Are you a Maven?

Someone CC’d me on an email a few weeks ago where they were introducing me to an acquaintence. He said I was a maven. A what, I thought?

Wikipedia says: “A maven (also mavin) is a trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others. The word maven comes from the Hebrew, via Yiddish, and means one who understands, based on an accumulation of knowledge.”

Oh! Nice. Actually I had come across the term in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point, but somehow I’d lost its full meaning: I’d stopped at the “trusted expert” bit, and completely forgotten about the “passing knowledge on” bit. 

This has really got me thinking: what am I passing on, and to whom? 

And with my business hat on - am I passing it on with or without a fee? Am I passing on too much? Too little?

Which bits of knowledge do you pass on freely, and which bits are worth charging for? 

If you don’t charge for it, it probably won’t be valued. Worst of all, if I don’t charge for it, I won’t value it, and then I’ll just give it away, and the recipient probably won’t value it as much (as if they had paid for it). It’s a fine balance between the two options.

You’re an expert in something - maybe many things. Are you a trusted expert? How do you develop that trust? And lastly, on what basis do you pass on your expertise?