Building a Campfire: The Simple Framework to Growing an Audience

Sean Pritzkau:  All right. Hey there. And welcome to episode three of We Can Do This. We Can Do This is a podcast that connects people, looking to create meaningful change with the tools, skills, and community they need to stay the course and make an impact. This show brings together social entrepreneurs and experts on topics such as marketing,  branding, and other relevant skills required to solve 21st century problems. My hope is that this would help get you the tools you need to build your platform, grow your revenue, and make a social impact.

​

​

[00:00:33] So thanks for everyone who has been listening to these past few episodes. We've actually only really had two official episodes and we've had a lot of new listeners and I've gotten some really great feedback. And I've actually gotten a few really great reviews on Apple Podcasts that I wanted to share. Dale said "really excited for this podcast. Can't wait for these episodes and to put into practice some things I hear."

​

​

[00:00:56]Lauren said, "this is the podcast we've been waiting for." Lauren, thank you so much. And then Zweigz said, "can't wait to listen to every episode". Eugene said " the network Sean has and the content he provides for people like me, who care about making a positive impact has been invaluable and  it feels like a steal for me to listen to these experts and listen for free. Sean, thank you for doing this." So such amazing reviews. And if you like what you've listened to in the podcast so far, it would mean the world to me if you would jump on Apple Podcasts and leave a short review. Tell me what you think of the show. It doesn't need to be long, and it would help me grow the reach of this show and get this podcast into the ears of people that really need to hear it.

​

​

[00:01:38]So thanks so much for the support. And I'm really excited about these upcoming episodes. We have just to share a few that are coming up. One, we have an episode with a climate activist that has run some really impressive digital campaigns around the climate crisis.  We have one with an entrepreneur.

​

​

[00:01:55] Who's a digital nomad. Who's really built a lifestyle that allows them to travel while they run two online businesses to fight climate change and bring awareness around fast fashion. 

​

​

[00:02:07]Then we have a few really awesome guests. One, who's a social media strategist. I get lots of questions around social media, what platforms to be on  how to grow your reach on social. And you really use it as a tool to connect with your audience. So that's going to be an awesome episode. We have my business coach coming up next week, who is a marketing and branding strategist.

​

​

[00:02:28]And they're a speaker. They have a podcast and he actually has a book that's coming out and he'll talk all about that. And then we also have a fractional CFO who works, particularly with nonprofits and purpose-driven entrepreneurs around their finances and wrapping their minds around their numbers.

​

​

[00:02:47]And that's gonna be a really great episode. Cause money is always a difficult topic and really for anyone, no matter what stage you're in,  if you're just getting started or you're growing or scaling your business, having a really good hold on your finances is so important. So I'm really looking forward to that episode.

​

​

[00:03:05] But  for today, I'll actually be sharing my first solo episode on the podcast. Most of the episodes that you hear on, We Can Do This is going to be interviews with entrepreneurs, but occasionally I'll get the chance to share an idea or share something that I've been thinking about or working on in my own business or on client projects that we're doing.

​

​

[00:03:28]And today I'm actually going to be sharing a simple framework to use, to build an audience and launch an idea. So I hope you enjoy this episode.

​

​

[00:03:37] 

​

​

[00:03:51]So growing up, I was a boy scout.  Laugh, if you must, but. If we're camping together and you're getting cold, you're probably gonna look at me to start the fire.

​

​

[00:04:00]And that's usually the case. When I go camping with friends or family here in upstate New York everyone looks at me to build the fire. And so that's what we'll be talking about in the podcast today is how they build a fire. And this fire really represents your audience.

​

​

[00:04:14]I always say that one of the biggest assets that you can have as a business is an audience of people that are waiting to hear from you, that are looking forward to the next thing that you're launching, that are going to share what you're doing with their friends and family and other people that could do business with you.

​

​

[00:04:32]And it's the thing that everyone wants, but honestly, it's one of the hardest things to really do is to build an audience of loyal, engaged followers, especially online.  Today I'm going to share a simple framework to use, to build an audience and launch an idea. 

