CHAPTER 1

BEGINNING WITH THE END IN MIND

Goals allow you to control the direction of change in your favor.

BRIAN TRACY

I went through a fairly long period of not feeling successful, though in hindsight it’s more accurate to say that I didn’t really know what success was.

I graduated from Bowling Green State University (just south of Toledo, Ohio) with a degree in interpersonal communications. My major had been “undecided” until the beginning of my junior year. The only reason I chose interpersonal communications is that it was the only degree I could pursue that would allow me to graduate on time.

As I came close to graduation, I felt like sports marketing was something I’d be good at. I was lucky enough to get an internship with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the professional basketball team, after graduation. But after finding out that all the money went to the players (the operations team works very long hours for very little pay), I decided to go to graduate school.

With two weeks left before fall semester, someone dropped out of the teaching assistantship program at Penn State University, leaving an opening for yours truly. I taught four semesters of public speaking and ended up with a master’s degree in communications.

Overeducated and underexperienced, I traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, to find a job. After sending out seemingly hundreds of résumés with no luck, I took the master’s degree off my résumé and started to do temp work. After a few monthlong work engagements, I landed a full-time job at an insurance company working on internal communications projects.

Shortly after starting my new job, I read the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. It made a huge impact on how I defined success and what I really wanted to do with my life. Though I read the entire book, cover to cover, there was one powerful passage I felt particularly compelled to remember: “Opportunity has spread its wares before you. Step up to the front, select what you want, create your plan, put the plan into action, and follow through with persistence.” It was then that I started to set goals for my life.

Next I read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. The second habit listed is “Begin with the End in Mind,” which means “To begin each day, task, or project with a clear vision of your desired direction and destination, and then continue by flexing your proactive muscles to make things happen.” And it was then that I started to write down my goals for the first time.

After three years and a few promotions at the insurance company, I left for a new opportunity at Penton Media, then the largest independent business-to-business media company in North America. It was there that I expanded on my education, learning the world of media, marketing communications, and corporate content creation. It was at Penton where I learned the power of listening to an audience and became familiar with the various business models that made media companies work.

In March 2007 I decided to leave Penton Media (where I was vice president of custom media) primarily because I didn’t feel I had any real influence over the direction of the company (one of my written goals was to have influence at whatever job I was currently in). So I left and started what was to become the Content Marketing Institute.

In that same year, research conducted by Dr. Gail Matthews from Dominican University of California showed that people who wrote down their goals, shared with a friend, and sent weekly updates to that friend were on average 33 percent more successful in accomplishing their stated goals than those who merely formulated goals.

So I started to share my goals with others; but more importantly, I reviewed those goals on a daily basis. That’s right—every day I would read my goals, making sure I was staying on track.

I separated my goals into the following six categories:

•   Financial goals

•   Family goals

•   Spiritual goals

•   Mental goals

•   Physical goals

•   Philanthropic goals

The difference in the direction my life took from that point on is beyond remarkable to me.

TWO ACTIONS AND THEIR IMPACT ON A CONTENT INC. APPROACH

Two daily behaviors have made all the difference for me: writing down my goals and consistently reviewing those goals.

Why am I telling you this, and what does it have to do with content marketing and this book? Well, in this case, everything.

Every year, Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs release an annual benchmark study on the state of content marketing around the globe.

I wanted to know what separates great content marketers from those who are not successful. While many characteristics came to the surface, there are two critical differentiators. Great content marketers do two things differently from the rest:

•   They document their content marketing strategy in some way (written, electronic, etc.).

•   They review and refer to the plan on a regular basis.

These two actions make the most difference in determining content marketing success. It seems so simple, but the fact is that few marketers do these two things consistently.

Whether it’s personal or it’s business, the same two critical behaviors rise to the top.

FROM GOAL AREAS TO ACTIONS

Creating goals is one thing. Developing actions around those goals and removing the clutter so you can actually complete the goals is an entirely differently thing. Now it’s time to start. I call this goal-setting process the “Three Rs”: record—repeat—remove.

•   Record. Document your desires.

•   Repeat. Review them consistently every day.

•   Remove. Distance yourself from the clutter in your life so you can be successful.

RECORD

“Record” means that you document your desire. Depending on what research study you look at, about 3 in 100 people actually write down their goals.

Let’s say you were going to build a house. If we treated building this house like we do building our lives, we would just call the contractors, the electrician, the plumber, the concrete guy, the drywall team, and the roofers and have them get in a huddle and figure it out.

Can you imagine the chaos of building a house without a plan? But that’s what we do with our lives. We don’t plan for our desires to come true.

In the 1930s, Napoleon Hill interviewed 500 high achievers including Ford, Roosevelt, and Carnegie to find out why they were so successful. He found, actually, that the key similarity for these high achievers was incredibly simple. They wrote down their desires.

But what kind of goals and desires?

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett says: “If you are going to try to bat 1,000%, you won’t accomplish many things of importance. If you’re willing to strike out a few times, you can change the world.”

