Create ONLY for your future true fans...

If you are someone who is dedicated to creating consistently, or rather the practice of creating consistently, then I believe that your best work is still ahead of you. The article, the video, the podcast episode, the art that is going to make the most difference to other people and therefore your career is still ahead of you. I don't know if it's going to happen tomorrow or it's going to happen in 10 years. Well, if you're dedicated to creating and the practice of creating, observing what's working from your creations, improving yourself, practicing how to distribute your content, if you're dedicated to the process of authentic content marketing, then actually your best work will always still be ahead of you. Now, the problem that a lot of that stops a lot of us from the practice of consistently creating and publishing is our fear of judgment. For some of us, this is true, and you can comment below if you want to share what might be blocking you from consistently creating and publishing. But for me, I know originally that was true. When I first started creating, I only had, I had no audience. Just like how we all start. That's not true. All of us start with an audience. We all start with the audience of our friends, our family, our, you know, we post on Facebook profile and we've got a couple of friends there. We post on Instagram where a couple of friends have followed us or whatever. We always start with some friends, family that we can post to. But almost none of my friends and family were my ideal client. I, I didn't know who my ideal client was in the early days. So when I posted, my friends and family didn't, you know, they, when I started to practice being authentic and sharing my real thoughts about, you know, business and marketing and productivity and life, and my friends and family thought it was a little weird. They didn't really engage. And I quickly realized that, okay, they're not my ideal clients. They're my, not my ideal audience. But I did have a occasional colleague here or an occasional friend of a friend here who did resonate with what I was sharing. And so one person by one person by one person, word of mouth began to grow, right? And eventually somebody, I, I approached somebody to share with them. My, you know, somebody who had an audience, right, to help them. I, you know, I, I tried to help them for free because I was a beginner, not beginner. I, I had, I was good at what I was doing, but I had no audience. So I was willing to help others for free in exchange for, you know, sharing my work with their people, maybe interviewing me, doing a free Webinar for their people, that kind of thing, and then those kinds of things. Because in the early days, I didn't know how to do social media ads, so I didn't do any ads yet. So all I had was collaborations to bring my work to more of the right people. And I realized eventually, as I kept doing that, that people are so different. The world is so big. Let me just explain how big the world is. And. And, okay, I was just searching for this yesterday. And so it's somewhat current. The world right now has more than 5 billion Internet users. More than 5 billion Internet users. So of course, all 5 billion are not your ideal audience. Duh. Right? Probably not even 1% of 5 billion are your ideal audience. And what's 1% of 5 billion? Well, 5 billion, 500 million, 50 million. It's not your. I mean, if you put all the random Internet users in the world into a room and 100 of them into a room, probably not even one of them is your most ideal audience. Okay? But if you take one of them, the one of them, who is more ideal? Like, who is going to resonate with you? Who's going to feel connected to your energy signature? Pick one out of a hundred random Internet users who is more likely to be connected to your Internet signature than the other 99. You take that one person and you duplicate that one person. You take a hundred of those kinds of people, Internet users in a. Put in them in a room. Maybe one of them. Now, let's say this again. 5 billion Internet users. 1% of that is 50 million Internet users. Put those in the room, take 1% of them. It's like, like 1% of 1%. Who is most likely to resonate with you. That's a pretty darn good filter. So 50 million. 5 million, 500,000. 500,000 people out of 5 billion are going to be more resonant with you. More like better how you look and how you sound and how you move your hands and how you shape your ideas and how you write, how you make your podcast, how you create your art, how you show up on video, how you show up on Zoom. 500,000 people are more likely to be resonant with you than anyone else in the world. Now let's say let's take even 1% of that. That's like the most hardcore true fans of yours. 50,000. 5,000. So let me summarize this. There are 5,000 people out there in the world who are 1% of 1% of 1%. I think, anyway, super resonant with who you are and they are just looking to find you. They're looking for you online, like you. If you don't show up enough, they won't find you. And this is why I always feel so urgent. I'm going to keep putting my videos out there, keep putting my writings out there, even though sometimes very few people respond. But I know that if I put myself out there again and again and again and again and again, and if I keep observing what's working and lean more into what's working, and this is something, by the way, I am dedicating myself to in the next year. Okay, this is, this is one of my core, you know, efforts in the next year is to improve a lot on my own content. Like to really observe the patterns of what has worked and do more of that, what's worked, particularly for my ideal clients, the people I love working with, like, what's really worked well for them. But if you keep putting your stuff out there, you'll get eventually one person who follows your stuff regularly, who likes your posts regularly, who comments on your posts regularly, starts with one person, and then eventually a second person, you know, and eventually a third person and a fourth and a tenth and a twentieth will start following you regularly. And then you start to notice, oh, out of these 20 people, what are the commonalities between them? That is your ideal audience, because they're the ones who just, you know, can't get enough of your presence, of your art, of your speaking, of your writing, of your ideas, of your stories, of you, your energy signature that is your true fan, the ones who keep following you time after time after time. Notice what the, what the commonalities of among them are. Notice the parts of them that you most love to, to work with, to serve to, to support. Speak to those favorite parts of them, your favorite parts of them. Speak to that instead of, instead of how. How A lot of us, when we are creating content, who do we have in our heads? Too often, especially when we're first starting out, all we have are family members and a few friends who are looking at our stuff. We have them in our mind and our heart. And even though family and friends can be supportive in their own ways, they're usually not our ideal audience. They are almost certainly not your ideal clients. Sometimes you