lystn

This week, we discuss a topic that gets asked about nearly every time we do a QaA for Unemployable Initiative members: how to build an audience. Specifically, how do you start from scratch, or close to scratch, and build a minimum viable audience?As you know from the definition of minimum viable audience, once you have an MVA the audience starts to build itself. That doesn’t mean the work of filling the top of your funnel is done, but it does mean that you have some momentum and a head of steam to help keep you growing.But how do you get that momentum going in the first place? Especially when there is so much content out there already, which can it feel like such an immense challenge just to get noticed?To be clear: there are no silver bullet in this episode. There is no secret we reveal that will allow you to supersede a couple of fundamental truths of audience building: 1) you have to create high quality content for a specific audience, and 2) you’re going to have to invest time or money, or both, to get that content in front of the right people.If either of those two truths scare you off, this conversation may not be of much use. But if they don’t, then join us and our special guest Sonia Simone to talk about what’s working for building a minimum viable audiences in 2021.In addition to this week's main topic, we take another trip inside Brian's mind, answer a bevy of listener questions, and discuss headlines about how the pandemic is messing with our brains, whether the PRO Act should worry freelancers, and how marketing will (or won't) change after the pandemic.This week's headlines:1. How the Pandemic is Messing with Our Brains (https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/03/what-pandemic-doing-our-brains/618221/)2. Does the PRO Act Threaten Freelance Careers?(https://www.jennifergregorywriter.com/2021/03/01/guest-post-deborah-abrams-kaplan-explains-why-the-pro-act-threatens-freelance-careers/)3. 10 Truths About Marketing After the Pandemic (https://hbr.org/2021/03/10-truths-about-marketing-after-the-pandemic)