Part 1 – The first session of the conference
The Platform Conference took place on November 9, 10th and 11th 2014 at the Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
My platform conference review will hopefully inspire you to check out Michael Hyatt, his conferences, books, and products, so that you can grow your blog, platform and authority considerably. I am not associated with him or an affiliate but would certainly consider becoming one. I did have the pleasure of shaking his hand and giving him a copy of my book. Hopefully a little blogging fairy dust rubbed off on me.
Recently, Forbes magazine named him one of the Top 10 Online Marketing Experts To Follow In 2014. Not too shabby.
Michael is one of those people that you can feel in your heart is genuine. He is all about sharing and helping, along with a very healthy method of monetizing his endeavors.
In addition, the quality of the people at the platform conference was unusually high despite the very reasonable ticket price. There were a lot of people that do charitable and faith filled work with the money they make from their platforms. It’s an inspiring tribe. At the end of the conference many contributed and raised over $60,000 for http://worldteacheraid.org/.
Here is what the Platform Conference costs
The Platform Conference speakers
I wish I had signed up for Platform University or the signature or master level ticket, but they were sold out by the time I made my decision. People that worked with Michael at the preconference workshop got an extra five hours of hearing him speak in a relatively small group.
The speakers, many of whom I knew of, such as rock star Facebook expert Amy Porterfield, are top-notch. These are people that have proven success stories and large followings and platforms.
Theme of the conference
In terms of the overall theme, the speakers all supported the idea that with a platform and a blog/content strategy, you can attract more clients via your authority and search engine rankings, sell more products, and improve your quality of life.
Experts and authorities that do not have a platform, email list of followers, or customer based and engaged fans, tend to have a much slower path to success. My first book, Web Marketing On All Cylinders, has helped me immensely, but I truly need to work even more on my platform/blogging.
The Sunday night session about growing your platform, was a solid overview of platform building as a concept. Michael shared that there are now 400 million blogs, 1.5 million books published a year, and more user generated content put on YouTube in the last 60 days than the first 60 years of content made for TV!
So the playing field is crowded but the rewards are great. You will become a high visibility expert in control of your ability to influence and increase sales.
Michael’s five quick steps to build your platform are:
- Start by wowing your audience because your positive or negative reputation depends on it. Google can also pick up on your reputation…
- Prepare to launch by accepting responsibility for whether your marketing/content activities succeed or fail. No excuses. Set goals that are measurable and assemble a team or pit crew to help you.
- Build your “home base” or in other words, make your website the center of all of your Internet activities. Your social media accounts and other activity are like embassies and outposts that should drive people back to your home base.
- Expand your reach and traffic by sharing your content extensively on social media and appearing as a guest on other high quality blogs.
- Engage your tribe in a dialogue, not just a monologue.
Just do it
Michael mentioned that “perfection is the mother of procrastination,” so don’t be like one of the 4 million manuscripts a year that collects dust in people’s closets and never makes it to print. Be more like Google who rolls things out in an almost permanent beta stage and perfects it as they go.
Stay Focused
Another great quote that he mentioned was, “a man who chases two rabbits catches neither”… So you have to stick to your plan and stay focused.
Write down your goals
Clarity accelerates your momentum towards your goal and writing down your goals is one way to start that process.
In a study by Dr. Gail Matthews, a psychology professor at Dominican University in California, they found that writing down your goals makes you 42% more likely to achieve them.
Starting a blog
Creating a blog is easier than you might think, but it takes real persistence to start a blog that gets tens of thousands of visitors a month or more. I read an awesome post this morning about how some of the top blogs got started that you should definitely check out.
I was truly inspired by Michael’s story. He started a blog from scratch and then was able to quit a very high paying job as the former Chairman and CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, the seventh largest trade book publishing company in the U.S. He did this in order to build his platform.
Michael’s blogging stats
- 2004: 110 unique visitors a month
- 2005: 225 unique visitors a month
- 2006: 450 unique visitors a month
- 2007: 700 visitors a month
- 2008: 20,000 visitors a month
- 2013: 347,000 visitors a month
- 2014: 450,000 visitors a month!
Even the wife of Rand Fishkin, the founder of Moz / SEO guru, had the following two-year purgatory before her blog reached its inflection point. Apparently there is no longer any fairy dust that you can sprinkle on your blog other than great content, outreach and hard work.
Sadly, most people quit before the inflection point. Don’t be that person. Do small things consistently, such as blogging once a week for big wins, without fail.
Michael then went on to say that you should be timely, personal and relevant. He used examples of thought leaders and companies who have created tribes such as Dave Ramsey, Apple and Harley-Davidson.
If you are generous and add value, occasionally you can pitch your products and/or services. Michael uses a ratio of roughly 20 to 1 when it comes to giving helpful content and then asking for something in return, such as downloading his e-book.
Michael closed by saying, “don’t over think and just get started.” He also asked the question: “what would a platform make possible for you?” Feel free to share what a platform and more authority would make possible for you in the comments below.
Stay tuned for more Michael Hyatt platform session reviews.
