Why Do You Work?

British comedian Jimmy Carr gave an amazing interview with Diary of a CEO host Steven Bartlett a few months back.

Jimmy recalls a story of a very successful man. Head of a business. A multi-millionaire. The man was unhappy because he had worked all the way through his son’s childhood. He hadn’t bonded with his son and built the kind of relationship he wanted.

He’d been away on business so long. I’m sure you have heard of the type.

The man went to see a psychiatrist and vowed to give up his job. And for five years. He said he was going to be at home with his kid. He would not do any more work and would focus on his son.

The man did it. And he was very happy. And the man had no regrets. He decided to live in that moment.

That man was John Lennon. That kid was Sean Lennon.

Jimmy goes on to say, no matter how important you think your job is, you aren’t John Lennon. I’m sure Lennon could have done great things musically in those five years, but look at the gift he created and gave to his son.

John Lennon made the decision to give up everything in business to spend time with his family.

No one knows for sure, but I bet John Lennon didn’t regret that decision, especially after his life was tragically cut short a few years later. I bet Sean believes this was the right decision as well.

Here’s the point. He didn’t put it off. Something was off. He was unhappy. He made the decision. He didn’t say he’d do it in a year, or after the next album, or after the next tour. He dropped everything to do something he believed was the most important.

How about you?

Maybe you’ll get to 10,000 subscribers and then you’ll make that decision to spend more time with your aging parents. Maybe you need that one more client, and then you’ll take that month off with your partner.

He did it. So can you.

Do this, will you? Go back to why you started what you’re doing now in the first place. What was, as Simon Sinek asks, your big why? Don’t lose sight of that.

I know I lost it for a while. I assume most people do. Forgetting why you are creating is really easy to do when you are in the middle of the journey. Take today to remind yourself why you are creating all that content? Why are you sending those emails? Why you are teaching and learning almost every minute of every day?

Maybe you are okay, but odds are, something is off.

Be John Lennon.

Three Paths to Publishing Your Book

As most of you know, I have published books three different ways over the past 15 years: through a traditional publisher, self-publishing and using a hybrid publisher. I go through each of the pros and cons in my latest article for The Tilt. If you are thinking about your next book adventure, check out the article here.

Choosing What Not to Do

Michael Porter said, “the essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” This quote has been on my mind lately.

It’s fall speaking season and I’ve been busy brushing up on some methodologies and case studies.

Over and over, I’m seeing the same issue. The most successful content creators put all their energy into one channel. At the start, it was just a blog, or just a series of videos, or just a podcast. Then, after many years of success, they begin to diversify the content offerings. Think MrBeast going all in on YouTube.

Now there's really something about building a loyal audience on one channel before giving them additional options. Hold that thought for one second. Just look at all the greatest media brands of all time. The New York Times, ESPN, Farm Journal. You get the idea. Each one of them started out by dominating through one channel.

In this case, a print newspaper, a cable television outlet, a trade magazine, before launching any additional channels. And I want you to think about this. What if you did one main channel and then diversified like these successful creators and publishers? Now, it's unclear how long it takes and how much and what kind of audience creates a tipping point, but there is overwhelming evidence that there's a standard formula that works.

NOTE: Before you question this, you don't have to exclusively publish on one channel, but you should have ONE main place where people go to get your content. Got it?

Now look at the latest content marketing research from CMI. The average company creates and delivers original content in dozens of different channels. Yet, of all the different channels and content, marketers only rate two at greater than 50 percent success rate (in-person events and webinars). Take that in for a minute. These marketers are spreading content all over the web and yet the vast majority are perceived as ineffective.

I think it's safe to assume that these less effective content marketers are not launching beloved brands. They are not developing loyal opt-in audiences by becoming the leading informational providers in their industries or becoming someone's favorite creator.

It makes no sense. These marketers feel like they are failing. And at the same time, they are publishing content everywhere. This means they are blogging, podcasting, creating webinars, producing reports, on Insta, TikTok, YouTube, creating in-person events, distributing a newsletter, and on and on and on. Everything in my gut and in the research tells me that this is the wrong strategy.

Now, what's the prescription?

Make decisions on what you are not going to do.

I’ve been doing some research on community colleges for an upcoming speech. On one site, they produce content on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Threads, Facebook, have a newsletter, do webinars and God know what else I couldn’t find.

At another one, they produce videos on YouTube, create regular programming on Instagram, and have a world-class newsletter.

Guess which one is outperforming?

Be honest with your analysis about what isn't working and start killing some stuff off. At the same time, reinvest and refocus your efforts into what you believe can make the most impact on your audience and customers.

The best strategy isn’t about saying yes to more, it’s saying no to as much as possible so we can focus on being the best in the few channels we publish to.

Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.

If you would like me to talk about something specific for next issue or ask me a question, just reply to this email.