How to get famous.
(And why you should want to.)
Attention is the biggest currency in 2024. And it’s set to dominate in 2025 as well.
The more eyes on your brand the better. That attention is how you build awareness, it’s how you start conversations, and ultimately even drive leads to your business.
It’s about being famous.
I mean, think of who gets the most attention these days… It isn’t scientists or philanthropists or inventors. It’s celebrities. In other words, you can make all the innovative breakthroughs you like, you can be an expert, but if you aren’t like a celebrity then you won’t get the level of attention you deserve.
We’ve seen this play out with founder brands in SaaS. The likes of Adam Robinson from Retention.com and RB2B. Alina Vandenberghe from Chili Piper. We’ve seen it play out with some of the biggest brands in the world. Elon Musk at Tesla. Steve Jobs at Apple. We’ve even recently seen it play out in politics. There’s no doubting Trump was ultimately more of a celebrity than Harris. And look how that turned out.
Now I know what you’re thinking.
You’re thinking, “Joe, I love you, but I’m a founder. I don’t want to be a celebrity. I don’t want to be famous.”
And look, while it’s true that you don’t want to be the next celeb that seems to be famous for no tangible reason, I believe you do want to be famous within your chosen niche or industry.
I call this being Category Famous.
WTF does that mean?
The simple version:
Category Famous founders are known as the go-to person in their chosen field.
But let’s unpack that a little more…
Firstly, this is aimed at founders themselves. Way back in 2022 Dave Gerhardt (of Drift and now Exit Five fame) wrote a book all about founder brands. I remember reading it and thinking, “Damn this guy’s onto something here.”
(Incidentally, Drift’s founder, David Cancel, was absolutely a good example of Category Fame.)
Anyway, the point is that founders with a strong personal brand reap a shit-ton of benefits. Including, but not limited to:
Loyal following
Brand awareness
Lead generation
PR opportunities
A warm fuzzy hit of dopamine whenever they post on LinkedIn
People want to connect with people, not companies which are essentially just legal entities. They want to learn from and engage with the leaders in their respective areas.
The second important part here is “go-to person”. In other words, the aim here is to be known for something. Ideally something related to what your product does, right? If you can own that association in people’s minds, then your product becomes top of mind when they’re ready to buy.
This is also how referrals and word-of-mouth recommendations work. I’d like to think, for example, that should someone who knows me talk to someone who needs their POV nailing down, that I’d be the go-to person for that and they’d send them my way.
And the final piece? Being famous in your “chosen field”. This is essentially my way of clarifying that you aren’t famous in a more general sense. Though you absolutely can be. Some names, Elon for example, end up transcending their initial niche. But that’s not the aim here.
Instead, like any kind of niching strategy, you have to start by narrowing your focus. You do this in several ways, and ideally a combination of these:
Your audience
Your area of expertise
The big problem you solve
The more narrow you go, the easier it is to become famous. But of course too narrow and you might quickly maximise any growth opportunities. Best course of action is to start small and focused, and then as you expand outwards you can move to adjacent areas. Land and expand.
Being Category Famous means that you’re the go-to person in your chosen field.
It doesn’t mean having more followers than a small country, posting surface-level crap that somehow generates insane engagement, and having t-shirts with your face on. Unless you really love yourself.
Got it?
Okay, I’m in. How do I do it?
Well now, that’s the big question.
Luckily for you, I’ve dissected a lot of famous founders’ brands and noticed three things they all have in common. Then, because I’m a sucker for logic, put them all together into a handy formula.
I call it, for obvious reasons, the Founder Fame Formula.
Consider this the official launch.
Here’s the formula:
PROFICIENCY + PERSPECTIVE + PERSONALITY = FOUNDER FAME
Let’s dissect…
Proficiency = Your subject-matter knowledge.
Perspective = Your POV and opinions.
Personality = Your tone and experiences.
You need to find the right balance of all three of these ingredients if you want to become Category Famous.
If you lack proficiency, then nobody will take what you say seriously. This is the backbone of Category Fame. If you don’t have the actual knowledge and expertise then any attempts will fall flat.
If you lack perspective then you end up recycling the same information that people can get from anyone. In fact, nowadays most information is available on ChatGPT. Your perspective gives you a unique edge that grabs attention.
If you lack personality then people will be bored. They want that human side of the equation still. Having an exciting (note: this does NOT have to mean fun) tone of voice and bringing in personal experience and anecdotes helps people connect with you.
Of course, just because there’s a relatively simple formula here doesn’t mean it’s easy. Figuring out each of the three ingredients can be tough. It often involves a lot of trial and error, iterating until you find that sweet spot.
[It’s also something I’m planning to help founders with. So if you want to potentially be a beta client for free then just let me know and I’ll add you to the list.]
How do I start?
A good first port of call is to assess and audit yourself against those three ingredients. A simple version of this would be to take each part of the equation and give yourself a score out of 10.
How much does your knowledge and expertise show in your profile and content?
How much does your perspective and opinion come through?
How strong is your personality?
For low scores, figure out why that is. Where can you improve? What do you need to better define?
As always, thanks for reading. I appreciate you.
Cheers,
Joe