Unlocking the Power of the MAPS Framework: Mindset ➜ Audience ➜ Product ➜ Scaling

Yong-Soo Chung  [00:00:00]:

How do you define entrepreneurship? Personally, I like to think of entrepreneurship as a lifelong journey of learning. And although the joy of this journey often lies in self discovery, it is always nice to have mentors who can guide you through some of the more difficult moments you might encounter along the way. I found my mentors in the wise words of other successful entrepreneurs who have come before us, like Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger. But it's not just from the famous billionaire tycoons you can learn from. You can learn from pretty much anyone from anywhere. I learned from past guests I invited on this podcast. I learned from previous experiences working at different startups in San Francisco. Most importantly, I learned from the unexpected challenges that seemed to pop up out of nowhere in the last eight years of building my own business.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:00:50]:

And out of all that was forged a set of fundamental principles that I apply to all my new ventures, both in business and in life. I have dubbed this set of principles the Mindset Audience Product Scaling Framework, or the Maps Framework. In short, the Maps Framework, in its simplest form, is a collection of ideas, questions, and checklists that every entrepreneur can and probably should consult at different stages of the entrepreneurial journey. I designed the Maps Framework over the last eight years of my entrepreneurial journey, a framework that I have tweaked and refined over the years with carefully handpicked knowledge distilled from various sources and resources. Since we're all about airplanes and flying high on this podcast, let me just say that using MAPS will make your entrepreneurial journey a lot easier. So, jetsetters, get ready for takeoff. Flight two two nine, you're clear for takeoff. Hi, my name is Yong-soo Chung, and I'm a first-generation Korean American entrepreneur living the American dream.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:01:57]:

I started Urban EDC to cater to enthusiasts of everyday carry gear. I also own two other successful ventures Growthjet, a climate-neutral, certified third-party logistics company for emerging e-commerce brands, and Spotted by Humphreys, an online boutique curating dog goods for good dogs. Through these three ventures, my business has generated over $20 million in eight years, and I'm here to tell you how you can do the same. I'm super excited to bring you today's episode because today is the day I introduce you to my MAPS Framework. MAPS is an acronym for Mindset, Audience Products, and Scaling, the four components you need to build a successful business. I have developed a MAPS framework for over eight years of not only running my own business but carefully studying hundreds of other businesses as well. Over the course of this episode, we will dive into each of the four components in detail, with examples from my own life, from guests we have previously had on the podcast, and from other real-world examples I have found over the years. By the end of this episode, you'll be able to figure out how to build a successful entrepreneurial mindset, identify the right audience for your venture, design a suitable and lucrative product, and finally, smoothly scale up your operations.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:03:19]:

Premium members of First Class Founders can listen to a special segment in which I have outlined specific actionable exercises for each of the four components of the Maps framework. By doing these exercises, you'll be able to kickstart your entrepreneurial journey and get it running and off the ground in no time. To become a Premium member of First Class Founders, go to firstclassfounders.com/join. I'll leave a link in the show notes. And now fasten your seatbelts and get ready for takeoff. Let's get down to business. If you're already subscribed to the First Class Founders newsletter, you already know about the MAPS framework because I mentioned it publicly back in mid-May. I'll leave a link to it in the show notes, and while you're checking it out, do subscribe to the newsletter.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:04:08]:

There's a companion to this podcast where I share all the download numbers for this podcast and a lot more. After sending that newsletter, I kept feeling that there was a lot more to the MAPS framework that I needed to talk about and explain, which is why I decided to dedicate an entire episode of this podcast to it. Without further ado, let's get right into it. MAPS is a sequential framework in that each component of this framework Mindset Audience Product and scaling builds on its previous components. You need the right mindset before you can build an audience. You need the right audience before you can create your products. You need the right products before you can scale up your operations. Think of the four components as the four stages of a rocket.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:04:53]:

Each stage depends on the previous stage to get them to a certain altitude and velocity, and each stage adds on the previous stage's contributions, imparting greater and greater speed to the rocket until it reaches escape velocity. Over the course of the next 30 minutes or so, I'll be laying out in detail how to build out each of the four components, each of the four stages, so you can fully map out pun. Totally intended. There your entrepreneurial journey with ease. Let's dive right into it. Component number one m for mindset. As in the entrepreneurial mindset. I'll be totally honest here.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:05:35]:

