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The Threaded Rope: How Your Idea, Marketing, and Content Can Work Together
Discover ways to make your book idea and content marketing into a compelling offering with Casey Helmick, co-founder of New Bridge Studios.
This is an edited transcript of Casey’s webinar.
Edited transcript
How the spreading of ideas has changed over time
So, thousands and thousands of years ago, the only way humans had to communicate was verbal. We’d gather around the fire, tell stories, and those would
spread from village to village or town to town. We didn’t really have a great way to distribute ideas, so we did those just with our mouth. At times in my work, I’m envious of that time—things have gotten so complicated. I wonder what it must’ve been like to live when there was no writing, no podcasts, no videos, no YouTube, no TV—just me telling you something. In a way, I’ll suggest at the end of this slide that we’re kind of getting back to this mentality.
We get from this kind of verbal communication thousands of years ago to the printing press. Now ideas could be spread written, and power was in the hands of those who controlled the press. Distribution of books around the world and ideas, society grew, and began to flourish.
Then came radio in the early 1900s, then TV in the early 1900s. And finally, the internet, digital, social media, and podcasting—as you see here, we do a lot of podcast work.
Podcasting in the early 2000s was created. These are all things we’re having to deal with now. Maybe it was simpler when it was just who could get attention around the fire, who could get their book on the printing press, who could get their words out through the radio tower in your community, television, same.
Now we get to this place in history where it’s just more complicated. When the internet came out in the 1980s, 1990s, and then early 2000s, we called this the age of information.
Succeeding in This Timeframe: Needing the Best Information
You needed to put out a website, to put out a podcast episode that had very quickly, information spread quickly and freely. That was the name of the game.
Information was the winner. But as time went by and things like social media began to come out, information wasn’t enough anymore. Everybody has information. It became commoditized. Now it’s about the age of convenience.
We needed to not only have information that we can spread quickly and often freely, but it needed to be conveniently distributed everywhere. You can’t just have a website, a podcast, or videos on the internet. You have to have all those things in different shapes and formats—on social media, in emails, on your website, on television, on radio, in books, and in verbal communication.
It’s just layers upon layers. I’m sure you all are already feeling overwhelmed by that.
The Third Age: From Information to Entertainment
But we’ve moved into a third age that we’ve seen and noticed here, and this really came about in the global crisis of 2019–2021, when it felt like the world shifted under us in many different ways. You can’t just have that information, and you can’t just distribute it conveniently everywhere to everyone. Now you have to entertain people. Now people’s expectation is that it isn’t just words on a page, not just words on paper, but that they get to know you, your story, and be entertained by you in a way. We’re not calling for everyone to become comedians or actors, but we do want to point out that part of succeeding in this world, part of the threaded rope mentality, is thinking about yourself in the society we live in, where it’s no longer just about the radio station, television, printing a book, or even having a podcast. It’s about distributing information quickly, often freely, conveniently, in all the places, and entertaining people along that journey.
In the movie Field of Dreams there is a scene where the actor is told, “If you build a big baseball field in this cornfield, the people will come.” That famous quote, “If we build it, they will come.” I think sometimes we feel this way when we’re an author or a publisher or something; people think if we write it, they’ll read it. If we publish it, they’ll buy it. If we do great work, they’ll donate money to our cause.
When you hear this, does it make you smiley and optimistic—like, hurrah, the world can work this way? I wanna believe, I wanna have faith, I wanna have trust. Or does it make you skeptical, cynical, angry, because that’s not how the world works? I can’t just write the book and people will magically read it.
The reality is we don’t just gather around a fire and tell stories anymore. We don’t live in a “if you build it, they will come” world. You do have to wear a lot of hats.
What is “the threaded rope”?
The threaded rope concept is the active weaving together of your product, content and your marketing to develop buyers, fans and advocates who are informed conveniently while being entertained.
Building Strength Through Product, Story, and Marketing
The product is simply: “I wrote a book. I think you’ll love it. I hope you’ll buy a copy today.” That alone is just a thin string—it creates some buyers but not a rope. Adding content means sharing the why: “I made this book with you in mind over the course of seven years as I watched my son grow up and deal with crippling anxiety.” Now people resonate emotionally. Finally, marketing is the how: “If you’re a parent with anxious kids, this book will change your perspective. Get your copy and tell me what you think.”
Now your audience isn’t just buying; they’re becoming advocates, sharing your work with others. In the end, everything we do fits into three buckets: product (what you’ve made), content (your why), and marketing (the impact it has). Woven together, they form a thick, strong rope that simplifies the many hats you wear and strengthens how you connect with the world.
The Power of Product, Story, and Marketing: The C.S. Lewis Example
How many of you have read something that C.S. Lewis wrote? That would be his product. He wrote a book, hoped people bought it, and people still buy his books today. He and the people around him were able to communicate the what: Mere Christianity and Chronicles of Narnia. They created buyers.
