Ask Your Audience, Build the Solution
Monetize by asking what people struggle with, then building the fix.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 90%
Rather than deciding what to sell, Dumas repeatedly asked his audience what their biggest struggles and obstacles were so he could build solutions. When enough people asked to be part of a mastermind, he launched Fire Nation Elite at $150/month and filled 100 seats on day one. When many asked how to podcast, he built Podcasters' Paradise, now the largest podcasting course and community, generating over $7 million. He emphasizes it was never 'I should create a course' — it was listening for repeated requests and building the fix.
Origin
In his first year Dumas made modest revenue, so he kept asking his audience what they struggled with. Their answers directly produced his mastermind, coaching, and flagship course.
Core principles
- 01Your audience will tell you the best way to monetize if you keep asking about their struggles.
- 02Products should be built as solutions to obstacles people actually voiced, not ideas you assumed.
- 03Repeated requests for the same help signal a real product opportunity.
- 04Consistent value creation, not vanity metrics, is what produces durable revenue.
How to run it
- 1
Ask relentlessly about struggles
Continuously ask your audience what their biggest obstacles and struggles are so you know what problems are worth solving.
- 2
Listen for repetition
Watch for the same request surfacing from many people — that repetition marks a real product opportunity.
Pro tip Ten people asking the same question is your signal to build.
- 3
Build the specific solution
Create a product, service, or community that directly solves the struggle they voiced, rather than an idea you assumed.
Watch out Don't lead with 'I should make X' — let the audience's stated pain define the product.
- 4
Launch to the askers
Offer the solution back to the people who requested it, then repeat the loop as new struggles emerge.
In the wild
When his audience said they'd love a mastermind, Dumas created Fire Nation Elite at $150 per person per month and 100 people joined the day it opened.
→ Five figures of recurring monthly revenue from a single launch driven by audience demand.
After repeatedly hearing people ask how to start a podcast, Dumas built Podcasters' Paradise instead of assuming a course idea.
→ It became the largest podcasting course and community, generating over $7 million to date.
Common mistakes
Building from your own assumptions
Deciding 'I should create X' without audience signal risks making something nobody asked for; the demand should come from voiced struggles.
Chasing vanity metrics over connection
Focusing on CPM and sponsorships instead of solving audience problems misses the trust that actually drives people to buy.
Is it for you?
Best for
Creators and community-builders with an engaged audience they can survey directly.
Not ideal for
Pre-audience founders with no one to ask, or markets where customers can't articulate their needs.
From the transcript
“I kept asking them what are your biggest struggles what are your biggest obstacles so I could create solutions for them in the form of…”
“it was me saying holla what are you struggling with and and you saying well John I'd love to start a podcast and I don't…”
From the episode
John Lee Dumas: Productivity Hacks to Work Smarter, Not Harder
John Lee Dumas