What do we do about the noise in our heads?
Where do we find the strength to bring our ‘better’ to the world? Why is it so hard to develop a point of view? Why do we hesitate when we say to the world “Here I made this”? And what’s the alternative to hesitating?
-Seth Godin
A lesson in occupational wellness
As an Amazon Affiliate it is policy to inform you that this is an advertisement. However, this is still a reflection of a great book that I’ve read many times over. I believe it would benefit any who may read it. You can find the link for it in my references located at the bottom of this page.
You are ready…
Now that you’ve got the magic, it’s time to start building your yellow brick road. You have everything you need to go out and make the world a better place. You have done well to survive up to this point. You finally get it now. Now that you can see things as they are, the patterns are starting to become more visible to you. You can see things others cannot. You have the capacity to make incredible things happen. All you must do now is walk according to this grand pattern.
To make sense of the patterns is the essence of marketing. Marketing is what keeps this world functioning. Outside of actual laws, it is the marketers who tell us what is right or wrong. It is the marketers who tell us what we should care about. Marketing is what guides a culture. Through marketing, you could cause a cultural shift, which could create new laws. Therefore, becoming a marketer is obtaining the power to change your world. Marketing doesn’t just apply to sales. It also applies to the news. You could market your dating status on social media. Your favorite Youtuber is a marketer. Hell, I’m a marketer. Any time you bring attention to something, you are marketing.
For a lack of better words. Marketing is all fucked up today. Edgelording, attention whoring, and trolling have become standard practice. It’s so cool to be weak nowadays. Apparently, being weak is called “being human” in today’s climate. Do not believe this lip service. Because what do you call the person who wins despite the odds? Is he not human as well? Once you begin your campaign, if you ever failed, it was because you were weak. But being weak is nothing to be ashamed of. Staying weak is. If today sucked, then you go back to the drawing board tonight. You have nothing but time. Might as well make the most out of it.
It will be tough…
Being a creator isn’t enough. Your product, or service, or idea will never get any motion by just existing. There’s always more work you can do. There will always be people out there who need to hear your message. Help is always encouraged. Once you begin your campaign, you should always be campaigning. It’s not something you can do part-time. The grind doesn’t stop until you retire. Your campaign is your story. Your story must impact. That doesn’t mean you lie about yourself. It means you must come up with the best version of the truth.
Marketing can get complicated. Trying to simplify it will only get you lackluster results. It’s very easy to get the wrong idea about marketing. Especially now with 3 differing generations trying to reach maturity during an evolving digital age. Everyone thinks they’re right. Marketing goes much deeper than simple advertising. A successful campaign is never rushed. You have nothing but time. So why would you rush? The glamorous parts of marketing usually come near the ending. But before that, lots of hard work
The only reliable way to build your reputation is to go on a campaign. Your campaign is a story. You want your story to be so good that people want to be a part of it. Not only must you know your message, but you must also be aware of your image. Your reputation is what will power your message. As your reputation improves, more people will believe in your message. It’s not going to just happen one day. You aren’t going to just wake up on the other side all of a sudden. Every step you take, every sale you make, and any problem you solve is all for the sake of your message. This is your story. So make it one of the best ever told.
Here’s an uncomfortable truth. The people who didn’t accept you were right to do so. Why? Because you suck? Not typically, no. Based on the information they had at the time, it was the right choice not to accept you. That’s all it really means. They weren’t feeling your story. You just weren’t needed. You were weighed, you were measured, and you were found wanting. It’s hard not to take that personally because it WAS personal. But are you going to be an adult about it or not? Should someone hate you just because you rejected something you didn’t need? Come on now.
Your need for acceptance is precisely what makes you invisible. You aren’t supposed to trust someone who is everybody’s friend. No matter how good your story is, it won’t be better than the one that is already in their minds. If your story doesn’t have a takeaway that can be added on to their own lives, they will not care. You might even irritate them a bit. Because nothing is more irritating than a boring story. What is your message? What are you trying to change? Who are you doing it for?
Where to start…
“Who are you doing it for?” Let’s start there. We can’t send a message until we know who we are addressing. You need to be deliberate in your targeting. You can’t target everyone. That’s too many people. And you can’t target just anyone either. Your results would be unstable. But if you target someone specifically, you’ll come up with a good plan. Once you can identify your specific target, you’ll have an idea of what group you can market to.
