Burn the Playbook: Joe Pulizzi’s New Guide to Building a Business (and Life) on Your Terms
Some of you in the room will change your lives in the next few years. You’ll quit jobs you hate, own your time, and earn more doing work you love. And some… will disappear.
The difference won’t be talent, niche, the algorithm, or even AI. It will be mindset … and what you do with it.
Belief comes before proof. Ownership comes before success.
If you say you will, you will. If you say you can’t because of AI, TikTok, or your situation, you’re right.
After more than two decades of building content businesses, I’ve seen brilliant creators burn out and average ones build empires. The winners share a handful of mindset shifts … and they live by them.
Let those words sink in. Reread them and really absorb them into your mind.
That’s the sage insight (and advice) from Joe Pulizzi, founder of The Tilt and the Content Marketing Institute.
With that mindset, you can “burn the playbook” — the new mandate and book title from the multi-time author. He released Burn the Playbook last week at CEX, the event he founded for content entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneur Marcus Sheridan calls the book, the Think and Grow Rich for a new generation of builders. (Not surprisingly, that’s a playbook that inspired Joe.)
A new generation of builders, though, doesn’t mean a younger generation. It’s a mindset for all new to building a business for themselves. Many of us have spent decades working to grow businesses for others. But it doesn’t have to stay that way.
Joe writes a subtitle that encapsulates that: Are you made for more? Build a life on your terms.
I like the book description shared by Alexis Grant, founder of They Got Acquired: “Part strategy, part therapy, part kick in the ass.”
Some of the book will have a familiar ring — realizing the old rules don’t work anymore and why the old playbook has failed you. Move on to part two for the recipe for a new world where belief reigns over proof, trust must first come from you, and expertise beats credentials. Joe expertly helps readers navigate a roadmap that allows you to be both creator and entrepreneur.
In part three, he gives you the tools to build this lasting freedom, from creating once and selling forever to building a board for life to grow faster and last longer.
But Joe doesn’t stop at the business advice. He dedicates the fourth part of the book to the element that so many ignore – the living of life as a human (and entrepreneur). It’s an important differentiator from most business books because life is a daily practice. It’s both the reason for the business and the reason for challenges in the business. So, Joe talks about physical and mental health, why intuition is smarter than fear, and guides you to build a system that frees you.
Though you’ll burn your own playbook, Joe has some thoughts on how to do that. He’s provided a practical taking-the-leap worksheet, a build-what-matters checklist and Burn the Playbook: The 21-Day Challenge.
Right now, Joe’s selling the book published by Tilt Publishing on his site. He’s a strong believer in direct sales as the most helpful avenue for authors — you can know who’s buying and have a way to contact them. He’ll expand to third-party channels later this month.
And if you’re a book author (or an author-to-be), Joe’s giving the inside scoop on his marketing process, like this post on LinkedIn about packaging the book for influencers to help promote it. You can follow him there or subscribe to his newsletter, The Orange Letter.
Can’t wait for your copy to arrive? I’ll share two of the mindsets from Joe:
Go from drifting to setting goals: “When I started my business, I wrote down one goal: Sell the company for $15 million. I reviewed it weekly. Every decision got measured against it: Does this move me closer or further away? I didn’t always choose right, but I was never drifting. I had a compass.”
To help do that, Joe ascribes to the 60-60-1 rule. For maximum focus, spend the first 60 minutes of each day, for 60 days, on that one goal. Burn the Playbook was a 60-60-1 project.
Lean into your crazy: If you want to compete with both human and AI creators, you have to lean hard into your unique mix of skills, quirks, and passions.
Write a one-sentence mission: I help [WHO] with [WHAT] so they can [BENEFIT].
That’s your North Star.
Now, are you ready to grab a match?
– Ann Gynn
