What Your Platform Gains by Showing Up for the Long Haul
Building a platform is a journey. As your life progresses and evolves, your platform goes with you. And this is a good thing. We all get better as move forward.
When you continue to show up, investment over time yields unbelievable results.
Platform Is a Journey
The word “platform” invokes a strong, immovable structure. A well-crafted and strategically sound platform is certainly an immovable force, designed to withstand the unpredictable. But part of what makes this platform business so effective is that it’s personal.
Platform is a reflection of the person who is building it.
Life is in motion. In this regard, your platform both roots you and moves with you. Over time, this journey will only strengthen your platform and provide more value to your audience.
1,000 Blogs and Beyond
Over the course of his platform, Michael Hyatt has written thousands of blogs and experienced the ups and downs first hand. He’s felt creatively empowered and defeated. He’s loved writing and resented it. But all along he’s kept going.
What started as a blog is now a multi-million dollar business that helps people all over the world to win at work and succeed in life. And it all started because he kept writing.
That’s what we want you to do. Keep writing, keep creating. These are seven specific benefits you will encounter when you stay on the platform journey:
1. Blogging will clarify your thinking. This is the single biggest benefit of blogging, and why many people—Michael included—start doing it. In a strange way, you really don’t know what you think about a subject until you have blogged about it. Writing helps untangle your thoughts.
2. Blogging builds platform. Not that long ago, a platform involved having a radio or television show, a bestselling book, or a highly visible speaking career. It took money, fame, or both. Today, blogging makes the visibility required to succeed available to everyone.
3. Blogging leads to new opportunities. You will network and make new friends. You will open up new revenue streams, both directly and indirectly from your blog—advertising, product sales, speaking, consulting, etc. It will even provide the raw material for several books.
4. Blogging helps you engage with your tribe. From comments on your blog posts to social media chatter around promotion, you will get to know your readers will you provide near-instant feedback. It’s a symbiotic relationship: as you add value to your audience, your audience’s engagement will make you a better creator.
5. Blogging creates a treasure trove of content. Your past or unfinished content provides a priceless archive of future creative material. Past blog series can serve as the foundations of future books, online courses, a new season to your podcast, and a lot more.
Try Platform University!
Want to give Platform University (your one-stop shop for building an online audience) a spin? Get your first week of Platform University for just $1. Cancel anytime. Try Platform University for Just $16. Blogging establishes authority and expertise. It used to be that you had to get a Ph.D. or write a book to establish your expertise in a subject area. While these are still valid paths, blogging provides a third alternative. When you show up over time and lend valuable leadership to a topic, people will begin to see you as an authority. Eventually, they’ll come to you first to see what you have to say.
7. Blogging benefits others. It is the perfect way to share what you’ve been given. When you use your blog to curate valuable information or share what has been helpful for you, you lift up and encourage others. Do this because it’s good to be generous, but also know that in doing so, people will respect and admire you for it.
While these seven benefits specifically reference blogging, this applies to any craft you bring to your platform (podcasting, vlogging, public speaker). It’s like math: investment in your craft over time equals a life-changing journey. Stay on it.
