Think for a moment about your absolute favourite creator.
Maybe they’re a podcaster, blogger, author, marketer or business. Maybe they’re something else entirely.
When you compare your favourite creator to others in the same category, it probably doesn’t take long to realize that you give your favourite special treatment.
You’re predisposed to love everything they do as soon as they release it. You sign up for every new offer the second it comes out. Most important of all, you can’t help yourself from spreading the word and telling everyone you know about how great they are, often to the point of annoying your friends and colleagues.
The other week, I signed up for a $500 course from one of my favourite creators without reading the sales email, landing page, or anything else except the subject line of the email and the “Buy Now” button text.
Yep, being someone’s favourite has its advantages.
And yet, as creators, marketers and entrepreneurs ourselves, we often align our goals with meaning a little bit to a lot of people, rather than a whole lot to a few.
We tell ourselves that the more people we initially appeal loosely to, the more people will trickle down into our inner circle, with us at the center as their favourite.
The problem is that when we’re focused on appealing to the masses at the outer reaches of our influence, we can’t possibly create anything that matters enough to any one person to become their favourite.
The answer then, both to creating work that has the potential to be one person’s favourite as well as building a broader audience, is to start with that one person for whom we can be the absolute best in the world. Every new thing we create must be made with the intent of serving that one person better than anything else currently does.
If we can create that for one person, chances are it will resonate with others, too. Our person will likely begin to spread the word and we’ll be off and running.
The reason we don’t do this, I think, is because creating for one person leaves no room for us to hide. Because if we can’t create something that is the favourite of even one person… Well, that means our work isn’t at the level it needs to be at.
Easier to assume we have a marketing problem than confront the fact that maybe our work just isn’t good enough.
And yet, we all start with work that isn’t good enough. None of us comes out of the womb creating work worthy of attention, why should we assume it’s good enough now?
In the end, the only way to know is to find that one, ideal person, and then hone and perfect and iterate on our work until they can’t help but talk about it.
Then, double down, do more of it, and let them grow our audiences for us.
Explore how to navigate a creative life that matters
This article originally appeared in my weekly Listen Up Newsletter. Each issue is the product of a week of work, and contains something not available for sale.
Fresh perspective, a shot of encouragement when you need it most, and maybe even some genuine wisdom from time to time.
Each week, we explore a different facet of the question “How do we navigate the wilderness of creating work that matters?”
It’s something I’m proud to create and I’d be honoured to share it with you.
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