Let the Customer Steer the Business
Ask what your best customers have in common, then build the next business to serve it.
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 85%
Schaefer describes how Mind Pump stacked multiple seven- and eight-figure businesses by studying their best customers rather than inventing products. They ask what their most common customers (e.g. a group of 10,000) have in common, find a shared need they are not yet serving, and build a new business to fill it, since those people are already bought in. Every revenue stream after the very first product was steered this way. The complementary discipline is emotional detachment from ideas: test quickly, and when the market shows no interest, drop the idea fast and move toward what people actually want.
Origin
After Mind Pump's first monetized program, Schaefer noticed every subsequent revenue stream succeeded when it was steered by what existing customers had in common, and this became their deliberate method for scaling into new arms of the business.
Core principles
- 01Your existing customers already reveal your next revenue stream.
- 02Common needs across your best customers are pre-validated business opportunities.
- 03Love your ideas but do not marry them; speed to pivot is a hallmark of the successful.
- 04Let the business come to you by serving people you have already won over.
How to run it
- 1
Define your best-customer cohort
Isolate the group of customers who have already bought in and love what you do, whether that is five people or ten thousand.
- 2
Find the common thread
Ask what those people have in common beyond the product they already bought from you, surfacing shared needs and characteristics.
Pro tip There is almost always something in common across a large loyal cohort.
- 3
Serve the unmet common need
Identify what you are not yet doing to serve that common thread and build a new offer or business to fill it, since the audience is already bought in.
- 4
Test fast and pivot faster
Put ideas out to test, and if the market does not care, let go quickly and move toward what customers actually want.
Pro tip Speed and willingness to abandon a bad direction is a common trait of highly successful people.
Watch out Do not marry your ideas; holding a bad direction because it is what you wanted is a trap.
In the wild
Mind Pump repeatedly looked at what their large customer base had in common and built a new business to service the most common need, since those customers were already sold on the value.
→ Every revenue stream after the first product was customer-steered, producing multiple seven- and eight-figure businesses.
Common mistakes
Marrying your own ideas
Being so attached to an idea that you refuse to pivot keeps you invested in a direction the market has already rejected.
Is it for you?
Best for
Founders with an established customer base looking to add revenue streams or new brands.
Not ideal for
Pre-launch founders with no customers yet to observe, or those needing a single-product focus.
From the transcript
“what are other things that we can serve them that community because we've already we've already won them over”
“it's important to be passionate about your ideas but don't marry them and be okay with with pivoting”
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