00:00 Welcome to own your impact. The podcast designed to help you transform your expertise into a platform of purpose and influence. I'm your host, Macy Robison, and I'm here to help you uncover your authentic voice, create actionable frameworks and build a scalable platform that turns your ideas into meaningful impact. 00:21 Have you ever put your heart and soul into building a social platform only to have the algorithm change overnight and people disappear? Or maybe you've experienced the panic of wondering what would happen to your audience if your favorite platform suddenly disappeared? I hear stories like this all the time. Just recently, a coach I know I'll call her Elena. Woke up to find her Facebook group of 15,000 members completely gone, five years of work, connections, content vanished without explanation. Today, we're talking about why this happens and how to prevent it from happening to you. We're exploring the third component of the resident thought leadership system, central platform. This is your home base, your digital home base that you completely own and control. Think of it as building on land you own, rather than renting space that someone else controls. When you have a solid central platform, you're no longer at the mercy of social media algorithms or platform policies. You have a permanent home for your ideas that appreciates in value over time, you have the chance to build something that lasts. So by the end of our conversation, you'll understand the three essential components every effective platform needs, and you'll have practical steps to start building your own digital home base, even if technology is not your strong suit. So if you're ready to stop building on exclusively borrowed platforms and create something that truly belongs to you. Let's dive in. 01:43 We've already talked about uncovering your core resonance, developing your content, your transformational IP. Now you need somewhere to take it. You need a stage that truly belongs to you. Like I've said before, I think of this system as being similar to a singer's journey. Your core resonance is very much like the singer themselves, their unique voice, their style, their presence. That means that transformational IP, that content is the song, maybe sometimes they cover other people's music, but that original composition that is theirs, their signature song, their signature framework, their signature IP, expresses their unique perspective, but to reach an audience beyond those in the same room, a singer needs amplification, a microphone that captures their authentic voice and projects it outward. And that is exactly what your central platform can do. And actually, it serves as both microphone and stage. Like a microphone, it captures your pure signal directly from the source, preserving the authentic qualities that make your voice distinctive. Like a stage, your central platform provides the space where your performance comes to life, where you and the audience can connect in a shared experience, this dual function, capturing and showcasing that's what makes your central platform so essential. It's the only place in your entire thought leadership system, where your message can be transmitted with perfect fidelity, just like you intended it to be received. Because I'm sure you've experienced this scenario, or someone you know has, I guarantee someone you know has spent years building a following on Instagram, and then meta changes the algorithm, and your engagement plummets overnight, or your follower count never changes. Or you finally master Twitter, and then it becomes x, and everything you know about the platform changes. Or maybe you built a YouTube channel only to have shorts become the focus and your long form content gets buried. And let's not get even started on the Tiktok roller coaster. Is it banned? Is it not banned? I don't even know what's coming next with that. 03:39 So in the story that I mentioned about Elena, that coach who lost her Facebook group. Unfortunately, it's just not unique. I hear similar stories all the time from thought leaders, influencers, experts, whose platforms have become undermined by algorithm changes, account shutdowns, platforms becoming irrelevant, or even just like glitching out for the day. The painful truth is this, when you build exclusively on borrowed platforms. You're building on rented land, and just like a physical rental property, the landlord can change the rules or even evict you without warning. You're subject to their algorithms, their moderation policies, their business decisions, and none of those are designed with your interest in mind. They're designed to make them money. Your content brings eyeballs so they can sell ads. So not only are you at the mercy of their platform, you're making money for them, hopefully for you too, but that central platform, that true influence, is what really helps you build something that lasts your own digital home base that you control completely. 04:38 So what makes up a central platform? There are three essential components that I think every thought leader needs. First, you need your foundational assets. These are the basics that you think of when you think of a central platform, a digital home base, the things, again, that you completely control. So your domain name. I know that doesn't seem like a foundational asset, but domains are digital real estate, and you need to. Own if you can not only your name or a version of your name, whether you use it or not owning it, matters, but any kind of URL or phrase tied to your unique, proprietary intellectual property, your website infrastructure. You need to own your website. You need to own your email list. Now you'll use an email service provider to send that email out, but that email list is something that you own and can take from place to place, your brand identity and assets and your content management system. So all of those things are the foundation. They provide stability on which everything else is built. That the absolute minimum you need to create a platform you truly own. 05:37 Second you need a system to connect to your audience. We'll talk about connection in our next episode. But you need a way to connect to your audience. You need a system to do that. It's not just about technical systems that do that, but you need to think through how you're going to invite new audience members in to your stage, and how to build relationships with existing folks who are already there. So we do that by creating lead capture mechanisms that feel natural to you, nurture sequences that deepen the relationship you've built through email, progressive engagement paths that meet people where they are, you need community infrastructure eventually to connect and direct communication channels of some kind that cannot be filtered through an algorithm. Most likely that's email, but that could be a text. There are other ways to directly communicate with your audience. That system is what transform casual visitors into engaged community members who are there to gather to hear from you. Without it, you might own your platform, your website itself, but you won't be able to build meaningful relationships at scale, if that's something you would like to do. And then third, you need an original content hub. This is where your voice