Since its inception, Progressive Business Publications (PBP) has achieved great success in the education services and specialized information sector. Yet not much is known about
PBP’s founder, Ed Satell, who prefers to stay out of the limelight and spend his time engaged in advocating
PBP’s powerful tools. We received a rare opportunity to sit down with Ed Satell and talk about
PBP’s success.
Question 1: When did you found Progressive Business Publications, and what was your early role in the company?
Ed Satell: PBP was founded in the late 1980s. Because the venture was so new, I actually wore several hats during the early days. I was directly involved in editorial matters, as well as everything pertaining to marketing and operations.
Question 2: What were the early days of PBP like?
Ed Satell: The first year of so of PBP was both exciting and difficult. It was exciting because we were looking to fill a need that wasn’t being filled by anyone else, really. But it was also difficult because, since we were innovators in our field, we didn’t really have any examples to follow. That was compounded by the fact that starting a business is always tough. You either survive, or you fail.
Question 3: One of PBP’s major early successes was The Selling Advantage. What was the Advantage, and what made it so successful?
Ed Satell: The Selling Advantage was a newsletter I was encouraged to write shortly after PBP was founded. More accurately, I wrote portions of it myself. After only a couple years, the newsletter really caught on: we had over 40,000 readers.
Question 4: What did The Selling Advantage teach you and PBP about launching future newsletters?
Ed Satell: Primarily, we quickly gained an understanding that information itself is worthless unless it can be easily accessed, understood, and applied by those who need it. We took what we learned from the first Selling Advantage and worked to make our system a well-oiled machine: find an expert in the area we wanted to talk about in a newsletter, teach that expert PBP’s editorial style and values, and finally, build the newsletter around that expert’s specialty.
Question 5: Where does PBP stand today?
Ed Satell: I’m proud to say that PBP is known as a leader in online education. We offer courses for principals and teachers, as well as CLEs for lawyers, certifications for businesses, and Executive Mini-MBAs. There’s more in store, so stay tuned.