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The Number One Ranked Writer on Medium.com in 2016 is Our Guest Today, Benjamin Hardy

Benjamin Hardy is one of the top writers at Medium.com. He has over 120,000 email subscribers. His work is featured at Fortune, Forbes, Inc., Fast Company, and others. He is a foster father of 3 kids and is finishing his PhD in Organizational Psychology.

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Resources Mentioned:

  • Your Big Idea: Successful Entrepreneurs have One Big Idea. Follow JLD’s FREE training & you’ll discover Your Big Idea in less than an hour!
  • Audible – Get a FREE Audiobook & 30 day trial if you’re not currently a member!
  • YouTube On Repeat – Ben’s small business resource (Sorry! This link was active when this episode was first published in 2017. This resource is no longer available.)
  • The Biology of Belief – Ben’s Top Business Book
  • Ben’s website
  • Connect with Ben on Medium

3 Key Points:

  1. Take only the offers that align with your end goals in life.
  2. Don’t forget to be prepared when that big opportunity comes your way.
  3. Small tweaks to your current system or process can make the biggest difference.

Sponsor

  • DesignCrowd: Post your design project on DesignCrowd today and get a special $100 VIP offer! Visit DesignCrowd.com/fire and enter the discount code FIRE when posting your project!

Time Stamped Show Notes

(click the time stamp to jump directly to that point in the episode.)

  • [00:56] – In 2016, Ben was the #1 writer for Medium
  • [01:04] – He’s a year from finishing his PhD
  • [01:25] – Him and his wife are fostering 3 kids whom they plan to adopt
  • [01:48] – Having foster kids pushed Ben to grow traction in his writing career
  • [01:59] – He recently signed a big contract with Hatchette Book Group for a book
  • [02:11] – They plan to move to Orlando
  • [03:02] – In April 2015, Ben published his first post on Medium
  • [03:11] – Ben bought his domain in Feb 2015, and started posting on his blog
    • [03:40] – He had a horrible WordPress theme!
  • [03:49] – He published his articles on Medium
  • [04:01] – From April to June, he wrote about 20 articles including guest posts on low-level, personal development blogs
  • [04:19] – He took an online course on how to guest post, pitch, and how to write headlines
  • [04:31] – Within 2 months, he had a viral article
  • [04:50] – Ben’s metrics were actually flat, but rose with his viral post
    • [05:27] – It was successful because Ben introduced concepts and a style of writing that was high-calibre back then
    • [06:10] – It was a list article backed with science
  • [06:25] – Ben used Medium as a platform to leverage
  • [06:51] – He wrote very raw articles
  • [07:13] – His viral post had 2M views within a few days
  • [09:21] – Ben shares a similar story of a kid who watched Ben’s video
    • [09:57] – At the end of 2016, the guy had a viral article and he went from 0 to 100K email subscribers
  • [10:31] – It would have been nice if Ben had a good website before he became famous
  • [11:16] – Everyone’s response to success is different
  • [11:20] – Ben began writing for The New York Observer for a few months, and then he stopped
    • [11:55] – He made great friends at The New York Observer
    • [12:16] – His subscribers didn’t increase
    • [12:35] – New York Observer didn’t have the same style as Medium
  • [12:47] – Ben wanted to grow a platform that he could leverage
  • [13:19] – Ben went back to Medium
  • [13:53] – He re-published his articles from The New York Observer to Medium that led him from 3K to 20K subscribers
  • [14:49] – Ben plateaued for the first half of 2016
    • [15:06] – He made a few tweaks that gained him 20K new subscribers in a month
    • [15:38] – Ben believes he plateaued because he was not setup to receive those subscribers
    • [15:48] – He learned that he needed to have a straightforward call-to-action at the end of each article
    • [16:19] – Once he changed his infrastructure, it allowed more growth
  • [16:44] – What is the one thing you are most FIRED up about today? “A lot of it is just collaborations”
  • [18:02]– The Lightning Round
    • What was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur? – “I just did not have the level of urgency to learn the technology side”
    • What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? – “Do what is right, let the consequence follow”
    • What’s a personal habit that contributes to your success? – “I put first things first”
    • Share an internet resource, like Evernote, with Fire Nation – YouTube On Repeat (Sorry! This link was active when this episode was first published in 2017. This resource is no longer available.)
    • If you could recommend one book to our listeners, what would it be and why? – The Biology of Belief – “it shows that there’s so much new science out”
    • [21:02] – Connect with Ben on his website and on Medium
  • [21:40] – Learn to republish your content
  • [22:06] – Ben republishes his articles every 6 months

Killer Resources!

1) The Common Path to Uncommon Success: JLD’s 1st traditionally published book! Over 3000 interviews with the world’s most successful Entrepreneurs compiled into a 17-step roadmap to financial freedom and fulfillment!

2) Free Podcast Course: Learn from JLD how to create and launch your podcast!

3) Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 podcasting community in the world!

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