The #2 Question I Get Asked

A conversation that happens in traditional publishing all the time goes like this:

Publishing Person (to potential Author): Good idea, but you need to build your platform.

Potential Author: Okay. How do I do that?

Publishing Person: Uhhhh . . .

That’s a vast simplification, obviously, but until I built my own platform I was the person going “uhhh” or giving really basic advice (“post on social media”) that didn’t really serve authors.

When I started marketing my business, I realized that ~80% of the people who were reading my emails, following me on social media, and wanted to work with me and my team didn’t have what’s necessary to get a traditional book deal.

They needed to build their platform first.

That was right around the time I realized that I had built a platform myself.

I have my own audience.

I have a network of fellow entrepreneurs who support me.

I know how to get press, how to land speaking gigs, and how corporate buys work.

And I’ve worked with enough online entrepreneurs to know how to play that game, too.

Thus Platform Builders was born — which leads me to today’s question: