Michael Hyatt's Blog, page 197

A Thank You to Our Veterans

Today is Memorial Day in the United States. It is a day we set aside to commemorate those who have died in the service of the military. It was first enacted to honor those in the Union Army who died in the American Civil War. After the first World War, it was expanded to include American casualties of any war or military action.

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/Malven

I have never had the privilege of serving in the military. However, I am profoundly grateful for those who have.

In the U.S., I fear we have come to take our national security for granted. The tragic events of 9/11 were a wake-up call. The fact we have not had another terrorist attack on U.S. soil is a testimony to the brave men and women who work tirelessly to protect our freedoms both here and around the world.

I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank a few of my family members who have served in the military. Not all of these were injured or killed in the line of duty, but all served with honor and distinction:

My Dad, Robert T. Hyatt, who served as a Marine in the Korean War. He was critically injured when a piece of shrapnel hit him in the head and nearly killed him. He received the Purple Heart. Amazingly, He was just eighteen-years-old when it happened. (He enlisted when he was seventeen.)
My father-in-law, Col. Sidney C. Bruce (deceased), who had a distinguished career in the Air Force. He served in both the European and Pacific theaters and then went on to serve in the Pentagon as the Secretary to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
My brother-in-law, Col. Philip W. Bruce (deceased), who also had a distinguished career in the Air Force. He graduated from the Air Force Academy. He then served in Vietnam and eventually became a highly-honored instructor at the Test Pilot School.

There are scores of others, including many, many friends who have served in the military. I am eternally grateful for their service and want to take this opportunity to honor them on this special day.

Question: Who would you like to thank? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

[image error]

5 Steps to Building Your Platform [Infographic]

I thought it would be cool to create an infographic for my new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. Thanks to Dave Whitlock of Principle Design for creating this for me. Click here to download the full-size PDF.

Feel free to share this graphic with others. There is code just below the image where you can easily embed it within your website or blog.

Include this on your website:

Question: What do you think of this infographic? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

[image error]

3 Reasons Why Faithful Is the New Radical

This is a guest post by Daniel Darling. He is the Senior Pastor of Gages Lake Bible Church in the northwest suburbs of Chicago and is the author of iFaith, Connecting with God in the 21st Century . You can read his blog or follow him on Twitter. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

If there is anything that marks my generation of leaders, it’s the desire to be “radical”—to violently overthrow old paradigms. We want to shake up the status quo in the church, in government, in business, in philanthropy. And this is good.

By and large millennial Christians want offer lives in service to God and others by offering new and creative solutions. This is good.

But if I could speak a word of caution, from one rabble-rouser to another, I would say that sometimes the most radical thing you can do with your life is to simply be faithful.

Yes, you heard that right. By consistently doing the same thing every single day you might be more radical than you think. I know that doesn’t sound very sexy, but it’s the stuff that gives weight to significant social movements.

1 Corinthians 4:2 says that God holds his people accountable, not for the big splashy things they’ve done, but for simple faithfulness:

In this regard, it is expected of managers that each one [of them] be found faithful. (1 Corinthians 4:2, HCSB)

So to my fellow young leader, here are three ways your faithfulness just might impact your world:

Your Personal Peace. Activists rarely like to sit down. There’s always one more report to write, one more blog post, one more conversation, one more educational opportunity. And yet a restless soul is an inefficient soul.

Jesus Christ, the only perfect person who ever lived, took time to daily cultivate his inner life. He rested. He prayed. He relaxed. And you are not better than Jesus.

Faithfully cultivating your inner life with God is the most important part of your mission. If you neglect this, you will burn out and your impact will be severely lessened.

The most effective change agents realize their mission is not theirs, but God’s and is fueled by His supernatural power.
Your Personal Presence. I once heard Chuck Swindoll say, “Leadership has more moments of the mundane than the magnificent.” The dirty secret of success is the ability to just show up. Day after day. Week after week. Year after year.

The world is full of people who show spurts of greatness only to yield to laziness or indifference.

Talented quitters are a dime a dozen, but people with marginal talent who commit to hard work in the day-to-day grind always stand out as radical.
Your Pleasant Personality. Determine to be the one guy at the airline ticket counter or the scene of the accident who doesn’t act like a jerk. Sure, we all hears stories of great men and women who fly off the handle and treat their employees like dirt. But those are historical anomalies.

Over time, a constant, even attitude of servanthood and humility will attract others to your cause. What’s more, if you can let go of yourself and see your life as just one spoke on God’s great wheel of Providence, you’ll realize the people around you are instruments of His grace. Yes, even the annoying and the incompetent and the rude.

The world is full of diners who snap at waiters, hacked off employees, and belligerent leaders. But a person of winsome, gracious love will, in the end, rise in influence and walk thru doors left shut by those who refuse to control their anger.

So you see how you can change the world? Starting your radical mission by being faithful where you are, to the people in your sphere of influence. It’s a myth that change agents are above the rules. No, if you look closely, they just more consistently apply the simple graces that form a life of deep impact.

