If you ever wondered how you can be influential without becoming an “influencer,” this is for you. I’ll share a way of reframing what it means to impact other people’s lives without taking selfies all day long.
Last week, I talked about getting feedback from the right people. I also shared my reservations about the freemium business model for my current SaaS project, Podline.
And because, sometimes, the stars align, I received a voice message —through Podline— from a listener whose feedback I want to share with you now.
Experience this article as a podcast or as a newsletter:
Hey Arvid, Justin Jackson here, just out for a walk, listening to your podcast. Is freemium a good option for bootstrappers?
Well, I mean, there are no universal laws in bootstrapping. It can be a good approach. And in your case, I think with a tool like, you know, voicemail for podcasters, voice memos for podcasters, I think it might be the best approach, simply because a lot of podcasters don’t have a lot of budget.
Usually, they’ve used up all of their budget on podcast hosting, microphone, and maybe investing in some podcast editing. And so, in the beginning, there might just not be a lot of budget left over for a tool like this.
But if you can get them using it and loving it, as their podcast grows, they might be willing to pay for it, especially if it becomes one of their favorite parts of doing the show. One of the challenges with podcasts is you don’t get a lot of feedback from your listeners.
So, if Podline gives podcasters some response, some, you know, they get to hear back from their listeners, and they really enjoy that, they might be willing to pay for it in the future. So, I think it’s an experiment worth trying.
Thanks, Justin. This is incredibly appreciated — and definitely an experiment I am willing to run.
Getting this message from one of my favorite founders made me think about the role influential experts like Justin play in my professional life. I’ve read Justin’s book on marketing for developers, I read his newsletter whenever it appears in my inbox, and I listen to his podcast about building Transistor.fm.
And a thought struck me: Justin is an influencer, in the best sense of the word. Forget the glamorous, selfie-taking Dubai residents. That’s not what I mean. Justin helps ambitious founders like myself with his perspective. He influences how we weigh our options, what ideas we follow, and when we change direction.
The one thing that Justin and other amazingly supportive people like him provide is context.
Look at my example: I was wondering if a polarizing business model choice was a good idea for my software business, trying to serve the podcast creator industry. Justin lives in that industry, and he provides core services to many such creators. In sharing his thoughts about budgetary constraints and challenges that my future customers regularly face, Justin contextualized the discussion around freemium to my actual business scope.
And even the selfie-taking Instagram influencers do something similar: every product review, every reaction video, and every photo of a location serves as a context bridge for the people who follow them.
Seth Godin has this phrase: “People like us do things like this,” which he uses to describe the tribal nature of groups —audiences, customers, or whatever brings people together. Group members value internal alignment, reliable expectations, and similarities. Even anarchists want to hang out with other anarchists.
This alignment used to be much easier to accomplish. When proximity was the norm in pre-digital times, the mere fact that people interacted with each other regularly in a physical space provided a significant amount of context. You’d get to know people not just by their Twitter avatar, but you’d feel their presence, you’d subconsciously notice with whom and how they interacted, and you’d see quite quickly just how much you had in common.
This built-in benefit of hanging out due to a shared interest explains why we still love to go to in-person conferences and meetups even though we could do it all virtually. Humans want clarity, connection, and, most of all, context.
And just as the shallow world of social media destroys a lot of that context, the “influencer” role emerged to re-establish it. It’s not surprising: some people spend more time nerding out about particular topics than others. They see more of the landscape, understand its dynamics better, and have deeper insights into how things work. These influential thinkers can categorize better than the average amateur.
Which is precisely why we listen to them. They pre-categorize and pre-value the things we might not be so sure about.
Just like my little issue with the freemium business model. Justin Jackson has been around the indie hacker space for much longer than I have. He’s seen it all. And he can contextualize the broad question of “should I give certain things away for free” to a very specific issue of niche interest that software business owners like myself might have.
What does this mean for you?
Well, if you intend to build a social media following or want to establish a personal brand around yourself and your work to find better jobs, better business ideas, and better customers, then this will allow you to reframe the often nebulous concept of “niche influencer.”
It’s not about presenting yourself as the foremost expert on whatever your niche is. It’s helping people find context where they lack it. This is precisely why you can build a reputation as an expert by merely connecting newbies with other experts and their expertise.
People rarely look for truth — we all know that for every piece of advice out there, there’s its exact opposite, presented and argued just as reasonably. But people do look for judgment, value assignment, and decision-making. Anything —and anyone— who can help them determine what’s useful to them in their circumstances will be considered someone worth following.
You don’t have to have the ambition of gathering hundreds of thousands of people around you to be influential. Simplify things, categorize them, and share your thoughts with your peers. The more you do this, more you will find yourself aligned with the curiosity and respect of those around you.
And that’s the most valuable thing you could ever seek to find.
