There’s a difference between inventing yourself in public and drawing the public to an invented cause: one is generous, the other a scam.
Blurring the line between the two leads to one of the most common, misdirected tropes in marketing: “Get the attention while you can.”
The idea is to jump on any and every latest trend while it’s hot. Scoop up some eyeballs. Don’t even think about where you’ll direct them. You can figure that out later. For now, just dance, and make sure people keep watching.
This is not only pointless and exhausting, when it comes to your reputation, it’s damaging. But the arguments sound so convincing, don’t they?
Right now, everyone and their brother will tell you to get on TikTok. The organic reach is ridonkulous. It’s unprecedented. Singular. It will never happen again. Except, of course it will, as it always has.
As long as humans keep making things, our collective attention will sway. Like a flock of locusts, grazing on one meadow until it’s empty before moving on to the next — and if we’re creating the meadows, that’s fine. Trends come and go. They differ in size and time, but they will keep coming.
Another common justification is that it’s okay to hack Snapchat, TikTok, or Instagram because hey, “you’ll provide value.” But how much value can you provide if you don’t know where you’re going? A leader without a map will just lead people off a cliff.
Sure, cat videos are funny, but if you’re curating them instead of writing your novel, how does that help anyone? We don’t need your “Catpocalypse” merch if it comes from the wrong place. We need you to write your book.
“Get the attention while you can” comes from a place of scarcity. It’s designed by — and for — narrow minds. The abundant artist knows the people meant to receive her message will always find a way to hear it.
Seth Godin noticed Twitter early, but he decided not to use it:
I said, “Wow, I could do this and have a lot of followers.” [But] what would that mean? A) It would mean less time spent writing my blog. B) It would mean exposing myself to anonymous comments from people who want me to pay attention to them. Will either of those two things make me better at the things I want to be good at? No.
Seth trusted that his books and his blog would continue to be enough for readers to find him — and to this day, they are.
For the same reason, Tim Ferriss gave up angel investing:
I just realized I had to say no to all of it. I couldn’t say yes to just the top 1% because that still meant that I had to filter the other 99%.
If you know you have to say something, but you’re not sure what exactly it is, making a Twitter account and posting genuine ideas may be your path to authenticity.
But if it’s just about more, about adding another social media channel, about increasing cognitive load to feel more powerful, it actually serves the opposite. It’s a way of hiding from the real, hard work you need to do.
It’s marvelous to watch a new account grow to 500,000 followers in 2 months, but at the end of the day, the question is: What is it for?
Showing up in public, daring to publish your fragile writing, posting your first scripted video, these are generous acts of service. Everyone needs time, but there’ll always be enough for the people you seek to find you.
Doing a song and dance to try and sell t-shirts to an anonymous crowd, hoping they’ll make you rich is a con. You’ll mislead people because you’re misleading yourself. This is not the work you came here to do.
We have marketing backwards. “I need attention because I have something to say.” No. That’s not how it works. Once you have something to say, the attention will come to you. Work on what you’re saying, not on who’s listening.
You don’t need attention for your practice run. You don’t need it for you first 100 posts. In fact, it’s better if you don’t have too much at first. You’re not that good yet. Wait for it. It’ll be worth it.
If you don’t yet know what to do with it, leaving people their energy and attention is the most honorable thing you can do.
There’s a difference between creating yourself and creating a mirage people will fall for. Deep down, you’ll always know which one you’re up to. Listen to your gut and don’t ignore it — so that one day, when you have something important to tell us, we’ll listen to every word you say.