Once you’ve selected a target group, you’ll need to take in the culture, the environment, the popular figures in that area and what they represent, and even the history. You aren’t changing anything until you know everything. You can only trust the people to act in their best interests. The people don’t want what you have. They want their problems solved. You need to figure out what the collective wish is of whatever group you are targeting. Then, you must bring attention to a way to grant that wish. You must learn what makes an experience and then create a specific one.
An experience is a memorable story. Whenever someone is sharing their experience with you, what are they doing? Telling you a story. Most stories are worth telling because something new happened. The people are always waiting for the next new thing. The people want what is new. They need it. What is new is at least worth the attention for a little while. And that’s what marketing is all about. Getting the attention. New can mean different, but it usually applies to an improvement. New shouldn’t just be different. It should be better. Netflix did what Redbox did to Blockbuster. And once the people started getting bored of Netflix, along came Hulu and the rest of the streaming services. What is new promises an experience. A good marketer discovers what is new for those who wait.
What is “better” sometimes means what is simpler. Better could also mean safer or faster. There are many ways you could approach “better,” but it is up to the people to determine that. The people will tell you what they want, but they have no idea what they are actually looking for. People have a hard time telling the difference between wants and needs. The general public is resourceful but not very creative. On top of that, everyone is a little different. Not everyone hates what is popular to hate. Yes, you must conduct your surveys, but you should spend more time spectating.
There are two questions that must be on your mind the entire time. “What are the people getting wrong?” And “What is missing?” You figure out the answers by watching what the people do. Check out how they do things and find out why. What are the things that are typically taboo in that group? What is common knowledge in that group? All of this will become material for you to experiment with.
Build a strategy…
While you watch the people, check for the similar traits among the best of them. Everyone has an image of themselves. And that image is rarely original. Each culture has an archetype that each individual puts their spin on. These spinoffs of the archetype are called stereotypes. Be careful which image you are trying to project on to your group. If you want to appeal to a culture, identify what makes the archetype. You must either become this archetype or attract and gather others who fit. People will only perform certain actions if they think people like them would do the same thing.
“Would someone like me do something like this?” When trying to set a trend, this is the first question you must consider. Setting a trend can be tricky. You can’t just try anything. Some ideas would be more of a gamble than a risk. Archetypes have core values that must remain intact. They are the paragons you refer to when trying to motivate others. If the archetypes endorse something that is too far removed from their image, they are risking their status in the culture. Archetypes can be demoted to cornballs. Also, a trend won’t last forever. The people will eventually move on to the next trend. But if done to it’s maximum effect, setting a trend could cause a cultural shift.
The people who “blow up” after their 15 seconds of virality typically had an entire plan in place just for that moment. Those who didn’t have a plan never enjoyed lasting success. To stay relevant, they will disgracefully chase after the hype they once had. A real brand requires deliberate planning and a lot of time to build. Overnight success is a myth. The best ideas are rarely accepted during their initial inception. There’s a chance your campaign might take years to catch on. Change is scary, and a great idea may require a lot of change until it can be embraced. You shouldn’t want growth for the sake of growth. If you have no substance, your structure will crumble. We already have a word for a system that grows for the sake of growing. We call them Cancers. Is that what you want to be? A cancer?
If your marketing objective is only to make more sales, you are only going to end up burning yourself out. You would’ve escaped the rat race just to be trapped in someone’s hamster wheel. You’re still essentially making money for someone else. You aren’t going to survive by making a sale here and there. The sales you make will not cover your marketing costs. The better alternative to making money for someone else would be making money for your community. This isn’t to say that you should run some sort of non-profit if such a business model doesn’t suit you. I’m just saying no one will subscribe to you if all you want to do is make money for yourself.
Subscriptions…
The only way anyone makes any real money anymore is through a subscription. When I speak of subscribers, am I speaking of Instagram followers or YouTube subscribers? No. You are playing by someone else’s rules on these platforms. You are at the mercy of a greater power. You can still be shadowbanned or canceled outright. Your subscribers must follow you off these platforms and into your space. Why would someone subscribe to your campaign? What are you promising? What are you giving back to those who do subscribe? A basic example is a gym membership. A gym promises a healthier lifestyle. In return for a monthly subscription, you get full access to everything it offers inside. A subscription has to be a fair trade, not a charity.
