THEPOST-GRAD

SURVIVALGUIDE
FEATURING
JASONBARBER
ACAREERCOACHWHO
HIREDASTAGGERING
100 PEOPLEINONEMONTH

+
PHILLIPCURLEY
CEOOFHOTSPOTINC

JUNE2017
LETTERFROMTHEEDITOR
THOMASKUEGLER/ THOMASKUEGLERLLC@GMAIL.COM
Two years ago I graduated college and didn't
know what the hell I was going to do. I had
$80,000 in loans staring me down, a resume
that wasn't attracting companies, and a
disease that charred 5 feet of my small
intestine. I got it removed and had to recover
for an entire month. Some of my friends got
jobs. Some decided to travel.
I was at home.
I started The Post-Grad Survival Guide on
Medium because I remember how that felt. To
feel like you're a small kid in a big world
without much of a plan. I didn't want anybody
else to feel that way.
I wanted to give people encouragement. I
wanted to give them the tools to find a job. I
wanted to show them how to keep friendships
alive and how we should treat those closest to
us. I wanted to do this while being painfully
honest.
I don't have everything figured out. I let it come
through in my writing every chance I get. But
this magazine is proof that I didn't get
swallowed whole by life after college. I've
spent the last month working hard at
developing, writing, and designing this thing,
and I couldn't be more happy with how it came
out.
As a token of my appreciation to everyone
reading now, I offer the flagship issue of The
Post-Grad Survival Guide magazine to you for
free.
I hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading.
 CONTENTS
4
SKININTHEGAME: ANINTERVIEW
WITHCAREERCOACHJASONBARBER

12
3 THINGSI LEARNEDASAGREENBERET
BY: JONNYILLUMINATI

ENTREPRENEURSPOTLIGHT:

16PHILLIPCURLEY, CEOOF
HOTSPOTINC

20 HOWTOCREATEASUCCESSFUL
MEDIUMPUBLICATION
 SKININTHE
GAME:AN
INTERVIEWWITH
CAREERCOACH
JASONBARBER
 "THAT'SAHUGEMISTAKE
RECENTGRADSMAKE
WHENTHEYGRADUATE
COLLEGE," JASONSAYS,
Picking up steam, streaming his thoughts fluidly over
JASONBARBER the phone.
?They get stuck behind a mediocre person with no
greatness to them and therefore become mediocre
themselves.?
Then he pauses.
?And it?s just a cycle of mediocrity.?
Silence.
Jason told me that one month he hired 100 people.
?That meant 300-500 interviews in that one month,? he
said.
?We [Physassist Scribes] were acquired by TeamHealth
which is the number one physician group in the U.S.
and we turned into corporate America. A year and a
half into that I said ?I can?t do this.?But in that meantime
I learned two incredible skills. One was how to scale a
company from hundreds of thousands in revenue to
multi-millions of dollars in revenue."
?Number two is I interviewed and hired a ton
of people. In one month I had to hire a
hundred people all by myself. We made 98
offers in that month with one person
interviewing. Other companies might have a
full HR staff and make 60 hires in a year. In a
year! I spent a lot of time writing about my
firsthand experience, not giving advice
because there?s a difference. Everything I write
on Quora I practice myself.?

'WHATI TRYTOCONVEYON
QUORAISTHATI'MAHIRING
MANAGERWITHSKININTHE
GAME"
Jason Barber ?s got 651 followers on Quora, a
platform I have yet to crack if you want me to
be completely honest. I?m sure if you asked
him he doesn?t care about followers. In his
profile he has his email address out in plain
sight, offering people the ability to contact him
directly for further questions. What I?m trying
to say is he simply wants to help--nothing
more.
?What I try to do is convey to the original
poster is that I?m a hiring manager with skin in
the game,? he continues. Skin in the game.
What an awesome phrase. It means you got
some experiences. Stories. You know of what
you?re speaking. And he does.
"Skin in the game" by the way, is a phrase
made popular by author Nassim Taleb.
What a perfect subject for the cornerstone
story of our first edition. Let?s get down to his

ONRESUMEWRITING
Jason doesn?t care if you worked at Starbucks
or at Apple, he looks for the same things in
every resume.
?When it comes to resume writing we don?t
read resumes. Most hiring managers are
never going to read a resume. So, you
shouldn?t focus on creating stories of content
in your resume. Focus on key things. The jobs
you?ve held, the skills you acquired during that
job, and the results that you achieved.?
?I can?t express this enough. Hiring managers
are looking for results, they?re not looking for
what you learned at college. They could care
less. I know you studied hard at college and
got A?s in all your classes. That?s not how the
real-world works. Don?t tell stories. Be very
simple, very clean, these are the job titles I
held, these are the skills that I have, and these
are the skills that I achieved.?

ONGETTINGANINTERVIEW
Jason?s strategy for you here is pretty simple,
and immensely helpful.
?Stop applying online.?
?Go to Dun & Bradstreet, pick one hundred
companies in the type of industry you want to
work for. Let?s say you want to work for a
marketing agency, and you want to work in
Seattle, Washington. You go to Dun &
Bradstreet.com and buy a list of the 100
marketing agencies in the Seattle area.?
?In that list you?re going to get the name,
phone number, and email address of all the
Vice Presidents of Marketing, then you put
together a 1-page, 3-bullet point review of the
problems you can solve for this company, and
you physically mail that to the Vice President
of Marketing. To all 100.?

'STOPAPPLYING
ONLINE"
?It?s going to cost you about $150 to buy that list.
The stamps are going to be another $40, and
overall you?re going to have to make a $200
investment. In total you?re going to get 10-20
responses. From the Hiring Manager, not HR.
The VP?s of Marketing are going to put you in
touch with the Hiring Manager to begin the
process. If you do that, you should get 2-3
offers.?
ONINTERVIEWING
Here?s what you don?t do in an interview,
according to Jason.
?I?ve interviewed tens of thousands of
candidates. Interviews are not the time for
candidates to talk about themselves.
An interview is the time for you to constructively
gather information from a hiring manager,
uncover what the bleeding neck problem is they
have to solve, and prove to them that you can
solve it. That?s all you have to do.?
?That?s why it turns into goofy nonsensical
questions about what you would do in this
situation or that situation. It?s because you keep
talking about you instead of what problems you
can solve for that company.?
HERESTHEABSOLUTEWORST
THINGYOUCANDOAFTER
GRADUATING..
 Jason has a lot of incredibly useful information on
building a career, but as I continued to speak with

"YOUCAN him on the phone way past our scheduled time slot,
it became clear his advice for life in general holds
just as much weight.

ONLYPUSH ?People will sit there unemployed for four or five

months and just aimlessly blast their resume online
praying something sticks. They have no idea that?s

YOUTO
the least effective strategy! Going on the internet
and applying for jobs is the worst thing you can do
because it?s the easiest thing you can do.?

WHEREYOU ?ANYTHINGTHAT?STHEEASIEST
THINGTODOISTYPICALLYTHE
ARERIGHT WORSTSTRATEGY.?

NOW.IT This simple principle when applied to every aspect

of our lives could do major damage to the reality
around us. Everyone is doing the easiest thing

TAKES because so few want to work a bit harder or get a

little bit more creative. This is a problem that affects
so many recent graduates in particular.

OTHERSTO ?Nobody needs this information more than recent

college grads, because college grads have been sold
the bill of goods. That if you go to school, you get a

HELPPUSH
degree, and with your diploma they?re going to give
you a job offer for $70,000 a year with full benefits,
etc. It?s just not reality.?

YOUTOA
As recent college graduates, we need to push
ourselves past the mediocrity and small (or
nonexistent) ambitions of our peers--even if they?re
some of our best friends.

PLACEYOU ?You?re going to have two groups of people,? Jason

begins. ?You?re going to have a circle of friends that
are like ?Hey, what you doing??and they only want to

WANTTOGO." drink and hoot and holler about who the Ravens are
playing this weekend. Then there?s going to be a
circle that you?re going to have to attach yourself
professionally to that holds you accountable. They?re
professionals that get results, they?re Rockstars,
they?re A-players. They?re going to elevate your
game.?
For anyone who wants to push past the norms
of post-graduate life, this information and the
following information is absolutely vital.
?If you want to go and work for a person, you
want to go and work for a person that is ten
times better than you. Because they?re going
to raise you and help you become a better
professional.?
?Sometimes it takes years to find that Rockstar
that you want to work for, but you want to
attach your coat tails to them. Because that
Rockstar is going to elevate your game.?
?You can only push you to where you are right
now. It takes others to help push you to a place
you want to go. We?re communal beings.
There?s a reason why we?re not lone wolfs. Our
species wasn?t meant to be alone.?
By the end of our interview Jason and I had
covered quite a lot of information. He shared
with me some of the most useful advice I?d
ever heard from another person, and our
conversation acted as a sort of social proof for
my original idea to start and offer a magazine
to recent college grads.
While this is largely a wake-up call for
ambitious grads to get going and begin, Jason
also offered this comforting bit for those
feeling a bit overwhelmed.
?You got to cover putting a roof on your head.
You have to cover getting from A to B. And you
have to cover putting food in your belly. Get
those three things as low as possible, as cheap
as possible, and that affords you the time to
explore and build whatever it is you need to
build.?
It?s simple enough, right? Now get building.
Go check Jason out on Quora, and make sure
to give him a follow while you're at it. You can
also find him in our members-only Facebook
group if you want to ask him any questions.
 WRITTENBY:
3THINGSI LEARNEDASAGREENBERET JONNYILLUMINATI

1. Th e 6 P?s Slow is Sm oot h ,

2. Sm oot h is Fast
3. Th er e is ALWAYS Som eon e Bigger , Fast er ,
Sm ar t er , St r on ger , et c?
4. No On e is Sh oot in g At You
And even though I wrote ?3? in the title, a
Green Beret never does anything half-ass,
because ?One is None and Two is One??
always have a backup.
For the record?? ?we call ourselves ?Special
Forces??? ?we are The U.S. Army Special Forces?
? ?the Green Beret is what we wear.
One of the things you learn on your journey to
becoming a Green Beret is self reliance, follow
through, and accountability.
One of the quickest ways to fail the 2 plus
years of training required to earn the Green
Beret is ?Failure to Follow Instructions? or FFI.
No one is going to do it for you; yes there is
teamwork involved, in fact the Team (or
Operational Detachment Alpha/ODA) is the
core unit of Special Forces, but the core of a
successful team is made up of individuals that
are highly capable and able to follow through
to ensure success.
You must be reliable and accountable to
yourself and to a group of 11 other
teammates.
OK so here are the basics:

"ONEISNONEANDTWOISONE.
ALWAYSHAVEABACKUP"
 THE6 P?S???PRIORPLANNING
PREVENTSPISSPOORPERFORMANCE
Sh oot in g f r om t h e h ip an d m ak in g a plan on t h e f ly
n ever w or k s. No plan survives first contact. We call
that Murphy?s Law of Combat. As soon as you make

SPEEDWITHOUT contact with the enemy and the bullets are flying,
things get crazy, and a solid plan that has contingencies
built in allows you to be flexible and adapt to changing

PRACTICEAND circumstances while still accomplishing the mission (i.e.

your goals).

SKILLEQUALS SLOWISSMOOTH, SMOOTHISFAST

MISTAKES;IF
That means just what it says. If you get into a hurry, you
make mistakes. If you are slow and smooth you are
more likely to complete the task successfully and in

YOUMOVE record time.

We use that terminology in some of our top level
shooting schools. It applies to drawing a pistol from

SLOWERAND your holster and magazine changes and? well just

about anything else you want to apply it to. In other

PRACTICE,YOU words, this mantra can be applied to anything once you

embrace it.
Speed without practice and skill equals mistakes; if you

WILLACTUALLY move slower and practice you will actually end up

faster? try teaching yourself to chop an onion as fast

ENDUP
as the celebrity chef you watch (and if you watch
celebrity chefs I?m quietly judging you). Start out as fast
as you possibly can!

FASTER. When you get back from the Emergency Room, try
going slow and learning the process? keep moving
slow and telling yourself ?Slow is Smooth, Smooth is
Fast,? in time you will be as fast as the guy on the
TV? .or YouTube, or whatever way you prefer your
digital content delivered.

THEREISALWAYSSOMEONEBIGGER,
FASTER, SMARTER, STRONGER, ETC..
This is the easy and obvious one, yet many people fail
at this mentality. I?m not saying you shouldn?t strive to
be your best, and maybe you are the best at something
"BULLETS
MAKEA
VERY
DISTINCT in your office or group of friends. Just remember, t h er e
is ALWAYS som eon e ou t t h er e som ew h er e t h at is
bigger , f ast er , st r on ger , sm ar t er .

SOUND,I
Push yourself to be that person and be the best you
can at what you do. Complacency kills in combat and
life in general. Don?t allow yourself to be complacent.
Train/Work/Practice/Learn like there is always someone
ahead of you and you want to catch up. You might be

ASSURE
the fastest person in that race you just ran, but rest
assured, there IS someone out there faster. They just
weren?t at your race that day.

NOONEISSHOOTINGATYOU
YOU."" This is really the crux of my philosophy? now. When the
day sucks and things aren?t going your way, just
remember that you ar en?t dodgin g bu llet s!
Imagine having to do your job while dodging bullets
and fighting for your life. Lean back in your cubicle
(unless you?ve freed yourself from that insanity like I
have) and listen for the sound of bullets flying by.
Bullets make a very distinct sound, I assure you, and
that silence is the lack of bullets. Everything is clearer
and easier when you realize that you are your only real
obstacle. People say ?can?t? when what they mean is
?won?t.?
THANKYOUSOMUCH
FORREADING!
Get t h e Post -Gr ad Su r vival Gu ide M agazin e ever y m on t h
by becom in g a Pat r on ! For $3 a m on t h you 'll get t h e br an d
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- Access t o an exclu sive

Facebook Gr ou p f illed w it h
Hir in g M an ager s,Recr u it er s,
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Top Wr it er s on Qu or a r elat ed
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CLICKHERETOBECOMEAPATRON!
 ENTREPRENEUR
SPOTLIGHT
PHILLIPCURLEY,CEOOFHOTSPOT
?I ACTUALLYALWAYSWANTED
TOBEANENTREPRENEURMY
WHOLELIFE,?
Phillip says, directly.
?My parents just had businesses. I didn?t even
know there was a word for it. I didn?t really
understand that there was more to it than just
starting the business, so I came to UNB to try
and figure it out.?
Phillip runs a business called Hotspot in eastern
Canada. The company does a lot of things, but
it?s really centered on a pay-by-phone parking
solution they provide to Fredricton, New
Brunswick and other cities nearby.
As for Phillip himself? He?s a college dropout.
He?s an entrepreneur. But he wasn?t always that
way. In fact, he needed a bit of a push to get
going.
?I was from Canada?s smallest province, so we
had a population of less than 100,000 people.
However we did have three levels of
government: provincial, federal, and municipal.
So I would go to every meeting because nothing
was going on where I was from.?
?An d on e of t h e en t r epr en eu r s w h o w as
t h er e said ?If you w an t t o be an en t r epr en eu r
you h ave t o st ar t t oday, you h ave t o t h in k
abou t w h at ar e som e of t h e pr oblem s f acin g
t h e w or ld an d ju st get st ar t ed.?So I act u ally
t ook t h at t o h ear t pr et t y w ell, an d I w as
w alk in g acr oss t h e par k in g lot t o m y h om e
w h er e I w as st ayin g at t h e t im e an d I w as
lik e ?You k n ow w h at ? Par k in g su ck s,
so I?m goin g t o h elp w or k on t h at .?So t h e

R I WASLIKE
n ext day I w en t dow n t o Cit y Hall in
Fr eder ict on , m et w it h t h e par k in g au t h or it y
an d ask ed t h em w h at ar e you gu ys doin g
t oday? How can I h elp? Wh at ar e som e
issu es you ?r e h avin g pr oblem s w it h ??
That was the beginning. Philip started Hotspot
back in 2012 while he was still in school. As
stated before, he decided to drop out and
pursue the business further, but he needed
the help of one more person.
?YOUKNOW
?I w as pr et t y good w it h com m u n icat in g
w it h people, you k n ow , sellin g t h e vision . So
w h at act u ally h appen ed w as w e got an
agr eem en t w it h t h e cit y t o do a pilot an d
WHAT?
PARKING
w e k n ew it w as goin g t o get sign ed, an d
t h en I con vin ced an ot h er good f r ien d of
m in e t o dr op ou t of sch ool as w ell, an d h e
act u ally bu ilt t h e w h ole t h in g. So I m an aged
t h e cit y r elat ion s an d get t in g people sign ed

SUCKS,SO
u p, an d h e m an aged t h e t ech n ical aspect s
of t h e pr oject .?
In a very short period of time, Phillip went
from nothing to dropping out of school and
making Hotspot his baby.
So what does the app actually do? For those
living in Fredricton, they use the app to top up
meters remotely, refund unused parking time,
and pay for bus fares with a tap of their finger.
I?MGOING
TOHELP
They can also view bus schedules, plan travel
routes, and give the city mounds of useful data
in the process for smarter planning and route
optimization.
?Ou r bu sin ess m odel is t h at w e ju st ch ar ge
$2 per m on t h . If you lik e t h e app, you can
par k as m u ch as you lik e or r ide t h e bu s as
m u ch as you lik e. Th e m or e people t h at u se
ou r app, t h e m or e m on ey w e m ak e. So ou r
WORKON
THAT.?
applicat ion h as got t o w or k ver y w ell.?
And it does work well, but when Phillip made a
deal with the first city, the work was FAR from
over.
?It wasn?t like ?Oh, you got the city, you?re good now.?It
was like ?Oh, you got the city, but you still have to sign
everybody up in the city for the app.?
That was a challenge. Furthermore Phillip and his
partner were trying to build the business around
parking validation, something they realized wasn?t
scalable.

"WESTARTEDLOOKINGAT
MERCHANTSANDTRIEDTODO
SOMETHINGWITHPARKING
VALIDATION.20/20HINDSIGHT
THATWASN'TTHEBESTIDEA,BUT
WHATITALLOWEDUSTODOWAS
GETSTARTED."
?The problem was there was never going to be enough
merchants to do that in our small province,? Phillip
explains.
As Hotspot progressed, Phillip and his partner slowly
found the company?s identity. With all the success that
Hotspot has seen, I wondered whether Phillip was
thinking about coming to the United States.
?The big thing is our system really benefits from how
close the cities are. So everybody that uses our app
uses it in different cities around the area. So if we
wanted to come into the U.S. we?d want to attack a
cluster, like a tri-city area, and get those. That?s how our
application works best, is when it?s used between
different cities.?
In the almost five years he?s spent running the business
and partnering with local governments, Phillip has
learned a treasure trove of useful lessons for those
looking to do the same.
"There?s definitely levels to it,? Phillip begins.
 ?WHENI STARTEDOUTI WOULDGIVE
PEOPLEALOTOFTIME.I THOUGHT?THIS
PERSONISREALLYSMARTANDREALLY
SUCCESSFUL,ANDI?MREALLYGOINGTO
TAKETHATPERSON?SADVICETOHEART
ANDLISTENTOIT.?THAT?SBEENAHUGE
DETRIMENTTOME,LISTENINGTOPEOPLE
WHENI MIGHT?VEKNOWNBETTER
BECAUSEI THOUGHTTHEYWERE
SMARTERTHANME.
"Understanding nobody is going to spend more
time on your business than you, and taking all
advice, even if it?s from experts, they haven?t
spent as much time thinking about your business
as you have, so you really have to be the person
to decide whether that?s good advice or not.?
Furthermore Phillip urges young entrepreneurs
to make another difficult decision..
?You can lose money selling things and you can
lose time selling things. The big thing is, there?s
clients out there that you might really want to be
involved with, but it?s better to say no than it is to
say yes.
"But there?s definitely been times when we?ve
engaged with clients because we thought this
could pay dividends later and I felt hesitation
about the direction. The problem is you have to
go through the bad opportunities to recognize
the good ones.?
?What I?m saying is there?s some customers you
don?t want. In our business we charge $2 per
month. There?s a certain type of person that?s just
not going to pay $2 per month for a parking app,
and we made an internal decision that that?s just
not the types of customers that we?re going to go
after.?
That?s definitely something all young
entrepreneurs need to hear. Stick to a certain
customer and don?t try to sell to everyone.
Like Phillip?s business? You can check Hotspot out
at their website, download their app on the app
store, or follow them on social media.
 HOWTO
CREATEA
SUCCESSFUL
MEDIUM
PUBLICATION
BYTHOMASKUEGLER
 "YOUKNOW,I?MNOT
SAYINGTHEPOST-GRAD
SURVIVALGUIDEIS
FORBESORANYTHING
LIKETHAT,BUTIT?S
REALLYBECOME
SOMETHINGCOOLOVER
ONMEDIUM.'
We have more than 2,300 followers to date
after seven months of publishing, and we grow
more and more every single day.
For the record I never thought I?d be an editor,
but here I am.
Maybe it was my own inexperience in the
practice of editing that proved to be my
guiding light. Who knows. All I know is it?s
grown into something I never thought it would
be seven months later. Let?s dive into a few
things you need to do.

1.PUBLISHEVERYSINGLEDAY
Before I created The Guide I set up a few
requirements. The first was that I was going to
publish every single weekday in the evenings.
That meant five new posts per week. I also set
up the later abandoned requirement that
every post would be 300 words or less. My
idea was that I didn?t want to inundate people
with lengthy messages. I wanted to hand them
small nuggets of information that were more
like ?Thought Pills.?
I abandoned that because I think some ideas
are too big to live in a 300-word cage. Besides,
as the Guide grew, many of the requirements
had to along with it.
Perhaps the biggest secret I can give away
about publishing on Medium is the fact that if
you remain pretty active with your
publication, Medium will hand you followers
for free. That?s right. I noticed after two weeks
of publishing on The PGSG that my follower
count started increasing by 30 every day. After
the first month I had close to 400 followers. It
was insane. I realized that Medium must have
been suggesting my publication to brand new
users signing up for the first time.
This idea was later validated after I saw a
sudden halt in the increase of my follower
base one day. It continued on to the next day,
the whole week, and the week after that. I
couldn?t understand what I did wrong. It was
as if the Medium Gods (Staff) were playing
with me.
I realized later that the halt occurred because
I stopped publishing regularly. I missed a few
days one week unfortunately, and Medium
took notice. Less publishing means less
activity which means that Medium wasn?t
going to reward me anymore.
I?ve found that if I publish five times per week
Medium will continue to hand me followers
for free.
You can take that as luck, a cheap edge, or
whatever you want, but the fact of the
matter is it?s difficult to publish every day by
yourself. Nobody wanted to write for the
Guide way back in the day because we had
zero followers. It was all up to me to make
sure that this thing grew. And grow it did.
Anyway, that?s key number one.
2. SPECIFYWHATYOU'RE
WRITINGABOUT
Number two is you need to tell people what
the hell you?re writing about. A good way to
do that on Medium is by showing them in
the Navigation Bar at the top. I started out
with five categories which I planned to
publish one story in every week.
The original five were Encouragement,
Productivity, Finding A Job, Relationships,
and Purpose. I later scrapped Productivity
and Purpose because, for one, I thought
many of the posts under ?Encouragement?
kind of overlapped with Purpose.
But in the end my writing topics have largely
remained the same, and I?ve always let my
audience know that. They can expect to find
encouragement, tips on finding a job, as well
as advice on friendships and other
relationships we have.
Each of these topics mesh perfectly with the
challenges of a post-grad life. We?re trying to
find out how to navigate relationships with our
family, friends, and significant others. We?re
trying to find work. Most of all we?re trying to
find a little encouragement because the real
world can be tough and downright depressing.
My audience knows what to expect. There?s a
niche here. Through having five topics I?ve seen
which topics do well and which don?t. Again,
this is all to my advantage.

