Everything has its time.

Everything has a lifecycle.

I'm reminded of this daily.

When I look at my 7-year-old, I consider what another 7 years will bring. By then, he'll be 14… which was just a few short years before I went to West Point… which, in my mind (when I attempt to conceive it and put myself back in those shoes), feels like the beginning of adulthood for me…and it was.

Sheesh…

Where does the time go?

A better question:

Where WILL the time go?

Specifically:

Where will YOUR time go?

For all my creators, founders, inventors, warriors, and leaders -- anyone doing the hard, creative work of bringing something into being, cultivating it, and growing it…

What are you doing with the time you have right now?

Have you started?

Have you shipped?

Have you failed? If so, have you pushed through it?

Have you experienced success? If so, have you doubled down on it?

Tripled down on it?

Quadrupled down on it?

Because there's no such thing as a guarantee of "growth."

When something's working, it won't work forever.

When you take your foot off the gas, the car doesn't stop. It keeps going at exactly the same speed -- for a moment. But then, gradually, it slows down. Little by little. Until, eventually, all the momentum is gone.

For your business, pursuit, or project -- there is no guarantee that you'll have "more" tomorrow than what you have today, no matter how many ads you buy or gurus you hire.

The only guarantee in life is that what's here today can, and eventually will be, gone tomorrow.

(just ask Blockbuster, Nokia Phones, or the Weinstein Company)

So get after it while the getting's good.

Stay frosty.

Tom "ponderous reflections" Morkes

p.s. for more content like this, sign up for the newsletter.

Recently, I've been writing quite a bit about why the way social media and multi-sided marketplaces are currently setup makes them, effectively, a trojan horse hiding in plain site that will hurt indie creators down the road.

For the full scoop, check out my series on the topic. Part 1: "The Long Tail" and part 2: "Fake Traffic and the Scam That is Social Media."

In summary:

If you want to make a profit from your work, now and into the future, DO NOT rely on Facebook, or Amazon, or any 3rd party platform (social media or multi-sided marketplace) to generate the bulk of your traffic or sales.

These platforms don’t care about you, and their policies WILL affect your business.

(I’ve seen people go from making 6 to 7-figures in sales on Amazon, to effectively zero overnight b/c changes were made by Amazon that they couldn’t influence...the same is true on Facebook and other platforms; here one minute, gone the next)

To future-proof your business or creative work, you need to do two things:

THING NUMBER 1: build your business on your own platform, where you control the content and distribution, and where you can communicate directly with your customers.

THING NUMBER 2: create Immediately Referable Content™  that makes it easy for people to find you, buy from you, and share your work with others.

Immediately Referable Content

Immediately Referable Content is any piece of content (blog, podcast, video, stream, etc.) that captures attention, elicits a desired emotional reaction, and inspires the readers / viewer / listener to take action + share with others.

Ultimately, this is the kind of content that you read and are already sharing before finish the entire thing, because (1) you get it, and (2) it gets you.

It works like this:

The 6 Components of Immediately Referable Content

To create content that people can't help but read, share, and talk about, you need to make your content:

#1. Relevant

There’s nothing wrong with sharing what you ate for breakfast or why you’d rather waterboard yourself than watch another Marvel movie, but unless you're a food blogger or film critic, you should probably be writing about the things that affect (or, at least, are important to) your readers and customers.

There's also a time-constraint to relevancy.

Is this something that works right now? Or are you just updating the cover of a 20 year old ebook on how to create your first website on geocities?

Nothing wrong with re-purposing content, just make sure it’s fresh, yo.

#2. Useful

There are only two reasons people read, watch, or listen to anything:

1. To be entertained

2. To be informed

Entertainment is art. “Create funny content” is not a strategy, it’s a premise.

But show the right person how to play a chord, or make the perfect espresso, or learn a skill that makes him more marketable to clients and you’ve got his attention.

Creating content that informs (teaches, instructs, demonstrates, updates, etc.) is not only much easier to create (you don’t have to be clever, just clear - and anyone can do that), but allows you to go where the market is (rather than try to force the market to your sense of humor, your will, etc. - which is a losers game).

#3. Speaks the language

If you're writing about something that genuinely affects your readers and customers, the next step is to talk about it in the words they use (not the ones you use to describe what you do).

For the record, this is NOT an SEO or google adwords hack.

I’m not saying you need to rank for keywords (though it doesn't hurt if you do).

