Shane Purnell – The Platform Giant

Shane Purnell is a veteran of the IT industry where he still works during the day.

While he loves what he does for the day job, Shane’s passion lies in public speaking, online business and teaching others to get dialed into their inspiration and motivation.

In Shane's spare time, he is a blogger, a speaker and the host of the Platform Giant podcast.

On the podcast and his blog, Shane’s goal is to help you, build your own platform, so that YOU can stand head and shoulders above the crowd.

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SHANE PURNELL’S WORLD

Shane, like me, has a full-time day job that he enjoys. However, in the margins of his life, he is pursuing what he is truly passionate about on the side, which is helping you become a platform giant.

But this wasn’t always the case.

Shane has always been interested in speech, communication and persuasion, so much so, he majored in it in college. However, upon graduation Shane quickly realized his degree wasn’t going to take him where he thought he wanted to go.

So he went back to school and earned his degree in information technology. Despite the new career direction, Shane remained passionate about speech and communication.

After a lot of reflection, and after reading Michael Hyatt’s book, Platform, Shane came to the realization that platforms reside at the intersection of technology and communication.

The two things he happens to be passionate about.

WHAT IS A PLATFORM AND WHY BUILD ONE

I asked Shane to describe what a platform is to him. For Shane, a platform is a means of gaining visibility and provides you with the opportunity to influence others.

Shane sees a platform as the act of positioning, while positioning is how you want to be seen by the world, or what you want to be known for.

Both positioning and a platform require an audience and not just any audience it has to be one that you build through your message. Building your platform in this way will help people know, like and trust you.

Once people know, like and trust your brand, your platform, they will begin to do business with you.

Getting to this point, however, will take some good old fashioned work on your part. You’ll need to know yourself and how you add value to the world.

In other words, you need to become self-aware. Shane is quick to point that getting to this point of self-awareness will not happen overnight.

Just like there is no shortcut to success, there is also not a shortcut to determining your platform. You have to do the work. You have to become self-aware.

USE THE C.A.R.V.E METHODOLOGY TO BUILD YOUR PLATFORM

The CARVE methodology is something that Shane learned from positive psychologist Bill O’Hanlin, who once told Shane if he wanted to build a platform he would need to carve it out.

As you might have guessed CARVE is an acronym. It stands for Channels, Accomplishments, Relationships, Visibility and Evidence. Shane and I explored each one in detail.

Channels

Channels are the media you use to share your message. They can be both online and offline. Channels include social media, Facebook, Twitter, your website, your book, and even a podcast.

There is no right or wrong channel to use but Shane does recommend using the channels you are comfortable with and more importantly, where your audience resides.

Accomplishments

Accomplishments include your education and experience. They provide social proof and evidence that you do in fact know what you are talking about.

Accomplishments are also any 3rd party recognition or endorsements related to whatever it is you want to be known for. This can include being quoted in a magazine, appearing on a podcast, being talked or written about on a blog.

Accomplishments provide you with credibility and authority.

Relationships

Relationships come down to the people you know and the people who know you. You could easily substitute the word networking here as well.

Relationships are also the circle of five we’ve spoken about many times on this show before.

Visibility

Visibility is simply how well and how often you show up in your channels and search results. If you wonder how visible you are online, take my free online visibility assessment below.

Visibility goes hand-in-hand with your channels. The more channels you are in, the harder it will be for you to become visible in them. To combat this, Shane recommends gaining visibility in one channel before moving to a new one.

Evidence

Evidence is the objective, quantitative proof of your platform. Evidence is very closely related to accomplishments as your accomplishments can serve as evidence of your platform.

Other forms of evidence include podcasts you’ve been on, books you’ve written, Twitter followers, pages Likes, etc. Evidence serves as proof to the outside world that your platform exists.

Speaking is also a great form of evidence.

THE PLATFORM GIANT PODCAST

The Platform Giant is Shane’s weekly podcast released every Tuesday-ish. The name came from a combination of Shane’s passion for speaking, which is typically done on a platform and from Michael Hyatt’s book, Platform.

The Platform Giant podcast is for anyone who wants to become visible, get noticed and who wants to share their message with the world via their platform.

In Shane’s mind, we are all platform giants. Even if we don;t yet see that in ourselves.