How to Build an Audience From Nothing in 3 Simple Steps

You’ve probably heard the phrase “your network is your net worth.”

And while connections are extremely important for any founder, there’s another “relationship currency” that’s become equally important.

Having an audience.

Codie Sanchez, a private equity investor and founder of Contrarian Thinking, has said that an “audience is the new form of leverage.”

I couldn’t agree more. In fact, if it weren’t for my ability to build an audience, I might have even gone to prison.

And while it used to be incredibly difficult to build an audience, thanks to social media and other online platforms, building an audience is now more accessible than ever before.

Provided you’re willing to put in the work.

In today’s newsletter I’m going to share with you a little bit of my own founder’s story and I’ll also highlight 3 essential building blocks for building an audience that could literally save your business…

…like it did for mine.

(Just a quick heads up, this post is a bit longer than usual. But I promise it’ll be worth your time.)

Let’s dive in 🪂

It was 2013, and I finally felt like I had caught a break.

Little did I know that the biggest challenge I’d ever faced in my life was looming just around the corner…

I had been going hard trying to build my first business, Bitmaker Labs.

Bitmaker was an intensive programming bootcamp designed to empower people with a skill set for the 21st century - we taught people how to code.

It was a TON of work, but we were getting real traction.

I had an exclusive interview with Canada’s largest newspaper, The Globe and Mail, and received an award for being a top innovator in the country.

Ironically, that article become the first domino in a chain of crazy events I never imagined possible…

“Matt, there are some government officials here to see you.”

Turns out my article in the newspaper had caught the eye of some local educational regulators, and they were NOT happy with what we were doing.

Apparently they were “concerned with the vocational nature of our program and lack of proper government oversight.”

Even though we didn’t market ourselves as a university, or offer any certifications for completion.

But that didn’t stop the government officials from raiding my office.

They gave us 30 days to shut down…

And said I could be fined $500,000 and face up to a year in prison.

Nerve-racking right?

We had worked too hard to just passively shut down the program, especially when we were seeing such great results for our grads.

When my back’s against the wall, I always find a way to overcome and persevere.

So I decided to pause the program for one week…

And I immediately got to work.

I stayed up all night emailing over 10,000 people I had connected with over the previous 3 years.

I explained what had happened to us and the ultimatum we were given.

I shared our vision of equipping people with the ability to code, and our belief that people should have access to the training they need to change their future.

Finally, after I felt like I had done everything I could at the time, I crashed into bed and fell asleep.

When I woke up, I was shocked to see Bitmaker trending on Twitter.

Some big names like Paul Graham (the co-founder of Y Combinator), venture capitalist Vinod Khosla and Chamath Palihapitiya (a former top dog at Facebook) had all tweeted about my situation, and shared their support for my company.

A couple days later I received an email from the Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities (the person responsible for overseeing the laws and regulations around post-secondary education).

We got on a call, and he did something I never dreamed would happen…

He apologized.

He then gave me the only exemption they’ve ever given to operate our coding bootcamp.

We were back in business with the full support of the government in less than a week.

And Bitmaker only grew from there.

Over 2,000 software engineers graduated from our program, and 90% of them got jobs within 1 month of graduating.

Many got jobs at major tech companies such Facebook, Shopify, IBM, and Hootsuite.

Soon after, Bitmaker was acquired by General Assembly for 8-figures.

The rest is a story for another time.

Now I know that’s a pretty crazy story. But apart from the entertainment value, here’s what’s really important:

The power and leverage that comes from an audience is the ONLY reason Bitmaker was able to stay in business.

And if you pay attention to my response over the week when we were temporarily shut down, you can see 3 key steps for building an audience.

Step #1 - Commitment and Determination

When those government agents came in and threatened us I could have just given up and accepted our fate.

But instead, I was determined to figure out how to beat it, and I was willing to give up sleep for days if necessary.

When building an audience, you have to be committed to putting in the work and showing up every damn day. Because it certainly isn’t easy. However, effort compounds with time.

Don’t give up.

Step #2 - The Power of a Vision

A compelling vision and values are powerful. They unite people for a common purpose.

Even though I was grinding, the real reason our situation took off is that people felt a connection to what we were doing and wanted to support us.

When building an audience, you need a vision that draws like-minded people. People love rallying behind something they believe in, and they frequently tell others about their latest obsessions, which can grow your audience even faster.

Step #3 - Prioritize Impact Over Profit

At Bitmaker we were doing everything we could to give our students the best education we could. And the results were obvious with how quickly so many of our graduates got jobs at top tech companies.

In other words, we had something worth fighting for.

If we had prioritized making the most amount of money we could, and our students got poor results, people wouldn’t have rallied behind us in the same way.

When building an audience, you always want to focus on what you can GIVE, not what you can get. No one wants to feel like a means to an end. Prove that you care about people by prioritizing impact over profit. It will pay off in the long run.

There you have it, a peek into part of my founder's story, as well as 3 key takeaways for building your audience.

I hope you found these helpful as you grow your own audience.

Take some time this week and see apply these principles to your business. Then hit me up on Twitter with an update in a couple of weeks.

I’d love to hear how much your following has grown.

Let's win together 🥇

Matt

P.S. Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

#1: Join my (free) Growth Workshop in 12 days here.

#2: Build your clarity, systems, and growth with 1:1 coaching here.

#3: Follow me on Twitter for more operating systems, marketing tips, and community-building systems.

P.P.S. Here's a pic of me and the team at Bitmaker Labs (I look like such a baby).

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