This Is How You Build An Empire Before You Have It All Figured Out...

Newsletter · Nov 10, 2024

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An entrepreneur's recipe for sweet success

1.67min Read

.... I'll let you in on a little secret, NO ONE has it figured out. 🤫

If you are starting a business or trying to add to your existing OR if you’re trying to buy a business, this email is for you. I’ll try and keep this quick and actionable for you.

The phrase build in public gets thrown around these days, but what does it mean and more important, what does it look like?

Here’s a scenario:

You want to start a firewood sales business (it’s a thing and it’s actually pretty lucrative).

Someone says “that’s super cool, just build in public”.

But what does that even look like??

The idea here is transparency. People can smell fake-ness from a mile away. You don’t have to be anything more than what you already are.

You don’t need to appear to have a big operation or be the leading firewood distributor in the Midwest, you just need to be you. It’s all about how you can position YOURSELF in a way that attracts who you want to attract.

Using this example, and building in public, this is how I’d do it.

I’d go Twitter or IG. If you’re more of a writer, go Twitter, if you’re more visual, IG. You can have both, but put your energy into one.
Create a brand around what you have. Something like “Cozy Corner Firewood” something that evokes an image in someone’s mind.
Start posting and sharing your background and that you’re building the worlds first BLANK firewood company. It could be anything. Find something unique and capitalize. Don't downplay yourself. You're building something cool, own that.
If you’re on IG, post cool videos of firewood being cut and the fire burning. People like feel good videos like that. If you’re on Twitter. You can still post video, but focus on HOW you’re building. What contracts you get, how you do the job, etc. All the business entrepreneurial stuff goes over well there.
Here’s the most important part, CAPTURE EMAILS. If you do anything, make sure you do this! The best way is just through a newsletter. In your profile make it so people can sign up for your newsletter. From there you’re able to nurture them, update them and send out offers as you create them.

I could go on, but you get the point.

Building in public is about being genuine with the fact that you’re in progress and trying to figure it out. WHILE also owning the fact that you're doing something worth paying attention to. People love a good origin story.

It’s sharing with your customers what you have, when you have it and then asking them what they think.

Your business isn’t for you. Sure you profit off of it, but you’ve built it FOR other people. Your clients/ customers. It’d make sense then that you pay attention to what they like and don’t like.

The only way to really do that is to TEST. And the best way to test is to put it out there even when you don’t think it’s ready. Because it’s not… yet. But it will eventually get there.

Building in public is the ability to be open with you’re audience about your process DURING your build. Sharing with them what you're doing is going to come across as transparent and customer focused.

You don’t have to give away everything, that’s not the point. The building in public mentality is about humility and being genuine.

None of us really has it figured out. Whatever IT is, that’s what people are trying to get to. Instead of pretending you have IT handled, step outside the box and share what you're working towards and rally people to come with you on the journey.

With that, I’m also very much building in public. With a ton of things! But if you want to see how we’re building an entrepreneurial podcast, this episode is for you!

What are you building? I'd love to hear about it. If you're willing, I'd love to feature you in a podcast episode or one of my In Progress Wednesday posts. Let me know!

Until next time...

Stay in the fight,