It’s easy to get caught up in making something for others. If you wanna blog, first identify your audience. If you wanna build a business, find your 1000 true fans.
Or, you could not. You could make something that’s just for you. And the only thing that anyone else can get out of consuming what you’ve made, is closer to you.
This sets you free.
I felt this first-hand when I switched from business blogging to personal blogging after several years of lukewarm attitude and mild failure. I thought I was writing because I wanted to do “content marketing”. I thought it was to “build community”. Turns out I was hugely wrong. I was writing because I had something on my mind, and I wanted to refine it. Boil it down. Concretise it. Put it out there and stand by it.
And that’s not content marketing for some business. That’s me, being human. So I stopped pretending it was business, and made a new blog. About me. For me. And sometimes, I’ll put something up, and I’ll share it. But that’s for me too – I’m just trying to show someone else what I’m about.
It’s not that I don’t care about everyone else. It’s just that this is my journey. And as long as it’s mine, I’m free of requirements and expectations, and I’m making stuff that I care about.
This goes for blogging, podcasting, business, and whatever else you can think of. Maybe it isn’t for everyone else.
Maybe it’s just you, going on an epic adventure, and connecting with others along the way.