How a writer, a medical student and a startup founder unlocked opportunities because of their online presence

Hey friends,

At Story Alley we talk a lot about audience building. We bring you the stories of people who have leveraged their audiences to unlock opportunities, tips and tricks to accelerate your journey and insights that will save you time.

This week, we’re going to shake things up a bit.

It’s time we brought you real-life examples of the benefits of audience building. Ones that don’t come from people with 100K or 20K followers, but from regular folks.

Why? Sometimes it may be difficult to get inspired and relate to people who are much further along than you. Of course, it works for them. But they have a much bigger digital footprint. How can you be sure you’ll have success before you reach their level?! Well, the good news is you don’t have to. Here are 3 examples of opportunities everyday people have attracted through audience building.

Find a co-founder (or team members)

This is a big one. Finding the right co-founder for any business is a tall order and can take months. Especially so when you have to rely on old school methods.

Building an audience by sharing your knowledge and ideas is a good way to shortcut this process. It will attract the people who resonate with them, expanding your pool of talented people to choose from. Piyush here is a great example of this, but did you know that the cofounders of a multi-billion dollar company also met online? Henrique Duburgas and Pedro Franceschi met on Twitter as teenagers in Brazil, long before co-founding Brex together. Talk about playing long-term games with long-term people!

Connect with customers 

Having a strong online presence can make you stand out in the eyes of potential customers. You will likely choose to build your personal brand on a platform where your customers and industry peers are active. Engaging with them in a meaningful way could bring you new business and accelerate your sales process, no matter if you’re flying solo or a part of a bigger organization. Adriane here is a prime example of this…and she’s got less than 1,000 followers. If she can do it, you can too.

Create exciting opportunities out of thin air

We’ve all heard stories of people who had seemingly unbelievable opportunities materialize directly in front of them. It often seems like they’re just lucky. However, what we don’t see is the hard work that they put in behind the scenes in order to pave them way for the right opportunity to find them.

For example, Jared Dashevsky started a healthcare newsletter to help his medical school classmates understand and navigate the healthcare system. Week after week, he showed up, wrote the newsletter and talked about it on Twitter. Then, one day, Workweek founder Adam Ryan reached out to acquire the newsletter.

What seems like chance is often the result of long-term preparation and consistency. If you put in the right inputs, sooner or later success will follow.

Bonus

Building a strong online presence is a long-game, but it’s well worth it. What often starts as an experiment can unlock career opportunities, income streams and the freedom to choose what you work on and with whom.

With love,

Team Salley

What is Salley?

Salley helps you build habits that allow you to create a strong online presence. With us, you can stay accountable and earn stress alleviating rewards for hitting your content goals.