Episode 4 - Effort & Consistency is All It Takes to Grow Your Audience

Episode 4 - Effort & Consistency is All It Takes to Grow Your Audience

What does it take to build a tribe or break through the noise? It's easy: effort and consistency. By showing up everyday and actually putting in the work to engage with your audience will win time and time again.

Kevin shares the best example of this through Casey Neistat's recent 100+ days of vloging all while building a tech startup.

Show notes:

• Intro
• How Kevin's Kickstarter campaign was successful through effort and consistency
• Casey Neistat's success and commitment to his tribe
• When the you open the door, your audience will listen. Stop pushing and start engaging.
• Execution is key.

Contact Kevin: @koco83 kevin@thenichemovement.com

Ask your questions: @nichemovement

Coming to iTunes & Sticher soon.

Day 25 - Could Twitter Lead You Onto The Set Of A Documentary? It Did For This Student

In day 22’s post on Monday, I introduced Katie Bean as one of the biggest activators to help spread the Niche Movement when I launched it in early 2013. Because of Katie’s support, I was introduced to Nikki Uy. Nikki was a student at St. Joseph's University, when she was accepted into our first Niche Movement online cohort program in the spring of 2013. When I met Nikki, she was your typical student leader: - led a group of volunteers to teach ESL

- part of the school’s chapel choir

- Dean’s list

- and was part of the peer educator program.

Within the first few weeks of working with Nikki, I realized that as a junior in college she was close to finding her niche but didn’t know how to take the next step. She has a passion for speech therapy and teaching English as a second language to others. Specifically, Nikki wanted to learn how to help others tell their story by participating in our program. In reality, what Nikki needed, was a way to tell her story first, before she could help others tell their story.

I am a very big advocate for young adults to leverage digital networking and social media tools while keeping in mind that face to face conversations still is still the most valuable form of communication. On paper Nikki had a great resume from her extra-curricular experience at St. Joe’s, but she was missing a digital footprint. She was not on Twitter and had only reactivated her Facebook account to connect with others in our cohort. She didn’t have a LinkedIn profile, blog or any real significant presence online. Here was a young woman that had accomplished so much, yet if someone searched for her name online they would find nothing.

This happens to all too many student leaders. Employers look at a resume they like and then search the name online. Finding nothing is about as bad as finding a college party picture. This is why producing a strong digital identity is such a critical component of the Niche Movement, because in order to land the job you love (or start a business you love) you need to have a strong digital presence.

As part of the cohort I was leading that spring, I taught students how to not only leverage digital networking and the tools at their fingertips, but I helped them with their digital footprint. The first thing I did with Nikki was advise her to give Twitter a chance and create an account. Nikki  created an account and together, we helped her identify Twitter hashtags, accounts to follow, and weekly chats to jump into. By the end of the cohort experience, Nikki already saw the power of digital networking and advantages of putting herself out there. In June 2013, she wrote a follow up blog post for The Niche Movement sharing her experiences of how she connected with other speech therapists, graduate students, and became reassured that there was a high demand of work in this field. In her post, Nikki said  “These sort of connections, simply through reading Tweets, have reaffirmed what I want to do with my life.” That is how powerful digital tools can be for students when they understand them and how to best put them into action.

I came to find out that Nikki was also passionate about photography, videography, and documentaries. This all made sense, especially, since she was passionate about telling other people’s story. The six week program was over, but the journey of how Nikki was telling her story and getting closer to her niche was just getting started.

In the summer of 2013, going into her senior year, Nikki went on to create a well-designed about.me page and started a blog where she was documenting her life photo journalism style - something that was inspired by other writers and artists she connected with on Twitter.

Throughout her senior year, her story continued to unfold and she continued to make more connections. As many college students do, she spent a weekend unwinding and went on a Netflix binge. While she was watching ShelterMe, a documentary series that celebrates shelter pets with positive and uplifting stories, she was left so inspired and took to Twitter. Her initial tweet was favorited by @ShelterMeTV and they also followed Nikki. She then direct messaged (DM) them thanking them for the follow and mentioned where she was from and asked if there was anyway to help.

