Hey, Reader,

It’s harder to grow an audience, harder to make sales, harder to grow a business altogether.
Is your experience similar? It is for most of my clients.

And I hate the slight disappointment in their eyes when I have to tell them “yeah, it’s getting harder for everyone.”

I don’t have a miracle cure for them or for you in this newsletter. But I have an explanation and a solution (spoiler: it’s not easy).

We’ll dig into them right after welcoming today’s sponsor, my friend Jay whose offer is spot-on for you if you’re looking to grow your authoritativeness — which ultimately grows your business.

📣 Brought to you by 📣

​Jay Immanuel​

Do you want to publish a book to grow your business?

I’ve got a colleague who’s figured out how to create a book using a 1-hour interview and turn it into a 20 to 80-page book. WITHOUT:

• You having to write a single word.
• Using A.I. for any of the content.
• Waiting a year to publish it.

He’s only got space to take on 1 new person every month, but he’s set aside time to talk to 4-5 people this week.

This will ONLY work if you want to publish a book and own a business.

If you’d like an intro just email me the word “INTRO” and I’ll connect you.​
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Want your name up here? Grab a slot before the prices go up!​

(Sold out until April 2025)

In my first year in (this) business, I made $5K from product sales and $18K from agency work driven by my personal brand. The full breakdown here.

Any sane person would have stopped and doubled down on the revenue driver, the agency.

I didn’t because I knew that growth had already gotten harder than ever. Plus, I was in a privileged position – I wasn’t forced to make money ASAP to pay the bills, I had another business for that.

“It’s never been easier to start” = it’s never been harder to grow

There’s one type of social media post, usually peddled by celeb entrepreneurs and bros that I absolutely loathe: “it’s never been easier to start, so what’s stopping you?”

Gee, I don’t know, Chad, common sense, maybe?

Yes, it’s easy to start posting on social media. You can build a website for free with minimal technical knowledge. AI can help you churn mediocre content with the speed of light.

So what gives?

Well, if it’s easy for everyone, it doesn’t matter.

It’s easy to walk, almost anyone with two legs can do it. But running a marathon? That’s a different story, which is precisely why so few people do it, even though the prerequisite is the same: two functioning legs.

When the entry barrier is low, the growth barrier is towering.

Since everyone is getting started because "it's easier than ever", the first reason why growing a business is harder is obvious: there's more competition than ever. Let's look at some more reasons.

Reason #1: When you get past the honeymoon stage of your business, things get harder

In the early stages of a business, you have plenty of excitement to fuel you, so things don’t seem hard. Better yet, we all have a network of friends and peers. No matter how tiny it is, we can reach out to those people and ask for referrals, intros, or even direct purchases.

What happens when those run out?

Well, things get harder.

Throughout the life of your business, there will be many other times when you reach the end of your audience. But the first time hits differently because it happens right when you feel like you are finding the wind beneath your wings.

Shameless plug: if you feel like you’ve reached the end of your audience (i.e. everyone who could have bought from you has done it), Audience Accelerator will teach you how to reach brand-new people who are ready to buy from you.

Your enthusiasm starts to fizzle out. And the ever-increasing competition doesn't help. On the contrary, it makes us feel like there's always someone WAY ahead of us and we'll never catch up to them.

Reason #2: We’re in a hurry to reach people who are READY to buy NOW

I recently wrote about selling something there is demand for versus educating people on new products.

Here’s the catch, though: even if there is demand for what you’re selling, it doesn’t mean that everyone who needs your services/products is ready to buy OR ready to buy from you.

Some of them may be too early in their business, others don’t trust you enough, while others might need what you’re selling but they don’t know it yet.

If you can help your audience with multiple challenges, your business will be more sustainable in the long run. Especially if you keep them close as their needs change and evolve.

