The Audience Shortcut: How the Right People Paying Attention Changes Everything
Risk Reducers (Your Safety Net):
• The hiring manager at [Company X] could offer you a job tomorrow
• The investor who funded three companies in your space last year
• The mentor who’s navigated exactly the minefield you’re facing
• The industry veteran whose recommendation opens any door
nathanbarry.com • The Audience Shortcut: How the Right People Paying Attention Changes Everything
People don’t teach because they’re experts.
We perceive them as experts because they teach **.**
nathanbarry.com • The Audience Shortcut: How the Right People Paying Attention Changes Everything
Key insight: A small, engaged audience of the right people is more valuable than a massive, indifferent crowd.
nathanbarry.com • The Audience Shortcut: How the Right People Paying Attention Changes Everything
For instance: If you have a job, the single point of failure is your boss. Your security comes down to a single person or entity.
But what if two vice presidents and several managers above you at your job are internal fans of your work? You’d be:
- More likely to be spared in layoffs
- Able to switch departments if something happened to your role
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How to Create Instant Authority with Your Audience
Marco Polo, a Venetian explorer born in 1254, is famous for being the first to explore the Silk Road to China. At least, that’s how he is remembered.
There is only one small problem: he wasn’t an explorer at all. Like all good Venetians of the time, he was a merchant.
Long before Marco Polo, plenty
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I want you to take away two things from this:
- Being someone who is actively pursuing their dreams and sharing the journey puts you in rarefied air. You will stand out, as that’s just 1% of people.
- The gap between the last two categories—those who do things and those who do things and share —is actually very small. The simple step of documenting what
nathanbarry.com • The Audience Shortcut: How the Right People Paying Attention Changes Everything
Key insight: Just a handful of the right people paying attention to your work can transform your career security and opportunities.
nathanbarry.com • The Audience Shortcut: How the Right People Paying Attention Changes Everything
This pattern repeats everywhere:
• Traditional path: Pay $50,000 for an MBA, then hope someone notices you.
• Attention path (shortcut): Create valuable insights for industry leaders, then get hired directly.
When you reframe every “how will I pay for this” problem as a “who can I serve” problem, you win. This is the Audience Shortcut:
• Instead of ask
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People don’t follow you because you’re special.
They follow you because you’re useful **.**