I'm going to share something embarrassing: I'm a sucker for trashy reality TV.
Reality competitions...dating shows...my wife and I love them all:
- Alone
- Survivor
- Traitors
- Beast Games
- American Idol
- The Bachelor(ette)
- The cornucopia of Netflix dating shows (Age of Attraction is fun)
We got really into this genre during the 2020 pandemic when we just needed something to look forward to, talk about, and enjoy.
But do you know what I like most about these shows? The group chats that accompany them. Survivor's 50th season started a couple of weeks ago, and I'm in four different group chats dedicated to it. We watch it live—together—from all over the globe and talk about it in real time.
The same was true of fantasy football. Every Sunday, multiple group chats absolutely light up during the entire slate of games while we talk about what we saw on NFL Redzone and what our players were doing. Believe it or not, even Survivor and The Bachelor(ette) have dedicated fantasy-football-style websites that you can compete with friends.
IT'S THE BEST.
The products themselves (the shows) are great, but it's all about the shared experience that I'm having with others at the same time. I want to talk to people, but it doesn't always need to be such a capital Big Deal. It makes me feel human, connected, and a part of something when we have a built-in shared experience to talk about. And even outside my immediate group chats, knowing that millions of people are having a parallel experience with these shows makes me feel like I'm part of something.
I'm thinking about this a lot right now in the age of AI.
The world feels very uncertain right now, not solely due to AI, but largely so. I was speaking with a course creator recently who shared the (negative) impact AI is having on course sales. Their target audience is now facing economic uncertainty and isn't investing in education to the same extent they once did. And I'm hearing this from a lot of course creators.
That's a scary thing for people who have built their business on courses! But I think this is a reality you should be prepared for—education is changing. It won't go to zero, but it will (and in some cases is already) have a big impact.
There are several options (live learning, memberships, AI-assisted education, templates), but I'm particularly bullish on memberships. And a big reason why is this opportunity to tap into the value of shared experiences. There are actually two types of experiences I want to highlight:
- Shared Experiences—When multiple people are experiencing the same thing at the same time and communicating about it.
- Parallel Experiences—When multiple people are experiencing the same thing at the same time in isolation.
When I'm watching Survivor live with my wife, we're having a shared experience. When I'm watching Survivor live with millions of anonymous people I don't communicate with, we're having a parallel experience. It's exciting when I meet someone who's had a parallel experience, and then we can share it afterward. Have you ever discovered that you attended the same concert as someone else but didn't know it? That moment of recognition is electric.
Memberships are perfect for creating shared experiences. In June, we're hosting another two-day, Offline event for The Lab ahead of Kit's Craft + Commerce conference. That's a purpose-built, shared experience we're creating for our existing community.
But there's another angle for memberships: giving people a way to turn their parallel experiences into shared experiences. Think about my fantasy football group chat: those games are already happening, people in that group chat already plan to watch them, but now we have people to talk to—in real time—about that experience.
If you're a course creator whose audience is investing less in education because they're facing economic or employment uncertainty, guess what? Your audience is already having a parallel experience. They may be completely in their own head, thinking they're totally alone in something, not realizing there are tons of others having the exact SAME experience (also wishing they had someone to talk to).
By creating a place for these people to meet and talk about that experience, you turn a parallel experience into a shared one. That's why I started The Lab in the first place—creators were either operating in silos or swimming in the giant ocean of social media. I live in an Ohio suburb—it wasn't easy to meet other people like me. Now that the community exists, we layer in our shared experiences, like The Lab Offline, our Lab fantasy football league (congrats again, Chenell), Wellness challenges, and our Lab Survivor league.
This is a HUGE opportunity right now. Shared experiences can be fun and exciting (like fantasy football or trashy reality TV), but they can also be deeply comforting. If I'm quietly freaking out—alone—about the impact [AI] is having on my [life/job/etc.], then chances are good that I'd appreciate having a "group chat" with other people in that situation. Especially if these people can lift my spirits or share ways they're finding their way through that experience.
If you gather an audience of people who care about [something], you're already well-positioned. You're a lightning rod for people having a parallel experience. If that parallel experience feels lonely, scary, uncertain, or unique, creating a space where people feel like they a.) belong or b.) have new hope is powerful.
Maybe that's what just your people—and your business—need right now.
