Many years ago, Facebook blocked me from friend-requesting. This was a serious blow -- because that’s how I was growing my audience (feel a little embarrassed to admit it now, but whatever). 

Don't get me wrong, I hated sending dozens of requests a day. It felt sleazy & gross, and the quality of those who accepted was super hit and miss (mostly miss), but that's what I was being 'taught'. 

So when Facebook blocked me - I had a choice: Play the victim... or figure it out. 

Refusing to give up, I set my mind to a singular challenge:

Get 10 people to friend request ME

I became obsessed. 

O B S E S S E D

The real problem was: This goal required different thinking, a completely different approach. 

I thought back to my early days in content marketing and audience building. Back then I was selling expensive things to affluent people, and these people usually have fantastic defences and ‘gate-keepers’ (aka they can sniff bullshit a mile away).

The similarities were striking. See, you can’t easily coerce affluent people to do much of anything. But, if they want something, if their curiosity is piqued -- these people have the resources and time on hand to devote all their attention to achieve it… including a continual appetite for new solutions. 

So, with my eyes fixed on growing my audience, I got busy testing and experimenting to make sure the ones that found me were the right kinds of people.

I abandoned what didn’t work, and doubled down on what did. Soon, the ‘fog’ of confusion about how to get people to friend request me began lifting...

At first, it was 1 or 2 requests.

Soon, 4-7...

Then it happened. I hit 10 friend requests in one day. Bingo.

But the 10 friend requests p/day didn't stop there. I realised running the strategy a few times a week would net 100+ targeted friend requests.

Just think about that for a second:

✅ They were compelled to click through to me

✅ They likely scrolled me for 5 minutes at least

✅ They were all up in my marketing within minutes of finding me, some were dropping into my funnels and onto my email lists, commenting on CTA posts & 2-steps -- all in real-time.

Meaning, I didn’t need anywhere near as many friends in my audience as I thought. A much higher percentage of this new traffic were action takers.

The process was eye-opening and every aspect of my business started getting more attention. Consequently, I was getting more leads, more calls, and enrolling more clients. And I was posting less content, spending less time on Facebook, and it was actually fun (gasp)!

I had a dragon by the tail so I experimented more.

I simplified and cut stuff that wasn’t effective, doubled down more, and pushed the boundaries -- because I was kinda shocked at the results.

Then something absurd happened. 

A friend was in town for a week (we were in Thailand).

I’d cleared my schedule so we could drop off the map with motorbikes and backpacks. I essentially stopped my experiment. Meaning, all the friend requests just sat there in my notifications.

When we returned seven days later and I decided to open up Facebook again, I counted up the friend request; I don’t remember the exact number, but it was just shy of 200. 

I was sharing this with some clients and the eye-opening looks on their faces reminded me of its power -- but no one (that I know) teaches it!

I figure no one is teaching this because this is a real strategy, not some hack, and is for people who want real results that compound even more over time -- not some tips & tricks from a $19 workshop.

Still -- this is fundamental to getting off the content treadmill. 

It eliminates the constant need for outreach, ultimately allowing you to lead your audience with ever-higher quality of thought leadership and value.

So, in mid-2021 I offered to teach this method -- and a dozen entrepreneurs raised their hands and said "yes please" at $580 a seat.