Subscriptions also give you the added benefit of direct feedback from the people who actually matter. Whenever you need it, you’ll have people to help you think. Through your subscribers you would never run out ideas again. Whatever you create would be for them. Subscriptions attract sponsors. But be careful which sponsors you accept. “Selling out” is when you accept sponsorship from those who do not fit your image. A sellout does not care about their subscribers and would expose them to anything as long as they are paid enough. Love gets you further than greed. Each subscriber is one more person you cannot afford to fail. Each subscriber is one more person who would miss you if you disappeared. Each subscriber is one more person who is out there recommending your work to those who learn with them. Love truly is the ultimate power. Just keep showing up and delivering on your promise, and that love will only grow in strength.
You can’t stop showing up. On your campaign, you are the only one who never gets to take a vacation. A day off is one thing, but why would you need a vacation from something you love doing? To lead others to freedom, you must already be free yourself. You need to have a certain effect on your environment. Everywhere you go must be left in better condition than when you got there. When you make a sale, you aren’t just making money. You are helping people. Anything you borrow must be returned in better condition. People aren’t supporting you out of pity. It’s because they are reciprocating the energy you put out. Gratitude begets gratitude. Show the people that you appreciate them, and they will return the favor. Your campaign must be the answer to a collective wish. You aren’t the one who needs hope. You are the one who must inspire it. You must earn the right to hold the hopes of the people. Then, you must return that favor by carrying out your mission.
Attention is technically worth more than money. You need attention to make money. You spend money for more attention, and sometimes it doesn’t even matter how much you spend. That makes attention something that is priceless. The worst of us would do anything for priceless things. But what makes attention so priceless? Attention is utilized time. Once attention has been paid, the time cannot be recovered. Time is not meant to be wasted. Time is our single most important resource. Respect the people’s time, and they will show gratitude in the form of attention. How do you respect someone’s time? By asking permission for it, of course.
Gaining power…
Your social media and streaming accounts will attract thousands if not millions of followers over time. But a follower isn’t the same as a subscriber. A subscriber is worth 1000 followers. You will likely have to amass a large number of followers before you get even one subscriber. This is why we want to grow. Not because we look good with a bunch of followers. Not because we want to be famous. It’s because at least a few of them will end up subscribing to you.
Where you see someone with over a million legitimate followers, I see someone with maybe one hundred subscribers. Give or take. Boosting a post should be for research purposes primarily. These social media companies make money from the hopeful. A lot of money. This is not to call these companies evil. What they do is actually ingenious. Everyone gets a fair enough shot at making a change. Those who gamble will spend more money than their posts are worth with the hopes of cancerous growth. If you struggle, who cares? Even if you take calculated risks, these platforms will still profit from you and the thousands of others like you.
You have to spend money to make money, but don’t blow your money. You can’t pour money into marketing until you know exactly what you should expect from it. With the digital age, the stamp has been replaced by the click. A campaign before the internet had to rely on stamps to measure marketing costs. How many clicks would it take to get a subscriber? How much should a click cost? What is the projected lifetime of a subscriber, and how much would they be worth? These are all important questions you must answer before you pour a bunch of money into something.
A subscriber will rarely ever stick around for their projected lifetime. They aren’t as fickle as followers, but subscribers will still come and go. This is money we’re talking about. It doesn’t grow on trees. Who knows what your subscribers are going through? If you can no longer help them, they will stop paying you. Plain and simple. The only difference is that these are the ones that you would actually miss. You’ll know exactly who left you, and it might even sting a bit.
You might have some initial success in your campaign just because you are so different from the rest of the noise. Just know that this will only last for a short while. A new unique creator pops up every day. People get bored quickly. Priorities change. People come and go. But as you continue to grow, it becomes harder to notice who left. You should be more concerned with the people who stick around anyway. The people who left were always going to leave. For every 100 people who come around, only five or six of them will actually stick around for the entire ride.
Support is harder to get than you think. If it came easily, you wouldn’t appreciate it. Once you begin, you will learn gratitude for your followers very quickly. Your mission is the reason you started, but the people who believe in you will become the reason you continue. Your campaign will be slow until you have enough people behind you. There is no quick way to gather these people; no dignified quick way, at least. Also, there is no set number of people you will need for a successful campaign. You go out and help one person at a time until the people are seeking you out.
