The Organic Approach To Building Out A New Idea

I’ve got a client who is very well known in his specialty—he’s written a couple of books, sits on an industry board and is a well-liked and respected guy. An authority on his topic by pretty much any definition.

But he’d been playing with a new idea—related to his core business, but niched down further to a specific slice of audience. How best to explore building this out without endangering his core base?

He went the organic route.

He wrote an introductory piece as part of his regular publishing routine with an invite to join a new experimental email list.

About 100 responses made him decide it was worth pursuing. After a couple months of frequent emails, he tripled the list and started getting invites to write for new specialty publications. Keep in mind, the list was still underground—you had to know someone to get in.

When he got his first speaking invite on this new subject from this tight list, he realized he had something valuable.

So now he’s spending the summer building a website, producing new content and developing community options to take it all public.

Why am I telling you this? Because the organic approach doesn’t just work for those who’ve already built plenty of authority. It works if you’re just getting started too.

It’s not expensive and your audience can participate in showing you what they value so you make most of your moves already knowing it’s the right next step.

Food for thought…