When you decide that you want to create something for the world and you’ve never spoken to anyone, you will have an external audience of zero.
One of the saddest times for creators is the process of getting to an audience beyond zero. Beyond zero means the same people are repetitively consuming your work, in a dependable manner.
Most creators never make it beyond the audience of zero. It can take forever to get there, and you wonder if it’s even worth the time.
The self-doubt creeps in. Who’s going to care? Is what I’m doing any good? Aside from maybe your mom, people just don’t know about you, and that feeling sucks. It’s lonely, it’s discomforting, it’s mentally draining.
Beyond zero, beyond one, or beyond many, there is an alternative audience. It’s the audience of you. Perhaps the best way to overcome any self-limiting beliefs is to accept that the audience of you is your only way to combat the feelings derived from an audience of zero.
Say you’ve created something. Instead of being saddened at the idea or prospect that no one will see your work today, tomorrow or a year from now, appreciate this: you’ve created something. Being appreciative of your work (and I struggle tremendously with this every day) is a fantastic foundation to form the audience that matters most. You.
If we can be a bit easier on ourselves, we may discover that an audience of zero is only temporary. But we have to keep going.