You are a creator.
Of words, videos, tweets, posts, art, or audio.
You make these if you are an entrepreneur or at work, or as a professional creator.
Even as entrepreneurs and employees you can choose to become a professional creator. Someone who puts a lot of thought into what she writes or records, to grow her impact.
So whether you do it for money or standing out, to go where you want to go as a professional creator, you need people the most.
Tools and guidance are also important but people find and deliver those tools and guidance.
So people are the most important.
You need kinds of people to make your mark.
People on your team, people you serve, and people you partner with.
- People on your team, to work with you and help you.
- People who you serve, your audience and customers.
- And people who act as nodes for other people, who can put your name and work in front of a lot of people.
1/ People on your team
Smarter and efficient the people who work with us, the bigger you’ll win.
Your first hire should almost always be an assistant or a project manager.
This person takes work off of your head and hands, and frees you to create.
Next, hire a business development lead to help you partner with other businesses.
You can also onboard a sales expert to help you sell what you make. In different industries, there are different names for this person. In the software industry, this person is an account executive. In coaching biz, this person is known as an enrollment coach.
By hiring these people you can focus on learning, creating, growth and get out of operations and getting money in the bank.
2/ People in your audience
The wider your curated audience, bigger brand, business and impact you’ll create.
There are many ways you can get them.
You can go slow and steady and get search traffic from Google and YouTube, and an email list.
Or you can go fast and wide and invest in advertising on Facebook and other platforms where your audience hangs out.
You can also run experiments like building a quiz, and create a pathway (a marketing funnel) to bring people to your brand.
3/ People with an existing audience same as those you serve
These are influencers, established names and voices in your space.
They need not be big celebrities.
Just someone with a tight knit audience with high engagement.
Partner with these people. This is best done one on one. Reach out with something of value for them and their audience. Maybe you have a voice that they can feature on their podcast or you have a special discount for their audience for your upcoming book.
Building these partnerships will almost always need you to have established authority in your chosen field. And, the older the connection, the easier this ask will be.
At the base of it is exemplary content. So, keep honing your craft and keep shipping as you build this trifecta of people.