Trying To Get Your First Writing Clients By Building An Audience Is Dumb

There is constant gnashing of teeth on social media about “engagement”.  It is important to people with big followings and a panacea to those striving to build an audience.  The core reason for this is that people are under the illusion that engagement leads to dollars.  It doesn’t.  Your listicle about binge watching the 36 black and white episodes of Gilligan’s island that allowed you to glean productivity hacks from the fecund proclamations of “The Skipper” may be a banger but it won’t give you clients.

Why?  Because you aren’t (insert influencer you think makes a ton of money because they have a huge audience here).  Do not gloss over that you aren’t (insert influencer you think makes a ton of money because they have a huge audience here).  When I explain this to people, they will nod their head in agreement.  Then, they will go back to crafting a thread on how physical books give you cancer.  Stop the madness. 

You Don’t Control The Universe

Building an audience is a hard thing to do.  It may look easy but most people who have done it will give you really bad advice on how you should do it (see: Wyatt Earp Effect).  

Even if you are practicing sound audience building principles it takes time.  The according to Hoyle best practices way to do it is 1) get a following on some social media platform;  2) get them to subscribe to your email list (or newsletter); and, then 3) acquire your clients from there.  You have zero control over how long this takes.  

I don’t care what people are saying online.  They are almost always preaching from the soapbox of a mature business that they built over time.  Even if they somehow magically did it quickly, you aren’t going to be able to do it the same way they did (see again: The Wyatt Earp Effect).  

On these types of things, you set the floor with writing reps and the universe sets the ceiling on how long it takes to get there.  This is the main reason 99% of people don’t make it online.  They fizzle out because it takes so long to work.  If by some miracle you could magically get a big following, put down the wand and take off that sorting hat right now.

You don’t want what you think you want.

Beware The Bag

I only actively post on one social media account: X/Twitter.  The dirty little secret about this platform is that there are huge accounts that make very little money.  There are a variety of reasons for this but the main point I want you to get is that the number of people that follow you is irrelevant if they are the wrong people. 

In fact, I would argue that the worst thing that can happen to you is that you go viral and find yourself with a following with little or no planning beforehand. 

Why?

In the 1970s there was a guy who got pretty famous telling jokes with a bag over his head.  His stage name was the “unknown comic”.  He had previously been a pretty decent comedian but wasn’t getting the traction he wanted.  As the legend goes, one night he got frustrated and put a bag over his head before one of his sets.  The crowd loved it.  He started to grow a huge following but a funny thing happened on the way to international stardom.

Once he became known for that specific gag he could never take off the bag.  He tried.  Multiple times.  People stopped laughing at his jokes even though they were the same jokes as before.  He became trapped by his audience. 

For a creative person this is a fate worse than being stuck in an elevator with Maroon 5 and having to listen to Adam Levine tell you why he knew about peptides before everyone else because he lives in California (IYKYK).

As a writer, the key is to build your financial base first and then you are free to take whatever chances you want to build a following for business or your creative projects.  If you do it in this order, you look like you have superpowers like me.  Bonus:  You also have much more control over how much time it takes to start making money.

I Think Chris Gaines Is Awesome (But Not For His Music)

Growing up in North Dakota there were two types of music:  Country and Western.  This meant that you could rock The Oakridge Boys in your car and not be embarrassed about it.  It also meant that you know most of Garth Brook’s songs by heart even if you didn’t really like them that much.  

You have probably heard of Garth Brooks because he crossed over to regular people's music.  He got so big that he entered the “I get to do whatever I want phase” of celebrity.  How do I know this?  Because in 1999 he hosted Saturday Night Live as himself and then also appeared as the musical guest as his alter ego “Chris Gaines” who was decidedly not country.  The whole affair was a complete disaster for Brooks.  They tried to memory-hole it but as they say, the interweb is a long time frame of exposure for things you put there after too many gin fizzes and loose garments. 

Here is a quick clip of the performance from the CCP psy-op app.  