​

​

[00:04:48]Often people I talk to when they're launching a new project, invest a significant amount of money, whether that be hiring a designer or hiring someone to build a website for them, or to do a video campaign or something and not just money, just a lot of time and energy into preparing a launch a new idea. And then when they go and share this new idea with the public often, they don't get the kind of response that they were hoping for. And it can be a really frustrating experience when they've invested so much time and energy and especially capital into launching something that doesn't pan out the way that they want it to. Or something times people make a significant transition into starting a business without validating the idea at all.

​

​

[00:05:36]Then they realized that the solution, they just built wasn't really solving a problem for anyone. So what they end up doing is working really hard to pivot that idea to something that actually solves a problem for somebody, or they just spend a lot of money and try to figure out the best way to market themselves and find people that have that problem that they just built a solution for and that can be a really expensive experience. 

​

​

[00:06:01]So one of the first things that I do with people I work with, or in some of the one-on-one coaching I do is I prescribe an information diet. There's so much on the internet. There's so many blog articles. There's so many podcasts. There's so many YouTube videos. And it's amazing, but it can also be extremely overwhelming to consume so many different ideas, so many different thoughts and opinions, and often some of those will butt heads and contradict one another and be opposing ideas, right? 

​

​

[00:06:34] So as a entrepreneur or someone who specifically doesn't have experience in marketing or entrepreneurship. They can get really overwhelmed because they are looking for answers and the internet seems to have all these answers. But they don't know if they're the right answers and they don't know which of these things to really do or approach. So I prescribe people, a diet.

​

​

[00:06:56] I say, what is the next thing that you want to accomplish? What is the thing that you're really working on this week? Like if you were actually going to sit down this week and take action on some of these blog posts or books you're reading or videos you're watching, 

​

​

[00:07:11]Then actually limit what you're consuming to things that are going to help you do what you need to do this week to actually get traction or take a step forward in what you're looking to accomplish. And once you've identified, what that thing is, you can listen to, or read a variety of opinions, but at least it's around a central idea of something that you're going to be able to take action on in the next 48 hours, right. Or the next seven days. And what that does is it helps on some of the overwhelm, right? You're only looking at things that are relevant to that next thing that you're about to do. So what I'm going to be sharing with you today is just distilling some ideas down to like the simplest form, right.

​

​

[00:07:56]Building a fire.

​

​

[00:07:58] So the first thing you really need to decide is why are you building a fire? Like what is really the purpose of this fire? 

​

​

[00:08:05] There's actually different kinds of fires. Right? And I'm gonna be talking about what I think are the three different kinds of fires. 

​

​

[00:08:12]The first of these is to provide for a need, if you're cold fire helps you get warm. Right? 

​

​

[00:08:19]At the time I'm recording this about 18 months ago, my wife and I bought our first home and it's a fixer-upper, it's a fixer-upper of fixer-uppers. And I remember walking into our living room for the first time and seeing a  wood stove in our living room. And when this house was originally built, that was like the main heating source for the house was this wood stove in the living room.

​

​

[00:08:45]And, you know, you open the thing and put logs in there and catch it on fire. And that was the heating source for the house. And that's much different than my camping experience. Thats not like a campfire that you sit around for fun, right? It is providing a need for the home. And it needs to be really in Rochester, New York running year round to keep the family warm.

​

​

[00:09:11]So that's one kind of fire. It's a fire that provides for a need. So think of that in terms of a business, like there are specific kinds of businesses that provide for a need. So that could be. Primarily like a service-based company, which really accounts for a lot of different kinds of businesses, right?

​

​

[00:09:30]So like a clothing company provides a need. It provides products to its buyers. A coffee shop is a service based company for people that are looking for somewhere to go and buy coffee or a restaurant is a service-based business.

