Last updated: 8-8-25
what about entertainment value?
I have previously discussed the difference between the intrinsic and extrinsic value of content. One is like a treasure chest, the other is like a treasure map.
So, here’s a question for you:
When it comes to providing value through your business’ content, where does entertainment value fit in?
I’d love to hear your thoughts!
the value of value
What makes something valuable?
If extrinsic value is the treasure map and intrinsic value is the treasure chest, then what exactly is the treasure we’re talking about?
As far as I can tell, there are broadly two conditions which make anything valuable: utility and desirability.
In keeping with our treasure analogy, we can think of the gold (useful) and jewels (desirable) of the classic pirate booty.
When it comes to content, this value roughly translates into knowledge (useful) and emotion (desirable).
While every good treasure hoard should have a mix of each, as a small business, remember that gold, which is an agent of exchange, makes its way back into the economy much faster than jewels, which are kept and possessed for their own sake.
At the same time, the desirability of jewels is exactly what makes them so costly in the first place.
when the content becomes the offering
As we saw yesterday, the value of our content generally comes in two forms: knowledge (utility) and emotion (desirability).
This is what the audience gains by spending time on our content.
At some point, however, you or the audience may decide that the value of your content is worth more than the in-built time-cost.
So what happens then?
Well, either you can ask them to spend actual money for your content, or they may decide to spend more time on it. What that looks like in practice will depend on the primary form of the value.
If the primary value is practical information, you may be able to productize your content into an e-learning course of some sort.
On the other hand, if you find you are primarily providing emotional value (i.e. entertainment), then a surplus of that value may look like virality—lots of people spending lots of time on your content—in which case there are many modern methods for monetizing such attention.1
But in the end, value is always subjective and the basic rules of economics still apply: the price of any offering is ultimately determined by what the buyer is willing to spend, be it money or time.
what business are you in?
There has been a trend online recently of service businesses posting process videos on social media as showcases of the work that they do.
Sometimes these videos are timelapses, day-in-the-life, or detailed technical explanations of how they solve unique problems they come across in the field.
As an example, I want to look briefly at a guy named Spencer who owns SB Mowing and SB Pressure Washing.
The content from these businesses has become extremely popular for the timelapse videos that Spencer posts of himself mowing overgrown lawns and cleaning dirty driveways free of charge. According to his website, he has over 50 million subscribers across the various social channels where his content is posted.
This channel is an excellent, if somewhat extreme, example of when the content becomes the offering.
In Spencer’s case, the entertainment value of watching his riding mower zip over tall brush or seeing the white cement be slowly revealed from under layers of muck has overflowed into an excess of time spent watching this process by people who don’t live anywhere near Spencer and would never hire him for his actual service.
But here’s the thing, the intrinsic emotional value of this content has become so great that Spencer is no longer in the lawn care or the pressure washing business.
Spencer is now in the entertainment business.1
So, when it comes to deciding the kind of value you hope to provide through your content, be sure to ask yourself: what business do I want to be in in the long run?
(this article has been compiled from messages sent in my newsletter)
