When You Become the Product

A funny thing happens when you build a business around a specific talent, movement, or mission.

At first, people come for the idea. They come for the newsletter, the podcast, the event, the workshop, the book, the research, the community, or whatever wonderful little content product you’ve built in your home office.

Then, after time and consistency, something changes.

They want access to you.

Not in a weird way. Well, sometimes in a weird way, but that’s another article. They want access to the person with the point of view. The person who can make sense of the mess. The person who can tell them, “Yes, you are seeing this correctly,” or “No, you have some problems my friend.”

That’s when you know the trust is working.

But that could also be a trap.

The Access Business

​I saw this recently at Mark Schaefer’s Uprising retreat​. Mark has a clear mission, a strong point of view, and a specific experience he’s creating for the people who attend. But a big part of the value is access to Mark. People want to sit in the room with him, ask him questions, hear what he’s thinking, and be around the person who pulled the whole thing together.

I’ve watched Paul Roetzer do something similar over the years, moving from the digital agency PR 20/20 to Marketing AI Institute and now ​SmarterX​ (NOTE: I’m speaking at his Marketing AI event, ​MAICON​, in October. You should attend). Paul has built a smart, strategic business model around AI education and guidance. But at the center of that model is still access to Paul’s thinking. People want his read on the market. They want him to translate the chaos into something they can actually use.

Then there’s Colleen Vanderzyden, who I recently interviewed (her book, ​Courageously You​, is excellent for people who need a thinking kick-in-the-pants). Colleen does a very different kind of work, but the pattern is the same. People may come to her for readings, coaching, or guidance, but what they really want is access to her ability to see something in them they can’t quite see themselves yet. As she explained it, many people come looking for answers and discover they need to reconnect with themselves.

Different businesses. Different audiences. Same issue. The product is not just any product. The product is access.

I Know This One

This happened to me at Content Marketing Institute. I never totally understood why, but a lot of people wanted access to me. I was the founder. I had the orange shirts and shoes. I was talking about content marketing before everyone and it became a thing.

At first, that was great. Founder access builds trust. It creates momentum. It makes people feel connected to the mission. But if you’re not careful, it also turns you into the bottleneck.

Every question comes to you. Every big customer wants you. Every stage, podcast, article, and strategy session starts to point back to you. Congratulations, you built trust. Also, congratulations, you may have accidentally built a job you can never leave.

That is the access trap.

The Way Out

The way out is not to hide from your audience. But if people trust you, let them experience you. In a world of AI and faceless brands, human access is a massive advantage.

But access needs a design.

The first level is free presence. This is your newsletter, podcast, YouTube channel, webinar, keynote, live stream, or public writing. This is where people hear how you think. Video and audio are especially powerful here because they let people feel you before they ever buy from you. They hear your voice. They see your face. They decide whether you’re their kind of crazy. A good example of this was hearing from Colleen. If someone found her on Facebook Live or with a radio broadcast, they would generally contact her ready to buy.

The second level is structured experience. This could be a paid workshop, live briefing, mini-course, book club, small group session, or virtual event. The point is not to dump more information on people. The point is to give them a safe way to experience your thinking in a more direct way. Paul and SmarterX do workshops every week

The third level is group transformation. This is where the business starts to work. A cohort, advisory group, retreat, certification, mastermind, or coaching program can give people access to you without requiring unlimited access to you. This is where you stop selling random time and start selling a journey. This is exactly what Mark has done with his Uprising annual event, now six years strong.

The fourth level is premium access. This is private coaching, advisory, VIP days, consulting, or strategic work. This should be limited and priced accordingly. If someone wants your direct attention, that’s fine. Just don’t give away the thing that drains you the most at the price point that makes you resent your calendar. This is what we did with Content Marketing Institute, where people would get one-on-one access with Robert Rose or myself on a regular basis.

Stay or Sell?

This is where you need to be honest with yourself.

Do you want to stay inside the business forever, or do you want to build an asset that can someday live without you?

There is no wrong answer. Some people love being the center of the business. They love the calls, the retreats, the coaching, the stage, the audience, and the access. Wonderful. In that case, don’t remove yourself. Protect yourself. Put your presence where it creates the most value.

But if you want to build something you can someday sell, the job is different. At some point, the market has to trust more than you.

That was one of the big lessons from CMI. I knew I didn’t want to run it forever, so we had to move trust from me to the business. Lisa Murton Beets became the trusted voice around our research. Michele Linn became a trusted editorial leader. Robert Rose became the strategic guide for so many of our customers and community members. The event became bigger than any one person. The brand became bigger than the founder.

That did not happen by accident.

If you want to build a sellable asset, you have to shine the light on other people before you need to. You have to let the audience trust the team, the framework, the process, the community, and the brand.

If you want to stay, build a business where access to you is the premium feature.

If you want to sell, build a business where access to you becomes less necessary over time.

Either way, make the decision now. Because if people trust you, they will want access to you.

That’s the gift.

And if you don’t design for it, that’s the trap. P.S.: ​A reminder that I’m giving away my book, Burn the Playbook, for free​. Please share it with a friend. I’m finding more and more parents are reading this and then sharing it with their kids.