The Road Race Problem: Why Growth Is Getting Harder

Justin Moore has a problem. He's a lousy running buddy.

Justin is the founder of Creator Wizard, which offers education and community to help influencers win more brand deals. For years, he's been establishing himself as the Sponsorships Guy in the creator economy. If you identify as being a creator and if you think sponsorships, you think "Justin." He's just that good at developing his reputation around those key topics.

But he's a lousy running buddy.

In fact, most entrepreneurs are.

Most of us building our own businesses, once we move past the beginner stages, encounter some alarming friction. It gets harder to grow, harder to win clients, harder to build an audience. When we start, we kind of "pick off" the folks around us as buyers or subscribers, and that might last several years. But over time, we plateau or even feel like things are slipping backwards.

Because we're lousy running buddies. That's a product of the way we tend to market ourselves and our businesses. We focus on the very end of the buyer's journey, addressing folks who are close to buying soon.

And it works! Until it doesn't. Until you realize that the thought leaders and storytellers around you are having an easier time of winning business and earning subscribers because ... I don't know, reasons? Must be their air game. They have huge reach. Oh, wait, I know: hacks. Their copywriting triggers sales at scale. Magic. We should find the secrets and rely on them.

But no, there are no secrets. There's only hard work done with the right intent. While most of us wait until the last mile of the buyer's journey, some people understand that things work easier and feel more sustainable if you meet them earlier in the race.

Marketers tend to leap out from behind the bushes to say, "Hey! Hey! Finish the race with me!"

"Oh, um, well," they stammer, "I've already got this running buddy who's been with me the whole race. I think I'll just cross the finish line with them, thanks very much."

Awkward.

People with "influence" aren't necessarily more gifted than anyone else. They just focus earlier in the buyer's journey, to the places where trust is formed and influence is earned. By first influencing people's thinking, they eventually influence people's buying. Assuming this same posture in your work creates a crucial change. Rather than shouting pick me with every call-to-action, it feels more to others like you're turning to the side, mid-stride, and saying to a friend, Let's finish what we started. You are the obvious pick, your solutions are the logical conclusion, when you've been their racing partner the whole time.

"For years, I've been shooting fish in a barrel," Justin told me. He didn't need to run the whole race with buyers, and that was totally fine. Through tons of hard work and skill and generosity, all focused on the last mile, Justin and his team built a thriving business. But what gets you here won't get you there. Justin is realizing that now, and he's seeing that to increase his impact and his revenue, he has to start the race earlier.

"A lot of the people I meet more and more on the interwebs and when I'm at conferences approach me, and they're like, 'Nah, I'm never doing sponsorships. I'm a coach, or I'm an author, or I have a conference. Never in a million years would I think about sponsorships.' But then I have like a three-minute conversation with them, and they're like, 'Yanno what? I'm gonna look up your stuff now. I want to talk to you. I'm gonna hire you.'"

This leads to some important questions:

What's the difference between the buyers that got Justin (and us) started, and the group that will carry him (and us) forward?

What happens in that three-minute conversation that causes them to switch their stance and want to seek out Justin's thinking, and how can he (and we) replicate that at greater scale?

Let's answer those in order.

1. The difference between the clients who get us started and the clients who help us sustain and scale: the first group was prepared for us. The next group must be prepared by us.

The buyers that helped Justin build a thriving business were not influenced to care about sponsorships by Justin and his team. They were influenced by others, and mostly, influenced by the culture. He didn't need to address the earlier understanding or thinking or behavior at the start of the race that led to the finish line of “be better at brand deals.” He could sit near the end, and have so many TikTokkers dance straight into his courses.

"If someone arrives thinking sponsorships, if they're at the bottom of my funnel, I convert them. I work with them no problem," he told me.

In short, the demand for Creator Wizard was created by the widespread understanding among his ideal buyers that, in fact, sponsorships are good and desirable and worth investing time and money to understand and execute better. Justin's job was to work really, really hard (and don't misunderstand, it is hard, and Justin is an incredible entrepreneur) to capture that existing demand.

The understanding and the thinking was already set. It's a lot easier to sell to a market that already thinks like you, already sees what you see.

But what happens when this starts to change? Maybe you've picked off all the friends in your circle as customers or subscribers, all the past employers as clients. Or maybe, as we see now, more and more competitors are coming online. Given how we tend to market ourselves, that means more and more people now leap out and wave their hands at your buyers during the last mile of their journey.

