Written by: Vickie Sullivan | June 30, 2015
How Platforms Are Born
Many thought leaders know that the tools of our trade — books, speaking, online stuff — are only as good as the platform we build. If that underlying theme resonates with our marketplace, we create a community that can’t get enough of our brilliance.
Unfortunately, many of us develop the platform backwards. We focus on our gifts and what we want to do. Don’t get me wrong — we need to know what we offer. But perhaps that’s a mere consideration in building the best platform, not the focus. Perhaps the platform is about the people we serve.
Exhibit A: This Fast Company article about Mike Rowe, the dirty-jobs guy. He may not have intended to build a platform celebrating the everyday worker, but look at how the platform found him. And once he represented a message outside himself, look at how the opportunities came to him.
Moral of Mike’s story: your platform appears when you do your best work. Next step: as you give your gifts, sit back and ask yourself these two questions:
- What message do I personify?
- What do I celebrate?
Those answers can lead to your best platform.
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