How To Build A Profitable Media Empire in 5 Simple Steps

I have a prediction about the future of entrepreneurship and brands.

I'm hardly a fortune teller, but I have a track record of building successful businesses based on my ability to predict trends.

With my first business, Bitmaker, I saw that there was a massive shift coming, and those trained in computer programming would be in high demand.

So I built a tech school to train specifically for this role, without the other university BS...

And it paid off.

90% of our graduates had jobs within 30 days of completing the program.

I was eventually able to exit the business for 8-figures.

Then I discovered this tiny cannabis "cookbook" website called The Stoner's Cookbook.

I knew that the cannabis legalization movement would only continue to gain steam, and within a decade or so we'd see mass adoption and legalization around the world.

So I purchased the website, rebranded it to Herb, and created the #1 cannabis community on the internet.

Now we have over 14 million cannabis lovers in our community, and the business just recently crossed $400k MRR.

All that to say - I'm pretty decent at predicting trends.

So here are my thoughts.

The global media and entertainment industry is worth $2.3 trillion.

You have extremely successful entrepreneurs talking about a shift in the marketplace:

"Attention is the new oil." - Alex Hormozi, net worth of $100M at 34

"The future belongs to content creators." - Chamath Palihapitiya, grew Facebook from 1M to 1B users, net worth of $1.2B

"Attention is the new leverage." - Codie Sanchez, runs a $50M portfolio of boring businesses

In addition, we're seeing influencers like Mr. Beast and Logan Paul making more than top-earning CEOs of successful businesses.

All this leads me to one conclusion.

In the decades to come...

The most successful brands will function as media companies.

They will have their own media empire.

And they will leverage the power of human attention and community to market and sell their products and services.

That's why I'm all-in on building my personal brand.

If attention is the new oil then your personal brand is the pipeline.

In 2022 I grew my online following by about 500,000 followers, and I've already seen a MASSIVE increase in opportunities and new revenue because of it.

In today's newsletter, I'm going to be sharing 5 Simple Steps For Building A Profitable Media Empire.

Leverage them to build your own empire and win your niche.

Before we dive in...

A core component of building a profitable media empire is the ability to grow a following.

Now, I'm not going to pretend that a big audience is the "magic bullet" for all of one's business challenges...

However, you HAVE to be able to get people's attention if you want to grow a successful brand.

Now, I'll be honest...

Most founders struggle to grow the following their brand deserves.

But it's not for lack of effort.

Like a car spinning its wheels, what's needed isn't more effort...

It's traction.

And a proven system for audience growth is the "traction" many founders are missing in their effort to build an audience.

In 2022 I added half a million new followers across my social media channels.

Just last week I had an Instagram Reel go viral, and I got 50k new followers OVERNIGHT.

I was able to do this because I follow a proven system for audience growth - honed over 12 years of brand building and amassing millions of followers.

I've distilled my proven audience growth system into easy-to-implement steps in my course Audience OS.

Audience OS takes away any guesswork or confusion you might have...

So you can start amassing a huge following FAST, and exponentially grow your brand.

"Since learning Matt’s systems I’ve grown my LinkedIn following to 25k, launched a podcast that does 2.5M downloads per month, and have surpassed my first $1M ARR in my new SaaS business." Steve Gatena - Founder of Pray.com

>>>Click Here To Start Growing Your Brand FAST

Now, let’s get back to 5 Simple Steps For Building A Profitable Media Empire 🪂

#1 - Make Your Game Plan

Now I know that if you're trying to build a media empire you might think that the first step would be "start posting online."

And while that makes sense...

It's the very reason many founders struggle to build an audience.

It might seem counter-intuitive, but the first step of building your media empire actually starts with the internal game plan.

Before you make your first post online...

You need to take some time to get clear on what your niche is.

Honing your niche is crucial because it allows you to stand out.

Attention is at a premium these days, and the easiest way to cut through the noise it by inventing your own category.

In the words of David Sacks, "The one who defines the category wins the category."

Define your category in 2-4 clear words, and then run with it.

If you need help nailing your niche, use the Ikigai exercise shown in the image below:

#2 - Determine Your Ideal Audience

On of the most common mistakes I see founders make is using a "spray and pray" method when trying to build an audience.

Not only does this method make it highly unlikely you'll actually build a following...

It's possible you could build a following of the wrong people.

