You Are Never Too Naked

Chris Brogan always inspires me. He asks Blog-provoking questions and gives abundantly of his time and brain. So much so, that after a phone call he had today with a potential client they said that he shares so much information on his Blog that they wondered what more he could possibly offer should they hire him?

He tells the story on his Blog in the posting, Am I Too Naked.

The Blog posting title was inspired by the Shel Israel and Robert Scoble‘s book on Blogging called, Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers. As you can well imagine, the Blog posting has sparked an even better conversation in the comments sections that is well worth checking out, but I think there’s a bigger idea here that has not been addressed.

Everyone commenting (and this includes Chris and the individual who said this to him in the first place) seem to think that ideas, strategy and execution is based on the scarcity model. Meaning, they will get something that no one else is getting – and that it is also in limited supply. The more I have, the less my competition has.

This is not the case.

The new channel does not work on the scarcity model ("if you share everything on the Blog, what’s left for us?"). The more people Blog, share and connect, the more they learn and the more they can bring to the table. The more they see how others do it and what people think about, the more value they add. The more I Blog, the more I Podcast, the more I use Twitter or Facebook, the smarter and more strategic I am in meetings with our clients at Twist Image.

Scarcity is a fabrication most traditional businesses use to persuade their clients that they have something in a limited supply that their competitors do not.

It’s a lie when it comes to the new media – we have unlimited space for an unlimited amount of voices and ideas online.

So, to answer your question Chris Brogan, you can never be too naked. The more naked you are, the more you’re able to bring to those clients… even the ones who think you might have nothing more to offer.