Last week, I helped organize an event at Kitchentown with the organizers from the Northern California IFT Section. And by organized, I just connected them via email.
Though San Mateo is far from Sacramento, we go there often because it is the best place to create products in the Bay Area. I also really like the people there.
During the event, I was approached by two young professionals who have listened to the podcast and have told me how much it’s impacted their career. They were very enthusiastic to see me in person, which I’m not used to.
It’s a surreal feeling when you meet someone who actually reads and actually listens to what you say. It’s super surreal when it’s a complete stranger and know more about your life than you do sometimes.
Whenever I talk to someone, someone with passion in their eyes, I want to make the conversation worth it. Sear it into their memory, give them value, and leave them inspired.
Even if it’s a speaking event, I can still spot out the passionate ones and that’s what makes it worth it.
This article is about True Fans, and how to get True Fans. Fans that see you, follow you, love what you’re doing. They are important and they will save you from the darkest times.
True Fans
We sprinkle the concept of 100 True Fans by Kevin Kelly very often in the various articles of My Food Job Rocks but I’m going to talk about it in a bit more detail this article.
The concept is that an artist doesn’t have to care about pleasing the masses, but rather to please the specific few. If you think of any demographic in the world, then there are probably 1000 in that specific demographic.
Are there 1000 food scientists in the world? Probably. So My Food Job Rocks content caters specifically to them. Those that want to join our party, I welcome you.
But what does it take to actually acquire a true fan? Not 100% sure. But I’m scratching the surface.
I recently received a sponsorship from someone who was a “true fan” of the podcast. He was a long-time listener and he fought for me to get funding from a pretty big organization. In fact, most of my sponsors for the show was because they were true fans, who saw what I was doing, who might have saw a glimpse on the effort I’ve put into the platform, and have helped me build My Food Job Rocks into what it is today. I really can’t thank the believers enough for helping me.
Like in most articles on My Food Job Rocks, we try and round these marketing examples into examples in Food Companies. One company, in particular, that does an excellent job at catering to true fans is the company Dirty Lemon. Dirty Lemon is this small yet expensive e-commerce store that recently received funding from Coca-Cola. $15 million to be exact.
If you check out Dirty Lemon’s Instagram page, it’s not super impressive. Just 1000-5000 likes. 95% of their revenue comes from mobile sales, you can deduce that dirty lemon acts more like an exclusive club rather than a company with a megaphone but no legs to stand on.
I’ve personally never seen a Dirty Lemon product in my life, but the justification to rake in $15 million from the largest drink brand in the world is no easy feat. But who knows? From my experience, funding is weird.
Thank You
Sometimes I give shout outs to the people who have reached out to me and connected with me in some way at the end of the interview. I’m not sure who actually listened to the end of my podcasts. I don’t even script them anymore because I want to get better at practicing without a script.
I think it’s amazing when podcast hosts get personal and talk about their fans. The people who’ve contacted them or retweeted them, or whatever. It’s really important to do this because you actually never know who’s listening.
I don’t expect anyone to actually listen to the 160+ episodes of My Food Job Rocks. I believe the only one who has, is me. I expect people to pick and choose and get the knowledge they want with that specific job. However, some people actually do binge watch and do notice when I thank them. It takes 5 seconds to do, so just do it.
Thanking people publicly on the podcast is good practice.
But maybe you aren’t getting “thank you’s” just yet. It takes a lot of effort to get someone to commit to a thank you and it really just takes practice being impactful.
Crafting your message is just like any skill, it takes practice. When someone reaches out to thank you, then your message is starting to resonate.
It Just Takes One
It just takes one fan to pull you out of the darkness. They will never know you’re in the dark, but it takes just one email, one message or coffee chat to make everything worth it.
The reverse works as well. If you feel overwhelmed about pleasing everyone, just start with one. This is a lesson I learned from Into the Spiderverse. Just save one.
Our culture is designed to tell us that we need to make an impact as big as possible and if you can do that, great! For the people who get overwhelmed with this challenge, it’s just easy to start with one.
Creating just one fan is easier than you think. It doesn’t have to be someone you don’t know. It’s nice to get a message from someone you don’t know, but it’s not necessary.
It can be a friend, a partner, anyone personal can be your fan. But maybe you don’t have that cause you’re a terrible person like me.
My first fan was Nicole Gallace from Foodgrads because My Food Job Rocks was originally a collaboration with Foodgrads. She helped me promote the podcast and give it legs and gave me the confidence needed to get going.
I’ve passed on this first fan with others. I’ve become a “first fan” to many different podcasts, just because that’s how you can get started. Having one person care about what you plan to do is all you need to go for it.
