This is Your Life

In this podcast episode, I continue discussing my new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World (Nashville: Thomas Nelson).

Last week was the official launch week. Things could not have gone better.

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Episode Outline

On Monday morning, I told my team, “If we can get the book into Amazon’s Top 1,000, that will be huge.”

However, by 8:30 that morning, it was already #160.

By 10:15, it had moved to #16.

A few hours later it hit #5 and then a little after 5:00 p.m. it hit #4.

It stayed #4, #5, or #6 all week.

We had a ton of people help promote it, including some well-known bloggers. You can find a complete list here.

I pretty much had to stop promoting the book on Wednesday evening, because I had an even bigger launch scheduled for the weekend—my daughter Madeline’s wedding.

In this podcast, I don’t cover the basics of platform-building. If you want that, listen to Episode 13. In this podcast I focus on answering my listeners’ questions.

Listener Questions

Question #1: Sarah Ferree asked, “How do I get my employees excited about our platform?”

Question #2: Philip Rothschild asked, “What is more important when it comes to a website, engagement or design?”

Question #3: Heidi Kreider asked, “How would you advise someone to get started who doesn’t have a lot of money to invest?”

Question #4: Jeremy Meyers asked, “How do you develop your platform when you already have a very busy life?”

Question #5: J. D. Smith asked, “What are the best ways to integrate an organizational platform with a personal one?”

Question #6: Tom Schulte asked, “How can I move my “embassy site” on LinkedIn to a true “home base site” on my own server?”

Question #7: Wanda Ball asked, “How do I market my services as a public speaker to a wider audience?”

Question #8: Joshua Bedford asked, “If you automate tweets as you suggest, how far should we space them apart?”

Question #9: Paul Evans asked, “How bold can you be in asking other people to share your message for you?”

Question #10: Rebecca Livermore asked, “What is the best way for people who are introverts to expand their platform?”

Question #11: Jane Graham asked, “How do you discern when to persevere verses when to quit or change direction?”

Question #12: K. C. Cupp asked, “How can you promote your blog without coming across as narcissistic or self-absorbed?”

In this podcast episode, I talk about my brand new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World (Nashville: Thomas Nelson).

Yesterday was the official publication date. I am celebrating this entire week with a special, AMAZING offer that I can’t wait to tell you about. If you can’t wait, you can find the offer here.

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Episode Outline

Four centuries ago, William Shakespeare said, “all the world’s a stage.” That is more true than ever before. If you have something to say or sell—whether it is a product, a service, a brand, or a cause—you are on stage.

The problem is that the stage is very crowded.

More than one million new books were published last year. Amazon has more than 27 million in its online database.

There are more than 164 million blogs in the world.

There are thousands of radio and television shows.

More video was uploaded to YouTube in the last 60 days than was produced by all three major networks in the first 60 years of their existence.

This doesn’t even include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, apps, or games.

That’s why you need a platform.

What is a platform? It’s that thing you stand on to be heard. But it’s no longer made of wood or steel. Today, a platform is made of people: contacts, connections, customers, followers, fans.

As you may know, I have spent my entire career in the book publishing business. About ten years ago, I started noticing a disturbing trend: We kept turning away authors with good content. The reason? They didn’t have a platform.

Content was still king, but platform had become queen. Without both, it was difficult to get a publishing deal.

Then in 2004, I started blogging. I accidentally created a platform. You can see my traffic growth and the implications here. Here’s a chart that summarizes the numbers I shared in this episode:

You can assemble a powerful, personal platform with just five planks:

Start with wow.

Prepare to launch.

Build your home base.

Expand your reach.

Engage your tribe.

These are the five parts of my book, which is divided into sixty short, practical chapters.

Listener Questions

Question #1: Pilar Arsenec asked, “When you were first starting out, how did you personally discover or find your voice?”

Question #2: Tor Constantino asked, “For a person who is just starting to build a platform, what do you think is the single most important thing to do?”

Question #3: Mary DeMuth asked, “What are the top two to three things you would tell people to do to get the biggest return on investment?”

Question #4: Dana Pittman asked, “How do you reinvent your platform if you want to go in a different direction?”

Question #5:

In this podcast episode, I talk the essence of authentic leadership. What is it? Is it simply influence or is it something more.

