There’s a well-loved myth out there that if you do something reasonably remarkable and distribute passionate content, you’ll automatically have an audience who will support you in style for the rest of your life.
You don’t have to do anything scary. Like sell, for example.
Now if that works for you, that’s terrific. So does it?
The painful truth is that there are lots of trusted, loved, and wildly influential smart people out there who are working like maniacs creating amazing content.
And who are nonetheless still broke.
It’s easy to think that if your audience loves you, all that love will translate automatically into paying customers. But if one of your goals is a financial payoff from your content, you still have some work to do.
You have to offer something they want
Your Aunt Frances loves you very much, but if you’re a Prius dealer and she’s more of a Lamborghini person, you’re never going to sell her a car.
(And if you do somehow manage to, she’ll always resent you for it.)
Your audience needs to both love you and want your product or service. They also need to be buyers.
If your audience is made up of monks who have taken a vow of poverty, you have a tough road ahead of you, even if you could somehow demonstrate that driving a Lamborghini is actually a meditation with profound spiritual implications.
Find out what your audience wants and what they’re ready to buy. Then build a product that meets their needs.
Starting with the product and then trying to find raving fans for it is a rookie mistake, and probably the biggest reason small businesses fail.
Why they don’t buy, even when they love you
Now once you’ve found Aunt Frances a nice Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera in racing yellow, she still may have some questions.
She’ll have a tiny, little voice in the back of her head saying you might be less trustworthy, because now you have something to sell.
She’s suddenly facing a dilemma. On the one hand, she loves you. On the other hand, you’re a scary salesperson.
If you sell her something she doesn’t like, it’s going to mess up your relationship, and that’s the last thing Aunt Frances wants.
The fact that she loves you doesn’t vaporize her sales objections. And it doesn’t mean she’ll blindly buy everything you put in front of her.
(She may later, once you’ve built complete trust with a few positive transactions. But she won’t take the first step without some hand-holding.)
There’s no such thing as a product that sells itself
Like the “self-cleaning oven” and “hot girls/guys are waiting for your call,” this promise invariably turns out to disappoint.
If you run a business — or a nonprofit, or a political campaign, or a project where you’re trying…
