Michael Hyatt's Blog, page 179

Moving Beyond the Book and Actually Building Your Platform

With the publication of my new book last year, I introduced to you the importance of building a platform and shared a framework for doing so. It was an exciting time. The book hit the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestseller list.

More meaningful to me, I received thousands of e-mails and social media messages from readers who were inspired to start building their platform. Evidently, my book created the possibility and pointed the way.

But that was just the beginning …

This year I want to provide even more help to those who are truly committed to growing their platform and impacting the world. I can’t wait to share with you what we’ve created. We’ve been working hard for months on this project. We’re just about ready to unveil it.

But first, I thought I’d share some of the backstory behind what really happened in the early years of building my platform—and how it grew to the point it is today with over 350,000 monthly readers.

To do that, we’ve created a three-part video series called, “Behind the Platform.” I really think it will inspire you. Best of all, it’s free! If you like it, you can opt-in to receive the other two videos. You are also welcome to share them with your friends.

In this first video, I talk about:

My early days in publishing and my love affair with books
How I accidentally started blogging and why the initial days didn’t look very promising
What it was like to become the CEO of Thomas Nelson in 2005
My secret struggle with fear and self-doubt
The triple tsunami that threatened to tank my company—and our industry
How these very obstacles become the catalyst for changes we needed to make
How they also setup the career move I had always dreamed of making
A showdown with my board and a choice I needed to make
What really motivated me then—and what still motivates me today
And more …

As I said, you can watch the first video for free. (The other two are free too; you just have to opt-in.)

By the way, I usually ask you to comment here—and you can if you want. But I’d be grateful if you would leave me a comment under the video when you click over to watch it. Thanks.

Finally, I want to thank the team that has made the dream of Platform University come alive:

Stu McLaren, co-founder of WishList Member. He’s the one who had the original vision for this project, created the team, and overseen every aspect of the creative development.
Dean Rainey, who was our producer/director for the videos in this project. He is a master story-teller with a long pedigree of big league experience.
Megan Miller, my oldest daughter and the project manager on my side. She has handled the thousands of administrative details that a project like this requires.
Others also contributed, notably, Che Wai Wong, our cinematographer; John Morris, our web developer, and James Dalman, our designer, and last but not least, my managers, Joy Groblebe and Brian Scheer.

Thanks, guys! I love working with you.

How to Give Yourself an Edge in Making 2013 Your Best Year Ever

I first met Robert D. Smith in 1996. He was managing Andy Andrews, a comedian who would eventually become the author of several New York Times bestselling books.

If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here.

I was immediately taken by Robert’s enthusiasm and zest for life. It was contagious! I can honestly say I have never met anyone like him before or since.

Over the years Robert has become one of my closest friends. We have been involved in numerous business deals—most successful, a few not-so-successful. Regardless, my respect and love for him continues to grow.

What I have never revealed until now is that he is also one of my most important mentors. His words and life have inspired me to think bigger, push harder, and strive for excellence in everything I do.

Here are just ten of lessons I have learned from him.

You can never be too generous. Give to others—and then give some more!
The only difference between you and the people who accomplish great things is the way you think.
Always be asking yourself, “What is important now? What is next?”
Make today count. Live it like it is your last. Every minute matters.
Eat dessert first. Learn to celebrate life and then live out of that celebration.
Assume YOU are the problem. When you do, you quit becoming the victim and begin shaping the outcome.
Embrace rejection. Every no puts you one step closer to a yes.
You never really cross the finish line. Performing at a big show, publishing a book, or even getting a record deal isn’t the finish line. It’s the new starting line.
Life is not about finding yourself; it is about creating yourself.
Play full-out. Hold nothing in reserve.

The really cool thing is that Thomas Nelson has just published Robert’s first book. It is called, 20,000 Days and Counting: The Crash Course for Mastering Your Life Right Now. It is a distillation of everything he lives and teaches.

It’s a really short book—about a hundred pages. You can read it in less than an hour. But don’t be fooled by its size. It is packed with wisdom and inspiration. (As of this writing, the average review on Amazon is 4.8 stars—out of 57 customer reviews.)

Honestly, I can’t think of a better book to read during the first week of a new year. Do yourself a favor and buy it NOW. It will give you the edge you need to make 2013 your best year ever.