I have always been fascinated by this topic. Perhaps because I enjoy creating models that try to explain something people want to know about.

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Episode Outline

In the last few weeks, I have been interviewed several times: at the Chick-fil-A Leadercast, the Catalyst Dallas Conference, and then a couple of interviews for my new book, Platform. Because I my blog is mostly about leadership, the interviewer inevitably asks, “So how do you define leadership?”

Most experts I know define leadership as influence. Certainly, I think that is one aspect of it, but I don’t think it’s the whole story. Instead, I suggest that authentic leadership has five marks or characteristics:

Authentic leaders have insight.

Authentic leaders demonstrate initiative.

Authentic leaders exert influence.

Authentic leaders have impact.

Authentic leaders exercise integrity.

If we are going to maximize our leadership, we have to pursue all five of these characteristics. It all begins by leading ourselves well.

Listener Questions

Question #1: Carrie Jones asked, “Is there ever a time that authenticity disqualifies you from leadership?”

Question #2: Chris Stevens asked, “How do I set myself up as an authentic leader from the get-go of a new job?”

Question #3: Donny Vaughn, asked, “Is it possible to be a leader without being vocal?”

Question #4: Perry Holly asked, “What are the top two or three obstacles that get in the way of us becoming authentic leaders?”

Question #5: Randy Peterman asked, “How do you become an authentic subordinate, given workplace politics?”

Next week, I will be talking about “Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World,” the topic of my brand new book. If you have a question about that topic, please leave me a voice mail. I’d love to hear from you.

Special Announcements

My new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, started shipping on April 25th. However, I am once again asking that you refrain from buying it yet.

Why? Because I want to register as many sales as possible during the first official pub week of May 21–25 in order to have a shot at driving the best sellers list.

To make the wait worth your while, I have put together a bonus package of seven FREE BONUSES worth $375.98! To get this special bonus offer, all you have to do is buy the book. I can’t tell you more yet, but you can signup here to be notified when this special offer is available.

I will be speaking at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo in New York City on June 5–7. I will be leading one of the “Super Sessions” on Thursday, June 7th, at 9:00 a.m. You can register here.

We will be offering the next SCORRE Conference in V...

In this podcast episode, I talk about—of all things—naps! Yes, that’s right. I explain why you should consider them as part of your journey to greater productivity.

When I blogged about this topic recently, I got 1,780 comments on my blog, 1,602 retweets on Twitter, and 13,666 Facebook shares. Obviously, this topic hit a nerve—or maybe people are just tired.

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Episode Outline

I am a habitual nap-taker. I used to feel guilty about this until I discovered that my boss, Sam Moore, who was then the CEO of Thomas Nelson, took naps.

I also discovered that many other successful people took naps, including Leonardo da Vinci, Napoleon, Thomas Edison, Eleanor Roosevelt, Gene Autry, John F. Kennedy, John D. Rockefeller, Winston Churchill, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Ronald Reagan.

I believe you should consider taking a nap every day for the following reasons:

A nap restores alertness.

A nap prevents burnout.

A nap heightens sensory perception.

A nap reduces the risk of heart disease.

A nap makes you more productive.

I typically take a 20-minute nap right after lunch. If I can’t do it then, I try to squeeze it in before 4:00 p.m. Here are a few practices I have found helpful.

Be consistent.

Turn off the lights.

Use a blanket.

Keep it short.

Be discreet.

Finally, shift your own thinking about naps. People who take them are not lazy. They might just be the smartest, most productive people you know.

Listener Questions

Question #1: Art Carden asked, “How do you fall asleep quickly, and how do you get up after 15–20 minutes?”

Question #2: Jackie asked, "Does our need for naps have to do with our national addiction to coffee?”

Question #3: Mary DeMuth asked, “Should insomniacs avoid naps since they can disrupt normal sleep?”

Question #4: Stu Gray asked, “Is there an ideal time or length for a nap that helps avoid grogginess.”

Next week, I will be talking about “The Five Marks of Authentic Leadership.” If you have a question about that topic, please leave me a voice mail. I’d love to hear from you.

Special Announcements

My new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, started shipping on April 25th. However, I am once again asking that you refrain from buying it yet.

