This book encourages readers who don’t think that they have anything to offer to the world. The “mission” of the book, a word he prefers to “goal,” is to help others become successful entrepreneurs who serve others, not only their own passion. It is the audience that shapes the message, e.g., what do they need, what do they want, and how the messenger can help the audience in these areas. The author claims that we all have a gift. We need to discover it , often with the help of others, bring that gift out and get outside perspectives because we tend to discount ourselves. We need to ignore others’ opinions that our gift has no value. The book is filled with encouragement along these lines. He offers several points to remember and elaborates on them. The book stresses a message-based business. Readers need to figure out their message and turn that into reality. The book easy to read with lots of interesting anecdotes. The book seeks to help people develop a messenger roadmap. There are exercises to guide readers toward this goal. There are also resources available at a web site for the book to help people in doing what the author advises readers to do. A message-based business, unlike other small businesses, is inexpensive to run with a potential for large profit margins. The book provides steps to help others likewise become successful entrepreneurs. The book is thus for a specific audience and the book stresses the need to present one’s message to a specific audience, as we cannot reach everyone with our specific message. The author mentions God twice, near the start of the book. He says that the gift everyone has is from God and we should give this gift to God. Other than this, however, the book is not explicitly a Christian book. That isn’t necessarily a problem. The core of the book is how to be an entrepreneur and start a message-based business. The author repeatedly stresses that the message and the business are for serving others, and that’s certainly a biblical concept, even if the author does not frame it that way. I would recommend it to anyone stuck with a dream but afraid to try to make it a reality.

I have been a student of Jonathan's for quite a while, so I knew this book would be great. What I hadn't counted on was how much new content there was, and that it all comes together in a way that gives me greater clarity than ever. To borrow a quote from the book, "The fact is, learning is important, but it often gives us a false sense of progress. No one can ever learn their way to results in life." There is a lot of knowledge packed into this book, but even better, there are action steps so that you can actually put what you're learning into play.

Your Message Matters is a perfect balance of encouragement and personal development combined with business education and practical application tips. It's an easy to read, easy to digest, easy to implement handbook that will leave you confident that your message truly does matter and that you have a duty to get that message out into the world.

Helping me figure out what where I should focus

The challenge those of us who want to build blogs and businesses that help people is trying to figure out what we should focus on. The processes and exercises in this book help me get unstuck and move forward with certainty. As "a creative" who is somewhat scattered in my attention, I plan to keep my copy close and refer to it often.

The book offers a simple 4-step framework to take your message and turn it into a business that can provide you with financial freedom, time freedom, and moral freedom. Freedoms I know I want.

Throughout the book, it felt like Jonathan was speaking directly to me. This is especially true when he describes the 8 Attributes of a Messenger. While I could relate to all 8, I cried out loud when I read #5, "This Is Me!"

I wish I had this book 9 years ago when I started my self-employment journey. It would have helped me avoid some potholes along the way.

Does your message matter? I know my message should matter. If not to you, definitely to me and possibly for others. Everyone’s got a message that matters!

This book turned out to be something I really needed to read at this point of my life and my business. I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to not only achieve multiple streams of income, but also to figure out ways to get there! Fascinatingly, Your Message Matters was just what I needed!

Milligan breaks down how these methods worked for him and people he knows and are familiar with. He mentions names of people I’ve been following on social media and listening to their podcasts; I even have some of their books! Why have I never come across Milligan before?

Although I’d never heard of Milligan before in my quest for personal growth? It could be that his target market was specific and does not include me. There’s a hint I’ve received multiple times, who are you marketing to? You can’t market to everybody. I’ll need to follow the suggestion to narrow my target market and only market to them. If others show up, that’s cool, too!

Overall, I found Your Message Matters by Jonathan Milligan to be very useful. It will be a great addition to my business library! A complimentary digital copy of Your Message Matters by Jonathan Milligan was provided by Baker Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I give this book five out of five tiaras because it is guiding me towards finding my own message.