Entrepreneurs often max out by selling only to people who already trust them. The fix: turn your best customers into lighthouse case studies that prove your product works, then expand beyond your familiar circle to reach new prospects.
grow your network. I've now talked to a few entrepreneurs who have built interesting products, and they've told me essentially the same story, that they have gone to all the people who know them and like them and trust them. Those people who had a need that matched with the product they were talking about proceeded to buy from them because people are more inclined to trust them. And then that was the end. That was the end of the business. There was no more sales after that. The people who knew, trusted them, used it a bit, maybe made a little bit of progress, but then then didn't go any further. What you need to do is you take your customers and turn them into super successful lighthouses, right? And then you also need to develop your network of people who know, like, and trust you so that you can then go make more sales to grow out of that initial niche of people who previously knew you. These are two big challenging problems. They both involve getting out from behind death. The first one, because you got to go deep with your existing customers. And second one, because you got to go wider to people you haven't met before. That's the key to growth.