You aren’t worthy of attention until you stand out. What you are trying to accomplish must be greater than yourself. You are out there to change lives, or perhaps even to save them. The people who support your campaign will join for various reasons. Your message will mean different things to different people. You need to listen to these stories as you progress. Their stories become an inspiration for you. Each life you improve will make it harder to stop your campaign. Eventually, it will become something you must see to the end.
Understand this…
Everyone wants to be a hustler. This is the kind of lifestyle you see people promoting on social media all the time. It’s all lies. Lies delivered cleverly are still lies. Lies delivered confidently are still lies. The people are getting tired of the lies. You don’t want a reputation based on lies. You will only make things harder for yourself. Hustlers want suckers. A philanthropist wants to help people. A philanthropist is patient, which goes against a hustler’s nature. Like, why are you even rushing anyway? Are you trying to get away with something? Time favors the philanthropist. Time works against the hustler.
If you have a lot to say, then break it down. Since people don’t have a lot of time, most of them aren’t going to listen to you. Why do you think I share my blog only a little at a time? Sure, it saves energy, buys me time, and maintains a social media presence. Those are all benefits, but not the reasons behind it. I do it for your sake. We all have day jobs. We all have objectives that need our attention more than anything I might have to say. So I keep it brief, send you on your way, and just hope it was exactly what you needed to hear at that moment. Pacing yourself also helps you to recalibrate and brainstorm. Once you have all of your pieces out there the way they should be, you’ll be set up to tell one of the greatest stories of all time.
You don’t need a color that’s never been seen before to make a work of art that can’t be replicated. You don’t need to be anyone special to make a change in this world. You have more power than you might think. You aren’t just giving the people something. You are changing their lives. Because of you, they now see the possibilities that were always available to them. What you want can’t have a selfish motivation behind it. If so, your story will eventually have a bad ending. Your campaign might not even get off the ground until you’ve cleared the dysfunction from your character.
The best marketers have their heads removed from their asses. Over time, I’ve grown to learn that common sense doesn’t actually exist. Common sense is dependent on the culture you are a part of. It is a relative thing to a small amount of people. There is no universal culture. You can’t reach everyone. But that’s the best part. You don’t need everyone. You don’t want everyone. Your message is not for everyone. You need to start getting comfortable with saying “This is not for you.”
It’s easy to believe that people like to think the way that you do. That is until you’ve begun your campaign. You might be surprised at how many people you know who may not actually support you. Even amongst your family and friends. Is this a reason to hate them? Of course not. You don’t want obligated victims. You want dedicated volunteers. Just because someone isn’t with you doesn’t necessarily mean that they are against you. Your family is still your family. But building a better family is up to you.
Communities…
Communities and viral moments have a chicken and egg relationship. Which came first? You can spend your entire life spreading your message, but it is your followers that create the moments of virality. Virality is a lot like a standing ovation. Standing ovations usually start with a handful of people. But your chances of getting a standing ovation in a room full of newcomers is quite low. But if 15 or 20 of your biggest supporters were sprinkled throughout the crowd, those chances greatly improve. At least you get to see your people cheering for you. The best thing you can create out of a moment of virality is a community. So your objective shouldn’t be to go viral. It should be to start a community.
You’ll get further working with the few, not the many. Every community begins with someone or a small group of people just doing what they love to do. Even if they didn’t make anything of their campaign, they still got to develop themselves in a very meaningful way. Maybe they didn’t change the world, but at the very least, they became the best version of themselves. They still get to come back home with one hell of a story. If your campaign has no love in it, you are only wasting your time.
When you start thinking of communities, it is easy to get elite and exclusive confused. Most people have no idea what being an elite even means. Where a king would prefer to be world famous, an elite would prefer not to be known at all. Elite status can be taken from you. But exclusivity remains as long as you want to be a part of the community. To be exclusive is much easier than being an elite. It’s hard to be both without running some kind of scam, so be careful about what you are trying to do with your community.
Exclusivity is the better path for most of us. But to understand what makes an exclusive community work so well, we have to be able to acknowledge status. Have you ever wondered what makes the status quo what it is? The Latin word “quo” translates into “following from,” and we already know what status means. So that means the status quo is about… well… status! Your place in the world. Status plays a role in literally every decision we make. Whenever we feel like our status is threatened, we just can’t help ourselves. We start to establish the pecking order. It often gets ugly. This behavior isn’t exclusive to animals. The people will do what their status dictates.
