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In 2016, Formula 1 was a dying industry.

Drivers were not allowed to interact with fans outside of approved tracks, hours-long races were not suited to our short attention spans, and Formula 1 was considered a sport for rich Europeans.

Yet, Liberty Media, the company that purchased the Formula One Group for $4.4 billion in 2017, took the bet.

For them, the problem wasn’t that the sport wasn’t interesting.

It was that people simply had no context.

The audience wanted to watch an exciting sport, but before anything else, they wanted a sport that felt relevant to their lives, a sport they could relate to. 

So the people at Liberty Media rolled up their sleeves, came up with a media strategy, signed a deal with Netflix to produce “Formula 1: Drive To Survive”, and encouraged teams and pilots to post on socials.

And their efforts quickly paid off.

The opening up of social media gave fans a window into the worlds of their favorite drivers and teams - and I was the first to be hooked.

In 2018, with the rise of Formula 1 content online, I started following Lando Norris and a few other drivers on TikTok, watching Lando’s Youtube videos, and binge-watching the Netflix series.

In weeks, I started discovering the drivers’ personalities and the challenges they were facing in their life. I quickly discovered an industry of defeat, drama & success, and I got to see those drivers as real people instead of rich dudes in fast cars.

With more context, I started understanding the story told, up to the point where I got interested enough to follow some of the races on TV.

Spending Time Designing The Room In which Your Product Stands In

What wasn’t working with Formula 1 wasn’t the sport but the context around it.

Fans today are still watching the same sport; it’s just that they now understand what is at stake, making the hours-long races much more exciting.

I recently stumbled upon a video from an interview of Virgil Abloh, Ex-Artistic Director at Louis Vuitton, that I really liked and where he explains a concept:

“ If I put a can in a an all white gallery space, it’s a piece of art. If I put it in a garage, it looks like a piece of trash and someone would throw it away.”

This simple quote instantly blew my mind and made me realize that, in the end, everything is a matter of context.

Whether this is buying a piece of art or watching cars racing, what matters to us, is not really the thing itself but the story that is told around it.

When I go get my Iced Vanilla Latte every morning in my neighborhood coffee instead of Starbucks, it’s not necessarily because the Latte is better, but because the story of the owner is - and I want to support him.

When I purchase a new NFT, the art is often the last thing I check. What makes me buy it is often the context I have, the story of the founder, or the meaning this NFT has for the people I know and look up to.

And this idea of context-sharing expands to every area of our life.

If we get no job interviews, maybe the problem is not our skills or experiences but the lack of context in the story we are telling to interviewers.

If we get no match on Tinder, maybe the problem is not our photos but the lack of context and anecdotes someone can relate to in our bio.

If we get no new active members in our communities, maybe refining our why and sharing more about what we’re doing would help more than re-organizing Discord channels.

In the end, if people have no context, they can’t understand.

And if they can’t understand, they don’t care.

It’s that easy.

Don’t Go Too Fast

So how do you share context and make people care?

You start slow, then increase gradually.

Here’s a story that happened to me last year:

In Austin, at the Consensus crypto conference, I was waiting in line to get my ticket when the guy behind me started the conversation. Cool, I thought.

But after doing a small talk for 2min and telling him my friends were arriving only the day after, he told me straight away: “Great, let’s spend the day together then.”

Well… no. I’m sure he was a really cool guy; it’s just that asking to spend an entire day with someone you don’t know is A LOT. I found an excuse and left.

Now, here’s how I met my friend, Justin, at around the same time, just a few days before Consensus.

We both had briefly chatted on Twitter, and one night, we were invited to the same party in San Francisco.

We spent part of the evening talking together and agreed to keep in touch.

A few days later, Justin DM’ed me and asked if I’d like to join his community and co-write with some of the members.

So I accepted.

Then a few weeks later, he asked me if I was going to an event in town where he was going as well.

I said yes, and I went.

Then, at the event, we both realized we still had a lot to say to each other, and I invited him to stay longer and grab a beer nearby.

He agreed and chatted for 2 more hours.

After spending the evening with him, sharing funny stories, and seeing him again a couple of times since then, I now consider Justin a friend.

What is the difference between the two stories?

A year later, I don’t even remember the name of the first guy at Consensus, but I’m actually going to an event in SF tonight with Justin.

In the same way, you probably don’t expect someone to be your best friend the first time you see them, you can’t expect people to buy your product or join your community the first time they see you.

Closing Thoughts

In the end, whatever we’re doing is a matter of context.

The Netflix shows we watch, the art we appreciate, the friends we make, and the communities we join depend on the understanding we have of them.

In our over-crowded content market, there has never been a better time to start sharing more context, giving members, readers, or collectors insights into the inner workings of your craft, and giving them more reasons to fall in love with it.

As creators on the internet, spending time mastering your craft is essential.

But if things don’t really go as planned for you these days, maybe ask yourself:

Isn’t it time to design the room in which my art will stand?

Speak soon,

- Eliot

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