Interview with Josh Spear, Indie Publisher

2. To what extent is the publishing you do your business or your shop-front? How has that changed over the last year?

My site still remains an integral part of my business–although it’s comprises less of the work I do now and is more of a shop-front, it still remains a foundation that keeps fresh my relationships with existing as well as potential clients. I’m glad I have differentiation from other consultants — and now — other agencies. Over the past year, much more of my time has been focused on building my new consulting agency called Spear Creative Group and its digital marketing counterpart SparkMedium. JoshSpear.com remains independent from the new endeavors but continues to fuel us (and our clients).

3. Beyond any financial reward, what do you get out of it all? What drives you?

The feeling of magic in a good strategy or ideation session drives me. I get to play the ‘no holds barred’ consulting game with my clients: That is, they know I’m not there to be a yes-man. I call companies out onto the mat for behaving badly all the time and they seem to love hearing the truth. It’s that magic I find most exciting, beyond any financial reward. When something I come up with or say gets implemented into an organization and is a catalyst for some major change, it’s very exciting.

4. Are you conscious of YOU the brand as much as your site? Do you leverage the fact?

Yeah, over the past few months as I dig deeper into the agency side of things — sometimes I even talk about ‘Josh Spear’ in the 3rd person. I still try to keep myself in check about ‘Spear the brand,’ and I think I do a relatively good job at it. I haven’t pimped it out nearly as much as I could have — and I’m going to be very precise and sparing with what my next moves are. But, when it comes to clients — they still very much want to hear from this Spear guy, and that’s fine. I’m building a team around me that supports my initial ideas — and a combination of experience, intuition and magic make us different.

5. How do you view the other independent publishers that cover the same content areas as you?

There’s an unlimited amount of space for people to cover what they love. There is a pretty simple reason I didn’t call my site ‘CoolShit.com’… I wanted it to be a place I share things I love or found interesting. There are a few sites out there who seem to be a little less genuine in their efforts to gain readership — but hey, time is too precious to spend my time worrying about them.

6. How is mainstream media covering your content areas? Is there a noticeable reaction to what you and your peers are doing?

I think it’s split pretty evenly down the middle. Half of the mainstream media embraces our content areas and it’s a win-win situation. More and more magazines and mainstream companies want to collaborate with us in organic ways. On the other side of the spectrum, if you (or I) pick up a Stuff magazine you’re not likely to see anything new. It’s almost like the massive mainstream monsters are ignoring the fact that the blog world saw those iPod cases a year ago.

7. How is your world going to change over the next 12 months?

The agency is going to become a much bigger part of my life, I recently moved into a pretty daunting space to house SparkMedium. I’ve begun hiring (and am still hiring) people. I’ve also got some plans to launch a couple of new titles, not for major profit — but for fun, and to continue to fuel my creativity.

Thank You

JoshSpear.com