How To Create Exactly What Your Audience Craves Without Selling Out
Catering is not the same as pandering.
The crowd was heaving.
From behind the mic I could see over an ocean of heads, wall-to-wall to the front door. Packed to capacity, and sweat pouring off everyone. Thank god closing time was nearing. We only had a few songs left, people were hooking up all around us, and the place was electric.
I looked over at the only other person on stage with me, and we took a second to catch our breath. It was our 17th Thursday in a row at this venue, and each week it kept getting crazier. And we were only an acoustic act.
After high school, my friends went to university. I loathed the idea.
So, I sang for my rent. In all kinds of bands, in all kinds of places. I quickly realised smaller acts made more money. We played a lot. A lot. I learned about marketing, hustling, and maybe most useful in life, how “the show must go on”. Before we ‘hung up the guitars’ we were booked in advance a full year.
The reason we were booked solid?
I’ll share it with you now. You can use the same method and get loads of eyeballs on your business. Or whatever you want.
The secret to why we were in such demand
Was it skill? Sure, we could sing and play. But that alone doesn’t explain it — we could barely get a gig when we started.
Was it luck? Maybe.
But I became fascinated with the idea of becoming in-demand. I convinced a bar owner to give me 100 drink cards to give to people who filled out my questionnaire. The results were eye-opening.
Seems obvious in hindsight — I realized we were focusing on the wrong stuff. I thought people cared what we looked like, what we sounded like, if we played cool songs, etc. But what they actually cared about, according to the data, pointed to one single metric: It was how much fun they had.
So while my buddy was more interested in picking up girls, I decided to go full research mode. I had something to measure: their fun.
Research mode
I went to as many bars and clubs as possible, any venue that had live music, of any variety. I observed. I studied. I took notes: what songs did people find it impossible not to get up and dance, what made them sit down, what combo of songs made the most girls dance, what made people sing along, what did people slow dance to, what made people spontaneously start making out, what songs made the crowd agressive, what made them happy, etc. I starting seeing patterns.
I took this info, and applied it to our set lists…
The data told me to to axe half our songs. I ate my pride, and did it. I trawled the Top 20, Top 50, and classics albums, found material that we loved AND what people loved AND (according to the data) what elicited reactions we desired. We strategically designed our repertoire to be overflowing with bangers, while still being full of stuff we loved to play, AND what made the girls get up and dance, and stay dancing.
I figured that was the most important response, because if the girls are dancing and having fun, that draws the guys, that draws more girls, then more guys, and then everyone is having a blast and true ‘let-your-hair-down-and-party’ vibe kicks in.
And it worked.
Ultimately, we’d get an envelope of cash at the end of the night with a “You guys wanna come back next week?”
I’m sure you see how this applies to business.
Catering is not the same as pandering
People always get stuck with making content thinking they are selling out, or pandering. And it’s horrible to feel like that. I hate that feeling.
But there’s a way to create things people can’t get enough of AND that you enjoy creating. And when you find the sweet spot, things can really take off.
One of the first things I do when working with a new client is figure out where the traffic is stuck
This shakes loose some easy wins and gets cash flowing again.
Usually, there’s a mismatch between the content someone is making, and what the audience wants to consume, AND what elicits the reactions you desire. If you can get these three aligned better you’ll find yourself in The Goldilocks Zone Of Glory and everything instantly picks up.
You may have stumbled upon this in your social feed. Now and then a post will take off that you found easy/fun to create, it gets great engagement, and puts people in your pipeline… Then you spend the rest of your life trying to replicate that lightning in the bottle.
Well 😎 I have powerful methods that reveal exactly what your people want. And the results are eye-opening. Once you know these, you can put them into your rotation and your content will become dialled in, from now on.
It all starts with becoming fascinated with what people want. With that information in hand, you now have the power to connect with more of your audience about what matters most.
5 foolproof data-driven ways to find out what really turns on your avatar
I’m not just talking about social content. I’m talking about pillar content that results in people buying from you.
The sooner you stop making what you think will work, and go by the data instead, the sooner you’ll have people responding to your CTA’s and booking calls with you.
I’ll present them in two categories; if you already have an audience, and if you don’t.
And as a bonus, then I’ll show you what to do with it so people will want to book calls with you.
To reward my paid subscribers the second half of this post is just for them. Consider upgrading now to keep reading, among the other sweet benefits.