Take status seriously…
Asking the wrong thing of someone of a certain status would be taken as disrespect. You’re more likely to get booed off stage instead of a standing ovation. Status is important to each of us no matter your place in hierarchy. The only exceptions to this are those with personality disorders and the fools of this world. For example, you wouldn’t insult a cop pulling you over unless you wanted to make your situation worse. Your status tells you what you are allowed to do. Your status keeps you safe as long as you play your role. Your status determines a lot of your leverage when in conflict. Your status determines what you are most likely to become. Not everyone will be satisfied with their status. Not just those lower on the totem pole, either. There are plenty of those in higher status roles who wish they weren’t. But the majority of us would protect our roles with everything we have. Change can be quite difficult to embrace.
They say you should be careful when speaking of politics and religion. This is very true, but allow me to add one more thing to this list. You should be very careful about how you address someone’s status. It’s not that you shouldn’t talk about it. You just never know how someone perceives themselves. Someone of high status might hold a very low opinion of themselves. Or they might have a high one, and think that they deserve more than what they already have. You wouldn’t want to trigger an inferiority complex the way that most hate groups like to. Perception of status is crucial in developing someone’s self-esteem.
Understanding status isn’t as easy as you might think. With status, there are always 2 forces at work: internal status and external status. And those forces can be perceived as high or low. This means that there are 4 categories of self-worth: convinced, weak, delusional, and unsure. Those who are convinced of their potential are the go-getters of this world. Their internal and external forces do not conflict with one another. The rarest breed. Those who think they are weak have a low opinion of themselves, and so does everyone else. These are the bootlickers and appeasers of this world. These types are everywhere. The ones afraid of conflict. Those who are delusional think they are much greater than they actually are. These are the prideful types who expect handouts and believe they deserve your support just for being decent at something. Finally, those who are unsure are perpetually unsatisfied with their results. They are the types who need constant reassurance even if they are the best at what they do. These people will drive you insane.
There are also 4 basic personality types you should be aware of. You have your attack-types who seek to increase their status. You have the defensive types who wish to maintain. You have your support types who want to grow or maintain alongside others. And you have your runners who seek to downgrade their status. Personality types are not exclusive to an individual’s self-worth. Any level of self-worth could produce any personality type. You could have a delusional defensive type. Or a convinced runner.
Make a change…
You have to see the patterns. Sometimes, you’ll be able to fit right in with what you see. But if you are trying to convince someone to do something new, you’ll have a hard time interrupting an established pattern. The best time to convince someone to try something new is when life is about to change for them. It is possible to change someone’s pattern yourself. But first you have to match it. Once you are a part of the pattern, you’ll be able to improve or disrupt it. This is when you can introduce something new.
People are a lot like electricity. They will take the path of least resistance. The less hassle, the better. If you can show someone an easier way to get what they want, they will take that path every time, loyalty be damned. Marketing is yet another word for manipulation. You can’t feel bad or awkward about it. It’s not like you’re some kind of hero anyway. Only the worst kinds of assholes call themselves that. Why do you think you are never supposed to meet your heroes? Because they suck.
The hero represents the status quo, not change. A new king is crowned when the antagonist wins. Not the protagonist. Change is scary, and people will fight like hell to stay right where they are. And here you come trying to bring change to their hierarchy. It wouldn’t be the first time someone tried. Challenging the status quo directly would be a suicide mission. The way to attack the status quo is by causing a cultural shift. To become a king, you would only need to do 2 things.
1. Create a law.
2. Design your environment around that law.
Neither one of those objectives will be easy to carry out. But that is how a kingdom is created. A king isn’t worthy of being a king because he is the strongest. That would make him the greatest warrior. It also isn’t because he is the smartest. That would make him the greatest council. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or the circumstances of your birth. The king is the king because he is the greatest creator there is. This is what makes him the most important piece on the board. This is the reason he must be protected. This is what makes the king second only to God.
Perhaps your objective isn’t to become a king. Wise decision. It’s not an easy job. I’m sure there are many of you reading this that would much rather be rich instead of famous. It’s hard to have one without the other. Fortunately, fame isn’t what it used to be. A hit isn’t when a million people like your song. A hit is when a couple thousand people really REALLY like your song. You don’t need to be world famous anymore. You only need to be well known in your community. That is more than famous enough for most of us. Perhaps you’ll find greater satisfaction as a community leader instead.
