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[Article Discussion] - The "Audience First" Strategy

Andy Black

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have a product or service verified first and then building an audience around the product?
I just think too many people go into their batcave without engaging the market soon enough.

For me, I’d engage, create, engage, create, all the while using market feedback to hone the product/service. Steel sharpens steel, not endlessly polishing.

The building of an audience doesn’t necessarily mean a big audience imo.

You mention getting validation first before building the product. I think we’re in agreement.

Find one person to help, then another, then another. Before long you’ve ended up helping lots of people and can recognise what they have in common and what their common problems are (and why), and you *know* what product to scale with.

That’s my interpretation. I think it’s iterative, neither A-then-B nor B-then-A.
 
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Mutant

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Super interesting video about building audiences. I love at 6:54 ish where she talks about NOT building a personal brand.

View: https://youtu.be/-E3IUuJ09XY

Hah, speaking of social media, I just wanted to send this post to someone, but that functionality is not here, so I'll tag 'em publicly instead... @Primeperiwinkle - her energy reminded me a lot of you. Might be a route that would work for you?
 

Primeperiwinkle

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Hah, speaking of social media, I just wanted to send this post to someone, but that functionality is not here, so I'll tag 'em publicly instead... @Primeperiwinkle - her energy reminded me a lot of you. Might be a route that would work for you?

Oh she seems so lovely! But I umm .. oh gosh.. I’m so ridiculously flighty that even when I had a blog and thousands of followers I couldn’t ever quite figure out what to write about or if anything I said even mattered.

Fast forward many years and the strategy I was using could have built me a huge audience because, apparently, it’s exactly the same strategy that Gary Vee says builds brands. Kind of a “admit you know nothing but keep trying in full honesty and openness” type of thing?

But I’m very easily hurt.. and one or two ppl misinterpreting what I’m saying breaks my heart, a bit, ya know? Even on this forum I have reached out here and there and been rebuffed enough to realize it’s probably better to stay quiet and focus on my own stuff. I know I seem extroverted but.. it’s just because my heart is so thankful for everyone here and I want everyone to be friends and.. well.. I want to be friends with everyone here too!

I don’t feel brave enough to share my whole life and all its ridiculous details with strangers on a blog that my kids could read someday... cuz a BIG part of my life has been unraveling abuse or narcissism or weird intimacy issues. They deserve to have a mom all to themselves with no online tragic stories connected to them, in any way, whatsoever.

When I do share here and there on forums it’s because I feel accepted or I feel a deep desire to help someone else or I’ve had enough caffeine to fortify my fears. Lol. A lot of caffeine. Lol.

Anyhoo. I can’t convince my darling of any of this. He says I should do precisely what you’re saying. Build up a following by discussing stuff.. and then sell courses but it sounds preposterous to me because I know so little. As far as I’m concerned... I’d really rather be an integral “quiet” part of a solid business at work and be “loud/gregarious/enthusiastic” at play when I’m with my friends, like you!

I’m a muddle. Lol. I love you to pieces for thinking of me though!
 

Andy Black

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Oh this is


Oh she seems so lovely! But I umm .. oh gosh.. I’m so ridiculously flighty that even when I had a blog and thousands of followers I couldn’t ever quite figure out what to write about or if anything I said even mattered.

Fast forward many years and the strategy I was using could have built me a huge audience because, apparently, it’s exactly the same strategy that Gary Vee says builds brands. Kind of a “admit you know nothing but keep trying in full honesty and openness” type of thing?

But I’m very easily hurt.. and one or two ppl misinterpreting what I’m saying breaks my heart, a bit, ya know? Even on this forum I have reached out here and there and been rebuffed enough to realize it’s probably better to stay quiet and focus on my own stuff. I know I seem extroverted but.. it’s just because my heart is so thankful for everyone here and I want everyone to be friends and.. well.. I want to be friends with everyone here too!

I don’t feel brave enough to share my whole life and all its ridiculous details with strangers on a blog that my kids could read someday... cuz a BIG part of my life has been unraveling abuse or narcissism or weird intimacy issues. They deserve to have a mom all to themselves with no online tragic stories connected to them, in any way, whatsoever.

When I do share here and there on forums it’s because I feel accepted or I feel a deep desire to help someone else or I’ve had enough caffeine to fortify my fears. Lol. A lot of caffeine. Lol.

