Why Nathan Baugh quit his consulting job to make a living on Twitter

Hey friends,

Nothing makes us happier than when people tell their friends about Story Alley. It’s the ultimate form of trust. That’s why we want to say a big THANK YOU to Savian Boroanca, who has referred the most people to Story Alley in the past week.

We don’t know about you, but we at Story Alley are constantly excited to learn from people we admire. That’s why we’re extremely excited that this week we’re chatting with storyteller extraordinaire Nathan Baugh.

Nathan spent a few years in consulting where he started writing a book in his free time. That led to studying the storytelling and world building of the best authors ever, including writing by hand, word for word, Neil Gaiman's book Stardust. He then got active on Twitter, where he's built an audience of 150k+ around the business of storytelling and writes a weekly newsletter in addition to consulting for VC-backed tech startups. He's likely reading, writing, or shooting hoops.

Tell us about your audience building journey: how and why did you decide to do this?

I quit my job in big4 consulting when my wife and I moved to Spain for her to pursue an international MBA. Audience building meant attracting inbound clients while also getting to build out my own revenue streams (newsletter and products). It took quite a while (maybe 5 months) before I started to see a return on the time invested. Also, I'm writing a book, so having a large audience serves as social proof people like my writing, gives me marketing channels for the book, and leverage when talking with literary agents and publishing houses.

What impact has audience building had for you?

The network I've built by sharing my thoughts online is incredible. Some of the people I DM or text regularly, and who now have become friends, would have shocked me if you told me one year ago.

Now, let’s get in the weeds. What were the tactics that helped you grow the most? Why?

Try all the platforms that interest you. Double down on where you see traction. Study the analytics. Do whatever got you traction over and over again for six months until you're incredible at it. For me, on Twitter, that's writing non-cliche threads.

What is one piece of advice you wish someone gave you in the beginning of your audience building journey?

It's about consistency. You'll be bad at it at first, but if you expand your time horizon, you'll figure it out. In short: build a network, be consistent, long time horizon.

What is Salley?

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