From a reader:
I have a quick question: How did you learn to market the way you do? I’ve been studying your Twitter feed, and it’s like you take people on a professional and personal journey through your life. You make people feel like they know you. How do you do this?
That’s not a quick question, but here is my quick answer:
I’m talented.
The reader is asking two questions about himself:
1. Can I learn to do what Laurie is doing?
2. How do I create a sense of authenticity and intimacy like Laurie?
The first question is straightforward. Sure, you can do what I do.
I’m engaged in storytelling via digital media, and I learned how to do this by watching other people and copying their methods. The tools are out there. The roadmaps are built. You can even outsource your social media and still get away with storytelling.
But the second question—authenticity and intimacy—is much more complex.
I’ve had to negotiate my way through relationships and endeavors to arrive where I am now: interesting enough that key people pay attention but not interesting enough that I’m stalked and harassed online.
The only people who pay attention to me are those who go out of their way to look, which means I’m relatively safe. My fan base is 52% male, mostly over 35, and they earn more than $100,000/year. They’re not incels or evangelicals looking for trouble. I can share details and perspectives without being assailed.
Some people don’t care for me—and it’s for respectable reasons—but nobody wants to destroy or defame me. They ignore, dismiss, block, or disregard me when my name comes up in their social media feeds.
Isn’t that just great? How blessed am I to live this life of HR fame and fortune?
My relationship with my readers—executives, HR leaders, supervisors, and individual workers—matters to me. Call it influencer marketing or storytelling. The only way to take people on a professional and personal journey is to open the door and invite them in.
That’s not how you get good at marketing. That’s how you get good at life.