Mountains of Arizona
Clear 62 Degrees
7:12 a.m.
I used to listen to a fair amount of podcasts. But as time goes by, the podcast explosion that’s been happening is leading to many more people talking and far less getting said.
Less meat, more talking.
Take, for example, the interview podcast where everybody and his brother or sister who has a new book to promote shows up on a podcast.
I think it’s a real challenge to build a strong bond with your reader/listener when this is the format you choose.
The amount of demonstration of YOU that happens is severely reduced. You take the role of facilitator rather than creative force.
It’s easy to produce, but you never have to bring YOU to the forefront of the publication. You don’t have to flesh out your ideas. You don’t have to strive for ever greater clarity in what you believe and stand for. You just have to “be there.”
So this adds a lot of extra steps to the Incomparable Expert destination.
The purpose of the media platform (according to me!) is to give freely, without want. That’s the vibe we are demonstrating. That’s a vibe that is universally attractive to people.
In the Platform Lab I created (both the DIY version and the me-do-it-with-you version), we do a lot of work to FOCUS the strategy and content of what we create so that once we start publishing, it resonates with the people we want to reach.
Giving freely without want means I don’t need to “monetize” my media platform. I don’t need sponsors. In fact, going in that direction really confuses things at a very deep level.
When you go down the “monetization” route, you broadcast loud and clear that you’re looking out for #1. You broadcast that you’re concerned your “investment” won’t provide a return.
This is not helpful.
The magic of the media platform really happens when you show up to the world with something real to say. Something that’s really YOU.
As a wise man once posited, “Do you publish because you have something to say or do you have something to say because you publish?”
I would say the answer doesn’t matter as long as you eventually arrive at the point where you pull out of yourself something REAL to say to the world that makes it better for everyone involved.
I think one of the biggest growth opportunities for anyone looking to walk the path of the Incomparable Expert is to develop the TRUST required to stop trying to make things happen (involving other people, e.g. SALES) NOW, TODAY, THIS WEEK. To give up the idea that X has to pay me back Y by a certain time, or that everything has to “support itself” in a linear, quid pro quo, type of way.
This is very shortsighted. And it’s scarcity thinking on every level.
But this is a view of reality we were TRAINED to have.
This is a view of reality that keeps people doing things they hate.
This is a view of reality that transforms us into our own prison guards. It keeps us from things that could lead to transformation on every level.
If you zoom back and take a longer view and get your feeling of “need” under control, you can begin to see connections between the value you put out into the world and what comes back to you.
You creating value on the “left” side can bring things back on the “right” side. It’s far more complex and beautiful than we’ve been trained to accept.
TRUST is not a popular business word because most of business is powered by FEAR of not having enough or not BEING enough.
You move to a new level when you train yourself to give up that fear.