Welcome to Issue 49 of A Good Reputation, a newsletter about how to become a better storyteller and grow your brand. (Did someone send you? Subscribe here.)

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Hello Reader,

To me, and maybe to you, David Easterbrook is a total dweeb.

But to my boyfriend—and other bonsai enthusiasts of the world—David is a legend.

That’s because for the past 50 years, David has dedicated himself to the art and craft of little trees.

As the former curator of the Montreal Botanical Garden, David has appeared on the cover of International Bonsai Magazine, has been a keynote speaker at several major bonsai conferences (yes, that is a thing), and has collected over 1 million followers on Instagram, where his bio reads, “Welcome to my bonsai world.”

A video of him watering his plants set to calming classical music has 2.9 million likes, nearly 6,800 comments, and 289,000 shares.

Now that’s what you call real online influence.

But even with a million followers, you’ve probably never heard of him. If it weren’t for my hobby-loving dude, I might have never heard of him, either.

Yet he’s a hero—a celebrity in his own little corner of the bonsai universe.

And people like my boyfriend are buying whatever it is he’s selling.

Thanks to the wonders of the World Wide Web, people like David have the power to create their own little nerdoms—corners of the internet dedicated to their craft, passion, or big idea, where all who are interested are welcomed in.

The key is getting crystal clear and obsessively specific.

A Good Reframe

Maybe it was the news of Charlie Kirk that split the social media sphere in half. Or maybe it was the AI-bot that left a “great insight” comment on my heartfelt post. Or maybe I just spent an unhealthy amount of time online last week.

Whatever the reason, I started to find myself spiraling down that deep, dark hole of despair with a real urge to finally act on my impulse to shut it all down and start that cafe business I’ve been dreaming about instead.

But then, on Tuesday, my faith in the internet was restored.

Because on Tuesday, Adam Mastroianni—a professional studier of people, popular Substaker, and unofficial hype man for the weird corners of the web—announced the winners of his blogging competition.

(Yes, a blogging competition. Because blogging, believe it or not, is alive and well.)

They included a self-proclaimed “connoisseur of crap” trying to measure intelligence, a biophysicist mama-birding Ethiopian marathon training into something digestible, and a historian digging into whether Cheetos incited a rebellion in 2008.

But my favorite, by far, was the honorable mention that went to an essay written in a Google Doc from a mother to her child that ended with this advice:

“You do not need my approval to own your decisions. But for the love of everything holy, own them! That means sometimes being able and willing to respectfully defend and discuss them. Everyone in every facet of their lives will have to learn how to do this so we might as well get good at it.”

As Adam puts it, the internet is one big experiment that we’re all participating in. And if it’s going to work, it's up to all of us to make it work. Because whatever we write, read, like, forward, comment on, subscribe to, or pay for—that thing gets bigger.

But also, it’s one big party. And the more good people pouring in to build their beautiful little worlds, the better this party gets.

The best part? You don’t need to join anyone else’s party.

You can just walk straight into the wilds of the web, stake your claim, and start your own.

A Good Lens

This isn’t about niching down. It’s about going deep on a problem, topic, idea, or product that you are obsessed with and letting that obsession attract the interested.

David didn't have any kind of special advantage—just a specialty. An expertise he dedicated years of his life to.

You may just be starting to explore your expertise. In this case, your dedication and curiosity are what count. And unlike David, you don't need 1 million followers to make it work as a business.

If you think about it, more than 5 billion people are online at any given moment. That’s over 60% of the world’s population scrolling, searching, posting, engaging, buying, subscribing, or (perhaps like me last week), spiraling into an existential crisis of dread and despair.

So, let’s say you’re trying to capture the attention of some of these people because you have an online business and want to make a cool $100K (to keep the maths easy) this year:

• If you sell a low-ticket offer, say $50, you need 2,000 buyers. Or 0.00004% of the world’s internet users.
• If you sell a high-ticket offer, say $5,000, you need 20 clients. That’s 0.0000004% of internet users.

Now, I’m not usually a maths person, but that percentage seems very low and very doable.

By honing in on your very ownable idea, unique lens on a problem, or nerdy passion project, you can matter to 0.0000004% of people.

If you’re building a brand, this is where you start.

A Good Takeaway

People hesitate to build online and put their story out there because they’re afraid no one will listen.

And it’s true—not everyone will listen. But not everyone needs to.

You just need the right ones. The interested ones. The ones seeking an answer to their very specific problem.

Because the internet has a strange, almost mystical way of connecting your weird to the people waiting for it.

So, if you haven’t already, it’s time to get clear on that thing and the other people who might care. It starts by asking:

1. What do I care about so much, as it relates to my work, that I can still be excited to talk about it for the next 5 to 10 years? (If you're already bored with talking about B2B marketing, so are we.)
2. What unique perspective or hyper-specific lens do I have on this topic?
3. Who in the world do I know that also cares about this thing? What’s their name? Why are they also interested? What haven’t they figured out that I have?

And then we go from there.

Like that mom in the Google Doc said, for the love of everything holy, you need to own your idea.

Defend it, dissect it, discuss it—break it down into one word you become known for.

Then, welcome people into your world.

A Few Good Resources

1. I have some wonderfully weird creatives joining my next cohort, where I'm leading you through how to build your brand to attract your ideal clients through storytelling. Want to join us?
2. If being online is getting you down right now, the comment section on this post is a goldmine of inspiration, good ideas, and hope.
3. ​This is also a great idea.

Hope you have a good one,
Renee