The architect…
The leader of a community is no king. He’s just the man everyone picked for the job. That’s all. The community leader doesn’t actually lead the community. A community technically doesn’t need a leader. What a community leader does is connect the people within that community. That’s all you do. Some may copy you, but you don’t get to tell the people what to do. Each subscription is a bond of trust. There is no need to manipulate the people you trust. This will turn your community into an angry mob. If you consider yourself some kind of captain, it’s only a matter of time before you’ll have a mutiny on your hands.
Attention has a way of getting to your head. This is one of the reasons it’s best to grow gradually instead of exponentially. No matter how successful you become, you must realize that you are not special in the slightest. Anyone could’ve been you. The people will survive without you, but the objective is for them to miss you when you are gone. If you don’t engage your community, the people will eventually stop showing up. Because the community isn’t anything special anymore. This will also happen if you do the same thing over and over. A good community leader keeps things fresh.
To become more than a community leader, you would need the help of other communities. Every smart businessman makes a collaboration every once in a while. Not only do you get to exchange followers, which aids the growth, but you’ll also have more possible subscribers, which helps with operation costs. Or at least a chance to make a few sales. As you spend your time connecting others, another community leader will eventually want to connect with you. To become an “architect,” you must become the apex archetype. All leaders would have something to learn from you. There are two types of creators in this world. Inventors and architects. An inventor is very useful, but cannot change much by themselves. Architects create elegant solutions to complex issues. Only architects can make any significant changes in this world. An inventor can still have a successful campaign, but they would need much more help. An inventor would require an entire fleet to support them. An architect only needs a crew.
The group you are appealing to may not exist. You might need to create it first. Either way, you’ll have your work cut out for you. Don’t be discouraged. What you are trying to do is doable. The people are waiting for you to make it happen. They just don’t believe that you can. Not yet. Not until you’ve actually helped them. If you’re just starting out, then you should consider building a website. Perhaps you already have one that you’ve made yourself. You might even have a decent looking and fast website for an amateur. Just know that eventually, you are going to need to hire a professional to get the most out of your website. Your website will function as a headquarters if actual real estate is out of your budget. You need a headquarters because if you are anywhere and everywhere, then you are also nowhere. People like new things, but people also like the things that can stick around. You won’t grow into a mighty tree if you don’t plant your roots.
You gather followers through your freemium content. You gain subscribers through your premium content. Your freemium content displays what your premium content could be. Your premium content can’t be more of the same thing. There has to be more to it. There actually has to be a fair trade for a subscription to sustain itself over time. You won’t get far trying to convince one person at a time. The only way your ideas will spread is if people talk about them. Just because someone likes your work doesn’t mean they will talk about it with their colleagues. People will only talk about your art if it resonated deeply with them. You aren’t building a fight club. You are building a community. You want people talking about it. Spreading your message must align with something that is important to them. What is important to the people you are talking to? Is what you are doing important to anyone other than you?
Communities are usually built around a new invention. The best creations work better when more people use them. Think of inventions like Instagram or the telephone or the light bulb. The more people who have it, the better. Whatever you create shouldn’t be a novelty for the time. It should be the missing piece for the culture. This would cause a phenomenon called a wave. Making a wave can be tricky. Let’s use the fidget spinner as an example. Remember that stupid toy that somehow made millions of dollars? They didn’t do it through a bunch of commercials or social media marketing. They gave the toy to the coolest kids they could find. Through giveaways and fun events. The fidget spinner became more than a toy. It became a baby status symbol. Now, all they had to do was make cooler fidget spinners. Rinse and repeat until that generation moves on to the next stage of maturity. This explosion would’ve never happened if they initially handed the toy to the kid who eats his boogers.
Dig deep…
If you could only help a handful of people, you would be highly selective about who would get your assistance. So it would make sense to help the people who needed your help the most from the very beginning, right? If you do this, these people will sing your praises to those who learn alongside them. Say you have 100 units of any given product. You would give away 30 of them. But you would give them to the 30 people who needed your product the most. They would happily pass on that you are having a sale out of gratitude. You aren’t just giving away free stuff. You are solving problems for feedback and loyalty. You are creating positive experiences that people are going to remember while you record them. You are actually going out there and working your magic a little. Not only will this build your reputation, but it will also create a pipeline for the rest of your product.