Here’s just one of the many quotes I highlighted:

Decisions you make right now can change your life forever. Literally forever. You do not choose to be born. You do not choose your parents. You do not choose the time period in which you live. You do not choose the country of your birth. You do not choose the circumstances of your upbringing. In most cases, you do not choose to die. You do not choose the time or conditions of your death.

Despite all the realms of this choicelessness, we do choose how we will live. May you have a glorious ending by beginning today.

Question: What one action can you take today to make 2013 a banner year? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

Do You Have a Personal Platform Plan for 2013?

A young man once asked a wise old woman, “When is the best time to plant an oak tree?” She answered: “Twenty years ago.” He then asked, “When is the second best time?” She answered, ”Today.”

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/

So it is with a platform.

It would have been great if you had started five or ten years ago. But if you haven’t, 2013 is the best time ever to launch yours or take it to the next level.Why? Four reasons:

You don’t need anyone’s permission. You don’t need to audition, submit an application, or wait for approval. You are in control of your own success.
The technology is easier to use than ever. Whether you want to write a blog, launch a podcast, or create your own video channel, the hardware and software make it simple to get started.
The pioneers have mapped the trail. You don’t have to figure it out on your own. You can build on the experience of others. Start with my book or Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s.
The cost is minimal. In most cases, you can get started for free or for a few dollars a month. The biggest investment will be your time. But even then, you can maximize your efficiency with the current tools available.

What you need more than anything is a Personal Platform Plan. Here’s how you can go about creating one.

Define your key platform components. In my book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, I provide a social media framework that includes three major components:

Home Base: This is a place in the virtual world (or even the real one) that you own and control. It is where people can find you and connect with you and your content.

This could include a blog, a podcast, or a video show. It could also include a retail store, a conference you host, or some other real-world location. In my case, my home base is comprised of my blog, my podcast, and my conferences.

What is your home base? If you are just getting started, focus on one. Make it successful before you launch another. (Remember the old Chinese proverb: “Man who chases two rabbits catches neither.”)
Embassies: These are places you don’t own or control but where you have a consistent presence. These are places of outreach. The goal is to represent your home base(s) well and drive traffic back to it.

These include places like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media networks. They might also include a syndicated television or radio show. (If you own the show, it is a home base. If you don’t own it, it is an embassy.) In my case, Twitter and Facebook are my primary embassies.

What are your embassies? You don’t have to be everywhere; instead, you need to be strategic. Start with a few embassies and serve the people well who give you permission to speak into their lives.
Outposts: These are places you don’t own or control and don’t have a consistent presence. You show up infrequently. These are also places of outreach but exploration too. Like embassies, the goal is to drive traffic back to your home base.

These could include writing guest posts or being interviewed on someone else’s podcast. They might also include traditional media appearances or even your speaking engagements. In my case, my outposts include everything I have mentioned except writing guest posts.

What are your go-to outposts? Again, you don’t have to be involved in everything. Pick a few frontiers to explore. Use them to build your home base.


Determine what happened in 2012. Now that you have identified your platform components, take some time to assess what happened this past year. If you have a blog, I’d focus on collecting the following information:

Traffic: How many unique visitors did you attract for the whole year? How did this compare to 2011? What was your rate of growth? (You could do this with pageviews if you prefer.)
Subscribers: How many new subscribers did you add for the whole year? (I include both e-mail and RSS.) How did this compare with 2011? What was your rate of growth?
Engagement: What were the total number of comments you received for the whole year? How did this compare to 2011? What was the rate of growth?
Posts: How many new posts did you write for the whole year? How did this compare to 2011? Did you post more or less?
Popularity: What were your top ten most popular posts for the whole year? How did this compare to 2011? Did you see any shift in the kinds of posts that were popular?

If you have a podcast, you can focus on total downloads rather than traffic. If you have some other kind of home base, determine the appropriate metrics then analyze them.
Decide what you want to have happen in 2013. This is where it starts to get fun—but only if you have a plan and decide to make something different happen this next year.

What you really need is a set of platform action plans. These are simply one-page summaries of what you intend to do with your platform components. Mine include four elements:

Goal: Informed by what happened this year, set your goal for next. Make sure you write it down. Make it S.M.A.R.T. For example, I have a new goal for e-mail subscribers:
Increase my e-mail subscribers by 50 percent by 12/31/2013.

