Figuring Out Who Will Love What You Create
I was never one of the popular kids at school. But I had great friends and didn’t have to care very much about what everyone else thought of me. I hung out with my friends and as long as we got along, all was well.
Trying to build an audience, especially on social media, can feel like a popularity contest. You see the big ones with their thousands and thousands of followers, and you feel small and insignificant.
But in reality, building an audience for what you create is much more like finding those great friends. The ones who really get you, who are gladly paying attention and who will love what you create. To find those people, you first need to figure out who they are, and that’s what we are going to explore here.
Start with your broader message
Behind your creative work lies a broader message - your why. Here exists your values, your view of the world and how you want to affect people with your work. Your broader message tells the world who you really are, and gives your work a deeper meaning.
You want to connect with your audience on this deeper level, because it creates a much stronger connection. Imagine it for yourself - think of two bloggers who write about the same subject but one of them has values that align with yours. Who will you feel most connected to?
This means that your right people will share your values and worldview. You won’t have exactly the same beliefs, and they might still be on a journey to step into those values you radiate. But on a fundamental level, you align. If you know what the values behind your creative work are, then you also know the values of your right people.
If you’re not yet clear on your broader message, don’t worry. Go watch this video, spend some time clarifying your why and then come back to finding your right people.
The right person / wrong person exercise
This is an exercise I’ve found very illuminating in my work with my creative coaching clients. It goes like this. Open your notebook and make two lists - one with the characteristics of your right kind of person, and one with those of everyone who won’t love what you create.
Let’s say your make ceramic teacups, for example, then it could look something like this.
Right person: loves and values handmade things, drinks a lot of tea, likely interested in all things organic, a creative soul who loves to peek behind the scenes.
Wrong person: don’t like when things look imperfect, coffee-drinking hustler, thinks unique homeware is a waste of money, rolls their eyes at the word organic.
The reality is that there will be lots of people who won’t like what you create. It might feel uncomfortable to us who are used to people-pleasing, but it’s just how it’s supposed to be. And the worst thing we could do is to try to adapt our creative work to please our wrong kind of person.
Instead we can relax into focusing on creating for our right people, and actively disregard what everyone else might think. And hey? You get to decide who the right and wrong people are. If you have a judgmental relative who makes you feel awkward about sharing your work, put him or her on the list of the wrong people.
You can also put people on the wrong list who might like some part of what you create but not the whole package - they might be the people who follow my Instagram account only for the pictures for example. You can like them and they can come along if they want to, but they shouldn’t affect you in what you create.
Painting a picture of your right person
When you know what values you share with your right person and have a list with some characteristics, you have gotten pretty far already in identifying who will love what you create. The next step then is to round out your person a little more.
You can get creative with this - make a character description, write a story, or make a vision board of your right person. You can even name her or him if that tickles your fancy. I have a vision board of who I create for with a couple of paragraphs and some pictures, and at the bottom a reminder of who I’m not creating for.
It’s not that you’re trying to predict exactly who will resonate with what you create. The point with this is to give you guidance in who you’re creating for and trying to reach with what you have created. When you start feeling a bit disoriented and doubtful, you can come back this description and remind yourself of who your right person is.
Okay, now what?
So when you know who will love what you create, you can start trying to connect with them. Regardless of what some people might promise you online, growing an audience is a long term effort. It’s not something you do in a week, but likely something you will do alongside your creative work for a long time to come. So try not to feel stressed about this. Be patient and figure out a way of making it a joyful part of your creative work.
There are two main things to think about when you know who you want to reach. The first is how you can attract those people. What will signal to them when they come across you that you are you - the person they have been looking for all along? This is essentially what branding is about.
The second thing is to figure out where your right people hang out and how you can get in front of them. This is a whole journey in itself, but think in terms of who they already follow online, where they go for inspiration or find whatever it is you create. And then - how can you show up there?
The people who will love what you create are out there. Focus on them and forget what the rest of the world’s population might think.
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