The final piece of your strategy

We've made it to the final part of our 7 Steps to 7 Figures Brand Strategy checklist journey!

If you've been following along, you know we've covered:

• Who you are in Part 1

• Your purpose in Part 2

• Your values in Part 3

• Your brand expression in Part 4

• Your audience in Part 5

• Your distribution in Part 6

If you’re new to this series, check out the links above to get caught up.

And if you don’t have the checklist, you can grab it below:

Today, we're tackling the part everyone secretly cares about most but often feels uncomfortable discussing directly:

The COMMERCIAL side of your strategy.

In other words: How does any of this actually make you money?

Let's start with question 29: What's your commercial end goal? What would good look like?

This question might seem obvious, but it's shockingly overlooked.

Many creators and businesses pour endless energy into building audiences without clarity on how that translates to income.

When we first started working with the Sidemen, they were already massively successful in terms of audience.

But we spent significant time getting crystal clear on their commercial goals beyond AdSense revenue.

This clarity shaped every decision that followed.

Without it, we would have been building on shifting sands.

I see three common issues when people skip this question:

First, they create vanity-metric businesses – lots of followers, engagement, even influence... but struggling to pay bills.

Second, they build audience assets that are fundamentally misaligned with their revenue goals.

Third, they never know if they're succeeding because "good" remains undefined.

Your commercial end goal isn't just about a revenue target. It's about defining what success looks like in specific terms:

• Is it £10K monthly recurring revenue?

• Is it a business you can sell for £2M in five years?

• Is it replacing your salary with more flexibility?

• Is it building an audience asset that attracts partnership deals?

The specificity matters because it shapes everything – from which platforms you prioritise to what content you create to how you structure your offers.

Your commercial clarity is the compass that ensures all your other strategy work leads somewhere meaningful.

Now let's look at questions 30-31: What types of brands would want to advertise to your target audience? Where can you reach those brands?

This is where the commercial power of your audience really shines, often in ways you might not expect.

When building the Sidemen's audience strategy, we weren't just thinking about their direct revenue streams.

We were considering the brand partnership ecosystem their audience would attract.

An audience isn't just valuable because of what you can sell them directly.

It's valuable because of who wants access to them.

An example could be an audience of 5,000 professionals in a specific industry.

Not exactly Joe Rogan numbers.

But because this audience is highly targeted, specific brands were willing to pay premium rates for access through sponsored newsletter mentions and webinars.

A "small" audience could generate more partnership revenue than others with 50K+ followers across random demographics.

The key is understanding the commercial ecosystem around your audience:

• What brands serve the same people you do but don't compete with you?

• What companies have marketing budgets allocated to reach exactly your type of audience?

• Where do these potential partners already look for collaboration opportunities?

Understanding the commercial ecosystem around your audience is literally the difference between a passion project and a profitable business.

Finally, question 32: How would you drive direct revenue from your audience? What can you sell and what value can you provide?

This is where most creators start their thinking.

But it's actually more powerful when it builds on the previous questions.

When you're clear on your commercial end goal and understand the ecosystem around your audience, direct monetisation becomes much more strategic.

With the Sidemen, we built Side+ as a direct revenue stream, but we did it with complete clarity on:

• The overall commercial vision (where this fit in the bigger picture)

• The value to the audience (exclusive content they couldn't get elsewhere)

• How it complemented other revenue streams (merchandise, sponsorships, etc.)

Without this clarity, direct monetisation often falls into one of two traps:

Either creators sell something their audience doesn't actually want (but the creator wants to make), or they undersell by not recognising the full value they could provide.

Now, I don’t want you to just think "what can I sell?"

Instead, try thinking:

• What transformation can I provide that's worth paying for?

• What problems do I solve that have real financial value to my audience?

• What formats align with both my strengths and my audience's preferences?

• How does this direct revenue strategy support my overall commercial goals?

These commercial questions are the culmination of your entire strategy.

Your identity, purpose, values, brand expression, audience understanding, and distribution choices all feed into your commercial strategy.

When these align, monetisation feels natural.

Your audience is happy to pay because you're providing genuine value in a way that makes sense to them.

This final section of the checklist is ensuring your creative work creates the financial foundation you need to sustain it.

The most successful creators I know, from individual consultants to massive operations like the Sidemen, all share one trait: they're unapologetically clear about the commercial side of their work.

They see making money as a necessary component of continuing to create value, not something separate from it.

If you'd like help figuring out the money side of your think like a creator strategy, join us inside my community.

Our weekly Power Hours often focus on exactly these monetisation questions, with real feedback from myself and other members who've successfully navigated these decisions.

Join us here and you can try it risk-free for 14 days to see if it's right for you ➡️

Remember, the creator mindset is all you need to grow 🌱

P.S. The waitlist for my "Your Most Valuable Asset" workshop continues to grow! Thanks to everyone who's already signed up – you'll be the first to get all the details. If you haven't joined yet and want to learn exactly how to build an audience that becomes your most valuable business asset, use the poll below to register your interest. Community members get free access, but spots for everyone else will be limited!

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