The One Thing More People Should Have Been Begging For

Entrepreneur Office Hours - Issue #310

Photo by HOLO on Unsplash

A huge thanks to everyone who replied to last week’s newsletter with thoughts about what you’d like to see as I look for ways to expand and enhance Entrepreneur Office Hours. I got far more responses than I expected — thoughtful, kind, curious, and generous. I’m already working through the feedback and thinking about what it will look like to weave some of those ideas into future issues. Stay tuned!

In the meantime, I want to focus on one piece of feedback in particular.

Only one person — one! — sent a response saying he wanted more content on sales and customer acquisition.

Can I be honest with you?

I was disappointed.

And not disappointed in that reader — disappointed in everyone else. It should have been the number one answer. I should have opened my inbox to hundreds of emails saying: “Teach us how to get more customers!”

In other words, if this was a test… you all failed.

Yes… I’m joking (mostly). But it’s also something worth at least mentioning, and this felt like a good moment to remind everyone that sales and customer acquisition are the oxygen of entrepreneurship. They are the unglamorous, unsexy, non-viral work that actually determines whether you have a business or just a very expensive hobby.

Also — because I have access to the data on all this stuff — I see that anytime I write about sales, customer discovery, or acquisition strategies, the engagement is always noticeably lower. Fewer clicks. Fewer shares. Fewer emails. It’s as though everyone collectively says, “Oh yeah… that’s important, but I want the fun stuff.”

And I get it. Fundraising is sexy. Ideation is addictive. Product development is fun. We gravitate toward the glamorous parts of entrepreneurship like storytelling, branding, strategy, vision, leadership, creator psychology, and so on. Sure, those things matter, but let’s be clear: nothing matters if you don’t have customers.

Period. Full stop.

Sales is not the dessert course of entrepreneurship. Sales is the plate everything else sits on.

So maybe this is a moment for all of us — myself included — to do better. As I reshape Entrepreneur Office Hours with the help of my Duke colleagues, I want to make sure the “boring-but-crucial” parts of entrepreneurship get more attention. Yes, I’ll keep including the inspiring stories or philosophical musings, but I need to do a better job of bringing the practical, tactical foundations that determine whether something actually works in the real world. That’s an important change for me to make as a writer. And hopefully you also agree it’s important for you as an entrepreneur.

Onward!

— Aaron

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This week’s new articles…

The Real Cheat Code to Building Billion-Dollar Startups

To create the kind of world-changing company every young founder dreams about, you’ll need to find a different type of idea.

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When to Walk Away From a Big Business Opportunity

What if it’s possible for an entrepreneurial opportunity be huge and, at the same time, not worth chasing?

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Office Hours Q&A

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QUESTION:

Hi Dr. Dinin,

I’ve been running a newsletter for about six months. I’ve got around 300 subscribers who are mostly people I know from LinkedIn or past jobs. I enjoy writing it, and the feedback has been good, but I’m not sure how to grow it beyond my personal network.

What are the best ways to get in front of new people when you don’t have a big platform yet?

Thanks for all your advice and content. I actually found you through your newsletter (which I love reading every week), so I figured this was the right place to ask.

—Jason

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Bold move to ask my advice about a newsletter in my newsletter. Kind of makes me feel like I’m helping the competition…

But, sure, I’ll give this a shot.

Most people assume the hard part about newsletters is the writing. It’s not. The hard part is getting people to read the writing. And that’s especially the case when you’re not famous, not rich, and not buying ads.

Because of this, the best way to create a successful newsletter is to focus on building distribution habits to go alongside your writing habits. This means:

1. Use your newsletter like a high-quality bribe.
Your best bet for consistent growth is direct referrals. So start asking for them. Not in a spammy, begging way. Just wherever you can: In the newsletter; in your social media bios; in the footer of your emails. Get used to always having a link that tells people, “Hey there… I’ve got a newsletter!” You might feel a little desperate doing this, but, to be fair, you are desperate, so that’s to be expected.

2. Don’t promote your newsletter. Promote your ideas.
Nobody wants to “sign up for your newsletter.” But they do want to read the clever ideas you can’t stop thinking about. So pull out the sharpest line from each issue and turn it into a LinkedIn post. But don’t post the link. Post the insight, then let curiosity drive traffic back to the source.

3. Steal other people’s distribution (ethically).
Find five people whose audiences should be reading your stuff. Mention them in an issue. Quote them. Build something that flatters them and adds value for your readers. Then send it to them afterward. No ask. Just a heads-up. Some will share it. And, honestly, that’s the majority of the game. Rinse and repeat.

Also — and this is the part nobody wants to hear — growth is supposed to feel slow. It’s supposed to feel like nobody’s reading. The people who win are the ones who keep writing even when it feels like nobody’s in the audience.

So keep showing up. Keep publishing. Keep making the kind of thing you’d want to read even if it feels like nobody else is reading. That’s how you grow. From there it just takes time.

Got startup questions of your own? Reply to this email with whatever you want to know, and I’ll do my best to answer.