Steve Sammartino epitomises today’s forward-thinking, tech savvy ‘new’ thought leader.
His ‘Startup Blog’ attracts a monthly audience of over 30,000 and has been a catalyst for where Steve finds himself today – he’s a consultant and adviser, speaker on the technology revolution and author of the just-released book The Great Fragmentation: and why the future of business is small, out now through Wiley Publishing.
Since leaving his gig as digital head of a major advertising agency, Steve now travels the world helping companies transition from industrial era thinking into the digital age. He is a shareholder and advisor of Tomcar Australia (Australia’s first car startup in over 30 years), guest lectures on marketing at Melbourne University, writes on business and technology issues for the ABC, Marketing Magazine and Fairfax, and contributes to the popular Beers Blokes & Business podcast. He’s also sought after by the media to comment on the technology issues in the business sector.
The blog
But it is Steve’s blog – the anchor of his communications platform – that drives the whole Sammartino ‘intellectual shebang’.
Primarily he uses it as a way to share his thoughts and ideas around topics including business and technology, entrepreneurship, marketing and digital culture.
He estimates he’s published three million words. For five years he blogged every day; at the moment he publishes three posts a week but is trying to get it back up to five.
There are lots of gems in this interview, but the key takeaway for me was Steve’s approach to blogging and the effect it has had on his life.
“Of all the things I have done in my career, blogging is THE number one thing that has had the biggest impact on my life, my career, my family and my finance … I cannot understate the importance of it.”
He puts it down to this:
“Once you make a decision to blog every day, your eyes have to be open because you’re looking for posts … it makes me more aware of the world I’m in because I’m looking for content, and then when I have the thoughts it makes me write them down, and our thoughts are our most important thing. By having to write them down ‘cos I’m going to post them, that means those thoughts don’t get lost.”
He says writing a book forces you to clarify your thinking and pull together all your disparate thoughts in a meaningful manner, adding that blogging helped him learn how to write in the first place.
The book
The Great Fragmentation is the ‘strategy playbook for the future, a business survival manifesto for the technology revolution’.
I consider it to be a one-two punch in the face for outdated corporate business practice; it’s somewhat of a subversive work, and reminds me a bit of the seminal work The Cluetrain Manifesto.
It contains 20 chapters and 20 different ideas; Steve describes it as “non-linear just like today’s business environment”.
He said his goal was to assess the entire landscape we’re living in and provide a philosophy so readers can find the right tactics.
Advice for aspiring thought leaders
- Publish your thoughts (“high frequency publishing”) – that’s the number one thing above all.
- Make sure you have a forum that you own – for Steve, this is an email list of subscribers (“an independent direct connection” with your audience).
CONNECT WITH STEVE:
Remember to subscribe to REPUTATION REVOLUTION on iTunes and not miss an episode! And if you enjoy what you hear, I’d really love it if you could leave a review on iTunes. Thanking you!
SUBSCRIBE ON iTUNES
JOIN THE LINKEDIN GROUP
TREVOR YOUNG specialises in social media, content marketing and thought leadership strategies. He speaks professionally and is the author of the book ‘microDOMINATION: How to Leverage Social Media & Content Marketing to Build a Mini-Business Empire Around Your Personal Brand’.
Leave a Reply