The Audience Shortcut: How the Right People Paying Attention Changes Everything

“This can’t be right.”

“This can’t be right.”

I blinked hard at my laptop screen, certain I’d misread the number.

$10,000,017. Our company’s annual recurring revenue.

Holy shit.

My hands trembled slightly as I took a screenshot. Then I started laughing.

I shouldn’t be here. Not with my background.

I’m from rural Idaho. Homeschooled. No prestigious degree or Silicon Valley connections. Just a string of failed business ideas and a stubborn refusal to quit.

What changed everything for me? The Audience Shortcut: getting the right people to pay attention to what I was doing, so I could gain leverage instead of risk.

The Audience Shortcut isn’t about becoming famous or gathering a massive following. It’s about connecting with specific people who can transform your path, collapsing those “someday/maybe” dreams into your reality now.

This simple principle allowed me to build what would become a $45 million per year company (Kit). That moment when I first hit $10 million was just the beginning. It’s given me the freedom to spend my time with my family, pursuing my passion for flying, and living life on my terms.

In this essay, I’m going to share exactly how it works, and how you can build your own audience of the right people today—to achieve any goal.

My First Success with the Audience Shortcut

Four dead startups. Thousands of wasted hours. A bank account bleeding money.

Like most entrepreneurs, I had a string of failed businesses. I was the guy who always had an idea for a new venture, but it somehow never worked out.

• A web design business… failed!
• A hosting company… failed!
• A local social network… failed!
• A new app idea… failed!

I killed off each idea, one after another, after months of hard work.

I had read every business book, followed every expert’s advice, and still couldn’t get traction. I felt like I’d been given all the ingredients to bake a loaf of bread, but no one told me about yeast. Something fundamental was missing from the formula.

Then, I finally had a breakthrough when building OneVoice, an iPad app that would give non-verbal people a voice—whether stroke survivors or children with autism.

My theory was simple: These people would prefer a $100 iPad app over an $8,000 medical device.

And finally—finally—I was right.

OneVoice made $50,000, which was life-changing money.

But what surprised me was that the difference wasn’t the idea, the funding, or even the execution.

It was the audience.

Initially, I didn’t know how I’d reach my first users. Parents of special needs children were scattered and impossible to reach efficiently.

The breakthrough came when I asked:

“Who do these parents already trust and listen to?”

The answer: Speech-language pathologists (SLP).

These professionals were concentrated, easy to find, and each influenced dozens of families weekly.

I gave 50 free licenses to SLPs, positioning it as “seeking professional feedback” rather than trying to sell them the app directly. They were thrilled to give detailed feedback, which I quickly implemented.

Then, something magical happened: they started recommending OneVoice to their clients. Sales began trickling in, then compounding as I reached more SLPs.

By identifying the right people—speech-language pathologists—for OneVoice, I was able to break my failed streak of business ideas. I earned my first big paycheck as an entrepreneur and launched my career as an app designer.

This isn’t just my story. I’ve seen this transformation again and again with people from all walks of life who discovered the Audience Shortcut.

Attention can be helpful, but attention from the right people for your goal is a game changer. Once you see the world through the lens of the right people paying attention, you’ll never be the same.

Build an Audience, Not a Crowd

When most people hear “build an audience,” they picture scantily-clad Instagram influencers hawking diet teas to millions of followers.

That’s not what I’m talking about.

My goal with this essay is to help creators with much smaller followings—even as little as 1,000 people—to have a means of building six- or seven-figure businesses. 

The recipe is simple: Build an audience, not a crowd.

What’s the difference?

A crowd is people paying attention to you.

An audience is the right people paying attention to you.

What matters is who they are, not how many. A crowd of millions who vaguely know you creates more risk, not less. It’s fickle, demanding, and exhausting. 

But an audience of exactly the right people who deeply value what you offer—even a small one—reduces risk and creates opportunity.

The goal isn’t maximum growth—it’s optimal growth. Your audience should expand at a pace that supports your dreams, not crush them.

Joe Rogan often mentions how fortunate he was that his fame grew gradually over decades. This allowed him to develop at a pace he could handle, instead of being crushed by sudden celebrity.