Anyhoo. I can’t convince my darling of any of this. He says I should do precisely what you’re saying. Build up a following by discussing stuff.. and then sell courses but it sounds preposterous to me because I know so little. As far as I’m concerned... I’d really rather be an integral “quiet” part of a solid business at work and be “loud/gregarious/enthusiastic” at play when I’m with my friends, like you!

I’m a muddle. Lol. I love you to pieces for thinking of me though!
What if you didn’t reach out to people first? I’ve had over 3,000 PMs with forum members where I messaged them to thank them for following or repping me. They already raised their hand to say they liked what I was doing. Not one of them has brushed me off or said anything negative, on the contrary, some have been nicely surprised and I suspect it’s helped them settle into the forum and find their feet.

Another thing, you don’t have to be on camera. I personally don’t want to build a personal brand. I just want to help people. If I end up building a personal brand by accident then so be it.

Note how at about 6:50 she says it’s not about building a personal brand. True, she’s doing that now because she’s teaching people how to build businesses like she’s already done.

Are you doing the world a disservice by hiding under a bushel?
 
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Mutant

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I’m so ridiculously flighty that even when I had a blog and thousands of followers I couldn’t ever quite figure out what to write about

Excuse me - you had a blog with thousands of followers??!

And how precisely did you get them to follow you? You must have been talking about something (or things!) that held their interest & reflected them back to themselves!?!

I also think you're dismissing numbers far too easily. You had thousands of followers, so minimum 2000. Even if only 6% read & engaged with any particular blog post, numbers-wise, that' s kinda like you giving a talk at the summit, & just think about all those awesome people at the summit. Each one is a real awesome person. That's a big deal. Don't dismiss numbers.

or if anything I said even mattered.

Well that's just obviously a nonsense belief you need to kick to the curb.

Seriously, don't allow yourself to entertain that thought anymore, it's pure bs.

Saying something allows people to connect, & whether you're saying it to one person or to many, it facilitates one of the most fundamental desires of humanity. Connecting with our people is one the most important things can do. Sure whatever you're saying might not connect with everyone, but that just lets you find your people.

But I’m very easily hurt.. and one or two ppl misinterpreting what I’m saying breaks my heart, a bit, ya know? Even on this forum I have reached out here and there and been rebuffed enough to realize it’s probably better to stay quiet and focus on my own stuff.

For starters I shall definitely prescribe a large dose of Brené Brown.

For seconds, I shall encourage (though I suspect you already have, but whatever) you to consider other aspect of your life. We often repeat patterns. If you find it hard to deal with (even small) failures when dealing with people, & so decide that staying in your own lane is the best course of action, are there any other areas where you're self censoring & playing too small? Can breaking the pattern in one give you the courage to break that pattern in another?

I know I seem extroverted but.. it’s just because my heart is so thankful for everyone here and I want everyone to be friends and.. well.. I want to be friends with everyone here too!

See that's the energy I was talking about!

I don’t feel brave enough to share my whole life and all its ridiculous details with strangers on a blog that my kids could read someday... cuz a BIG part of my life has been unraveling abuse or narcissism or weird intimacy issues. They deserve to have a mom all to themselves with no online tragic stories connected to them, in any way, whatsoever.

You absolutely 100% do not have to share this on the internet if you don't want to.

Perhaps the first time you watched the video you were looking for the similarities (cos that's why I pointed you to it), try watching it again & see what she does differently. For example, she grew an audience on cats without owning one, she grew a crockpot audience & she doesn't even cook. She' s not trying to grow a personal brand.

You don't have to share you most personal stories, just find a group of people you love & love on them. Reflect them to themselves. Make them look good. Make them feel good. I know you can do this because I've experienced it. That's why I thought of you.

When I do share here and there on forums it’s because I feel accepted or I feel a deep desire to help someone else or I’ve had enough caffeine to fortify my fears. Lol. A lot of caffeine. Lol.

Yup, there it is - "a deep desire to help someone else" - find a group of those "someone elses" & help them.

Anyhoo. I can’t convince my darling of any of this. He says I should do precisely what you’re saying. Build up a following by discussing stuff.. and then sell courses but it sounds preposterous to me because I know so little.

He's right because he know you.

Also, you don't have to sell courses. In the video she mentions I think 9(?) different ways of monetising, but because they're coming from a place of service you're still helping them. Even an affiliate link to a product that solves a problem they have is a win-win-win. You can just be a connector if you're not (yet) confident in your own ability to provide a course-worth of value.

As far as I’m concerned... I’d really rather be an integral “quiet” part of a solid business at work and be “loud/gregarious/enthusiastic” at play when I’m with my friends, like you!

