It's Not Hard to Build an Audience

Building an audience doesn’t happen overnight.

It’s a process, right?

What if I told you this process may not be as difficult as you think?

Yes, you may have to overcome some mental hurdles to show up consistently.

But if you can follow some basic guidelines, the process becomes so much more simple and easy.

It’s about learning to work the process AND trust the process.

Find out more on how a shift in mindset can help you increase your audience.

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Full Show Notes (Transcript)…

Hey, Risers. Welcome to Empathy Rising. 

Today I really want to just tell you that it is not hard to build an audience. In fact, audience building can be a really. easy process. However, that's what we're going to get to in the crux in this episode today, is it is a process. The other distinction that I want to make is the difference between easy and simple. The opposite of hard we think of is easy, and I want to just throw this out there and say perhaps the opposite of hard might be simple. We can make Audience building a simpler process. We can make it a streamlined, efficient, effective process, and we can bring ease into it. We can do things that feel in alignment. We can do things that are natural extensions of our innate strengths. We do not have to go against the grain or swim or fight against a current. To build an audience, we can absolutely go with the stream, go with the current, go along with what already works in our favor and use that to build an audience.

So I believe that audience building can be simple. And I do believe that audience. Building can be full of ease or easy. Okay. So let's make sure that we are making that distinction. Simple verse easy, both of which can be the opposite of hard. So when I talk with my students and people who are just heading down this road of building their side hustle, getting the audience going is the exciting part.

But it's also a scary part. It's exciting because a lot of us feel, I think, two things. I think we're called to something big. A lot of us know, oh, I have a book in me. Or a lot of us know, oh, I have more to say, more to share. And so having an audience to do that with gives us our stage, our platform, our place to shine.

Where in the therapy industry, we don't get to shine very much. It's more about our clients shining and that's okay. That's what that container is meant for. However, our online income stream container is different and we absolutely can shine and there's nothing wrong with wanting people to hear us or to see us and to listen to our message.

That's exciting and it's scary. The other piece that I think that people, clinicians especially, are really drawn to online income about or for is The chance to make an impact, to help more than the 12, 18, 22, God forbid, 30 clients on our caseload. And we can help hundreds of people, thousands of people. We can have an impact worldwide.

We can have an impact in multiple languages. Imagine writing a book and then having it translated 20 different languages and sold in 20 different countries and things like that. The impact potential is huge. So while there is a little bit of that, that is, you could say self serving. I don't think that's a bad thing. I want us to, to change our perception of that. And it's not self serving to want to shine. It's not self serving to have a message that you want to share and to be recognized. And seen and heard and felt and understood for that message. You deserve that just as much as anybody else in the world deserves that. And you can make an impact with that message. So there's some exciting stuff. There's some really cool potential for audience building. 

However, putting yourself out there. Asking to be seen when so much of our current industry asks us not to be seen and just making that shift can be scary. Also putting yourself out there and then inviting people on the internet, anonymous people on the internet to be able to have an opinion about that. That's super scary too, right? We don't have to only think in terms of social media. I think that's the first place we go to where we think of audience building and social media. A really fun playground, but at times can also feel like a minefield, right? Exciting and scary at the same time. But there's multiple ways to build an audience. We can be cultivating a Facebook group. We can be cultivating an email list. We can be cultivating communities off of Facebook in, in platforms like mighty networks or circle, or some of these other ones, so wherever. We're thinking about audience today. I want us to just think of a captive audience or a group of people who are in the same place at the same time for the same reason.

Okay. That same place could absolutely be an Instagram platform or, um, Tik Tok or any of these social platforms. It certainly could be, but it could also be, like I said, it could be a Reddit thread or a Reddit community. It could be a, it could be your email list, right? There's lots of different places this could occur, but we want like minded in the same place at the same time pursuing.

For the same reason. So pursuing the same goal, solving the same problem. So when we're talking about audience, that's what I want you to think of. So some of the fear of putting yourself out there might be more relevant to say a social media following than other types of threats, types of places and other types of places.