Unfortunately, Nikki didn’t hear back right away but that didn’t discourage her. She followed up about two weeks later with another DM. About two weeks after that, she received an email from Steve Latham, the director and producer of ShelterMeTv. He wanted to jump on a phone call and talk wit Nikki because now, there was an opportunity to help. Nikki and Steve connected and found out that they had a story they were shooting in Long Beach Island, New Jersey and they needed a video production assistant for the weekend.

Nikki pushed through her comfort zone and accepted the 3 day position even though she had little video experience and was a Philosophy major. This was an experience that Nikki would never forget. Her responsibilities in addition to taking pictures, included holding reflectors, posing for camera angles, and assisting the crew with errands up and down the island. She was working side by side with a crew that has worked with MTV, Travel Channel, and National Geographic. All from one tweet - how incredible?!

Nikki didn’t return to school her senior year all of the sudden planning to change her major and try and land a job in the media field. What this experience did encourage was for her to use her interest in taking pictures to tell stories (like she learned from ShelterMeTV) in a creative and artistic way. In her own words, “I basically found another niche.”

While Nikki’s story is an incredible one, the outcome is not that unusual for those students utilizing digital tools and willing to push boundaries. The reason why this story may seem so ‘unrealistic’ is because so many students are not taught how to use these tools to connect or amplify their message. We assume that as digital natives they know how to do all this, but that is simply not true.

Working with Nikki was one of the first times I got to see my two passions come together (much like she ended her story with a second niche). As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am passionate about social media and digital trends. In this experience I was able to share that knowledge with Nikki and her fellow cohort members to assist them in producing their digital footprint. The Niche Movement will never be the same after that experience, because now producing a strong digital presence is part of every conversation, workshop, keynote, etc. In fact, when I gave my first WOW Talk last November, I shared Nikki’s story while imploring other students and job hunters to follow her lead and start working on creating their strong digital presence.

What They Taught Me:

My experience working with Nikki taught me that these two worlds, ending employment unhappiness and social media/digital identity, were interconnected. She also taught me that when students say they are not a fan of social media, we can’t just say ok and back off. We need to find out why. Perhaps Nikki wasn’t into the shallow side of social media, but showing her the productive and purpose driven side open her eyes to a completely new perspective on digital tools.

How They Inspired Me:

In Nikki’s application, she said that she finds fulfillment in her work if she can make just one person smile throughout the day while retaining her positive personality. Well, her story has made me smile everyday. I have presented Nikki’s journey in various talks that I have presented over the last 6 months. She has inspired me to keep helping students and that The Niche Movement’s strategies can help young adults get closer to finding their niche early in life.

#NicheTip:

The Niche Movement showed Nikki how these platforms, apps, and technology can speed up the process of bringing people together and growing your network. I encourage both students and professionals to be using these tools. Everyone has a reason they get up  in the morning and something they care about. Use social media to amplify your message and connect with others who believe what you believe.

To read Nikki’s amazing story and connect with her, check out her blog post featured on our site.

See What Sticks: Tips for a hAPPy Life

This month's read was the latest book from Harvard professor and educational psychologist Howard Gardner. Along with fellow researcher (and former student) Katie Davis, he wrote The App Generation: How Today's Youth Navigate Identity, Intimacy, and Imagination in a Digital World. Lest you believe this will be a post lamenting the ubiquitous nature of technology in our society, let me put your mind at ease: that's not what I'm here for. Gardner and Davis provide compelling evidence on either side of that particular argument. What I want to talk about is an interesting distinction they make in the use of apps: are you, in your day-to-day life, app-dependent or app-enabled? Davis and Gardner disambiguate this pair of terms early in the book, then go on to explain how each element they explore (identity, intimacy, and imagination) can be affected by one mentality or another. According to Davis and Gardner:

[...] apps that allow or encourage us to pursue new possibilities are app-enabling. In contrast, when we allow apps to restrict or determine our procedures, choices and goals, we become app-dependent. [emphasis added]

To draw the analogy of building a house: do you see apps as the foundation upon which you build, or the walls that define where the house is and how you can navigate within it? Before you decide which characterization applies to your way of life, consider this pair of quotes from two different places in the book:

