Joe Pulizzi is a success on many fronts. As an author, he has written several Amazon-bestselling books, Content Inc., Killing Marketing and Epic Content Marketing. He has also written the award-winning book The Will to Die, which was named the “Best Suspense Book of 2020” by the National Indie Excellence Awards.
As an entrepreneur, Joe Pulizzi has also found success all around. He has already launched four companies, including the Content Marketing Institute and The Tilt, as well as a charity foundation, The Orange Effect, an organization that provides “speech therapy and technology services to children in over 35 states.”
Likewise, Joe Pulizzi also co-hosts the podcast series This Old Marketing, along with Robert Rose. As a marker of its success, the show has been downloaded millions of times by listeners from more than 150 countries.
Due to his success, Joe Pulizzi has been considered “the leading evangelist for content marketing.” He made a name for himself through his passionate belief that “there was a better way for brands to market than how they’ve done it in the past.” To realize this belief, he founded the Content Marketing Institute.
Joe Pulizzi has been featured in several outlets as an author and speaker, which includes SXSW, The Wall Street Journal, Fortune Magazine, IBM, and Disney.
Check out more interviews with marketing innovators here.
What we did differently is focus everything on the needs of the audience. Joe Pulizzi
Jerome Knyszewski: What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?
Joe Pulizzi: What we did differently is focus everything on the needs of the audience. Every blog post we wrote, every tweet, every LinkedIn post was focused on how this small piece of communication could help our audience in some way.
This became our saving grace since the only thing we had after the first three years were 10,000 blog subscribers. Without those, the rest of the business never would have happened. With those 10,000 subscribers we were able to secure some early sponsorships that kept the lights on while we worked toward the larger revenue opportunities, like our big event.
But it really hit home when we had our first in-person event in Cleveland, Ohio. We were honestly hoping we could attract 150 marketing professionals to come to Cleveland. It was amazing when over 600 showed up. I was able to talk to most of the attendees, with many conversations resulting with them in tears about how much impact we had made on their lives and their jobs. I had no idea how our content approach had such an amazing impact on our future customers.
Jerome Knyszewski: Often leaders are asked to share the best advice they received. But let’s reverse the question. Can you share a story about advice you’ve received that you now wish you never followed?
Joe Pulizzi: I’ll give you three. I reached out to a few people before starting the business. I also did hours of research online. I was told 1) don’t hire your friends or family, 2) make sure you find a suitable office location and 3) hire the right people and don’t use contractor relationships.
Initially I tried to follow this advice, but ultimately (and thankfully) we went the opposite way on each of these. First, the majority of the people we worked with were our very close friends, and still are to this day. Second, we decided to have a virtual office environment, which, at the time, no one did. Third, we didn’t hire anyone directly and, by the time we sold, worked with over 50 independent contractors. Each of these three were critical to our success.
Success doesn’t happen overnight, and a leader needs to plan for that.
Jerome Knyszewski: You are a successful business leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
Joe Pulizzi:
Patience. Success doesn’t happen overnight, and a leader needs to plan for that. When we started the business in 2007, we planned for success to take five years minimum. My wife called it the bologna and ramen noodle years. We cut back on everything from a financial perspective to survive the marathon. I know most entrepreneurs want to see immediate success, but it rarely happens that way.
Understanding your skills. When I initially started the business, I believed I was good at operational functions and details. Couldn’t have been further from the truth. It took a number of friends and team members to help me realize that was not my strength. From that feedback, I put together a list of what I thought I was good at and what areas were not strengths, and then shared it with a number of people. Then, I made sure anything I was not good at I stayed far away from. Maybe the best decision I ever made.
Goal setting and exit strategy. Some people find it hard to believe, but I wrote down my exit plan in 2007, even before we had a dollar in revenue. I wrote under my long-term goals that I would “sell the company for $15 million dollars in 2015.” Do you know how ridiculous that sounds? The people I shared it with thought I was crazy. But I read that goal every day to remind myself of what we were shooting for.
We sold it for $20 million in 2016.
Jerome Knyszewski: Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?
Joe Pulizzi: Read your written goals every morning when you wake up and every night before you go to bed. Burn out happens, but if you focus on why you are doing this, and what the big goal is at the end of the day, everything runs smoother. Plus, when you read your goals before you sleep, your brain works wonders during the night and makes for a more productive next day.
This seems so obvious, but it’s the little things that matter.
Jerome Knyszewski: What are the most common mistakes you have seen CEOs & founders make when they start a business? What can be done to avoid those errors?
Joe Pulizzi: Many founders feel they have to have their thumbs on every part of the business. That leads to control issues, which can take a lot of the decision-making power away from your team. The best advice would be to hire smart people and let them run their projects like it was their own company. As a leader, ask your questions. Listen, don’t tell. Let them do their job and get out of their way.
If, at the end of the day, team members feel ownership over what they do, it will ultimately be successful.
Jerome Knyszewski: In your experience, which aspect of running a company tends to be most underestimated? Can you explain or give an example?
Joe Pulizzi: This seems so obvious, but it’s the little things that matter. The uplifting texts to team members. The instant messages. Taking time to celebrate when someone does something good (not amazing, just good). Taking time to relish in the wins.
The most underestimated skill is communication. The check ins matter. The weekly emails doing updates and praising team members matter. Do you know how many workers out there never get praise for their jobs? The majority. People just want a little appreciation. When it’s done consistently, they will run through walls for you.
The most underestimated skill is communication. Joe Pulizzi
Jerome Knyszewski: You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Joe Pulizzi: My oldest son was diagnosed with autism at a very young age. Even at the age of three he could not verbally communicate. Consistent and aggressive speech therapy did wonders (he’s in college today and is amazing).
We were lucky we could afford speech therapy services (plus my wife was a social worker in her first life). But through the process I found out how many families cannot afford speech therapy and are forced to go without it. What a tragedy.
While there are many amazing organizations that research autism and apraxia (and they do great work), there is not enough attention on how we get speech therapy services for families who can’t afford it.
In 2014 my wife and I started the Orange Effect Foundation. Since that time, we’ve been able to deliver over 5,000 hours of speech therapy to more than 200 children in 35 states. But we’ve only scratched the surface. We need more passionate individuals to get behind this cause so that these children have some chance of being whoever they want to be in life.
Jerome Knyszewski: How can our readers further follow you online?
Joe Pulizzi: I’m at JoePulizzi.com online and @JoePulizzi on Twitter. I just wrote a free book on how business leaders can grow during the Pandemic at CoronaMarketingBook.com. My latest book, Content Inc. — Start a Content-First Business, Build a Massive Audience and Become Radically Successful (with little to know money) comes out in May, 2021.
Jerome Knyszewski: This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this!
