How I failed (so you don’t have to)

By age 12 my first “business” went up in flames.‍

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It started with a set of colored blocks that helped kids better understand basic math.

After designing a door hanger with “killer” copy, I papered the neighborhood with my offer.

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But there was a problem…

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I spent all the money I had on blocks, copying services, and door hangers without taking the most important step.

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I dove in head-first without talking to a single parent, teacher, or even any kids.

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What do you think happened next?

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No one cared. Not one call.

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I took it pretty hard.

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I failed, but I couldn’t understand why.

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Here’s the thing…

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Being willing to fail is a necessity, but you don’t have to VOLUNTEER for pain.

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That’s why validating ideas is so important when building your course.

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I get it though…

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We want to skip to the the fun part.

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Building is fun. You get to see your creation come to life. Your ideas become tangible. They take on weight.

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But sometimes that weight makes you start to sink.

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But before you skink your time, money, and attention into an untested beautiful creation, there’s some concrete steps you can take first.

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1. Customer interviews: The art here is asking the right questions. Tune in to the wrong signal and you’ll find yourself optimizing for the wrong outcome. With well-crafted customer interviews you’re looking for buyer intent and satisfaction data.
2. AI analysis: Knowing how to prompt an AI the right way to help you find blind spots in your service and offer is a superpower. I use AI to sharpen my thinking rather than ask it to do the thinking for me.
3. Posse feedback: One of the first things I have my clients do is build a posse. This is a small group of trusted people: a prospect, a customer, a contemporary, and a mentor. This gives you four outside perspectives (coming from very different angles) to provide feedback on your ideas.
4. Pioneer feedback: With any new part of your offer you have to test with others to make sure you can replicate the desired transformation in others. Skip this step at your peril.

It's all important, and once you do it a few times it gets easier and easier.

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You just have to know where to look.