I was unsure of what to expect, and quite frankly, a little scared of what my wife, April, was about to show me.
During dinner, we’d had one of our usual conversations about what life was like back in high school—way back before getting married and having kids. We attended the same high school and had the same circle of friends, so it was always fun to travel back to the past and talk about how weird we used to be and the stuff we used to enjoy.
We talked about the food we used to eat: In-N-Out Burger, cajun fries with meat and cheese at school, and of course, Filipino food at home.
We talked about the shows we used to watch: Saved by the Bell, Animaniacs, and Total Request Live on MTV.
And naturally, we always discussed the music we loved.
The nineties was an interesting decade for music. Nirvana bloomed, Green Day came around, and Britney Spears was always on the radio to hit us one more time. I loved all kinds of music, from Snoop Dogg to Blink-182, and I even had a single mixtape that included Gwen Stefani, Sir Mix-a-Lot, Incubus, and Linkin Park.
For April, though, there is only one band in her life that matters: the Backstreet Boys.
Or as she likes to call them . . . her boys.
I always knew she had a love for this group. She had all of their albums on CD, went to their concerts, and even had pictures of them in her school binder. But I had no idea about the true extent of her fandom until that evening when, after dinner, she said the words you don’t want to hear after talking about the Backstreet Boys with your significant other:
“I have something I need to show you.”
Immediately, I started to imagine a tattoo, one that, when certain muscles were flexed, all of the boys would do a little dance or something.
Thankfully, it wasn’t that.
It was, however, something almost as surprising.
April went into the closet and took out a large opaque plastic bin and placed it on the floor. It looked heavy. Sitting criss-cross style behind it, she asked me, “Are you sure you want to see?”
Reluctantly, I said yes. How could I say no at this point?
Slowly, she removed the lid, and I immediately locked eyes with one of the band members staring right at me. It was the tall, blue-eyed, blonde member of the popular boy band, Nick Carter, on the cover of his 2001 calendar. He had a smoldering look, as if he were saying, “Hey, April. It’s good to see you again. I’m still here. And who’s this dude?” pointing at me.
I’m short and have brown eyes and black hair, the polar opposite of Nick Carter.
Underneath the calendar was a stack of programs from concerts. And then, I saw something I didn’t even know existed: Backstreet Boys action figures, unopened. Five of them. One for each band member.
But wait. There’s more . . .
Magazines, envelopes with who knows what in them, and then the clincher: a framed picture of Nick Carter.
I had seen enough. I knew from that point forward that April wasn’t just a fan of the Backstreet Boys. She was (and still is) a superfan.
But little did I realize, April’s hyperfandom for the Backstreet Boys, and the stories I later learned about how this all came to be, would be vital in helping me learn how to build a successful multimillion-dollar business of my own with superfans all around the world.
Actually, let me rephrase that:
April’s superfan journey taught me how to build a successful multimillion-dollar, future-proof business by creating my own superfans around the world.
I don’t have any hit songs or platinum albums. I don’t have my own action figure, and I definitely don’t have my own calendar.
I do, however, have a thriving business that is a result of the superfans who stand behind it. When I post about a location where I’ll be, I can guarantee that I’ll shake the hands of some of my superfans when I get there. When I share that I have a new product coming out, I’ll have a waitlist of sometimes thousands of superfans who want to be the first to get their hands on it. And when trolls or bullies enter the community to flex, it’s the superfans who show them the way out.
Fans are important, but superfans are everything.
Everyone is a fan of something, but if you’re a superfan, you behave a little differently. To outsiders, your actions may seem ridiculous. You’ll drive two hundred miles just to see your favorite singer. You’ll buy anything and everything related to your favorite movie franchise. You’ll spend countless hours during the week actively engaged in discussions in Facebook Groups or on Reddit, passionately defending your fan theories against someone else’s. You’ll tirelessly collect your favorite band’s memorabilia and store it in a box in your closet for a decade to one day torture your future spouse.
As a superfan, you also become a hardcore ambassador for the object of your fandom. You wave that flag high, and you wave it proud. You tell your friends and family about it, even if they don’t want to hear it. You take pictures and immediately share them on social media. You might even start a YouTube channel or a podcast about it, and over time, you’ll influence even more people to start loving this thing.
Superfans invest time, money, and, most importantly, emotion into what they love. When the team wins, superfans feel like they’ve won, too. When the team loses, it’s a tragedy. Either way, a superfan is very likely to shed a few tears. A superfan is a stakeholder—the most important kind.