That's what I'm trying to say. However, anytime you put something out there, people feel as if. It's now public knowledge. It's now in the public space and they have a right to have an opinion on it. So I understand that building an audience and cultivating, a group of people who are paying attention to what you say, when you say it, I understand the fear there.

So we need to navigate this balance between not only hard versus simple and easy. But also exciting versus scary. I do think it is this fear element that is a precursor or the underlying element of why we believe that audience building is hard. We are afraid to put ourselves out there. And so then it contributes to this idea that, Oh, accumulating people, accumulating a following is something that's difficult when actually it's probably more.

It's something that is scary. The other thing that I hinted on a little bit earlier is the fact that audience building is a process. Okay. We don't want to look at this as something that is overnight. We want to look at this as something that is on going. I used the word accumulate just a second ago and I cringed when it came out of my mouth because I don't want us to only look at this as like building up a massive number, right?

Every single person who is in your audience is a person and every single person matters. Do larger audiences equal larger revenue? Yes, they certainly do. In general, but there's nuance here because we can have a smaller audience and still make tons of revenue, depending on what type of program that we're offering.

So, as we're going through this audience building process. It's not an end state. It's not, Oh, once I get a thousand followers, then I can launch. And then I can make money. You can make money with one follower. We're going to talk a lot more about this on next episode, about how to maximize a small audience and why a small audience is better, in my opinion, than a big audience but we want to a look at each person in our audience as a person. And we want to recognize that we can make money with one person in our audience. So building your audience is not an end goal or an end state. It's an ongoing process. It's an ebb and flow. People will join your audience. And people will leave your audience. People will subscribe to your email list. People will unsubscribe to your email list and it will go back and forth like that. Always trending upwards. The way I think about it is like the stock market, right? The stock market is always trending upwards where it might dip and go up and dip and go up. It still is always on an upward trend. That's how we should think about audience building. It's always on an upward trend, but it is not stagnant or static. It is a dynamic number that will shift and flow as we build. When we can make that mindset shift into audience building as a process that we can monetize from day one. It becomes less hard.

It becomes less about this thing that has to happen in this certain way and to hit this certain number. That rigid thinking, I think, also contributes to us thinking that audience building is hard. When we are stuck in this myth of audience building being hard, there's a few things that tend to happen.

We really start to doubt ourselves and Think this should be the last bullet point in this part of the outline, because that's like the most profound part, but I have it written first in the sense of we doubt ourselves. We say, Oh, this is for other people, not me. Other people have figured this really hard thing out and I haven't.

So therefore audience building, ergo an online income stream, a side hustle must be for those type of people. Not for me. So this is why we want to start breaking down this myth and saying that audience building is not hard. It can be simple. It can be full of ease and it is a process. I think what else happens when we're stuck in this, Oh, it's so hard kind of places. We then avoid the work. We don't want to do what it takes. And I'm going to talk about what it takes in just a minute, but we don't want to do. What it takes to build the audience. We just say it's I'm it's for other people, not for me. And therefore I'm going to not do what it takes. I'm not going to do the work to build the audience. If you are even doing any of the work, you're doing it inconsistently. You might show up in spurts. Oh, I'm going to, I'm going to post on Instagram every day this week. And then you do that. And then you don't show up again for another six weeks. So we're, we're stuck in this hard place in this thought pattern of audience building is hard.

We're doubting ourselves. We're avoiding the work. If we do any of the work, it's inconsistent. Now, this piece is going to feel a little on the woo side, but I do feel like we, we block the energy. We're blocking ourselves from receiving. If we are stuck in a lack mindset or a scarcity mindset, this isn't for me.

I can't do it. I'm not good enough. I won't be able to achieve this goal. Then of course, that's the energy that's going to come back to us. We receive what we put out. Everything goes around, comes around. So if we are putting out negative energy, then negative results are what's going to return to us. So thinking and being stuck in this myth of audience building, being hard only serves.

