Why You Need to Raise a Small Army

I was brushing up on my Russian History the other day (as you do), and I came across a guy named Peter the Great; son of Tsar Alexis I. To cut an long (but awesome) story short, when Peter was just 10 years old he started building a “toy army”.

However, this being Russia, “toy” was a slightly inappropriate description; Peter enlisted the help of his playmates, noblemens' sons and attendants of his father, directing them to run drills and mock battles in which these “soldiers” would often lose their lives.

Although most commonly used for his own entertainment, Peter later deployed this “toy army” to take back the throne from his half-sister. With his army by his side, Tsar Peter I founded the Russian Empire.

In my own opinion, the meaning of this story is clear; if a Russian prince has to build his own army, then you certainly do. Whether it’s an army of customers or a regiment of loyal employees - you will have to go out and recruit them yourself. Unfortunately, no Tsar is going to come knocking on your door to offer you his soldiers.

So how is this achieved, you ask?

Pick a Niche

When I first set out to build my brand I had a very clear picture of who I was writing for. (And it wasn’t just everyone with a pulse). I was writing for the makers, the doers, the inventors, the athletes who needed to get noticed, and the up-and-coming millionaires. I knew that I had the experience and drive to make their business a success - I just needed to track them down!

“But I can’t find my niche!” you cry.

No sir! You haven’t found your niche yet. I hate to go all Yoda on you, but you’ll know when you’ve found your niche - because it will inspire you.

My inspiration comes from waking up every day knowing that I’m helping the next generation of “makers” achieve their dream. I’m on a quest to write 1000 words every day, and that kind of task would be impossible if it wasn’t for the fact that I know my writing helps my kind of people; the rough-around-the-edges entrepreneur. It’s an awesome feeling to be able to help develop great minds - people who know what they want, but just need that final push to take them to the next level. Providing that push has become my forte, my passion, my niche. When you find that same passion and drive for what you’re doing, you’ll know you’ve found yours.

Find your Everest

Once you’ve found a niche that really resonates with you - you need to find your Mount Everest. This is your main aim; your measurement of success. I find Everest an empowering metaphor; you can almost see the icy pinnacle and the intrepid explorers  setting out to reach its summit.

When searching for your Everest, it is important to have realistic goals. As a result, I suggest two key “rules” when attempting to find your purpose:

1. it must resonate with your niche
2. it must resonate with you personally

Ignoring the naysayers is another important thing to bear in mind; something which I have come to realise after my own ignorance of other peoples’ goals. Due to my ambitious nature, I’m often horrified when friends of a similar age (23!) pop-up on my Newsfeed announce that they are expecting yet another child. Being married and tied down with kids this young seems nonsensical to me, and I would often question how anyone could be happy being in that situation. Eventually I started to realise that their family was their everest. Their mission may be completely different to mine, but this is not due to a lack of ambition, or laziness; it is purely a different concept of happiness and achievement.

The problem is that we have different definitions of success. In order to maintain growth and development, your everest needs to be so grand, so unachievable that you could work towards this goal bit by bit for the rest of your life. Given that definition, the cynic in me would suggest that a happy marriage is a perfect example of this  - divorce rates being what the are.

But in all seriousness - no matter what your everest, it needs to be your own.

HINT: if reaching your peak wouldn't make you feel like you’re Nelson Mandela or Washington standing on the boat across the Delaware, then it’s not your everest - it’s just something you want.

Put out the Call to your Bannermen

Once you’ve found your niche, and identified your everest, you are ready to find your “army” of customers; it’s time to put out the call to your bannermen…and that means marketing. Marketing is a hard thing to crack. That’s why I do it for a living.

If you’re just getting set-up and have 0 followers, I’d suggest the following strategy:

1. Find the platform your niche uses the most (LinkedIn, Twitter, Periscope)
2. Create amazing, visual content that grabs attention and links back to your website
3. Get your content in front of as many eyeballs as you can.

Once you have your everest, your niche and a strong “recruitment call”, you’re ready to start enlisting your “soldiers”. Like all marketing on Web 2.0, this recruitment will be slow at first, but it will gradually reach a crescendo. At this point you won’t even need to reach all of your bannermen yourself; current recruits will do the leg work for you (a fine example of viral marketing). And that’s all there is to it! Simple, eh?

Hi there! Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings, seriously I really appreciate it.

If you’d like to know more about what to do once a potential “recruit” gets to your website, pop me a message. Or if you’d like to follow my adventure into self-employment, make sure to subscribe.