Why buy the cow when you get the milk for free?

Not the prettiest metaphor, but there’s a reason why it endures: business owners make their living selling goods and services. Why give away valuable professional insights through media interviews, especially if you are a consultant?

Because people want to taste the milk before they buy it, that’s why.

I recently gave away the ‘secret sauce’ to navigating the transition from staff to entrepreneurship that I present in a fee-based workshop on a regular basis at Chicago’s Women’s Business Development Center. And, of course, this advice is in my book, The Career Lattice. So why dish it to Minda Zetlin, a blogger for Inc. magazine’s website?

Because a little sip makes people thirsty for more. Just a couple of hours after the post went live, it was trending on the Inc.com home page as a ‘most shared.’  That’s how things go viral. In the short term, this sharing draws people back to my website,