Build the audience, not the product

Distribution is more important than your product

Most people do it backwards.

They come up with an idea, spend months building it, drain their savings perfecting it, then try to find customers.

They think "if you build it, they will come."

They don't.

I've seen this hundreds of times.

Smart people with great ideas who build in silence.

They perfect their product in a vacuum.

They focus on features instead of feedback.

Then they launch... to crickets.

The new playbook looks different

You build the audience before the business.

You create the distribution before the product.

You find your people before you ask them to buy anything.

This isn't just theory.

Every successful creator-led business I've worked with followed this path.

When you have an audience, you get instant feedback.

Real insights.

Not what people say they want, but what they actually engage with.

Your content becomes your market research.

Your engagement becomes your validation.

Here's what happens when you build distribution first

Instead of guessing what will work, you know before you build.

Your risk practically disappears.

When you build for an existing audience, you're solving known problems.

You're creating products people have already asked for.

You're entering a market you've already tested.

Instead of starting from zero, you're selling to people who already trust you.

Instead of explaining who you are, you're talking to people who already follow your journey.

Instead of convincing strangers, you're serving friends.

I've seen businesses spend six figures trying to find product-market fit.

Meanwhile, creators build million-dollar businesses just by listening to their audience first.

The difference?

Distribution.

When you have distribution:

• Your marketing costs drop to nearly zero

• Your customer acquisition cost approaches nothing

• Your feedback loop becomes instant

• Your product decisions become obvious

• Your growth becomes organic

Start there.

Now, let me be clear about something

From what I've seen managing creator businesses, there's an interesting balance to all this.

Distribution might open doors, but it's only part of the story.

I learned this first-hand with our brands.

When we got Best Cereal into Tesco nationwide and launched Sides in major shopping centres, that was distribution doing its job.

It got people through the door.

But then people kept coming back.

They returned because the product was genuinely good.

This is where the balance comes in:

Distribution might get you that first sale.

But only a good product gets you the second, third, and fourth.

Looking back at all our launches, the pattern is pretty clear.

Build the audience first, absolutely.

But then make sure you're giving them something worth telling their friends about.

That's what seems to work, at least from what I've experienced.

Chat soon,

Jordan

Quick community update:

Our beta testers are now inside the Think Like A Creator Community and we're getting ready for our first Q&A next Thursday. I couldn’t be more excited to get real time feedback on this new initiative I’ve been building out! As a newsletter subscriber, you'll be first to know when we open the doors to everyone after the beta period.

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