This component of the framework has the least actionable steps but is also the most important component. In my opinion. You'll often hear startup gurus and motivational speakers saying "The best time to start was yesterday. The next best time is now." I think that is a great way to encourage people who are plagued by doubts about their ideas. Often these doubts turn out to be the greatest enemies of good ideas. Can you imagine if Jack Dorsey had never launched Twitter? Because why would anyone post what they're thinking? So to be perfectly honest, if you have been thinking about starting an online business of your own, now is actually the best time to do it. Why? Because a creator business has a very little overhead cost with the lowest risk, and highest reward.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:06:19]:

Because the availability of no-code tools makes it super cheap and easy to design and deploy even complex ideas. Because the Internet, being accessible to anyone and everyone means you not only have the tools to build your project but also build an audience for it. We'll delve into more detail on that last bit of building an audience a little later in the show, but let's focus on building your mindset first. What does it mean to have an entrepreneurial mindset? Simply put, it is the attitude you have towards the idea of entrepreneurship. A lot of people believe that successful entrepreneurship is all about making millions through your ventures. I disagree slightly. Yes, the money is important, but that's just a by-product of the amount of value you provide to the world along the way. Money and fame should never be the underlying motivation for starting your business.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:07:11]:

If you ask me, being a successful entrepreneur is about enjoying the journey, not the destination. I've already narrated the story of my journey into entrepreneurship in detail in episode 13. But let me quickly tell you about what I was thinking about when I was deciding whether to stick with my job in Crypto or start my own e-commerce business. The biggest reason for why I started my first company, an e-commerce brand called Urban EDC, is that I wanted full autonomy over my own actions and to see the impact that I could make directly. I wanted to be responsible for my own company's success, not relying on other factors like regulation, venture capital, a large team of employees, other co-founders, and so on. Now, of course, this also meant that I would be 100% responsible for its downfall as well if I failed. But I took a chance on myself because I knew deep down that I could succeed somehow. Without this mindset, I wouldn't be where I am today.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:08:10]:

You might be thinking "But Yong-soo you merely traded one set of sleepless nights for another. You are working crazy hours in your software engineering job, and now you are working crazy hours, as an entrepreneur, it's the same thing. Not quite. So, yes, as an entrepreneur, I'm still working crazy hours, but I am not burning myself out. In fact, it is the opposite. As an entrepreneur, I get to choose the hours I want to work. I get to do something I love, I get to work on something I enjoy, which is building a business.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:08:42]:

And most importantly, I get to work on my terms. I'm the boss. And I was able to do this because I sat down and charted my trajectory before starting Urban EDC, something Clint Murphy alluded to in episode 36. Clint also did the same thing, and he explained his process when he spoke about how he reverse-engineered his mission 2028 goals to decide his current trajectory. "Nothing I do in this journey is a short-term plan. It's always looking out ten years and saying, who do I want to be when I step on that stage? And I'm going to work my way backward so that I take the steps today in what I'm building to be able to be that guy." That is also the advice I would give any new entrepreneur. Sit down and plot your journey first.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:09:35]:

That's honestly the smart thing to do. And after you have planned everything, just get started. So that's step one. Just get started. Now, at this point, you'll be writing an adrenaline rush. I don't want to burst your bubble, but there's something you should know in advance. You will suck. And not just at the beginning.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:09:57]:

You will suck for a while. Embrace it. Embrace the suck. Everybody sucks when they first start. It's almost like a rite of passage that everyone must write out. The only way to get better is to keep at it. Just keep going. When I think back to its early days, I realized that I positioned Urban EDC to function more like a one-person business.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:10:19]:

Leveraging social media platforms for audience building and no-code tools like Shopify. But to make it all happen, I needed to be okay with sucking at it for a while. The willingness to be judged by my other colleagues who were all banking on their equity, working at Hot Startups in San Francisco, the willingness to not give up when everything was falling apart, and the willingness to be a lifelong student of the game of entrepreneurship. "But Y-sooSu, it's embarrassing. I have never sucked at anything in my life. I am a perfectionist. I only do things if I can do them right or don't do them at all." Well, there's a first time for everything.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:10:55]:

And this, I guess, is the first time you'll suck. And that's step two. Embrace the suck. But you don't want to continue sucking at it, right? So here's the trick. Commit to it for a lengthy period of time, like a year. And commit to doing it regularly for that period of time. Like tweeting every day for a year. Or sending a newsletter every week for a year.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:11:19]:

Or making a podcast episode every week for a year. By the way, as time passes, you might find that you'll need to commit more than time in your journey to not sucking. You might find that you'll need to invest additional effort or resources or money. Consider them as investments in your journey to improving. The thing is, you might only realize this later in your journey. All investments yield compounded returns. And what that means is you won't see results right away. For a long time, it will feel like the needle hasn't moved at all.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:11:52]:

It'll feel like you're pouring all this effort and all these resources into a drain. How do I know? Because I've been there. I know how it feels to put in all that time, all that money into something and have it go *poof* nothing. But the truth is, compounding and exponential growth are surprisingly non-intuitive. Human brains have a difficult time understanding the power of compounding because honestly, it's quite magical. Albert Einstein is alleged to have famously said "Compound interest is the 8th wonder of the world. Those who understand it, earn it. Those who don't, pay it."

Yong-Soo Chung [00:12:33]:

The concept of compounding interest is the backbone of building wealth or your business or anything in life really. Going from one subscriber to two and two subscribers to four in two days doesn't seem like much. But the same rate of growth you will grow from 1000 subscribers to 2000 subscribers and from 2000 subscribers to 4000 subscribers in just two days. Do you see what happened there? Going from one subscriber to 1000 took eleven days but going from 1000 to 2000 only took one day. Yeah, that's the magic of compounding. And the key ingredient to achieving all this is simply consistency. That by the way is step three a long-term commitment of time, effort, and resources towards improvement. Whatever venture you have chosen to embark on, make sure that you invest your time and resources into it consistently.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:13:27]:

Make it a habit and continue to learn along the way. Soon you'll find that you're developing skills that you didn't previously have. Soon you will find people approaching you for suggestions and recommendations and insights and opinions. From being just another student, you will ascend to becoming the expert. That's when you know you have truly arrived. Okay, we've spoken about the highs of success but I'm also a pragmatist. I don't want to lull you into complacency with visions of a rosy future. The harsh truth is that sometimes things don't work out.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:14:01]:

And I want to make sure you're aware of how to identify that. You might be overstretching yourself. And the very first danger sign I want to talk about is feeling burnt out. Feeling burnt out is something everyone has felt at some point in their lives. It is a feeling that needs to be taken seriously. But in my opinion, burnout doesn't happen because you're overworking yourself. It happens because you're not getting enough wins. If you're not getting enough wins, then you need to take a step back and reevaluate your path.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:14:29]:

Be stubborn in your vision of where you want to be in the future but flexible in how you get there. If you make a wrong turn in your journey, that's okay. Take a different path, but keep your end goals in mind. So the moral of a story, the step-by-step process of developing a winning mindset is one, just get started. Two, embrace the suck. Three, long-term commitment of time, effort, and resources towards improvement. And finally, four always keep your end goals in mind but enjoy the journey. Next up is A for audience.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:15:04]:

I'll discuss how to locate the right audience for your venture, where to find them, how to appeal to them, and what to remember when reaching out to them. But first, I want to take a moment to thank our sponsor for this episode, Swell AI. Quick question have you checked out Swell AI yet? Do you know how I'm always looking for ways to streamline my podcast production process? Yeah. So I recently began using swell AI. Let me tell you, it's like having a mind reader as an assistant. I use it to write show notes, pull the best parts of the episode into an organized summary, optimize the episode titles for high engagement, and transcribe the whole entire episode. And the best part? All of this gets done instantly using the power of AI. Can you imagine the amount of time I save? Go on, give Swell Ai a try.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:16:07]:

I'll leave a link in the show notes. Thank you and enjoy your flight. Now, let's get back to discussing the MAPS framework. Before we took that quick detour, we were getting ready to discuss the next component of the MAPS framework. The next component of the MAPS framework is component number two A for audience. In its simplest form, the audience component of a MAPS framework is identifying an audience that fits your venture best. Now, I have to warn you, it might be tempting to start your audience with your friends and family, but I strongly advise against this because, quite simply, they are not your target audience.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:16:53]:

