#003: Chris Guillebeau — How to Spark a Movement and Build a Readership (and Make Money Doing It)

So you've started a blog, written a book. What next? How can you find your first 100 readers and grow that to 10,000 and beyond? Chris Guillebeau talks about how he grew his audience, one by one, from zero readers to thousands hanging on his every step. He's authored multiple New York Times bestsellers. And today when he launches a new book product or even an event, it sells out instantly. Join us for our conversation with Chris Guillebeau about becoming a disciplined writer, building a global community around your work, and making it as a full-time writer.

ABOUT CHRIS

Chris Guillebeau is the author of seven books. His first book, The Art of Non-Conformity, was translated into more than thirty languages. His second book, The $100 Startup, was a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, selling more than 700,000 copies worldwide. His newest book, The Money Tree is all about finding fortune in your own backyard. He’s also built Side Hustle School, a wildly popular podcast with more than 2 million monthly downloads, to help people create a new source of income without quitting their job.

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SHOW NOTES

[03:04] Chris talks about his secret to getting an NYT review

[04:28] Chris talks about his relationship with role models and the people that inspire him

[07:39] The core components of being a writer, and the importance of serving others

[10:36] Discipline as part of being professional and how doing things every day is sometimes easier than doing them less frequently

[13:53] The abundance mindset and why this is important

[17:16] Chris talks about what it's like transitioning from doing book tours to doing everything online during the pandemic.

[20:28] How to allocate time to finish different projects without feeling overwhelmed

[22:25] Chris talks about where he generates more income

[27:02] Chris shares his thoughts on monetizing his works

[29:21] How to build and grow an audience

[32:47] Blogging before vs now

[34:26] Chris shares his approach when it comes to talking about a difficult subject

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QUOTES FROM CHRIS GUILLEABEAU

“A guiding value has always been — there's gotta be something I can do today to help somebody … it could be highlighting other people's projects. It could be like doing whatever you can to get someone else to have attention or whatever it is.”

“The other secret about the podcast is it would be easier for me, or it's easier for me to do it seven days a week than it would be to do it like three to five days a week. Like if it was like Monday, Wednesday, Friday, it would be harder than every day because every day it has to happen, right. Whereas if it's on like a staggered schedule, it's like, oh, you just kind of get off the rhythm.”

“And so the only thing you can do is take more hits or try, you know, like you take more chances. That quote about, like, to be luckier…I'd like to have more luck, take more chances”

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“Most of the time I'm not selling anything. Like most of the time, it's like for months or years go by without doing much. The podcast is free. The blog is free. Other stuff is free. I'm not really working on trying to build out that part of the online business. So I guess when the time comes to launch the book, I don't hesitate to push it a little bit because I mean like I said, I know that that's going to help people, and then I know it's going to help me as well.”

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“...[A]nybody who joins my email list, that person has chosen to give me like their most valuable asset, which is their time and their attention…As much as possible, I want to build individual relationships with those people… And so for the first 10,000 people that joined over the course of, I don't know, two years, I wrote to each one of those people. Not just like an autoresponder, but I wrote an actual email to those people, and said, “Hey Matt, thanks so much for joining”, you know, “Hope you like it. Let me know what you're up to.” … [I built it] one by one.” 

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SELECTED LINKS FROM THE EPISODE

Connect with Chris Guillebeau

Website: https://chrisguillebeau.com

Twitter: twitter.com/chrisguillebeau

Instagram: instagram.com/193countries

Gretchen Rubin & The Happiness Project

Seth Godin

Tim Grahl

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com

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CREDITS

Production by Victoria Spooner. Artwork by Emma Winterschladen

For show notes, transcripts and to attend our live podcasts visit: podcast.londonwriterssalon.com.

For free writing sessions, join free Writers’ Hours: writershour.com.

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