This might not be the best question in an election year, but, trust me, this has nothing to do with politics. I was listening to former Thomas Nelson Publishing CEO, Michael Hyatt talking about his new book, titled Platform (to be released May 22). Essentially your platform is how you build and reach your following and how you get your information to the people who may be interested in it.
There are a lot of people out there, especially in the creative community who have great ideas, ideas that could really make a difference, except that no one will ever know about them. In the old days this was because they didn’t have the right connections to get the deals and get past the gatekeepers (more on this tomorrow). You had to wait to be picked, until your idea was deemed worthy and you could convince someone to invest tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring it to market. It was depressing and we had a right to be depressed. That is no longer the case.
The answer is in building your platform. Finding or creating your own channel to get your idea to the people it will bless or help. It’s not some crass sales gimmick, spamming or anything like that. It’s creating something of value and giving it as a gift, earning people’s trust and being a genuine benefit.
For example, this blog is a tool to build my platform. I give tons of free information away, create the videos, graphics, lessons and on and on all for free. I do this to serve God and to serve others. I receive no money for it and that’s okay, I’m not doing it for the money, I’m doing it to build and serve a community of people who want to use their gifts to serve the Lord.
As word spreads about the group, my platform grows. This is really important to me, more than anything because it helps me to fulfill my life’s calling and purpose, using my gifts to help people find and use their gifts to spread the Gospel and/or make a difference in the world to the Glory of God.
Yes growing my platform helps people to know who I am and may help me to get more speaking and other opportunities, but why do I want those opportunities? To help support my family? That is a consideration, but God has always been faithful with that. The big thing again is the larger the platform grows, the more people I can reach and help.
It’s great to have ideas and want to do great things. Part of faithfulness is building your platform so that you an actually do what you’re called to do with maximum impact, reaching and serving all who the Lord is calling you to reach and serve.
How are you building your platform?
