No Audience. No Money. What Do You Do?
I have a couple of big things coming up.
First, the Content Inc. podcast, started back in 2014 as marketing to promote the first edition of the Content Inc. book, will be 500 episodes old next week (I just finished 498).
Second, I’m finishing up the final draft for my new book, Burn the Playbook, which will be ready by Content Entrepreneur Expo (CEX) on August 24th in Cleveland.
Both feel like a big deal to me.
Just before writing this, I sat alone in quiet thought. The question popped into my head: “If I had to start over today, what would I do?”
And thus, the topic for today’s newsletter.
NOTE: While at Penn State studying rhetoric as part of my master’s degree we studied the works of John Locke. Locke wrote an “Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” which discussed the idea of tabula rasa, Latin for “clean or blank slate.” This idea is that humans, at birth, are a blank slate. There future experiences and observations create their thinking and behavior.
I’ve always taken this to a different level. That at any time we can create our own “tabula rasa,” wiping the past clean and starting fresh with opportunity. Catholics may recognize this from taking confession from a priest, where the priest (with power from God) wipes away your sin and you have (another) fresh start. Anyway, I digress.
A Blank Slate
If I lost everything – the audience, the money, the reputation – and had to start over, here’s what I’d do.
Step 0: Take Inventory
What do I still have? My skills. My story. My scars. Just because the list is gone doesn’t mean the asset is. This helps frame that even starting from “nothing” isn’t truly nothing. Writing these things down helps.
Step 1: Cry
I’d spend at least a week screaming into the void. “Why me Oh Lord, why me?” Then I would get down to business. I’d remind myself:
“There’s never been a better time to start over. The tools are free. The gatekeepers are gone. The only thing missing is the plan.”
Step 2: Pick a weirdly specific niche
I’d need to spend time to really find my purpose…my Tilt.
As Warren Buffett and Simon Sinek discuss, every successful person is really good at one thing. What am I really good at or know something about to truly differentiate?
And it’s not about being louder or flashier. It’s about being more specific, more real, and more essential to a group of people who need exactly what I have.
I’d need to work on it, but things like:
· Helping laid-off corporate marketers build a business around one weekly email.
· Guiding former agency owners to repurpose their network into a publishing-driven business.
· Helping Midwest Gen Xers who want to escape the job ladder and own something by 50.
· Coaching marketers over 40 to build businesses that don’t require social media.
· Teaching people with 1,000 email subscribers how to make a full-time income.
· Helping podcast hosts averaging over 10,000 downloads per month turn their show into a live event, a book, and a revenue machine.
I’d obsess over a tiny group of people with a burning problem.
I’d need to remind myself that you can’t be too niche. The more specific the better. I’m already thinking that a number of the ones I listed are not specific enough.
Step 3: Define Success
What will success look like? I’d spend some time visualizing what that could be. Family life? Money needs? Living situation? Career goals?
Basically, what do I really want here? What’s the dream?
Then, I would write that statement down in my journal and review it every day. Something like:
We are the leading event education resource for podcast hosts who create live events and sell the company for two million dollars in 2028.
or
We are the leading event education resource for podcast hosts. Our business can work from anywhere, as our family travels the country. My wife has never been happier.
Something like that. I’d will that into existence (anyone thinking neuroplasticity?).
Please feel free to include your partner’s/spouse’s happiness as well 😉
Step 4: Start an email newsletter. Twice Per Week. Non-negotiable.
I’d write two useful, entertaining emails two times per week. No fluff. No templates. Just my honest take.
This would be the home base for everything. The email list is the new land. Social is just rented space.
Even though I really like using Kit (how you received this email), I probably would opt for Substack, where you get the benefit of the direct connection (email) with a little more help from a network (social media).
Step 5: Spread the Word
I would create a list of 15-20 places where I believe my audience is hanging out, mostly other newsletters and podcasts. I would reach out and form relationships with these people to do guest articles and serve as a podcast guest. Give, give, give so they can’t afford not to pay attention.
I would also prepare a few sample speeches and start submitting to relevant in-person events.
Step 6: Write the Book
As I create my newsletter I would think about how I can take these newsletters and re-imagine them into a print, ebook and audiobook for sale. This will, ultimately, become my greatest marketing vehicle…the business card everyone wishes they had. Of course, I would use Tilt Publishing.
Step 7: Launch a product before I feel ready
By month 2, I’d offer something—a digital guide, a paid workshop, a 1-hour consult. Not to make money at first. But to get skin in the game and test what people will pay for.
Revenue doesn’t come from a viral moment. It comes from consistent service to a small, loyal group.
Step 8: Build in public
I’d document every win, fail, and lesson. Why? Because people don’t follow perfection. They follow momentum.
I’d most likely include my own creation strategies in every newsletter.
Step 9: Stack assets
By month six, I’d package my best content into a course I could sell forever. Not for viral growth. For long-term leverage.
Step 10: Diversify into second channel
By six to nine months, I should have a small but growing email newsletter following, a newly published book, a speaking event here or there, some podcast appearances, a couple small consulting clients and a newly launched course.
If the small wins are there, I’d diversify into a second channel, most likely a podcast, which could also be a YouTube show. More than anything, this would be marketing for the main channel, the email newsletter.
To conclude:
This plan will not go viral. It will not get me millions of views. But if executed correctly, it will gain financial freedom inside five years…the freedom to choose what I want to do and when I want to do it. It will make me free.
If you’re already creating, the question isn’t “how do I grow faster?”
It’s: If you had to start from scratch, what would you build differently?
That’s where your next move probably lives.
What do you think of this? I’d be curious of what YOU think I missed, if anything. Also, is this realistic? (I think it is, but again, I just had everything stripped away from me, so I’m in a bit of shock).