George Kao says start building an audience now, even if you're years late. Create content around what you care about, expect it to be rough at first, and run Facebook ads early while they're still cheap. Ads can speed up audience-building by 10 to 100 times.
March 23, 2018
In the next 10 to 20 years (he emphasizes the next 10 years)
By 10 to 100 times
If you're thinking that you might want to start a business one day, when should you start creating content and building an audience as soon as possible? Again, if you might want to create a business one day, which I think is for everybody watching this video, the way that our world is changing so fast, the way that jobs are going away because of automation, artificial intelligence, I am guessing that most people in the future, and I say future meaning just in the next 10 years, to be able to sustain a livelihood or to be able to have something to do, it's going to be some way of having your own business, whether you are a freelancer or whether you create a product or service. So most people in the next 10 or 20 years will need to become entrepreneurial. Okay, so when is the right time then to start creating content and building an audience as soon as possible? It's like that old saying, when is the right time to plant a tree 20 years ago? When it's the second best time to plant a tree today so you can get the process started as soon as possible? When is the right time to have begun creating content and building your own audience five, ten years ago? When is the second best time to start doing it today? So think about the things that the topics that you might want to build a business around one day. Think about your passions, thinks about the topics that you would love to become an expert in. Start creating content today about it, okay? As you learn the things that you already know, start writing articles, start making videos, start recording podcasts, however you want to create content, start failingly and learn as you go forward. Your content's not going to be great, of course, in the beginning, but you will only get great if you start doing it and start learning from experience. So I urge you to please start creating content as soon as possible so that you can start having an audience as soon as possible. So that one day when you are ready to make a product or offer a service, your audience will be there waiting for you. They will give you feedback about your potential service or product or program or event or retreat or whatever it is you want to create in the world to fulfill your professional mission in life. So start building an audience as soon as possible. An audience who would find you, who would love your voice, your video voice, or your writing voice, the way that you curate links that are useful, that you find interesting, that will benefit them. However you create and share content, the time to start is now. A related question that I got from somebody is, George, when is the right time to start buying Facebook ads? Because Right now, Facebook ads is the cheapest way to reach people online that are interested in what you're interested in. Okay? That might love your content. Facebook ads is the cheapest way to do it right now. When's the right time to start? The right time to start is as soon as possible. Facebook ads are. Even though they're still the cheapest way to get the word out online to the right people that you want to reach, it's more expensive today than it was a year ago. And a year ago it was more expensive than two years ago. It just keeps getting more expensive because of the numbers of people starting to use Facebook ads. It gets more competitive. So start as soon as possible because Facebook ads will help you build your initial audience a lot faster than if you try to do it just on your own. It will shorten your audience building by 10 to 100 times than if you didn't use Facebook ads. So start it as soon as possible. I do teach an entire online course about Facebook ads, so if you're interested, it's affordable. You'll find the link below. But even if you just learn on your own, start creating content, sharing it, and using Facebook ads to build your audience of true fans, okay? So that when you're ready to sell something, they will give you feedback, they will buy it, and you will have a business that you love.