Your call. But if other people (so far I know of at least two! lol) are seeing something positive in you that you don't see yourself, it might be worth a perspective check.

I’m a muddle. Lol.

Eh, that's work-on-able.

I love you to pieces for thinking of me though!

You're welcome.
 

Andy Black

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Excuse me - you had a blog with thousands of followers??!

And how precisely did you get them to follow you? You must have been talking about something (or things!) that held their interest & reflected them back to themselves!?!

I also think you're dismissing numbers far too easily. You had thousands of followers, so minimum 2000. Even if only 6% read & engaged with any particular blog post, numbers-wise, that' s kinda like you giving a talk at the summit, & just think about all those awesome people at the summit. Each one is a real awesome person. That's a big deal. Don't dismiss numbers.



Well that's just obviously a nonsense belief you need to kick to the curb.

Seriously, don't allow yourself to entertain that thought anymore, it's pure bs.

Saying something allows people to connect, & whether you're saying it to one person or to many, it facilitates one of the most fundamental desires of humanity. Connecting with our people is one the most important things can do. Sure whatever you're saying might not connect with everyone, but that just lets you find your people.



For starters I shall definitely prescribe a large dose of Brené Brown.

For seconds, I shall encourage (though I suspect you already have, but whatever) you to consider other aspect of your life. We often repeat patterns. If you find it hard to deal with (even small) failures when dealing with people, & so decide that staying in your own lane is the best course of action, are there any other areas where you're self censoring & playing too small? Can breaking the pattern in one give you the courage to break that pattern in another?



See that's the energy I was talking about!



You absolutely 100% do not have to share this on the internet if you don't want to.

Perhaps the first time you watched the video you were looking for the similarities (cos that's why I pointed you to it), try watching it again & see what she does differently. For example, she grew an audience on cats without owning one, she grew a crockpot audience & she doesn't even cook. She' s not trying to grow a personal brand.

You don't have to share you most personal stories, just find a group of people you love & love on them. Reflect them to themselves. Make them look good. Make them feel good. I know you can do this because I've experienced it. That's why I thought of you.



Yup, there it is - "a deep desire to help someone else" - find a group of those "someone elses" & help them.



He's right because he know you.

Also, you don't have to sell courses. In the video she mentions I think 9(?) different ways of monetising, but because they're coming from a place of service you're still helping them. Even an affiliate link to a product that solves a problem they have is a win-win-win. You can just be a connector if you're not (yet) confident in your own ability to provide a course-worth of value.



Your call. But if other people (so far I know of at least two! lol) are seeing something positive in you that you don't see yourself, it might be worth a perspective check.



Eh, that's work-on-able.



You're welcome.
Where's that rep button when you need it?
 
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Andy Black

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Phewie. I've just come off giving a workshop scheduled from 9pm till 10pm. Came off at 11pm and people loved it and said they could listen to another hour. Instead of using my flipchart (like I normally do live), I took inspiration from Rachel Miller and had a clipboard and wrote on that instead. It was so much fun. @Primeperiwinkle ... jdi.
 

Andy Black

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Andy Black

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Phewie. I've just come off giving a workshop scheduled from 9pm till 10pm. Came off at 11pm and people loved it and said they could listen to another hour. Instead of using my flipchart (like I normally do live), I took inspiration from Rachel Miller and had a clipboard and wrote on that instead. It was so much fun. @Primeperiwinkle ... jdi.
Here’s that workshop @Primeperiwinkle
 
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Andy Black

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Andy Black

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It’s interesting because I subscribe to this viewpoint too. Run paid ads, get people to the top of the funnel, learn fast without creating so much content.

View: https://youtu.be/NLWZMyrJc6g
 

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Hey @Andy Black great thread!

Been wondering:
What if you work on providing free educational content, but this same kinda content is also in your paid educational content?

I have a Facebookgroup with 550+ members since june (organic). We did it by sharing posts on social media that lead to a live webinar. From the webinar, we advise going in the group or buy one of our paid educational courses.

I've been thinking about making free content on youtube or in a blog on our website. Though, it always seems that I'll then write/make content around things that are also in the courses people pay for. This doesn't really sound logical to me as the free content overlaps the paid content.

What's your opinion?

Thanks in advance!
 
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Andy Black

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Hey @Andy Black great thread!

Been wondering:
What if you work on providing free educational content, but this same kinda content is also in your paid educational content?

