My son Brayden is now famous. Here's what happened…

• Over 100 kids from Brayden's class have posted comments about the videos on this Facebook page. Many are now clamoring to appear in future episodes.

"So what?", you ask. So this. What's happened to Brayden and his friends over the past month has everything to do with your project; whatever it may be . Because when you look at the impact they've had, you'll notice two important things:

1. You can't force a following. They didn't promote the videos, they just started posting them. Kids found them, liked them, and told other kids.

In this fickle music business, people are always asking me the same question: "How do we grow the size of our fan list?" My answer is always the same: "How did you find me?"

Ha, ha! I am kidding. My answer is always: "Have something that your target audience wants to read/hear/see and word will spread."

The Brayden Boys aren't creating their videos as a means to an end, they're just trying to create great videos. See if you can approach your own stuff in the same way.

Now look at what you're doing. Are readers eagerly awaiting your next e-mail? Are they telling other people about your music? Are they sending you feedback, making suggestions, clamoring to be included in future editions?

Until these kinds of things are happening with what you're doing, don't bother trying to grow your list. It doesn't matter. What you need are fans… not politely tolerant recipients. Because when it comes to generating actual fans for your actual project who will pay you actual money, ten of the former will outperform ten thousand of the latter.

Before you worry about making your list larger, figure out which narrow slice of the universe you're trying to influence. Then provide content that those people will anticipate and pass along. Fans.

Here's the bottom line. When it comes to your stuff, see if you can approach it more like a bunch of high school kids trying to stand out on Monday morning, and less like a marketer trying to sneak into someone's in-box. I know you want to grow your fan-base, but until you can crack the code on what your fans want, you'll remain invisible.

As for The Brayden Boys and their video fame, I have no idea how long it will last. I'm just glad they've felt what it's like to touch a nerve and develop a following. Once you've experienced that – whether in growing a fan-base or simply growing a high school reputation – there's no settling for anything less.