Inbound vs. Outbound · Synthesizer School

Feb '23 in Other

Inbound vs. Outbound

I feel like there is a question of whether i should be building an audience, or how much time I should spend on it, it seems like this is sort of an open question in the Synthesizer School right now, on a lot of people's minds, and in the spirit of learning in public, I wanted to share how I've been thinking about it.

So I think of consistently posting content to my distribution channel is like building my resume, my portfolio, or even my 401K. I'm investing daily in the future, come what may. And so while I am trying to optimize for building a following and even a movement, I'm not overly focused on immediate outcomes there.

This is the *inbound* strategy, so that value will come towards me in the future. Anyone can see that I have a track record. Consistency allows me to refine the substance of what I'm talking about, trim away the fat, and make better presentation of my content to my target audience.

But I think it is as important to spend at least as much time on the *outbound* strategy. This is where I look for opportunities for permissionless apprenticeship, and sometimes cold DMs, replies, comments, where I add value for free, right away. And I try to sense memes or trends, and use them to bootstrap and add another layer. And then following up with people later on -- not in an annoying way -- but with an even further refined value-add, very specific to them, can show people who might've been on the fence that I'm dedicated to growing and improving, and can show them that I'm worth their time.

This is sort of a barbell strategy -- about equal amounts of time on --

1.) creating content (refining both substance and presentation) and

2.) very specific, value-add outreach (improving my offer).

Obviously this ratio can adjust with momentum, and people here are at different levels in their content creation journey. Personally, I have been have had some success (made about ~$50K) through writing alone, without building a huge audience, purely through high value readers and DMs. But I do think audience shouldn't be neglected, and can be a great asset.

How do you guys think about this?

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