For it to be a self fulfilling prophecy, for it to be hard for us. Ultimately, what I think it all boils down to is that we start to begrudge the process. We start to say, Oh, I have to sit down and post it this time and this day. And it has to be the right content, or it has to be the right, this and the right that, and I don't even want to fricking do this.

It's not going to work for me anyway. And we just get in this negative. Head space, negative energetic space. And we just start to show up in a way that isn't conducive to our goal, right? If we bring that type of energy and if we're just. annoyed and frustrated and angry at this thing that we have built up in our head to be hard, then of course it's going to be hard.

Of course it's going to be hard. It's not going to work for us. So when we start to chip away at this myth, which we're going to do in just a little bit, when we start to chip away at this myth, and when we start to see audience building. As a process as something that is ongoing and something that can be done with ease.

I think it starts to flip. Not only are we more confident in the way that we show up, we can turn blinders onto what other people are doing. We can. Understand that this is a playground and an experiment. And let's see, let me try this type of content. Let me try this type of graphic. Let me try, let me try going on this person's podcast, or let me try being a guest in someone else's Facebook group.

We can play with these strategies and try them. We're going to be much more confident in the way we are showing up. Because it doesn't matter so much. It's not so heavy and hard, and there's not so much weight on it. And then we're also confident in ourselves. We can look at ourselves and say, this is for me.

This is coming for me. I'm working the process and I'm trusting. the process. It's a shift from a lack mentality to an abundant mentality, because no one wants to hang out with you when you're desperate. No one wants to hang out with you when you're forcing it or when it's just jamming through and pushing through.

Instead, when you can sit up, sit and open up to receiving and you can put out a more welcoming Feeling when you're cultivating this audience, people are going to be like, Ooh, I want to be in that audience. It looks fun over there. It looks cozy over there. It looks exciting, enjoyable, funny, whatever your brand is trying to convey.

Hey, risers, we're all here listening today because we're craving that lighter lifestyle. That's possible when we repurpose and repackage our clinical skills into an online income stream. But none of us is alone when we've realized we have 25 plus ideas floating around in our head and zero clue how to take the first step.

The truth is there are a lot of different types of programs we can offer online. And each one will help us scale beyond one on one clients, so we can start claiming a bit more time and financial freedom. And every online income stream has subtle nuances that makes it different than other revenue sources.

Each income stream requires something a little bit different from you. And it's wise to take a look at things like your work style, your values, and your business goals before you decide which type of program you want to offer. So whether you're thinking about adding coaching, a digital course, or even a retreat, gaining some insight into which type of program is best for you will make it so much easier to get started.

And that's why I made a really fun quiz. In 10 pinpoint questions, you'll take a look at things like the work that lights you up outside of the therapy room and how comfortable you are with marketing and visibility. And at the end, you'll see which type of online income stream is right for you. So you can move forward with the clarity and confidence to make it happen.

Just head on over to marissalawton.com/quiz to take the first step in building the business and the lifestyle that you crave.

Then people will feel that from you. And they will feel that from the container that you're creating and they will want. to be there. So ultimately we need to enjoy this process. It's super rare to go from zero audience to thousands of followers overnight, unless you go like viral on Tik Tok or something, which is not as easy as it seems, but there's very rare instances.

You post something and a celebrity picks it up and they share it to their audience. And then you wake up in the morning and you've got thousands of followers. Do those things happen? Yes, those things do happen, can happen, have happened. But those things are like flukes, right? We can't build a business on, Oh, someday some celebrity's gonna pick this up.

We need to build a business on what we can control, and what we can control is doing the work. Every day and doing the work that feels good for us in an enjoyable way. Seeing this as a process, seeing this as something that you're going to be showing up for on a regular basis, on a continual basis, and that it needs to be fun.

And enjoyable for you. 