Apps are great if they take care of ordinary stuff and thereby free us to explore new paths, form deeper relationships, ponder the bigger mysteries of life, forge a unique and meaningful identity. But if apps merely turn us into more skilled couch potatoes who do not think for ourselves, or pose new questions, or develop significant relationships, or fashion an appropriate, rounded, and continually evolving sense of self, then the apps simply line the road to serfdom, psychologically speaking. ("Introduction") Many students come to college with their lives all mapped out- a super-app. "I'll major in government, join the Institute of Politics, intern in DC in the summer, work for Teach for America, then run for state senator in my home district when I'm twenty-eight." Paths to the likes of Goldman-Sachs or McKinsey, architectural design or neurosurgery, follow similar trajectories. Put in Eriksonian terms, the students' identities are prematurely foreclosed because they don't allow space to explore alternatives. Not only is this mentality unrealistic (you might flunk organic chemistry, you might flub your interview at Google), but, importantly, it makes those kids who do not have their identities all mapped out-- who lack the super-app-- feel that they are losing out. ("Personal Identity in the Age of the App")

The desire to move from high school to college to the working world, sprinkling "developmentally appropriate" milestones such as marriage, financial independence, and parenthood along the way (achievements like this in an actual app could be represented by "badges") is, in some instances, part of an app-dependent mentality. But I want to clarify that statement. Am I say that any of these milestones should not be reached for? NOT AT ALL. But feeling pressure to graduate college at 21, be a department head or manager at 26, married at 30, or president by the Constitutionally-mandated minimum age of 35 is not altogether different from expecting to arrive at a hotel in 33 minutes just because your GPS told you so. In both instances, your expectations for what could be are supplanted by what you expect, demand, or require of yourself. In both instances, there's little space to be lost. And make no mistake- it's okay to be a little lost. When was the last time you truly allowed yourself to get lost? Lost on a series of roads, lost in a really good piece of music, lost in thought? There's time. I promise. And by giving up the idea of app-dependence, life-path dependence...you stand a better chance of succumbing to that lost feeling.

Daydreaming, wandering, and wondering have positive facets. Introspection may be particularly important for young people who are actively figuring out who and what they want to be. Without time and space to ponder alternative ways of being in the world--without breaking away from an app-determined life-- young persons risk prematurely foreclosing their identities, making it less likely that they will achieve a fully realized and personally fulfilling sense of self. ("Acts [and Apps] of Imagination")

But a word of warning: there is equal danger in what I call app-independence, or the equivalent of operating with simply a pair of coordinates. Finding your own way with little to no help or aim (what, in the wilderness, is known as orienteering) is extremely difficult, and dangerous if not undertaken thoughtfully. Look no further than Jon Krakauer's Into the Wild (the book, not the movie...just trust me) for an example of what happens when aimlessness is pursued as a direct alternative to an app-dependent existence. So if app-dependence is proverbial autopilot, and app-independence resembles staggering in the wilderness, what does app-enablement look like? Well, think of app-enablement as another object that rhymes with app- a map. Unlike a GPS or even point by point instructions given by GoogleMaps or MapQuest, maps show you the lay of the land and provide context for your surroundings. They can show you the most direct way to get somewhere, but also provide the context needed to safely veer off course, free to journey off course while mitigating fear of losing your way altogether. With a map, you can go your own way (marry later in life, take an unconventional career path, retire early) with an eye on the "grand scheme" of things. When apps enable that process, one is open to the idea of finding a job online without feeling tethered to sites like Monster or Indeed; one can trust that there are ways besides OKCupid or Tinder to meet that special someone. To loosen, but not abandon, your grip on not just technological apps, but any promise of a predetermined path to success, will help reduce anxiety and discover joy as your next steps unfold. To return to Davis and Gardner's words:

The birth of writing did not destroy human memory, though it probably brought to the fore different forms of memory for different purposes. The birth of printing did not destroy beautifully wrought graphic works, nor did it undermine all hierarchically organized religions. And the birth of apps need not destroy the human capacities to generate new issues and new solutions, and to approach them with the aid of technology when helpful, and otherwise to rely on one's wit.

