George Kao says creators who expect sales from their content end up resenting their audience when it doesn't happen. He tells the story of a Facebook group owner who kicked out non-buyers, then argues the fix is treating content as service, not a sales funnel. Ask your audience directly what they'd actually buy.
When someone creates content with an ulterior motive that I want my audience to then hire me after a certain period of creating content, what happens is resentment can build in the content creator when not enough of the audience has bought their thing. This is actually a story that was told by one of my viewers, said that she was in a Facebook group, it was a free Facebook group, but the creator of the Facebook group really had an ulterior motive to use the Facebook group as a way to sell her program, her services, etc. Now, there's nothing wrong with, of course, having a free Facebook group and then maybe some of the people buy your services and products, but to have some kind of a plan and an ulterior motive to say, gosh, I've got 500 people, 1,000 people, whatever it is, even 100 people in my Facebook group and I'm going to come convert 10% of them to my services after this free, you know, 30 day challenge or whatever, or five day challenge, whatever it is it may be to have that expectation creates resentment when that expectation isn't met. Right? And that's what happened in this free Facebook group. The creator of the group, this is told by a viewer of mine, actually said to her members to say, hey, you guys are just consuming my content and not buying my service services, you know, that's not right. Or if you're not going to move forward and hire me as a coach, you might as well just leave the group. And I have, of course, I'm curious about what your reaction to that would be. My reaction, of course, is one is I, I felt bad for the members of the group that, that heard that. But secondly, I also kind of felt bad for the creator because she was in suffering. She's suffering that her ulterior expectations, her hidden motives were not met, her goals were not met. She wasn't frank with the members of the group saying, hey, this is a five day challenge and my hope is that 10% of you will become my clients. Right. And members didn't join for without expectation. The members joined because they thought they were getting a free 30 day, five day challenge or whatever it may be. Free content, that was what was promised. And they didn't know they had some kind of hidden contract and then having to have a certain number of people sign up. Right. So the bottom line is that if you've been following my content, you know, I talk about this, let's reframe the purpose of our content. Not as, ooh, I hope I get enough of you buying my services. But rather, how can I serve? And what a privilege it is that people even watch my videos. What a blessing it is that people even join my Facebook group. You know, how lucky am I that people are willing to spend their time, their precious time, that they could be watching a million other different videos, reading so many more other articles, being part of any other Facebook group that they are willing to spend their time with me. What a privilege it is. And when we are able to gather an audience who are paying attention to their content, it is out of a gratitude that we then create the content to serve them as best as we can. And then, yes, when we feel it is appropriate, when we have something to sell, we let our audience know that. I really believe that this is going to be a good service or product. For those of you who have been wanting to solve this problem in your life or reach this type of goal, fine, share our product or service with our audience. But if our audience doesn't buy, the reaction, I hope isn't one of resentment, but one of curiosity to say, huh? I thought that the audience would love this because they've been loving content like this and if they aren't buying, then I need to find out from my audience what they would buy instead then to reach out to the audience members and say, hey, would any of you be willing to talk with me and see how I can better serve you through my business as well as my content? So may that be the motive that we approach content with is one of service, one of curiosity, one of data gathering to say, gosh, what of all the things I talk about, what do my audience most love that I talk about that is such valuable data for you? Your audience is such a blessing to you to give you that data. The videos they like is giving you data. The videos they don't like is also as valuable of a data that, oh, that topic isn't as interesting or the way I framed it wasn't as interesting. And then when we make an offering, ask them to buy a product or service that is also data that's so valuable to us to say, did they buy it or not? And if not, can I talk with them to see what they would buy instead? Let's come from a place of service, of gratitude that our audience would even pay attention to us, and of curiosity to see how can. How can I serve them better through my content and through my product services. I hope this is helpful. Always open to your questions and your comments and thank you for being part of my audience and being willing to take your time and spend it with me here in this video.
