Your weekly edge for turning expertise into income
Quick Hits
๐ This week: Most expertise businesses fail before they launch, not because the offer is wrong, but because nobody asked the right questions first. This week we're talking about market validation and why listening is your most underused business skill.
๐ก The insight: Your deepest expertise creates your biggest blind spot. What took you 10 years to learn feels obvious to you and transformational to someone just starting out.
โก Your move: Before you build your next offer, have 10 conversations with people in your target market. Ask what's blocking them, then let their words become your offer language.
๐ง Listen: Retirepreneur Podcast โ Build What They Actually Want
Still Building ๐จ
This week I'm working through the survey results you sent back (50 responses with real signal about where you're actually stuck). I'm also heading to the New Media Summit in Austin Wednesday through Friday.
I'm not going just to learn tactics. I'm going to make some final decisions about my path forward, not just the "how" of building Retirepreneur, but what serving you well actually looks like at this stage.
Whether you're headed to a conference or working through your own next decision, the clarity process looks the same for all of us.
You've spent months building the perfect offer. The pricing is dialed in, the messaging is polished, you launch... and nobody buys.
Here's the truth: most failed launches aren't marketing problems, they're listening problems. Experienced professionals build what makes sense to them instead of what solves problems for their market.
Before you invest another hour building, you need to validate that people actually want what you're creating.
The Expert's Curse: Your Experience Creates Assumptions
The deeper your expertise, the harder it is to see what your audience actually struggles with. After 30+ years in your field, you've internalized knowledge that feels fundamental.
But what's obvious to you is revelation to someone five steps behind. You assume people want advanced strategies when they're stuck on basics.
You solve the problem you wish you'd had instead of the one they actually face. The question you can answer in 10 seconds took you 10 years to learn and that gap is exactly where miscommunication happens.
โ What feels "too simple" to teach is often exactly what people need
โ Your audience doesn't want complexity, they want clarity
โ Your pattern recognition is the asset, package it at their level, not yours
Feedback Prevents Expensive Mistakes
Real feedback saves you months of building the wrong thing. Spending three months creating a course on advanced financial modeling when your audience needs help with basic pricing strategy is the cost of assumptions.
Here's a simple validation process:
โ Identify 10 past colleagues in your target market
โ Ask two questions: "What's your biggest obstacle?" and "What have you tried?"
โ Document repeated phrases, those become your offer language
Ten conversations prevent ten wasted weeks. Guessing is expensive, but a 15-minute conversation is free and it's the best R&D you'll ever do.
Why I Asked You
I'm not asking for feedback because I'm unsure. I'm asking because this is how smart businesses are built, with input from the people who'll actually use what you create.
That's why I sent you a survey last week. Are you exploring or ready to launch? Is pricing your roadblock or is it client acquisition?
Below, I'm sharing what you told me and next week I'll show you how your feedback is shaping what I build next.
The most successful businesses aren't built on genius ideas, they're built on validated problems and tested solutions. Your expertise is valuable, but if you're building in a vacuum, clarity is cheaper than rebuilding.
What You Told Me: Survey Insights
Thank you to everyone who completed the survey. Fifty of you took the time to share where you are right now, and the insights are genuinely valuable.
Your Top 3 Roadblocks
- 67% can't identify which expertise people will pay for. The expertise exists. The packaging doesn't.
- 41% struggle with marketing without feeling salesy. It's not tactics you need, it's permission to show up differently than you did in your corporate career.
- 30% can't decide between consulting, coaching, or courses. Model selection isn't obvious and that's exactly what the tools I'm building will address.
48% know they have a retirement income gap and are actively working to address it. You're not exploring for fun. You're solving a real financial problem.
70% want beta access to new tools and resources. That tells me you're ready to move. You just need the right framework.
Here's the thing: I'm wrestling with some of these same questions. The expertise translation problem? I get it.
The decision I'm working through right now is the match between my lifestyle objectives and how I want to provide value to you. That clarity is what I'm working on in Austin this week.
Next Tuesday, I'll share what I learned and how your feedback is shaping what comes next.
Next Steps
๐ฏ YOUR FOCUSED ACTION THIS WEEK โ Pick one person in your target market and ask them two questions: "What's your biggest obstacle right now?" and "What have you already tried?" Write down their exact words, that's your offer language and it's worth more than any framework I can give you.
Want to go deeper?
๐ Validate Before You Build โ Read Full Article
๐ Retirepreneur Hub: Access business templates, pricing guides, and startup checklists designed for 55+ entrepreneurs, completely free. โ Join Free
๐งฐ Retirepreneur Toolbox: No fluff. Just the tools that actually work. Browse the stack. โ Explore Now!
๐ Keep building,
โCurt
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