Hey there,

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

Since I first started talking about StrategyHub a few weeks ago, over 13,000+ people have opened every single behind-the-scenes email.

It’s easy to look at a number like that and start making projections: “What if 30% of these people join? 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 “But wait… there’s more!” emails?

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

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 strategy skills, which means anyone who is either currently employed, or running their own business, is in my target audience.”

But I think casting such a wide net is a big 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 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 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 the customers I serve are 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 accelerating 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 and get asymmetric value from it. I don't want it to collect digital dust.

Quality over quantity.

Hopefully this email is helpful in showing you who this is for and who it isn't for. I'll see you tomorrow with another email containing some important logistics (and on Thursday 31st October for our launch!)

Thanks for reading.

Cheers,

— Tom

You're receiving this exclusive "behind-the-scenes" newsletter because you’re one of our most highly engaged subscribers (🫶) or you've asked me to keep you posted about StrategyHub (🤝).

StrategyHub will be available on October 31st (add a reminder to your calendar: Apple  •  Google  •  Office 365  •  Outlook Web  •  Outlook  •  Yahoo)

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