Talk to your people
I was recently at a conference where I heard Steve Kamb of Nerd Fitness tell us to respond to every DM in our inbox.
One of the conference attendees later told me how surprised he was by this. He said he had been told by several "experts" not to do that.
…and I was like, excuse me?
If you're trying to build a business, change the culture, and manifest your own realized version of the world, why would it make sense to not engage with the people who share your ideals?
What kind of self-sabotage is this?
Aren't we doing this work because we're looking for connection? Because we want to find other people who value the same things we do, are awed by the same sights, inspired by the same ideas, and envision the same future?
Isn't that the purpose of creating things and sharing them with the world?
Isn't that the purpose behind content marketing?
Content Marketing is Tribe Finding
The friend who said this to me is a videographer. He inspires people to travel, to take risks, to adventure and push their limits.
He's promising them adventure and excitement, sure, but also something else. His work taps into the adrenaline rush, the addictive uncertainty of feeling out of control, of falling — that deeply human desire to feel something.
He spends time making videos because he enjoys it, sure, but also because he enjoys showing other people what can be possible for them.
Jasmine Star says we're craving connection. She wants us to build engagement on our social media profiles because because she believes people want to be connected.
We want to be seen.
We want to be heard.
We want to be understood.
Especially by other people who are like us.
Content marketing — the strategic creation and distribution of free content for the purpose of promoting a business, brand, or idea — is, I believe, the most effective vehicle of tribe-finding.
Of finding the people we want to connect with.
You can invite people into your home, but what's the point if they're not going to take a seat at the table and eat the meal you've cooked them?
Your Moral Obligation
If you believe the work you do is deeply transformational and life-changing, then you have a responsibility to make sure as many of your tribe hear about and know about you as possible.
If you're inspiring people to travel — showing them that travel and all of it's life-changing lessons is accessible and necessary — then you need to ensure your message is reaching the right people.
In other words, you need to produce high-quality content on a consistent and regular basis and spread the word.
Oneika the Traveller gave a keynote and talked about self-promotion. She mentioned that a lot of people feel weird about promoting their stuff on their personal social media accounts…but that we should promote anyways.
I'm glad she made the point, but I was puzzled as to why people were saying the opposite.
If you believe in the work you do, why would you tell someone else not to talk about the work they do?
I'm very suspicious of any work done by someone who says not to talk about the work you do.
You're making this thing because you want it to exist (presumably because there are people you want to serve)…but then you don't talk about it. That doesn't feel congruent to me.
If what you make/do/create is truly essential and life-changing, you're selfish for keeping it to yourself.
Create for the Smallest Possible Audience
Your tribe does not need to be big.
Smaller is better. Create for the smallest possible number of people. Create for an audience of 1.
Seth Godin calls this a "minimum viable audience."
Why for the smallest number of people? Why an audience of 1? Because that lets you get specific.
Specificity is the gasoline in your engine. People respond to specific. Specific lets me know that your creation is for me. Or not. Maybe it's for that other guy — it's not for me. That's preferable, too.
When you create for everybody — for a large number of people — you're constrained by the lowest common denominator. That's why the things you love the most are niche oddities — they're made for you, not for your mom, your partner, or your neighbor.
Your favorite movies and TV shows that you found in the dark corners of Netflix, or books you found after painstakingly searching the stacks at Powell's or The Strand — some of them are small works of art with a small audience and an even smaller marketing budget. But they were made for you. And you cherish them.
The work you create needs to be the same way. Generalities aren't effective.
You need to be for somebody, but also not for somebody else.
All of this, of course, comes back to the problem of talking to your people.
If you're making generalities, you're not compelling to anybody. You have 300,000 followers in Instagram but only 17 comments.
People scroll past your posts and say, "okay, that was cool, but didn't really do it for me."
You're trying to sell your life coaching services but your website has pictures of Indian grandmothers and young white boys.
You're for everybody; consequently, you're for nobody.
When you're specific — when you create for the smallest possible audience — and audience of 1 — you mean something. You stand for something.
And people will respond to that.
Why?
Because we're looking for connection.
Because the 4, 12, 300 people who watch your video or find your blog post next month share your ideals.
They share your worldview.
They are like you.
Why on earth would you not respond to them?
Looking for more marketing insights?
Check out my other epiphanies and lessons from this conference:
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