There’s something book publishers don’t tell you when you sign their offer on the dotted line: almost all the responsibility for promoting your book will fall on your shoulders. A lot of authors complain about this fact, as if it represents publishers shirking their duty or being lazy. I see it quite differently: authors are responsible for selling their book because they are by far the best positioned to do so.
It has now been 10 months since my first published book Building a Second Brain was released in June 2022. And over 4 years since I kicked off the project in January 2019. The book has been an astounding success by any measure. Here are some of the milestones I’m most proud of…
This research project started with a simple question that has crossed every author’s mind: How can I tell which books are successful? TV shows have Nielsen ratings, music albums have the Billboard Top 100, and movies regularly publicize their box office earnings, but not books. Bestseller lists like The New York Times are notoriously subjective, while more objective ones like Amazon and The Wall Street Journal only provide rankings, not raw numbers.
The Keystone Accelerator is back! Two years ago, I partnered with my top marketing advisor, Billy Broas. I said to Billy: “The marketing side of my business has been so important and so filled with powerful lessons. I want to teach online marketing to my readers, but I’ve got to stay focused on Building a…
I recently joined Jay Clouse, Founder of Creative Companion, on the Creative Elements podcast to talk about how Building a Second Brain went from a public rant to a thriving cohort-based course. We discussed: What drove the growth of BASB The classic email marketing mistake I made early on Why I decided to write a…
I was interviewed on the Propane Fitness podcast which helps coaches and trainers build their online fitness business. We covered: What is personal knowledge management? My journey from a content creator to coach and thought leader The biggest mistakes coaches make when moving online Why cohort-based courses are a great fit for coaches and trainers…
We encourage everyone who consumes our content and takes our courses to spread the word about Building a Second Brain – to share what they’ve learned, and to make their own contributions to the PKM ecosystem. At the same time, we need to make sure we protect the intellectual property we’ve invested in. That’s why we put…
When I started my professional career, I had only the most vague sense of how visual aesthetics related to business. I knew there were brands that I was inherently attracted to, such as Apple. And I had a fairly good sense for what was beautiful, from a childhood spent in museums and art galleries with…
It was the fall of 2005. I was a 20 year-old student at Saddleback Community College near my hometown in Orange County, California.
Over the previous year, I had exhausted nearly all of my college savings by attending one of the most expensive universities in the country, in faraway Washington D.C.
As soon as cohort 12 of Building a Second Brain finished earlier this year, my team and I sat down to start designing the next cohort. We looked at everything: Feedback from students Ideas for improvements saved in our notes New apps and features that have been released And our long-term plans for making this…
The online education industry is blowing up. Projected to grow by 247 billion dollars by 2024, online education is now known simply as “education.” Years’ worth of growth is happening in months as traditional institutions struggle to keep up and everyone from K-12 students to college students to professionals desperately seek ways to connect and learn…
I recently joined David Duncan to discuss his new book The Secret Lives of Customers which teaches the Jobs-To-Be-Done (JTBD) framework using the intriguing format of a detective story. The basic premise is that consumers “hire” a product (or service) to perform a certain “job” for them. I’ve used JTBD in my own business to figure…
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