+ the books topping my TBR pile this summer | #123
Big news from Joe Pulizzi this week – Lulu has acquired The Tilt and its Creator Economy Expo (CEX) event.
Lulu is a leading self-publishing platform that allows creators to publish and distribute books globally. They have been The Tilt’s biggest supporter over the last two years – sponsoring their newsletter, CEX, and third annual content entrepreneur research.
They are on a mission to teach authors about the business model of content entrepreneurship (beyond books!). Loads of educational material on their site – toolkit, guides, Lulu University and more. You can even make a magazine!
Good synergies between the two, and this move positions them perfectly as a leader in the creator space.
I’m blown away by this news. Wow. It’s a much faster exit than I expected – just two years since The Tilt launched, still a toddler—a speedy trip from Part 1 to Part 8 of Content Inc.
Congratulations to Joe and Pam, and the team. I’m excited to see how this will evolve and what opportunities it will bring with combined audience power. Lulu has come a long way since they published their first book in 2002.
Fascinating to see that a content business has acquired a content business!
It gives The Tilt resources to expand on education, research and networking opportunities (yes, please!). They’ve built an audience of 25k+ newsletter subscribers, which is important for an exit plan.
Just shows it’s never too soon to start thinking about exit strategies, even if you haven’t made much money yet. Because how you exit will affect how you build your business.
This is Joe’s third official sale of a company, and he says his goal is to continue doing what he loves and is good at and leave the business side to someone else. I get that. No more payroll!! Having employees can get complicated and expensive. I didn’t enjoy putting myself on the payroll when I had a limited company.
The Tilt & Lulu are launching a new imprint for content entrepreneurs – a hands-on service to publish your print book, ebook or audiobook.
If you’re thinking about self-publishing, you can express your interest here.
🔥WATCH/READ/LISTEN
I’ve been to see three films this week – British Summer!! Barbie and Mission Impossible are both excellent. Barbie is a masterclass in marketing. MI – a warning about the dangers of rogue AI…
I loved Talk To Me, the new indie horror from Danny & Michael Philippou, the daredevil twins from Down Under.
Something different. Gory, fast-paced fun. Wild punk energy and passion, with a great soundtrack.
I love how this movie came to be – read the backstory in The Ringer. They’ve racked up over a billion views on YouTube, and leveraged that to transition from social media to Hollywood. “We don’t want to be chasing the algorithm our whole lives.” [NYT]
Or have their work censored by a tech platform 👏
Another reason not to build your content home on rented land.
Talk to Me soundtrack
Nicky Blewitt is an author who runs a freelance collective of writers & publishers that supports new writers. They’ve launched a bursary scheme to support low-income authors. “We offer a free two-hour self-publishing and book marketing consultation.” Details here.
Sophie Rhone started her Digital PR business last year and has a podcast covering the creative industry – advertisers, marketers, and influencers. The first episode: The Art of Personal Branding, is now on Spotify. Send her some love and leave a review if you want to be a future guest.
Jennifer Phan, Co-founder & CEO at Passionfroot, is rocking Carousel posts on LinkedIn. I appreciate the time and research that goes into these and keep saving them to return to. Great resource. Here are 30 books EVERY creator should read to build strong content systems.
Tons of inspo here for your TBR pile this summer.
Recommendations for fiction welcome too – I need to lose myself in a good book.
“Jesse Cole’s presentation, linked to his book Fans First, was the best talk I have ever seen.” A takeaway from last week’s Creator Economy Expo in Cleveland, US, from Mark Masters, one of the most pioneering (and nicest) men in marketing I’ve ever encountered.
Mark is the founder of You Are The Media, a thriving and inspiring global community. He delivered a session on ‘Working Together’ based on YATM’s 2023 Creator Day. Read on for his top takeaways from CEX…
Here is more advice from the keynote stage and the latest content entrepreneur research. Exciting times!
YATM ‘Working Together’ Session at CEX
1. Four words from Ann Handley have stayed with me since returning, “homemade commands a premium.” With the acceptance of AI as part of our lives, it’s who we are, and the curiosity and figuring out in front of everyone is magnified. Our quirks and beliefs represent who we are and what we stand for, not the ability to find an answer quickly.
2. We don’t need to pursue BIG. Joe Pulizzi highlighted that success isn’t attributed to large audiences. From the new Creator Economy research, the average creator audience is 4K people across four channels. It makes us realise that the goal is never to achieve mass acceptance from strangers but to be relevant to the right people.
