IAM2846 – The Advantage of Building Community Before Scaling Your Product

The Product-First Trap

A common pitfall for many builders is falling completely in love with their own ideas, spending months creating a product before ever focusing on the people they intend to serve. This isolated approach frequently results in creating something nobody actually asked for, leading to high inventory risks and wasted resources. In this episode, inspired by a conversation with Scott from Rugby Warfare on episode 54 of the I AM CEO podcast, we break down why jumping straight into monetization without a foundation of trust is a strategy for failure.

The Blueprint of Authority and Co-Creation

The most sustainable businesses reverse the traditional launch sequence by prioritizing community over scale. Instead of leading with a product, the winning strategy begins with high-value content that builds genuine authority and relationships over time.

By involving your audience directly in the design process, your customer relationship undergoes a fundamental shift. Customers cease to be mere transactions; they become insiders with a sense of ownership over what you are building.

De-Risking Scale and Leveraging Modern Teams

Smarter business growth isn't about taking blind, massive risks—it is about systematically reducing unnecessary risk while strengthening customer connection. Through the strategic use of samples, audience feedback, and pre-orders, builders can completely validate demand and eliminate upfront inventory liabilities before manufacturing ever begins. Furthermore, scaling a modern enterprise doesn't require a massive internal payroll; instead, agile organizations leverage extended teams of freelancers, ambassadors, affiliates, and micro-influencers to expand their visibility and impact.

The core takeaway for any CEO is to remain firmly anchored to the collaborative processes that generate traction in the first place, while maintaining the mindset required to embrace difficult seasons. Ask yourself this critical question: “Are you building products in isolation, or are you building them alongside the people you want to serve?”. One path leaves you holding unsold inventory, while the other creates unbreakable client loyalty.

Previous episode: https://iamceo.co/iam2845-why-high-effort-and-low-alignment-create-growth-bottlenecks/

• Blue Star Franchise: bluestarfranchise.com
• Browse the Franchise Inventory: bluestarfranchise.com/franchise
• Is franchising right for you? Check this out to see: bluestarfranchise.com/assessment
• Franchise CEO (A CBNation Site – coming soon) – franchiseceo.co

Check out our CEO Hack Buzz Newsletter–our premium newsletter with hacks and nuggets to level up your organization. Sign up HERE.

I AM CEO Handbook Volume 3 is HERE and it's FREE. Get your copy here: cbnation.co/iamceo3. Get the 100+ things that you can learn from 1600 business podcasts we recorded. Hear Gresh's story, learn the 16 business pillars from the podcast, find out about CBNation Architects and why you might be one and so much more. Did we mention it was FREE? Download it today!

Transcription:

Gresham Harkless 00:00
Visibility is not just posting content, it's about creating conversations that people that really help people feel ownership in what they're building. The businesses that truly last usually make customers feel like insiders instead of transactions.

If you're building something meaningful, you're in the right place. This is the I Am CEO Podcast. I'm gresh and for over a decade I've had the honor and the privilege of Learning directly from CEOs, entrepreneurs and business owners. And just like you on how to build after recording more than 1600 episodes, one thing has become clear. Success isn't about following someone else's blueprint. And as I like to say on the show, if you run your own race, you can't lose, even when you feel the journey should be a straight and linear path. What I've come to find out is success is a lot more like a plate of spaghetti. So in this special segment and episode, I'm starting to curate and share some CEO hacks and CEO nuggets that I've been dying to share. Drawn from thousands of of episodes with phenomenal guests that have provided awesome value on the show, but also my 10 years of business experience as well too. These lessons are designed to strengthen the foundational principles that every business is built on and guided by a simple equation that we always go back to with our content. Visibility plus resources times connections equals success. This is practical wisdom you can apply almost immediately, so be sure to check out the show notes for more resources and next steps on how to level up. And of course, enjoy this special episode of the I Am CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 01:33

One of the things that has definitely come up by having all these thousands of interviews is that a lot of builders focus on the product before they focus on the people they spend months creating something nobody has actually asked for. I've been there and I've done that for sure. What really came up during this conversation with Scott in episode number 54 of the I Am CEO Podcast was how intentionally he built computer community before scaling his product. He's a founder of Rugby Warfare, a UK based rugby brand built around what he called the 3C's content community and clothing. Here's what's very, very very very interesting. It didn't actually start out as a clothing company. It started with content. Scott was teaching rugby players how to improve performance, training and nutrition. He built authority first, then he built a community around that authority and only only after that that he introduced products. That order matters then more than most builders actually realize. Here's why a lot of entrepreneurs, CEOs and builders were Trying to skip the trust building and jump directly into monetization. But Scott talked about how he, he involved the community in the design process himself. People weren't just buying apparel. They felt connected to the creation of the brand. They felt a part of it because they were strongly engaged in it. And because he had built that authority over a period of time in terms of like building that relationship, building that connection, understanding that he was part of the community, it allowed a better product to be built that is a wildly indifferent, completely different customer relationship. One of the things that he shared that really stuck with me and continued to come up, continue to come up was how they handled the inventory risk early on. Instead of placing massive product orders and hoping people would buy, they used pre orders, they created samples, got feedback from the audience, took deposits and owned only produce products that had already had that demand. It's very counterintuitive because we as builders can fall in love with the things that we're doing. We think that it's the greatest thing since Slice Break. And it may be, but it may not be. And that's where we get feedback from the audience in our, in our market. Such a vital and important lesson for builders. Often, and sometimes we think that scaling actually means taking bigger risks. But often the smarter move is reducing unnecessary risk while strengthening customer connections. Scott even brought up about how later on, once they had more money, they stopped listening to the community and launched products without preorders or feedback. And guess what? Those launches flopped. That's the danger of drifting away from the process that created traction in the first place. After having so many conversations and honestly experiencing this in my very life, I think this connects directly to the strategy and visibility pillars at CBNation. Visibility is not just posting content. It's about creating conversations that people that really help people feel ownership in what they're building. The businesses that truly last usually make customers feel like insiders instead of transactions. One thing I really appreciated was Scott talking about freelancers, ambassadors and affiliates. Almost like an extended team, not something that you just add on. It's like, oh, we need to do this or we need to move this in. It's actually part of the team. Builders sometimes think they need huge payrolls before they can grow. But he reminded us that modern businesses can scale through partnerships, creators and communities. Think about the influencers, the micro influencers, how you can leverage those so that you can get your name information out there and what you stand behind. There was also a huge nugget around mindset in this episode. Scott referenced Ryan Holiday's philosophy around obstacles and adversity talked about learning to embrace difficult seasons instead of resisting. That's a real CEO mindset. Here's a question worth thinking about a little bit more. Are you building products in isolation, or are you building them alongside the people you want to serve? Because one usually creates inventory and the other creates loyalty? If you've been hammering that nail over and over and over and over again, trust me, I've been there trying to force growth instead of building deeper connection with your audience. This conversation is definitely one worth revisiting.