Why? Because I want to register as many sales as possible during the first official pub week of May 21–25 in order to have a shot at driving the best sellers list.

To make the wait worth your while, I have put together a bonus package of seven FREE BONUSES worth $375.98! To get this special bonus offer, all you have to do is buy the book. I can’t tell you more yet, but you can signup here to be notified when this special offer is available.

I will be speaking at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo in New York City on June 5–7.

In this podcast episode, I talk practical ways to restore margin in your life and, specifically, how to shave ten hours off your work week.

This is something I am personally having to re-apply to my own life. In this episode I share some of my current challenges.

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Episode Outline

If you are intentional, I believe you can shave at least ten hours—maybe more—off your work week. That is forty hours or one week a month. Even if I am only have right, it’s still an enormous amount of time.

Here are seven strategies to get you started:

Limit your time online.

Plan your day in advance.

Quadrant 1 Tasks: Urgent and Important

Quadrant 2 Tasks: Important But Not Urgent

Quadrant 3 Tasks: Urgent But Not Important

Quadrant 4 Tasks: Neither Urgent Nor Important

Touch e-mails once and only once.

Triage your calendar.

Schedule time in the alone zone.

Use batch processing.

Use e-mail templates to say “no.”

Listener Questions

Question #1: Jane Graham asked, “How can my husband, who is a busy public high school principal, cut back?”

Question #2: Jen McDonough asked, “What’s the best way to get started with a virtual assistant?”

Question #3: Kurt Feldner asked, “How can I use crowd-sourcing to save time?”

Question #4: Lessa Barnes asked, “How can I delegate in a way that doesn’t end up costing me more time than if I had done it myself”

Next week, I will be talking about “The Secret Power of Naps.” If you have a question about that topic, please leave me a voice mail. I’d love to hear from you.

Special Announcements

My new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, started shipping last week. I am very pleased how it turned out. However, please don’t buy it yet. This may be a strange request, coming from the author, but there’s a method in my madness.I want to register as many sales as possible during the first official pub week of May 21–25 in order to have a shot at driving the best sellers list.

As a result, I have put together a bonus package of seven FREE BONUSES worth $375.98! To get this special bonus offer, all you have to do is buy the book. I can’t tell you more yet, but you can signup here to be notified when this special offer is available.

I will be speaking at Catalyst Dallas, Texas next week on May 9–11. I will be leading a lab on Wednesday, May 9th on the topic of my new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. You can find out more at CatalystDallas.com.

I will be speaking at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo in New York City on June 5–7. I will be leading one of the “Super Sessions” on Thursday, June 7th, at 9:00 a.m. You can register here before May 15 and save $100 off the three-day blogger and podcaster pass.

Episode Resources

I mentioned the following resources in the show:

In this podcast episode, I talk about work-life balance and whether or not it is really possible. In fact, I question the balance metaphor itself and pose an alternative that better describes what our focus should be.

I also share several examples from my own life, most notably a story from early in my marriage with Gail when I was working seventy hours a week.

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Special Announcements

I will be attending and speaking at the SCORRE Conference in Rome, GA, April 29–May 3. If you are a public speaker or aspire to be one, you MUST attend this conference. There is nothing like it. This conference is sold out. But you can register for the conference in Vail, Colorado, October 17–20. It will sell out, so register as soon as you can.

I will be doing all the backstage interviews with the speakers at the Chick-fil-A Leadercast on May 4th in Atlanta. You can find out more at Chick-fil-ALeadercast.com.

I will be speaking at Catalyst Dallas, Texas on May 9–11. I will be leading a lab on Wednesday, May 9th on the topic of my new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. You can find out more at CatalystDallas.com.

I will be speaking at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo in New York City on June 5–7. I will be leading one of the “Super Sessions” on Thursday, June 7th, at 9:00 a.m. You can register here before May 15 and save $100 off the three-day blogger and podcaster pass.

Episode Outline

If you are working more than 55 hours a week, you are likely working too much and out of alignment with your priorities.You may be able to work more than this for a season, but, ultimately, it is not sustainable. If you continue to work this much—or more—something is going to break.

You are putting five assets at risk:

Asset #1: Your health.

