Don’t fear the criticism of people you know — they’re NOT the ones you’re making content for…
Judgmental Corgi -- Photo by @izzyloaf on Instagram
To grow your audience, you need to create better content.
To create better content, you need to practice creating more content.
To create more content, you need to get over the fear of your audience.
When you are feeling afraid to publish content, whose judgmental voice or face are you thinking of?
Don’t make your content for that person or group. Make it only with your true fans in mind — they love you no matter what.
Think about this:
If your audience is going to grow, it’s going to grow far beyond the people who currently know you.
Your current network is not your eventual (big) audience. Your current people might not be a good representation of what you'll have eventually.
So don’t make your content in fear of the judgment of your existing colleagues, friends, fans, or family. They are not your real audience.
If you continue publishing content, you will build an audience of true fans -- people who love just about anything that you create! How many people in your existing network are like that? A few, if you're lucky.
Truth: Almost everyone who will ever LOVE your content, haven't even met you yet.
Think about that.
Let’s say you already have 10 true fans. (When I first started, I couldn't even count 5.) That's 10 people right now in your network who love just about everything you create. Therefore, you aren’t fearful of their judgment, because you can’t seem to make any mistakes in their eyes… no matter what you do! That is the definition of a true fan.
Eventually you may have 1,000 true fans, maybe more. That means you haven't even met 990 of your true fans yet!
In other words, 99% of your eventual true fans don't even know about you yet.
Within the 4.5 billion (4,500,000,000) internet users in the world, there is a huge diversity of people. There are likely tens of thousands of people who would resonate with your authenticity if they only knew you... no matter how you look or sound, no matter how you write or speak.
Your true fans are completely accepting of you, not because they’re saints, but because somehow, your content and personality are just right for them. It's like soul mates, but instead of "the one", you have thousands of true fans who are already online now... if only they knew about you!
Therefore, if the thought of your current audience's judgment is scaring you, please don't think about them. If any of them judge you, just think "Thanks for showing me that you're not one of my true fans."
Make your content for your true fans.…the ones who cannot help but love you, because you are the right match for them. They are looking for you.
How to reach them?
The easiest way I know is through Facebook Ads.
For example, with a few clicks, you could reach up to 1.1 billion English-Speaking adults:
Your current network is not your eventual (big) audience. Your current people might not be a good representation of what you'll have eventually.
So don’t make your content in fear of the judgment of your existing colleagues, friends, fans, or family. They are not your real audience.
If you continue publishing content, you will build an audience of true fans -- people who love just about anything that you create! How many people in your existing network are like that? A few, if you're lucky.
Truth: Almost everyone who will ever LOVE your content, haven't even met you yet.
Think about that.
Let’s say you already have 10 true fans. (When I first started, I couldn't even count 5.) That's 10 people right now in your network who love just about everything you create. Therefore, you aren’t fearful of their judgment, because you can’t seem to make any mistakes in their eyes… no matter what you do! That is the definition of a true fan.
Eventually you may have 1,000 true fans, maybe more. That means you haven't even met 990 of your true fans yet!
In other words, 99% of your eventual true fans don't even know about you yet.
Within the 4.5 billion (4,500,000,000) internet users in the world, there is a huge diversity of people. There are likely tens of thousands of people who would resonate with your authenticity if they only knew you... no matter how you look or sound, no matter how you write or speak.
Your true fans are completely accepting of you, not because they’re saints, but because somehow, your content and personality are just right for them. It's like soul mates, but instead of "the one", you have thousands of true fans who are already online now... if only they knew about you!
Therefore, if the thought of your current audience's judgment is scaring you, please don't think about them. If any of them judge you, just think "Thanks for showing me that you're not one of my true fans."
Make your content for your true fans.…the ones who cannot help but love you, because you are the right match for them. They are looking for you.
How to reach them?
The easiest way I know is through Facebook Ads.
For example, with a few clicks, you could reach up to 1.1 billion English-Speaking adults:
(This is a screen capture from the Facebook Ads platform, showing you how many people you could reach, narrowed to English-speaking adults.)
Of course, that is way too broad. You aren’t trying to please all those people.
Let’s say you are a life coach and trying to reach people who are interested in spiritual/personal growth. On Facebook, that’s approximately 300,000,000 (300 million) people you can reach via Ads.
You don't have the capacity to serve that many clients :)
In a random room of 100 English-speaking adults who are interested in spiritual/personal growth, how many might be interested in your message?
Maybe 10 out of 100?
Let’s be conservative and just say 1 out of 100 spiritually-oriented English-speakers would love your message.
That’s still 3 million of the right people you could reach through Facebook Ads.
(In case you didn't know: I teach an online course on how to run Facebook Ads effectively.)
Also, you could reach at least that many people through Google Ads. (I’ll be teaching a Google Ads course next year. Sign up to be notified.)
Here's the point:
The ability to reach the world is at your fingertips. Stop fearing the judgment of your colleagues, friends or family. You’re not making content for them. You’re making it for your 1,000 true fans, those who will naturally love your authentic message and style.
Talk only to the people who -- once they find you -- just can’t help but love you.
Your true fans are looking for you. Make more content, and distribute it continuously, so that they have more chance to find you.
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