013.The Power of the Parasocial to Be More Relational and Less Extractive

Have you ever heard the term “parasocial relationship”?

Even if you haven’t, chances are you’ve felt it or seen someone who’s felt it at some point. It’s especially common with teen girls with crushes.

Here’s how it usually goes:

Someone consumes a lot of media with a specific individual – a celebrity, for instance – and feels a sort of a connection with that person. Maybe they’ve seen all the movies, bought all the records, and really learned about the person.

So when they finally get to meet them at a Comic-Con or whatever, they’re smitten. They feel like they KNOW the person….even though they are, in all actually, a complete stranger.

This is the parasocial effect, and it’s what’s happening when you produce regular content like I teach you to do in OfferTherapy™ to add to your Authority Factors™ and tip the scale in your favor:

• Video content like webinars and YouTube videos, where someone can “see” you move, speak, breathe, and interact in a way that feels like they’re in the room
• Audio content like podcasts, where they can have your voice and worldview with them on the go
• Written content like books, where they can have your name on their shelf and instructing them in the way only you can

And the results from doing this kind of content and forming this kind of “relationship” with your audience?

Well, it’s magical. Or at least, it feels like it.

In truth, what it does is make it so that when they are READY to buy…

And they will be, if you’re doing this right and have strategically timed offers…

They’ll choose YOU and ONLY YOU to work with.

They’ll practically BEG you to work with them, because they’re already sold on what it will be like. They’ve already fantasized about working with you.

This is just one way you’ll get more sales, easier sales, and FASTER sales as a result of us working together. You bring the gold – I help you fashion it into a system that works to elevate you into a position of authority (“Expert”) in your ideal clients’ mind.

Now that you know this is a thing… what will you do with the information? Can you see how engaging authentically, using your real energy and attention and intention, can be more beneficial long-term even it means that you go "slower"?

—LMS