When you first decide to step on the train to build a business or start a side hustle. I think it’s just natural to think about what you can sell or what product you can create.

But before you do that, you have to start with the audience. So this was a timely find in my inbox. As I was scrolling through my inbox, I saw an email from Indie Hackers where they highlighted a previous podcast episode with Entrepreneur Arvid Kahl. It was about building your audience.

On your journey having people in the audience to hear what you have to say is pretty important. Otherwise, it’s pretty disheartening ….

…Let’s face it,

no audience …

….no business

When you talk, write, sing, sell, communicate…you want people in the audience that enjoy what you have to offer.

So when someone like Arvid Kahl speaks about his experience, it’s normally worth your while to stop and take a peek at their business philosophy. In this episode with Arvid Kahl, he talks about his audience-first approach to business. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this approach. But it’s a helpful reminder to drill this concept in your head.

The first step is to find your audience…

Arvid calls this…

Audience Discovery

Don’t underestimate choosing the right audience. If your intent is real and you’re trying to build a sustainable business, you actually have to enjoy your people. When you’re in discovery mode, become aware of your personal and professional life, even the life of your friends and family.

First, ask yourself what am I good at?

What audiences am I already serving?

What about your family and friends? Consider your hobbies and interests.

Next, create a list of your findings. Keep in mind, this is a data-driven approach to picking your audience. The goal here is to find 30 – 50 audiences and rate them.

On a scale of 1-5 rank the attributes of your audience:

Affinity: How much do you like the people on your list. ( rank 1-5)
Opportunity: What’s the potential? What products are in the market? What’s the demand? (rank 1-5)
Appreciation: Do people care enough to actually have a budget? (rank 1-5)
Market Size: Is it big enough to support your business and other competitors? But is it small enough to keep the big companies out?

Most people skip this step. Don’t skip it! This is a long-term strategy. Do you know why this is so important?

Because you have to like the people you serve.

Audience Exploration

Once you pick your audience, the next step is to go into communities and listen. During the pod, I liked how Arvid said it, “Go into the communities and SHUT UP.”

The mistake that some people make is they go and start marketing right away.

The objective here is to look at what’s going on. Find out what tools they are using. Listen to the words and language that they are using. Remember this is a long-term strategy. You’re going to keep looking, listening, and learning.

As you’re exploring and learning about your audience. You’re going to want to find the problem that you can solve in the community. This is where you start to develop your business model.

This next phase is called…

Problem Discovery

If you notice a major component of knowing your audience and learning is simply listening and observing. In order to find a way to serve your audience, you have to find a problem that you can solve. And as Arvid and Courtland explain in this pod a few times…

You listen to what people are saying.

Which again as they said in the pod, “everyone complains” even if they don’t know they’re complaining. There’s a classic advertising book written by Eugene Schwartz called Breakthrough Advertising, that breaks down the stages of your prospects awareness.

To break down a few of the steps, you have some people that are aware of the problem. These people will ask for help.

Then you have some people that are aware of the solution. These people will ask for recommendations on what tools to use.

Then you have people that are product aware, they know there is a product in the market, but they are looking for alternatives, maybe a cheaper product with similar functionality. If you want to learn more about the stages of your prospect’s awareness level, check out this article, from Copyblogger, The 5 Types of Online Prospects, and How to Sell To Each of Them.

The last part of the equation is audience building. You who you wanted to serve, you’ve listened, and now you’re starting to identify the problems that they have.

It’s the building and growth of that audience.

Audience Building

When Arvid looks at building an audience, he says, there are 3 things that go into building an audience.

Engagement
Empowerment
Valuable Content (Third most valuable)

It’s typical for people to get on the content wheel, and just create content, but Arvid says this is the third most valuable part of the audience building process.

Engagement and empowerment of others…

Go to where people are already having the conversation. Be helpful, give your account based on your experience. Respond to influencers on Twitter. Most likely that’s where the people you want to be speaking to.

This is organic communication between real people.

If you’re working to build an audience on Twitter. A strategy that people are using is creating Threads.

A good thread that helps to spread that love and empower people is a recommended follow list, create a thread of 10 to 15 people to follow, and give a little context as to who they are and what they do.

People love good recommendations and the people you recommend will like it and retweet it.

It’s a good way to support and help people…

One last lesson…

The last tip that they gave as they closed out the episode, which by the way I really think everyone needs this piece of advice.

It’s a concept called “Involuntary Reciprocity” – If you give enough for free to people, in terms of helping others, supporting others, and you do so without asking for anything in return. They cannot help but return the favor.

Do this at scale when building an audience. People will come back to you.

When you give without asking. It’s human nature to one-up — the results will accumulate.