lives, permanently, gaining authority, gaining impact over time. This looks like a structured IP library that organizes your wisdom, whether that is in the form of blog posts or podcasts, or a place where people can come learn from you about what you do, media assets that capture your teaching in various formats, a content distribution system of some kind, like a podcast, like a blog that shares your message architecture that helps people find what they need. It needs to be organized through tags, through categories, and then figuring out how to make sure you keep your content updated. So it's relevant that content hub is the heart of your thought leadership platform. It's where people can discover everything you create, organized in a way that facilitates their transformation. So let's look at two successful thought leaders and how they have built their central platforms, Marie Forleo. Marie Forleo has built her platform around her natural teaching style and her unique perspective. Her central platform isn't just a place to host her courses, it's an extension of her personality, values and teaching approach. Now if you've never heard of Marie, Marie has a massive course that she launches once a year called B School, and it helps you start your own business. Her Foundation assets include a really distinctive brand identity that captures her energetic style. She has an audience connection system that features multiple entry points for different audience segments. She has Marie TV that starts on YouTube and pulls people into her website. She has very committed B School participants that she continues to cultivate a relationship through email with and then her content hub. If you go to her website, there's a lot of stuff there. There's a blog going back for years that links to her different episodes of Marie TV. She has a podcast that is the audio version of that. She has a whole bunch of stuff that guides you to engage in her programs, and it's a beautiful website. But really, what makes it effective isn't just as the professional design itself, but how perfectly aligns with her core resonance. You know, she is really great at teaching and speaking every element of that platform, including her lead generator, which is an audio training she has had for years. She has other lead generators and other things you can download, but the primary one when you click the call to action button on her site. It's an audio training on how to get what you want that she has used for years. Every single element, the content organization, the user experience, all of it reflects her natural communication style and her teaching approach. Let's look at someone else, Seth Godin. Seth Godin has a completely different but equally effective style. He has a daily blog that became the centerpiece and is the centerpiece of his thought leadership. He has a daily writing practice every single day, Seth puts out a blog. Sometimes they're short, sometimes they're long, but they are a way of making his thinking visible, and it perfectly aligns with his writing focused core resonance his belief in showing up consistently. He is also an impeccable speaker, but it's because he has organized his thoughts through writing first and then he speaks about what resonates his platform might seem really simple at first glance, but it's very effective because it authentically represents who he is. If you look at his blog, it's very distraction free. If you ever see Seth on video, it's the same background, same glasses, he shows up with consistency that even the chronological organization, like finding those blog posts by date, reflects his belief in the importance of showing up daily. He doesn't include. Comments. He wants to create work without being swayed by immediate feedback, and he's built other elements around this central platform. Like I said, his books, he has the marketing seminar. He's had the alt MBA program. It connects through foundational knowledge conversation and connecting around what works he really is about the change you seek to make and his platform perfectly illustrates that. I think the most transformative aspect of a well designed, central platform is this, unlike a borrowed platform, where your work has a fleeting lifespan, the stuff that's on your own platform appreciates in value over time and can be re shared again and again. You know, even if it's a podcast episode or a social media post, if you can find a way to get that onto your website and direct people there, people can continue to interact with it. Because really, that's the fundamental difference between renting and owning. When you rent, you're building equity for somebody else. When you own, you're building it for yourself. So every piece of content you create, every audience member you attract, every transformation you facilitate with your central platform becomes a permanent asset rather than a temporary benefit. Your audience relationships deepen with each interaction, instead of like a superficial connection that's common on a social platform, you can get them to an owned platform that progressive relationship building increases loyalty, increases engagement. Your content library becomes increasingly valuable over time, as it grows and connects to itself, new visitors can discover content you created years ago. If I look at someone like Amy porterfield's website or Jenna kutcher's website, Jasmine star, they have blogs going back for years that all connect with one another. Pat Flynn does an amazing job of this. On his podcasts, he will talk about the topic of the conversation, but he's constantly referring back and giving specific episode numbers that you can go look up through his show notes that take you to his website, that allow you to continue to connect with the work that he's been doing for years. I think most importantly, your platform becomes a business asset with real value. Email lists are assets with real value. Your IP, especially if it's visual, and you can trademark it, and you can share it in a way that shows ownership that's valuable. All of that really allows your platform to become a business asset with real value, a well established platform. It can be sold if that's something that you want to do, but you just need to have all roads lead back to the stage you own. So if you're just getting started, here are some practical first steps that you can take, regardless of your technical expertise. First get your domain name. Ideally, this should be your own name, a clear brand name that you can own indefinitely. This is Digital real estate. I work with clients that have more than 100 more than 200 domains that they own. I'm not saying you have to go that far, but at least get started. If you have an idea for a URL that is available you think you will use it's easier just to spend this $12 and get it. I recommend Name Cheap. I think it's the best domain registrar. And even if you're not ready to build a website yet, securing that domain is an essential first step. When I work with clients who are getting ready to launch their books. It's so important when we can have a URL or a domain name that is the name of the book, because then we can share that verbally on a podcast, type it out easily in social media, and send people directly to that page on their site with a redirect. It's