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.

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, 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 communication, 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.

A few years later, after reading the book The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone, 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

I’ve been blessed with more than my fair share of fortune for many years, but in thinking back, I’ve found that those two daily behaviors I mentioned have likely made all the difference: 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 in North America, the United Kingdom, and Australia (see http://cmi.media/CI-research for the full study).

Upon getting the initial results of the latest study, we looked deep into the data to see if we could determine what differentiates the great content marketers (those who state they are effective with content marketing) from everyone else. While many characteristics came to the surface, we only found 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.) (see Figure 1.1).

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

Figure 1.1 Elite content marketing organizations have a habit of writing down their plans and documenting their strategy.

Source: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs

So, of all the characteristics we looked at, these two actions made the most difference in determining content marketing success. It seems so simple, but the fact is that few marketers are doing these two things consistently.

From a personal perspective, these are the same two actions that made all the difference in my life’s successes, both personally and professionally.

DO THIS FIRST

Yes, this book is filled with actionable items on how to develop and execute your own Content Inc. initiative; but without setting 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 six goal areas in order. Here’s how to do it. Under each area, list at least two actionable goals with specific numbers and timetables. It doesn’t have to be perfect. The goals will change on an ongoing basis as you learn more about yourself. And most likely, if you are reading this book, those “career” goals may not be ready for show yet. No worries … you can fill certain areas in as you delve into the book.

AS YOU BUILD …

As you move into building a Content Inc. model, there are two critical things to start thinking about. The first is what the legal entity for the business should be. In our U.S. examples, it seems the most popular legal model is the creation of an LLC (limited liability company) taxed as an S corporation (see a professional legal consultant for advice on your situation). The second is hiring a virtual assistant. If you are going to make Content Inc. work for you, you need to be focused on the business. Offloading calls and scheduling to someone else is not a “nice-to-have,” but critical. Two resources to check out are Chris Ducker (http://cmi.media/CI-virtualstaff) and Jess Ostroff (http://cmi.media/CI-dontpanic), who both offer highly recommended virtual assistant services.

CONTENT INC. INSIGHTS

   Before you begin your Content Inc. journey, start with why. Why are you doing this? What do you want to achieve? Visualize who you really want to be.

   Write down and review your goals as often as you possibly can.

   Contemplate what you are really risking in your current position. Our view of risk is heavily shaped by what others think. Try to look at your situation objectively and determine if the Content Inc. risk is worth it.

Resources

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

Grant Cardone, The 10X Rule, Wiley, 2011.

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

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

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