If you wanted to make an impact, you’d have higher success choosing a specific area. For example, if I were running an ad, I wouldn’t just tell Facebook to target New York City. I would go for colleges in New York City. I would look for people who actually like to read. I would spread my message to the people who are actually going places. Not to the bums with too much time on their hands who can’t think for themselves. But that’s my psychographic. Yours might be similar. Some people like to represent the finer things in life, while others such as myself like to symbolize the grind. But no matter what it is, you must specify it. Nothing is going to shake until you do.
You will be compared to others no matter where you go. No matter how great you become. And it won’t always be a flattering comparison. You can’t let any of it get to you. It’s a natural part of how we judge others. Eventually, the people will only see you when they look at you. If you’re actually doing your own thing, that is. You won’t become the best just because you are doing something no one else can. It just makes you slightly harder to replace. Nothing more. It’s so common to be good at something that it isn’t anything special anymore. I’m sure there are plenty of you reading this that are better storytellers than me. To be the best at what you do is a fine goal. But being the best isn’t up to you. No matter how excellent you become, there will always be someone better. You can only be convinced of your value once you’ve stopped caring about who’s better than you.
Running a campaign is tough. You will be attacked all the time. A lot of it will be for no reason at all. But you are technically the antagonist, not the protagonist. You are the one bringing change. You are terrifying. So you should be ready. A story is only as good as its antagonist. But a lot of would-be creators out there are crippled by the fear of hatred. Some people just don’t have the spiritual fortitude to handle an internet troll or an anonymous hater. I’ve been called kinds of shit since I’ve started this, and I’ve got a long way to go, so I’m sure the worst is yet to come. But if no one has ever called you out, can you truly call yourself great? The key is not being ashamed of yourself. Clear the dysfunction from your character. Fear only controls the people with no love in their heart.
The algorithm…
The key to growth isn’t spending more money on advertising. At least not right away. That’s the last step. The easiest. Before that, you’ll have to find your way of turning attention into money. That part takes a while. You use a little bit of money at a time to test out different ideas. And you’ll have to run dozens if not hundreds of tests before you’ve found your formula. This will take patience and careful budgeting. You need to feed the algorithm snacks while saving up for its feast. Once the campaign starts paying for itself, that’s when you dump money into your ads that are sure to work. Social media was invented for advertisements. It’s nice if you use it as an extension of your phone, but ultimately, social media is a marketing tool. Everything you do is recorded by the algorithm, and the algorithm works (kinda) for those who pay. You can’t just throw money at the algorithm and say, “Serve me!” That’s a frustrating way to go broke. If you have no idea who you are targeting with your ads, neither will the algorithm.
The search engines will always work against you. That’s if you have the wrong idea about SEO. Sure, proper usage of keywords could lead to accidental discovery. But an accidental discovery doesn’t matter if the mind is set on something else. Besides, the chances of you being discovered by accident are like a billion-to-one, and I’m lowballing there. You’ll never be that lucky consistently. But if the people are searching for you, that’s when the odds are reversed; only one in every billion or so will make a mistake in finding you. Your name is the keyword you want people entering into their search bars.
A marketer’s job isn’t to make you money. Your brand is what makes you money. Marketing brings attention to your brand. You could just hire a marketer, but it takes patience and consistency to build a brand. If you’re a greedy person, you aren’t going to make it. Your brand is what you do. It’s how you do it. It’s where you can be found. It’s how you present yourself. It’s how you treat people. It’s the name you picked. Your style should be all over everything you do. That way, getting familiar with you won’t take too long.
Becoming familiar with you will be tedious, but it shouldn’t be too hard. People trust what is familiar, and you will only become familiar if you show up every day. The problem with this is that it gets boring. Like, REALLY boring. It’s inevitable. You can bet your ass that I get bored all the time doing this. By the time my work actually catches on, I’m picturing it feeling like just another milestone. Satisfying for sure, and I’d be grateful, but I wouldn’t be doing backflips. I’d just continue the way I was always planning to. It’s who I am now. Even once I move on to my dream project, I’m positive there will come times when I’ll be fighting boredom with everything I have.
