 One of the common misconceptions that I find for business owners, new business owners particularly is they have this idea that, okay, I just have to get my business card, get my logo, get my website up and beautifully designed and wonderfully written. And then I'll have all the clients that I ever need. It's just putting up your shingles. This is something that I've seen so many times in the past 10 years, working with thousands of business owners that I just have to talk about this. This is called the fantasy of instant promotion. And it's because business owners don't realize how hard it is to build a business. If you've never built a business before, or if you don't know somebody close to you who has done it and you haven't been able to watch them do it, you think that it's just about, oh, putting up a website and then you get a bunch of sales and clients and inquiries or go to on social media and start a Facebook page and you post on there and suddenly voila, all of these people want to work with you. Now it happens occasionally once in a while, such that you might hear those stories and you think, well, that's the way it works. So that that's sort of this idea you have in your head, but that's almost certainly not the way it works for most of us, not me included. So now there are, you know, if you have a tight knit network where you have dozens of people who are good at, you know, referring business to you and are just networkers and they're professionals and they're maybe business owners and they just love you and they would probably, you know, do anything for you. Then if you started the business and you had this tight knit network, maybe you'll get a couple of clients right away from just these referrals, but even the tight knit network doesn't get you usually a full on client roster or making a lot of sales or whatever it is you're trying to sell. Okay. It usually requires having a warm audience first. So this is my encouragement to any of you watching this right now, whether whatever stage you are in your business, you've got to prioritize building an audience. Okay. If you, if, if you don't even know what your business is going to be, if you don't even know what your product is or service is going to be in the future, it still makes sense to build an audience now. Hear me out. Okay. Increasingly in the future, automation and, you know, artificial intelligence and robots are going to take more and more human jobs. It's just anything that a human being does right now, a robot could probably do tirelessly in the future, whether that's five years, 10 years or, you know, 50 years into the future, but almost certainly whatever human beings are doing now, robots can do in the future. And now with the exception of maybe some spiritual work, like medium shift and kind of connection with the afterlife and spiritual world, I don't know if robots can be programmed to do that. Maybe, but, but certainly anything that's thought related. Oh, I have to help a client do this. Robots can do that. Anything that's physically related. Robots can do that. Okay. Already a lot of robots are taking jobs now, like call center work. Okay. You know, already it's like when you call in the call centers, you know, of course the phone tree, but they get smarter and smarter. Oh, please tell us what you need. You know, they have a prompt and you say, well, I need help with this and this. And then they're very smart to route you to the right answers. And then if only they need to, they'll put a human on because the humans cost the most money, right? Like driving. Okay. Right now Uber and Lyft are pretty popular self-driving cars are coming and really in the next five to 10 years, many Ubers and Lyfts are going to be self-driving. So there, there, there goes another freelancing opportunity for, you know, millions of people, right? And business coaching, I am not, I have no illusions that I'm going to have a job business coaching in the future because in the future, probably not in the next five or 10 years, but I bet in the next 20 or 30 years, people will take content like mine and create a brilliant artificial intelligence that will be your business coach for, you know, $10 a month or $50 a month or whatever. You just subscribe to a business coach. And, you know, you're just like, well, hi Siri, you know, I've got this business challenge today and I'm thinking about this and this and Siri will brilliantly take the most inspiring content on the internet and put together for you a very customized and human sounding advice. It's coming. It's coming. And whether it's business coaching or relationship counseling or, or, you know, health nutrition counseling, whatever it is, Siri and Alexa and Google will be able to do those things perfectly well. Okay. So really the future of work is perilous for most human beings. The ones that are going to survive and thrive. I'll tell you who those are. It's the people who have an audience. Okay. It's people like me and those of you who have a warm audience, people who are continually expecting content from you, those are those of us who have an audience continually expecting content from us will have job security in the future. Why? Because it's, it's much harder for artificial intelligence to create original content like I'm doing here. Okay. It's hard for AI to be programmed to get just the right, you know, hand gestures and just the right facial expressions. Yes, there are deep fakes, you know, the people who, you know, they, you've seen reports of them like, oh, supposedly Mark Zuckerberg