Common Objections to Building an Audience

During a conversation with James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, he confessed something that shocked me:

“I didn’t share my newsletter with friends and family until I had 100,000 subscribers. I was just too embarrassed.”

James is the top-selling nonfiction author on the planet. The guy who sold over 20 million copies of his book (featured on Amazon’s Most Sold list for five years straight!) was once too self-conscious to tell his own family about his writing.

So, if you’re feeling reluctant about building an audience, know that you’re in good company.

The two biggest objections people have about building an audience:

1. “Isn’t seeking attention self-centered and desperate?”
2. “Why would anyone pay attention to me anyway?”

This fundamental truth is what changed James’s perspective—and what I hope will change yours:

People don’t follow you because you’re special.

They follow you because you’re useful.

Building an audience isn’t shouting “look at me!” It’s asking “How can I help?” This simple shift transforms what feels like begging for attention into an act of service.

Think about who you pay attention to. You follow experts in your field, people who make you laugh, or friends because they provide something valuable to you. 

You follow someone because they provide one of the following:

• Education
• Entertainment

You’re not following anyone just to boost their ego.

When you build your own audience, you’re not asking for charity. You’re creating value that makes it worth people’s time to pay attention to you. That’s noble, not narcissistic.

How Your Audience Transforms Risk Into Opportunity

Let me share four stories that demonstrate how the right audience doesn’t just accelerate your journey—it fundamentally changes the economics of your path, turning what would be high-risk endeavors into low-risk opportunities.

Case Study #1: From Paying to Getting Paid

Trent Dyrsmid had an impossible goal: to become a commercial airline pilot at age 53, when most pilots started in their twenties.

The math was brutal. He needed 1,500 flight hours (roughly four years) to be eligible for an airline job. Training alone typically costs over $100,000. With mandatory retirement at 65, he had just 12 years to build a career that normally develops over several decades.

Trent’s solution? Build an audience of the right people.

He started posting flying videos showing his accelerated training methods. This attracted an audience that was almost entirely composed of aviation students and other pilots. As these viewers discovered his content, three things happened:

1. Students began specifically requesting him as an instructor.
2. They flew in from out of state for his accelerated training.
3. He commanded $70/hour as an independent instructor, versus the typical $25/hour.

In just 18 months—not the typical 3-4 years—Trent reached his 1,500 hours and was accepted into SkyWest’s training program. 

The right audience didn’t just accelerate his path; it completely de-risked it.

Case Study #2: From Selfish to Service Mindset

Noa Kageyama had all the qualifications to start his performance psychology practice—Juilliard graduate and PhD in counseling psychology—but he couldn’t get clients.

A switch flipped when Noa began to see education as marketing. 

He started teaching musicians how to understand the root of their performance anxiety through content, rather than focusing on selling his services.

By shifting from his own goals (getting clients) to serving musicians with a specific problem at scale (Remember: people follow you because you are useful), Noa transformed his struggling practice into a thriving business serving an audience of over 50,000 subscribers.

Case Study #3: From Layoff to Launch

Aaron Francis started work just like he did every morning, only to learn his company was downsizing. He was a part of the layoffs.

After the shock went away, he wrote a post on X.com announcing the news to his 30,000 followers. 

What followed wasn’t just support, but a flood of job offers.

Aaron had been teaching everything he knew about development and content creation. His audience knew his capabilities and were invested in his success. Instead of desperately seeking opportunities, they came to him. 

After evaluating all the offers, Aaron made a surprising decision: to turn down every job and use his audience to launch his own business.

In his first year, his business made more than his previous salary.

Case Study #4: From Business Crash to Record Growth

Alexandra Jimenez watched her seven-figure travel business collapse in 2020. The pandemic shut down travel, forcing her to close and worry about her 10-person team.

Her audience stepped in without being asked.

They’d been reading her emails for years. When they learned about the shutdown, they reached out asking how to help. Alexandra decided to be transparent. She explained how her affiliate link business actually worked.

Once readers understood their clicks and purchases directly supported her, something remarkable happened. The business grew larger than it had ever been.

This audience support kept all 10 team members employed during the worst possible time for travel. Though she initially stepped away due to burnout, the business returned to seven figures by focusing on quality content and her newsletter.

