How to reach millions of people without being rich or famous

Nothing about my story makes any logical sense. I live in a relatively obscure part of the country, I don’t have a lot of money, I’m not particularly good with technology and I’m far from famous, but somehow, I reach millions of people through social media, I’ve had overt 200,000 visits to this website (www.www.patheos.com/blogs/davewillis) in its first month of existence and I have one of the fastest-growing pages on all of facebook (www.facebook.com/strongermarriages).

People ask me all the time how I do it, and I certainly don’t claim to be any kind of expert, but I want to share with you some key principles I’ve learned along the way.

I’ve always believed that the simplest way to change the world is the find a need and then do something productive to help meet it. Social media has opened up a new world of opportunities to meet needs, so find something you are passionate about and then leverage social media to help encourage, empower and equip others. I’ve created a simple formula to help you determine where to focus your time and energy.

Motives + Message X Focus / Time = Impact

Maybe math scares you (it kind of scares me too), but don’t run off just yet! Let me unpack this for a minute.

If you want to reach people, you’ve got to start with pure Motives. If your motives are anything other than helping people, then people will eventually see through it. Don’t worry about impressing people; just help them! There’s nothing more impressive than that. From there, you have to add your message.

Honing your Message means finding your unique voice. Fight the temptation to try to look or sound like someone else. Learn from everybody but don’t imitate anybody. Be authentic. Be real. Be yourself. A great tool that helped me refine my message was the book “Platform” by Michael Hyatt and I would highly recommend it to you (www.MichaelHyatt.com).

Next, you multiply all of that by Focus. A flashlight gives off almost no heat, but if you focus that stream of light into a laser, then it can cut through a diamond! Your impact will be determined by your focus, so keep your messages clear, practical and consistent. People will eventually be drawn to your focus and consistency.

Finally, you divide all of that by Time. Anything worth doing takes time, but a lot of folks quit just before their breakthrough. Nine months into managing the Marriage Page on facebook, it had 1000 likes, but then all of a sudden, it went viral! In the last four months it grew from 1000 likes to more than 300,000 likes. Keep at it, and eventually your breakthrough will come.

With a final word, let me caution you against being too preoccupied with the scale. If you’re not passionate about your message when it’s only reaching a few people, then you won’t be happy with it even if you’re reaching millions. Focus on reaching and helping one person at a time, and over time, you’ll be doing your part to change the world.

For more encouragement and resources, please connect with me on twitter @Soul_Caffeine http://twitter.com/Soul_Caffeine , www.StrongerMarriages.org and www.OneBigChurch.com