Media Company of One
By: Marvin Liao
Tags: Startup, Founders, Startup Lessons, Venture Capital, Silicon Valley

“Whether you like it or not, every person is now a media company. The tools are easy, free, and everywhere. More importantly, producing content is now the BASELINE for all brands and companies. It literally doesn’t matter what business you’re in, what industry you operate in, if you’re not producing content, you basically don’t exist.”

Gary Vaynerchuk wrote this in 2013. In 2020, this is more appropriate than ever. Look at the crazy career arc of super successful folks like Joe Rogan, Tim Ferriss, Tiago Forte, David Perell, Zuby, Hiten Shah, Anthony Pompliano or Eric Siu. They are in completely different industries but have attracted immense followings. I believe they provide a blueprint for how businesses will be built in the future. This is a content and audience-first approach to business building, what I call the “East coast” approach.

This is in contrast to what I call the “West coast” tech startup approach of “Build it & they will come” approach. In other words, the traditional Silicon Valley way of building the product first, then figuring out audience and distribution. This is an approach that when it works, it works well but it is now becoming outdated in my humble opinion.

Some universal lessons that we can take from their success.

They are consistent over a long period of time. Joe Rogan started his podcasts 11 years ago. Tim Ferriss started his 6 years ago. Pomp started on Twitter in 2017. They dominate one audience platform or format initially before moving to start on another one. Pomp started with Twitter in 2017, then a Newsletter in 2018 and then podcasting in 2019 which translated well into Youtube. Tim Ferris and Joe Rogan on podcasting and have predominantly been strong there. They started very small but kept going. They were prolific and regular. David Perell releases 2 newsletters a week consistently (monday and friday btw). Pomp literally tweets several times a day, he writes 5 newsletters a week, releases an interview almost every other day. Tim releases at least a new podcast interview every week. Joe Rogan releases new content every other day. I literally cannot keep with them. How many folks do you know who say they want to tweetstorm more regularly, podcast or blog more regularly? Yet you see them drop off after 5 posts or podcast episodes. This is quite common. You have to keep doing this for a VERY long time. You have to keep at this for at least 2 years in my opinion.

Why Should you do this?

Eric Siu: The benefits of creating a ‘one-man media company’:

- Defensible moat that insulates you from disasters

- Allows you to take shots

- Provides different income opportunities

- Gives you a stable foundation

(Source: https://twitter.com/ericosiu/status/1295372052854054912)

For all entrepreneurs, students and corporate execs, get working on your one person media company! It’s not too late and this will help you in whatever you end up doing. It is your “serendipity machine” as David Perell states. He goes further to say:

“It’s the best way to learn faster, build your resume, and find peers and collaborators who can create job and business opportunities for you.

Content builds on itself. It multiplies and compounds.

Day and night, your content searches the world for people and opportunities. Projects, mentors, speaking gigs, job offers, pitches, investment opportunities, interview requests, podcast appearances, and invitations to special events. It all starts with sharing ideas online.”

Now is the time!

Listen to this Newsletter: https://listencat.com/the-hard-fork-by-marvin-liao-podcast/