Building Platforms with Ryan Holiday and Russ

“To do our work without a platform is to be at the mercy of other people’s permission.”
— Ryan Holiday
As soon as read above line from Holiday’s book “Perennial Seller”, I thought of Russ — a rapping, singing, producing and marketing sensation — who I’ve viewed afar for the 5 years.
“You need me I don’t need you so just watch how you talk to me” — Russ
…
Holiday defines platform as: the combination of the tools, relationships, access, and audience that you have to bear on spreading your ideas.
Based on that definition, I was a proverbial early-brick in Russ’s platform starting in 2012 — which took form as a twitter interaction (image above). At the time, Russ was Russ: a 19 year old producer and songwriter. Beatspill was college me — a twitter account shared by a few head high school buddies and fellow hip hop heads. We had the same sized twitter following. Today, Russ has 800k followers, 100s of millions youtube views, sold out concerts, a Rolex and platinum album. We don’t (but I did just buy a Honda 💪🏼).
So how did he build this massive platform that’s been integral to his seemingly meteoric recent rise?
As Seth Godin says: “Start with one”. So we’ll start with my one story and assume it’s similar to other early listeners (I don’t know any others, I’m sorry! And I own a Honda 💪🏼. So my story’s relevant.)
Art is intangible — and that’s the beauty of it. Still, there are distinct components of Russ’s music, which I believe contributed to his successful platform:
- Differentiation
- Tons of free projects + Internet distribution = Word of mouth
- Fan loyalty
Russ is *very* unique. His distinct set of skills (singing, rapping, producing) and subject matter (rapping about self-fulfilment, bring dreams to fruition, etc) help differentiate himself from an inundated music market. On top of that, his work ethic validates his lyrics, which only fortifies his position as an artist:
Not only does his music inspire you to attain your goals — Russ is also making his dreams come true as we speak! So I can too.
For example: Russ released a new track every week (of which he wrote, rapped and produced every single one), while producing extra beats for his team (Diemon) and making music videos to promote his tracks. He walks — then talks — and I trust his message because of it.
With his massive portfolio of projects in hand — Russ leveraged the free distribution and connectivity of the internet to build his fanbase. Without distribution fees, there were no costs to recoup and, as a result, could price all of his projects at 0$. He had a frictionless machine in place. All he needed was the content — and he had a ton of it that was both quality and differentiated.
Since listening to Russ in 2012, I’ve changed a lot and so has his music. Still, I snatched up his debut album 5 years later. Chances are, I’ll do it again in the future. I’m loyal (like many others) to his music because, he puts his listeners first in every part of his work. For each show: he waits for every ticket holder to get inside before stepping on stage, he skips opening acts — all to be sure that every fan gets 2 hours of straight Russ.
In terms of comparing his work to building a company, he essentially bootstrapped a freemium product, built a customer base through word of mouth and putting his listers first in everything he does. Even when he brought on investors and signed to Columbia Records — he did it on his own terms because he had the leverage: the fans were his, the music was his. He built a platform and therefore his future.
“You need me I don’t need you so just watch how you talk to me” — Russ
