In this podcast episode, I talk about my brand new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World (Nashville: Thomas Nelson).
Yesterday was the official publication date. I am celebrating this entire week with a special, AMAZING offer that I can’t wait to tell you about. If you can’t wait, you can find the offer here.
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Episode Outline
Four centuries ago, William Shakespeare said, “all the world’s a stage.” That is more true than ever before. If you have something to say or sell—whether it is a product, a service, a brand, or a cause—you are on stage.
The problem is that the stage is very crowded.
- More than one million new books were published last year. Amazon has more than 27 million in its online database.
- There are more than 164 million blogs in the world.
- There are thousands of radio and television shows.
- More video was uploaded to YouTube in the last 60 days than was produced by all three major networks in the first 60 years of their existence.
- This doesn’t even include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, apps, or games.
That’s why you need a platform.
What is a platform? It’s that thing you stand on to be heard. But it’s no longer made of wood or steel. Today, a platform is made of people: contacts, connections, customers, followers, fans.
As you may know, I have spent my entire career in the book publishing business. About ten years ago, I started noticing a disturbing trend: We kept turning away authors with good content. The reason? They didn’t have a platform.
Content was still king, but platform had become queen. Without both, it was difficult to get a publishing deal.
Then in 2004, I started blogging. I accidentally created a platform. You can see my traffic growth and the implications here. Here’s a chart that summarizes the numbers I shared in this episode:
You can assemble a powerful, personal platform with just five planks:
- Start with wow.
- Prepare to launch.
- Build your home base.
- Expand your reach.
- Engage your tribe.
These are the five parts of my book, which is divided into sixty short, practical chapters.
Listener Questions
- Question #1: Pilar Arsenec asked, “When you were first starting out, how did you personally discover or find your voice?”
- Question #2: Tor Constantino asked, “For a person who is just starting to build a platform, what do you think is the single most important thing to do?”
- Question #3: Mary DeMuth asked, “What are the top two to three things you would tell people to do to get the biggest return on investment?”
- Question #4: Dana Pittman asked, “How do you reinvent your platform if you want to go in a different direction?”
- Question #5: Marc Schelske asked, “How do you balance the time you spend building a platform vs. the time you spend creating content for books, speaking, etc.?
- Question #6: Dan Foster asked, “How long do you think it should take a person with a full-time job to get a platform up and runnning?”
- Question #7: Charles Stone, “What would you say to someone who struggles with self-confidence who wants to take the leap to build a platform?”
Next week, I we will continue our discussion of platform-building. If you have a question about this topic, please leave me a voice mail. I’d love to hear from you.
Special Announcements
- My new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, is now shipping. It has been endorsed by twenty-seven people, including Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, Dave Ramsey, John Maxwell, Tim Sanders—and a whole bunch more.
I have put together a special offer that includes SEVEN FREE BONUSES worth $375.98. To get this special bonus offer, all you will need to do is buy the book between now and May 25th. You can get the details here.
- I will be speaking at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo in New York City on June 5–7. I will be leading one of the “Super Sessions” on Thursday, June 7th, at 9:00 a.m. You can register here.
Episode Resources
I did not mention any additional resources in this episode.
Show Transcript
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