There’s no easy way to build an audience around work that matters. But there are more than enough difficult ways to do it.

Each marketing expert or service provider has their own tried and true method of building your brand, growing your tribe and creating more impact with the work you do. Some of these methods might not fit your situation or goals but many of them might work for you if you put in the work and apply them thoroughly.

This leaves you with a choice of how you want to go about creating, building, and marketing your work and tapping into your ideal target audience.

If you’re not careful, you’ll end up applying a little bit of ten different strategies, spreading your time and attention across too many people, platforms, and pursuits.

Worse, the sheer amount of choice induces analysis paralysis and you end up perpetually frozen in inaction.

To guide you, it’s worth identifying a small number of guiding stars to light your way, people who have already done what you’re looking to do and whose mindsets, values and beliefs you align with.

They don’t have to be marketing gurus, they don’t have to even talk about their work publically, although they can. Rather, these should simply be people and brands you follow whose actions and strategy you can dissect, even from the outside, and whom you can model your own decision making after.

In situations where you find yourself stuck on how to act, you can ask yourself, “What would x-brand do in this situation?”

I like to keep this number small, maybe 3–5 brands and people, although as you compile your list you may find that all of your guiding stars may exhibit similar values and strategies.

Some of my own guiding stars include Seth Godin, ConvertKit, Hiut Denim, Patagonia and charity: water.

These are brands whose generosity, commitment to mastery, and social conscience I admire among many other traits, brands I aim constantly to become more closely aligned with when it comes to the work I do.

We all face forks in the road where we are faced with difficult decisions. The way we make these decisions reflects who we really are and what we really care about to our customers, audience, and community, often with lasting effect.

Keeping an eye on our guiding stars can help us ensure we’re making decisions that are moving us into closer alignment with them, and creating brands, audiences and work that we can be proud of.

Who are your guiding stars and why? Leave me a comment, I’d love to hear.

If you’re ready to build your audience and become the go-to authority in your space using podcasting, reach out to our team at Counterweight Creative and see how we can help.

Want to hear more about building an audience around work that matters? I think you might enjoy these reads!

https://medium.com/@jeremyenns/why-do-you-exist-16fa30b6d70ahttps://medium.com/@jeremyenns/why-do-you-exist-16fa30b6d70a