During my first Ship 30 cohort I wrote an essay drawn from my experience as a public speaker.
It took all of 9 minutes to write, a minute to edit, before I just hit publish. That atomic essay (250 words or less) got some interaction but nothing crazy. What it did get was people commenting that becoming a better public speaker and reducing fear was a barrier for them.
Listening to these signals I started writing more about it.
Partnered with someone writing complimentary content to host Twitter Spaces.
Between interactions with my Ship 30 essays and Twitter Spaces, we started to catalog frequent questions. Things that resonated well and success stories. Soon we realized that what we were building was a nice outline for a book. Having a content library meant we could repurpose stuff already posted!
In typical Ship 30 style, wrote it quickly and published it without letting perfection get in the way.
Release day it hit #1 in the Public Speaking & Speech Writing Category on Amazon which you can check out here https://amzn.to/3ZGVOrZ !
It also went to #1 in multiple categories for new releases. Prior to going through Ship 30 I wouldn’t have thought to turn my experience with public speaking into something like a book, much less write a single essay on it.
Why I Joined Ship 30 for 30
I already published a book and regularly publish articles weekly.
I saw an opportunity to improve my writing. Learn how to write more compelling headlines! See how to make my content more apt for readers to click on. When I saw the format prior Ship 30 for 30 members were putting out there was something intriguing about it but didn’t know yet what it was.
The idea of putting out a ton of content on a medium (Twitter) I had never used before was interesting.
Most Valuable Parts of Ship 30 for 30
The headline mastery course really opens your eyes!
The framework of being clear over being clever seems so simple in hindsight. Applying the “for who so that” test was a major ah-ha moment. Understanding how readers decide whether or not to give you their time to read your content.
Ship 30 veterans know what I’m talking about, but this idea of the 1-3-1 structure is something that I even used throughout our book.
How the Community Encourages Success
Ship 30 wound up introducing me to people I would never otherwise meet.
This includes the co-author of my book. What you find though are many people you go through the program with then have success providing opportunities to see what’s working for them. Within the Captain’s Table, you see that in the weekly wins people post. People aren’t in competition with one another and more than happy to share.
Effortless Public Speaking was highlighted as a win on our Captains Table weekly call from Dickie and Cole!
How Ship 30 Helped Identify a Niche
In the module “Naming and Claiming Your Niche”, they explain one of the signs you have something is when other people start repeating YOUR language back to you.
It was crazy when people started referencing the idea of “Nano Speeches” as a technique to gain confidence in public speaking. I had named that for simple structures that could be used again and again and scaled up. Prior to Ship 30, the trap of playing the better game was too easy.
Now we have people building daily “Nano Speaking” habits.
Advice for New Ship 30 for 30 Members?
Just follow the process.
Most will spend way too much time trying to come up with something that will be a hit. Instead, remember that perfection is the enemy of publishing! Capture ideas and write, edit a bit, and hit the send button. I started writing about investing (where I’ve been for 30 years), and wound up publishing a single essay early into my first cohort on public speaking.
Who knew it would turn into a book.
What’s Next?
Building on the success of the book, we plan to launch a cohort-based public speaking course in 2023.
One of the benefits of sticking around in the Captain’s Table is Dickie and Cole give some behind the scenes insight into how Ship 30 works and the frameworks they use in running cohort based courses. Once you are content you have opportunities to turn that into something else.
See you inside Ship 30!
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