My biggest belief about modern business as it intersects with the digital world can be summed up in one sentence:
Create useful content that nurtures a specific community so that you earn the right to sell and serve them to exchange value.
Boiled down tighter: content, community, marketplace.
The old saying about if the carpenter has a hammer, then everything looks like a nail is very true when it comes to me.
I’m an author and writer and someone who believes that content isn’t king, but that it’s what you feed kings.
Content, community, marketplace
In my world, my newsletter accounts for 70 percent of my revenue, but I earn those subscribers via posts on my blog.
Because my content is appealing to people who wants to figure out for themselves how to connect in meaningful ways with the community they serve, I tend to attract people to me who have similar interests.
My vision becomes one they can embrace and make their own. Then, I’m able to equip those people with tools and introductions to people so they can improve their capabilities and connections.
From there, I earn the right to sell. Remember that you serve a certain community (or two or three), but not everyone there is part of your marketplace.
If you draw two circles, the bigger of the two is community, and the smaller is marketplace. Your goal is to earn the right to sell into that marketplace by delivering content and interactions that are useful and worthy.
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