said this, but that was a deep fake. It was a fake video that made his face and made his mouth move in this, in this way, but those still look fake, they'll still look fake. And for a long time, they're still going to look fake. And so those with an, and even deep fakes means people who are faking those means that that person has an audience. That's why they're being faked. Right. So the whoever has an audience has job security because those who have people's attention can sell anything they want to sell, whether they create their own products or whether they affiliate with other companies to sell products. If I have your attention, I have your attention, which means I can sell you something that you want. Okay. It doesn't have to be something I created. Okay. But it could be something, if I get to know what you want, I can sell, you'll buy it from me instead of buying it from somebody else. You see, if you, if you have my, if I have your attention and if I have your trust. So that's what I want for you. I want you to have an audience where you have their attention on a regular basis and you have their trust on a regular basis. Otherwise you have no business security. You have no job security in the future. It's not even the future. It's, it's increasingly now, right? So it doesn't matter if you don't know what you want to sell in the future. What you need to do is build an audience who just likes your personality, who just likes whatever you're shooting the, you know, shooting the shit about every day. It doesn't really, it really doesn't matter. You can come on to video and say, well, today, you know, I had an argument with my spouse. Today I had a really good walk outside and I thought about this today. You know, I went to the market and it was funny because I was looking at this product and I never knew that they had this product. You can talk about anything and build an audience because the internet is so big that there are people who just like to hear you talk about whatever it is you want to talk about. Now I'm, I'm being facetious and saying I'm talking about what I saw at the market and my conversation with my spouse or my, the walk I had, whatever. Okay. But of course, most of you have a passion. That's why you're watching my channel. Okay. You have a passion you want like, I wonder if I can build a business around that one day or maybe you're already building a business, but talk about your passions, whatever. So how do you start? You start by turning on video camera or by starting putting your fingers to your keyboard or start, you know, start with writing on paper if you're more comfortable with that. And you just write, you just write or you just talk about whatever your interests are for the day. Like today I feel like talking about crochet. I don't know interesting crochet, but today I feel like talking about puppies because I love puppies. Right. I'll talk about puppies today. Great. Tomorrow I'll talk about artificial intelligence because I'm interested in that too. Tomorrow I'll talk about something I'm interested in politics. Tomorrow I'll talk about, you know, I have, I have an interest, whatever it is, a personal development topic, whatever it is, you can build an audience around it. People who just simply like your presence. They like the way you talk. The way you, you, you think about things. They'd like your values. You could talk about your values. Okay. What you believe about that the world should be. What you believe would be helpful for for people in the world. Whatever it is, you can build an audience around that. Your, it's called your personal brand. That's what people mean by personal brand. If, if in case you've heard that term and you're wondering what, what the hell does personal brand mean? It means someone has an audience of people who just like to talk about, like to hear them talk about whatever. Now, a lot of times the personal brand is somewhat focused on fashion or personal growth or spiritual growth or relationships or health or career or whatever it is or some hobby. They're really into, you know, they're really into kombucha, you know, drinks, whatever, they're really into a particular celebrity and like to talk about that celebrity or they're really into this type of movie or this type of book. A personal brand can be built around anything and the great thing about a personal brand is that the person can pivot all day long to say, I know you came to me because originally you wanted to hear me talk about business. But I feel like I want to talk about puppies today. I'm sure many of you would be happy with me talking about puppies and showing you pictures and videos of puppies, right? Or you probably would love to hear me talk about my thoughts on artificial intelligence in the future of work or my thoughts about, you know, how companies should do more for the environment. I mean, I could literally talk about anything and I would have your attention because you'd just like to hear me talk, right? Many of you, not all of you. Some of you are just watching me for the first time ago. I don't know what the hell this guy's talking about, right? But as I said in previous videos, if you don't like me for the first time or the third time or the fifth time that you see me, you're going to hear about me again. I almost guarantee it because some friend of yours, I was just talking to some some fan of mine today. He said, Oh, if a friend of mine introduced me to your work and then just the other day, some other random friend told me about your blog posts. You