Aim for service, rather than fame.

Business Tao with George Kao

There is an unspoken assumption in marketing:

More followers = More clients, more fulfillment, more freedom.

Related assumption: More Money = More Happiness.

These ideas are seductive, because they contain some truth, and they appeal to our human ego. But they come with profound burdens and drawbacks that marketers rarely talk about.

​I’ll share with you my experience of getting "more followers", and why that might not be a wise direction to aim for…

In the first 3 years of my business, I grew my Facebook Page to 3,000 fans, and my email list to more than 10,000 subscribers.

I got a taste of having lots of followers. It is not the fantasy we're usually sold. In my experience, it did not produce real engagement with my content, nor did it lead to more or better clients. It did however result in more emails to respond to, more spam, and more unpaid requests on my time.

A few years later, I rebooted my business. I removed 90% of my email list.

I started over, perhaps in a humbler way, grounding my business in a spirit of service, as true as I could connect with, trusting God more, aiming to bring Love into more of what I do.

That deeper commitment to service evolved into creating authentic content as you experience it today.

A year after I started creating authentic content consistently, I started to notice that I no longer had to reach out to get new clients. They were all coming to me now! People started to message me privately and ask about my services, thanks seeing my content consistently. From a spirit of service, I also began to experience deeper fulfillment in my work with clients.

Fewer followers also meant fewer emails, and less unpaid requests on my time... which meant more freedom.

Today, I am grateful to say that I feel a daily sense of well-being, a lot of gratitude and fulfillment in my work, whether I am writing you this blog post, or working with a client, or preparing for my next workshop.

This state of inner fulfillment is what I’ve truly wanted all my life. It is a sweeter experience than any glimpse of fame that I ever had.

By no means am I famous today. I get but a few hundred views on each video, and a few dozen likes per Facebook post… which is laughable when compared with other marketing experts.

Yet, I have a full client roster. I have enough participants for every workshop. And my content gets regular meaningful engagement from loyal readers.

Through the experiences of the past decade, I’ve learned that I don’t want to be famous.

I don’t want to get “more subscribers.” In fact, I am trying to keep my email list under 3,000, which means I occasionally unsubscribe people who haven’t opened my emails in a long time. This keeps my open rates higher (which is better for email deliverability), and it helps keep their inbox a bit cleaner.

I’m not aiming to get tons of fans on social media.

Here’s what I aim my energy towards…

* Learning to serve more deeply

* Learning to bring Love into my efforts daily

* Learning what you (my audience) need, so I can be more helpful

My hope is that I can be a different type of example than the typical business or marketing expert or mentor that you might encounter. Many of them are spreading the message that more fame is always better.

Let us notice the seduction. Then, reconnect with ourselves and shift into a deeper way of being in business, one that fulfills heart and soul, rather than appease the ego.

Not Fame.

More Love.

Greater Truth.

Deeper Service.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit georgekao.substack.com