239: Building a Brand on Effort and Hard Things
Aug 28, 2025
When Customers Need to Suffer for Business Growth
Only 9% of businesses ever break the $1 million annual revenue mark. After years of running companies, I’ve learned a counterintuitive truth about business growth: sometimes, you need to let your customers suffer—but only in the right ways.
I’m not talking about long checkout lines or confusing onboarding. That kind of “suffering” kills businesses. Instead, I’m talking about meaningful effort, the kind that transforms your customers’ identity and makes them more bought-in to your service.
Eliminate Friction in the Wrong Places
The very first step in business growth is to remove all unnecessary friction from material touchpoints: sign-ups, onboarding, and payments. If a new customer signs up and immediately feels confused or neglected, you’ve already lost them. I’ve revamped onboarding in my own businesses multiple times, because when customers said they loved the service but hated the initial process, I knew that friction was blocking growth.
Embed Meaningful Struggle
Once customers are in, don’t shy away from difficulty. In fact, this is where growth happens. Coaching, therapy, and fitness are hard. If you gloss over the effort, you rob clients of transformation. Instead, frame the challenge as part of their story:
“Who do you become once you finish this program?”
“How will this be part of your success story?”
“How will this growth spill into other areas of life?”
When customers answer these questions, they begin to see themselves differently—shifting from someone who avoids hard things to someone who conquers them.
Anchor Their Story
Business growth is not just about revenue; it’s about relationships. By reminding clients who they’re becoming, you lock in retention and referrals. Every session becomes a step forward in their personal story, and your business becomes the guide they trust.
The paradox is clear: eliminate friction where it doesn’t matter, but embrace it where it creates transformation. If you can strike that balance, you’ll unlock real business growth.
Time-Stamped Show Notes
00:30 – Why most businesses fail to break $1M in revenue
01:15 – The surprising role of “suffering” in customer experience
02:05 – Why material suffering (checkout, onboarding) kills growth
03:10 – The critical importance of a smooth onboarding process
04:20 – Eliminating friction in sign-ups and customer access
05:35 – Embedding meaningful struggle in experiential businesses
06:45 – Why coaching and therapy must lean into “hard work”
07:40 – Three identity-shaping questions to ask your clients
08:55 – How effort builds loyalty and deeper transformation
10:05 – Anchoring client progress in their personal story
11:15 – Using struggle as the key to long-term business growth