3. The goal for relevance and meaning is so important. This became a common thread – to create the work that matters. More content is not the answer. It’s knowing who is around us, finding ways to engage on a deeper level, and building spaces people feel a part of (Daphne Gomez and Jay Clouse highlighted what it means to nurture a space for the right audience).
4. Jesse Cole’s presentation, linked to his book Fans First, was the best talk I have ever seen. Engaging from the heart and sharing the proof (he even stayed afterwards to talk to people). His message was about valuing the people who step forward. We can’t treat the world as a transaction. The memorable moments mean something; this is why people stay. The ability to experiment and recognise that we don’t have the answers when we start is important. Experimentation lets us evaluate and become better at our work.
5. The work we create will always be replicated. Robert Rose’s message struck home when he shared that content provides zero competitive advantage. It’s the expression of our ideas that truly matters and why other people should care. The journey we accept matters, not the words on a page or the video we publish.
Thank you, Mark – hope your luggage has turned up!
Missed CEX? Get access to ALL the recordings, on demand, with a digital pass. Over 40 hours of keynotes and breakout sessions. Use code FOMO and save $100 here*.
Invest in yourself and your content business!
*My affliate link
Meet the Creator: Marianne Lehnis 👩🏻💻
Remote working in beautiful Madeira
Marianne Lehnis, Founder and CEO of The Green Techpreneur, is one of The Tilt’s 2023 Content Entrepreneur Awards finalists *trophy winging its way to the UK*
Tell us about yourself and why you started The Green Techpreneur
A little about me! I’m English/German but was born in India and lived in Ukraine for a while as a child… I have a multicultural background.
As a student, I remember someone asking me what I wanted to do, saying I’d like to work for Positive News and that I wanted to freelance. The seeds were there for being self-employed and building The GT, but I had no idea I would go on to create my own positive news platform or of the meandering journey leading up to it.
I started my career as a journalist but became disillusioned with the prospects in the industry after a couple of years and burnt out. So, in early 2018, I did something crazy – quit my job and moved to London with just £4K in savings. Through an unexpected series of events, I became self-employed.
But again, I had a niggling feeling of dissatisfaction. I was working on short-term projects and didn’t feel I was progressing or building for the long term. I wanted a scalable business that I loved, which made a positive impact.
When the pandemic broke out, life changed dramatically again. I launched The GT to combine my passion for sustainability and fascination for entrepreneurship and innovation while illuminating the leaders making extraordinary contributions to society.
Who are you serving? Target audience and niche?
Climate tech entrepreneurs and investors are my niche. My platform has evolved to help entrepreneurs with pain points, such as finding investors via a partnership with a marketplace platform. I’ll also offer several additional services, such as consulting for getting investment-ready via partners.
How did you get your first 1K followers?
In the beginning, I worked and put in time for every single subscription I had. When I first launched, I would commit time daily to DM people on LinkedIn with a friendly message and offer to sign up. That helped me test the idea, get early adopters, and confirm I had a product people were interested in – if I could get it in front of them.
Over time more subscriptions came in from cross-promotions on Substack and constant promotion on LinkedIn – sharing in relevant groups and including an ad to sign up in the comment section of most of my posts.
You’re doing all the creative work – research, interviews, writing, podcast, and social media. How do you manage your time and avoid burnout?
This is a great question. It’s been and still is a continual growth journey. I keep things as simple as possible. There are a thousand things I could and should be doing to promote the podcast, but for now, I focus on the basics and keep things lean.
I’ve learnt that establishing partnerships with companies serving the same niche but offering a different product is a fantastic approach instead of going alone or trying to create too many products/services.
We can’t succeed and bootstrap on our own. Actively look for collaborators. Build a tribe that cross-refers clients and cross-promotes.
Creation Vs distribution… how do you distribute your content?
I distribute my content primarily via LinkedIn because I’m B2B. Substack and cross-referrals bring consistent growth.
If someone could only read one of your interviews, which would it be and why?
I love so many of my interviews; this is tough to answer. Interviewing climate tech entrepreneurs has been wonderful as I meet many incredible mission-driven leaders with great mindsets and values.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve gotten on creativity and entrepreneurship?
Successful entrepreneurs have an 80/20% focus on sales compared to everything else.
Unsuccessful entrepreneurs have a 20/80% focus on sales/other work.
The focus on sales brings in the cash, which enables the business to lift off and extra work to be outsourced. If you spend all your time tinkering yourself instead of selling, you won’t make the lift-off.
But here’s the catch-22… you need to create an attractive product/service and establish credibility before selling. This can take time and experimentation. You need social proof and testimonials, but as soon as you’ve got a product you know the market needs… stop tinkering and sell, sell, sell.
Be an entrepreneur, not a tinkerer.
