Today's Guest

Mitch Joel is the Founder of Six Pixels Group - an advisory, investing, and content producing company that is focused on brands, commerce, community, and what’s next. He has been called a visionary, digital expert, and community leader. Mitch is also a bestselling author and is frequently called upon to be a subject matter expert for publications like Fast Company, Strategy, and Forbes. Mitch talked with us about the power of creating great content and how the business world could change in a post-COVID era.

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Episode Summary

When I started my blog several years ago I was the president of a small business with a handful of people. What quickly became clear to me was, blogging about relevant industry topics would differentiate our business from competitors and help us attract new customers. The power of being a thought leader in your industry cannot be undervalued, to this day I still create all of the content I talk about or post. The reason being is I don’t see content as just another job but “the” job I should be doing.

Creating content and being a thought leader isn’t for everyone and I would advise others not to do it if they don’t have the desire. I enjoy writing and having conversations with people about a topic. If you look at the world of audio, video, images, short-form, or long-form content and none of it gets you excited that’s ok, look for those that do and partner with them. No matter what type of business you are in there are interesting stories that could be told. For example, I recently chipped a tooth filling and I found myself Googling and YouTubing all these dentists to find out what I should do about it. Had a dentist in my local area come up as one of the resources, you can bet the odds would be high I would schedule an appointment with them.

The post-COVID world will look different for all of us in ways we couldn’t have imagined. Some business models I thought would have thrived have failed and others have had breakout growth. Also, we experienced something I call the compression where many aspects of digitization happened in a compressed timeframe. Then you add in the labor market shift and the great resignation. All of this has created lumpiness in the market, which isn’t good, and I believe will last for 3 to 5 years. I’m not trying to be pessimistic, that’s not who I am, but as an owner of a small business you have to be realistic that some aspects of your business will change and you have to adapt.

Selling your business and having a nice exit doesn’t just happen. Early on in your business, or at the very least today, you should ask yourself what purpose are you building your business for. You could want to own a small business and make a little more money every year or you could be looking to scale the business to have global appeal and a large team. When you understand the purpose you are building for you can then begin to position the business to be attractive to that future buyer someday.

Resources Shared

• Six Pixels Group
• Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel
• Six Pixels of Separation Podcast
• CTRL ALT Delete by Mitch Joel
• Thryv
  

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