The real road to audience building is a process and it can be a fun, a playful experiment, and we need the right approach and the right mentality. When we look at audience building, when we do that. It clicks, it falls into place. It becomes simple and easy. Okay. So how do we bust to this myth? How do we start to enjoy this process?

And how do we see this as something that can be for us is possible for us and is simple to execute. We're going to do is lock in three things for you, three mentalities, three mindset shifts, three approaches that when you embrace these. You started to embrace the audience building process. It starts to become simple.

It starts to become easy. So the first one is that you need to be in the right place at the right time. Like I said, we are not building our businesses on flukes. We are not going to just put something out there and cross our fingers. Blow on a dandelion and wish or pray to whatever God that some celebrity is going to pick it up or that it's going to go viral.

And all of a sudden it's going to have tons and tons of likes and tons of comments and tons of follows. Wow. That would be lovely. That's not what we're going to build our business on. What we're going to build our business on is strategy. And we're going to build our business on is knowing who we're talking to and where that person hangs out. It's as simple as that. Who are you talking to? Where is that person consuming their content? Are they consuming it on social media? Are they consuming it on Reddit? Are they consuming it on listservs that they belong to through organizations they support? Are they consuming it through Facebook groups?

Where are the people? Well, who are the people and where are they? Those questions are what we need to answer. We can answer those questions in just a few minutes, right? So it's not rocket science. It's, I want to help new moms. And I know that new moms are in Facebook groups. Let's create your strategy to build your audience by going and posting in Facebook groups for new moms.

Simple as that, right? Not necessarily easy. There's some other hurdles we have to get, get over like fear of being seen and fear of putting yourself out there and all that stuff. So we're not talking necessarily easy here, but we are talking simple. Simply identify who you're talking to, where that person spends time.

When you know who you're helping and what you're helping them with, it's that simple. We just need to start communicating to them about what they need help with. And then they will start to follow along with. The second thing that we need to lock into place, the second mindset shift, or the second approach that we need to lock into place, is that less is more.

Okay, people think that to build an audience, you've got to be everywhere doing all the things to just posting, posting, sharing, doing this and doing that and being on this podcast and writing this blog and all of that stuff. And that's actually, I was going to say in conducive, but that's not a word. The opposite of conducive, which is not conducive to building an audience.

Going back to the old adage that a Jack of all trades is a master of none. That's essentially what you're setting yourself up to do. If you take this spray and pray approach, you're just showing up everywhere, hoping that something will work. And what you're really doing is you're spreading yourself too thin.

You are going to be spread too thin in the sense that your energy is going to be lackluster when you try and show up in all these places and your message is going to be lackluster and. Shot full of holes when you show up in these places because you're trying to speak to too many people in too many places and probably at all the wrong time.

If we go back to principle number one, right place, right time, identifying who they are, where they are, and where they are. If you have too many who's, too many where's, too many what's, and you're just spreading all of these messages, none of it's going to land. It's going to speak to nobody. If you talk to too many people, you're going to end up speaking to no one.

What is more effective is to hunker down and to do less in order to see more of a result. Spend more time on one thing. I'll add a caveat to that. It's not just spend one more time on one thing. It's spend more time on one thing that works for you. Because there's a ton of gurus out there that will tell you this is the way you have to do it.

You have to have an Instagram. You have to post three posts to the feed every day on Instagram. You have to do stories every day on Instagram. You have to do reels. There are people who will tell you this is the way you have to do it. I'm the complete opposite of that. There are dozens and dozens of approaches that you can use to build your audience. What is more important than you trying to do 36 different things at a time is for you to pick the one thing and do more of it. Do more of what works and do more of what works for you. You because out of those dozens and dozens, not all of them are going to be enjoyable for you.

Not all of them are going to be fun. Not all of them are going to come easily or naturally. And some of them might not even be possible for you, but there will be one. that will be the right fit for you. I can guarantee that. I can guarantee there's probably five or six that feel like a good fit for you, but let's pick one first.

