I’ve been thinking about my problem with self-promotion, and I think I’ve been describing it slightly wrong.
I don’t actually want an audience.
At least not in the abstract sense.
Ten thousand people vaguely aware that I exist would probably change less about my life than five people who know what I’m good at, understand what I’m trying to do, and occasionally think of me when something relevant appears.
That makes build an audience feel like the wrong objective.
I think I need relationships.
People who build things.
People who are better at the parts I’m bad at.
People I can send an ugly prototype to without first turning it into a launch.
People who occasionally send something ugly back.
Which is probably still networking, unfortunately.
I may simply have spent years hating the word more than the thing itself.