just it makes so many things possible. If you have domain names, next, you should build a professional website. It doesn't have to be super complex initially. It should just really clearly demonstrate your positioning, communicate that showcase your expertise. Most important thing it can do, though, is capture email addresses, offer something for value in exchange for an email address, even if you do something like a quick audio training, having a simple, clean site that can capture an email address is way more important than having a fancy, elaborate one that never gets launched. Benjamin Hardy, really great author, he captured 1000s and 1000s of 1000s of emails through his columns on medium. He had a link in his byline that would redirect to a landing page that he built on his email service provider that was the most plain thing I've ever seen, and he was able to build a six figure list on the strength of his writing on medium, sending people to that landing page that was really bland, really boring, but it gave him the foundation to get a book deal and launch his thought leadership. And once you have those email addresses, having a way to communicate through that email system is really one of the most valuable things you can build. You can do that for free through kit. You can send emails for free there. I'll put a link in the show notes if you want to take a look at them. There are lots of services out there, though, MailChimp, mailer, lights, flow desk, there's a whole bunch. It doesn't have to be complicated. You can start with a welcome sequence and just reaching out every week and talking about something of value every other week. Just have to be consistent. From there, decide how you want to capture your content and have it in a place where people can find it, whether it's a blog, whether it's show notes for your podcast that are organized as a blog, but have a way to find and share your content. From there, you can do fancier things, like set up analytics, but. Having the basics, a domain, clear website, an email system and a way to organize and share your content. We're not trying to be perfect. We're trying to have something that we own. It's your starter house. It doesn't have to be fancy. It just has to be something you can live in and invite people over to we can get fancier from there. One more critical thing you need to think about with your central platform, a lot of people overlook the alignment with your queer residents. I mentioned this talking about Seth Godin and Marie Forleo, but your platform should be an authentic extension of who you are and how you naturally communicate. If you're a natural writer like Seth Godin, your platform might emphasize long form content, or if you're a writer like my client, love you. Jay Jones, her writing is amazing. She does it on social media, and if something really goes well, there, she puts it on her blog that she's had for years and years and years. If you're a natural speaker, your platform might feature video with supporting resources like Marie Forleo does with Maria TV. If you're a natural facilitator, your platform might include interactive elements, community spaces. It's not about creating the most elaborate or feature rich platform. It's about thinking about how you authentically want to show up and help your audience transform. You want to make transformation accessible to your ideal audience. I've just seen a lot of thought leaders struggle because they built platforms that fight against their natural communication style instead of enhancing it because they see other people doing something. And when your platform feels like an uncomfortable extension of you, creating content becomes a chore, and it should be an energizing expression of your wisdom. So if you think I just don't want to show up on video, don't write. If you think, man, writing just feels like I would want to cry every day, then don't turn on a video and answer a question. Think of the questions people ask you and just answer it. Just needs to start with what you naturally love to do. So your central platform. It's where all the components of your thought leadership converge. It's where your core resonance is expressed, your content, your transformational IP is delivered, your connections activities lead people there, and it's where your commercialization strategies are implemented. It's where everything comes together. And while it requires some investment of time and maybe some money to build that central platform, provides the stability and sustainability that a borrowed platform just can't match, it's the foundation on which lasting influence and impact are built. Now in our next episode, we'll talk about connection. We'll talk about how to strategically find amplification networks that extend beyond the reach of your direct audience. But those connection strategies always have to lead back to the stage you own, the central platform you own, because that's where the transformation happens. So thank you for diving deep on this today, central platforms, if you're ready to stop building exclusively on rented digital land and create a home base you truly own. I want to help you take those first critical steps in my free resident thought leader starter kit, you'll find the digital real estate check. It's a very simple but very powerful three step process we touched on today, securing a domain name, creating the foundation for a platform you control completely, where your authentic voice can shine and your IP can live permanently. And again, what makes this kit valuable is it isn't just talking about your central platform. We give you starter steps for all five parts of the resident thought leader system, so that you can get started owning your impact and building your influence. So head over to Macy robison.com M, A, C, y, r, O, B, i, s o, n.com, to download your free starter kit, and as you start to work on that digital real estate check, you'll see the gaps in your foundation, and you know what steps you'll need to take. I'd love to hear about what you learn. Connect with me on social media at Macy Robison and share what you're learning. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss our next episode on connection. How to do that strategically, where we're going to explore how to amplify your message through powerful relationships once you have a solid platform. Thank you for joining me on own. Your impact. Remember, there are people out there right now who need exactly what you know, exactly how you'll say it. Your voice matters, your expertise matters, and most importantly, the transformation you can help others create matters. If today's episode resonated with you, I'd love for you to become part of our growing community of thought leaders who are committed to creating meaningful impact. Subscribe to the podcast, leave a review and share this episode with someone you know who is ready to amplify their voice. And if you're ready to dive deeper, visit Macy robison.com for additional resources, frameworks and tools to help you build your thought leadership platform with intention and purpose. And remember, your ideas don't need more luck. Your ideas don't need more volume. Your ideas need a system, and I'm here every week to help you build it. I'm Macy Robison, and this is own your impact.