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:
- Take only the offers that align with your end goals in life.
- Don’t forget to be prepared when that big opportunity comes your way.
- Small tweaks to your current system or process can make the biggest difference.
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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
- [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
- [07:27] – It went to the New York Observer and Huffington Post
- [07:44] – In 2 weeks, it was viewed 5-10M times
- [08:05] – Ben was not setup for that kind of experience
- [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
- [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!
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3) Podcasters’ Paradise: The #1 podcasting community in the world!