A few examples from my own business:

• Most of you started by buying the 5+1 launch email sequence. It’s affordable and easy to use. Plus, everyone will launch something at some point, so there is clear demand for it.
• In time, you might realize you don’t have a large enough audience to put together a lucrative launch. So you’ll learn the framework I teach in Audience Accelerator.
• Not enough clarity or confidence in your strategy? A 1:1 session with me usually solves that problem. The Growth Intensive program goes even more in-depth and sets you up for long-term success.

These are not just theoretical examples — these are the intricate buyer journeys of my clients. The buyer journey is no longer linear, so trying to upsell using a rigid funnel doesn’t work that well anymore.

A client of mine bought the email sequence, then took TWO YEARS to grab Audience Accelerator.

Another client bought The Guided Strategy Framework, then took NINE MONTHS to book a call with me.

I have examples like this galore and, at first glance, they don’t make sense.

Do you know what makes sense, though?

Before and in between purchases, they kept reading my newsletter, almost every issue. So when there was time to buy, my products were top of mind.

I spent a lot of time building that trust and reputation because I know it’s the foundation every business needs. It’s not easy but it’s still easier than trying to compete with everyone and their mother based on price and “value”.

Moral of the story: show up for your audience even when they’re not buying from you. If you build a relevant audience, they will — in their own time.

So what do you do when everything seems stuck? How do you grow your business when it feels like you’ve been plateauing for ages?

A framework to spark growth depending on where you are in your business

This framework is definitely not the only game in town. There are countless other options and possible combinations.

It is, however, the framework that has had the most success — for myself, my clients, and my peers.
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1. Do more

(When you’re just getting started)

If your business doesn’t generate enough revenue to feed you, you need to do more:

• More audience growth
• More prospecting
• More channels

This is the time to place several small bets. You’re still experimenting at this stage and it will take some time until you figure out what works best and where you should focus your efforts.

You may not like this but this stage will include some bad products that won’t sell, some wasted time on channels that you can’t grow reasonably fast, and a lot of second-guessing yourself.

It’s hard, yes. The good news is that, if you survive it, things get simpler.

2. Do better

(When you have a clearer idea of what’s working)

At this stage, your business can feed you (beyond ramen profitability) but you want more – obviously!

By now, you have had some successes and some failures, so it’s time to re-assess:

• Nix products that take too long to sell or services that take too long to deliver
• Improve your current products and services: user experience, content, marketing tactics — refine everything that can be refined from sales pages to the way you ask for testimonials and reviews.
• This is the stage where you stop “winning ugly”, as my friend Stacy says and you polish your products so you can increase your prices, spend less time selling them, or both.
• One thing that doesn’t change here is the need for audience growth.

3. Do less

(When you know exactly what’s working)

Your business is very profitable now. You can afford to hire new people, set money aside, and live the lifestyle you want.

By now, some of your products will have become obsolete, so you will either delete them completely or improve on them until they become industry landmarks (think Gabor Mate’s business model).

This is the deletion era:

• Delete every product that’s not a smashing success
• Become laser-focused on growing your audience and, possibly, your TAM (Total Addressable Market) i.e. expand to new markets.
• Either focus on selling one core/signature offer or build multiple programs through partners.

At this stage, you’re making multiple six figures or even seven. It’s another inflection point in any business, where you’ll have to choose among building a fanocracy, exiting, and staying small-ish for a couple more years.

Every stage of every business comes with its own challenges

To paraphrase Mark Manson, the goal is not to be problem-free. You will always have problems — in business and in life. The goal is to have better problems.

What stage are you in right now? Reply and let me know — I’ll point you to some resources that will help you solve some of your current challenges.

🎙️ My interviews and podcasts

1. I’m stoked to be speaking at the Level Up Summit in February! It’s a women’s conference that will teach you how to scale to six figures without burning out. My talk is on February 27th, but I highly recommend joining all the talks in the summit. The line-up is out of this world! Join here!
2. Last week, my friend Heidi Medina and I spoke about the stigma around money, especially for women. In case you missed our spicy conversation, you can find it here.

That's it from me today!

See you next week in your inbox.

Here to make you think,

Adriana

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