Note: I don’t review substandard books. I make time to read a lot, but I don’t have a lot of time to review books, so what I do share, I’m sharing because the book has been very influential and helpful to me in my life, and I believe it will also help others. If you want to become a thought leader these are must-reads.
Quick links/info:
- Buy the book >>
- My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
- My #1 book recommendation when it comes to thought leadership.
- Author Twitter profile
- Tags: Thought leadership, marketing, sales, selling, teaching, spreading the word, changing the world.
How to know if this book can help you:
- You have a message to share, but you’re not sure where to start.
- You are an expert in your field, and now you’re ready to be recognized as an expert in your field.
- You want to write a book, and you want to know how to build a following to help you market it.
- You want to change the world.
Review:
I read Michael Hyatt‘s book Platform for the first time in mid-2013. After reading it, I wrote a short review on Goodreads:
Great, practical book on how to promote your business. I just relaunched my personal blog and am going to do an experiment and try all his suggestions to see what happens.
It’s interesting for me to read these words, because I haven’t read them since the day I wrote them. I’m amazed when I look back at how my life has changed since 2013, and I owe much of it to reading Platform and applying what I learned from it. When I first read the book, here was the status of my platform:
- I had just barely started writing for Forbes.
- I had a few hundred followers on Twitter.
- I had perhaps 20 or so followers on my Facebook page.
- Nobody knew who I was outside of family, friends, and close business associates, i.e. I had very little influence beyond my immediate connections.
I wasn’t looking for Platform when I read it. That is, I wasn’t trying to become a thought leader. I didn’t even know what a thought leader was. I can’t remember why I read it, but once I read it I realized that my 13 or so years (at the time) as an entrepreneur running a digital marketing agency and having worked with hundreds of clients meant I had knowledge and information others wanted, and I wasn’t doing anything to share it. I also saw the potential in building my own platform to grow my business, increase influence with others, and help others maximize their potential.
Today, here are a few ways how things have progressed:
- I have no written upwards of 200 articles for Forbes, Entrepreneur, Mashable, TechCrunch, Venture Beat, Fast Company, Time, the South China Morning Post, TechinAsia, and a host of other publications and high traffic blogs.
- I have well over 6,000 followers on Twitter and it’s growing by 100-200 per month.
- I have almost 600 followers on my Facebook page (yeah, that’s not great, but I haven’t focused on it, either).
- I got a book deal with an established business book publisher.
- I now have people paying me to teach them how to be thought leaders.
- My business has grown by over 1,000%.
- I’ve had the opportunity to speak at events, sometimes getting paid for it, in Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai, Taiwan, and in multiple places in the U.S.
Most of all, I’ve been able to have the satisfaction of helping people grow great companies, and I’m having a blast doing it! Would any of this have happened without Platform? Perhaps. But I have no doubt I progressed much, much faster because of what Hyatt’s book taught me. If you’re looking to do what I’ve done, start with this book.
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