George Kao argues that authentic creators build better audiences than those chasing attention. He shows how 1% of 1% of the internet (500,000 people) is enough for a thriving business, and runs his own with just 5,000 followers and a waiting list.
March 23, 2021
Approximately 4–5 billion people online (speaker: "almost 5 billion")
50 million
500,000
About 5,000 audience members
Do we need to try to get attention in order to build an audience? That's the question that I have for you today. Because typically you're gonna learn from marketing that you're supposed to do what you can to get people's attention. I mean, if you watch video advertisements like on Instagram or elsewhere, sometimes you'll see people going like this in the beginning to try to get your attention, or using flashy colors and things like that. But after having been in the marketing field full time, you know, teaching marketing full time for 11 years, I've learned something interesting is that when we try to get attention, we will build a bigger audience faster. But the problem is that the audience we build probably doesn't care about who we are authentically. It breaks my heart that I've seen so many people over the years, some of them clients, some of them colleagues, who have built a pretty good sized audience. They have a thousand email subscribers, 5,000, 10,000, etc. But they've built email subscribers who don't really care about them as they are. So they try to sell something that's genuine to them. And people don't buy because they haven't really built an ideal audience. That's what I hope that I can help you do through my content, is to help you build a audience of true fans who care about you by when you just because, and just because you show up as yourself. Not having to try to get people's attention, not having to pretend to be anyone else other than who you are. Naturally. Imagine, Imagine you are with a dear friend. What does that feel like? A dear friend is somebody who makes you feel at ease, who makes you feel comfortable. And when you feel at ease and comfortable, then you can really come alive and be who you are and step into your real light, your real shining, not pretend shining, but your real light. And when you tell a story, you are genuinely alive and genuinely interested. You're genuinely interested in your own explorations, and you're also genuinely interested in your friend because you have a natural bond there. And that's what I hope you can be with your audience when you're genuinely interested in what you're saying. And when you are genuinely interested in your audience, you become genuinely interesting to your ideal audience. So think about this here. There are almost 5 billion. Last time I checked, it was 4 or 5 billion people on the Internet. Now what's 1% of 5 billion? 50 million. Right, 1%. Just 1% of 5 billion is 50 million. That's more people that you could ever work with. In the rest of your life. 50 million. Now let's just take 1% of 50 million. What's that? That's 500,000 people. If you had 1% of 1% of the Internet, which is a very tiny slice, that's still 500,000 people. I don't even have, I don't have Nowhere close to 5. I have 1% of 500,000. I have about 5,000 audience members and I have a full time business with a waiting list. I can't even, you know. So it's like 1% of 1% of 1% is like more than enough. And that's true for you as well. You have people on the Internet who just find you and your authenticity to be incredibly valuable. You don't have to be anyone other than who you are because if you try to use visual interruption and things, you'll build an audience that doesn't really care. You'll increase your marketing cost because now you have to, you have to reach all these people that don't care to try to find the people who do within that small audience, within that big audience or whatever. So basically be yourself in your marketing. And of course do you know as you be yourself, that's how you create content, right? You be yourself. Now you have to make sure your content has reach, which is why Instagram, Instagram ads and Facebook ads is so incredibly useful. It's easy for us small business owners to reach the people that we need to reach. So don't try to get attention. Be yourself, see who shows up and serve them as with as much heart and authenticity as you can and you'll build a successful authentic business. I'm George Kao, authentic business coach. I hope this is helpful. I love talking about how to build a business genuinely with enjoyment of the activities that we do every day because we are really in our heart. So I hope this helps and I wish you a wonderful rest of your day. See you around.