Strategy: Once you have the goal, determine your strategy. This is how you will accomplish your goal. For example, my strategy for the above goal is this:
I will offer a new e-book as an incentive for those who sign-up.

This is the same strategy I used to go from 2,771 e-mail subscribers to more than 70,000.
Rationale: This is where you answer the question, Why? What is at stake in accomplishing this goal? Why is it important? For example, my rationale for the above goals is this:
My e-mail newsletter list is the driving force of my entire platform. It allows me to connect with my biggest fans in the most intimate way possible.

Next Step: I don’t map our all the tasks that will be necessary to accomplish the goal. You can do this if you want; it just doesn’t work that well for me.

Instead, I simply identify the first step necessary to move me toward my goal. (As I think of others, I will add them to the project in Nozbe, but for right now, I just focus on the next step I need to take.)

For example, my next step with the above goal is this:

Identify the topic I want to write about in the e-book.

I have about five possibilities, and I need to narrow it down to the best one.

This exercise doesn’t have to take that long. You can do the whole thing in a couple of hours. Just make sure you avoid the temptation to get too complex or create too many plans.

Question: What are some of your platform goals for 2013? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

How a Quick Analysis of Your Top Posts Can Improve Your Blogging Results Next Year

Now is a good time to review your previous year’s blogging results and see what you can learn. I just went through this exercise today and thought I’d share what I learned. Hopefully, it will encourage you to do a similar assessment.

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/courtneyk

Here are my top 10 posts for the year, along with the number of page views they generated:



How to Setup Google Calendar on Your iPhone (206,004)
12 Ways to Get More Twitter Followers (139,014)
How to Organize Evernote for Maximum Efficiency (136,014)
Creating Your Personal Life Plan (118,060)
Fix for Wireless Connection Problems on MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and MacBook Airs (101,581)
The Beginner’s Guide to Twitter (98,680)
Why You Need a Platform to Succeed (89,913)
5 Reasons Why You Should Take a Nap Every Day (79,113)
How to Speed Up Your iPhone If It Starts Slowing Down (61,430)
How to Launch a Self-Hosted WordPress Blog in 20 Minutes or Less Screencast

Essentially, these statistics represent how well readers responded to my content. Each page view is a “vote.” If I am paying attention, I can learn what worked and want didn’t. This can tell me how I need to shift my emphasis for this next year.

For example, as I reviewed this list (along with my top 100), I came to three conclusions:

Practical technology posts are very popular with my audience. Productivity is also my most popular category. I plan to do more of these posts in 2013.
Platform-related posts—particularly regarding social media—are also popular. I am launching an entire new website about this in 2013. I can’t wait to tell you about it.
My Evernote posts are still a major overall traffic-driver. Six of my top 30 posts overall were related to this. I plan to update these in 2013, since my use of Evernote has evolved considerably since I wrote the original twelve posts.

While none of my leadership, personal development, or publishing posts showed up in the top 10, they still performed well overall. I will continue to write about these topics.

You can go through this same exercise on your own blog. You can get the stats in one of two ways:

Google Analytics:

Log into your Google Analytics account.
Select the appropriate website (if you have more than one).
Select Content | Site Content | All Pages.
Set the “Primary Dimension” to Page Title.


WordPress (self-hosted):

Make sure you have JetPack installed. (It’s free.)
Log into your WordPress Administration page.
Under the Dashboard, select “Site Stats.”
Now select “Top Posts & Pages.”
Select Summarize “Year.” (Be patient, this can take a while to tabulate, depending on the number of posts you have on your blog.)

It’s instructive to look at the top 10, you might also consider the top 100. This will help ensure you don’t draw the wrong conclusions based on a limited data set. With the data in hand, ask yourself, “What worked?” and “What didn’t?” Most importantly, what are you going to do differently next year?

Question: What were your top 10 posts of this past year? What conclusions can you draw from these? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

Whatever You Do, Don’t Quit

I stumbled onto this poem as I was browsing through my Evernote database. The source is unknown, though many claim to have written it. Regardless, I found in inspiring and thought you would too.

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/jordanchez

When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,

When the road you’re trudging seems all uphill,

When the funds are low and the debts are high,

And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,

When care is pressing you down a bit,

Rest, if you must, but don’t you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,

As every one of us sometimes learns,

And many a failure turns about,

When he might have won had he stuck it out;

Don’t give up though the pace seems slow—

You may succeed with another blow.

