If artists did this BEFORE their first 1000 followers?

I had somebody tell me recently that they wanted. They just wanted to make a living doing creative work. They just wanted to be able to sustain themselves with a job that they love to do. And they said what they really wanted ultimately was to be able to do that with work that they made, that they respected, that they felt like they didn't compromise on. And, man, I love that. I think that's such a beautiful concept. And then I followed that up with, okay, cool, then what's your next goal? And they said, well, it's to hit my first thousand followers on Instagram. I was like, okay, so then, you know, what's your goal after that? And they said, well, then I'm gonna be able to buy some ads and run those ads to try and build the following more. And I was like, okay. And then what's the goal after that? What I realized is that there was no goal. There was only focusing on the end result. That has been skewed so much by people teaching social media marketing that we start to believe that the goal is the follower count. Right? But you just told me right here, the thing that I want is to be able to support myself making a living doing work that I am proud of, and that represents me well. So how do you start to make a living by doing work that you love, that you're proud of, that represents you well if all you're focused on is the end result of a follower count. What if I told you that if you wanted to make $3,000, all you needed was three people that were willing to pay you $1,000? You tell me, Lennon, you're crazy. Nobody's going to pay me that much money for my artwork. And I would say you. You're not giving them the right thing. You're not bringing them enough value, number one. But number two, which may be the most important issue, is that you're not believing in yourself. You're limiting what your capabilities are. So what if? Just what if? Man, I wish I would have done this so long ago. What if you started by thinking about one person.

What you could really do for them?

What if your goal was to make $3,000 in a month? And you're like, how can I do this? What if you started with that? Okay, how can I make $3,000 in a month? Okay, 20, 40. So that would be, what, 30 some thousand dollars a year? Then that's a pretty good wage. Like, that's a teacher salary in many places. And, okay, so if I do that, I really only need, you know, three people to pay $1,000. Six people to pay 512 people to pay 250. 12 people a month, that's not so hard. 12 people a month, that's not so hard. Then do you focus on getting a thousand followers or do you focus on going deeper and figuring out how your creativity connects better with. With the person that you're trying to sell something to? So what I'm getting at here is that if you want to have a hobby, go get your followers. Get all of them, take them all. You can buy them. They're not that expensive. As a matter of fact, you can go buy the follower count and get it overnight and have perceived influence as quickly as you'd like to. Or you can think about how can what's the shortest route to getting this thing I want? And then what is the exact person that's willing to pay for that thing? What if you started there and then you said reverse engineered it and said, I want to solve this problem for this person and my art can do that this way or the creative skills that I have can do that this way. Okay, so. So I challenge you right now. I want you to get a piece of paper out and I want you to think about this, because before you even think about getting your first thousand followers, I want you to think about what do you want to do with them once you have them? What do you want to do with your first thousand followers once you have them? What are you going to make for them? And if you're waiting for them to tell you and you're not clear, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to tell you. You're going to get those thousand followers and one of them is going to say, I like you for this reason. And. And the other's gonna say, I like you cause you made that funny thing on TikTok. And the other one's gonna say, you know, I really enjoyed it when you did this thing. And they're all gonna have a different reason because you didn't choose who you wanted to talk to and start to really grasp the right person's attention. And so then you're gonna have this mixed bag and you're gonna say, well, I think maybe I should do this cause these people kinda like this thing. And then you're not gonna be really convinced yourself, which as we talked about in the beginning, is really dangerous. And then when you're not convinced that, then all of a sudden you're going to be frustrated because you're going to be trying to make something that you don't believe in and now you're back in the place that you were in before you started, which is trying to make something that you don't necessarily believe in.

And then you're giving it up. You're giving up the goal. So think about who do you want to talk to? What does your art say to that person and what does your art offer them? Who do you want to talk to and what does that person need? Are they struggling with anxiety? Are they struggling with depression? Are they dealing with overwhelm from the pandemic? Are they having issues in their family life? What things have you dealt with? Great stories revolve around five things. Joy and pain, right? Joy and pain, life and death, status. So what things are they struggling with? When it comes to joy and pain and life and death and status, what do you struggle with? And how can you use your art to tell that story and connect with that person? Go think about all the big artists that you're seeing on YouTube or Instagram that are starting to really blow up. They have a very specific message that they're talking about and they're doing it not just through their art, although that's a big way they're doing it. They're telling the story themselves. Okay, so start there before you think about getting your first thousand followers. And I want you to do me a favor. If you know an artist, if you know a creative that needs to hear this right now, they're all they're thinking about is their follower count. Challenge them with this video right now. Challenge them to think about the person first. And I'm going to give you the freedom. You get to pick. You get to pick who this is. Okay, that's the cool part about this. You get to say, I know I would have the best time serving this person. Just like I said, I know I would have the best time helping young artists, not even young artists, but like experienced great artists that just don't know how to get people to attach themselves to their stuff. I can do a great job at helping them build a brand that helps them create a business. That's what I am passionate about. What is that for you? And then how does your creativity attach itself to that? Alright, sending you love today. Thanks so much. I'll see you tomorrow. Sam.