I used to think I needed a bigger audience.
That was the problem, right? If I just had more people on my list... more followers... more eyeballs. Then everything else would work.
So I did what everyone does.
Lead magnets. Content everywhere. Trying to grow the numbers. And some days I would feel like I was making progress, but it always felt like I was pushing a boulder uphill.
Then I realized something.
The relationships I already had with a few key people... those mattered more than I thought.
Way more.
Those relationships unlocked other connections through referrals, intros, and opportunities I couldn’t have bought with 10,000 cold subscribers.
I had been trying to get bigger when the leverage was already sitting right there.
I just couldn’t see it.
And I’m guessing you’re probably doing the same thing right now and it’s costing you months of work in the wrong direction.
Everyone Knows The David and Goliath Story Wrong
They think it’s about an underdog getting lucky.
A kid with a rock beats a giant warrior with a miracle. Richard Rumelt tells it differently in Good Strategy/Bad Strategy.
David wasn’t lucky. He saw power everyone else missed. Goliath’s size, armor, and sword made him unbeatable in close combat. But David had a sling. And accuracy. And range.
He could strike from a distance before Goliath ever got close. The size that everyone assumed as an advantage was a liability David exploited. The fight everyone thought David would lose?
He was never fighting that fight in the first place.
And that’s the insight most people miss about strategy. David won because he saw power everyone else missed.
That’s what strategy actually is.
Seeing the leverage already in your situation that you’ve been blind to.
Most people I talk to are stuck in “Goliath-thinking” where they look at their situation and see what they don’t have.
They think they need a bigger budget, audience or team and assume that’s why they’re stuck. So they build strategy around acquiring what they lack.
Meanwhile, the real leverage point sits right in front of them untouched.
The resource you already have that could change everything. The “weakness” that’s actually irrelevant. The assumption that’s making you blind to your actual leverage.
Here’s the Pattern I See Over and Over
Someone’s trying to launch a new offer, build a new lead magnet, or crack a new channel. They’re obsessed with adding. And I get it because that has always been the “best practice”.
Here’s the problem with that thinking:
Your ignoring the leverage sitting in front of you.
I talk about this all the time by extracting your Invisible Expertise.
Jay Abraham calls it your “Hidden Assets.”
Richard Rumelt, your “Hidden Power.”
But instead of focusing all your power there, you’re diluting your attention across five new things. For example…
I watched someone spend months trying to sell more marketing services.
His normal portfolio of ads, funnels, email sequences. He was grinding to close deals, competing on price even though he knew he had a better product.
Meanwhile, they were sitting on years of customer call data and ad performance patterns. He knew exactly what actually made people buy in his clients market. These are insights they would’ve paid a premium for because they could only get them from him.
But he left them sitting and “hidden”.
They literally could’ve given the marketing away and commoditized what all their competitors were selling and charged for the insights that gave his clients an unfair advantage.
Instead, they kept competing on execution. Selling the same thing everyone else was selling.
They needed to see their sling.
Before you choose an approach or commit to actions, you have to diagnose the challenge.
What’s really happening here?
What about this makes it so hard?
What’s the obstacle that actually matters?
Most people skip this part and jump straight to tactics but they never stop to ask:
“What power do I ALREADY have in this situation that I’m overlooking?”
And that question changes everything because most of the time?
The answer isn’t “build something new.”
It’s “focus harder on what’s already working.”
Or “stop undervaluing the relationship you already have.”
Or “the thing you think is too small to matter... is actually your entire leverage point.”
That’s where the strategy is.
Today, at 1pm EST, we’re opening up Session 1 of the Strategic Intelligence Club.
(This usually lives inside our paid community. $97/month. Members only. Not tomorrow.)
We’re breaking down Rumelt’s Good Strategy/Bad Strategy.
And using it to do one thing:
Find the hidden power in your situation. We’re going to take one real decision or plan you’re considering right now, and teach you how to run it through Rumelt’s process.
And we’re going to ask:
What power are you overlooking?
What “strength” are you chasing that doesn’t actually matter here?
What changes when you diagnose the real challenge instead of the one you assumed was the problem?
Here’s what to do right now:
Think about one plan or decision you’re moving forward with. The thing you’re about to commit time, money, or attention to. Ask yourself:
“Am I solving the real problem here...or just the one I THINK is the problem?”
“What am I already doing that’s working...that I’m not focusing enough power on?”
“What would change if I stopped trying to ADD.…and started looking for the hidden power in what I already have?”
If you can’t answer those clearly or if the answers make you uncomfortable, that’s exactly why you should show up today.
Bring that plan and we’ll show you how to diagnose it together.
→ Register for today’s session here 1pm EST
https://luma.com/q7owx8d1
→ Check out the pre-class resources (optional, but useful)
https://shiny-walrus-m9a3.here.now/book-club/
This is a one-time open door. After today, Session 1 goes back to members-only and you’ll be back to guessing whether your strategy is built on real power or just the assumption you need to be bigger.
See you there,
- Max
P.S. You don’t need to have read the book, I know this is super last minute so we’ll cover everything live.
P.P.S. We haven’t decided if there’ll be a replay, if we do one, it’ll probably live inside the paid community. Which means today might be your only shot to see this for free.
David, having Faith in the Lord, delivered the children of Israel from Goliath.
Faith moves mountains.