Unless, of course, they're indeed your ideal customer profile, which, to be honest, is quite rare. Think about Urban EDC, my first business. For a moment. Would I want to take advice and feedback from my parents on which pocket knives to buy? No, they have no clue. It's counterintuitive, I know. But if you can, don't get feedback from your friends and family unless they could actually be your customers. So how did I find my audience for Urban EDC? Let's quickly backtrack and deconstruct what I did. First, I realized that there were others like me who liked everyday carry items.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:17:28]:

That is, I first found a niche that was unexplored and underserved. Then I found a passionate community on Instagram, where enthusiasts of everyday carry gear frequently took photos of their gear to show off to their EDC aficionado friends. You'd be surprised how many such niche communities and forums exist on the Internet. Often, these might seem small, but I found that the smaller the community, the more tight-knit they are. Since EDC was a topic I enjoyed, I was quickly able to build rapport with members of this community. Step one find a niche that you truly enjoy being a part of. By the way, regular listeners of this podcast might feel a sense of deja-vu after hearing me say these things. That's because back in episode 28, Jeremy Enns also echoed these sentiments while talking about his EAR$ Framework to find and leverage audiences.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:18:15]:

"Get in front of people who are going to be your ideal audience members and be a resource in that community." In fact, a quick side note here I highly recommend Jeremy's EAR$ framework, and I insist that everyone looking to build an audience for their content completes the EAR$ audit that Jeremy has put up on his site. It takes a couple of minutes, but it gives you a clear indication of where you need to focus your energies. In fact, you can safely think of the EAR$ audit report as a companion tool for the MAPS framework. I'll leave a link in the show notes so you can do an EAR$ audit of your own. But if you're trying to create a business around specific creative services instead, you might find Colin's advice more beneficial. Two episodes ago, in episode 39, Colin Chung spoke about getting into the right rooms. "Your main job is to get into the right rooms, find where they're at, and once you get into the right room, other people within that world will talk about you, and you'll get referrals from that room.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:19:22]:

By interacting genuinely and honestly with the Everyday Carry community, I was able to plant seeds for what Urban EDC would become today. Remember, that you need to add value to that community to gain their trust. If you're new, don't jump in right away and try to promote whatever you're building. This is a huge mistake that I see new entrepreneurs make. The moderators of the community will see your posts of spam and delete them, or even worse, kick you out. Instead, think about how you can be of service to that community. For example, for the Everyday Carry community on Instagram, I noticed gear enthusiasts posting photos of obscure, hard-to-find items from small makers. Usually, the most commonly asked question was, who makes that? So what did I do? I reposted these photos on Urban EDC's Instagram account, tagging the original poster along with a list of all the items in the photos, along with each maker.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:20:18]:

See what I did there? I solved a tiny little problem for the EDC community on Instagram by doing research on what each item was, then tagging the makers on my posts, which were just reposts. By the way. Other EDC enthusiasts began to follow Urban EDC's account because I was curating high-quality gear photos of hard-to-find items, making it easier to connect directly with the makers themselves. Just this little research goes a long way. Step two provides value to the audience in your niche. But please don't spam. Another important question that you will need to answer around this point in time is whether this is a community that you see yourself being a part of for a longer duration, say five or ten years. It sounds weird planning that far ahead, especially when most businesses on the internet seem to automatically plan to exit the business in three years.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:21:07]:

Also, a lot can change in 3, 5, or 10 years. Case in point looks at where we were ten years ago. Forget that three years ago when we were all locked in our own houses, not knowing if the nightmare of the Pandemic would ever end. But still, I would advise that you find a community that you can hang around for the long term. Because if the business venture you have chosen is something you're passionate about, then there's a likelihood that you might dedicate your entire life to it. If that happens to be the case, then you should be ideally comfortable with a community that congregates around it, right? So more of the story. Find an audience with the same interests as you, solve problems for them, and build your community, and your tribe, as you go along. Oh, and also make sure you complete the excellent EAR$ audit designed by Jeremy Enns.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:21:58]:

https://www.firstclassfounders.com/the-ear-framework-and-monetization-strategies-with-jeremy-enns-podcast-marketing-expert/. Another quick side note here if you happen to be creating a business selling something intangible, such as a course or a podcast or anything like that, you might want to ask a different question here. That is, instead of figuring out the purpose for your business, you might want to ask yourself what is your expertise? What is it that you can teach others? This is something I have previously touched upon in episode 25 titled "How to Turn Your Site Alto Into a Million Dollar Business as a Creator" which contains a step-by-step guide that you can implement to make your first million dollars, I strongly urge you to listen to that episode. After you're done with this one, (https://www.firstclassfounders.com/how-to-turn-your-side-hustle-into-a-million-dollar-business/). Once you have narrowed down the audience you want to serve, it is time for component number three P for product. Once you have built up your audience, now you can begin to create a product for your audience's pain points and, how do you create your first product? You need to know your audience inside out. Your product needs to cater to the desires and pain points of your audience.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:22:59]:

