The Quicksand Trap that Forests Can Fall Into

There's a huge marketing and sales advantage to making people feel seen without judgment.

It's one of the reasons that Forests can be naturally successful coaches with a client wait list to die for, while everyone else is usually just...Not that. They may be successful at coaching in other ways, but I see successful Forest coaches everywhere who "blow up" primarily by making others feel like they belong.

This is largely true in the independent publishing industry as well. Every massive Facebook author group that I know of was started by a Forest who wanted people to feel valued, loved, and included at every level. It's one of the reasons that I often note Forests as community builders (even though they aren't necessarily that-it's more that they trade in shared language, which is a core feature of community building).

One thing that I see just as often, however, is the Forest who markets by meeting people in the Quicksand.

This is often because the Forest was once in the Quicksand too, then pulled themselves out of it.

Even though this particular Forest has made it to safety, they repeatedly risk their lives to run back into the Quicksand and try to wrench people to safety with their bare hands. They think that walking with others on the path is the way to help them out of the Quicksand state.

They are the hero!

And then they are the martyr.

And then they are in trouble.

So is their business.

Repeat after me: This. Is. Not. A. Sustainable. Business. Model.

If you are a Forest, you need to stand firmly on solid ground and toss a rope to those you want to rescue. You need to hold yourself steady while the person uses their own strength to pull themselves up to where you are.

If you don't get serious about this, your company (or your health) is likely to implode.

You cannot build a long-term business by being best friends with your audience. Yes, they are a community, too. Yes you are a peer to them. But also, you are a business and a business needs to make money.

Some things that can happen (from this Grassland's perspective):

• A Forest builds a huge community around the work, but no one will to pay - This is by far the most common one I see. Everyone absolutely adores the creator of the community, but the community has operated on the creator of the community over-giving in substantial ways, without receiving enough back.

• A Forest overemphasizes the data from the community - They keep green-lighting projects based on a single person or even a handful of community people who say they are interested and excited about it. Other types hear that 10 people are interested and assume 2 or 3 will actually take action, while the Forest hears that 10 people are interested and assumes 100 others in their community will take action. But the way the world works is the former.

• A Forest makes it so the community is worth very little without them - A business that is completely dependent on a single personality has no exit strategy.

• A Forest over-gives to the point of health issues - This tends to implode the community and the value of it fairly quickly, as there are rarely systems in place to sustain it long-term.

When I look at myself as a Grassland, I notice that I have a broadcast mic. I mostly have a one-to-many relationship with my audience. Forests can fall in the Quicksand Trap when they think they have a community, but instead they have a one-to-many relationship with their audience, just much, much closer. It's just not sustainable.

The true value that Forests need to provide is the network, the weaving, the introducing of people to each other. They need to facilitate the person's relationship more with the cause or the product, and less with themselves.

This is not to pick on Forests! I am sharing my observations in real-time for feedback as much as anything else.