Hey {{first name | there}},

Welcome to the 7th edition of my StrategyHub behind-the-scenes newsletter. Last time I shared how my data-driven strategy for creating StrategyHub has helped me gain confidence in the upcoming launch.

Since the initial announcement almost three weeks ago, over 1500 people have joined this waitlist for StrategyHub.

It’s easy to look at a number like that and start making projections: “What if 30% of the waitlist buys? 40%? Can we get to 50%…?”

The pursuit of a higher conversion rate leads to everything becoming an optimisation:

  • What if I add reminders?

  • Or countdown timers in the emails?

  • What if I add another incentive to buy on launch day?

  • How many new customers would I get if I offered a payment plan?

  • Should I add a few “did you miss the deadline? Here’s another chance…” emails?

I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t want this to be a big launch.

I’ve been working ridiculously hard these last few months building what I believe is the right product for you and the highest quality product in the space. Of course I want this launch to be huge — both financially, and also to justify how much time I’ve put into this.

But I don’t want to just get as many sales as possible. My reasoning might surprise you.

If you’re selling to everyone, you’re selling to no one.

It’s easy to think: “I’ve created a course on improving strategy skills, which means anyone who is either currently employed, or running their own business and wants to grow it, is in my target audience.”

But I think casting such a wide net is usually a mistake. It makes your offer weak. It leads to the wrong people ending up as customers. Fewer customers become success stories.

If I tried to just get as many customers as possible and attempted to sell to anyone who’s ever signed up for LinkedIn or X/Twitter, I wouldn’t have the product I have now.

Sure, I’d probably sell more licenses. Maybe even double! But I’d have a lot more customer support issues, fewer success stories per student, and significantly less word-of-mouth referrals.

The long term viability and success of my business would be impaired by short term get-as-many-sales-as-possible thinking.

Be the restaurant everyone talks about.

The best restaurants have few tables, limited menus, and long waiting lists. Their customers take photos of their food, post where they're eating on social media, and tell everyone they know about where they ate.

The selectiveness of these restaurants, and their focus on a specific type of customer, means that they're able to really understand their customers and provide them with an incredible experience. They stay in business because their customers talk about them, not because they have the best ad campaigns.

For the kind of business I want to run, I'd rather have fewer overall customers – but I want the customers I do get to be blown away by my product.

I don't want StrategyHub to be bought by anyone who's ever had an inkling for strategy. This isn't for "tire-kickers". I want it to be bought by people who are committed to progressing their career, and who have values that align with mine.

Who I'm selling StrategyHub to

The research I’ve conducted and the replies I've been getting to these behind-the-scenes emails have helped me figure out exactly who StrategyHub is for, and who really shouldn't buy.

Based on the information I’ve gathered, here's a list of who I'd like to not buy StrategyHub:

  • Anyone who works at a company that doesn’t use technology or the internet in a major way. StrategyHub is specifically designed to improve the strategy skills of people at “internet-native” companies.

  • Anyone who wants to skip the "unfun" stuff (critical thinking, analysing the problem, gathering the data, really researching your customer/target/partner/vendor/investor etc to tackle a hard problem) in favour of dopamine-boosting work ("just tell me which strategy book I should read!").

  • Anyone who can't, or won't, translate what I teach into action.

  • Anyone who’s too focussed on abstract frameworks, circular debates, and ‘guessing’ their way through decisions without using data.

  • Anyone who isn’t career motivated, doesn’t want to get a promotion / raise / new job, and doesn’t see value in developing the difficult but necessary skills to progress.

Throughout the content I've been working on, I've tried to make it super clear that you will need to do the work, and that buying StrategyHub isn't going to suddenly make you a strategy expert overnight. This is not for the overnight-success crowd - strategy is a complex area, and a skill that compounds in value over the long-term.

However, if you agree to apply what I teach to your goals and your specific work context, the course will allow you to learn practically useful strategy skills, and sidestep the common mistakes that I see most strategists make.

I want the right customer, because I want to know that the people who buy the course are actually going to use it. I don't want it to just collect digital dust.

Hopefully this email is helpful in showing you who this is for and who it isn't for. I'll see you on Tuesday with another email containing some important logistics (and on Wednesday October 16th for our launch!)

Thanks for reading.

Cheers,

— Tom

StrategyHub will be available to purchase on October 16th (add a reminder to your calendar: Apple  •  Google  •  Office 365  •  Outlook Web  •  Outlook  •  Yahoo)

Missed any of my previous behind-the-scenes updates? Here they are: