The Devoted Minority

Do you take criticism to heart? Was your last book poorly received? Yesterday's blogpost not read and commented on enough? Worse yet, did you get NEGATIVE comments? Does your YouTube video sit with only 12 views, 10 of them your friends and family? Does it make you want to quit? Do you want to hide your ideas, your talents, yourSELF because your competitor has more Twitter followers, has a bigger Facebook Fan Page, and constantly brags about the 30,000 dollars they made in 24 hours with their latest product release? Then you need to discover The Devoted Minority!

The most popular, most famous, and/or the most successful people in the world are hated by more people than they are loved. And even more people in the world don't even know who they are. Guess what? You won't be hated as much as most, and most likely, the vast majority of the world won't even know who you are. And that's OK.

President Obama. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Michael Jackson and Bob Dylan. Tiger Woods, Tom Brady, and Alex Rodriguez. We often hear more negative things (some true, some not, and most often somewhere in between) about all of them more than we hear the positive. Someone's always willing to take a potshot at them – yet they continue to survive and succeed (even in death, for MJ) despite drawing the ire of so many.

The key is The Devoted Minority. In a world of nearly 7 billion people, no one will have The Devoted Majority. In the U.S. Presidential election, President Barack Obama won with 69,456,897 (source: Wikipedia) votes, in a country whose population is over 307 million. The entire number of votes cast for both Sen. Obama and Sen. McCain was roughly 141 million – not even a majority of the country, despite the highest voter turnout in 40 years.

Your Devoted Minority is a group of supporters that keeps your success afloat. It may be 100 people, it may be 1000, it may be 10 million. The Devoted Minority loves you, spreads your ideas and ideals, and buoys you from day to day. The Devoted Minority may be your emotional or financial lifeline, and is often both. They give you approval, and they spend their money when you give them the chance.

Feed your Devoted Minority. Stay in touch, by newsletter, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, books, media – stay in front of them and give them what they want from you. Only the biggest movie stars can afford to put out a movie every three years – most are filming a movie every 8 months or so, and only the rarified writer can go more than 2 years without releasing a book. For the average businessperson, you need to be in front of your audience at least once a week. With the advent of social media, putting something out there (even if its just a few tweets or a daily status update) every day may be the only way to keep from being forgotten.

Your Devoted Minority can be a very fluid group. Don't fall into the trap of thinking “Oh, I wrote about this 6 months ago, and I'll bore my audience”. Not only do you have new people in your Devoted Minority, you have no idea how many of the read your post or book in the first place, or how many of them need to be reminded of it again! In Make It Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath, they mention the Burden of Knowledge – the idea that because WE know something, we assume everyone must know it. Your Devoted Minority either doesn't, or they want to know it again, differently. How else could Sleepless in Seattle AND You've Got Mail be hit movies, almost a decade apart? The Devoted Minority wanted to see Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan together again, or, for those that were new, they got to enjoy it for the first time, and then likely went and rented Sleepless in Seattle!

Embrace your Devoted Minority. Build it, nurture it, love it. Don't worry about the fact that someone else has a bigger Devoted Minority – your own will grow faster when you focus on what you have instead of what you don't. Don't disrespect or abuse your Devoted Minority by being someone they don't want you to be, unless you're willing to part with them. For me, this means not barraging my speech coaching Devoted Minority with MLM opportunities. What does it mean for you? How can you stay in alignment with your Devoted Minority?

Choose to identify and accept your Devoted Minority. They are why you can continue to do what you do, successfully. They appreciate your services, your expertise, they appreciate YOU. On the days when you wonder if anyone is reading your blog, or going to your website, or cares if you ever do anything ever again, remember your Devoted Minority. They will keep you going, and in turn, they will add to their own number. Frustrated because you're starting with only 100 fans? Guess what? They're still a Devoted Minority. And that's OK.