It also helps immensely if you have a powerful story to go along with it. And of course, the best stories are the ones you have already lived, which is why I always insist on finding a niche that is super close to your heart. From my own personal experience, I told you how I built my audience, which was to tag each maker on each post, showcasing hard-to-find everyday carry items so my audience could follow those talented yet obscure makers. I was the trusted curator within the community. Soon enough, I am masked a following of roughly 10,000 followers on Instagram, and guess what came next? Now, instead of the community asking, who makes that? Now they were asking, where can I buy that? And that's when a light bulb went off in my head. What if instead of just tagging makers on these posts, I could provide a convenient online destination for anyone to purchase these beautiful pieces of everyday carry gear. And that's how Urbanedc, the Ecommerce shop, was born. Step one figure out the pain points of your audience to get a concrete idea for your product.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:24:07]:

But here's the thing. I didn't launch Urban EDC fully stocked with everyday carry items from day one. Instead, I took a page out of Jim Collins's teachings "Fire bullets first, then cannonballs" You should never sink a ton of money or time into a new product right away. Always start with an MVP. A minimum viable product. Test that with a small audience without spending a ton of money or resources. Get their feedback.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:24:33]:

Iterate the next version pivot if needed. Serve the product to your audience, get their feedback, rinse, and repeat until you reach the almighty product audience fit. In other words, when you're building your product for your audience, fire bullets first, then cannonballs. Step two launch a Minimum Viable Product and iterate to find the optimal product audience fit. Okay, wait. No, that's not entirely honest of me. See, when I casually mentioned that you should find product audience fit for the audience product interdependency? Well, the truth is, in some cases, you will realize that the Iterative process between improving the product and getting audience feedback goes on forever. You will find yourself constantly tweaking and improving the product every single day.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:25:22]:

For example, with Urban EDC, we're constantly analyzing our weekly gear drops to see what types of products performed well and which ones didn't. We're always iterating based on customer feedback and product demand. The types of products when we launched are dramatically different from what we're selling now. And this could apply to any product that you're building. Any resemblance of product market fit, or product audience fit typically lasts only a few years, and then the iterative cycle starts again. The important part is to never lose sight of the larger picture, which is why it is important to have a clear mission statement right at the beginning, before you even begin. Step three embrace the iterative feedback loop. But always keep an eye out on the larger picture.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:26:11]:

The Iterative feedback loop comes in handy in another aspect of my business pre-orders. With Urban EDC, we release all of our larger projects as preorders so that we can gauge interest before we place a large order with our manufacturer. I know pre-orders aren't the best experience for customers. I get that. But to be frank, it saved us a ton of money by not guessing what our audience wanted. Instead, we could order exactly what the market wants. This is especially powerful if you're tight on cash, like any bootstrap company would be. I mean, just look at the crowdfunding industry kickstarter only does pre-orders and see how popular it is.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:26:49]:

The preorder crowdfunding model is just so much more efficient. You get exactly what you want for cheaper. The brand doesn't have to waste money buying extra inventory. That'll sit in a warehouse for months or years. Or worse yet, dispose of the inventory. Which, by the way, is also why I insist on identifying your audience before building your product. I have found that when you know who you want to serve, it is easier to have a clear goal in mind. A word of warning, by the way.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:27:19]:

Sometimes you might find that the Iterative process might also cause you to pivot heavily into an entirely different product. This is more common than you think. Case in point. That is what happened with Andrew Warner in Mixergy. In case you haven't heard it yet, it's the episode right before this one. Episode 40. Here's the setup. Andrew and his brother had bootstrapped, a greeting card business, their second one that earned them $30 million dollars in annual revenue.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:27:46]:

