PDF Summary:Perennial Seller, by Ryan Holiday

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• “Happy Birthday” song - before this, what were people supposed to do at a birthday party?

Every day something lasts, the chances that it will continue to last increase (this is known as the Lindy effect).

Perennial Seller is an attempt to codify the process of creating things that stand the test of time. Is there a common creative mindset? How does it differ from work that’s popular one day and gone the next? How do you capture an audience, build a platform, and develop marketing channels that endure?

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The goal is to create a product so good that people share it with their friends. This word-of-mouth is the only way that works continue to survive for decades.

Phil Libin, the creator of Evernote: “People thinking about things other than making the best product never make the best product.”

What Are You Creating?

Now that you understand your motivations, you need to figure out what to create that can be enduring. Here are a few tips.

Perennial sellers address timeless issues, not trends.

Chasing trends is problematic because 1) it’s fiercely competitive (partially because it’s strategically easier just to copy others); 2) the hype around a trend obscures its long-term potential (it’s hard to tell early on if the new thing is an enduring innovation, or just a temporary flash in the pan).

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos says something similar: “Focus on the things that don’t change.”

Examples:

• Seinfeld, having dealt with timeless universal issues, is more memorable than Friends, which dealt with quirks of the current day.
• (Shortform example: long-lasting books like How to Win Friends and Influence People address timeless social challenges that...

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• Years passed between when Matthew Weiner had the idea for Mad Men and when he made the pilot. Then it took more years to get it on air, then 7 years to finish the series.

Creative ideas evolve over time, colliding disparate ideas organically. It builds layers into the work.

People who think they can rush to the finish line will disappear. There are no shortcuts to greatness.

Confront Your Fears

Creating something better than anyone has ever done it is scary. What if people don’t like it? What if someone forces you to change it? What if it’s not ready?

Embrace your nervousness. This is a normal part of the process. Fear will make you diligent. Let the feeling guide you, and honor it.

Only impostors are wildly self-confident. The real innovators are scared to death.

Don’t worry about others stealing your ideas. If your work is truly original, you’ll have to ram it down people’s throats. You’ll have to pay them to pay attention, or to work alongside you.

Don’t worry about falling short compared to other people. The best you can do is all that matters. There is no competition. There is no objective benchmark to hit.

If you’re feeling stuck, take a...

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• Is this a coffee shop or a coworking space or a private club? It can’t be all three without alienating customers looking for just one.
• Fictionalizing your Wall St experiences into a novel doesn’t give twice the audience (fiction lovers and business readers) - it might actually give half, since you’ve violated conventions of two spaces.

Then target a specific use case by filling the sentence: “This is a _ that does _ for _ (target user).”

• This needs to be SPECIFIC. Write only in third person. Avoid “I believe.”
• Bad answers: “for everyone.” “for fans of Malcolm Gladwell” (there is no convention where they get together).
• Examples of good targeting:
  • Susan Cain wrote Quiet specifically for introverts, an underserved audience.
  • Ethnic targeting - Blue Collar Comedy Tour vs Three Amigos vs Original Kings of Comedy. Or Modern Family vs The Goldbergs vs Blackish vs Fresh off the boat.

Once you understand your genre and your use case, you know what you’re trying to accomplish. Then decisions become easier.

• Jon Favreau built the film Iron Man around Robert Downey Jr. Once he made the casting decision, it became clear how...

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• If you genuinely believe your work is of value, be excited about getting it out there.

Every new user has an activation barrier to trying your product. There are costs in money, time, energy, mental (understanding a new product), opportunity cost (when they try your product, they can’t try others), and possibly social cost (trying your product could risk their social standing). Even if you know it’s the best thing in the world for them, they don’t know that yet.

• Each new work competes for customers with everything that came before it and everything that will come after.
• Think of all the free concerts you’ve never been to, free samples you haven’t tried. Just because your work exists doesn’t mean people want to try it.

So the goal of marketing and positioning is to lower the barrier as much as possible to get them to see the benefits.

Whenever targeting someone, always think, “what’s in it for them?”

Tactics of Marketing

The core of marketing tactics is to find your target user. From your positioning, you should know who your target user is. Now you need to find out where they are and how to get their attention. “Find your addicts.”

This...

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Building a Platform

A platform is the combination of tools, relationships, access, and audience to spread your creative work repeatedly over the course of a career.

“Platform is not a stepping stone. It’s the finish line.” - Casey Neistat

Just like creative work, everyone wants a following, but few want to put in the effort to make one.

Prefer Email as Your Platform

Ideally, you have a direct relationship with your followers, through a medium you control.

Using gatekeepers like social media or SEO is tenuous. Policies change, companies go bankrupt, consumer preferences change. If you built your following on MySpace and never transitioned to a new service, too bad.

Per the Lindy rule, what has lasted a long time is likely to continue lasting. Thus Ryan Holiday promotes an email list above all.

How do you build an email list?

• Collect emails in your physical performances (comedy club performances, art exhibitions).
• Create members-only resources or events.
• Run sweepstakes or contests.
• Do a swap with another person’s complementary email list.
• Promise a great service.
• Put a link in your email signature.
• Post online...