Hi, and welcome back.
In this lesson we’re going to talk about finding your followers. You might think of this as finding a niche or a niche, but I’m intentionally not using that word, because people say niche or niche, and they get all kinds of confused, and it’s French, and no offense to any French speakers out there, but we’re just going to talk about followers. Because everybody understands that if you have a blog, or you write books, or you’ve got something to say and you want to share it on the Internet, that you need to have people who are listening to what you have to say. So, we’re going to call those followers. How do you actually find these people? Well, I think the traditional advice is to basically start talking about a topic. And, then, talk about it so much that you eventually somehow become an expert at this topic. And, then, people start seeing you this way about the authority about whatever that subject is. And, then, the attention, and the money just starts rolling in. And that is not the way it really works. In fact, I see lots of people struggling online following this exact formula. They start talking about DSLR cameras. And they talk, and talk, and talk about it. And they think, “If I talk about this enough, and I do enough research, people are going to care about what I have to say.” Now, that’s not necessarily true. And sometimes this works, but a lot of times it doesn’t work. Pick any subject, any idea, any focused demographic group, and tell me that this hasn’t already been exploited, that this market hasn’t already been tapped out, that people haven’t sort of maximize the returns on trying to reach this audience. It’s really hard. You’re not going to find some subject, or idea, that hasn’t already been explored a bunch of different ways. What does that actually mean for you, and how do you find the audience that your message deserves?
Well, I think you have to begin with realizing that what you have to say isn’t that original, that other people have come before you and have said the same thing. And, so, it’s really important that you find the message that resonates with you, that also resonates with other people. Your voice, as we’ve talked about before, is really the intersection between what you have to say, what your personal passion, and interest and even skillset is, and, then, what interests other people. This is where you really find your sweet spot of the stuff that you’re talking about that’s really going to connect with an audience, that really is sort of your niche. And like I said, I’m not going to try to say that a bunch of different times, because I am not French.
What it takes to find your followers is to take something that is dear to you that connects with other people which sounds kind of easy. Like, just go do that. But the reality is, this is a process of trial and error. In order for you to go find followers, here’s what you’ve got to do. There are three things. First, you have to go where people already are. Now, a lot of people will send me an email, or they’ll ask me a question and say, “Hey, I started this blog, and I’ve been blogging for six months or a year, and the problem is no one is showing up. Nobody is reading my writing. What am I doing wrong?”
And I ask them, “Well, are you going where people already are?” And they go, “No, I’m just trying to have – get people to come to my Website and read my writing.” And that doesn’t work in real life, and it certainly doesn’t work online. If you want people to care about what you have to say, you have to first go where they are and show them that you care about them. We’ve probably all heard the saying that people don’t care about what you have to say until you share them how much you care. The first way you do that is, go where people are. Go find where people are connecting. And, then, start a conversation. That’s the second thing. And, then, lastly, see what resonates. And until you find something that connects, again that connection of, here’s what interests me, and here’s what interests other people, until you find that common connection, you don’t have a relationship, and you can’t turn that into an audience. A lot of people are kind of throwing messages on the Internet, and they’re not thinking in the back of their mind, what’s in it for them? What’s in it for the audience?
And the way that you do that, we’re going to talk more about this in Module 2 in terms of how you really build a platform around your unique message. Then, in Module 3 how to expand the reach of that platform. But when you’re starting out, I want you to think about those three things. Where are people connecting? Are your people on Twitter? Are they at conventions? Did they have blogs? Do they read books? Do they read magazines? Do they read newspapers? Where are these people connecting with each other? How are they consuming content? And, then, how can you go and connect with them?
Second, what are the conversations that people are having that you could join? Are people talking about the thing that you want to talk about? Are they connecting on Facebook? Are they in message groups? Are they in chatrooms? Are they subscribing to email lists? Where are these people convening that you could begin to join the conversation? And, then, lastly, be thinking about, how can I say something that is going to connect with them? And really that begins with looking at what interests you, what connects with you, what resonates with your world. We’re going to cover that in another lesson. Really figure out what is interesting to me, and then much like you would start a conversation at a cocktail party, you try to find some common interests. And until you find that connection, you don’t have an audience. You don’t have a tribe. You just have a bunch of people out there that you’re sort of blasting messages out to. I really want you to start thinking about how to start small. Now, this might seem sort of theoretical. And trust me, we’re going to get into some more of the practical very soon. But you need to begin thinking about what is the message that I have that has already connected with people? The worst thing to do is try to think of what you’ve done as something new. The best way to do is try to think of it as something old.
And the truth is that your past doesn’t determine your future, whether that’s with blogging, or writing, or sharing your message with the world. But it does inform it. In other words, there’s something in your past, there’s something that you’ve said at some point that is going to connect with an audience. And it’s just a matter of trial and error, going out there, joining conversations, and then finding what connects with people, and then connecting your passion and interests with that.
