One-third of creators say finding and growing an audience is their biggest challenge. The solution isn't more content—it's validation.
According to creator economy surveys, 32.9% of creators cite "finding and growing an audience" as their number one challenge. It beats out monetization, content creation, and time management.
The irony? Many creators try to solve this by creating more content. But content without an audience is just noise. The real problem isn't creation—it's validation.
Creators who validate their ideas first spend less time on content that doesn't resonate and more time building courses people actually want to buy.
Building a course nobody asked for
Pre-sell your idea to validate demand first
Targeting everyone instead of a niche
Define your ideal student with specific pain points
Competing on platforms you don't understand
Go where your audience already hangs out
Creating content without feedback loops
Build in public and iterate based on responses
Ignoring existing communities
Partner with community leaders in your niche
Spending months in stealth mode
Share your progress early and often
Offer early-bird pricing for your course concept. If people pay before it exists, you've validated demand.
Create a landing page describing your course. Track signups to gauge interest before investing time.
Talk to 10-20 potential students. Understand their pain points, current solutions, and willingness to pay.
Share snippets of your course content on social media. See what resonates before committing to the full course.
Finding your audience isn't about reaching more people. It's about finding the right people who have a specific problem you can solve. Validation helps you identify these people before you invest months creating content for ghosts.
Stop treating audience-building as a marketing problem. It's a product problem. When you validate that your course solves a real pain point for a specific group of people, finding that audience becomes 10x easier. They're already searching for solutions—you just need to be where they're looking.
Validate your course idea first. When you know exactly who you're helping and how, your audience finds you.
Start Validating