You’ve been fed a lie.
A simple, seductive lie that keeps talented creators stuck.
The lie is that attention equals revenue.
That if you can just get a big enough following, or a massive email list, a successful business will magically materialize.
So you chase the vanity metrics.
You grind for more followers, assuming a bigger audience will lead to a bigger business.
You believe you need to build a massive following before you can build a real business.
That’s not just wrong; It’s backward
You can have a million followers and be broke.
The size of your audience is a worthless metric if it lacks the one asset that actually matters.
This asset has been around longer than the internet, and as a writer, you have a natural advantage in building it.
That asset is Trust.
The Difference Between a Relationship and Trust
Trust isn’t a soft skill; it’s the foundational currency of your business.
- It’s not rapport, though rapport helps build it.
- It’s not reciprocity, though that strengthens it.
- It’s not even a relationship, though a relationship is the vehicle for it.
The asset is the deep-seated belief in your reader’s mind that you genuinely care about their outcome.
It’s the shift from “This person is smart” to “This person has my back.”
That’s why at Writerpreneur, we start with your first 500 followers and your first 500 email subscribers.
The goal isn’t just to build an asset you “own.”
The real goal is to create a small, manageable group of people you can build one-to-one trust with.
You can’t know 50,000 people. But you can know 500.
You can learn their names, their frustrations, and their goals.
You can build the depth of relationship that actually leads to a sustainable business.
The Question Every Customer Is Asking
Every potential customer, no matter your industry, has a hundred people offering something similar to what you do.
They are skeptical.
They’ve been burned by empty promises.
And in the back of their mind, they’re all asking one critical question:
“If something goes wrong, what happens?”
Most marketers try to answer this by minimizing the perceived risk.
They plaster their websites with testimonials and social proof to create an overwhelming sense that failure is impossible.
“It worked for them, so it’ll work for you.”
That’s a fine strategy if you have a mountain of proof.
But if you’re starting out, you have a more powerful option.
Instead of minimizing the risk, you eliminate it.
You do this by building a bridge of trust.
- You show them that if something goes wrong, you, a real human, will be there to make it right.
- You prove that if the product isn’t a perfect fit, you’ll work with them.
- You demonstrate that if life gets in the way and they need to cancel three days past the deadline, you’ll honor it because you’re a person, not a policy.
You take away the risk not by hiding behind social proof, but by showing you’re human on the other end of the transaction.
This Isn’t a Sales Tactic. It’s a Better Way to Work.
When you shift your focus from chasing followers to building trust, something incredible happens…
The work changes.
You stop feeling like a sleazy salesperson.
The anxiety of “selling” disappears, because you’re not pushing a product. You’re genuinely helping.
You’re getting to know people, learning their struggles, and creating the exact solutions they need.
Your business stops being about transactions and starts being about transformation.
You feel more confident, more human, and more aligned with your purpose.
(speaking from experience here, as someone who has always hated selling).
The Real Work
So, how do you build this kind of trust?
There are no easy hacks.
There is no “one weird trick.” It requires work.
It requires one-to-one relationship building.
This is the meaningful work most creators are unwilling to do, which is why it’s your single greatest advantage.
- Start Real Conversations. Don’t just broadcast content. Reply to every email. Respond to every comment with a thoughtful question. Invite a new subscriber to a 15-minute Zoom call to hear what they’re working on.
- Listen Intently. In those conversations, your only goal is to understand. What are their passions? What are their bottlenecks? What have they tried that didn’t work?
- Build For Them. Use what you learn to create the solutions they just told you they need. When you finally make an offer, it won’t feel like a sales pitch. It will feel like the answer they’ve been waiting for.
- Be Human, Always. On your landing pages and in your emails, acknowledge their fears. . Show them you’ll be there to fix things.
Make guarantees that sound like they were written by a person, not a legal department
This is how you convert an audience into a business.
You stop counting followers and start cultivating trust.
You don’t need a hundred testimonials to begin.
You just need to show up, be human, and prove you’re there to help.
