1000 True Fans

This is the first blog post that I am writing in the thread of 'wantrepreneurs,' about which I will elaborate later. However, I wanted to focus on an article that fascinates me every time I revisit it (I guess this is about the second time I've read it). It's actually almost accidental, I tend to recommend this as a marketing text to people as a rule of thumb, but I have never quite absorbed its tenets.

As this is my first blog post on the entrepreneurial journey however, this is rather a wonderful serendipity as I would love to allow this to guide all of my decisions on the journey to come.

He's renouned now as this oracle of singularity and technological advancement, but Kevin Kelly also wrote a rather classic and oft-cited little essay that is still a classic in digital marketing, though published in 2008 online (which let's face it makes it a very prescient text).

Kevin Kelly's article is here and it's something that Tim Ferris has referred to many times since the publication of The Four Hour Work Week as a classic text. Ferris includes an updated version in his new Tribe of Mentors or is it (Tools of Titans?) and perhaps due to this, it seems that Kevin Kelly has updated for the new millennium.

So here's Kelly's definition of his title, a 'true fan' is someone who will drive many hundreds of miles to see you, they will buy a special edition of your work, and the image above is a little facetious (both for Christianity's sake, but also in terms of Kelly's concept) because in fact the concept is quite lovely. These people are your tribe, they are you essentially, in all of the far flung regions of the globe.

What this means for Kelly is that you just need to create enough content to be able to make $100 from those 1000 true fans per year, which is the first rule. The second rule is that you need to sell to them directly, so not through an intermediary.

Kelly argues that if you aimed for 1000 true fans it was far more realistic and achievable than thinking of millions. After all, as he points out, If you added one true fan per day that would take what? Three or so years? However if it's not feasible to create enough content to make $100 from each of your true fans, and you can only make $50 per fan, then you'll need 2000 true fans rather than 1000 and so on.

This idea is strange to my socialist heart. But we are, after all using the master's tools to destroy the master's house are we not? Disruption being the name of the game and all that? 

How wonderful it would be to produce content for those 1000 true fans no? To be able to speak to your tribe, and help your tribe and work with your tribe exclusively? In this sense, what this model aspires to, is living life completely on your terms and to spending your days exactly as you would wish to spend them, which is far from being an alienated member of the working class or a wanton capitalist, surely? 

His marker is, can you gain enough support from a true fan, to get a day's wages from them per year? "Can you excite or please them sufficient (sic) to earn one day’s labor? That’s a high bar, but not impossible for 1,000 people world wide" Kelly writes. 

Though true fans in this sense will not be your only source of income, but they are also your chief marketing executives, and the ones who really provide the core of your existence. Therefore these are the ones who should be addressed, as the rest will follow. 

He then goes on to talk about the famous 'long tail', here's Chris Anderson giving a Ted Talk on his concept and here's what it looks like visually according to Anderson, when represented on a graph (hence the name)

So the long tail is the slow, low selling catalog of items that never really break records, on Amazon or Ebay for example, but in fact, over the duration, sell quite as many products as those hot sellers at the 'head' of the graph's image, whose popularity explodes, to enormous and short-lived success. As Kelly puts it 'the area of the tail is as big as the head.'

This was something that advertising systems such as that of Google started to recognise. They realised that they could also sell obscure items just as well as immensely popular ones.

Even if only one in a million people share the interest that you are expressing or creating from, that's still 7,000 people on the planet according to Kelly (am assuming since he mentions 'Tools of Titans' in the Intro that these figures are up to date). The trick, Kelly points out, is to have fans find you!

He first mentions 'crowdfunding' and goes on to describe the whole process of creating and finding 1,000 true fans as time-consuming and nerve-wracking and that not all creators are well suited to this process. Affording someone else who can do this for you, might mean that you need to cultivate slightly more true fans than you would otherwise, in order to be able to afford this person :)

I like the focus on one goal, building a direct and real connection with people who would really appreciate your output and your work, and I think that this is an important guiding principle for me as I explore the 'wantrepreneurial space', especially as this is my first blog on the topic. And it's a more long tail journey than many marketers would have you take, but it's one that sits well with my soul, and the kind of journey I could be proud of. Hopefully this is the first step. 

What I didn't expect of course, was for this article to be so richly geared towards these infinite and small niches, and the potential fertility thereof. This suits me perfectly! I'm definitely much more of a nice taste than one with widespread appeal! In fact Kevin Kelly's words are quite similar to those of Gary Vaynerchuck in terms of what I've heard from him at least, 'it rewards the artist to remain true, to focus on the unique aspects of their work, the qualities that true fans appreciate.'

The original essay is very interesting in terms of what Kelly foresaw, and he is still known for this quasi-prophetic abilities in the realm of tech. What's also fascinating is what how applicable it is to contemporary contexts also. The responses from artists such as this one here is rather fascinating also. I think he doesn't take into account Kelly's point that if you can make $100 worth of content for each fan, then perfect, but if not, you'll need more than 1000 true fans. But hey ho. It's still a fascinating concept, and a great organising principle, as I begin my journey as wantrepreneur.

I imagine that the next blog post will riff on this somewhat, and perhaps time to imagine my true fans and get a few personas going, to start my entrepreneurial journey and to find out what my 1000 true fans will love as much as me! It's been an interesting first step as 'Wantrepreneur' watch this space!