What I’m saying is simple:

You should write the way your customers talk to one another about your subject / area / topic.

Does your customer think things like: “Boy, I really need to lean into my greatness right now.”

Or do they think things like: “I was passed over for the promotion. Mortgage is due soon. Family depends on me. I need to get my *** together. What do I do now?”

With the latter, there are a half-dozen topics you could extract and turn into IRC.™

(excuse the click-baity examples. I’m just riffing here, and while actual click bait headlines are deceitful, they sure do make a good extreme example, am I right?)

By zooming in on the pains, problems, and challenges affecting your reader, and thinking about it the way THEY think about it, you end up creating content that speaks their language.

When someone speaks your language - they're talking about something your're interested in, they like the shows you like, they make references to the things you know and care about, etc. - you’re more likely to trust them. And trust is the precursor to more sales and more profit.

#4. Non-obvious

Are you sharing something that is unique, proprietary, or unorthodox? Or are you just echoing the same thing everyone else is echoing?

It’s’ okay if you’re the latter. I’ve been there before myself.

We’re human.

It’s easy to be fooled into doing or saying a thing because millions have marched in lock step before you.

But when it comes to business, art, writing, and creativity - literally nobody needs you repeating the same thing that’s already been said.

In any given niche, there’s such a thing as “common practice.”

(think: common sense, but relevant to your niche / industry / market)

Common practice is based on things that seem to work for most people, most of the time

(what makes it “common” is that everyone accepts it as the truth, and we accept that everyone else accepts it as the truth, consciously or unconsciously).

Here’s the thing:

Common practice is a good thing, but it’s not notable nor newsworthy - and therefore not worth writing about or talking about or sharing.

There is simply no reason to create content to share an idea that everyone already agrees with (e.g. high fructose corn syrup is bad for you, got it), or to share a solution that everyone knows, unless it’s done in a surprising, contrarian, or counter-intuitive way (or applied in a unique circumstance).

For example:

Surprising Content:

Contrarian Content:

Unique Circumstance:

(disclaimer: I’m obviously having some fun with my non-obvious examples; they’re absurd only for illustration purposes only. Before shorting currency, please consult a professional)

#5. Easy to share

Here’s a hack for you:

Make your content easy to share by removing anything that causes friction (ridiculous sidebar category widgets, obtrusive popups, a thousand social share icons that leave one bewildered, not impressed, etc.), and by saying (and repeating) what you want the reader/viewer/listener to do (like, thumbs up, heart, share, reply, email, whatever).

#6. Beneficial to share with others

Archetypically speaking, a hero is a person who climbs the mountain, slays the dragon, and brings back gold to share with the rest of his community.

Relevant information combined with practical instruction is better than gold for the person who wants to be, do or have more in life.

And that’s exactly why they will share it with others.

When you create awesome content, you make it a win for other people to share your work, because they become a hero for sharing.

#winning

LEAVE A COMMENT

Are you creating Immediately Referable Content for your blog, website, or online business? Why or why not? Share below!

charlie houpert on in the trenches - ITT 158: Grow Your YouTube Channel to 1 Million Subscribers with Charlie Houpert

Charlie Houpert is the co-founder of Charisma on Command, an educational platform where he teaches people how to grow their confidence and charisma. His YouTube channel of the same name has over 1 million subscribers, and his videos routinely generate hundreds of thousands of views.

Charlie got his start online by building an education business focused on parkour. However, Charlie didn't get the traction he was looking for, so he shifted gears to a new interest: confidence. Charlie is a self-proclaimed introvert who struggled in social situations. He decided he would scratch his own itch, and began blogging on the topic of confidence, dating, leadership, and more. But it wasn't until Charlie started his YouTube channel that things really took off. In less than a year, Charisma on Command generated tens of thousands of subscribers and hundreds of thousand of views on some of his most watched videos. He has since scaled that to 1.5 million subscribers in less than 3 years.

My big takeaway from today's conversation: FORMAT is just as important as the content you want to share. This is specifically in reference to YouTube, but I think it applies to any sort of content creation or teaching. It applies to blogs, to podcasts, to video creation, and more. In a nutshell, if you want to break into a competitive market, it's not just about the content you create, or the value you add to someone's life - it's HOW you go about delivering the content that will determine whether people sit up and listen, or ignore you. So if you're looking to tap into a platform like YouTube, or you're just trying to figure out ways your podcast or blog or whatever can stand out, you need to listen to Charlie's advise on format.