Can you see areas in which you're app-dependent? What steps can you take toward being app-enabled?

One Tweet Pivots a College Student's Future

Guest post written by Nikki Uy

Senior at St. Joe's University & Niche Movement Cohort member Spring 2013

It started with a tweet...

Actually, it started with a depressed feeling after watching The Pianist and also failing at everything else I wanted to complete one rainy evening this past summer.  To cope, I searched relentlessly on Netflix for a pick-me-up. I came across “Shelter Me”, a documentary highlighting the lives of shelter pets and how they have improved the lives of those who adopted them. In this process, new pet owners are providing these special animals another try at life, allowing them to avoid being euthanized and worse – living a life without love. After reading the summary, this was my tweet:

 

Consequently, @ShelterMeTV caught wind of my tweet, “favorited it”, and followed me. I am still new to Twitter etiquette (seeing that I only began using it for a few months) so my apologies if it seems weird to some people that I sent the account a DM thanking them for the follow. I also mentioned that I am from South Jersey and that I go to school in Philadelphia expressing my interest in helping out if they are ever filming in the area. To be honest, I did not expect a reply, let alone the announcement that they were actually filming in the Atlantic City vicinity in a month.

I offered my e-mail address, continued to send, what I thought, pestering DMs on any updates and waited weeks with little response. I actually began to forget about the opportunity once the semester started. But then I received an e-mail from Mr. Steven Latham, director and producer of the Shelter Me series asking if I was available to chat on the phone the following day.

Praise the Lord that I decided to skip my first class that day or else I would have missed his call. When I answered, he gave a quick summary of what the Shelter Me project is all about. The filming in Long Beach Island (LBI), NJ focuses on a bloodhound named Tex, who went from shelter animal to a beloved member of the LBI police force. He also became the delightful pet of Officer Mike Tyson of the LBI Police Department.

He then asked if I had ever done anything with film or productions. I replied no, I am Philosophy major. I was just a fan of the story. However, I did mention my growing interest in photography and how I basically took my dad’s old camera and messed around with it sometimes. He said great. Take the camera to take some pictures too.

The most amount of publicity my photos ever gain is being chosen for a friend’s new Facebook profile picture, let alone having them serve for a T.V. series’ documenting process.

 Regardless, I traveled to LBI on a Sunday evening three weeks later with an apprehension of the thought of what I could have possibly just gotten myself into.  

However, the next three days of helping Shelter Me’s production was more than I could ask for. My responsibilities on top of taking pictures included holding reflectors, posing as pseudo-Tex for camera angles, and assisting the crew with errands up and down the island. As simple as these tasks sounds, I was basking in the opportunity to be helpful in anyway. Being in the midst of the experienced team put me in complete awe. They have worked with National Geographic, the Travel Channel, MTV, as well as many other popular networks. They even worked together on The Future We Will Create, a documentary that tours the annual TED conference event. Officer Thompson has been working with the K-9 unit for almost a decade. He spent five years to get certified to train dogs like Tex, which he claims, “never stops.”

The most humbling of this experience, though, is found in the Shelter Me stories themselves. They glorify the dignity of shelter pets, giving them a second chance, and allowing them to form that bond between animals and humans that is impossible to describe within one blog post. Before Tex became an honored member of the LBI police force finding lost kids on the beach and chasing down car thieves, he was waiting in an enclosed area at a local shelter just hoping to know what was in store for the rest of his life.

Finding another niche...

I can’t say that I came back to school aiming to change my life and switch my major to something media related. I will say, however, that my time working with the Shelter Me project has encouraged me to use my progressive interest of taking pictures to tell stories like Tex’s in a creative and artistic way. I basically found another niche. Regardless of my wonderful experience and new perspective on the way I see photography and telling these sorts of stories, I am even more humbled by the fact that none of this would have happened had I not reached out to those involved via Twitter. Those who know me have heard my strong distaste for this social media paradigm, but I am willing to admit how wrong I was. It took something so minor to give me an experience I can say I will always be proud to be a part of.  Call it fate, luck, divine intervention, but I think Forrest Gump said it best: “I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I think maybe it’s both.”

 It ended with a tweet.