261: The 3 Reasons Your Audience Isn't Growing

You've built something great. World-class quality, loyal customers, and yet you're roughly the same size you were last year. If that's you, this episode is for you. This week I'm taking you behind the scenes of my son's Canadian National Jump Rope Championships, where I watched world-class athletes do things that take hundreds of hours of practice, in front of an audience that's far too small for how good they are. As I watched, I kept thinking like a business owner, and I saw three clear ways the sport could grow almost immediately. The same three things holding skipping back are quietly holding a lot of businesses back right now. I walk you through all three: making your customers the heroes of your stories (the way Drive to Survive and Welcome to Wrexham grew their audiences), opening the door to sponsorships and strategic partnerships (including how our mastermind client Tara Phillips landed Sesame Street, Melissa and Doug, and Beaches Resorts), and building recurring revenue that funds full-time focus instead of capping you at "evenings and weekends." If you've got a great thing that just isn't reaching enough people yet, these three lessons are your roadmap. In this episode, you'll learn: Why people fall in love with the people in a sport, not the sport itself, and how to apply that to your business How the very first sponsor or partner unlocks the next ten (and why momentum creates momentum) Why a passion project run on evenings and weekends can never become a category-defining business, and what recurring revenue unlocks Three questions to sit down with this week to reshape how you think about growth CONNECT WITH STU: Website: https://stu.me Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me Membership.io: https://membership.io Subscribe and leave a review if this episode helped you. It means the world and helps more business owners find the show.