I’m coming out with the book, “The Get-it-Done Guy’s Nine Steps to Work Less and Do More” in August 2010. I’d like to build a business around the book that’s sufficient to support me. My theory is that step one is building an audience. I want to build my audience as large as possible between now and when the book comes out. The question is: which audience? With which content? How? And is there any money attached (I have mortgage payments to make)?
My content and expertise spans three largely independent areas. While there’s some overlap, the markets and products are pretty much different. I have blogs and newsletters in multiple areas and keeping all of it going for the next year is a huge amount of effort. Right now my priority is purely to build enough of a following to make the book a big hit. Here’s all the stuff I’m doing:
Personal productivity (2 blogs, Facebook page, newsletter, show website). The Get-it-Done Guy. This is the weekly podcast that I host, but do not own. We’ll be adding a tip-of-the-week newsletter as well. There’s a Get-it-Done Guy blog that belongs to me (you’re reading it), a website for the show (http://getitdone.quickanddirtytips.com) with episode transcripts and archives, a Facebook page for the show that has episode transcripts, and someday a book website. I have an email overload audiocourse “You Are Not Your Inbox” but sales are low enough that I’m not sure it’s a viable product.
Entrepreneurship and Leadership (website, newsletter, blog, prior reputation). This was the focus of my coaching business, which I shut down to work at Babson College (#1 for entrepreneurship in the world, 15 years running) last year. My former professional brand is around entrepreneurship and leadership. I’ve been an expert columnist in Entrepreneur.com and on Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge, appeared in all the major publications (NYTimes, WSJ, etc.), etc. I have a website (http://www.SteverRobbins.com, with its own entrepreneurship subsection), a ten-year newsletter that’s been dormant for about 6 months, and a business-oriented blog. This seems to me to be the “highest status” area, but I’ve been doing it for quite a while and am in the mood for a change.
Career development (product ideas, but no “official” brand here). This came about after I had been volunteering as a career coach for Harvard Business School’s career coaching staff for several years. I saw many students making assumptions about careers and career planning that were flat out wrong. While I’ve never done much with this in terms of professional offerings, it’s an area where I have something to add, at least in terms of creating a product or two. I have a free resource page I used to give students who were working on cover letters: http://www.SteverRobbins.com/coverletter
My quandry
My immediate quandry is where should I focus my online and social media presence, brand, and efforts? Maintaining two newsletters (leadership and Get-it-Done Guy), multiple blogs, and developing products in multiple areas is a lot of work. Is there some way this can all be combined? Should it be? Should I simply say adieu to some of my offerings? Should I continue to take coaching and consulting clients even though I’m not promoting that part of my business? Keep in mind I don’t own the Get-it-Done Guy brand, so anything done with that brand and trademark must likely be done in conjunction with Macmillan.
What are your thoughts? I’m less interested in branding issues right now (my ultimate brand will be Stever Robbins, an umbrella for everything I do), and much more interested in where to focus my efforts. Should I restart my business/entrepreneurship/leadership newsletter? Should I shut it down completely? Should I blog everywhere? Should I keep only one blog? etc.
It’s awesome that you have such exciting possibilities and opportunities! I’ve followed your progress for quite a few years, so it’s a neat place to build upon these achievements.
To be honest, it appears to me that the challenge at this point is not what you’re going to DO, but who you want to BECOME. The distinction is that there’s a higher level set of values, a life purpose, which you haven’t articulate here. But once you have that clearly in mind, I believe it will become much more apparent which activities will support those deeper goals.
Carl
The logical thing seems to be to centralize the real effort into ONE central place where you can contain/focus all of the content under “Stever Robbins Brand.” Quality over quantity.
That said, you’ll need the dispersed effort across other conduits to drive traffic to that central location.
You can (and will want to ) still be “all over the place” but with the goal of herding attention to the place which BEST represents the Stever Robbins value.
No doubt you’ll be wildly successful no matter what you do. Of course, sooner is better than later when there’s a mortgage involved.
Read Micheal Port’s book called “Book Yourself Solid”. In the first few chapters he talks about selecting your clients. Also I beleive Timothy Farris covers dome stuff about ptioritys etc.
I love your Get-it-Done Guy audios and I think your number one selling point, for me, is your presentation. You have the ability to make stuff sound fun and easy.
Perhaps if you take it up one level make the content secondary to the presentation, a bit like the dummies or idiots books.
You could then have an umbrella term “Stever explains … ” or “… the Stever way”
This could be applied to time management, marketing, get a job or whatever else takes your fancy. You could then combine it all under one brand for speaking engagements, TV, radio, books or anything else lucrative.
Love what Carl said.
Also, you don’t have to do this alone. How about asking, “Who would I love to work with?” Another nugget from ET&A – small step, acceptable risk, action. Sounds like the right strategy here.
Zohar, Carl: this one isn’t an issue of who I want to be. This is a tactical question: how do I reach the most people in a way that I can build a business around? Do I concentrate just on personal productivity, despite having all these assets in the other areas? If I go after multiple content areas, how do I actually do that without running myself ragged, and still ultimately creating a business?
Stever,
I’m not an expert when I think of what you are trying to accomplish I think of people like Tim Ferris, Seth Godin, and Ramit Sehti. Two things they have in common: they all have their content consolidated around 1 brand (the 4-hour work week, seth godin himself, I will teach you to be rich) and they all make money.
There is no reason you cannot make either yourself or the Get-It-Done-Guy (with permission) the central brand, with the blog as the centerpiece. Now, that blog can have multiple pages and should cross promote everything else you do but it makes it simple for people to have the thought, “I want content from Stever Robbins,” and they know exactly where to go. Then focus on 1-newsletter (again it can have different content elements in it), 1 twitter account, 1 facebook page, etc etc.
I think you have great content across the board, now make it REAAAAALLLY easy for people to access it in one place. They’ll find what the want among the content once they get there.
Stever,
I agree with Jarred, the poster above, that you should consolidate your multiple brands/products/services into one site/blog. I personally feel that you are splintering your community,/followers/ clients when you’ve got several webpages floating around.
It’s not as if your content and expertise is dramatically different. By talking about “Organization, Relationships, Technology, Time Management, Work, All Tips” side by side with “Entrepreneurship/Leadership”, you’ve promoted a cohesive brand that represents Stever Robbins as clear as can be. I highly doubt any entrepreneur who reads your one consolidated blog will be turned away by a post titled, “Which Form of Communication Should You Use in the Workplace?” or “Manage Life with a Personal Dashboard”.
With a consistent and central place for thousands if not millions of internet users to see you and your offerings, you can create a core community. You only need a thousand “True” fans, great post by Kevin Kelly (http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2008/03/1000_true_fans.php)
With that core community and specified niche, (ex. Sethi, Ben Casnocha, Ferris, Gary Vaynerchuck) you will be able to market and successfully distribute a bestseller. Had I not been given the chance to read countless Tim Ferriss quaility/insightful blog posts, I would never had picked up three copies of his book.
Personally, I would ditch the newsletter. Social media and communication is about being fluid and dynamic, not a static one page letter. Take a newsletter idea and turn in into a quality blog post that can be [Updated] or revised.
One more thing, consider using video or webcasts. A commenter above mentioned that your presentation style is what captures their attention and time. And, as a coach and professor, I bet you have the skills to produce a great video series (interviews, screencasts, general stuff). Gary Vaynerchuck is a great example.
Consider producing short ebooks that focus on a certain theme (don’t give away all the goods). Then, you can write a book that incorporates all of them in greater detail with greater insight. (ex. Ramit)
Thanks a lot Stever, enjoy your blog.
Ryan Dawidjan, future Babson Beaver