Build a Business, Not an Audience

> Your main priority always should be to do meaningful things, to solve real-world problems, to be the man in the arena.

It's always amazed me that people openly called themselves "thought leaders". You're practically broadcasting "I don't do anything". What good is thousands of Twitter followers who can't recognize this? The non-bot followers, that is.

It’s not just this. I’ve seen many people get caught up in things like incorporation, or legal agreements, listening to start up podcasts or even designing business cards. I like ycombinator’s advice for early startups: if you aren’t building your product or talking to customers you are wasting your time.

I like the 30x500 approach where the audience is the business: you create content that solves their problems for free, and eventually create a super-resource that's a total no-brainer for your audience to buy.

Really good points made here!

I previously worked for a company that empowers entrepreneurs and experts to build a business off their knowledge, and have learned a lot over the years of what's effective what's not so helpful.

The biggest factor for successful knowledge businesses was whether the person self-identified as an entrepreneur. It influenced how they saw their audience and engaged with them.

Ultimately you need to focus on both -- building and audience and a business. But there are far too many "creators" out there that are only interested in building an audience, and I personally believe, depending on the subject matter/industry, that it can be confusing and detrimental to not be engaging in both activities.

(2021)?