@scottlapointemusician

#garthbrooks #trendingreels2023 #popmusic #raremusic #rarefinds #retro #music #epic #foryoupage #alterego #SNL #vhs #millenium #Mindblowing #AmaZing

Mr. Brooks also released an album “Chris Gaines Greatest Hits”, which is awesome because it was his alter ego’s first album.  The level of “I am going to do whatever I want” is so strong here that the man is my creative hero (I would one million percent do something like that).  You can still buy it on Amazon by the way and there is even an audio cassette version for those who want to do some 90s maxing.

Now, I am not saying that you have to become rich and famous before you can try and build an audience or tribe of people by doing something squirrely.  What I am saying is that if you can build a client acquisition asset that does not rely on an audience, then you get to write about narwhals all day on X/Twitter without fear of repercussions.  What is a client acquisition asset, or CAA for short?  I am glad you asked.

“Client Acquisition Asset” Loosely Defined

The great news here is that a CAA can be almost anything.  It is a principle more than a tactic.  I currently have 3 solid ones and am building a 4th.  In no particular order of importance here are some factors they all share:

• You can turn them on and off for long periods without them degrading too much (useful when you need more money).

• They require no, or very little, money to maintain.

• They are market driven not audience driven and you pick the market.

• They are flexible and can be changed (market and offer) without degrading too much

• They are competition and AI resistant

• They are built with time not money (but you only have to build them once)

• You either pick your potential clients or they come to you pre-framed as an inbound lead

• There are more principals than these because the concept has a lot of depth but this is enough to argue for their supremacy.

I will break down one of my own client acquisition assets in the next Understory Dispatch - Message #3.  When I do this 90% of you will say “That is so obvious!”.  I would caution you not to dismiss it out of hand just because it is simple.  It pays me every month and almost no one does it because they don’t think about it in the principles delineated above. Also, most people are lazy.  It doesn’t cost money, just some research, planning, and focused attention.

Build Your Writing as a Service Portfolio First Then Let The Squirrel Drive The Car (Followed By An Announcement!)

Everyone wants to be Joe Rogan, or Naval, or (insert your super hero here with a big audience).  If this is you, it is not going to work out how you think it is.  Instead, I want you to make money and then build an audience from a position based on the strength of being you.  

The world is heading into turmoil.  You feel it in your big toe(s).  Strong writers are sorely needed right now.  We need as many of them as possible putting on the bard hat and spitting truth without worrying about “losing followers”. 

Gross.  

Build a writing as a service business with monthly recurring revenue, then, and only then, start building your tribe.  Avoid the bag my friend.  The squirrel of ideas inside your head will thank you.

More in a bit . . . Wade, The Understory Bard

PS - Trigger alert!  Commerce is about to ensue!

PPS - I am partnering up with James Carran, otherwise known as @getpaidwrite on X/Twitter, to offer a live group coaching cohort.  At the end of the cohort you will know how to write newsletters that you get paid for. You will also have a proven framework to do so that does not rely on the peculiarities of me (once again, see: The Wyatt Earp Effect).

It will be a beta and here is what we know so far:

•  It will start in April

• I will be focusing on the business side of things (i.e. frameworks, metrics, client relations, what is the ideal client, how I write them with an over the shoulder approach etc.)

• James will be focusing on the "pure writing" side of things (i.e. faster and better wordsmithing)

• It is live with both of us teaching

• It will be through ThriveCart so you will have access to all the recordings etc. if you miss

• We think it will be four weeks long, once a week

• It will not be a client acquisition course (but I will go in depth on one of the client acquisition models I use to get clients but none of you will probably like it or do it)

• It will be capped at some as of yet unknown manageable number

• There is no guarantee we will ever do it again because neither of us are sure we will like doing it but I know it will never be at whatever the price is again.

If you are unfamiliar with James he is a "real writer" in the best sense of the word (not a snobby aloof elitist even though he does smoke a pipe and I am fairly sure he has a jacket with patches on the elbows).  

Some relevant highlights for James:

• Published author whose book outsold 86% of published books with zero marketing spend

• Twitter ghostwriter with 34 month retention (average ~3 months)

• Written the Write Way newsletter and grew it to 3,600+

(I also cannot recommend his children's book The King and the Dragon enough)

If this upcoming beta cohort interests you, go ahead and click this link to get on the waitlist for more info when it becomes available: The as of yet unnamed Wade and James Newsletter live beta cohort

PPS - No Turkish Delights will be served.

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