He had sold that business for a tidy sum and was keen on bootstrapping his third business an event invitation site called Mixergy, which he was hoping people would use for arranging business conferences. Except Mixergy didn't quite manage to make the same splash and sank, despite Andrew investing $300,000 of his own money. "And I only got into it so that I could have invitations for my events. And I needed after I started spending that much money, I needed other people to use it for their events. And they weren't." Andrew already had built this product for his specific audience. Then he found that it could be iterated into something completely different for the same audience.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:28:25]:

Well, mostly the same audience, anyways. And he took the plunge. I'm not saying you should do the same. I'm just saying that if there's ever a situation where that needs doing, remember that there is precedent. Illustrious precedent, too, by the way. If you want a non software example, you might want to look up the history of Nokia, the phone manufacturer. Very, very interesting. Around this time, if you've done everything correctly, you will have the sweet headache of monetization and user retention.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:28:58]:

I say sweet headache because it is obviously a good problem to have. And this is a part of entrepreneurial journey that I hope you get to experience. Because it is such a wonderful experience, I will probably need an entire episode to talk about it. So, the moral of the story build your product by asking your audience lots of questions and figure out their pain points. Then test your hypothesis by building a minimum viable product to solve that particular problem. Then keep iterating until you find the right product market fit. Coming up in a bit.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:29:31]:

The last component of the Maps framework S for scaling. That's where we'll talk about how to set up growth channels for your product. But first, I want to take this opportunity to remind you to subscribe to the First Class Founders Newsletter, something I haven't done in a long time. The First Class Founders Newsletter is a weekly newsletter and a companion to this podcast. Ladies and gentlemen, may I have your attention, please? It's a place where I share all my favorite links that I found around the Internet that week, including books, podcasts, blog posts, and other bits of fun things that you may have missed. Plus, I share all the nitty gritty metrics of this podcast, including download numbers. Essentially, the newsletter is where I'm building first-class founders in public. And you know how much I love building in public.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:30:21]:

Subscribe to the newsletter. Go to firstclassfounders.com/newsletter. I've added the link in the show notes, so go ahead and click on it. And while you subscribe, I'll line up the final segment of this episode to discuss the fourth and final component of the MAPS framework. Thank you and enjoy your flight. Ready? Let's get right into it. The final component of the MAPS Framework is component number four, S for scaling. After establishing the entrepreneurial mindset, building your audience, and creating the right product for them, the next step is to get the product to reach as many people as possible.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:31:05]:

I mean, what is the use of creating the best product possible if you can't make it reach every possible audience for it, right? This stage of the business is called scaling. It involves setting up strategies to help the business grow sustainably. Why sustainably? Because there is such a thing as growing too fast. If you're getting a ton of users super fast and you don't have the proper infrastructure to support them, your users will leave, and some may never come back again. Bye bye. This is not what you want. Now, if you happen to search for business growth strategies on the Internet, you'll find yourself being bombarded by millions of results, each claiming to be the best or the most tested, or the most recommended, or something similar. Me? I'm simply going to share with you what worked for me while building my e-commerce businesses from zero to $20 million in just eight years.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:31:54]:

Keep in mind that I'm not claiming these to be the best or the most useful or anything like that. I'm just sharing with you what I think worked for me and why I think they worked for me. First things first. Never attempt to scale until you have a clear product market fit. Doing so is a kin to pouring water, or in this case, money into a leaky bucket. You will find yourself losing money faster than you make it. Step one do not scale until you have clear product market fit. And how do you know if you have product market fit? Well, you usually just know.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:32:28]:

But most of the time, your audience will let you know. When you start receiving a ton of unsolicited positive feedback from raving fans of your product, that's when you know you found product market fit. Now, before we discuss strategies for scaling, I want to discuss leverage first, because it's such an important concept. Noval Ravicant talks about four different types of leverage labor, capital, media, and code. The first two, capital and labor, require permission. You can't hire labor without someone else agreeing to do the labor. You can't find capital without someone else giving you money in exchange for some kind of equity or interest. But the last two types of leverage, media, and code, are permissionless.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:33:11]:

You can build yourself a personal brand that can reach thousands or millions of people. Your cost, which essentially is just your time, is the same whether you have one follower or a million followers. And as for code, there are so many no code tools out there that are cheap or even free. I mean, just look at Chat GPT and how that's changed the entire landscape of technology. People are saying AI will replace customer support agents and even some junior developers. That's huge leverage, huge scaling power, and both types of leverage here are permissionless. You don't need permission from anybody to deploy this leverage. That's the beauty of it all.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:33:52]:

