I don't know about you, but every now and then something I see in an email or posted on a website or on social media will get me really riled up.

Usually, it's when the author is just plain wrong. Like today when I read an email talking about how all marketing is becoming content marketing because of something Starbucks said (and missing the point that Starbucks were using the word content to mean traditional adverts, not what most people call content marketing).

Or the blog post that looked at the data on the best time to send emails and wrote off the fact that the highest opens and clicks were at weekends because “fewer emails get sent then” (yes – and that's exactly why you should send at weekends).

Sometimes I'll even reply to those emails or blog and social media posts to “correct them”. I can write a veritable essay in response to someone when I'm worked up!

And that's such a waste of time.

If you want to be seen as a leader in your field it should be you doing the publishing and having people respond to you – not you doing the responding.

In fact, if I took all the energy I've spent responding to other people's content I'm sure I could have written a couple of books by now. 

But for some reason, it's easier to respond than it is to initiate.

I'm getting better these days. I sometimes catch myself about to start writing a minor masterpiece in response to someone and think “hang on, maybe this would be better as an email I send out or a post of my own”.

I'm going to suggest you do the same. Rather than responding to things, initiate them. Use your energy in ways that are going to make you more prominent, not ones that are going to draw attention to others. 

(Even if it means you don't reply to my emails ;) )