get lucky and maybe some of your family and friends are your perfect clients, but mine weren't. Mine weren't my current clients. As I look at them, none of my current clients look like the friends I used to have. And my, my Family members? None of them. I mean, okay, maybe like a tiny percentage, but the mass. Vast majority of my client, current clients don't look like my, like, not the same age as my friends, not the same gender, not the same interests as my, you know, friends from when I first started 15 years ago or even 10 years ago. So the, so the question for you again is when you are getting to record your video, when you are getting ready to write, when you're getting ready to create your art, who is the person you have in your head as the one who's receiving the writing, the video, the art? Is it your friends and family? Is it your current, like, people in your life? Because if it is, my guess is that you're going to be more timid and less authentically you than you could be. Now some of you may be really lucky and you have family and friends who are incredibly accepting of you and, and invite you to, you know, let your freak flag show fly, let your most authentic energy signature be expressed. I didn't come from, I think most of us didn't come from families like that, right? Many of us didn't. And even, even among my old friends, I feel like if I were, if they were to see my, my, my presence today, they wouldn't recognize the George cow that they became friends with 15, 20, 25 years ago. Because I've grown a lot since then. I've allowed myself to express my energy signature more and more and more over the years such that I've become a different person, or rather I should say I've become more of who I actually am. And the friends I used to, I made in the early years were part of a social, cultural conditioning. It's, you know, grew up in school together, right? A lot of pressures and to, to, to put certain masks on or behave certain ways or not behave certain ways, right? Growing up in, you know, family neighborhoods or the neighborhood grew up in and the school and early jobs that I had, you know, it wasn't me. It wasn't really the most powerful and resonant me. I feel much more alive today and able to express myself today than 15, 20, 25 years ago or even five years ago. So in other words, back to you becoming a successful, authentic business owner and having an audience of true fans. Let me say this. Create not for your current audience, okay? Create not for your current audience. If you don't have a current audience that you are just absolutely thrilled by and feel completely accepted and welcome to express your most powerful and authentic self. Do you have that current Audience. If you don't, don't create for them. Who do you create for? Instead, create for your eventual true fans. Create for your future ideal audience, the 5,000 people that I just earlier told you about. Not the 5 billion Internet users, not the 50 family members who you don't feel completely open to be your total self and most powerful self. No, create for those 5,000 people among the 5 billion in the world. Not the 5 billion, not the 500 million, not the 50 million, not the 5 million, not the 500,000, not even the 50,000, but the 5,000 people in the world who, when they discover you, your videos, your writings, your podcasts, your art, your whatever you're sharing online, when they discover that you, when you're sharing authentically, they say, my good, my goodness, this is where have you been all my life? Well, where, where, where you've been all their life is developing yourself, right? Getting ready to be your most authentic self and, and expressed in your content. That's where you've been. You've been practicing, you've been dedicated to your consistent creating. That's where you've been. And that's. I always think of that person. Hello, future fan. Hello, ideal true fan. Some of my. I'm grateful already right now I have an audience of, you know, enough people where there are many, some, at least some true fans who are watching this video. And I'm so grateful. And you're. I'm thinking of you as I'm making this. And yet also I'm thinking of, I'm thinking of the best parts of you, the most welcoming parts of you, the most. The parts of you that are getting the most benefit from whatever I do. That's. Those are the, that is the part of you that I'm thinking of. And I'm also thinking of all the other people who have that part, the, the part that is the best match of getting benefit and getting, you know, upliftment and progress based on consuming my content. That those are the people I'm making my videos for. And when I think of them, when I think of you, it makes me smile, makes me feel open. And so it makes me strong, makes me feel strong, it makes me feel smarter. Even though I often say I don't feel as smart as my peers and other people in my industry, you, my true fans, my ideal audience, makes me feel like I have something really important and worthwhile to contribute and that makes me show up consistently. It makes me want to keep practicing, to keep noticing what is working for you and what's working less well for you and to. To therefore lean more into what is serving you best. So back to you and your own creating process. Who will you have in your mind and heart and mental, you know, sight? Who are you dialoguing with when you are. When you are writing, when you are making your videos, when you're creating your art, when you're publishing your content? Who are you dialoguing with and presenting to and being with in your mind, in your heart, when you're creating? I hope it is your true fans, most of whom have not yet discovered you and might not discover you for a little while, while you're still practicing good thing, right? While you're still learning to open yourself and really reveal your. Your super man, superwoman, super human self. By super, I mean your most authentic and powerfully you self. Be conscious and and and connect. Really connect with that ideal audience member, that future true fan who just. You can't do anything wrong in their eyes. That's the definition of a true fan. The truest fans, the 5,000 that you're speaking to, you can't do anything wrong in their eyes as long as you're being authentic and that you're. You're being of service. You're being of service to your higher self, your potential. But you're also being of service to them. To their upliftment, to their transformation, to their healing, to their growth, to their progress, to their to, to their highest potential. As long as you show up in your content with that positive intention and with that willingness to really dive deep, to explore, to experiment, to play, you can't do anything wrong in their eyes. I hope you will go forward today and the next time you create some content and offer whatever it is. Have those 5,000 like shining people who are so welcoming. You have them in your mind, in your heart, and create with authentic power and connection to your energy signature. Let it flourish, let it really shine. I hope this helps. Always welcome your comments below. If this is supportive in some way or if you want to add your own thoughts, of course you're welcome to be well.