4 builders who never spoke to each other
Publish the failures next to the wins
Post the products you killed, the drafts you are stuck on, the abandoned sketches and the small embarrassing mistakes rather than only the polished result. Visible fallibility is what closes the distance between you and a reader, and builders who tracked it found the failures drew more replies than the wins while costing them no credibility.
The method
- 01
Publish the products you killed and the things that failed, not only the wins, because the failures draw more replies and cost you less trust.
- 02
Publish the failures alongside the wins and say what you stand for, accepting that the people who disagree will drop away.
- 03
Building an audience needs credibility, but credibility does not mean staying polished: post the small embarrassing mistakes too, because visible fallibility is what makes people feel close to you.
- 04
Show the lows as well as the highs in public; the connection that builds is something large brands cannot manufacture.
- 05
What actually accumulates that audience is years of daily presence, publishing the struggles as well as the wins, and having visible results behind it.
What it returned
- 128,000
Amanda Natividad, VP of Marketing at SparkToro, reached a Twitter following of 128,000 partly by posting humbling moments.
Newsletters about killed products get more replies than most of his win posts.
Their livestream reaction to hearing they were number one is offered as proof
Zue tweeted about four unshipped drafts, got supportive replies, and published one of them the next day
Sources
- Did you forget Cinco de Mayo? - Why We Buy 🧠Katelyn Bourgoin · customercamp.co · Brainy Spotlight · undated
- How to Sell Yourself (without being salesy)Justin Welsh · justinwelsh.me · Principle 5: Affection · 2023-07-01
- Nobody knows you exist. Now what?Justin Welsh · justinwelsh.me · #1 Share behind-the-scenes of your work process · 2024-04-27
- How LadBaby started a movementHarry Dry · Marketing Examples · So there you go · undated
- The WaitCory Zue · coryzue.com · The week past · 2018-10-22
- Do you need a big Twitter following to be a successful solopreneur?Luca Restagno · solopreneurtofreedom.com · Do you need a big Twitter following to be a successful solopreneur? · 2024-01-28
- You don’t need 10,000 followers to winTibo Louis-Lucas · tmaker.io · 9. Your failures are content too · 2026-07-09
the second source
Three plays a week, for the phase you are in
No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.
More in social
- Concentrate on one platform until it works11 unconnected · contested
- Gather the audience before there is a product6 unconnected · contested
- Fire the launch into the audience you already have6 unconnected · contested
- Post the numbers, not the commentary5 unconnected · contested
- Republish the winners with a new hook5 unconnected
- Cut one long piece into weeks of social posts5 unconnected