​

​

[00:09:46]You know, most manufacturers are service-based businesses. A lot of online SAAS companies are service-based businesses, right? They're providing a need for an end customer. They're the stove, right? It just really, you build this fire and it just needs to keep on burning to provide warmth.

​

​

[00:10:07]The second kind of fire is probably the one that you figured. Right? A camp fire. It's main purpose is to create community around an idea. Right. So if you've been camping, You know, you sit around the campfire, sing kumbaya with your family. And honestly, some of the most meaningful experiences of my life were around a campfire with friends and sharing really personal stories or just like really hilarious times.

​

​

[00:10:33] Right. A camp fire can be a really meaningful experience. So in the context of business, like what does a campfire look like? That looks like a business that creates community around what they do. So I think this in the case of a lot of the personal branding type businesses, if you're a, a coach or you're a consultant, or  you work in fitness or some of these things, like a lot of these brands are built around building a community around what they do.

​

​

[00:11:03]Like I have a friend that bought like a Peloton, right. And seeing like all the communities around the workout routines and the ways that they were interacting and dialoguing with other fitness people. Right. Other riders, other Peloton users. And there's like this community component there's loads of businesses that are really community driven.

​

​

[00:11:26]So that would be this kind of a fire. Fire that creates community, a campfire. 

​

​

[00:11:31]And then the third kind of fire is a fire that brings attention to a problem. So that would be a signal fire. When I think of this one, I think of, Castaway, right? Like

​

​

[00:11:43] 

​

​

[00:11:52]This kind of fire is bringing attention to a problem, right? The goal is not for this to be a cute little fire that we sit around. It's not just to keep the house warm, although maybe use to keep you warm. If you're stranded on an Island, there's something, but  the goal of this fire is to be as tall as possible because there is a problem that needs people's attention and that's a much different kind of fire than the other two.

​

​

[00:12:18]So if you think about this kind of fire, this is your organizations that are bringing awareness to a problem. This is typically a societal problem or something that is underlooked underrepresented, and really needs some attention or engagement around.

​

​

[00:12:37]Three different kinds of businesses, right. They're much different. But they all have the same essential building blocks to get started. Right. 

​

​

[00:12:47]So if you were to think of maybe if you have a business or an organization, or have an idea that you're working on,  what kind of fire are you? Do you create community around what you do? Do you provide a solution or provide for a need?

​

​

[00:13:07]Or are you trying to raise awareness around a big problem? Which one of those are you? I think its important to note that these also aren't exclusive. That there are some businesses that are complex businesses, right? One that comes to mind is companies like Patagonia, or like REI, right?

​

​

[00:13:28] They are a massive company. I think they did like two, 3 billion in revenue, primarily just from their products and their stores. Right. But they also advocate for climate change and they can contribute millions to hundreds of different nonprofit partnerships. But they're also structured as like a co-op right?

​

​

[00:13:44] So they have 20 million members and they, you can go on trips through REI and meet people and really enter in the community around the outdoors. Right. A complex business that has kind of all three of these facets of what we're talking about here, but it's important to note that you can't build a company like REI overnight, right?

​

​

[00:14:08]You really needed to work on one of these things at a time and then integrate different components. But you listening today, you might fall in one, two, or even three of these different categories. So next let's talk about what do you need to build a fire now that you know, what kind of fire you're building to start a fire you'll really need logs to build a fire.

​

​

[00:14:28]And let's say you need three logs to build a fire. You know, I think of like the little cartoon drawing of a campfire, like three logs, like a little teepee, right. One of these logs represents your brand. Your brand is at your core. Like who are you as a company or as an organization, or as an idea, like, what is your brand, what is that gut feeling that people have when they come into contact with you or they hear about what you do. That's kind of who you are at your essence. Right? And that also encompasses is a huge topic. Right? We'll talk about this in future episodes, but this encompasses your visual identity, your logo, you know, what are the, like the stylistic components of your brand, your verbal identity, how you talk, what do you sound like when you.