Asset #2: Your family.

Asset #3: Your friends.

Asset #4: Your effectiveness.

Asset #5: Your influence.

You can achieve work-life balance—or better yet—align your practice with your priorities when you follow these five suggestions:

Suggestion #1: Get crystal clear on your priorities.

Suggestion #2: Schedule time for the things that matter most.

Suggestion #3: Establish a set of non-negotiables.

Suggestion #4: Focus alignment between your priorities and your practice.

Suggestion #5: Accept the fact that there will always be tension.

Listener Questions

Question #1: Ben Holbrook asked, “How do you manage work-life balance with a young family and the pressures of work?”

Question #2: Bob Anderson asked, “What part is up to us and what part is up to God?”

Question #3: Deirdre Baker asked, “How do you balance your work life with your home life when your office is in your home?”

Question #4: Jeff Keady asked, “How do you achieve work-life balance when technology allows you to take your work everywhere you go?”

Question #5: Stephanie Shackelford asked, “To be good at anything,

In this podcast episode, I talk about what I have learned from the failures I have experienced—and I’ve had some doozies. I share the details of a business failure in the early 1990s, an IRS audit that turned into a nightmare in the early 2000s, and a speaking engagement that went south earlier this month.

Success is not a straight-line journey to the top. It’s full of twists and turns, including moments when you doubt yourself and are tempted to quit. In this episode I share a process I use for turning setbacks and failures to your advantage. This is a major key to success in life.

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Special Announcements

I will also be doing all the backstage interviews at the Chick-fil-A Leadercast on May 4th in Atlanta. This is also one of the very best leadership conferences available. It is put on by the same people who do Catalyst, a company called Giant Impact. This year I am looking forward to interviewing Tim Tebow, Marcus Buckingham, John Maxwell, Soledad O’Brien, Patrick Lencioni, Andy Stanley, Coach Urban Meyer and many others. These interviews will be broadcast live and then replayed on my blog in the weeks following the event. In addition to the live event in Atlanta, this event will be simulcast to more than 750–800 locations around the world. You can find out more at Chick-fil-ALeadercast.com.

I will be speaking at the BlogWorld & New Media Expo in New York City on June 5–7. I will be leading one of the “Super Sessions” on Thursday, June 7th, at 9:00 a.m. I am not quite sure yet what I will speak about. It will likely be something about Platform (my new book) and what I am currently learning about building a podcast platform. I hope you will join me at the conference. You can register here before May 15 and save $100 off the three-day blogger and podcaster pass.

I now have a new Listener Voicemail Hotline. I am very excited about this. I am going to change the format of the show to take more recorded questions. This is your chance to be on the show! You can also call (615) 656-5001 if you prefer and leave a question. (This is a different service but also records your message.) If you have an idea for a podcast you would like to see or a question about an upcoming episode, I’d love to hear from you. You are also welcome to e-mail me if you wish.

Episode Outline

Not all failures end well. Sometimes, people suffer a setback and never recover. It doesn’t have to be this way. It is all in how you process it. If you are going to succeed in work and in life, you must learn to deal powerfully with failure.

There are at least six steps to turning failure to your advantage:

Step #1: Acknowledge the failure.

Step #2: Take full responsibility.

Step #3: Mourn the failure.

Step #4: Learn from the experience.

Step #5: Change your behavior.

Step #6: Enter whole-heartedly into the next project.

Failure is inevitable if you are going to tackle significant goals. You have to learn to make it work for you. In doing so,

Last week was a really difficult for me personally. First, I encountered enormous obstacles in trying to record six video sessions for a new product. We experienced technical problems, construction noise, and a loud thunderstorm. The recording took three times as long as I had budgeted.

Then the head of the marketing firm we had hired to manage the pre-launch campaign for my new book resigned. It was a total surprise and a big disappointment.

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After these two challenges I found myself asking a very bad question: “What is wrong with me?” In this episode, I talk about the importance of asking the right question and suggest five strategies for doing so.

Special Announcements

I will be speaking at Catalyst West on April 18–20 in Irvine, California. I will be leading one of the Labs on the topic of my new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World. In fact, I will be speaking at all the Catalyst conferences this year, so if you can’t make it to Irvine, join us at Catalyst Dallas on May 9–11 or Catalyst Atlanta on October 3–5. If you haven’t registered, you can do so at ComeToCatalyst.com. Catalyst is one of the very best leadership conferences out there. I look forward to it every year.

