DailyJim: It’s hard to be crowdemployed without a crowd

Hello everyone, welcome to another Daily Gym. This is the episode for Monday, September 30th, 2024. Just a little bit after midnight. Today I want to talk about how it's hard to be crowd-employed without a crowd.

So what do I mean by this? I had a few conversations with some good friends of mine that I've known from work and play and everything in between. And um some of the feedback that i got from one of them is that man the business model you're trying to do this whole crowd employment thing it'll probably take you two to three years to really get going and you know what are you going to do in the meantime and how are you going to figure it out and then the other one was i don't know how we got to it i think you're talking about like this whole crowd employment idea the ones who have done it quite well or maybe not even in the crowd employment, the ones who have done this idea of informal teaching or informal education, the ones who have done it well tend to go towards more mass media. They tend to go towards television, whether that was Mr. Rogers doing a TV show or even the Martin Luther Kings. He would speak at large church gatherings, but there were also huge marches and the marches also got a lot of television coverage. And then he also mentioned Anthony Bourdain, who maybe was doing something similar with his TV show and traveling around. And a lot of the informal learning, informal education tends to take place in this one-to-many instead of the one-to-few or the one-to-one model, if you're familiar with those.

And I don't know, but when I was talking to him, something clicked. It's like, wait, I'm trying to do this idea of a crowdfunding or a crowd employment, but I don't have a crowd. I don't really have a crowd. I have my audience or my people on Facebook, I have WhatsApp, Instagram, and most of those are people that I've met. And yeah, I've met a lot of people on LinkedIn as well. Yeah, I've met a lot of people. But what, 1,000, 2,000 people on each platform? It's kind of a crowd, but it's not a really big crowd. Crowd and if the business model of crowd employment relies on people giving 20 10, five dollars a month i need a i need a lot of people it's a numbers game in a way, and just started thinking about it and i was like well i need to i need to gather a crowd, and what struck me it was really interesting i think for so long i've been really afraid of being famous.

You know, all the attention on me and all that. But when I think about gathering a crowd, I'm like, yeah, let's gather a crowd. Let's get people around. I can tell a story. Oh, this could be fun. Come around, everyone. Let me tell you a story. Let me share a conversation with you, either one that I've had before or one that I'm having right in the moment.

Something about gathering a crowd proud doesn't intimidate me as much as being famous. And I find it so fascinating that these little variations, these little deviations or reframings in language can really have us feel and respond in different emotional ways.

Huh, gathering a crowd. That sounds interesting. Oh, okay, now how can I gather a crowd? Oh, maybe I'll do more podcast episodes where I have guests, because if it's just me talking into the mic, audio only, it tends to not get that much attention. If I have guests, then it's easier for me to promote, hey, I have a guest on the show, come listen to me talk to this guest, and they can promote to the people who follow them and listen to them. And then there can be a melding of different crowds, actually, or small gatherings that at some point can seem like a crowd.

I could also do more live things on Instagram or on YouTube or just a live stream where it's more interactive, more video. So video podcasts with the guests instead of just audio only. There's different ways to gain attention. There's different ways to gather a crowd and i just wonder how many times in the last many many years have i avoided that, where i'm like i don't really want to gather a crowd i kind of want to operate in the shadows in a little bit let me just throw something out there maybe people would get it but at the same time saying i really want to lead i really want to challenge norms and cultures and they're like you know cultural norms in society how do i do that from the shadows shadows.

Now, do I want to be the guy that's standing on the corner trying to gather a crowd with a megaphone? Maybe not, but maybe.

Yeah, and just understanding and seeing how sometimes, I don't know, having really hard conversations with some friends and then telling me it won't work, you know, this won't work. But sometimes not seeing why they're saying that or hearing why they're saying it and them not necessarily being able to articulate it. But then in other conversations going, Aha! Simple in my mind. How can I do crowdfunding? How can I do crowd employment without a crowd? You can't do crowd employment without a crowd. The whole model relies on a crowd. I don't have a crowd. Simple. That's why people keep asking me, Well, how many people listen to the podcast? Guests i'm like oh it's not that many of course in their mind they're thinking okay maybe of all the people who listen to you 10 of them will be like really want to listen to you and then of the like 10 of that 10 might think about contributing some help in some way and then you get down to like another 10 who are the people who really really want to help out financially or um emotionally or with other resources um and so yeah it's a numbers game and i've known that in theory but maybe i was just overplaying my my hand and thinking ah but that's okay i can i can get like 90 of the people who listen they'll be they'll be on board not really and again.

Even if it's 90 of a thousand people a thousand people's not really a crowd yeah i mean maybe in person it's a crowd if i got a thousand people gathered around a thousand people's crowd but a thousand people on the internet it's not really a crowd it's kind of like a i don't even know it's a small group because not many of them are i don't know how you know much attention they're paying or whatnot so yeah so i'm gonna end this tonight but just wanted to reflect on that idea of how sometimes things can seem so complicated, but with just the right reframing, it makes a lot more sense. How could I do crowd employment? How could I be, you know, crowd employed if I don't have a crowd? And what can I do to build a crowd? To gather a crowd, Not even build, gather. How do I gather a crowd? So, no answers for tonight, but just some questions, reflections, and wonder if this peaks something in your life or your thought process. All right, take care.