3. FOLLOW125PEOPLEEVERYDAY
You need to follow people to get followers. It?s
kind of an unspoken rule in social media that?s
almost looked down upon. That?s why so many
of the biggest influencers never talk about it
and you?re sitting there scratching your head
as to how they?ve amassed tens of thousands
of followers. They?re following people. They?re
leaving comments. They?re engaging.
In one word they?re being proactive.
Let?s say 30 of the 125 people you follow on
Medium decide to follow you back every day.
In 30 days you?ll have 900 followers. It?s pretty
awesome. Normally I get 500 followers every
month, but you get the idea.
Look, at the end of the day nobody is going to
read your stuff if you don?t have followers.

"MEDIUMISSETUPINSUCHAWAY
THATTHEPEOPLEATTHEBOTTOM
WON?TGETAFRACTIONOFTHE
EXPOSURETHATTOPWRITERSDO.
THEODDSARESTACKEDAGAINST
YOU,ESPECIALLYWITHTHENEW
HOMEPAGETHATTHEY?VEBEEN
MARKETING."
Like Google they want to show people stories
that have a ton of views, reads, and
recommends.
Typically the people with 16,000 followers get
numbers that are quite frankly insane in all three
of those categories while those with little to no
followers hardly get any. Medium is so cool, but
they say that they want the platform to be a place
where everybody can share meaningful stories
and hardly ever follow through on it.
The problem is there?s a ton of people sharing
stories that are super meaningful but aren?t
getting any views. You know how you beat that
system? Follow people like your life depends on
it. Follow people every day and never stop. You
will amass an audience, I promise. Until the
system gets better (which it will), you need to do
something on your own about it. Besides, it?s
literally not against Medium?s community code to
follow people anyway.
In the end, when you?re publishing every day and
growing your publication, the idea is that the
more followers you have, the better off you?ll be
when trying to gain exposure and publish stories
of your own. That?s number three.
4. CULTIVATEASTABLEOF*LOYAL*
GUESTWRITERS
I can?t remember when it was but a few months
ago I sent out a letter to my followers saying The
Guide was accepting guest submissions. I sent it
to 1,000 people and by the end of the day I had
20 people email me saying they wanted to write
for me. It was awesome. That was another one of
the days I felt hope for what I was doing here at
The Guide.
If people want to be a part of it, too, then you
know you?ve got something.
So I spent the whole night emailing every single
one of them back telling them they could
contribute and how to go about it and all of that
jazz.
Long story short probably 25% of them actually
contributed anything.
All but one stayed with me over the long term
and kept in touch with me. His name is Jonny
Illuminati, and he is the writer of ?3 Things I
Learned As A Green Beret,? AKA the only guest
article you saw in the first edition of the
Post-Grad Survival Zine.
I say this because a lot of people are going
to want to use your publication for
something. They?ll want to use it to sell
stuff, or get exposure, or some other shit,
but the ones that are worth their salt won?t
necessarily care about any of that--they just
want to tell their story. I have a few people
now that are loyal contributors, and most
of them don?t really care about any of the
stuff I mentioned above.
Just know that good contributors are a
dime a dozen. That?s number four.
I could keep writing about this forever and
ever, but those four things make up about
75 percent of what made The Post-Grad
Survival Guide initially successful.
I'll say one last thing. Medium has been an
absolute blessing for me as a writer. I've
found an audience there I never thought I'd
discover. If you asked me, my writing
career can be divided up into two pretty
clear periods: "Before Medium" and "After
Medium."
That's why I decided after all to give this
first magazine away for free. I would be
nothing without my incredible audience at
Medium, and quite frankly they deserve
something in return.
ONEMORETHING,GUYS!
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