To illustrate that point, I want to tell you about one of our students, René. René went to college to study biology and become a biology textbook writer. And very quickly she realized that this wasn’t for her. Lots of people told her, don’t do that. What did René do next? Well, she went into food service. And she did that for a few years. And then her husband wanted to go back to school. She decided, “Well, I’ve been writing for most of my life. So, I’ll start writing and see if I can support my husband as he goes back to school.” She did that and supported him. And then, she had kids. She became a mom, and she spent a lot of her time preparing meals for her family, started to make some different changes in her lifestyle, started to get really into the vegan diet, and lifestyle, and her family was non‐vegan. She had this struggle of, “How do I make meals for myself but also for my family?” And then, how do I support myself and my passions as a mom who is staying home, but I also have these interests that I’ve had for years and years? Through this process René tried a bunch of different things. In fact, she would tell you that it took her two years to really find her followers, to find the group of people that wanted to hear what she had to say. And, ultimately, what she ended up doing was starting a recipe blog sharing recipes that she says are 98% vegan. So, they’re mostly meat free and vegan, but there’s meat in different things, because she’s pulling from her experience of making meals for her non‐vegan family. When you look at René’s story, you can kind of see how one thing led to the other. She was very interested in biology, and writing, and that really didn’t work out. And, then, she had to figure out how to make money writing for her husband. And, then, she was really getting into food. Again, kind of going back to the biology connection and started trying a bunch of different things on her blog, and ultimately settled on writing these 98% vegan recipes. Now, she’s selling jewelry every month. And she says that she’s living her dream. She’s got a recipe blog, but she’s also selling jewelry online, and it all began with this decision to become a vegan and start finding more vegan recipes. She started this jewelry company because she made this necklace on it that said vegan on it. You can see how one thing led to the other, led to the other, and at any point René could have tried something, and it not worked, and she could have really tried to force it. And it still probably wouldn’t have worked. But instead she just took it one step at a time and every time she ran into an obstacle or felt like she had failed at something, she just kind of pivoted. She just learned from that failure and tried to use that to achieve the next success.
And you can kind of go back and look to see all of these things are connected. And, so, very likely with you that when you are trying to find your followers, reach those fans, find the audience that your message deserves, it’s going to be this iterative process. It’s going to take trial and error. What I don’t what you to do is think that this is something brand new out there that you’ve never done. No, just like René you’re going to look back at your past, and find the different things that you’ve done that inform your future. That doesn’t mean you stay stuck where you are or where you’ve been, but there is a wealth of information in the experiences that you’ve had in your past, the things that you’ve learned, the things that you’ve studied, the things that have fascinated you. But it’s going to take some time to put those messages out there, find what connects with people, and then, ultimately, see what is going to connect you to them.
And like René, it took a couple of years. And it took a similar process for me writing about leadership, and then writing about marketing, and then ultimately realizing that a lot of people want to hear about writing, and my writing journey, what it becomes to become a writer.
The thing that René didn’t do, and the thing that I didn’t do, and the thing I hope you don’t do is just wait for clarity. No, clarity didn’t come waiting for some great epiphany. Clarity came when René decided to take action. That’s what I want you to do next. I want you to take the next‐step challenge which is to be thinking about what is the thing that you struggled with? As Dereck Sivers says in his book, anything you want, what’s obvious to you, is amazing to other people. In René’s story we saw she had been spending all this time struggling with, “How do I make healthy meals for my family but also healthy to me, but they want to eat meat. I don’t want to eat meat. How can I work through that?” And all the while she wants to write and concentrate on her blog. And she feels sort of spread thin. So, what does she do? Well, she uses her byproducts. She uses the stuff that she’s doing all day long, and she takes it and goes, “This is going to inspire my writing.”
It’s very likely that the thing that you’re going to write about that’s going to connect with people is something that you’re doing right now that might feel very obvious to you but is in fact amazing to somebody else. So, your next‐step challenge is this. I want you to make a list of things that are obvious to you, that other people at some point have gone, “Wow. How do you do that?” Or, “How did you know that?” Or maybe you like to read a lot as one of my friends does. And he started a blog just about all of the books that he’s reading through. And, basically, doing book reviews on all of these novels that he’s reading.
Whatever the thing is that just kind of feels normal and natural to you, I want you to really tap into that and start sharing that and see what connects with other people. Your challenge is just to make a list of some of the things that are obvious to you. Make it at least three things. I’d shoot for as many as 10 that are amazing to other people. And that is going to clue you in to what is your followers, your future followers will want from you. And I’ll see you in the next lesson.