know, this is what happens when you build an audience. It's like you build an audience and then there's this, the audience has a network, right? The audience has friends who they tell about you and then these friends will hear about you for multiple friends and even if they didn't like you the first time or the third time or the third time, the first time you were talking about puppies, the third time you were talking about tissue boxes and they should be built a certain way. The fifth time you're talking about, you know, what you think about, you know, life and everything. If they didn't like it, they will hear about you again. I guarantee it. That's the nature of an audience and that's how it grows and grows and grows and grows and grows. It's just people who like to see you and to see you. They just liked it. And some some of you, it's because you look, you know, some of you, they first start following because you're just so damn hot, right? Some some of us, it's not that way. Some of us, it's our thoughts that they they like or it's the way we talk about things or it's our energy or it's, you know, it's whatever. OK, it's there's so many things about you. Some of those things, some people are just going to love just for who you are. You might be talking very slowly. You might not talk fast like I do. You might talk very slowly and very gently. And some people just really like that. You see, usually people follow a personal brand because they like the way they talk or the way they write their values or thoughts. I want you to build a business. I want you to build an audience like that first. And once you have an audience like that, you can sell anything that they want. Step one, build an audience who just likes who you are. Wouldn't that be great? Of course, what you don't want, what you don't, what so many businesses think, right? It's like and the pitfall, right? The least type of secure business is the business that the people that come to you for a particular product and what if you grow tired of selling that product? Maybe if you're making lots of money, you won't grow tired of it. But some people come to you for one product and maybe it sells well and maybe it doesn't sell as well in the future. And then they just want that one product from you. And that's it. Ideally, they just like you for who you are. If they like for you for who you are and then you find out what they buy. Okay, step one, build an audience who likes you just for who you are, just authentically, just whatever you like to talk about, they just like it. Okay, step two, find out what they buy. Step three, sell them what they're already buying. Just sell them your version of it or sell them some other version that you really believe in like, hey, you already buy tissue boxes. I'm just looking at a tissue box here. You already buy tissue boxes. You already buy posters. You already buy, I don't know, you know, mugs. Okay, let me sell you my mug with my designs on it, my quote on it, whatever. You see what I mean? Like, you can sell them anything they're already buying. Oh, you already buy coaching. Oh, you already buy therapy. Oh, you already go to retreats. Well, let me sell you my retreat because I have your attention. Right? Let me sell you my coaching because or let me tell you somebody else's therapy because I really believe in their therapy and you have my attention and you believe in me. So you're going to believe this person too, because I told them that I told you they're great. This is the kind of audience and business I wish for you because then you have infinite job security, you see, because you just have people who like who you are, follow along with you for years and years and years. And sometimes those people will leave for a couple months or a couple years and sometimes they come back, but your audience will just gradually keep growing if you keep showing up consistently with your authentic beingness. You show up authentically just talking about whatever you talk about. Now you you also we should also talk about, well, once I get you to show up authentically on a consistent basis, then we can talk about, OK, now let's let's talk about the three stages of content, which I've talked about, you know, before another post. Stage one is where you show up casually exploratory, prolifically talking about whatever you want to talk about, OK, whatever your interest is that day. Stage two is looking at what worked for your audience, OK, what worked in stage one and then making that even better and then distributing that even farther through Facebook ads or through YouTube ads or through collaborations. And then stage three is putting together some product based on stage two stuff. So so but what I really want for you to have this kind of secure, infinitely secure business is you got to just show up first authentically on a regular basis. That's really step one. If you're not even doing that, there's not much we can talk about. OK, you step one, show up authentically with whatever interest you have today, share it with whatever audience you already have right now. Maybe it's your Facebook profile with your friends and family and you're fine. Start there. Start there. OK, and in terms of social media, you start with whatever you're really interested in using. OK, what some of you it's YouTube. You really love YouTube. Great. Start a YouTube channel, OK, and start engaging with other YouTubers. And then when you engage with the YouTubers, they pay attention to you and then you kind of start your audience that way. You might trade