a whole new thing, just keep learning what matters to you and your ideal clients and find your angle on it.
Figure out how you want to present it, and put it together in a way that makes sense to you.
Give credit where you need to, but happily accept payment and praise for your unique take on what already exists in the world.
