I have presented the idea of the 1000 true fans to the ASLM community twice now. Once virtually. Once in person. Both times, it has struck a chord.
A true fan will buy anything that you make and support anything that you do.
I recently wrote a book called Do Happy. A friend and mentor of mine reached out recently for 36 signed copies of my book (it’s not even out on sale yet). She wanted it to be a Xmas present for her staff. She also said that she would get her kids to work through the book because “it’s never too early to learn this stuff”.
She is a true fan. She will support anything I do and tell the world about me and my work.
I am also her true fan. Although I am protective of my time, if she calls and asks me for something, I will drop everything and go help her.
The idea of a true fan comes from Kevin Kelly – the founder of Wired Magazine. Read it here.
You don’t need millions of followers.
You don’t need to be famous.
All you need is a small group of people who love your work so much that they will pay for it.
There are implications of 1000 true fans for the individual LM practitioner and the community as a whole.
Implications for the individual LM practitioner
1) It’s doable.
1000 true fans is tangible, achievable, and something fun to aspire towards.
You don’t need a lot of patients, clients, or customers to make a living. A small group of people willing to pay for your product or service every year is enough.
By definition, a true fan will buy and support anything you do.
So, if you have a 1000 true fans and you can make $100 profit from them each year, that’s $100,000. A solid income.
You can play with these numbers. It depends on what your financial goal is and how many true fans you want.
What if you want to make $500,000 a year with only 100 true fans? You need to make $5000 profit from each true fan.
Kelly suggests that if you add 1 true fan a day, you could have 1000 in 3 years. It’s not usually linear though.
You might have weeks of no fan acquisition. Then, you do a talk and you gain 100 overnight.
Either way, 1000 is doable.
2) You may need much less than 1000 true fans to make a living.
Not all true fans are equal. A true fan with greater reach and influence, can be like your rocket fuel to your income and impact.
One of my email subscribers is the leader of an organisation. He saw one of my newsletter articles and this led to a year long program with about 80 staff. None of these staff were on my newsletter.
When he heard that I finished my book (Do Happy), he ordered 100 copies and made plans for a further 2 year program with the staff.
If your true fans have reach and influence, you may only need 10, not 1000.
3) You don’t have to be famous.
This is my favourite. With a 1000 true fans, you won’t be famous. If you are like me, you don’t want to be anyway. Even 1000 people seems like a lot to me.
My ability to nurture and add deep value to a small community maxes out at about 100-200 people.
For me, if they are a true fan of me, I want to be a fan of them too. I want to know what they are working on, what they value, whether they have cats – all the important stuff. That’s a nice way to live and work.
The more people there are, the less I am able to have this type of relationship.
This doesn’t mean we have to compromise on income and impact. If you want to make a lot of money and reach a lot of people, you can. A small group of true fans with reach and influence can let you have your cake and eat it too.
Implications for the community
On a micro level, a LM practitioner can commit to 1000 true fans and make a living.
On a macro level, if we all commit to 1000 true fans, magic becomes inevitable.
What does magic look like?
–> When a patient gets diagnosed with diabetes, there doctor talks to them about reversing it.
–> If someone can’t sleep, instead of sleeping tablets, they learn about sunlight.
–> A person who is depressed, gets recommended a copy of my book Do Happy (shameless plug!).
–> People type “Lifestyle Medicine practitioner near me” into Google.
True fans can’t help but tell others about you and your work. They will do the marketing for us. They will drive the LM movement for us.
It’s one thing for us to say, “I am a LM practitioner. This is how I can help.”
It’s another thing when a true fan says, “You should see Maria! She used Lifestyle Medicine to reverse my diabetes. You have to see her. She’s also in a band which is cool!”
I want to see Lifestyle Medicine mainstream.
I want every single Australian to know about Lifestyle Medicine and it’s benefits.
With a focussed effort, this could be the case in 5-10 years.
One day we will wake up and Lifestyle Medicine will be mainstream.
If we retrace the steps, we may find a small group of LM practitioners, each with a 1000 true fans.
Much love to you and of course, myself.
Dr G
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P.S If you want help with building your 1000 true fans, CONTACT me BELOW with the subject line – ‘1000’.
I would love to see if I can help.
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