I have a Facebookgroup with 550+ members since june (organic). We did it by sharing posts on social media that lead to a live webinar. From the webinar, we advise going in the group or buy one of our paid educational courses.

I've been thinking about making free content on youtube or in a blog on our website. Though, it always seems that I'll then write/make content around things that are also in the courses people pay for. This doesn't really sound logical to me as the free content overlaps the paid content.

What's your opinion?

Thanks in advance!
People often pay to have a guide through all the free content. So if you have free content but it’s unorganised or there’s a lot of it then the people who value their time will pay to get the shortened and organised version.

It happened for me in this forum. I’ve quite a lot of Google Ads threads and people kept asking if I had a course. I didn’t create a course until someone messaged me saying it took them 4 days of 6 hours a day to get through all those threads. I felt I then needed to create a 1 hour course that those who preferred to move faster could pay for.

Some people pay to save time.

Also, give away WHAT to do and WHY, and charge for HOW to do it?
 

knz

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People often pay to have a guide through all the free content. So if you have free content but it’s unorganised or there’s a lot of it then the people who value their time will pay to get the shortened and organised version.

It happened for me in this forum. I’ve quite a lot of Google Ads threads and people kept asking if I had a course. I didn’t create a course until someone messaged me saying it took them 4 days of 6 hours a day to get through all those threads. I felt I then needed to create a 1 hour course that those who preferred to move faster could pay for.

Some people pay to save time.

That's a good point indeed! Haven't thought about that one thanks.
I have multiple smaller courses on our page which are still 4 to 8 hours. Using bits and pieces of these courses and put these online in a random order can be a win-win for people and the business.
Eventually the whole paid course could be available in all the free content but it's scattered around. Probably also feels 'less official' (youtube vid vs a course and learning platform).

Some people will go and search everything and watch all the free content and basically look for the whole course online on lets say youtube. While others will go and check out the paid content including worksheets etc as well :)
 

Andy Black

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That's a good point indeed! Haven't thought about that one thanks.
I have multiple smaller courses on our page which are still 4 to 8 hours. Using bits and pieces of these courses and put these online in a random order can be a win-win for people and the business.
Eventually the whole paid course could be available in all the free content but it's scattered around. Probably also feels 'less official' (youtube vid vs a course and learning platform).

Some people will go and search everything and watch all the free content and basically look for the whole course online on lets say youtube. While others will go and check out the paid content including worksheets etc as well :)
My thinking is that some people will never pay. If they get value from the free content and are prepared to spend their time piecing things together then cool.

I like to think “Sales is a screening process.” (Blaise Brosnan)

Our market are those who put a value their time and are prepared to pay to get results quicker.
 
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knz

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My thinking is that some people will never pay. If they get value from the free content and are prepared to spend their time piecing things together then cool.

I like to think “Sales is a screening process.” (Blaise Brosnan)

Our market are those who put a value their time and are prepared to pay to get results quicker.

Exactly, those will never be clients. However, the positive thing of having free content is that even these people can be walking ambassadors if they talk about your free content to others. That person they talk to might become a future client. Therefore, these 'free-content-people' might still be very valuable.

Thanks for thinking with me. Will definitely take some action soon!
 

Andy Black

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Exactly, those will never be clients. However, the positive thing of having free content is that even these people can be walking ambassadors if they talk about your free content to others. That person they talk to might become a future client. Therefore, these 'free-content-people' might still be very valuable.

Thanks for thinking with me. Will definitely take some action soon!
I agree. I think it would be a good to have thousands of people consume your free content on YouTube even if they never purchase. If that helps get those videos shown to even more people (because YouTube makes money showing ads in those videos) then that's a win-win.
 

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service verified first and then building an audience around the product?
Your comment helped me understand what is that advantage that "build audience first" has:

Its trust.

Look, when you have product or service and you start talking about it off the bat then posts seem like another self advertising thing.
Probably, what you are providing matters even less then.

But when people see there's no "offer" behind your posts they see advice as genuine and spread it around.
 
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Timmy C

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I'm using the Audience first strategy for the last few months, some results so far.

1505 followers.

200 email subscribers

$50 in sales.

It's not easy, but more opportunities are starting to open up the larger I get.

Growth seems to be speeding up month on month.
 

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This is an awesome thread! I'd love to hear about your progress @Timmy C. I'm using the same audience first approach but via educational summits. I'm running my first one next week and just crossed 100 registrations. I thought I was crazy when I set that goal but here I am. So proud. Would be great to hear how you're going!
 

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