To be successful in any business involves building an audience. Think of life as a massive sales funnel, where the world is at the top of the funnel.
The bottom of the funnel is where you make a sale to a customer. From the initial contact you make with a cold lead (random person) to the final sale, your goal is to get the person to know, like & trust you.
As the cold lead travels down the funnel, you can warm them up by letting them get to know you, your mission, and your product. By the time they reach the bottom, they are warm to multiple products you have to offer, and they may even give you a word-of-mouth reference.
From Dirt to Dividends 3
Why is building an audience so important? Building an audience is vital to a business because you can keep a warm customer over an extended timeframe which helps support your business (and sales) healthy.
However, growing and maintaining an audience takes a lot of effort—it doesn’t come easily. You have to keep producing content, advertising, and checking in with your audience members to ensure you are staying on track.
Think about some of your favorite companies; how have they maintained your allegiance for this long? One of my favorite companies is Nintendo because I played their systems as a child. Even today, I have a Nintendo Switch that I get to play from time to time.
Nintendo keeps me as a loyal member of their audience by continually releasing new games, speaking to me via YouTube, and staying up to date with modern changes in the video game landscape. In short, they continue to grow and improve themselves to keep me coming back to buy more games from them.
How We Plan to Retire on Dividends 3
Why do you need an audience? If you want any chance of becoming wealthy, you’ll need an audience. Your wealth is a direct indicator of how many people you serve. Working every day, quietly sitting in your cubicle, and collecting a paycheck will not make you rich.
More importantly, you may not find your true purpose unless you build an audience that you can serve. What good do you bring to the world? What makes you want to get out of bed every day? Trust me, on your journey to building an audience, you’ll discover a lot about yourself and your mission.
The ultimate mission of building an audience is for them to know, like, & trust you. Once you trust someone’s recommendations, they can sell you almost anything. However, “with great power comes great responsibility.”
Dividends vs. Social Security
If you grow an audience, you can’t start recommending things solely for your personal profit. That is a quick way to burn your audience and lose all the goodwill you built over the years. Yes, it will take years to build a solid audience; thus, you’ll want to keep them.
Building an Audience 101. In this series, I will discuss building an audience from the ground up. It is challenging work, but building an audience is mandatory to create passive income.
But, you don’t have to start your journey alone. I always love to recommend books that will help prepare you mentally for this arduous journey. Many books have helped me through the most challenging part of building an audience—the first year.
I’ll make an entire article about the first year of building an audience, but in short, it is rough. You release your work or start a business, and no one is there. You literally release content, and nobody on Earth cares about it.
Happy Cash Flow Retirement 7
Going an entire week publishing blog posts to have zero views, likes, or comments can destroy even the strongest person. However, if you prepare for this part of the journey, you’ll understand how to keep your motivation high.
Let’s look at some of the books that prepared me for this long road. Today, I get roughly 50-75 views on my blog every day. This may not seem like a lot, but I started with 50-75 views every month. Heck, even less than that. Once things get going, you’ll see exponential growth if you can stick with it.
Rich Dad’s Guide to Investing. This book introduced me to building an asset in the form of a business or content. I never knew you could create money from thin air until I read this book. I received my purpose from this book.
The Millionaire Fastlane. Do you want to retire when you are 72 years old? If not, you have to do something to accelerate your wealth. One way to build wealth much faster is to build an audience. If you can reach millions of people while you sleep, you can accumulate great wealth.
Retirement Plus: Use Royalties to Supplement Your Retirement
Superfans. You do not need a massive following to enjoy the benefits of having an audience. You only need 1,000 Superfans that are willing to support you. This book makes the case that even a small content creator or business can be viable for the average person.
Content Inc. if you are starting a business, you can grow an audience before you release a product or service. Yes, creating content allows you to build an audience first and release your product and service to warm customers. It is the safest way to start a product business; however, it may take 2-5 years to put it in motion.
The 4-Hour Work Week. Once you have an audience, you can tailor your workload to fit your life. You can do this by automation in your business model. For example, I am building my Military Family Investing brand. I am a writer, but I can start introducing other writers to my group. In time, they can write more, and I can slowly fade into the background as the business continues to grow. That’s how you eventually work a 4-hour work week.