Often the goal is nearer than,

It seems to a faint and faltering man,

Often the struggler has given up,

When he might have captured the victor’s cup,

And he learned too late when the night slipped down,

How close he was to the golden crown.

Success is failure turned inside out—

The silver tint of the clouds of doubt,

And you never can tell how close you are,

It may be near when it seems so far,

So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit—

It’s when things seem worst that you must not quit.

Question: Was there a time when you wanted to quit but didn’t? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

Michael Hyatt Performing Some Christmas Music [Video]

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All kidding aside, may you and yours experience the joy and peace of Christmas!

An Invitation to Join the GetNoticed! for WordPress Beta Team

I’m pleased to announce that we are now moving into private beta for my new GetNoticed! WordPress Theme. When I announced this theme back in September, I never dreamed so many people would be interested.

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So far, 2,474 people have signed up to receive news and updates about the theme. Unfortunately, I have been woefully remiss in providing those updates. I am embarrassed to admit this is the first update since that original post.

Part of the issue is that I kept thinking we would be ready to move to beta testing “sometime this week or next.” (I can see you web developers smiling now.) Each week quietly slipped into the next, as we worked to add new features and squash the bugs we found.

We also saw a plethora of new devices introduced into the market this fall, including the iPad Mini. We wanted to make sure that the design was completely responsive and would render beautifully on every machine. When I realized that 30 percent of my own readers were viewing my blog on a mobile device, this became an even higher priority.

Andrew Buckman, my technical partner, has worked long nights and weekends to get us to this point, and I couldn’t be more excited with where we are today. The theme is packed with features, flexibility, and speed. I am running it live on this site now, so you can get a sense of what it can do.

(By the way, I benchmarked the load times against twelve popular blogs. As you may know, this is an important metric when it comes to Google’s analysis. GetNoticed! was faster than all but one, against which it tied. I expect our results to improve even further, once we optimize for speed.)

So here’s the plan. I am launching the formal beta application process today. You can signup here if you want to be considered. Andrew and I will review the applications starting on Wednesday, December 26th.

We will only pick a handful of testers for this first round, so don’t be discouraged if you aren’t selected. We want to make sure everything is working before we roll it out further. We don’t want the number of support requests to exceed our personal bandwidth.

I will notify those who have been selected on January 1st. (If you don’t hear from me on that day, you can assume you weren’t selected.) We will provide you with instructions on what to do next, along with a link to a user forum where you can ask questions and report problems.

In the meantime, we will be building out a dedicated website for the theme, writing the documentation, and determining the launch strategy.

If you want a list of the features the theme will include, you can read my original post. We’ve added a few items since then, but I’ll save that for another update.

Please note: this is not a child theme. We built this from the ground up. However, developers will be able to build child themes on top of this one.

Having told you what I know, here’s what I don’t know:

The final pricing. We will likely have a tiered approach with both blogger and developer editions. If you have thoughts on this, please let me know in the comments.
The beta path. We will likely have several rounds of beta testing. Each time, we hope to widen the circle and bring new testers onboard. If you don’t get selected in the first round, don’t lose heart. However, I don’t know the timing of these at this point.
The ship date. If there’s one thing I have learned over the last few months, don’t announce something until you are ready to ship it. We have a target in mind, but we are not stating this publicly.

Clearly I have underestimated the amount of work this project would require. (This seems to be the case with almost anything significant I take on. I’m convinced it’s one of the reasons for my success.) But we’ve made real progress in the last few months, and we’ll be there before you know it.

Thanks in advance for your interest and patience. Andrew and I appreciate it.

Question: What questions do you have about the theme? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

The Art of Stress Free Productivity [Video]

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Ever since I read Getting Things Done by David Allen, I have been a fan and practitioner of his task management philosophy. However, I occasionally need a refresher. This 20-minute video provides just the ticket. (Thanks to Erik J. Fischer for recommending it.)

What Happens When the Unexpected Happens?

Sometimes you start with a plan and with the best of intentions—and then life happens. This is when you find out how you are truly doing.

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/animatedfunk

A week ago Friday, I took the men in my Mentoring Group on our year-end retreat. We had a great time on Friday evening, including catching up with one another around a beautiful campfire.

