Lisa Johnson is speaking. She’s awesome, very approachable, speaking with the audience, not at us. She put out more content than anyone else in the marketing to women space and became the #1 consultancy to that market in 12 months. She says, “Small businesses have an opportunity: the big guys are getting smart fast, but those with content can compete with a $30MM budget.”

Some notes from her talk may spark a business-building idea for you right now:

“Find the Heat” — explore the edges of your field. Where would you have to go to be among the top four percent in your field?

• Example: Common Craft “swung on the pendulum.” Everybody is talking all techie about Twitter and all that — Common Craft went as low tech as possible to make it accessible for the masses.

“Revenue Quadrants” — how to monetize your services.

• Services – Lisa started here. Consultations were her only revenue stream. As she gained an audience, she couldn’t accept any more than one or two clients at a time.
• Live presentations. When she wrote a book, it opened a new opportunity. The new advance for a new book is $10,000 which works out to less than minimum wage once you’re done. You make about a buck a book, so you have to sell 10,000 books before you even break even. But it brought her credibility. She got asked to speak and threw out a number: $10,000 to speak. They said “yes.” And she found a new way to monetize her skills.
• Product Sales. She bought 5,000 of her own books at $7 and realized she could bundle the book in with her package.
• Advertisements/Affiliate Programs. “Content that sells the best helps people do something that they are sort of desperate to do.” After 2004, the #1 activity online became content overtaking communication (basically, emailing one another). What kind of content can you create that your audience would find valuable?

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