It starts subtly. You see your ideal subscriber or client or student coming to the finish line of the road race and, per usual, you jump out from the bush. But then you're startled by two others jumping out right behind you, selling what you sell.

Then a third parachutes off the building next door. Wait...

You're stressing out. Do you need to create EVEN MORE CONTENT? Then suddenly, oh my gosh, are you joking? The stroller next to the road race you thought contained a sleeping baby was actually a competitor ready to ambush your audience. They rip off the bonnet, kick the stroller away, and whip their pacifier in your direction before sprinting at the buyer as they approach the finish line.

"PICK MEEEEE!" they scream. So you scream too. What else can you do?

You can meet the buyer earlier. You can stop waiting around near the end where it's crowded, hoping to get picked, and you can run the whole race with them.

"Pick me!" they'll shout, but they don't realize:

You've already been picked.

2. What happens during that three-minute conversation between Justin and folks earlier in their journey? And how can we replicate it at scale?

In short, Justin does what anyone would do in the discussion: he helps someone think about sponsorships in a better way. In other words, he provides the right framing. He gives them a way into his thinking and thus his business. He helps them see what he already sees, and once they do, they lean in.

Let's call this your "higher-order" idea, or maybe the idea before the idea.

Imagine I sold a podcasting service. Leaping out at the finish line would mean I only and constantly talk about how to make a great podcast everywhere you go. But I'll always struggle trying to be The Podcast Guy. However, if I advocate for you to care more about holding attention, not just grabbing it, I might START your journey of understanding with you, arriving at the logical finish line of podcasting together. Because maybe today, you think about brand or audience or content. I'm right there with you at the start. By the end, you'll think podcasting. Because logically, if you embrace the need to hold attention, then of course you'll see how podcasting is the inescapable, irresistible solution. Of course you'll see a need, and you'll want to work with your running buddy those last few steps too.

If you can influence their thinking, of course you stand a greater chance of influencing their buying. But we're so squarely focused on influencing their buying alone. This is like agonizing over writing the perfect outreach email to get coffee with someone you admire. The best outreach email is just "Hey, want to get a coffee?" because the real work is done BEFORE that moment. The best outreach email is a previously established relationship. (Just think: your friend doesn’t need to A/B test their subject lines for you to care enough to open their emails. Neither does your favorite writer.)

The best way to cross the finish line with a buyer is to start the race with them. Podcast Guy loses out to Hold Attention Gal. He just doesn't see the problem, doesn’t realize shouting at the last minute is the issue, so he becomes Even More Obnoxious and Shouty Podcast Guy.

Don't make the same mistake.

So what can Justin do to become a better running buddy to his audience? He's already an influential voice, a successful entrepreneur, and a trusted educator ... around the idea of sponsorships. But what can he do to run the whole race with others?

Stop talking about sponsorships.

In the right places, for a percent of his time, and for the right projects, he can advocate for the idea before the idea, the framing device others need first to then ensure they arrive at the end with Justin.

That's what happens in those three-minute conversations in the hallways of events. That's what needs to go into his speaking, his evangelism on podcast guest spots, and other thought leadership content.

So what's your framing device? What's the idea before the idea that they need to hear first in order to care? Are you running the whole race with them, or are you just leaping out at the last mile, hoping to get picked? Maybe that's why growth feels hard and the business isn't sustainable. Maybe the picking already happened, and you weren't it. Because you waited. Because you stayed too close to the finish line. Because that's what we're told, or that's what feels safe.

But is it working?

You can shout "pick me!" louder and louder at the finish line. Or you can run the whole race. Be a storyteller, be a thought leader, be an educator, but whatever you do, wherever you communicate, remember:

Be a better running buddy.

* * *

You can ​watch Justin and I figure out his framing device​, as we work together to develop his new signature talk beat for beat.

I filmed a coaching call with him and shared it publicly! We develop the main beats of his new talk, associated with his book, and you'll note that while the book leads with the idea of sponsorships, the talk does not.

Plus, in the video, you'll learn a reusable structure for crafting better talks.

​Watch this coaching call​ as I work with Justin to develop his signature talk.

When you're done, consider enrolling in my bootcamp, ​Design My Signature Talk​. We'll find your framing device and all the other parts necessary to show others what you see, everywhere you go.