This weekend I’m heading back to Miami University to see some close friends I’ve known for 35+ years. I’ll also get to see my son, who’s there now, so Oxford feels familiar in a whole new way. I’m also booking a via ferrata climbing trip in West Virginia because being outdoors and trying something new still sounds like a pretty great idea. Old friends. New adventures. Putting yourself out there a little. That’s pretty much the theme of this week’s Friday Finds.

Thanks for reading!

🎵 Today I'm listening to Tukka Yoot​
​(I'm currently addicted to this playlist!)

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Share What You Know. You Have No Idea Where It Might Lead.

Sharing what I know has taken me places I never expected to go—literally.

I’ve been invited to speak all over the US as well as in London, Belgium, Germany, and New Zealand. Along the way, I’ve met some of the smartest, kindest people I know and stumbled into opportunities I never could have planned.

None of that started with some brilliant career strategy.

It started with sharing something useful.

You Don’t Need to Be an Expert. You Need to Be Useful.

This is where a lot of smart people get stuck. They think they need to know everything before they have anything worth sharing.

You don’t.

Maybe you found a smarter way to run a stakeholder interview. Maybe you discovered a PowerPoint shortcut that saved you 20 minutes. Maybe something you tried completely bombed and taught you a lesson. Or maybe you read something that changed how you think about learning.

Share it.

Sharing has another benefit too: it sharpens your own thinking. The minute you have to explain an idea clearly enough for someone else to use it, fuzzy thinking gets exposed pretty quickly.

You Don’t Need a Stage

Standing in front of 200 strangers may sound less like professional development and more like a recurring nightmare.

Fair enough. Start somewhere else.

Write a LinkedIn post. Share a checklist. Put something useful on your website. Start a blog.

Or start a ridiculously simple newsletter.

I’ve created several newsletters where every issue contained one small tip. That’s it. No epic essays. No giant content machine. No pronouncements from Mount Expert.

Several grew well into the thousands of people who actually asked to receive those little tips.

Useful doesn’t have to be big.

You simply need something that can help someone else.

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Give Your Ideas a Chance to Bump Into People

Here’s where things get interesting.

Once you share an idea, someone else can find it. They can use it, build on it, start a conversation, or introduce you to someone you never would have met otherwise.

None of that can happen to an idea sitting quietly inside your head.

Marketing people might call that distribution.

I think of it as giving your ideas a chance to bump into people.

And sometimes those little collisions add up.

A post sparks a conversation. A conversation leads to an invitation. Someone you meet becomes a colleague, collaborator, or friend.

Occasionally, you wind up getting on a plane to somewhere you never imagined going.

You can’t plan all of that.

You can give it a chance to happen.

Start Ridiculously Small

Here’s my challenge:

Think of one thing you’ve learned recently that could help someone else.

Not your biggest idea. Not your most original idea.

Just something useful.

Then share it this week.

LinkedIn. Your website. An email. A newsletter. A conference proposal. Pick whatever feels doable.

The format matters a lot less than getting the idea out of your head and into the world.

The Bottom Line

You don’t need permission to share what you know, and you definitely don’t need to know everything.

If you’re learning, there’s a very good chance you know something that could help someone who’s a few steps behind you.

So share it.

And if you start a newsletter, blog, LinkedIn series, or anything else, send it my way. I genuinely want to read it.

If speaking sounds interesting but submitting a conference proposal feels intimidating, send me that too. I’m happy to kick around ideas, look at an abstract, or help you shape a session.

And if it eventually needs PowerPoint? Well, you’ve accidentally wandered into one of my favorite topics. 😄

That’s kind of the point.

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Go Deeper

Working Out Loud

John Stepper’s wonderfully simple idea: make your work visible, contribute something useful, and build relationships through generosity. It’s a great framework for understanding how small acts of sharing can lead to connections and opportunities.

Writing (And Reading) Conference Session Descriptions

Thinking about taking an idea to a conference? Clark Quinn covers the essentials: choosing the right topic, shaping something useful for the audience, and writing a proposal that gives organizers a reason to say yes.

Crafting a Standout Conference Proposal: Tips for DevLearn and Beyond — David Kelly

Kelly gets practical about what makes proposals stand out: solve a real problem, make the value obvious, promise useful takeaways, and show why your perspective belongs on the program.

📍Where I'll be next

• ​ATD Core4, ​
  Sept 29-Oct 1Indianapolis,IN
  ​
• ​Training 2027 Conference & Expo, ​
  February 22-24 Orlando, FL

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