Nerd Moments

I was chatting with someone the other day and I asked her what her plans for setting herself apart, considering the fact that she was starting out in an industry that's notoriously crowded (which, let's face it, most industries are).   She replied with something I don't hear very often-- she was confused and she asked me, "Isn't providing value enough?"   It's a valid question, and maybe 5 or 10 years ago I might have had a different answer. But here's the reality of what's happening now-- for the vast majority of us, providing value is NOT enough. Not anymore.   Oh, and for those of you who might not know what we mean by "providing value"-- that's just kind of a marketing buzzword for creating helpful content.   Creating and sharing helpful content is a great start, of course, but we have to be realistic about the fact that there are LOTS of people doing this all over the internet, and it's highly likely that lots of people are creating content that contains the exact same information you