10 Nov 2025 · 7 min
George Kao argues free content builds an audience, but creators shouldn't expect payment in return. He left a Facebook group where the host resented non-buyers, then explains the real path: create authentically, talk to your audience about what they need, and sell only what solves their actual problems.
Does creating free content get you clients? Well, yes, it can, but ideally, you don't feel entitled about it. Okay, so let me explain. This actually was inspired by a comment that I got from somebody who wrote to me about the sense of entitlement when people, content creators, expect that their audience should be buying from them when they make offers. So this person wrote this. I just unsubscribed from a group, a Facebook group where I had been a member for about three months. She was sharing free content and doing some live videos. Eventually she posted that people are taking advantage of her, not hiring her as a coach after consuming her free content, literally. She said, if you don't want to move forward, just leave. So I left because I sensed anger and lack. Wow. Okay. I can relate to that. First of all, I can relate to that from both the consumer side. I have been part of free groups or free campaigns that kind of felt like they expected me to buy afterwards. And I've also been the person on. On. On the selling side, certainly. And I don't know if. Can you relate to this? If not, maybe, maybe someday you. You. You can relate to this where you give, give, give, right? You give, give, give, and then you expect when you make an offer, oh, well, gosh, I've been so generous for the past couple of weeks, couple of months, couple of years, and now they should buy from me because, you know, they've been following me for a while. They've even been liking and benefiting from my content. I hear from them. And the problem with this is that it is true that content can get you clients. I'll give you a quick idea on how that works by the end of this video. But first of all, the more you become, the more you're unaware of your attachment and your entitlement to your audience's purchases, the more your content is polluted with that kind of expectation of your audience. However, the more you can go, my God, if even one person watches this, what they're doing is they're gifting me, they, their precious attention and time. The one currency that cannot make more of you cannot make more of your time in this life. You can make more of many other things, but not your time and your attention. So, by the way, if you're. If you're still even here right now, I'm incredibly grateful. Or even if you watch for three seconds, I'm super grateful. Because we have to, if we are willing to normalize the expectation that most people just scroll on by, and maybe if we are blessed that day, Someone stops to scroll. If we are saying something or displaying something interesting enough for them, they stop to scroll. And if they even keep going and benefit from that piece of content, my goodness, that is amazing. Out of all the things that they could be seeing millions of other pieces of content, they could easily. This is the natural scrolling. It's the natural, you know, action when you're online. But they even paused and even looked like, if we can bring that kind of gratitude, then guess what? We are just, we can humbly create and create with a deeper purpose to say, well, maybe nobody will get something, anything out of this. That's okay. Can I create and benefit myself even? Yes, of course you can create and benefit yourself if you are willing to really explore your ideas, whether it's on video or whether it's in writing or in art. If you, if you're really going to just say, I'm going to expand my, I'm going to, I'm going to lean into, to my exploration and maybe expand my creativity muscles by doing this. That's what I do all the time when I create. I'm learning to practice my authentic voice. And I'm also leaning into my heart of service to say, may this piece of content resonate with and serve even one person. If it does, I'm blessed. But even if it doesn't, I still grew from the process of exploration and expanding my creative, practicing my creativity. So if we can do that, then every piece of content that we've done is worthwhile, at least to us, maybe if we're lucky, to one other person. But detaching ourselves from that, well, then you can say, George, you promised us to say, well, how can creating content get you clients? Well, here's how that works. Generally, I'll be brief about this because the video is getting a little bit long here. Basically, as you create from that authentic place, you are feeling fulfilled, hopefully along the way. And then you also, as you, as you put stuff out there, you learn about content distribution. You practice putting your content in different places, maybe even running ads. I run ads on Instagram all the time. I always have some Instagram ad running, just sharing one of my best pieces of content to as many people as possible as I can afford to. So anyway, I have a blog post on the 7 Ways of Expanding your visibility with content. You can look that up and anyway, but things like basically content distribution, right? And then my categories, have you heard my cat? And then as you keep growing an audience, you're blessed, right, to even have one person, let alone audience keeps growing as you create authentically and distribute it. Then you talk to your audience and you reach out to your audience and talk to them about what they're looking for in your field, in your field of expertise. What are they looking for? What do they need support with? Okay. Or what do they need support with that you can imagine your field of expertise can support them on? As you figure out what they want to buy, essentially you then sell it to them. You either create a service or package that they told you they want, or you curate. You go out and find service impact and products that they want, and you earn a commission by selling that. So that's how. That's that the whole plan here is fulfilling along the way because in creating, you're being fulfilled with exploration and service, in connecting with your audience, you're being fulfilled in human connection and aiming to serve them well. And then when you're selling, you're selling them what they told you they want, so then it's easier to sell Anyway. I hope this is helpful, but you really begin again in the creation process with a deep sense of purpose and gratitude and humility that, hey, I'm exploring myself and my ideas. I hope this serves somebody and connects with somebody. If does wonderful. But at least I'm being really authentic about doing this for my own higher purpose. And so I hope this is of service to you as well. Thanks for joining me.
"Be of good cheer. Think not of today's failures, but of tomorrow's successes...”
