What is the #1 Thing that People Want?
I believe that the #1 thing that people want is acceptance. I also believe that the #1 thing that people fear is rejection.
My approach to tribe-building gives your brand the ability to deliver to your customers human connection and deep acceptance without much risk of rejection. This is done through a platform that introduces people to each other by matching their wants.
Today’s social media sites are designed to showcase a user’s interests, but wants are different. A want is stronger and more urgent. To explain, you may be interested in a specific author, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you want to join a book club to discuss the works of that author. By matching wants, people get exactly what they want while removing the barriers that prevent them from connecting with other people. After all, the primary reason people are reluctant to reach out to new people is that they don’t know whether the other person might be open and receptive to them. Most people choose not to reach out to new people because they fear rejection. As a result, they lack the connection and acceptance they crave.
Wants remove friction and make a great conversation-starter. Introducing yourself with the statement “I see that you like the author Dan Brown” (interest) would not be as effective or as comfortable as starting a conversation by saying “Just like you, I also want to join a book club and I agree that we should start by discussing some of Dan Brown’s books” (want).
Today, we are scared of each other and our friendships are mismatched. This is because we are not forming relationship based on compatible wants. There is no mechanism for expressing what we want and for meeting other people based on that. My model of tribe-building changes that.
