The power of being present
I wrote my first post about “building an audience before promoting a product” back in 2024, even though I only published it here in 2025.
At the time, it was just a thought I carried with me. Something I believed in, mostly because I had seen it work for others. I didn’t have Screenlite yet. I wasn’t active in the digital signage community. Most people had no idea who I was.
That post wasn’t written from experience. It was written from curiosity.
After publishing it, I decided to stop treating that idea as theory and actually try it.
Nothing dramatic happened. I didn’t suddenly grow a following or get attention. I just started showing up. Answering questions. Writing short posts. Sharing things I was learning about digital signage. No launches, no hype, no selling. Just being there.
Slowly, people started to recognize my name.
Over time, I became a moderator of r/digitalsignage. I started a Discord server focused on open-source digital signage software, mostly around Screenlite. It’s still small, just over 120 people, but it’s real.
In December 2025, I met Niko Sagiadinos in person. Until then, our interactions had been entirely through the community. Niko is the creator of GarlicSignage and has extensive experience in open-source software. We spoke for several hours, and the conversation felt completely natural. That was the moment I fully realized that the people behind online communities are real, and that you can connect with them personally.
Recently, I left my last project.
I also realized something else: I didn’t even have a LinkedIn profile.
Not because I was avoiding it. My career just grew in a very organic way. I moved between projects gradually, often working with people I already knew. Local market. Familiar faces. Trust first, paperwork later.
But now I want to move from a local market to a global one. And when you do that, you suddenly feel a bit lost. I wasn’t sure where to begin.
So I did the simplest thing I could think of. I wrote a post on Reddit.
No polish. No positioning tricks. I just described what I’ve done, what I enjoy doing, and what I’m open to. I expected maybe a couple of comments.
Instead, I got messages. CEOs. Business owners. People reached out, inviting me to conversations, calls, and to share ideas. That honestly surprised me, because I hadn’t had many one-on-one conversations with people in the community before.
That was the moment when the idea of “having an audience” stopped being abstract.
An audience isn’t followers. It isn’t likes or upvotes. It’s when people already have some context about you before you speak up.
Yesterday, I had a call with Lee Dydo, the founder of Dydomite. I really enjoyed it. We talked about the market, about product quality, about long-term thinking. Our views aligned in a way that felt rare and refreshing.
What also struck me is how much experience is quietly present in our small Reddit community. It’s not loud. But there are people there with 10+ years in the industry, deep technical knowledge, and very clear opinions. Being surrounded by that kind of thinking is motivating.
I have a few more calls scheduled now, and for the first time in a while, I’m more excited about conversations than outcomes. I want to listen, learn, and understand how others see the market.
Only now do I really feel the power of audience and networking.
Not the aggressive, growth-hack version.
The slow one. The boring one. The one built by showing up over time.
I think it’s probably time to finally create a LinkedIn profile. Not to chase opportunities, but to stay visible and connected, and to keep doing what I’ve already been doing, just a bit more openly.
I genuinely love digital signage.
I want to make it more visible, more understandable, and easier to enter. I want to lower the barrier, share knowledge, and help others grow, whether through open source, documentation, conversations, or just by being present.
Looking back, that 2024 post was pointing in the right direction.
But actually living it made all the difference.