I will also be doing all the backstage interviews at the Chick-fil-A Leadercast on May 4th in Atlanta. This is also one of the very best leadership conferences available. It is put on by the same people who do Catalyst, a company called Giant Impact. This year I am looking forward to interviewing Tim Tebow, Marcus Buckingham, John Maxwell, Soledad O’Brien, Patrick Lencioni, Andy Stanley, Coach Urban Meyer and many others. These interviews will be broadcast live and then replayed on my blog in the weeks following the event. In addition to the live event in Atlanta, this event will be simulcast to more than 100 locations around the world. You can find out more at Chick-fil-ALeadercast.com.

I now have a Listener Feedback Hotline. You can call (615) 656-5001 and leave a message or a question. The system sends me an e-mail with an audio file of your message as soon as you hang up. If you have an idea for a podcast you would like to see or a question about an upcoming episode, I’d love to hear from you. You are also welcome to e-mail me if you prefer.

Episode Outline

Questions are powerful tools. They can ignite hope and lead to new insights. They can also destroy hope and keep us stuck in bad assumptions. The key is to be intentional and choose our questions well.

Examples of bad questions:

Why does this always happen to me?

What did I do to deserve this?

What’s wrong with me?

As soon as we ask these questions, our brains go to work, serving up answers. It is almost automatic. The answers have a way of reinforcing the assumptions behind the question.

For example, I recently met with a friend of mine who lost his job about nine months ago. He had plenty of interviews but had yet to receive a job offer. He asked me, “What’s wrong with me?”

The problem with this question is that it assumes something is wrong with him. If you ask questions like this, your mind immediately begins proposing possible answers. Maybe it’s because:

You’re too old.

You’re too young.

You’e inexperienced.

Last summer, Gail and I visited the Royal Gorge near Cañon City, Colorado. It is only a few hundred feet wide at the top but more than 1,250 feet deep in places. This ten-mile long canyon was cut into solid granite over approximately three million years, at just a half an inch per century. It is an awesome example of the power of incremental change over time.

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Special Announcements

My new book, Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World, is still on schedule to be published on May 22nd. I’m going to ask you NOT to pre-order it yet. This may be a strange request, coming from the author, but there’s a method in my madness.We have put together a bonus package of seven resources worth $375.98! To get this special bonus offer, all you have to do is buy the book. I can’t tell you more yet, because we are still putting together the landing page. Once this is up, I will provide explicit instructions on how to take advantage of this special Pre-Launch Offer.

I now have a Listener Feedback Hotline. You can call (615) 656-5001 and leave a message or a question. The system sends me an e-mail with an audio file of your message as soon as you hang up. If you have an idea for a podcast you would like to see or a question about an upcoming episode, I’d love to hear from you. You are also welcome to e-mail me if you prefer.

Episode Outline

You can make small, daily investments that will soon lead to big results. Here are seven examples to get your creativity flowing:

Losing weight.

Paying off debt.

Improving profitability.

Writing a book.

Running long distances.

Reading the Bible.

Improving your marriage.

How can you harness the power of incremental change? By following these five steps:

Identify a goal.

Make sure it is S.M.A.R.T.

Identify your incremental change (or new practice).

Track your progress.

Recruit a growth partner.

Listener Questions

I also answer three questions from my listeners.

“How do you get yourself motivated to make the change in the first place?”

“I just don’t seem to have much will-power. Is there any hope for me?”

“When do you take massive action verses practicing incremental change?”

Episode Resources

I mentioned the following resources in the show:

Software: LoseIt

Website: JeffGalloway.com

Book: The NKJV Daily Bible

Website: OneYearBible.net

Website and App: YouVersion

Website: Logos.com

Book: One Year Bible (Tyndale)

Book: Mentor Like Jesus by Regi Campbell

Website: RadicalMentoring.com

Website: Joe’s Goals

Website: iRunURun.com

Do you feel overwhelmed by the volume of e-mail you are getting? In this podcast, I share four behaviors that will transform your experience.