So we’re not talking about small goals here . . . we are talking about I’m Gonna Change the World goals. I want my goals to be big and unreasonable. The problem is that some might feel overwhelmed at this prospect and not do anything.

Big Goals Are Accomplished Through Everyday Habits

I use the HabitBull app to keep track of my habits so I can accomplish my goals. For example, one of my past goals was to write my first novel. So I thought about what habits would get me to that goal.

What do writers do? They write. Every day.

So I set a goal to write at least one hour every day. For three months solid I wrote at least 1 hour for 44 consecutive days and finished the novel.

So take the big goal, in this case finishing a novel, and write that down in the present or past tense—as if you are actively doing it or you’ve already achieved it:

I Finished My Novel in 2019.

Then add the habit that will help you accomplish the goal so you can measure it:

I Finished My Novel in 2019 by Writing One Hour Every Day.

Boom! That’s all it takes.

REPEAT

What do we mean by “repeat”?

Every day both in the morning and in the evening, we are going to review this goal. We are going to take about 1 percent of our day—less than 15 minutes—to review our desires—the plan for our mental house.

In a study published by Dr. Phillipa Lally and coauthors in the European Journal of Social Psychology, 96 people over a 12-week period reported their efforts to change their behavior and habits. They each chose one new habit and reported each day on whether or not they did the behavior and when the behavior became automatic.

Some people chose simple habits such as “drinking three bottles of water a day” or “skipping desserts.” Others chose more difficult tasks such as “exercising for 15 minutes before dinner.” At the end of the 12 weeks, the researchers analyzed the data to determine how long it took each person to go from starting a new behavior to automatically doing it.

On average, it took 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic.

This is exactly why you have to review your success goals every day over a long period of time. You have to condition your mind to believe that the goals are attainable. And that helps motivate you to do the habit that leads to the successful accomplishment of your goals.

Here’s the big idea most people just don’t get. The most important thing in accomplishing your goals is to believe that it is possible. You don’t need more money, skills, abilities, or a better job.

Once you can condition the mind to your goal, your day starts to shape itself.

For me, to be a novelist, I needed to write. Reviewing that goal multiple times per day made sure I was motivated to do the writing, every day.

REMOVE

In order for record and repeat to work, we have to clear away the garbage that is stopping us from accomplishing our desires.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates didn’t really want to meet Warren Buffett. He did not think they’d have anything in common. But at the urging of Washington Post editor Meg Greenfield, they met on July 5, 1991. Gates was nervous, dreading the meeting.

Greenfield gave both men a sheet of paper and asked each to write down the one word that is their key to success. Both, as it happened, wrote down the same word: focus. The two became best friends.

To be successful, we need focus, we need discipline, and we need to remove the distractions around us.

Put Away Your Phone

A few months ago someone asked me to take a coffee meeting with him. He said he had some very important business model questions for me and thought I could help. We met at Panera Bread on the west side of Cleveland.

I sat down and put my coffee on the table. He sat down and put his coffee on the table—along with his phone just to his left, face up. Throughout our chat, he kept looking at his phone. Instagram, Twitter, Messenger . . . all kinds of notifications. Clearly, he was not paying attention to our conversation.

Whenever I see people with a phone—face up or face down—next to them during a meeting, I already know they have a focus problem.

After a bit of back-and-forth, he asked me, “What’s the first thing I should do? I told him to take his smartphone and throw it in the garbage.

Lack of Time?

“I don’t have time to accomplish my goals.” I hear this all the time.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American watches three hours of television per day. That’s 1,100 hours per year.

Let’s say that’s you and you’re blessed enough to live to be 80 years old. That means you’ll dedicate almost 10 years of total time to watching television. That’s like turning the TV on when you’re 30 and never moving until you are 40. A lost decade.

What if, instead of watching television (or whatever else you do to kill time), you filled it with meaning?

Record—repeat—remove . . . the simplest of formulas.

DO THIS FIRST

This book is filled with actionable items on how to develop and execute your own Content Inc. initiative. But without setting a direction for your life, what good will it do?

I’ve seen so many smart entrepreneurs start with a business idea they think will change the world, only to fail many months later by not having their priorities straight.

Your work begins now. Before you embark on this journey with me, you need to get your goal areas in order. Here’s how to do it.

Under each area, list one actionable goal with specific numbers and timetables. It doesn’t have to be perfect. And most likely, if you are reading this book, those “career” goals may not be ready for show yet. No worries. You can fill areas in as you delve into this book.

WHAT YOU ARE RISKING WITH A CONTENT INC. APPROACH

When I left my “real job” to start a business, countless friends and family members voiced their concerns.

“Are you sure you want to take that big a risk and leave a secure job?”

The question was understandable. I had a young family with two small kids. Heck, even my friends who were entrepreneurs and business owners questioned my move from a six-figure salary and solid benefit package.

The problem was, as cushy as some may have thought my position, I had virtually no control over what the company did or did not do. I’m not sure if my position was at risk, but my job seemed awfully risky, benefits and all.

WHAT CAN YOU CONTROL?

