Build Ecosystems, Not Empires™

A newsletter for BIPOC founders growing businesses that make them and their communities flourish. You can unsubscribe any time.

By Gelaine Santiago of Founding Possibilities​

Alignment is where every ecosystem (and business) starts.
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Hey Reader! 👋🏽

This week, I got to put my speaker hat on and delivered a workshop at Toronto's Schulich Business School! My talk was part of a 9-week incubator program for Filipino founders – the first of its kind in Canada.

I was asked to speak about go-to-market strategies, which is just a fancy way of saying: how do you get your ideal customers to buy and use your products/services on a consistent basis?

Whether you're just starting out or you've been around, there are 4 key systems every business needs:

1. Product-Market Alignment: Who is your ideal customer? And how are you speaking to them in a way that resonates?
2. Marketing: How will you consistently get your products/offerings in front of your customers at the right time?
3. Sales: Once your customers know about you, how are you getting them to actually purchase? (Non-sleazily, of course!)
4. Delivery: Once they purchase, how do you make them want to keep coming back?

Most early stage founders make the same mistake: They'll jump right into marketing without having figured out the Alignment piece.

They'll spend hours crafting posts for Instagram or taking pretty photos for their website, when the truth is: 80% of the work needs to have happened way before 👇🏽

Before you jump into posting a reel everyday or spending thousands on ads (or whatever most marketing bros tell you), your energy (and money!) will be better spent figuring out the answers to these questions:

• Who exactly are you trying to reach?
• What is your ideal customer’s NUMBER ONE problem? And how do YOU uniquely solve that?
• Why would they choose you over anyone else?
• What impact do you want to have? (aka. Your Why)

I'm not saying you can't post on socials or update your website in the meantime (it's good to jump before you're ready). But it DOES mean that until you’ve figured out your Alignment, you won't get the results you want. Instead, you'll just keep madly spinning your wheels and wondering why you’ve barely moved.

But once you do find Alignment, magical things begin to happen.

You'll start getting comments and messages from real people, interested in your work.

Customers begin coming to you, ready to buy, because they want what you offer.

You release the need to convince, push, or code switch - because you know that showing up as your unapologetic self gets you better results.

If this is resonating with you and you'd love to grow your business from a more aligned and easeful place, then I'd love to invite you to my program 👉🏽 Your Real + Rich Brand!

Over 3 months, I'll help you get:

• Powerful clarity about who your ideal customers are and how to connect to them
• The confidence to clearly articulate who you are, what you do, and why you're different from everyone else
• Your brand's content pillars, so you make content that builds community, connection AND gets you paid
• A personalized Resonant Visibility Strategy – so you can show up online in a way that's authentic and won't burn you out dancing for reels
• More sales in less time, without resorting to sleazy sales or urgency, because you'll be attracting customers who already want to work with you

I’ve been running a version of this program since 2021, but this is the first time I’ve turned it into a 3-month coaching container to offer deeper support. I've got 2 spots left at my special pilot price.

Interested? Learn more here or reply ‘Alignment’ and I’ll share the details.

Alignment is where every ecosystem starts: you can't build a business that generates value until you know who you're building for.

Wishing you a joyfully Aligned day!

Gelaine