A year or so ago, I learned about someone who ran a single-person business focused on farmers. I read up on the entrepreneur and listened to a few podcast interviews he gave. He was interesting to me because his business was massive, ~$20 million, from ~30,000 paid newsletter subscribers, and he’s a one-man band. I was impressed but figured I’d never be able to make use of what I’d just learned because I don’t know anyone in farming or agriculture.

This week I had a conversation with a team building an accounting platform for farmers. As we talked about marketing, I mentioned the newsletter entrepreneur. They weren’t familiar with him, so I gave them background info and my thoughts about how he could be an asset to their business and how attending any event he attended could pay dividends for them because his subscribers are exactly who their company is trying to reach. That information was helpful to the team and sparked new marketing ideas.

My takeaway is that I never know when something I’ve consumed will be of value to me or someone else down the road, so I should continue to follow my interests and consume content and read books about topics I’m interested in regardless of whether the value is clear at the time.