A solopreneur's market isn't an abstract number—it's the spending patterns of people you can actually reach. Start with five conversations with friends and former clients about what they've already bought, what worked, and what's missing. Listen for recurring problems and language, then build an offer that speaks their words and solves what they still need.
Picture a wide, flowing river, energetic, alive with movement. This is the modern economy. People actively seeking solutions, paying for programs, enrolling in services to reach their goals and to help them overcome challenges that they have right now. And yet, so many solopreneurs feel like we're just standing off to the side, wondering why the river's current isn't reaching us. You may have developed something genuinely transformational, and from your mountaintop view, you can see how it could help people. But your people, they're down by the river, and from where they are, your mountaintop message feels distant, maybe even irrelevant. That's why we do what I call market discovery, to close the gap in communication. Market discovery is how you become that bright soul at the riverbank, visible, relevant to the people, and trustworthy. Your market isn't some nebulous statistic out there. Your market is the spending pattern of the people you can actually reach. What kinds of services and programs are your network and your audience already paying for or have paid for when those investments overlap with your gifts? That's the market speaking to you. Start with the people that you already know, friends. And if you have any former clients, if you've taken courses, the people in those courses and past courses, members of communities that you are active in, start with them. Reach out, not to sell to them, but to be genuinely curious. What kinds of investments have they already made within the realm of the kinds of things that you'd like to offer? Ask them, what have they signed up for before, what's worked really well, and what's still missing in the conversation. Don't lead with your idea and talk about your offer quite yet, because if you do, they'll respond to you with kindness rather than reveal their own reality. After five of these conversations, you'll start to notice some patterns, similar challenges described in similar words, clear preferences around what kinds of offers they enjoy, and also maybe repeated frustrations with existing solutions. This is all so valuable because now you can shape an offer that aligns with their reality. You'll be able to use their language rather than your mountaintop terminology. You can include the parts of the offer that they have already said works well in the things they've tried before. And in your offer, you can also address what they said is still missing. This is how we meet our people, where they already are, and our deeper work becomes relevant finally, because now we've earned the right to guide them up the mountain.