In this broadcast, Charlie Houpert and I talk about:

And much more...

In The Trenches with Tom Morkes on YouTube:

Charlie on the value of YouTube

"YouTube is a recommendation engine before it's a search engine. So when you're thinking about what sort of content to make, it must be something that is eminently clickable and should follow a trend...when you're just starting out, focus on trends."

Charlie Houpert

How to connect with Charlie Houpert Online:

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I watched the new Steve Jobs movie last week.

Spoiler: he invents the iMac.

The point of the flick: paint a portrait of the guy that created the iPod, the round, partially-translucent, magenta colored desktop computer, and giant smartphones called iPads.

It seems the writer-director combo decided the best way to do this would be to time-travel the viewer to three (maybe four, I lost count) separate moments right before Jobs was about to go on stage to share his latest brain-melting gadget.

Without fail, each pre-stage moment is full of last minute technical issues, conversations with the mother of his child whom he denied for years was his own, and employee/coworker-Jobs conflict (the same employees and coworkers each time...before every major launch...launches that are years apart from one another...).

While the story structure was admirable, I couldn’t help but feel like sometimes I was watching a Birdman-esque comedy, not a memoir-drama (I mean, there had to be a better time to discuss paternity tests, or challenge the CEO's leadership style than right before he goes on stage every year, right?).

Anyway, this got me thinking about the concept of "target audience" - the people for whom you make your product, art, or writing.

Two questions came to mind:

The answer to the first question is die-hard Apple fans, as far as I can tell

The answer to the second question? Steve Jobs built the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad for people who:

1. want to be seen with the product in their hands (they want the status symbol)

2. who can afford to buy the product (they have wealth)

3. who do buy the product (they take action)

The third point here is key.

You see, it doesn't matter if Jobs only accomplished 1 and 2 above. That's all well and good, but that just puts it in the same category as every other high-end consumer product that doesn't sell and fails (like Apple's own Newton).

Where Jobs excelled was getting people to do number 3: buy his product.

He was a master salesman for the upper and middle-upper-class (and their kids).

As a result, Apple is now the most profitable company in the world.

And according to the movie, that's not an accident. It was by design.

Steve knew who he wanted to be known by: the people who would put money in his hands for the work he did.

And just as crucially: he never catered to anyone else.

(there's a reason the company is the most profitable...and it has everything to do with why most of the world operates on hardware and operating systems not produced by Apple)

The Most Important Question:

Who do you want to be known by?

This is not a rhetorical question. And if the answer is everyone, you're off to a bad start.

Defining, finding, and getting in front of a specific group of people who are willing to pay for your products and services is the only way to get traction in business; it's the only way to develop systems and processes that can scale; it's the only way to build profitability.

Who do you want to be known by?

This is the question that will help you define your target audience; this is the question that will help you find your first 1,000 true fans in a specific, well-paying niche; this is the question that will help you become the best in the world at what you do.

Who do you want to be known by?

This is the most important question - everything else is secondary.

In 1993, Jeff Miller took over as CEO of Documentum, a document management company that had been stagnant at $2 million in revenue for the past several years. This might seem like a good problem to have, except that companies that aren’t growing are usually dying.

Something had to change.

So Miller started at the beginning - "who is our target customer?"

As it turned out, Documentum served everybody. Or at least anyone who would pay.

After analyzing their sales data, the state of the market, and evaluating their current customers, Miller made the controversial decision to redefine their target customer.

Instead of serving everyone, Documentum would focus on executives within pharmaceutical companies that relied on efficient and effective document  management for new drug proposals (which was worth about $1 million a day to these companies).

The Power of Focus

Documentum went from a target customer group of millions to focusing on less than 1,000 people worldwide.

Documentum put all their energy into these 1,000 potential customers, focusing specifically on the executives of these pharmaceutical companies, the ones who recognized the pain most clearly and who were capable of purchasing and implementing Documentum’s solution. The promise Documentum made: their technology would speed up new drug proposal documentation and submittals, thereby freeing up millions in cashflow for these companies.

Documentum was able to deliver on their promises and within one year 30 of the top 40 pharmaceutical companies bought in.

This alone generated $25 million in revenue and the first profitable year for Documentum (or about 1,250% growth in two years).

(more…)
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