interviews with other YouTubers to kind of start building an audience, etc. Right. Whether you love using Facebook, start with a Facebook profile. If you can do a Facebook page with some ads like I've taught do that because that'll get you started even faster. If you like Instagram, use Instagram and engage with other people, engage on hashtags and you start building some connections that way and then you start. But you got to just show up regularly, authentically build an audience of people who just like who you are. And then you go from there to start building a business. But you don't even have to know what your focus is going to be, right? Like it doesn't matter if you're 70 or you're 17. Start building an authentic audience today. OK, so I just want to see if there are any comments. I want to thank those of you for joining me, Amanda and Caroline and Tom and Brian and Sharon and Miriam. I don't see any comments yet. But yeah, if you have any, I always love to see your comments. Maybe I'm not able to see the the live comments here on sometimes Facebook is is not reliable in that way. But anyway, I look forward to seeing your comments later and I wish you a consistency of authenticity showing up today. I want to talk about this, you know, show up, build an audience doesn't don't don't worry about your niche. Don't worry about your perfect brand. Don't worry about what your message is going to be or what your product is gonna be. That comes later after you built an audience. Then you figure out your niche, not the other way around. After you build your audience, then you figure out what your message and what your brand and what your websites going to be, not the other way around to work with people for 10 years and people always do it opposite. So let me get my website up. Let me get my beautifully designed and written and I should say one more thing. I have had, why I'm so passionate about this idea is because too many people have come to me after they have spent thousands of dollars building an amazingly beautiful website and written content and they have no audience and they're like, George, now make me have an audience. Well, it's like, what if the audience doesn't like what you've created? You created that in your garage, in your bedroom, in your own head, you created that in isolation. You didn't create it with the market. You didn't create it in touch with real people. It's all in your head. No wonder that's what happens after they come to me after thousands of dollars spent on branding and all that stuff. And then I'm like, okay, you have no audience? Oh, well, let's, all right. Well, now you start with authentic content. Now we run Facebook ads. Hopefully when it comes to your website, they like it, but we don't know. I don't care if it's beautifully designed. It might not be beautifully designed in their eyes. This is why when I design anything and when I ask, I'm always asking you questions. Which title do you like? What topic do you want? Oh, I'm trying to, if I revamp my website, I'd be like, which image do you like better? Do you want me to go in this direction or that direction with my imagery? Should I do forest or mountain? Should I do dark or light? I don't know. Should I do feminine or masculine? Or what kind of feminine? What kind of masculine? You build an audience based on your authentic nature first and they will tell you what they want. And the website's not built for your own vanity, which is what so many people do unfortunately. Oh, I'm so proud of my website. I feel like I'm clear on what I'm doing. You're all clear in your head. You're clear in your head, but you haven't been clear in touch with the market. That's what a business is built on. A business is built, not built on, ooh, this sounds so cool to me. A business is built on what sounds cool to you, right? My business is built on what sounds good to you, right? Based on what everything I've said, what sounds good to you. Oh, you like what I said there? Great, let me build a product around that. Or let me get a product around that to sell to you, right? So, it's okay if you've already spent $10,000 on your website and you spent years to create perfect funnel or perfect message or whatever. Now, you still have to build an audience. And we hope you can use some of that stuff you've already created and hopefully people will like it, but everything is still stage one. Everything is still stage one until you touch the world, until you make contact with the market, make contact with real people and see if they actually resonate with it. Otherwise, you might be 20 years ahead of your time, which many of you are. Many people are not you, but many people are like, oh, wow, okay. You're ahead of the market, right? And the market's not gonna buy what you have created. You're ahead of the market. Maybe in the future, people will be all into buying that, but right now, that's why you build an audience first. Then you find out what they're buying right now and then you sell them your version of what they're already spending money on because that's where all the money's flowing. You wanna dip your ladle into the money river rather than create something on your own and then hope you can people come from the river over here. No, it's like, it's way too much. That's way harder, okay? So I hope this is helpful and I look forward to your comments and your questions. And until the next video, I hope you'll show up, be yourself, knowing that there are plenty of people out there who will love you just for who you are. All right, be well.