Growing Your Inner Capacity for Audience Growth

“How do I grow my capacity to have and receive a large audience, and not be afraid of becoming more visible or well-known as my audience grows over time? Could you, George, share how your mind/heart have adapted at each stage of your audience growth?” –a YouTube viewer wrote to me.

I thought this was a very thoughtful question, and wonder why more content creators don’t talk about this. I appreciate the questioner’s sensitivity!

It takes time (years!) to learn to lead wisely…

Some influencers get insta-famous almost overnight, due to a (sometimes accidental) viral video they made. Such people are often quite young… many in their 20’s! Given the few years they’ve lived as a content creator, most of them haven’t had a chance to integrate how to lead an audience well, yet.

As your platform grows, more people will be looking to your example. Everything you do or say — or simply the vibe you display — will give permission to people in your audience to act that way…

“With great power comes great responsibility.” –spoken to a young spiderman.

Your responsibility grows as your audience grows.

To act as a good example for others is not only a smart business decision, but a matter of ethics and karma.

No matter how much you avoid it, people will be deeply influenced by what you do, say, and represent. You create a ripple effect (farther than you might imagine) with every piece of content, and every public appearance.

May we hold that power with care, thoughtfulness and love.

Yet, I hope that it doesn’t make you afraid to show up! As long as you continually return to your authentic heart to serve others, and keep dedicated to your higher growth in your business, your pure intentions will cause a positive ripple…

If possible, get a mentor to occasionally look at your content and public presence. See if you need to check your behavior, to avoid misunderstanding and bad karma.

Growing your inner capacity to hold a larger audience

Beside the aspect of external leadership, there’s also the internal one:

“Oh God, more and more people are seeing me now…”

How to deal with all that attention?

Many of you reading this have effective tools for emotional self-regulation. I invite you to comment below: what tools are useful for you to integrate more attention, over time?

My approach might not be sophisticated… I use a blunt instrument for both internal regulation and external leadership: reflection on humility. It’s something I keep returning to, as part of my spiritual practice.

The actual daily practice of that is my energy reboot, because humility and faith are deeply connected for me.

Some people misconstrue humility as low self-esteem, which isn’t helpful as you grow an audience. Low self-esteem makes you want to hide because you feel unworthy.

The humility I practice is connected to my faith. In my worldview, God is everything. God is within me, within you, within everyone and everything.

This gives me a strong sense that all will end up well.

You might say that I’m a “big-picture perfectionist.” The next step never has to be perfect. I can make a fool of myself anytime because, in the big picture, it’s all good!

Because of this, and since God is working through me (and you), I don’t mind making a fool of myself every day. Maybe it’s partly from my Christian background. I think of being a “fool for Christ” — I am but a humble servant for the Lord. I don’t use that language much anymore, but it’s basically how I still view life and work.

I don’t really mind if nobody likes me. Of course, we all care if someone doesn’t respect or like us. It’s normal. Yet, the continual practice that resonates deeply with me, is to be okay with being a fool in front of the world.

The more I practice this, the more light can shine through.

And if any light shines through and blesses others, glory be to God!

That’s why I don’t mind making mistakes and being awkward or embarrassed.

It’s all going to be good in the end. All along the way, you and I continue to learn and grow, hopefully with the faith that our destiny is a beautiful one.

I hope these thoughts are helpful. I’d love to hear your thoughts as well. As your audience grows, how will you regulate and integrate a bigger experience and responsibility?