Simplicity, Focus and Diverse Revenue – #103

Savannah Bananas Owner to Keynote at Creator Economy Expo

A few months ago I read a book about someone who changed the entire formula of what building a business looks like.

That book was called “Fans First” by Jesse Cole, owner of the Savannah Bananas baseball team.

The Savannah Bananas are a self-proclaimed baseball circus.

I’m over the moon excited that Jesse will be our closing keynote speaker at Creator Economy Expo (CEX) May 1-3, 2023 in Cleveland, Ohio.

If you create content and want to meet, talk with and learn from content creators just like you, find a way to CEX.

I’d love it if you can join me to watch Jesse and 40 other amazing speakers. Use code JOEVIP to save $600 total off the regular price (ends January 27th).

$TILT Coin Is Dead

Any of you wonderful people who owned $TILT coin already know the news that $TILT coin, my social token, is no more.

I have a confession to make. We built the $TILT coin Web3 model on rented land.

Yes, me, Joe Pulizzi. I’m the one that speaks at conferences all over the world telling content creators and brands not to build their audiences solely on social media, or “rented” platforms.

$TILT coin was amazingly successful. We became the #1 social token by coin supply and support volume on the Rally.io network for a year running thanks to The Tilt community that supported our experiment.

But sadly, Rally informed us that they could no longer support their token marketplace, and we were given advice to, basically, get out while we can.

This whole experience has been gut wrenching for me personally and I sincerely apologize to each one of you for the time and money you put into $TILT coin.

That said, I learned so much and have met and talked to so many wonderful people because of $TILT coin.

I describe the entire affair in my latest podcast episode (listen here).

image courtesy of DALLE-2

Simplicity

As some of you know I’ve been testing out LinkedIn as my key social media network for 2023.

One person I’ve been watching is Justin Welsh. Justin is a solopreneur who learned to drive attention and revenue from LinkedIn in a very short period.

His process is so simple it’s crazy.

LinkedIn: 2x per day
Twitter (tweets): 2x per day
Twitter (threads): 1x per week
Weekly Newsletter: 1x per week
45 minutes per day interacting on LinkedIn

That’s it.

In less that two years Justin has become a millionaire plus through a few hours a day of focus.

It reminds me of a statistic I use in my keynote speeches from Content Marketing Institute. Basically, the average company creates and distributes content 13-16 different ways. Tweets, blogs, webinars, research, events, newsletters, oh my.

In essence, we try to do all the things.

We need to remember that to be truly strategic we need to say no to almost everything and an emphatic yes to a few things.

I believe Justin has the right model.

– A specific focus: helping solopreneurs drive digital revenue.
– One controlled channel: email newsletter.
– Two social media channels: LinkedIn and Twitter.
– Expanded reach: comment regularly on 10 to 20 key accounts where your audience is hanging out.

Done and done.

But Diverse Revenue

So whether you work for a big company or are a content entrepreneur, we want to focus on fewer channels (at first) and become amazing at them through sheer focus.

This is not true for generating revenue.

Let’s just look at the average individual for a second. According to Entrepreneur magazine, most people make money in very few ways. Individuals who collect a salary from a business generally have one or maybe two sources of income (their paycheck and possibly an investment account). Perhaps you know many people in this situation. They go to the same job every day, work to pay off their bills, and don’t have much left for savings or investment after each month.

Millionaires, on the other hand, have multiple sources of revenue coming in, whether that’s through multiple businesses (and multiple products and services within those businesses), real estate transactions, countless investments and more.

Think about your situation. I don’t care what kind of job or career you have, how many ways you bring in money is a big deal.

For example, as a content creator, you can generate revenue through:

  • Consulting/coaching
  • Online courses/workshops
  • Print and audiobook sales
  • Affiliate marketing
  • Speaking fees
  • Membership programs
  • Advertising
  • Live and virtual events
  • Subscription fees
  • Merch sales
  • Sponsored content
  • Donations
  • Products
  • NFTs

I’m probably forgetting a few, but this is a good starter list.

Before we sold Content Marketing Institute in 2016, most people thought all our revenue came from our event, Content Marketing World, in the form of attendee fees and sponsorships. At that time, we also generated a significant amount of consulting fees, paid email rental, digital sponsorships, webinar programs, and even book sales.

The formula is about being focused on your content and distribution, and diverse with how you bring in revenue.

Our research at The Tilt goes into quite a bit of detail on this topic. Click here for free access.

NFT Turnaround?

You all thought NFTs (non-fungible tokens) were dead, right?

Well, think again.

On our 2023 This Old Marketing predictions show, I made the bold prediction that the first sign of a crypto comeback would be in the collectible NFT market (you can listen here…it was a super-fun episode. We reviewed our 2022 predictions that were horribly wrong.).

If you look at the top NFT rankings on Opensea (Opensea is the largest NFT marketplace), the major NFT collections have not only held their value over the past few months but are gaining traction. CryptoPunks and Bored Apes are holding up really well (much better than any other cryptocurrency) and OG NFT collections like Chromie Squiggles by Snowfro have gained 50 percent in the past 30 days.

We have also started to see more interest in our own NFT project, CEX Never-Ending Tickets (less than 40 are left at this point).

Don’t get me wrong…we are a long way to restoring confidence on the crypto side, but I believe the greatest Web3 projects of our time are being created at this very moment ($TILT coin not included).

Your Family Mission Statement

In all the talk about personal and career goals, sometimes we forget about creating our own family mission statement. Our family has had a mission statement on our wall for well over a decade now.

The mission statement is our family purpose. It’s what we strive to be today and in the future. I believe that mission statement has been crucial to our family’s success and happiness.

Here is what it says:

The Pulizzi Mission
As Pulizzis, we hold true the following with ongoing purpose and action:
We thank God every day for our blessings, even on days when we are challenged or face hardships.

We always share what we have with others and help out whenever we can to whoever is in need.

We praise each other, as we are each blessed by God with unique talents.

We always finish what we start, always try even though we may be afraid, and always give the activity of the moment our full attention.

Short version:
Thank God. Always Share. Say Nice Things. Give Our Best.

The best part? When visitors come into our house, they notice and almost always comment on our mission statement. It’s one of those little things that make a difference.

Maybe you can work on yours for 2023???

And…as you read this I’m on family vacation with the kids. My hope for you is to spend as much time as possible with your family in 2023.

“Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun.” – Marcus Aurelius

Much love!
Joe

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