How ‘Build it & they will come’ didn’t work… Until it did.

It’s a phrase popularised by the film Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner as the enduring optimist who chooses to trust his calling.  

Early in my online career, I had a similar ‘Build it and they will come’ approach – until a marketing expert told me that such a wistful theory never works in real life. 

And even though I had a sense that just creating what I felt called to create was the right path for me, I trusted her and wondered if maybe I was being too optimistic, naive and unrealistic. (Labels that had often been applied to me in the past). 

And yet…

After many years of trials and errors, dead ends, detours and failed experiments – most notably doing what worked well for other people or what experts claimed were proven strategies – I kept noticing my own results didn’t follow logic. 

As I shared last week, I spotted a surprising pattern that helps me avoid a HUGE amount of unnecessary work.

And this week, inspired by my mid-year reviewing of all aspects of my business, I saw that what really works well for me – the strategy where I get the best ROI for my energy and efforts is…

{Cue drumroll}

Just creating what I feel called to create! 

Automagically. 

Admittedly, I’ve learned to optimise my work to be findable online, but I’m inspired by excellence, so getting better at what I do is part of my mission anyway. 

Yet this realisation highlighted how I don’t have to ‘be all over the Internet’ doing PR interviews, spending hours contriving uninspired posts for social media (which serves no one) or paying a fortune in ads. 

I just stick to what I love most, create what I feel called to create – and people find it. 

In ever-increasing numbers. 

When I look at which efforts reap the most rewards, following my bliss, doing the work I’ve come to believe is my dharma, works more effectively, reliably and delightfully than logic or expert advice.

Under the right conditions, (I’ll be sharing more about those in an upcoming project…), simply doing what I love works like magic, for me. 

I build my body of work, in the ways that feel good to me, and people just keep coming into my world, in varied and unexpected ways.

As a case in point, after spending a happy hour or so drafting this email, there was an ‘inexplicable’ flood of traffic to my website. ?

This kind of thing happens on a daily basis – the more I live and work in my dharma. 

I’ve come to call it automagic success – and it’s such a fun way to work! 

• • • 

Over to you…

So, what I’d love to share with you today is that sometimes, despite what the experts say…

If you just build what is in your heart to build – your people DO just come! 

Somehow. 

Somehow the right people find your work. 

If you keep creating and offering your soul work to the world, more and more people begin to notice, until you find that a steady stream of the right kind of people are showing up and wanting more. 

Doing what we love, with increasing confidence and calm – that’s my kind of success strategy. 

{ One of my favourite possibility reminders from my gift shop }

It may not happen every time, or it may take longer than we’d like (I also have some theories on why that is, most of which centre on our inner states than our outer circumstances). 

But I’m living proof that it IS possible. 

And if it’s possible for me, why not you?  

So, if you’re a like-minded optimist or ‘unrealistic’ dreamer like me and Kevin, I’m happy to reveal that ‘Build it and they will come’ is not a myth – it’s a possible route, I believe, for anyone whose heart lies in that direction. 

And I hope this will inspire you to build your own field of dreams, with the faith that the people who want and need your unique art or service WILL find you. 

BTW I would LOVE to help with that – so please do share your creative dream, and then if I know people looking for someone in that field, I’ll know where to send them. ?

So, build away, , because when you create for your people with heart and faith, they can and will come and find you. 

“Faith is not blind, it’s visionary.” 

~ Marianne Williamson