So if you're building a product for your audience, consider using no-code tools and building in public, leveraging your personal media brand to get your audience excited about what you're building. Step two figure out which of your four levers labor capital, and media code are available for you to scale your product. The next step is to actually implement a suitable scaling strategy for your business. Truthfully, the discussion around scaling your business has a lot of moving parts. I have attempted to tackle some of them in the premium segment of this podcast. But the gist of it is this there are exactly five growth channels for every online business partnership or collaboration, virality or earned media, organic traffic or SEO, paid ads or performance marketing, and direct sales. Scaling a business requires you to invest time or effort or money, or sometimes even a combination of the three. That's it.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:34:51]:

Every strategy, new or old, derives from these five growth channels or is a repackaging of one or more of these five. Even my favorite strategy, building in public, is basically a combination of two of these five growth channels. Building in public uses the Organic Traffic growth channel since you're posting your wins and losses online to your audience on a specific platform. If your audience loves your content and decides to share it with their audience without you asking them for it, that is the virality or earned media growth channel, which hopefully you can get by posting amazing content. I might actually do a separate episode on scaling your business later, but for now, the moral of the story is scaling a business essentially involves investing your resources in one of the following five growth channels partnerships, virality, SEO, paid ads, and direct sales. What matters is that you implement a strategy to scale your business and implement it, keeping in mind all the constraints of your business. Now, if you're a Premium member of First Class Founders, you'll be listening to an exclusive segment in which I present specific actionable exercises to get your business off the runway and soaring. If you're serious about building an online business, I highly recommend that you check out our membership to listen to the rest of this episode, because I spent a ton of time on it and it'll be well worth the investment.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:36:13]:

But instead, we're now going to quickly recap the four components of the MAPS Framework and the various important steps that you will need to recognize and take along the way to launch your own business. Component number one M for mindset. To develop a winning mindset, the first step is to just get started. Then embrace the suck and commit long term to investing your time, effort, and maybe money towards improving yourself and your business. And finally, always keep your end goal in mind, but enjoy the journey. Component number two A for audience. Find an audience with the same interest as you, solve problems for them, and build your community, your tribe as you go along. Oh, and also make sure you complete the excellent EAR$ audit designed by Jeremy Enns.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:36:57]:

Component number Three P for product. Build a product for your audience by asking your audience lots of questions and figuring out their pain points. Then test your hypothesis by building a minimum viable product to solve that particular problem. Keep iterating until you find the right product market fit. Component number four S for scaling. Scaling a business essentially involves investing your resources in one of the following five growth channels partnerships, virality SEO, paid ads, and direct sales. I guess that pretty much covers the most important bits of the MAPS Framework.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:37:35]:

I know this is a pretty long episode, but trust me, there's still tons of stuff that I skipped in this episode. Maybe I'll do a follow-up episode later, but I'm eager to hear what you think of the MAPS Framework. I would love it if you could leave a message on firstclassfounders.com. Just click on the mic icon at the bottom right. I might even feature your message in an upcoming episode of the show. All right, that wraps up today's show in the next episode of First Class Founders. I'm speaking with the founder and CEO of Beehive, Tyler Denk. If you've been following me, you know how much I love what the team over at Beehive is doing.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:38:12]:

I truly believe in their mission and their vision for the future. I asked Tyler, the CEO of Beehive, all types of questions about the future of newsletters, what direction Beehive is going, and a whole lot more. So tune in next week. And one last thing before I go. If you're a new listener and you enjoy this episode, you can follow the show by going to firstclassfounders.com and clicking the link that matches your preferred podcast player, like Apple Podcast or Spotify. And when you get a chance, could you also head over to Firstclassfounders.com Review and leave the podcast. A five star review. It really helps boost credibility for the show, which means more incredible guests for you.

Yong-Soo Chung [00:38:47]:

And why would you want that? I'll leave a link in the Show Notes to leave us a five star review. Thank you so much. If you want to connect with me, you can hit me up on Twitter @YongSooChung. If you jumped on the Threads bandwagon, I'm also posting on Threads @YongSooChung. I'm pretty active and would love to connect with you. You can find links to all these social accounts in the Show Notes. I'll see you in the next episode of First Class Founders.