Build Your Rep: Create Your Body of Work
The Compound Effect. Probably the most important philosophy for building an audience is the compound effect. Everything you do is compounding in the background. You may not see the results for days, months, or weeks, but it’s there.
As you release more content, answer comments, publish more articles or videos, etc., your voice is compounding in the world. You never know how each of your words affects someone else. You begin to see earlier works come back to reach you through reviews and recommendations. If you understand the compound effect, you will have a much easier time during the first year.
You are the Brand. Everything you do is branding. All your words need to build towards a central idea of your brand, theme, and lifestyle. I am an average person who invests in building generational wealth.
If I started traveling to the Bahamas, showing bikini babes on a boat, driving Lamborghinis, and drinking alcohol, it would be hard to convey my brand as “Military Family Investing.” You are your brand, so you have to play the part at all times. Your brand is the most important part of your business—protect it at all costs.
From Dirt to Dividends 2
Putting it all together. These seven books are a great place to start on the path of building an audience. You still have a lot to consider, such as the best medium to reach your audience, what platforms, and how to create content every day.
However, the end goal doesn’t change—know, like & trust. The final mission is to allow people to know your philosophy, like your personality, and trust your judgment.
I wrote an article on “Fundrise vs. USDC,” where I recommend these products to my audience. If someone was on the fence about investing in crypto or Fundrise, this article might sway them.
However, if I am just writing to get a commission, my audience will pick up on this. But, if I show my investing history, explain my conviction, and provide links to more information, my audience is likely to trust my judgment. It takes time to build this kind of trust.
Zero to 38: Retire by Age 38 in 10 Difficult Steps
Conclusion. Do you want to build an audience truly? It is not easy, as most people cannot endure the loneliness of the first year. Do you have what it takes?
Wouldn’t it be nice to learn of a great new product that you can share with an audience? Not only do you get to assist them with a new product or service, but you can get the financial benefit as well.
That scenario is the ultimate goal, but you’ll need 2-6 years for this to come to fruition. You can start by reading these books, taking a deep look into yourself, and deciding if you can see your mission through to the end. Good Luck!
- PDF of the Month: 505 Takeaways from 101 Books (pdf)
- Free PDF Downloads: Download FREE PDF books here
- Financial Mindset: Become CEO of Yourself 2 (Free 196-Page PDF)
- Retirement Planning: Your Retirement Planning Guide 2 (Free 255-Page PDF)
- Investing: How We Plan to Retire on Dividends 2 (165-Page Free PDF)
- Cryptocurrencies: Counting on Crypto 2 (Free 159-Page PDF)
- Real Estate: Financial Independence through Real Estate 2 (Free 123-Page PDF)
- Business: Retire Rich, Retire Comfortable with a Business 2 (Free 185-Page PDF)
- Latest DGWR: Don’t Gamble with Retirement 6 (Free 409-Page PDF)
- Everything!: The Biggest Book on Passive Income Ever 2! (book)(Web Edition)(Art Edition)
- I bought a Kindle Oasis: Check it out on Amazon
- Read My Books for Free: Free Kindle Books Schedule
- Crypto Exchange: My Favorite Crypto Exchange VOYAGER (Join Voyager)
- Kindle Unlimited: Why I Finally Subscribed Kindle Unlimited (learn more)
- Book Reviews: 505 Takeaways from 101 Books (pdf)
- Writing: Can Grammarly Make You a Better Writer?
- Best REIT- Fundrise: REITs vs. Homeownership (Join Fundrise)
- Follow us: On our Facebook Page and Join our Facebook Group
- Monthly Dividend Tracker (XLSX): Check it out on Etsy
- For more detailed analysis, join my Youtube: MFI YouTube Channel
Monthly Dividend Tracker Template: Buy on Etsy
Disclosure: I am not a financial advisor or money manager, and any knowledge is given as guidance and not direct actionable investment advice. I am an Amazon Affiliate. Please research any investment vehicles that are being considered. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article. All Right Reserved Military Family Investing
Leave a Reply