Why sharing your beliefs helps you find your tribe

It’s easy for the creatively driven, intellectually curious, and servant-minded individual to feel isolated. It can be hard to find your tribe among the hype and hustlers and hucksters who get so much attention.

When I started in the marketing industry, I could barely whisper the beliefs that drove me, even though I wanted to scream them. Beliefs like these:

  • Great marketing isn’t about who arrives. It’s about who stays. This isn’t about grabbing attention but holding it. The lone “tactic” that works for this? Create a better experience -- over and over and over.

  • I don’t create things to sell stuff. I create things to teach and entertain people. The byproduct of doing that successfully is that people take action with us, from subscription to purchase to evangelism.

  • I put resonance over reach. “More” is never the goal. “Better” is. Otherwise, you’re trying to build a house without a foundation. 

  • Earning trust and love is the job -- not “driving” or “converting” other humans! You don’t do marketing TO others.

I kept these beliefs buried for years.

Big. Mistake.

It turns out sharing your beliefs loudly and proudly is the single-best way to rally others to your cause and serve those you aim to serve more deeply. It also provides a helpful sort of friction to turn away those you're not interested in serving. True leadership and real inspiration aren't about pandering to the status quo, but pushing it forward. The aim isn’t to reach the most people, it’s to resonate with the right ones. It's the willingness to say, "I don't have the answers, but I'm determined to find them, because this is important. Come with me."

To me, that makes a great SHOW in today’s world. That's a podcast. It’s brilliant for that exact purpose, and it should be proactively built for that purpose, too. Shows take people on a journey.

Someone's favorite show can do more than inform them, too. It can transform them.

Share your beliefs loudly and proudly, in your work and in your words.

— — —

PS: If that excites you, please consider applying to be part of the Alpha Class of my Showrunner Sessions, an online, interactive workshop where we do real work, on our real podcasts, together. You can have a show, or start a show, through this initiative. More details here.

Jay Acunzo