She learned she didn’t need millions of followers. Just a dedicated community who understood her value.

The key was transparency. When Alexandra explained exactly how readers could help, they did.

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These success stories illustrate a powerful truth:

Money is not the limiting factor—it’s attention.

When you have the right people paying attention to you, financial barriers dissolve.

This pattern repeats everywhere:

• Traditional path: Pay $50,000 for an MBA, then hope someone notices you.
• Attention path (shortcut): Create valuable insights for industry leaders, then get hired directly.

When you reframe every “how will I pay for this” problem as a “who can I serve” problem, you win. This is the Audience Shortcut: 

• Instead of asking, “How do I afford this training?” ask, “Who already values this skill enough to sponsor my learning?”
• Instead of asking “How do I fund this startup?” ask, “Who would benefit most from this solution existing?”

The Power of a Micro Audience

Having an audience does not automatically mean thousands of people. Sometimes you only need a few.

For instance: If you have a job, the single point of failure is your boss. Your security comes down to a single person or entity.

But what if two vice presidents and several managers above you at your job are internal fans of your work? You’d be:

1. More likely to be spared in layoffs
2. Able to switch departments if something happened to your role

Even just a few more people thinking highly of you and your work provides significantly more security. That’s why sharing your work is so powerful.

Ryan McRae at HubSpot perfectly demonstrates this. Beyond excelling at his assigned role, Ryan:

• Runs book clubs that attract participants from across departments.
• Creates spaces for exploring emerging technology, catching the attention of founder Dharmesh Shah.
• Helps solve problems for his manager’s manager.
• Always asks, “How can I help?”

The result? When opportunities arise, like leading their 2,000-person sales kickoff or speaking at their annual conference, Ryan’s name naturally comes up.

Ryan’s story shows exactly what can happen when you build multiple layers of support within your company.

And that’s just having a small group of the right people inside your company paying attention to you.

What if you had more? 

What if you expanded beyond your company’s walls?

What if instead of a handful of safety nets, you had thousands?

You get to take bigger risks.

When the distance between you and what you want significantly drops, those risks become way less risky.

Start by Identifying 10 People

Let’s get practical: Who are the ten specific people that would transform your life, if they were paying attention to you right now?

Grab something to write with. I want you to identify actual names in two categories:

Risk Reducers (Your Safety Net):

• The hiring manager at [Company X] could offer you a job tomorrow
• The investor who funded three companies in your space last year
• The mentor who’s navigated exactly the minefield you’re facing
• The industry veteran whose recommendation opens any door

Opportunity Accelerators (Your Rocket Fuel):

• The connector who hosts private dinners where deals happen
• The decision-maker who controls the budget for your dream client
• The leader two levels above you who is looking for someone with your skills
• The gatekeeper who decides who gets on stage at your industry’s main event

For example, when I was building Kit, my list included specific names like:

• Pat Flynn (could recommend our email tool to 100,000 bloggers)
• Joanna Wiebe (the copywriting expert whose endorsement would validate us)
• Chris Guillebeau (who ran the conference where I could meet potential customers)

How to Create Instant Authority with Your Audience

Marco Polo, a Venetian explorer born in 1254, is famous for being the first to explore the Silk Road to China. At least, that’s how he is remembered. 

There is only one small problem: he wasn’t an explorer at all. Like all good Venetians of the time, he was a merchant.

Long before Marco Polo, plenty of others had explored the roads to the east. In fact, Marco’s own father and uncle had made their exploratory trips well before Marco was born. 

So why does Marco get all the credit? 

Why is he the one we remember and name silly pool games after?

He wrote about it.

Marco was the first one to thoroughly document his explorations of the Silk Road.

It’s the same reason that we all remember Paul Revere, even though there were three other riders that warned the American colonists the British were coming. Paul Revere is the one written about by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in the famous poem. 

Writing, documenting, or storytelling conveys status and expertise. But here’s the counterintuitive truth: 

People don’t teach because they’re experts. 

We perceive them as experts because they teach.