​

​

[00:15:13]When people read the copy on your website, or they watch a video of someone talking on behalf of your company what does that verbal identity, but also like, what do you represent? What is the value identity of what matters to you as a brand? That's one of these essential things. And that's one of the things that people usually they, they understand the visual side of it. But they  fail to understand the other aspects of a brand, but it's essential for building an audience, building this fire. A second log could be like your website. So where do I find you online if I'm, you know, kind of in 2021, like if I can't find you online, you don't really exist to me.

​

​

[00:15:52]You know, if I'm on a completely different side of the world, then I don't know you exist. Right? So a web property somewhere where someone can find you on the internet is important and it needs to be clear, right. And compelling that experience. And then the third log is your message.

​

​

[00:16:11]Why should I listen? What do you have to offer me? I have a short attention span. There's a lot of things trying to capture my attention. Why do we listen to you? That's like fly over, but these are these three kind of building blocks to build a fire. Right. And most people, like I said in the intro here is that people kind of get like the bare minimum of these things set up and then they just kind of cross their fingers and wait.

​

​

[00:16:37]For people's attention. Right. But people don't just freely give their attention in today's economy. Right. We really live in a day where everyone wants your attention and it's actually really difficult to get it. You  have to earn it.

​

​

[00:16:51]So if, but then the woods, and you've tried to build a fire and you just kind of stacked logs together you've probably noticed that the logs won't catch on fire. Right? That's usually where someone calls me in and says help, help us build this fire. Actually think about a family camping trip that we went on with my wife Shannon's family.

​

​

[00:17:11]And I remember one of her family members trying to build a fire and they essentially took like three logs and they stuffed like all this newspaper around the three logs, lit it on fire. And then they had like a leaf blower and they're like blowing the things that has, you know, this big flame goes up and then three minutes later, the fire is dead right.

​

​

[00:17:33] And they kept repeating this thing until I took over and actually made a fire.

​

​

[00:17:38] The important thing to really getting the flame to catch is you need smaller pieces of wood kindling that is going to first catch on fire long enough that it's going to allow the other logs to catch on fire. So in order to do that, you first need a spark.

​

​

[00:17:54]Right? So in this analogy, we really need to find the kindling that is going to be able to catch on fire first so that we can really sustain this fire for the longterm. So what that really represents is people, what is the small group of people that, you know, already have an interest in what you're doing?

​

​

[00:18:16]They might be friends of yours. They could be family members, they could be neighbors. Right. These could be people that, you know, that you can reach out to and share your idea with them first. Right? These are people that you've selected that are interested in what you do and. If you don't have those kinds of people, one, I mean, that might be something to think about is how come I actually, how come I'm not actually in touch with the people that I'm trying to serve.

​

​

[00:18:44] But two, if you don't have people that are kind of in that target audience that you're really trying to serve is to go on the peripheral of your group of friends and who are the people that, you know, that likely know the people who are in your target audience.

​

​

[00:19:02]This is like going in your campsite and trying to find the kindling but It's already been taken by all the previous campers, right? So you need to really go a quarter mile away from your campsite and find as much wood as you can get and bring it to your campsite.

​

​

[00:19:17]You need to go outside of your immediate circle of influence and find additional people that you could reach out to and see if they're interested in what you're doing. I remember when I started my business I wrote down a list of 15 people that I knew were interested in the kinds of things that I was providing.

​

​

[00:19:35]And I simply wrote a note to that and I said something like, Hey, there, I'm starting to do blank. Would it be okay if I sent you updates every so often about what I'm doing.

​

​

[00:19:48]And I think literally every single person responded to me with a yes, and they were actually really interested in what I was doing. And that was sort of the basis for me feeling like, Hey, if I'm starting to write anything about what I'm doing. If I want to create any videos, now I know who I'm talking to and actually have someone to send them to.

​

​

[00:20:09] Right. Before I had zero. Now I had 15. And that gave me the starting place to really nurture those relationships and help build some engagement there. Not necessarily to to grow from 15 to 500 really quick, it was really about nurturing those relationships. And that 15, that ended up growing.