Question: Where do you need to practice greater faithfulness? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

[image error]

Success Brings Its Own Set of Problems

I used to think, If I can achieve success, my problems will go away. The reality is that success creates a whole new set of problems.

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/VernonWiley

I have just been reminded of this with the launch of my new book. I don’t know how it will ultimately shake out, but the first three days have been very successful.

The book has been #4 or #5 on Amazon all week and as high as #5 on Barnes & Noble. The only thing tracking higher are the Shades of Grey novels. (Ugh.)

By almost any standard, the launch has been a success. It has certainly exceeded my expectations.

But it has also created some problems:

The special bonus offer has buried my assistant, Tricia, in e-mail from people who have problems or questions.
Thomas Nelson, my publisher, is running low on inventory, because they didn’t expect the book to do as well as it has. (Trust me, I sat on their side of the desk for years as a publisher, so I know how difficult it is to forecast demand.) Some retailers are showing it out of stock.
I have added so many people to my e-mail subscriber list that MailChimp shut me down yesterday. I had to pay several hundred dollars to upgrade my account to accommodate the additional volume.

Why am I sharing this? Because I don’t want you to become discouraged when you start succeeding.

Most of us accept the fact that failure brings problems. But sometimes we are surprised that success does too. As a result, it is easy for us to become ungrateful or cynical.

The truth is that problems are inevitable. They are good for us. They force us to stretch and grow.

Maybe we should welcome them … okay, maybe I’m going a little over-board.

Regardless, I much prefer the problems that come with success than the ones that come with failure—and I’ve had plenty of both! How about you?

Question: What success “problems” have you experienced? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

[image error]

#013: Building Your Platform, Part 1 [Podcast]

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.

Click to Listen

[image error]
Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in browser | Download

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

You can download a transcript of this episode here.

Subscription Links

If you have enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe:




iTunes

Zune

RSS

Your Feedback

I want to hear from you! Please leave me a voicemail with your question. I may use it on the next episode of my show. If you have an idea for a podcast you would like to see or a question about an upcoming episode, e-mail me.

Also, if you enjoyed the show, please rate it on iTunes and write a brief review. That would help tremendously in getting the word out! Thanks.

Question: What would a platform make possible for you? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

[image error]

The 140-Character Mission Statement

I have been reading Chris Guillebeau’s awesome new book, The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future. It is the most stimulating business book I have read since The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss.

Photo courtesy of ©iStockphoto.com/TommL

The book is not only practical, it is extremely inspirational. It’s for those who want to escape from corporate life, build something of their own to support their families, or just find a way to make more money.

I especially enjoyed his section on defining your mission statement. This nicely complements Chapter 11 of my new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, where I talk about how to create an elevator pitch.

Here’s what Chris says:

Let’s break down the planning process into a very simple exercise: defining the mission statement for your business (or your business idea) in 140 characters or less. 140 characters is the maximum amount of text for an update on Twitter and a good natural limit for narrowing down a concept.

It may help to think of the first two characteristics of any business: a product or service and the group of people who pay for it. Put the two together and you’ve got a mission statement:

We provide [product or service] for [customers].

Note that it’s usually better to highlight a core benefit of your business instead of a descriptive feature. Accordingly, you can revise the statement a bit to read like this:

We help [customers] do/achieve/other verb [primary benefit].

Focusing like this helps you avoid “corporate speak” and drill down to the real purpose of the business as it relates to your customers.

Here are a few examples:

If you have a dog-walking service, the feature is “I walk dogs.” The benefit is “I help busy owners feel at ease about their dogs when they’re not able to be with them.”
If you sell knitted hat patterns, the benefit is something like “I help people be creative by making a hat for themselves or someone close to them.”
If you make custom wedding stationery, you might say, “I help couples feel special about their big day by providing them with amazing invitations.”

Simple, straight-forward, and easy to implement. I’m sure this is one of the reasons the book has garnered so many five-star reviews (193) on Amazon. It is a book that is well-worth your time!

Question: How about you? What is the 140-character (or less) mission statement of your business idea? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

[image error]

7 Reasons to Buy My New Book Now

UPDATE: Sorry, this bonus offer has now expired!

Today, I am launching my new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World (Nashville: Thomas Nelson). To celebrate, I am giving away seven bonuses worth $375.98 to everyone who buys a copy this week and e-mails me the receipt. I’ll share the details in a moment.

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

I won’t spend time in this post telling you about the book. I have created an entire page for that purpose, complete with endorsements from 27 people who were kind enough to read it before publication, including Seth Godin, Chris Brogan, Dave Ramsey, John Maxwell, and many, many others.

In addition, more than one hundred people have posted reviews on the major online retailer sites. All of them (so far) are five-star. The words and phrases you’ll find repeated are “specific,” “practical,” “down to earth,” “inspiring,” and “empowering.”

On the product page I go into detail about why I wrote the book and how it can help anyone—authors, public speakers, bloggers, recording artists, business owners, sales people, pastors, brand managers—get visibility for themselves and their message.

