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You’re building your tribe. Translating what makes you flesh-and-blood compelling into digital form. Your website. Social media. E-marketing.
Think resonance.
When you’re on the receiving end you know it—viscerally. The hairs on the back of your neck stand up when you encounter someone preaching what you need to hear. Or you compulsively read and watch everything on their site because you just can’t get enough. And then you share it because it’s just too good to keep to yourself.
THAT’S resonance.
I met my client “Patrick” exactly that way. He was looking for an investor in his business (which was not going to be me), but during that conversation we had a business-love-at-first-hearing call. Our biggest visions and values were EXACTLY aligned and we started brainstorming and engaging and sharing dreams. I knew, with that sort of deep sense of knowing, that he would be a pivotal person in my life in some way. Indeed—he hired me to cook up some magic that just may be a game-changer for both of us.
So how do you get YOUR tribe to resonate with you that way?
Embrace your digital tribe. Lots of new clients obsess over this, especially when they have a thriving off-line business. It pains them to pick a niche and narrow their potential audience. But the fastest way to build a brand on-line is to pick your niche and embrace it 100%. This also means not wasting months (or years) agonizing over how to slice and dice your audience. Just start. Tip: Twitter is an excellent place to experiment. Find one person who looks like they should be in your tribe and follow them. Read and engage in their tweets. Repeat.
Tune in to your tribe vibe. When you’re building a tribe one person at a time—say with a brand-spanking new idea—YOU’RE setting the vibe. It must be uniquely yours, exquisitely aligned with who you are and what you’re selling to resonate at the highest frequency with your sweet-spot. When you’re trying to parachute into an existing tribe (which by the way is often FAR easier than starting your own), you’ve got to marry the beliefs, norms and styles of the group with your own clear, compelling and distinctive voice. Either approach takes time—think drip over deluge—but is an excellent investment in building relationships.
Get down and dirty. Not dropping f bomb dirty, although that does seem to be a trend. I’m talking about showing a little bit of your underbelly—candidly sharing what didn’t work, right alongside the amazing things that did. My own post “ What do you suck at? ” where I cop to a lengthy list of non-talents still inspires email exchanges two and a half years later. And it brought me a client who claims reading it made her call me. Go figure.
Be selective.
There will be people who crop up in your digital life who will be game-changers for both of you and others who will be a colossal waste of your time. It’s not always blindingly obvious who falls into which category. So select the ones where you feel real resonance—you vibrate with their message, their delivery, their vision for the future. You may not do anything together now, but you might have just invested in someone who will change your life later.
Building resonance allows you to build connective, deeply satisfying, on-brand business. You not only attract your best clients, buyers and readers, but you create rich experiences for all of you.