Build Your Audience FIRST KDS: 006

The idea of ‘Build Your Audience First’ isn’t new… yet so many people still think they can grow a successful business without building an audience.

This is beyond my own personal opinion (although I don’t have data to back this up, I simply know a lot of people who have done this and continue to do it).

That being said, I thought I would try something new this week.

I hosted a live stream in my Facebook group, Content Creators, with a co-host (my good friend Davinder Singh Kainth). Davinder and I were having a conversation on Facebook Messenger one day which triggered this conversation.

Let me give you a little more background as to what fueled this conversation and live stream (and why I wanted to share it as a podcast).

This hit me sometime in the last year as I watched a few digital friendships fade into the sunset. These relationships were all formed online, were valued at one point in my life, but all had one thing in common:

The other person was stuck in the peripherals.

They were always working on the ideas, the plans, the things that made it “look” like they were doing the work, but really they were delaying getting the work done.

You know what I’m talking about right?

Probably because you’ve been there yourself, I know I have been.

Then you get really, really frustrated because you feel like you’re doing the work, but at the end of the day, you’ve not actually created anything. 

Then you feel even more frustrated.

What usually happens next is you decide that the answer must be outside of yourself, so you jump wholeheartedly into another course or mentor who is going to teach you one specific skill (launch a membership site, grow your Instagram following, run Facebook ads, etc.). You do this thinking “THIS will be it!”

You’re committed to going through the entire course, you’re going to implement all the steps… and you WILL get results (dammit!).

You know what’s coming next, right?

The same cycle starts all over because even though you follow everything, there are way too many pieces of the puzzle missing. You may have gotten some results, but you probably won’t sustain it.

Why?

Because you’re frustrated again.

Does this mean that courses and mentors don’t work? Of course not.

But you have to have someone to sell your products and services to. What good is a membership site if you have no potential members???

No one wants to hear this because it’s not fun… it’s not sexy.

Show up and do the work… consistently.

Then you’ll find the real magic. Who you become in the process of following through and not letting yourself down is priceless.

Here’s what we discussed in the live stream:

• The mistake most people make
  • Putting the cart before the horse
  • Not having a call to action or end in mind from the beginning
• Building your audience first
  • Social
    • Take the conversation further
    • Share & highlight other people
    • Give value first
• Community
  • Facebook groups
  • Forums?
• Relationships
  • Introduce people
  • Refer people to one another
  • Highlight other people
• Engage
  • Do more than like a post
  • Leave comments
  • Subscribe
  • Personally reach out
• Great audience growth tools
  • Podcast
  • Live Stream
  • Interview people (can be written posts)
  • Feature post (featuring other people)

I’d love your thoughts on the repurposed live stream… the idea to share this came after it was done, so I’m sure there are a few things I would do differently next time if the intention is to repurpose it.

Drop me a note or leave a comment!

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