I’ve noticed more people building audiences (think followers on X, LinkedIn, Reddit, etc.) and then creating solutions to problems they learn about from audience feedback. When the solution is built, they then have ready-made distribution. They point their audience to the solution they built. It’s a reverse-marketing approach (build an audience, then a product) that I’ve seen be highly effective for some people, so I studied it.

I’ve learned about lots of ways to go about building these audiences. Some are timeless; others, a flash in the pan. Some are questionable and erode trust; others build credibility and trust. The ones that interest me are timeless and build credibility. They’ve worked historically and will continue to work in the future. You build long-term trust with the audience by adding value to them.

So, what’s the best strategy I’ve found that meets these criteria? It’s simple, actually: Share what you learn. I’ve noticed that people who take the time to share their wisdom build loyal audiences who respect them highly. No selling or upsells. Just free game anyone can consume. This strategy is tried and true. So, who are some people who’ve used this strategy to build audiences?

• Paul Graham – The founder of Y Combinator is also a prolific blogger. Graham has an essay section on his blog that people rave about. These essays are long-form distillations of Graham’s understanding of topics. They are often quoted widely by founders and investors. Some were written many years ago, but the wisdom in them is timeless and still shared and written about. Like this one from 2004 about making wealth or this one from 2006 about doing what you love. Timeless wisdom led to timeless content that attracted a huge international audience on the internet.  
• Warren Buffett – The Oracle of Omaha is often regarded as one of the best investors ever, but if you think about it, he’s really operating a mix of a hedge fund and a private equity (PE) firm in a single firm. Lots of people have generated amazing returns by founding hedge funds and PE firms. But most people don’t think as highly of them as they do of Buffet. Why is Buffett different? Buffett isn’t just an investor; he’s also a teacher. He puts a tremendous amount of time and energy into sharing what he’s learned with others. For decades, he’s written an annual letter (spending months to do it) that he distributes widely (see letters back to 1977 here). Also for decades, he’s held an annual meeting at which people can ask him anything. He’s written countless articles in various publications sharing his thoughts, investing principles, and (in his early days) stock picks. He’s given so many CNBC interviews that CNBC created an archive and dedicated a portion of its website to it (see here). By sharing what he knows, he’s built a loyal base of disciples (an audience) who hold him in high regard. Many people followed his value-investing principles (which he borrowed from people like Ben Graham and Philip Fisher) and became rich, thus cementing his credibility.

These are just two examples; many others have had outsize success with this approach.

This sounds like a simple strategy, and it is. But after digging more, I’ve learned that although it’s simple, it’s not easy. There’s a critical component of the strategy that’s necessary to make it work, and it, too, is simple but far from easy to execute.

This post is already pretty long, so I’ll share that critical part in tomorrow’s post.