How to put your expertise in a box and sell it

At RISE Conf in Hong Kong, Gary Vaynerchuk was asked:

“How do you make a living off your passion?”

The answer from the marketing mogul was straightforward:

“Put it in a box and sell it.”

That is it. Everyone’s got some knowledge about some like, or a passion. You can share it or sell it.

All you need to do is package it.

Toolbox are the way to package your knowledge and sell it.

Below is a snap of why you would want to put together a toolbox.

• Firstly — what’s a toolbox?
• And secondly — what’s in it for you? In other words, why should you spend a sheer amount of time putting together a valuable set of information and/or tools to be shared for free.

What’s a toolbox?

If you type “toolbox” into DuckDuckGo (I care about privacy) you get this definition from Wikipedia:

A toolbox (also called toolkit, tool chest or workbox) is a box to organize, carry, and protect the owner’s tools. They could be used for trade, a hobby or DIY, and their content vary with the craft of the owner.

Er, kind of— at least we have some interesting keywords here: organize, tools, use for trade (i.e. buy/sell!), DIY (sounds right), and craft of the owner.

That kind of make senses but it is not quite what a startup toolbox is

So far, we’ve seen two kinds of toolbox in the startup space:

• Information toolbox
• Product & service toolbox

Information toolbox:

Those ones are covering startups ecosystems, like Singapore or Hong Kong, and about 50 other ecosystems. You can find resources such as macro data, influencers, investors, majors events and startups — useful to promote an ecosystems and its main players.

There are also the ones for you to get into a new field — such as crypto.

The definition could be something along these lines:

A set of information and resources to understand how an ecosystem work and what it is made of.

Product — or computing — toolbox:

Those are the coder’s toolbox type aggregating apps, Saas or commands for coders to build their own products or learn news skills/languages.

And that is definition from Oxford dictionary:

A set of software tools

Thanks for that, but what’s in it for me?

Below is what’s in it for you if you spend time putting together a toolbox:

• Build your credibility in that field — ecosystem expert, UX expert, etc.
• Become an influencer in that field — speak on panels, prepare a keynote leveraging on your toolbox’s content.
• Become the point of contact — Arnaud Bonzom with his Singapore startup ecosystem toolbox got over 150,000 views (V1&2) . If someone wants to know something about Singapore startup ecosystem, Bonzom will be the first person they think of. Fun fact: you might also become a toolbox influencer, 6 other decks have used Bonzom’s framework to publish other startup ecosystem toolbox.
• Generate leads (collect email addresses, and get direct inquiries) — you can have people to download your toolbox freely if you wish, you can also collect their email address for each download.
• Build your brand awareness — remember — Singapore’s ecosystem toolbox: over 150,000 views.
• Build a community around you, get people to engage conversation with you start a newsletter, a chat group.