It’s common to think that superfans only exist for people or entities like musicians, movie franchises, and sports teams. It’s what we see out in the wild. But what we don’t see are the superfans of the many micro-worlds that exist around us.
For example, there’s LEGO. Lots of people love LEGO, but the company has a big subset of superfans made up of people from all walks of life. This timeless and classic toy that lets people bring almost any vision to life has also inspired a dedicated fan community that includes Adult Fans of LEGO (AFOL), who attend meetings and conferences together. In fact, as you’ll hear about in chapter 7, it was LEGO’s superfans who helped rescue it from bankruptcy. They literally saved the company.
Or take California’s own In-N-Out Burger, which has earned the superfandom of many because of its consistently delicious food (and its “secret menu” that makes those fans feel like insiders). The company also draws intense admiration for paying its employees higher than market rates, as well as the fact that it’s still owned by its founding family and hasn’t watered down the brand with franchising or going public.
There’s also Harley Davidson. The motorcycle brand has a famously raving group of fans who resonate with its message of authenticity, freedom, and self-expression. The company hosts events around the country through the Harley Owners Group (HOG) that draws thousands of people and brings a special kind of energy to the fanbase. Those fans show off their brand loyalty through apparel—shirts and hats and jackets—and even their tattoos.
If you’re trying to build a brand and a following, whether you’re a business owner, artist, musician, YouTuber, blogger, podcaster, or creative of any type, superfans are the electricity that will spark your growth and the lifeblood that will keep your business energized. Your superfans have special powers and abilities that can support your mission, and that’s what makes them super. When you build a tribe of superfans, you’re building a future-proof brand that will allow you to succeed, no matter what the business or technological environment looks like.
Running a business means having your hands in multiple pies, from strategy to marketing to finance to hiring to much more. But focusing on the experiences that create superfans is more important than any other activity in your business. It’s more important than getting more traffic, more followers, more views, or more subscribers. It’s even more important than building your email list and acquiring more customers.
Why?
Because when you focus on creating superfans, as a byproduct you’ll get more traffic, more followers, more views, and more subscribers. You’ll build a stronger, more targeted tribe who will go out of their way to support you and what you do. They’ll be more engaged, more excited, and more likely to take action. And they’ll be more likely to buy from you, too!
Superfans are truly the life of your business.
Unfortunately, most businesses don’t focus their efforts on building superfans. Yes, you can build a successful business without them, but you’ll be spending a lot more time and money trying to get more people to find you—and even if they do, there’s no guarantee that they’ll ever come back. Plus, you’ll leave yourself susceptible to algorithm changes, savvy competitors, and even hackers, any of which could crumble your business overnight. I’ve seen it happen over and over again, and it’s never pretty.
Build a set of superfans, and no matter what happens, they’ll always be there for you.
Instead of spending money on ads, spend more time on people. Instead of worrying about the latest growth hacks and strategies, worry about identifying and addressing the biggest pains and problems in your target audience. Instead of figuring out how to optimize your conversion rates, figure out the rate at which you’re able to connect authentically with your audience and make them feel special.
Don’t get me wrong. It’s important to focus on things like building traffic and improving conversion rates, but unless the experience you offer your audience is infused with the magic that will help you generate superfans, all you’re doing is working hard and spending time and money to show people there’s nothing there that actually makes them feel special—nothing that makes them want to come back.
And no one is a superfan of anything that doesn’t make them feel special.
Superfans exist at the top of something I like to call the Pyramid of Fandom. They’re the smallest portion of your audience, but they’re the biggest catalysts for your brand and the beating heart of your business.
You’ll be seeing a lot more of the Pyramid of Fandom in this book, as we explore the strategies and tactics to bring the people in your audience from casual to engaged to active to true superfans.
April’s Backstreet Boys fandom may have been ignited the night she lay in her room trying to mend her heartbreak, but it didn’t start that night. She didn’t become a superfan because of that one song in that one moment. She became a superfan because of the many, many moments of hearing the band, seeing them on TV, talking about them with her friends, and yes, staring at Nick Carter’s sultry gaze and cascading blonde locks on the March page of his 2001 calendar.
And in the same way, your very own superfans will join you not because of a single, huge magical moment, but because of those many smaller magical moments.
Whether you’re a shy YouTuber just starting out, or the leader of a Fortune 500 company, your superfans are out there waiting for you to connect with them. You just need to create that journey, to pave the yellow-brick road that will guide them surely and steadily to superfandom.
Now I want to tell you a story about my first very own superfan.