Any top recommendations for creators?
Listen to Brendon Burchard’s Daily Fire on the Growth Day app if you want to start your day with a bit of fire! 🔥
Exciting news. You were recently announced as one of The Tilt’s Content Entrepreneur Awards finalists. How do you feel?
I’m overjoyed! I have been a fighter for a long time, persevering in what has often felt like an against-all-odds odyssey. It’s lovely to feel like people have noticed and appreciated the result of my blood, sweat and tears and love the positive impact my business is bringing into the world.
It comes after winning an Innovation & Excellence Award for Environmental News Platform of the Year by Corporate Live Wire. It is a double confirmation that I’m on the right path, and it’s time to fly!
What are your plans for The GT in ’23? Where would you like to be this time next year?
I would love to have several more mutually beneficial partnerships with companies that are GT platform sponsors (if you or anyone you know would like to get your brand in front of climate tech entrepreneurs, get in touch!).
I’d love to have quadrupled my audience and have loads of inbound sales leads while outsourcing some tasks.
Coming up: Ellen Donnelly, Founder + Chief Coach at The Ask will share entrepreneurial career guidance and insight from YATM Creator Day 2023. Got a burning question about solopreneurship? Send it in!
Learn from some of the top minds in the creator space 🔥
Here’s an inside look at how 7-figure newsletters make money from Trends.co.
It’s packed with lessons they’ve learned from growing their email list to 2m+ readers and millions of $$ in annual revenue.
And the wisdom of many other successful newsletter publishers – from Morning Brew to Axios to AppSumo and more.
The goal is to demystify the newsletter business and teach you what works through a visual method they call ‘The Newsletter Engine.’
How to stand out, grow, profit, and influence like never before.
Thanks to Ethan Brooks, lead researcher, for your hard work on this. It’s an absolute gem! 🤗
It was meant to be a premium report for Trends subscribers, but the project was shelved when they got acquired by Hubspot.
Hubspot doesn’t need the money, so it’s now FREE for you to download here, in glorious PDF chapters – part 4 is just out.
I heard about it on the Content is Profit podcast (fun, high energy!) – listen to the 3-part interview with Ethan here. Scroll down recent episodes, and you’ll see them all.
One thing Ethan said blew me away: size doesn’t matter.
He mentioned a niche newsletter that’s turning over 6-figures with a 1K audience.
Farming? Nope. Fish? Nope.
It’s a newsletter for photo booth business owners. There can’t be that many of those!
The riches are in the niches. You will be the trusted source when “these people don’t have that many options.”
Good to start with content strategy. If you don’t have good content, nothing else will happen. Storytelling, personality, research and reporting. Your brand needs a heart and a soul to move hearts and souls – and to inspire and empower readers.
“There’s no growth hack or pricing strategy that can overcome bad content.” 💯
Know your niche and audience value (and get to 10K subs!!) before you even think about paid growth strategies.
Thanks to the Trends team for making this free and accessible.
What else? I’m working on my content diet because Inbox Hell. 30K emails 😱 I can’t get out of the abyss – calendar invites, press releases, newsletters, random links I send myself.
Send me your tips and I’ll include them next time – just found a fantastic tool that might save me!
I’m setting up a website for TS. Substack is great, but it sucks re SEO. I don’t see many Substacks on Google search. I want to get everything on to my own site and build my content library. SEO, search, opportunity.
As Joe Pulizzi says: “Don’t build your content house on rented land.”
Speaking of Joe, he’s offering a fantastic discount for the Creator Expo Show (CEX) in May. I have an affiliate code, but his deal is much better – you can get $200 off via his newsletter here.
I’m buying a virtual ticket, but next year it has to be in person. The magic happens in the room 💫
Submit your publication RSS feed to the Google Publisher Center. It’s an interface that helps publishers submit, manage and monetise their content in Google News through Subscribe with Google. Speaking of search and SEO – just done it.
Learn how to build an email list – a proven system for getting 1K+ subscribers from Brian Harris at Growth Tools. The strategy around newsletters and some promotion tactics. Long but worth it. A little challenge for the next eight weeks!
Read newsletters for newsletters. Yes, it’s meta, but if you run a newsletter, there are a growing number of places to find out what’s happening on Planet Newsletter—roundup from Paul Metcalfe, the founder of Lettergrowth and Newsletter Blueprint.
Join YATM Creator Day 2023 at Lighthouse, Poole, on Thursday 27 April. A day for direction focused on your content and message. Audience building, personal brand, creativity, biz growth and cheerleading. This time others are paying for (most) of it 😉
Nika Talbot 