How many of you are fans of C.S. Lewis? Most might say yes, but could you tell two or three facts about him? Usually not. Heather, for example, knows lots of fun facts and is a fan. Today, it’s important not just to create great products, but also content about us, our product, our process, what we’re building, so people become fanatical about our work. They love C.S. Lewis not just for the Chronicles of Narnia series, but because he shared his journey and process. As an author or publisher, a second hat is to let people get to know you and your process. This can be done through social media, podcasts, YouTube, radio interviews, community events, and live interactions.
So again, many have read C.S. Lewis’ work, but fewer are fans because they don’t know much about him personally. He’s known for his work, but not his story. There’s an opportunity for authors, publishers, or anyone in your role to let people get to know you. If people become fanatical about you and your mission, it’s much easier to convince them to buy your next product.
If people are not fans of you, who you are, and why you’re doing what you’re doing, you have to really sell your book hard. Many people share C.S. Lewis’ work, but few, like Heather, can explain why you should read it by connecting his experiences, life, and the culture he built. With only a shallow depth of fandom, one can advocate for individual works rather than his broader journey.
Are You Meeting the Expectations of Your Audience? The J.K. Rowling example
Fast forward to the 90s, J.K. Rowling writes Harry Potter, one of the best-selling series ever. Many have read her work, fewer are fans, and even fewer advocate for her. The premise: try to check all three boxes.
- How many people have consumed your ideas (books, blog posts, texts)
- How many truly know you, your values, and why you do what you do
- How many people are advocating for you and your work
They want information, they want it spread quickly, they often want it freely, and they want it conveniently distributed everywhere—on their social media feed, in an audio book, as a written book in the bookstore, available to buy on Amazon, in a video series, and in a podcast. They want to be entertained, and our role is to create a product, create content about the why, market our work and tell the how, with the desired outcome to get buyers of our ideas.
The Threaded Rope: Weaving Product, Content, and Mission
Stop selling products and start selling the threaded rope of product, content, and marketing combined that produces buyers, fans, and advocates. You need to write the book, but you also need to document and display your mission for people. If we can get them to care for your mission and your product, our next sale is just a reminder. Hey, remember that mission we agreed to? I’ve got a new product that will take you to the next step. It’s on brand and it’s on mission and you’re gonna need it.
The next layer is equipping your followers to advocate for you. if they care for your mission, your product, the sale just gets easier and easier the deeper we can create people.
How do you move into content? How do you display your why?
Make a phone or a computer and start shooting behind the scenes social media videos. Hey, I’m here today, I’m writing chapter two, and I’m just reminded this book is about courage and we all need more courage today because courage is the thing that’s gonna move us past anxiety.
Not head down writing a book in a cabin, but recording a mission, a why, publishing to social media, texting friends, asking them to get involved, and getting feedback—do you believe my why? do you believe my mission?
So when the book comes out, they’re not asking how do I buy the book? where do I buy the book? should I buy the book? but how many? who else in my life needs this book? They’ve watched for 10 weeks, recording videos, telling the why, and they believe too.
Now, let me go out and activate that book in my world, in my community. Marketing for an author includes appearing on a podcast, taking time out of your day to appear.
As the owner and manager of a small editorial business in Guatemala City, I am often the writer, editor, publisher and distribution person. How do I combine them all to be productive?
What am I doing right now to communicate about the product I have? Am I being missional enough? Add not just discussions about the what, but then adding the why. It would take me an extra five minutes… to add that extra sentence, to add that extra photo or video. Here are the three books… they’re all connected by the thread of anxiety. Just adding that missional statement as the right first step. That’s going to start to open up opportunities… people will begin to comment. The first step is really being critical with your messages. Can I add more of the why, more of the mission behind why our publishing house exists?
How do I organize all that and not be overwhelmed?
The reason I harp on mission is because if you can’t describe your mission, you need to take a few steps back and spend some time in a boardroom with a whiteboard, really analyzing who are we and why do we do this? That should be the easiest thing for you to talk about. It shouldn’t add much time to how you talk about your work. It should roll right off your tongue, right off your fingertips out. So that’s a good place to start without adding a lot of overwhelming work.
How does an author advertise if he or she is a self-published author?
So the best advice I give to self-published people, which is not just books. Sometimes we focus on the creativity of the product we’re trying to make, the book we’re trying to write, and we forget you’re the best marketer for it right now. Build a list of 50 of your closest friends and family and convince them of the why, why you created this. The only chance of success a self-published author has is to convince 50 people to be your marketing team. That’s the only chance you have of succeeding: to have advocates on your behalf. And so your job is to write that book. your second job becomes; how do I create my first 50 advocates that will go share about my book in rooms that I’ll never walk into?
Can you share some of the ways that people can make their work processes more efficient? What are some tools that they can use?
Document along your way, don’t procrastinate until the end, record audio of yourself in the process and transcribe it, share your mission and share your marketing and post things. Second, bringing your community along the process as you’re writing your work.