The main thing I want to communicate here is that if you buy the book THIS WEEK, I will give you seven FREE bonuses:

Platform Video Jumpstart (a $179.00 six-session video series)
Why Now Is the Best Time Ever to Be an Author (a $47.00 one-session video)
How to Write a Winning Book Proposal (a $47.00, two-session audio series)
Writing a Winning Non-Fiction Book Proposal (a $19.97 e-book)
Writing a Winning Fiction Book Proposal (a $19.97 e-book)
All the Digital Editions of Platform (a $38.06 collection of the Kindle, Nook, iPad, and PDF formats)
Audio Edition of Platform (a $24.99 audio edition of the entire book)

This offer is only valid through the end of the day, May 25th, CDT. At that point, this offer goes away FOREVER. To get these seven FREE bonuses, you must take these three steps:

Purchase Platform from your favorite bookseller. You can chose from one of the online retailers below or your local bookseller. The book retails for $24.99, but many retailers are selling it for less than $15.00



Amazon

Books-a-Million

Family Christian

Mardel
Barnes & Noble

Christian Book Distributors

Lifeway

Parable



E-mail me a copy of your receipt. You can simply forward a copy of the receipt from your online retailer to gifts@michaelhyatt.com. If you buy a physical copy from a local retailer, scan the receipt and e-mail it to the same address. It’s that simple.
Confirm your e-mail address. I don’t want to inadvertently spam anyone, so I follow a strict, double opt-in e-mail list procedure. I will reply to your e-mail and ask you to confirm your address before I proceed further. (Actually, this is automated, but you get the idea.)

That’s it!

Once I get your confirmation, I will e-mail you the link to the special Platform Bonus Download Page, where you will get access to all seven bonuses.

If you’re serious about taking yourself, your business, or your product to the next level, order your copy of Platform today and get started.

Again, this offer goes away forever after May 25th, 2012. Don’t miss it!

If you have a question about this offer, please check the FAQ.

Question: If you have already read Platform, what did you think? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

[image error]

5 Ways to Keep Moving Forward When You Hit a Wall

This is a guest post by Bill Blankschaen. He is a writer, thinker, and speaker who also leads in a Christian school by day. You can read his blog and follow him on Twitter and Facebook. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Yawn! When I read Michael Hyatt’s post on taking naps, I agreed. I knew from personal experience how beneficial a quick midday nap could be. But as I pondered how I might actually put it into practice, I hit a wall.

How could I keep moving forward with this idea in an educational role that requires me to be always alert and on-call throughout the school day? The tension between what I wanted to do and what I could do quickly threatened to become crippling frustration.

I suspect I’m not alone in feeling overwhelmed at times by excellent advice, helpful strategies, and enlightening insight. To be candid, sometimes I feel like a deer in the personal-growth headlights. I’m often paralyzed by the possibilities. It’s easy to see where I want to go. It’s figuring out how to get over the walls between here and there that creates the tension.

We usually think of tension as always being a bad thing. It can be. But growth always requires movement. And movement creates tension between where we are and where we’re going. It’s when we hit a wall—or what seems to be a wall—that we can get the wind knocked out of our dreams.

Here are a few ways you can keep moving forward when you hit a wall in your personal growth:

Screen for Excuses. Be honest with yourself. It’s easy to slip in an excuse disguised as an immovable barrier. To be safe, assume all walls are excuses until proven otherwise. Like Neo of Matrix fame, sometimes your best answer will be that “there is no wall.”
Question the Walls. You could try talking to them, I suppose, but that could lead to other problems. Think about the barriers themselves. Are they walls that you’ve created yourself or allowed to be created in your silence? Are you missing the skill sets to get over the walls? Where can you get a reliable third-party perspective on the barriers you face? Don’t rule this out: The walls may be telling you it’s time to grow elsewhere.
Get Creative. As Thomas Edison famously said, “There’s always another way.” If you find a real barrier does exist, start by figuring out your goal. Let your imagination work backwards to see if other solutions present themselves. In my case, perhaps a protected mental downtime without phones or visitors will get me close to the same result as a nap for now.
Take Baby Steps. If you find you can move forward where you are, don’t hesitate to start small. But do start. As Michael Hyatt has said, “Motion leads to momentum.” Maybe you can’t do it all right away, but you can do something. Sit down. Jot down a plan. Take steps, even small ones, in the right direction. Do it today.
Keep Moving Forward. These three words from one of my life leaders Walt Disney sum it up. William H. Murray added this wisdom that I have found true again and again: “The moment one definitely commits oneself … all sorts of things occur to help one that would never have otherwise occurred.” Unlike the rides at Walt’s magical World, we should always refuse to come to a complete stop.

Above all, know that you’ve got a lot of friends here who feel your growth pains when you hit a wall. I can’t be the only one. Let’s cheer each other on. After our naps, of course.

What walls are you hitting at this stage of your growth? How can we help each other over them? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

[image error]

A Book Signing in the Waldenbooks [Video]

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







This is every author’s worst nightmare. At least Parnell Hall could see the humor in it! (Thanks to my friend, Kelly Combs, for bringing this to my attention.)