Too many people see audience building as a means to an end: they expect to build a following of people that are just sitting there, waiting to be sold something. The goal of this very limited audience-building approach is to find as many potential sales targets as possible, sell to them, and that's it. I … Continue reading The Goals of Audience-Building
Year: 2021
The Shape of a Problem in the Wild
The wonderful thing about humans is that they have a hundred different ways to talk about their dreams, desires, needs, and challenges. No two people will talk about their experiences the same way. Thankfully, we can group these messages into several easy-to-recognize categories while we observe our potential customers in their communities. Here's an important … Continue reading The Shape of a Problem in the Wild
On Re-Using Content
Creating valuable content is hard. Producing it reliably is even more challenging. Many creators are holding themselves back by believing that they need to create original work at all times. They think that re-using content is a cardinal sin. I believe differently. There is incredible value in re-using your content. There is a misunderstanding of … Continue reading On Re-Using Content
Audience Discovery: The Importance of Budget
When founders are looking for that perfect target audience for their business, they often get many things right. They pick audiences that they know intimately, that have interesting problems to solve, and that they really care about helping. However, I see too many founders struggle with a vital part of the Audience Discovery process: making … Continue reading Audience Discovery: The Importance of Budget
What founders can learn from Twitch streamers about building in public
I'm an avid Twitch viewer. While writing, coding, or just researching, I quite often watch someone playing video games. I could play those games myself, but I wanted to spend time on my projects without dedicating my full attention to a game. Twitch allows me to participate in the gaming experience without losing my focus. … Continue reading What founders can learn from Twitch streamers about building in public
The Emotional Journey of a Bootstrapped Founder: Fear of Disappointing Your Customers
Over the last few weeks, you will have noticed that I have started talking more about the emotional impact of entrepreneurship. I talked about impostor syndrome, people cloning businesses, the loss and grief of selling a business, all topics that most people keep quiet about. I remember keeping quiet about this myself a few years … Continue reading The Emotional Journey of a Bootstrapped Founder: Fear of Disappointing Your Customers
When Your Business Gets Cloned
This week, I ran into a Tweet by Mike Rubini, who had found that not only his product Groouply had been cloned, but the person behind copying his Facebook group monitoring tool had put up a comparison page, trashing Mike's product. That made Mike wonder if he should stop building in public. It's an alluring … Continue reading When Your Business Gets Cloned
Jargon and Community
I've been thinking a lot about the understood meaning of terms in quickly evolving industries this week. I even chose to make a major pivot because of this in renaming the book I am currently writing. I'll get to this in a minute. But first, let's take a little detour into the world of... Opera. … Continue reading Jargon and Community
The Grief and Loss of Selling a Business
This week, my partner, co-founder, and love-of-my-life Danielle Simpson appeared on the Software Social Podcast hosted by Michele Hansen and Colleen Schnettler. In a remarkably open and honest conversation, Danielle touched upon many different topics regarding our journey with FeedbackPanda, but one thing stood out to me: her story of how she dealt with the … Continue reading The Grief and Loss of Selling a Business
The Two Goals of Audience-Building
Let's talk about audience-building today. Last week, I talked about how I use Twitter, and that was received reasonably well. That's why I want to talk about why audience-building is such a good idea. I'm aware that many of you already know that I'm working on a book called Audience First. That means I'm currently … Continue reading The Two Goals of Audience-Building