Takeaways:
- The "Minimum Viable Audience" approach is a qualitative way of defining your ideal client in which you focus on a few individuals who can benefit the most from the work you do.
- Uncovering what drives you makes your work more meaningful to the group of people you've chosen to help and to you.
Making a Murderer is a Netflix docu-series that tells the story of Steven Avery, a man who served 18 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.
Once out of prison, thanks to DNA evidence, he requests $36 million in a lawsuit against law enforcement officials, only to find himself once again arrested for a crime, this time a murder, he didn't commit.
Making millions through the dozens
Enters attorney Kathleen Zellner, the hero of the story.
Her practice is focused on civil rights, criminal and medical malpractice cases. According to the firm's website, she is responsible for "rewriting the ending for the wrongly convicted".
In 23 years of practice, she achieved 21 exonerations and won almost $90 million from wrongful convictions and medical malpractices lawsuits. In 2007, for example, she won a $15.5 million verdict for Kevin Fox who was falsely accused of murdering his daughter.
The Minimum Viable Audience approach in practice
Aside from making lots of money by working with only a few dozen of clients over decades, she has had an enormous impact on the lives of 21 individuals.
We're talking about people who would spend their whole lives in prison for crimes they didn't commit if it wasn't for Kath's work.
“What drives me is the abuse of power—the bullying and the victim. I have such a strong reaction when I see people who can't defend themselves.”
Big impact on a few lives
When thinking about the impact we want to have with our work, our natural tendency is to think big. Impact thousands, millions, billions of lives. Kath's career, though, shows us that a qualitative approach is as meaningful as a quantitative one.
Can we agree that completely transforming the lives of 21 individuals is something to be proud of?