Casting a Wider Net for Your Audience
Look Around for Signs + Ideas
The other day I was watching Sonic with my nephew which turned into an hour of playing some board game that I almost won despite someone's effort to try and take advantage of me not knowing the rules.
He showed me the different decks that came with the Sonic game as well as the accompanying folding board.
While he was closing up the board, I had a thought.
I'm not into Sonic but I am into mysticism. He's moderately interested in mysticism and deeply into Sonic.
What if I made an oracle deck with Sonic?
Granted, I wouldn't be able to sell it to the public. Something about IP laws, but it did take me down a rabbit hole that I wanted to explore.
What if I created decks for kids?
There's a 95% probability that I won't because that's not the niche I want to get into right now. HOWEVER this topic has come up over the past few months with clients. As much as we create for adults, are there kids who could also benefit from your expertise and magic?
Self-publishing is a major passion point of mines. Just take a look at the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes going on right now. Being a creator means creating magic but it also means your gifts can be easily exploitable.
I won't hesitate to advocate for self-publishing as an option for those who don't want to wait for an agent or publisher to validate their ideas.
It's not for everyone but it is for many who don't think they can.
And as I think about playing cards with my nephew, I am going to wonder about how much he'd love a personalized deck to explore his intuition with a character he totally resonates with. I'd tap into two things - his fixation with Sonic and curiosity about mysticism.
I remember downloading a template someone created years ago for some tarot cards with the visual aesthetics of Lisa Frank. You had to see how quick I printed that demo deck out!
The Q for today is to ask yourself...
Are you casting a wide enough net with your brand + business?
Is there an untapped audience that would devour your products?
We have a new moon in Cancer to start the week and that's a great time to set intentions that align you with your intuition.
On a side note - I was reminded how I broke rule number #1 when I moved everything to Podia. They had a recent outage that lasted a long time and it was a brutal reminder not to put all of your eggs in one basket.
The same rule applies with your monetization strategy.
So much of our world has changed over the last two decades. How we sustain a livelihood is so different now.
Gone are the days of spending 30 years with one company, making enough to support a white picket fenced house with 2.5 kids and a pet or two.
Now one has to take on several gig jobs to maybe afford the closet in a studio.
Diversifying how you monetize gives you opportunities to expand your reach and connect with an untapped audience.
Like witchy kids who love cartoons! 😬
As consumer behaviors continue to shift, this is a great time to reassess where you are leaving money on the table.
It's July but before you know it, we'll be counting down to the holiday shopping season.
If you've got your eyes set on self-publishing a book or developing a deck, NOW is the time to get that started so you have enough time to ideate, design, develop, print, and distribute.