In today’s world of self-marketing and self-promotion, one of the keys to remember is that your best goal may not be to become famous but rather MicroFamous.
Recently, Intentionally Inspirational founder Jason Wright sat down with Matt Johnson, the founder of the Pursuing Results Marketing Agency and author of MicroFamous: Become Famously Influential to the Right People, to talk about what MicroFamous means and why it’s a good goal.
3 Stages of Influence
Johnson says achieving MicroFamous status happens in the three stages of influence.
Get Seen – This is when you make yourself publicly available. People look at you and say, “Hey, I know that person,” but they can’t quite link a name to a face.
Get Noticed – This is when you start to zero in on a core message and recognize what resonates with people. They don’t just say, “I know that person,” they say, “That’s the MicroFamous guy.”
Get Known – This is when it all comes together. That’s when people see your name and link it to a face and a cause. For example, “I know him, that’s Matt, the MicroFamous guy,” or “That guy does X.”
You have to get seen to get noticed; you have to get noticed to get known.
Why Influence Matters
Influence is significant because that’s what leads to sales. Influence is what causes people to turn to you.
“If you just got attention and you were the only game in town selling what you sold, well then yeah, that’s going to translate into sales. But as soon as there’s that selection again, that breaks. The attention doesn’t convert into sales anymore,” said Johnson.
Think about Tony Robbins, but on a smaller scale. You want to be so well known in your small sphere of influence that it immediately translates into sales. That’s what being MicroFamous does.
How to Become MicroFamous
So, how do you become MicroFamous?
Johnson says you have to start with having a clear and compelling idea of what you do.
“[Have] an idea at the core of your business that speaks so deeply to the right people that when they hear that, they can’t unhear it, and they have to learn more,” said Johnson. “If you have that, everything in your business easy, and if you don’t have it, everything in your business is going to feel like a struggle.”
Can Podcasting Play a Role in Becoming MicroFamous?
Once you have that clear and compelling idea of what you do, you can start to spread your message. Johnson works with a lot of clients who find that podcasting does that best. He says one of the biggest mistakes his clients make initially is trying to go after too large of an audience.
“I think the days of launching a conversational podcast that becomes a Joe Rogan type show, I think those days are, for the most part, behind us,” said Johnson. “Not because it’s not good, it’s because there’s such an oversupply. You can basically find an interview-style podcast in every single niche, and unless that person screws up or stops podcasting, there’s no reason for their audience to switch over to a new podcast.”
Instead of shooting for that large audience, Johnson tells his clients to aim for a much, much smaller one.
“I think we do need to get a lot more focused when we go to the market with a new podcast. I’m telling all my clients, shorter interviews, mix in a healthy dose of solo episodes under 15 minutes and make sure that the podcast speaks really, really deeply to an audience of no more than 10,000 people,” said Johnson. “So, you’re able to give them something that they can’t get from the other podcast that they’re listening to. Because, when yours comes out, it’s like, ‘Holy cow, where was this podcast all my life? I’ve been sifting through all these other podcasts listening to every fifth or tenth episode to get what I want, and this podcast is exactly what I want every single time.’ That’s how you break out with a new show.”
Conclusion
During his talk, Johnson also talks about the best way to choose a side hustle and the one thing he wished he had done differently at the start of his career. You can watch the entire Intentionally Inspirational podcast interview with Matt Johnson here on YouTube or listen to the podcast here.
Written by Erika Towne