Over the past few months, ESPN has fired several on-air personalities and brought on some new ones.


Casual observers think it’s simply that the fired people are no good, and the hirings are people who are simply better at talking on TV. This could not be further from the truth.



Let me tell you what's really going on, and give you a business lesson that can benefit you right now.


The people fired from ESPN were on-air talent. These are people who come to the studio, talk to the camera, share their opinions and insights, and go home when the cameras turn off.


Their value was based on being connected to ESPN.
ESPN provided the audience and the attention, and they benefited from it.


The longer they were there, the more money they commanded. Disney (who owns ESPN) was looking to save money.


When this happens in the corporate world, who gets fired first?
The employees earning the most money.
They get replaced with younger and cheaper talent.


The people recently brought in are those who have already built audiences outside of ESPN. ESPN brought them in to access not only the personalities, insights and opinions, but the audiences that they bring with them.



If you're not catching on, let me make it simpler and say it slower.



ESPN fired the employees, which on their balance sheet, were financial LIABILITIES.



Liability: Something that takes money out of your pocket



ESPN hired those who had audiences, which on the balance sheets are acquired ASSETS.



Asset: Something that puts money in your pocket



***



I talk to a lot of people who want to write books. If you have never written a book with a traditional publisher, understand this: They do not market, promote, nor sell your book.


That's your job.


The only way a traditional publisher will do a publishing deal with an author is when that author has a mechanism and process for getting the book sold. The days of a publisher developing you as an author are over. You must show up pre-ready to sell books.


When I signed the publishing deal for my book “Work On Your Game,” I had to fill out a document that asked me about the 18 other books I’d written, and how many I’d sold of each. My editor had to take that information to her marketing department to sell them on moving forward with me.


A publisher’s job is to publish a book - meaning the book is on the shelves at a bookstore, or listed on Amazon. The job of getting someone to actually BUY the book? That's all on you.


If you cannot show them that you can make that happen, no publisher will offer you a publishing contract.


What this has to do with ESPN and you: ESPN is acquiring assets, in the form of people who already have an audience. That built-in audience means built-in eyeballs, which will make ESPN money.


ESPN is firing people who do not have an audience, as those personalities are costing ESPN money.



For you: You need to be building and investing into ASSETS.


Even if you have a job, like the now-fired ESPN people, you need to be putting time daily into building things that you control that can and will put money in your pocket.


Assets make you independent.
Assets give you power.
Assets give you freedom.


There are many different types of assets; an audience is just one way of doing it.
A result-producing process is an asset.

Ownership of something that produces money consistently is an asset.


Assets give you power in the marketplace to where you dictate outcomes, instead of having your outcomes dictated to you.


http://www.WorkOnYourGameUniversity.com
​