​

​

[00:20:30]I think thats a testament to saying who is a small group of people that you can share an idea with. Now you have real people that you can write to communicate with and maybe even send sneak peeks to, to send surveys, to, to ask for their feedback. And now these people feel like they have an investment in some fashion in what you're doing and the right people actually really love to be on the inside.

​

​

[00:20:55]and depending on the idea that you have, it can be a really competitive industry that you're working in, or it can just be something that there's a lot of people that are interested in the conditions are so important for starting idea, right. It's just like starting a fire. If you've tried to start a fire just after a downpour, right?

​

​

[00:21:14] Like good luck. It's gonna be really difficult to get that fire to light. You might need to wait for some time to allow the conditions of the climate to actually build that fire. Or if you've tried to build a fire on a hot summer day  it feels like you can get anything that catch on fire, right?

​

​

[00:21:31]So the conditions are so important when it comes to building your fire. So let's say that we've done those things, right. We've gotten our three logs, right? We have our brand, we have our website, we have our message and we kind of have these core pillars of things that we need to set up to really have the essentials of what we need to start our idea, our business, our movement.  And now we have this group of people that are intrigued on what we're doing. They've given us their consent to reach out to them. 

​

​

[00:22:02]And when I say this group of people, what I really recommend is to have their contact information, right. Primarily their email address, so that you can send updates to them via email. This could also be like Facebook or Instagram or something.

​

​

[00:22:15]But I think it's really important to have these individuals on something that you own opposed to something that you're renting. When I think of this, I think of the difference between like owning a CD or I don't know if people have CDs anymore, but have like MP3s on their computer, maybe on your desktop versus having a Spotify account.

​

​

[00:22:38]Right. Cause when you have a Spotify account, if you don't pay for Spotify anymore, then. The songs go goodbye, right. Or if Spotify shuts down, right. You don't have access to your music anymore. Right. But let's say you buy someone's album and you save the MP3s to your computer. No, one's going to take away those MP3s from you. Same way with, if you have someone's contact information, you have their email address. No one's going to be able to throttle that experience.

​

​

[00:23:06] You know, Facebook seems like it's been down a million times in the past year. There's no barrier to you reaching your audience.  It's just that list of people's contact information and that have consented to receiving updates from you is one of the most valuable things that you can have. So let's say we  have our brand, our website, our message.

​

​

[00:23:27] And we have this core group of people you can light a spark and that spark is likely going to catch on fire to some degree.  Now the question is not, can we get the spark to light? But the question is now that this fire is lit, how do we fan the flame?

​

​

[00:23:43]And that's where it gets really interesting because there's different ways to really grow your audience once you've built it.  What are ways that we can nurture these relationships? What are ways that we can grow this community?

​

​

[00:23:58]And now that we know that this fire is lit, if we find the right people that are similar to this audience, now that we know that this idea has resonated with this group of people. Let's find more people like them and it's likely to resonate, and this fire is gonna grow bigger.

​

​

[00:24:12]So I know that's really simple, but I hope that's something that kind of sticks with you. This idea that building an audience is like building a fire. You only need a few simple things, but you need to be thoughtful around these things and you really want to identify a core group of people that you have access to that, you know, that can really help you get this thing started.

​

​

[00:24:36]And once you've validated your idea with the right people, then that is really going to help you when you go to market and share this idea with more people. So hopefully you found that helpful today. I know this was a little bit of a fly over. We can go into some of these things in so much more detail related to your branding, right?

​

​

[00:24:57] Your website and what that needs to look like, your core message proposition. 

​

​

[00:25:03] But we're going to be doing that in future episodes,  but let me know what you think. And like I said, if you found anything valuable in this episode it would be amazing if you would share this with a friend or share it on social media, or jump onto Apple Podcasts and leave a review, that would be a huge deal for the show.

​

​

[00:25:23]See you next week.

​

​

[00:25:24] 

​

​

[00:25:59]