Question: How can content ICs and leaders accelerate their professional development? I've been interviewing a bunch of successful content leaders recently and something that struck me is that they all thought about professional development. One built what she called a "Personal Board of Advisors," which is basically 6-10 people who help/advise/hold you to account. Another kept taking community college courses, adding general business acumen and even contract law. A third pitched "skill swaps" with other specialists. She taught them to write better and they taught her the fundamentals of demand gen/product marketing/etc. It's something I'm thinking about for myself so I'm curious what's worked for everyone else.

The advice I got was to specialize and then "create in public" around that specialization. The reason I was given is that it would be easier to land higher status roles as my "personal brand" would open doors and make it easier for people to recommend me for specific use-cases. I just moved from an IC to a strategic role a few months ago, and now I'm figuring out how to specialize again, because it's a lot easier to choose what courses to take/books to read when you know where it's all heading

Freelancing on the side really accelerated my career growth. By freelance blog writing, I was able to see the content processes, style guides, SEO strategies, etc. of 10+ SaaS companies. You'd never be able to achieve that fully in house or at an agency—you'll always see one way of doing things. Also helped diversify what I was writing about, keeping my content creation skills fresh as I moved more into a management/strategy role in my full time work. I call it an education I get paid for 😅

Love this question, @fresh-battery-25735. Looking forward to the responses.