The Crowd, The Curious, and the Committed

Photo by Emile Guillemot on Unsplash

Last week I talked about honoring my desire to focus more on my community. Not long after writing that post I had a conversation with a friend who shared this concept of the crowd, the curious, and the committed and it gave me new language to explain something I’ve been trying to say all year long so I wanted to articulate it here¹.

The Crowd

When I think of the Crowd I immediately think of Instagram and how I’ve had as many as sixteen thousand “followers” over the last 10 years since I joined. This is the Crowd—a large group that gathers to spectate, or gathers because they heard something going on and wanted to see what it was about, or because they followed someone else there.² For a very long time I focused on the crowd, as most people do, because you need to speak to the crowd to get to the next group of people.

The Curious.

The curious are those who heard something or saw something from you in the crowd and want to know more. For me, it’s those who said—what does she mean I can live my life on the other side of busy, ohhhh intentional living that sounds like something I want, but how?— Something I’ve taught or said or done got their attention enough to draw them out of the crowd and onto something else—my podcast, my company (perhaps they purchased an online program, workshop, or product), or maybe they emailed or texted the company a follow up question.

The curious, a smaller subset of the crowd, want to know more. I’ve catered to the curious in many ways over the years—a podcast answering the most common questions I receive and sharing guidance on a weekly basis and a company that provides resources to meet you right where you are, are among two of the most widely relied upon. I’ve built a lot to help the curious decide if they will stay among the curious, go back to the crowd, or become a part of the smaller number—the committed.

The Committed.

The Committed are those who travel from curious to committed to the process, the teaching, and/or themselves to carry out what they have heard and learned. They remain curious but it doesn’t end at curiosity. Instead, they engage, they put in the work, they get feedback from their actions and they make progress. Being committed takes the most effort, but is also the most rewarding.

It’s easy to be a part of a crowd. You don’t have to be fully present or involved to be in the crowd.

It’s easy to be curious but not allow your curiosity to lead you to discovery (read that again).³

By contrast, it takes effort to be curious and then engage with the answers you receive. It takes effort to be among the committed. And in this season of my work and life, my desire is to spend time among the committed.

The crowd (particularly the crowd of today, which is different from the crowd a decade ago in my opinion) can be draining and lead to a lot of time wasting. Don’t misunderstand, I care deeply about humans and those who are in the crowd. However, I have resources for those in my “crowd” that can meet them where they are and take them to curious if they desire. Likewise, I have answers for those who are curious. The help that they need already exists in the work I’ve done over the years.

But the committed, those are the people that I want to engage with actively and in real time through live events and mostly through the Best Today® Community. I want to spend my time in safe and intentionally designed spaces. That’s what I was trying to articulate in last week’s writing and in previous writings about Instagram/social media. I want to be among the committed.

I believe a lot of writers, leaders, creatives, and business owners feel this way, more than ever before. The crowd of today is markedly shallow and filled with a hollow vanity. And I understand that many in the crowd aren’t even seeking truth. Many today are seeking solace in lies that feed their comfort. I want no part of that.

I want to appeal to the committed. Those who have a desire to live life intentionally and who derive strength, guidance, joy, community, and/or help from the work that I do. It’s not everyone. I have no desire or expectation to be for everyone. But for the committed, they will get my very best because I am pruning to preserve my energy and time for them.

---

I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t tie this to a larger question to give you a point of self-reflection. Where are the places and spaces where you are wasting time among the crowd? Where you’ve sat too long in curious without getting any answers or discovery? Are you among the committed when it comes to the things that matter to you? Or are you hanging out vainly in the crowds?

I think it’s a great question for self-reflection.

Are you among the crowd, the curious, or the committed?