We're not just trying to build a following for the sake of numbers...

We want qualified people in our audience that can actually take advantage of what we sell.

To dial in on the people you want to attract, you want to start with your ideal customer.

Take some time to figure out who you can best help, and reverse engineer your audience growth strategy from there.

Here are the target audiences for two of my brands:

#3 - Execute Your Content Creation System

Now that you have completed these 2 crucial components, it's time to get to work and start building the media empire.

How are you going to do that?

Content

Content is perhaps the most powerful way to build and audience for two reasons.

First, it operates as a magnet to draw in your ideal audience.

Like is attracted to like.

As you put out content geared specifically for your ideal customer...

People who resonate with what you share will start to follow along.

Second, it operates as a round-the-clock salesperson for your brand.

Once you post something online, people can engage with it anytime.

Even better, they can share it, which gets you in front of even more relevant eyeballs.

The best part is, you don't even have to be awake for this to happen.

I can't tell you how many times I've gone to sleep and woken up to find my content has gone viral and I've acquired a ton of new followers.

Long-term your goal is to be omnipresent online, however, you don't want to start out on 13 different channels.

Start with 2 platforms, and develop a content strategy to crush them first.

I recommend you pick 4 different types of content categories you'll talk about, and make those pillars for your brand.

Here are my content categories for Founder OS:

#4 - Monetize Your Audience

Once you've started getting traction with your content, it's time to make an offer to your audience.

But selling something isn't just to put some cash in your bank account.

Although that's a nice perk...

Selling something solidifies your position as the "go-to" expert in your niche.

It allows you to deliver something that blows people's minds and gets them hyped up and talking about you even more.

I talked about systems for brand and community growth for a while before I launched anything.

But as soon as I started releasing courses, my position as "The Systems Guy" quickly solidified in people's minds.

If you're not sure what to offer, there are 3 easy ways to figure it out.

• Pay attention to what people ask you for, and then create it

• See what topics resonate well with your audience, and create your product around those topics 

• Ask select members of your community what they'd like to buy from you

Once you've nailed your product, implement it immediately.

Here's a brief outline from how you can go from idea to "sold" with your next product:

1. Go buy a domain at GoDaddy

2. Use no-code tools to build a minimum viable product:

   1. Use Webflow to build a website

   2. Use Loom to record videos of yourself

   3. Use Kajabi to host a course

   4. Use Shopify for ecommerce

3. Use Stripe for payments

4. Get your banking set up using Mercury or Wise

5. Incorporate a company - I use Incfile

#5 - Iterate, Improve, Systemize & Scale

Building an empire starts with a single brick.

But if you only lay one brick at a time it'll take you an eternity to build anything.

It's normal for there to be adjustments within each of the steps above.

After all, we're working with people...

And people are hardly straightforward creatures.

However, once you've got things decently dialed in, it's time to ramp things up.

You should start implementing tools and systems that allow you to produce content at scale.

I use various tools, have different content creation systems (which I'll be sharing in a soon-to-be-released course) and I also leverage teams and outsource...

All to help me accomplish more.

Here are some of the tools I use to help speed up my content creation process:

There you have it, 5 Simple Steps For Building A Profitable Media Empire.

If you'd like to discover more about this system, I'm hosting a free live workshop in a couple weeks where I'll be going more in-depth into what I shared today.

You'll walk away with a solid plan to acquire 10,000 new followers and create the foundations of a 7-figure media empire.

To register for the training, just click here.

Also, if you're ready to take and run with what I've shared here today, I recommend you use my Personal Monthly Board Meeting template to help you stay on track.

(Here's a video overview of my Personal Board Meeting system.)

Take some time this upcoming week to plan out your future media empire, and then hit me up on Twitter with what you came up with (feel free to share a screenshot on social media and tag me!).

Let's win together 🥇

Matt

P.S. Whenever you're ready, there are 4 ways I can help you:

#1: I just launched a new YouTube Channel. I'm putting a ton of energy into creating heaps of valuable content that I think you'll like. Come check out my latest stuff, and give me a like and subscribe.

#2: Want to grow your audience and online business fast? Discover how to build a proven system for audience growth in just 2 hours here.

#3: Promote your brand to over 41,761 subscribers by sponsoring this newsletter (booking into April 2023).

#4: Follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn for more operating systems, marketing tips, and community-building systems.

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