After I went to bed, I felt some itching but nothing too out of the ordinary. My skin is normally dry in the winter, so I didn’t think too much about it.

However, in the morning, I asked one of the guys from my cabin how he slept. “Not too well,” he reported. “I felt like bugs were crawling all over me.” One of the other guys overheard us and chimed in, “Me, too!”

Uh-oh, I thought. Could it be? No way!

“Let’s check out the beds,” I suggested, not really wanting to confront what I thought I’d find.

Sure enough, we found numerous bed bugs, some dead and some alive. We also found red streaks in the sheets—a tell-tale sign of bed bugs. (This is more than you want to know, but it is their blood infused fecal matter. I know, yuck!)

Though we were pretty grossed out, we reported the matter and began day two of our retreat. None of us seemed worse for the wear and the bugs appeared to be isolated to one cabin. We went on with our program.

When I got home that afternoon, I went through a rigorous cleaning procedure, throwing many items away and running others through the clothes washer on high heat. This is about the only way to kill them.

Nothing happened until Sunday, when the bites and welts started appearing on all the exposed parts of my skin. Fortunately, I had worn a long-sleeve t-shirt and pajama bottoms.

But my head, neck, hands, part of my arms, and ankles were exposed. My hands, in particular, looked like I had a bad case of measles. On Monday, I simply applied some cortisone and went about my duties.

On Tuesday, my friend Stu McClaren flew in with a video crew from Toronto to shoot some footage for a new project we plan to launch next year. (I can’t wait to tell you about it.)

I thought about canceling the shoot, but decided it would be too expensive. We worked hard all-day Wednesday and Thursday, including hosting a book signing on Thursday, so we could capture the footage for b-roll.

Meanwhile the bites were getting worse. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was having a severe allergic reaction to them. Over the course of the next three days, I ended up in UrgentCare (a kinder, gentler form of ER) three times.

They ended up giving me two shots of prednisone and a battery of medications to take besides, including antibiotics and Ativan to control the intense itching. The good news is that I turned the corner Sunday night. The welts are smaller and have disappeared on my face and neck. My hands are still pretty bad, but even they are improving.

The bad news is that I am operating at about 80 percent of capacity mentally, no doubt from the effects of the Ativan. I am tired, light-headed, and occasionally confused—not really a condition conducive to writing or podcasting.

My Dad

On top of this, my dad was rushed to the ER with a seizure on Tuesday morning. He is still in ICU here in Nashville. The doctors have still not confirmed a diagnosis.

He’s had a number of seizures while in the hospital, and they can’t seem to figure out what is causing them. He suffers from an old war injury to the head, so that might be it. They have ruled out a heart attack and a stroke. They are now trying to see if an infection, like meningitis, is the culprit.

It is disturbing to watch my dad in this condition. He is very confused and engaging in lots of erratic behavior. Gail, my sister, and my mom have taken turns watching him. I’ve been pretty much useless, because of the drugs.

New Office

And, last but not least, I am still moving into my new office, with all the disruption that affords. My stuff is kind of in both locations, and I am shuffling around and running errands trying to get everything I need in place.

As you can imagine, I am woefully behind. I will dig out, but it’s going to take a few days to perhaps a week. I have been pretty much given up on the idea of writing or podcasting this week, but we’ll see how it goes. (I didn’t intend to write this post, but I thought an explanation was in order.)

My Take Away

So in the midst of this, I don’t have any big life lessons, other than to lean into what I know to be true:

God loves me.
This too will pass.
Be grateful—if not for all things then in all things.
Do the next right thing.
Don’t push myself too hard.
Get plenty of rest.
Prayer matters.

Frankly, this is a good reminder for someone who likes to control his environment that you can’t always control everything. Sometimes life just happens, and you have to roll with it, right?

Question: When was the last time you experienced a season like this? How did you handle it? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

Innov48 2013 [Event]

I am looking forward to speaking at my friend, Dan Miller’s, conference for entrepreneurs and creatives. I am especially excited about my topic. I hope you will join us.









Date:
March 29, 2013


Time:
11:00-12:00 p.m.


Event:
Innov48 2013


Topic:
Finding Your Voice – Building Your Megaphone


Sponsor:
48 Days


Venue:
The Sanctuary


Location:
Franklin, TN


Public:
Public


Registration:
Click here to register.


More Info:
Click here for more information.