Do more of one thing and just do over and over again. I think what we believe or what we get the impression of is that Oh, did that. Okay. That got me five people to my audience. Now I've got to go do this other. No, if that brought you five people to your audience, do it again and do it again, because it'll start bringing you five.

And then the next time it'll bring you 10. And the next time it'll bring you 50. And the next time it'll bring you a hundred. Right? So we don't just do one thing once and then move on. We do the thing that works and we do it over and over again. Trust me when I say you are going to step out of your comfort zone so much when you build your side hustle.

You will be a different person. The students who start side hustle support group with me in the winter are completely different people in the fall, that following fall, and they have completely different businesses that following fall. Like you will be a different person by starting your side hustle journey.

That comes from stepping out of your comfort zone. But there's also a difference between being in your growth zone and being inauthentic. Those are two different things, right? We want to be authentically stepping out of our comfort zone, authentically, stretching our ourself, our authentically, putting ourselves in our growth zone, which means doing more of what works for us.

what feels like a fit for us, trusting the process and understanding that it is an experiment over time rather than, Oh, some person told me that this is what I have to do. So I'm stepping out of my comfort zone, but I'm doing something totally inauthentic and out of alignment. Those are different things.

The difference between your growth zone and being inauthentic. Okay. The third piece is consistency. You have to show up. On a regular to you in parentheses regular to you. basis. Okay. Consistency is the number one thing that will build your audience, right? Being at the right place in the right time, doing it in the one way that works for you and doing that consistently.

Okay. Consistency is more important than frequency. Okay, so consistent to you means if you can only do an email every other week, then that's what you can do. You can do an email every other week. It's more important that you do that and you stick to that consistent schedule than it is for you to do three emails a week.

Of course, frequency. grows your audience faster. If you're posting on social media one, three times a week versus posting on social media every day, of course, posting every day is going to grow your audience faster, but it's only. If you can do every day consistently, because if you post every day for four days and then you disappear, cause you've burnt yourself out and then you come back in two or three weeks, you're going to be starting from scratch.

So I'd rather see you over four weeks, post 12 times, three times a week consistently, because that is going to move your needle forward more than trying to do it more frequently. Another energetic piece to this is. What that has to do with consistency is when you show up for that one person, that first person in your audience, just as strongly, as passionately as you would, if you were talking to a thousand or 10, 000 people, sometimes we think, Oh, there's no one listening.

It doesn't matter. I'll, I'll put out good content or I'll care about this more when there's more people following along. And that's the opposite mentality that we want to have. The mentality that we want to have is This one person is just as valuable to me as the 10, 000, if I were talking to 10, 000, it's a process.

And yes. We want to see those numbers go up. We want to see that more people are following along more people. We are shining. We are spreading our light to more people and we are impacting more people. That's the fun part. That's the exciting part. But if you put out value, if you give value to one people or one, one people, one person, more people will come.

Provide value and more people will come. It's like a snowball effect, right? If one person gets substantial value from what you're saying, they're going to go to their sister, their best friend, their cousin, their mom, their whomever, and they're going to say, you have to see what this person, they put this out there.

On this podcast, or they put this out there on Instagram, or they put this out there in a blog post and holy crap, did it speak to me? Read this, listen to this, watch this. You have to see this. And then that person will share that person and it becomes a snowball. It's word of mouth and word of mouth is the holy grail that comes from giving value to one person that comes from showing up, even when the audience is small, or even when the, you might think no one is listening and no one is watching.

Okay, so just to sum this all up into a nice neat packages audience building. It's the sexy part. We're all intrigued and interested in that part. And it can be exciting and it can be scary at the same time. But what audience building is not, is hard. It is not hard. It is not difficult. If we can do three things.

If we can be in the right place at the right time. If we can do less and show up more. Effectively, less is more, and if we can do so consistently, those are the three factors that will compound into a, uh, audience building process that is both simple and filled with ease. All right, guys, this one's been fun. I think I got a little ranty and passionate, which is always a good sign. Keep on rising. 

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