This opening 7-part Mini-Series is entitled: Online Strategies to Change the World.
01 - What Makes a Platform?
02 - Examples of Great Platforms
03 - Creating Great Content
04 - Systems for Audience Growth
05 - Welcome Email Subscribers
06 - Basic Income Strategies
07 - Advanced Income Strategies
TRANSCRIPT
This podcast is designed to help you become extraordinarily skilled in communication, especially if you are a Christian and a Culture Warrior—that is to say, an advocate of truth in whatever sphere you are able to have an impact.
This podcast will equip you to become even better than you already are at debate and persuasion, and at the moral reasoning that goes behind it.
I will help you craft your arguments. And more than that. I will help you build your public platform if that is what you desire to have.
Christians need to get off the sidelines.
I know you’re concerned about how far our society and our churches have been falling away from godliness.
You’re looking for a way to fight back, and it feels like you’re standing on the sidelines, not knowing what you can do beyond a fairly small circle of influence. It’s a helpless feeling, and this is not the way Christian life should be.
The idea of standing on the sidelines never seemed like a good option to me.
That’s why for years I’ve been going all in, learning by doing, and finding out what it takes to get a message to the world.
I’ve worked with some of the top voices fighting against the radical leftist trends, and I’ve seen what it takes to gain—and to keep—the attention of Christians across the country.
The truth is, there are not enough soldiers in this battle.
Here’s why:
Very few people have the vision for what it would look like to get off of the sidelines and become a soldier in this new and dangerous battle that churches and the society are facing today.
I’ve been there. Here’s what it takes to overcome that challenge. It’s three things:
You need a rock solid understanding of what your message is and how you will deliver it.
You need to understand and be able use the best strategic practices for attracting an audience.
You need a way to create income while you’re getting your message out. That way, your project can grow.
When you implement those three things, you will begin to have a greater impact. You’ll finally be off of the sidelines.
So this podcast is about theology and morality. But it is also about online business. Because there is a demand for truth. It is a great commitment to become a public champion for true ideas, and you should be getting paid to do it if you’re serious about having an expanding range of influence.
We’re going to cover how to craft your message and create and expand your online enterprise so you can get your message to the people who need it.
You CAN persuade people.
Prayerfully, you can play a part in bringing God’s truth to the world and in bringing fear and silence to those who stand against the truth.
And in this podcast you’re going to get a plan for how to do it.
We’re opening the podcast with a series of seven episodes that make something like a mini-course. I’m calling this mini-series Online Strategies to Change the World.
In these episodes we’re looking at how to create a platform, attract an audience, and get paid to make it grow.
If you have that in place, you will be in a much better position to fight as a culture warrior.
Here’s what you can expect in these first 7 episodes:
You’ll learn what it means to have a personal platform that is growing and that is also a business—so that you can get your message into the public sphere and create the impact that your message deserves to have.
What is a platform?
How do you attract an audience?
How do you make income with your platform?
Those are the main topics driving this first series of episodes.
Who is this podcast for?
It’s for the Christian culture warrior who is tired of feeling stuck on the sea shore, sitting there, looking out and wondering: “When will be my time to go out and do some good?”
You’re against the many false teachings taking over in the church. You’re for biblical faithfulness. You need to get off the sidelines.
And you probably don’t know how.
What you need to know is that there is a growing tool set—a growing set of best practices—that you can use to get a message out by growing your personal platform or helping someone else grow a platform that is communicating a message you want to support.
So what I want to do is show you what a personal platform is and how this kind of operation works, so that if you decide that you’re committed enough to create your own personal platform, you’ll know what the steps are and what the options are, and you’ll know where you are in that process.
And, in the event that you decide that you want to help someone else who is doing something similar, you’ll have a certain skill set that you can bring to the table. You may be wanting to be the main face delivering the message or you may be wanting to play a supporting role in this kind of project. Either way, imagine what this would be like: To be paid each week to do something of lasting impact—even if it’s just 5 hours a week or 20 hours—to be paid to be doing work to get a message that you believe in out to the world.
