Building an audience while you're at a 9-5 job.
This issue is focused on the importance of deciding whether you build your audience first, while you're at a 9-5 job, or focus on building a product first and then the audience.
This should only take about 7 mins to read.
If you’re working a 9-5 job and you are looking for a side hustle, you have an advantage: you’re already making money. Instead of worrying about building a product and selling it to make more money, start building an audience on Twitter and LinkedIn.
It's the best way to create long-term value for yourself and your future business(es). When you build an audience, you build a marketing channel that costs you nothing but your time.
Remember, it’s better to build a strong, engaged following of 1,000 people than build a low-engagement audience of 100,000.
Your product can come second.
Don’t be thirsty for sales; focus on building leverage, and that’s how you sell without selling.
Zero in on something you can’t stop talking about.
There are 100’s of millions of people on Twitter; there is a community of people that are passionate about the same thing you are. Whatever that topic is, there is someone ready to consume your content.
The two most common excuses are:
1. “Who else is going to care about this topic.”
Trust me; there are 100’s of people that will resonate with whatever topic you are talking about. No matter how niche it is. You have to keep bringing that fire.
2. “There are already so many people talking about this topic.”
Remember that you have a unique view on this topic. Your perspective is going to be different in one way or another. Don’t stop before you start. Instead, start and keep going.
Get that out of your head and get down to business.
The only thing holding you back is you.
Start writing online and continue improving.
You can write a blog daily, and the chances of someone reading it are extremely low. The better route to take is to write on Twitter and LinkedIn. GO where the people are. Build your presence, and put your flag in the ground.
You’re not going to become the best writer out of the gates. It takes time. Look at me, I started in April 2022 - I hated writing in school, never thought about sharing my experiences through writing. Here I am, doing the damn thing.
As I always say, get the reps in. You don’t go to the gym once to gain muscle; you go consistently every day. The same framework applies to writing, E V E R Y D A Y.
Every time you put something out, you’re getting better. The best content is the content that you think is the worst. Some of my best tweets are the ones I least expected to get likes and RTs. Put it out there.
If something flops or doesn’t resonate, rewrite it and post it.
It will get harder before it gets easier.
Most of your content will never be seen or read when you start.
As you keep building and growing 1 follower at a time, you are slowly building a content library.
When people start following you on Twitter or LinkedIn and decide to look at your previous content, they will see that you have been talking about this topic for a long time. That’s how you build trust. You don’t build trust with one post; you build that over time.
There is no doubt that you will:
You will get frustrated.
You will get discouraged.
You will want to quit.
Get over that. Stay consistent, it only gets easier
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