Listen Before You Build
Why Guesswork Is the Slowest Way to Build
Most creators waste months brainstorming, outlining, and polishing ideas in a vacuum. They build what they think people want, then wonder why no one buys.
The truth? Your audience is already telling you what they need. Every day. The problem isn’t demand, it’s that most creators aren’t listening closely enough.
The Easiest Market Research You’ll Ever Do
You don’t need fancy surveys or expensive software to validate a course idea. You just need to listen where people are already talking:
Groups & Forums – Facebook groups, Reddit threads, Slack communities, goldmines of unfiltered questions.
Reviews – Amazon book reviews, podcast reviews, app store comments, people literally write out what they wanted but didn’t get.
DMs & Emails – The questions that land in your inbox are your audience telling you their pain in their own words.
Every time someone asks for help, they’re handing you a clue. Collect enough of those, and patterns start to emerge.
How to Spot the Patterns
The key isn’t just grabbing random questions, it’s looking for repeats.
Do multiple people struggle with the same step?
Do you keep seeing complaints about what’s “missing” in other courses, books, or tools?
Is there one question that feels like it comes up every single week?
Those are the pain points worth building around.
Why This Beats “Trend-Chasing”
Chasing what’s hot feels tempting, but it’s dangerous. Trends fade. Real struggles stick around.
When you build based on actual conversations, you’re not guessing, you’re not hoping, you’re responding. You’re showing people you’ve been listening, which makes your offer land like, “Finally, someone gets it.”
Start Your Roadmap Today
Here’s the simplest way to put this into practice: open a fresh doc and create three columns:
Exact Questions/Complaints (copy-paste them word for word)
What They’re Really Saying (the pain or desire behind it)
Potential Solution (how your expertise could solve it)
Do this for a week and you’ll have a crystal-clear list of problems your people are begging someone to solve. That’s your roadmap.
Closing Thought
You don’t need to invent demand, you just need to tune into it. The conversations are already happening. The real advantage comes from listening before you build.