That’s something that a lot of us would just love to do. We spend a lot of our other time doing work that is only tangentially related to our overall goals of filling the world with Christians and with solid Christian teaching. So how much would it be worth it to you if you could know that this week you were going to be able to do some work that would get truth to more people? And even get paid to do that? (Whether you’re talking about being on somebody else’s team, or creating your own project.)
That’s why you should check out these episodes. They will give you an understanding of this important skill set. And if you’re a young person, these are the skills that, frankly, you cannot afford not to have. You need at least some awareness of this overall set of best practices, because these kinds of tools and strategies are going to become more common in the marketplace of tomorrow.
The Business of Influence
You’ve heard of influencers. You know about the book publishing industry. You know about the expert industry, the speaking industry, the online teaching industry. These are all growing. Whether or not you’re wanting to be part of one of these industries for the long term, you need to be aware that these industries exist and you need to have an understanding of at least some of the skills they require. My goal in this training is to equip you with a framework useful to you in a huge number of job fields moving forward.
This episode is brought to you in part by the Quick Win Workshop, where you will find Essential Training + A Personalized Roadmap To Grow Your Audience.
Your message matters.
The Quick Win Workshop is designed to:
Bring you the knowledge to grow your online platform.
Eliminate common mistakes to help you create a strong foundation in the right order that will take you to true success for getting your message out.
We’re so excited about what you’re going to get in this workshop.
It includes:
A personalized, tailor-made roadmap designed to grow your audience.
Self-paced, essential training.
Ongoing access to myself and other subject-area experts.
Membership in a private community of high-achieving practitioners.
The Quick Win Workshop is created to bring you the change you’re looking for.
If you already have a big idea, huge passion, and strong commitment, but you’re in need of a clear plan created for you with someone who has been there before, this is for you.
You will find each of the specific strategies and tools you need. But you'll get something more: In our complimentary 1-on-1 call, I will personally walk you through the simple steps that almost everyone misses early on and that form the essential foundation for your growth.
To join the Quick Win Workshop, click here.
We’re looking at how to impact the world with a message.
The framework is three parts:
What is a platform?
How do you attract an audience for that platform?
How do you generate income doing it?
I’m going to give you the highest overview level of answers to these questions.
This will be valuable to you, because, while there is no shortage of online training, it can be hard to get oriented to the overall ideas. There are tons of people teaching how to get great at this or that specific marketing practice, or this or that idea to try. But, to be useful, all that material depends on you already having a strong understanding of the overall model of what a platform is and of who would want to get starting making one and how they work, big picture.
I’m given you a sweeping view of the lay of the land. I want you to understand how the ideas you may have seen from this or that marketing expert are all different angles on a fairly unified, single set of best practices that apply to everyone involved in creating an online platform.
There are a ton of marketing experts who tend to focus on one or another aspect of marketing. For instance, you may have heard of:
Michael Hyatt: who focuses on productivity and goal setting and good business leadership
Don Miller’s StoryBrand framework to clarify your message
Amy Porterfield’s Online Marketing Made Easy
Pat Flynn’s Smart Passive Income
Ray Edwards, who helps you get great at copywriting
Michael Port, who helps you show up and perform
Bryan Harris, who helps you grow your email list
Jeff Walker, who helps you create a big event for a launch
Mike Kim, who helps you grow your coaching business
Grant Baldwin, who helps you grow your speaking business
And so on.
They are all selling specific frameworks, best practices, and concepts. They have differentiated themselves by saying “here’s my method.” But what they don’t always do is give you a practical orientation to the overall subject that you’re looking at. Namely, they are all using digital marketing through building a personality-based platform and an email list.
I want to show you how personal brand marketing, digital marketing, email list marketing, and social media marketing are all actually part of one thing. There is a set of best practices by which people are accomplishing their mission. So let’s dive in.
What Is a Platform?
A platform in this context is anything that enables you to get seen and heard.
That could include:
A tangible stage (if you're a pastor or you do any speaking, etc.)
A classroom space you teach in regularly (in person or online)
A Facebook group you manage
An email list you own (usually attached to a blog)
A website to which you contribute articles
A social media following (Facebook Fan Page, Twitter following, Instagram, YouTube, etc.)
Most marketing training presumes that the person has already looked at a lot of online marketing and understood how the idea of a platform works and how all the pieces fit together as a system that brings ideas to a market. That’s just not the case. We get marketed to all the time, but that doesn’t mean we’re aware of the mechanics of it all, or of the thought processes behind it.
Most people haven’t thought much about what a digital marketing sales funnel is. Still fewer know which tools they would use to create one—or how to write the words that would go within each piece of the funnel. If your main interest is in advocacy for the pro-life cause or in theology or some or another focus of ministry, it’s not your fault that you don’t know much about digital publishing and marketing. But if you’re thinking about getting involved in publishing content online, you do need a high level of understanding of the concepts. You need someone to show you what a marketing funnel is and the thought that went into making it.
A Call To Action:
Too many churches in America are lacking in discernment.
Do you find yourself wishing you could help?
Do you have a love for the Bible? And a desire to write to edify the church?
I hear every day from people who want to make a difference but don't know how to get started. To answer this need, I created Writers Write: The 5-Day Challenge.
This mini-course will jumpstart your goals by showing you how to write and communicate in a way that will have people saying “I care about that.”
Right now, listeners can get Writers Write: The 5-Day Challenge at a special 25% discount.
Get your message in front of people who will actually read it.
Don't miss out on this special deal.
Go to ChristianIntellectual.com/writers to get your 25% discount today.
Comparing Some Kinds of Platforms
When I speak of a marketing funnel, I’m talking about all the pieces that go into helping you find out about someone who is spreading a message. Have you heard of Ligonier Ministries? Have you heard of Josh McDowell? James Dobson? Lee Strobel? Todd Friel? Founders Ministries? Doug Wilson? AD Robles? Jon Harris?
These are Christian people or groups who have created online platforms in order to get out a message. Think back to how you first heard the name Sproul, McDowell, Dobson, or Strobel. It was probably on a book. How about Todd Friel or Founders Ministries or Doug Wilson? It was probably a post on social media linking to an article or video. How about AD Robles and Jon Harris? You probably discovered them on YouTube.
How did they do that? And how are they managing to continue doing that?
Marketing involves more than just creating a large body of content and putting it on the internet. For every online platform with a ton of great content that you (and a decent number of people) have discovered, there are a hundred other platforms that also have piles of great (or decent) content that has been discovered by almost no one.
Why?
The most obvious answers sound a lot like excuses:
They are well known!
They had a great publishing deal!
They had lots of connections!
They were super photogenic or great at commanding the attention of an audience!
They’re really good with social media!
They’ve been doing it for a long time!
They have donors and great budget!
Okay, fine.
But how did they get from not having those things to having those things?
I asked that question to a friend of mine in seminary once. He looked at me and said: “That is the question.”
If you have a message, and if you’re wanting that message to have an impact, it is right to start asking that question.
The thing to do at the beginning is to start noticing.
Pay attention to the fact that some people are sending you emails, and those emails are inviting you to click to get free videos and articles and to buy books and attend conferences.
How did they create that? What does that look like behind the scenes? That’s what you’re going to get in this training.
Alright that is a wrap for this episode. There’s much more to come. And if you’re looking for personal input on your project, please email me at Cody@CodyLibolt.com. I would love to talk with you.
Thanks for listening today.
God Bless.
Personal Mentoring with Cody Libolt
Discover the skills and up-to-date best practices to grow your audience in a way that creates income this month.
If you would like to set up a 20-minute call to share your goals and see if the program could be a good fit for you, click here.