Other than your basic living expenses, once you’ve focused on a mission, it would be wise to put your money towards making it a success. It costs money to make money. Most of the money you make during your campaign will go right back into the campaign. Because it isn’t about the money, it’s about the mission. Your objective should always be to make better things for your customers. You are hustling backwards if you are focusing primarily on finding more customers for your things.
You are trying to make waves, but making a wave is not the same as making a change. Making a change builds a community while making a wave just makes you a lot of money. To make a change, you would need to make multiple waves. A lot of your marketing will be aimed at certain businesses. A sponsorship is the ultimate goal of a large following. But you will need a large collection of voices before you become loud enough for them to hear. The right sponsors will increase the likelihood of your subscribers reaching their maximum projected lifetime or even exceeding it. Because you become a way to get brands they already love for cheaper.
When we speak to someone, we are trying to put a picture into their mind. Language is a tool for sending symbols. If the person you are speaking with can’t picture what you are saying, your words won’t stick. Just because you understand what a symbol means doesn’t mean an audience will. Symbols are supposed to be familiar. Not everyone is going to understand your symbols. And that’s okay, because you weren’t talking to everyone. Symbols remind you of stuff. They set a tone. You would read my stuff in a different voice than you would read someone else’s material. You expect certain things from me because of the familiar symbols I put out.
Brand recognition…
Through wordplay, you can create symbols throughout the course of your campaign. As your brand matures, you will be able to make callbacks to these symbols. Once a group becomes familiar with your symbols, a community is created. You want your symbol to be unique, but not unlike what has been seen before. If a symbol is too unique, it won’t be trusted. This is why a bunch of logos look alike. They are trying to send a familiar symbol to you. Some campaigns don’t even bother with a logo, but unless you are already super experienced in building a brand, I suggest making a logo to associate your brand with.
A brand is not the same as a logo. Your logo is a symbol of your brand. Your brand is what you represent. What do you represent? Who do you do it for? What is your promise? What’s your name? That is your brand. I’ll use myself as an example. My brand is “actionable information.” My logo is just an avatar of myself. Kinda reminds me of a video game. Looks like there should be some kind of health bar or something under it. A lot of what I do is reminiscent of old-school video games. Why? Because I know the people who enjoy old-school video games are some of the few people in this world who actually enjoy reading. I know that they have the imagination they need to make the most out of the symbols I send. No hand holding required.
Accessories and style are important things to consider. You should dress the way your values, your status, and your brand dictates. You would never be able to keep up an act for very long. Eventually, you will be exposed, or you will expose yourself. Your style becomes a symbol as well. The only thing worse than putting up an act is putting in no effort at all. Imagine your lawyer showing up in pajamas and a hoodie. Is he putting out symbols you can trust?
Start your campaign…
You have to give the people what they want. And people want to feel respected like everyone else. But everyone wants to be treated differently. Wherever they go, they get the same treatment. Loyalty is only earned through special treatment. You can’t go around treating everyone the same. All customers have value, but not everyone who depends on you has the same level of priority. This is why corporations use customer relationship management or CRM systems for short. It’s much like how a bank considers a credit score. They need to know who gets treated differently. Who’s a returning customer? Who are the big spenders? Which ones have donated to your cause? Who sponsors you? You need to figure out who gets to skip the line. Who gets the comfy chairs? Who gets the good snacks? Who gets the special parking spot? You need to be able to provide a VIP treatment. Treat people differently, or they will find someone who will.
Marketing is mass manipulation and can be used for terrible things, but marketing itself is not an evil thing to do. Marketing could be used to create beautiful solutions. And has done so many times. Only those who lack the capacity to think outside of themselves would claim otherwise. It’s easy to demonize something you don’t understand. Even though the people fear change. Even though the people hate being manipulated. They still secretly pray for the arrival of that one person who would could influence them to do something different. That person could be you.
This is your story, and there are no heroes in your story unless you created one. You are the antagonist. You are the one who brings change. It takes a bit of courage to take that first step. The subscribers you earn along the way will align with your obligation to show up every single day. It’s all about the community, the “better” family that you envisoned. You already have everything you need. So take the step. Start your campaign. I can’t wait to see the kind of person you will become. I don’t care which one of you ends up taking over the world. Just make sure to quote me when you do.
References and photos
This is marketing – Seth Godin
Dragonball Z – Akira Toriyama
SpongeBob – Nickelodeon Studios
Code Geass – Ichirō Ōkouchi