Evan Carmichael breaks down how creators now bypass gatekeepers by building direct relationships with fans. You need four things: a body of work, an audience, a platform to reach them, and a way to make money. All four matter. Cherry-picking success stories that skip one of these is a trap.
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How to Build Your Own Fanbase. To become a successful musician in the "old days," you had to be anointed or recognized by a gatekeeper, usually a record label. The same was true for authors: to be successful, your main goal was to convince a publisher to "take a risk" on you. Similarly, visual artists needed galleries and radio hosts needed stations. Talent wasn't enough, in other words. Even if you had a proven means of providing something valuable to an audience, you still had to rely on the powers that be to help you reach that audience. Fortunately, times have changed in the world of stardom. Today, thanks to mediums like Instagram and Twitter that make engaging and communicating with fans easier than ever, more and more people are carving out a space for their independent, fan-supported work. Indie musicians often choose to go it alone, even after they had the opportunity to sign with labels. Traditional publishers are now scrambling to sign authors who have sold hundreds of thousands of books directly to readers through Amazon's Kindle platform, or sometimes even directly through their own websites. The musicians, artists, and writers who thrive today understand that their success is due not only to the fans, which is something that artists have always said. The difference is that now success is due to the relationship the artists maintain with the fans. Almost without exception, those who succeed in the new economy share 4 specific characteristics: a body of work (product), a group of fans (the audience), a means of sharing the body of work (the platform), and a way of getting paid for their work (the money). None of these 4 requirements is optional. You need all of them to succeed in the new economy. It can be tempting to cherry-pick an example of someone famous who's made it big by omitting something listed above, but those are the very rare exceptions. If you're hoping to follow the proven model, you need all 4 requirements.