You don’t need status or expertise to start writing. In fact, beginners often create the most helpful content:

• While learning Ruby on Rails programming, I couldn’t get it installed despite following expert tutorials. The solution came from a fellow beginner’s blog who explained a “basic” configuration step the experts had skipped.
• Pat Flynn built an audience by accident. While studying for his architecture exam, he published his notes online for personal access. Soon, thousands of architecture students were reading them. He wasn’t an expert—he was just documenting his journey.

Join The New 1%

After studying abroad in the UK, Glo Atanmo fell in love with travel. Unlike most who let such dreams fade, she made it happen through an internship that brought her back to Europe. 

Then she did something truly powerful: she documented her journey.

As a Black woman, Glo noticed the travel content landscape lacked people who looked like her. She wrote about both wonderful experiences and difficult ones—”being denied service at restaurants, being mistaken for a prostitute in certain countries.”

Her motivation was clear: “If someone experiences this and thinks the whole world is like this, they might never travel again. But if they see this happened to Glo as well, maybe they’d be inspired to keep going.”

Without realizing it, Glo had joined what I call the new 1%—not the wealthy elite, but those who actively pursue their dreams and document the journey.

When I thought about someone with an audience, the first thing that came to mind was someone famous. They’ve built a big following by being remarkable online, not someone like me or like Glo. The gap felt huge between those I followed and what I was capable of doing.

In a way that’s true; those who create and document their journey are in rarefied air. Almost no one does it.

This is The 1% Rule of content creation:

• 90% of people just consume content (watching travel shows but never traveling)
• 9% actually do something (getting the internship, taking the hike, starting the business)
• Only 1% share what they’ve learned along the way

That final step—documenting your journey—is what separates the merely accomplished from those who build leverage through an audience.

Build an Audience, Change Your Life

It’s 2011. I’m at a web design conference in Seattle, surrounded by 500 peers, feeling utterly alone.

Walking back to my hotel, I spot them—the speakers whose books and blogs taught me everything I know about web design. They’re laughing together like old friends.

My chance to meet my heroes.

I quicken my pace… then lose my nerve. Like a stalker, I trail behind them to the hotel lobby, where they settle into comfortable chairs. I keep walking to my room, defeated.

No one knew me. No one cared. I was invisible.

Just two years later, everything had changed at a Las Vegas conference. I was invited to dinners with speakers. Attendees approached me for advice.

The difference? I had started building an audience.

I had published two books and documented the entire process on my blog. I crossed that thin line from consumer to creator. In this community of designers and developers, I had become a niche celebrity.

I didn’t become someone different. I simply started sharing what I was learning along the way.

I want you to take away two things from this:

1. Being someone who is actively pursuing their dreams and sharing the journey puts you in rarefied air. You will stand out, as that’s just 1% of people.
2. The gap between the last two categories—those who do things and those who do things and share—is actually very small. The simple step of documenting what you did is enough to tip you over.

The Audience Shortcut = Your Risk-Reversal Formula

The older you get, the more you have to lose. Family. Career. Financial security. That’s why most people abandon their biggest dreams. The risk feels too great.

The Audience Shortcut completely flips the risk equation. When the right people pay attention to you, pursuing your dreams actually decreases risk rather than increases it.

Most people focus on what they want to achieve, then try to figure out how to do it alone. 

The Audience Shortcut says: 

You don’t need to know how to achieve your dreams. 

You need to know who to create value for along the way.

Here are the four simple steps to implement the Audience Shortcut:

1. Choose your big dream. What goal feels just out of reach?
2. Identify your audience. Who could reduce your risk or accelerate your journey? (Hint: they’re rarely who you first think)
3. Create value for them. What can you make that would be genuinely useful to these people?
4. Document your journey. Join the 1% who both do and share what they learn.

Every dream you have is already someone else’s expertise.

Every opportunity you want is already in someone else’s network.

Every risk you fear can be mitigated by someone else’s safety net.

Now it’s your turn: Start building your audience today.

Not tomorrow, not someday, not when you “feel ready.”

Today.

Because your greatest risk isn’t failure. It’s never being seen.

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Special thanks to Tim Grahl, James Clear, Kara May, Clay Hebert, and Charlie Hoehn for brainstorming, editing, and workshopping this essay with me.