Reality check: Your follower count has nothing to do with how much money you’ll make this year...
I know, crazy, right?
I’m sure you’d imagine that the higher the follower count, the higher the income.
And look, I believed that too, for years.
I always scoffed at the people who would preach;
“Your follower count doesn’t matter.”
But here’s the reality.
There are hundreds of creators (dozens that I know personally) who have 10s of thousands of followers, making hundreds of thousands of dollars every single year.
Meanwhile, there are countless creators with hundreds of thousands, sometimes even millions of followers, who struggle to make an income.
Imagine that?
You work hard for years…
You’re talented at what you do; obviously, millions of people choose to watch.
You go through all the same ups and downs as everybody else, all the same stress and pain…
And the day you finally decide to launch a product and generate an income for yourself.
Crickets.
You have all the ingredients.
All the talent.
You’ve worked just as hard as everyone else.
And still, nothing.
Let’s not mince words here, that’d be fucking awful.
But this is true for thousands of creators who focus purely on vanity metrics and neglect the one vital ingredient that dictates your ability to monetise…
Positioning.
Let’s talk about it, because this is going to help a lot of you understand a very important part of your business.
Positioning, in a literal sense, is the position you occupy in someone’s mind.
We are all constantly positioning the people around us based on a variety of factors.
The easiest way to demonstrate this is if we were to go to dinner together.
I roll up in a Porsche 992 GT3, wearing a Rolex yellow gold GMT Master II.
There’s an automatic shift that goes inside your mind.
Your mind goes, “ Oh, so he’s that kind of guy,” and automatically puts me in a box.
Now, that box could be:
“I want what he has; I should listen to what he says.”
Or:
“Fuck he’s a wanker, I don’t want to hear a word out of his mouth.”
But either way, that reaction is inevitable.
You will make a snap judgement, regardless of the box you place me in.
Now what we care about when it comes to positioning, is what box our audience puts us in.
Do they see us as someone they should listen to?
Or someone they can ignore?
I want you to think of a specific type of content creator that I’m sure we’re all familiar with.
They’re hilarious.
Painfully good-looking.
Their content garners incredible engagement.
I'm talking millions of views on every single video.
But what would happen if that person tried to launch a product?
The conversion of views to sales would be abysmal.
Why?
Positioning.
None of us have positioned that person as an authority.
We’ve positioned them as creator we go to to have a laugh.
Now, this is a really literal example.
However, the more sinister version of this is when educators position themselves as authority figures for the wrong audience.
This is the content creator who teaches beginner content and can’t seem to make an income.
Why?
The people with money, who are willing to invest in their business, usually aren’t learning beginner information.
And beginners usually don’t have the income to justify investment.
So, this creator is caught in limbo.
Between an audience of beginners and a product and pricing model that should be positioned in front of professionals.
This is a scenario that plagues many creators.
So, how do we fix our positioning?
I’m about to give you a hard pill to swallow.
In the online business game, people like to buy from people who are superior to them in some way.
Plain and simple.
Now, we are happy to buy from our peers, but only when that peer possesses a particular skill that is superior to our own understanding.
For example, I’ve invested in coaches with similar incomes to my own, but who had a smaller audience.
So clearly, they possessed a greater level of understanding in some area that was leading to greater conversions than my own.
And so, I deemed them as superior. Even though we'd achieved similar results.
There are four factors that determine what we call positioning.
One: Experiences.
Two: Achievements
Three: Specialised Knowledge
Four: Lifestyle.
Social media is full of people positioning themselves through their lifestyle.
This is the classic business coach driving a Lamborghini, working from a laptop on some exotic island, and living in Dubai.
We all hate it, but why does it work so bloody well?
It screams “I have what you want, so clearly, I know something you don’t.”
And that delta between what you know, and what you believe someone else knows, is a powerful motivator for buying behavior.
Now, this is borderline criminal, and honestly disgusting.
But it doesn’t mean that we can ignore it.
Lifestyle, when shared authentically, can be your greatest asset as a creator.
Here’s an example from my own life.
I love James Smith, he’s my north star creator when it comes to building my business.
But why? He’s a fitness creator.
He has an online training app and an energy drink company.
That’s nothing like my business.
What about him, attracted me?
His lifestyle.
He lives on the beach, in a big beautiful home in northern NSW.
He drives an Audi RS6.
And no matter how busy his work is, he always makes time to swim in the ocean, walk his dog, and train Jiu Jitsu for 1-2 hours every day.
Sound familiar?
Swap the Audi for a Porsche.
Swap Jiu Jitsu for Ironman.
Swap NSW for the Surf Coast in Victoria.
And that is me.
So now, James is positioned as the ultimate authority in my mind.
Because he’s built what I want.
That is the power of positioning.
I’m not even his target audience.
I hate going to the gym, and James openly bashes running and cycling for cardio.
Yet, I have positioned him as an authority.
This all happens 80% subconsciously.
So it’s more about the little details you share in your content.
It’s how you talk.
How you behave.
How you explain difficult concepts…
The things you share from your day to day.
It’s you showing that you’re a professional at what you do and that you can help others achieve the same thing.
It’s you sharing the fruits of your labor in an authentic and honest way.
It’s you sharing your failures so people know you’re real.
So next time you’re making content, consider how it’s positioning you to your audience.
Make sure to communicate indirectly (or directly) your experiences, achievements, and lifestyle and show that you have specialised knowledge…
Let me know how you’re going to implement this with your brand, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
And if you’re interested in mastering this for your personal brand this year, enrollments for cohort seven of Time to Build are going to be opening soon, so click the link below and join the waitlist.
Join the waitlist
Talk to you soon,
Tom
Lesson
My anxiety has been pretty bad lately.
I have been experiencing some weird health issues for the past year, which I haven't really talked about at all, and this past few weeks, with those symptoms and a few other stresseful things happening, it's all boiled over a little bit.
I'll be okay; I don't share this for pity.
I share this because I'm sure a lot of you battle with anxiety too.
And I'm sure it's comforting to know that you're not alone.
Now, I also share this, because I wrote something in my daily journaling practise a few days ago that has really stuck with me, and I wanted to share it with all of you.
"Everything good that has ever happened to me came on the other side of suffering."
I think suffering is life's way of forcing us to become the person we need to be.
So if you're going through it, ask yourself:
"How is this suffering preparing me for what's to come?"
This series of questions has been very comforting for me lately, and added purpose to the struggle.
Resource
I started using a Chrome extension called Cold Turkey lately, and it has been game-changing.
I spoke not too long ago about the app Opal and how I've started using it to block distracting apps between 6 am and 2 pm.
Well, my smart ass decided to start being distracted by YouTube on my desktop...
So, Cold Turkey has allowed me to block those websites on Google Chrome between 6 am and 2 pm, and my productivity has been so much better.
Both Opal and Cold Turkey also have a locking feature, which means there is literally no way to access those apps or websites between those times,
You can't even delete the app...
That is the kind of restriction I need.
Question
"How is this suffering preparing me for what's to come?"
How are you becoming more of the person you need to be?
You can reply directly to this email with anything you created, consumed, or thought about this week.
|
|
Thank you once again for spending some of your time with me & reading Inspired Insights.
Talk soon,
|
What can I help you with?
Time to Build Cohort Seven.
Time to Build will open for enrollment once again at the end of May! So, if you're ready to build your personal brand in 2024, join the waitlist via the button below.
|
|
Creator Launchpad.
The Last Notion Template You'll Ever Need For Your Creator Business. Manage, systemize, and run everything from financial reporting to content planning all in one place.
|