If you’ve ever read any of Robert Kiyosaki’s books (from the Rich Dad series), you may see risk a bit differently than most. Here’s an overview:

If you cannot make a phone call or send an email that will directly influence how a company is run, then investing in that company is like gambling at the casino.

I have investments in the stock market. I own stock in Amazon, Google, Apple, and others. But to be honest, since I cannot call the CEOs of these companies to influence change, these investments are risky to me personally. Whatever you think about investing in stocks, if you have no control over what decisions are made, you are just playing the odds that some companies, for whatever reason, may perform better over time and increase in value.

PULLING THE GOALIE

Malcolm Gladwell never had a rule for living until he read a review paper by Clifford Asness and Aaron Brown titled “Pulling the Goalie: Hockey and Investment Implications.”

Pulling the goalie is a hockey reference. In a 1931 hockey match, the Boston Bruins trailed the Montreal Canadiens 1–0. With a minute to play, Bruins coach Art Ross pulled his goalie out of the game and inserted an extra attacker. The game ended without any additional goals, but Art Ross gets credit for the aggressive coaching move. Today the move is used all the time, generally still with just a minute or less left in a match.

Asness and Brown did the math on the maneuver. They found that pulling the goalie was indeed the proper move, but that coaches weren’t nearly aggressive enough. The authors found that, in actuality, if a team is down by one goal, the coach should pull the goalie at the 6-minute mark. If a team is down by two, it should be the 11-minute mark.

Crazy? Perhaps. Pulling the goalie increases the odds that the other team could score four more times! But (and this is a big but) the team only loses a little when the other team scores. The team was already losing, so losing by three or four, rather than two, doesn’t change things; it’s still a loss.

At the same time, the tactic almost doubles the chance of scoring, because of the extra attacker. The math says that it’s the right decision—and that hockey coaches are way too conservative.

The paper goes into detail about why the coaches are reluctant. The findings? Math (the correct decision) usually takes a back seat to how our actions look to other people.

This is exactly the reason we fail to reach our goals. We keep the goalie in the net for extra defense. For safety. According to the people you hang out with, it’s the right thing to do.

Take the job with benefits. Select the college major that could get you a job instead of something you truly love. Never launch a Content Inc. business, because people will call you crazy. We make decisions based on what we think will be socially acceptable or offer the least amount of risk. This is bad math.

When I left that executive position in 2007, my friends and family thought I was risking too much and said so to my face. I can only imagine what they said when I wasn’t around.

My belief was (and still is) that there is way more risk in working for a company. You don’t have control over what the company does or how and when it gives out benefits. Working for someone else almost always puts a cap on your earning potential and overall freedom.

I did the math. The math said leave. Every “sensible” person said stay.

And the math worked out really, really well for me. (More on that later.)

What is the math telling you about your Content Inc. approach?

The worst case? People will think you are crazy. People may look down on you. They may talk about you behind your back.

The best case? You fulfill every one of your dreams. You win and keep winning until you’ve won everything.

Time to pull the goalie.

RESOURCES

Asness, Clifford, and Aaron Brown, “Pulling the Goalie: Hockey and Investment Implications,” March 1, 2018, accessed August 10, 2020, https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3132563.

Clear, James, Atomic Habits, Avery, 2018.

Covey, Stephen, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Free Press, 1989.

Gannon, John, “The 15-Minute Morning Routine That Is Already Changing My Life,” TheMuse.com, accessed September 22, 2020, https://www.themuse.com/advice/the-15minute-morning-routine-thats-already-changing-my-life.

Gladwell, Malcolm, Revisionist History, episode 27, accessed September 12, 2020, http://revisionisthistory.com/episodes/27-malcolm-gladwell-s-12-rules-for-life.

Goalband, “18 Facts About Goals and Their Achievement,” accessed September 22, 2020, http://www.goalband.co.uk/goal-achievement-facts.html.

Hill, Napolean, Think and Grow Rich, Ralston Society, 1937.

Huddleston, Tom Jr., “Bill Gates: ‘I Didn’t Even Want to Meet Warren Buffett,’” CNBC.com, accessed September 22, 2020, https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/08/bill-gates-i-didnt-even-want-to-meet-warren-buffett.html.

Kiyosaki, Robert T., Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Plata Publishing, 2000.

Lally, Dr. Phillipa, Cornelia H. M. van Jaarsveld, Henry W. W. Potts, and Jane Wardle, European Journal of Social Psychology, July 16, 2009.

Matthews, Dr. Gail, Dominican University Goals Study, 2007, http://www.dominican.edu/academics/ahss/undergraduate-programs-1/psych/faculty/fulltime/gailmatthews/researchsummary2.pdf.

The Smarter Brain, “Warren Buffett’s ‘3-Step’ 5/25 Strategy,” accessed September 22, 2020, https://www.mayooshin.com/buffett-5-25-rule/.

US Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Television, Capturing America’s Attention at Prime Time and Beyond,” accessed September 22, 2020, https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-7/television-capturing-americas-attention.htm.