The Dream 100 Strategy – How to Build Your Dream Business

The Dream 100 marketing strategy was first introduced to me by Russell Brunson, the creator of Clickfunnels. For awhile I listened to a marketing podcast of his every day.

Amongst other wisdom, he mentioned a unique approach to winning at life. Apparently created by Chet Holmes in a book called Ultimate Sales Machine, the Dream 100 concept is a straightforward and effective means to building the business you envision online.

Using the dream 100 method is simple. Make a list of your hundred most ideal clients, collaborators, and/or customers. Rather than focusing on pleasing a massive audience, focus on serving the hundred people who are part of the dream life you want to build.

I’m working on my Dream100 list (currently at around 29) and so far it’s mostly influencers I’d like to interview and companies I’d love to create content for. Depending on your career, goals, and aspirations, your list might be similar or completely different.

Why This Strategy Will Help You Get What You Want Out of Business

These days consumers aren’t the only ones who are easily distracted. Entrepreneurs can fall victim to the volume of audiences available the same way that consumers can fall victim to the massive variety of offers. It’s hard to start a business when you’re constantly being distracted by exaggerated offers.

Having your dream hundred planned out will keep you from getting distracted by trying to serve audiences that aren’t really in your niche or area of expertise.

How to Break Down This Approach to Marketing

It can be useful to break your hundred ideal customers/clients/collaborators down into groups that you’d like to interact with. For example, my breakdown might look something like this:

• 20 bloggers
• 20 podcasters
• 20 social media marketers
• 20 paid media experts
• 10 influencers in the mental health space
• 10 influencers in the health and fitness space

There will undoubtedly be some crossover because some people do two, three, or all of the things on that list. But having the list broken up like this will make it easier to think of people to put in each section. It also ensures that my dream 100 isn’t made up of exclusively bloggers, for example. 

Notes on Dream 100 Planning

It’s worth mentioning that the Dream 100 is not a quick-win strategy, nor should it be based on spammy behavior or “laying and praying”. Creating the list might be challenging, but it’s really the easy part. The hard part is finding realistic ways to bring your Dream 100 inside your circle of influence and interact with them. That way when you eventually propose some kind of joint venture, they might actually say yes.

My Dream 100 Progress

Although I  only learned of this concept a month or two ago, I’ve already made some interesting progress. I have interacted via email with several of the first names I added to my list – influencers who I would love to chat with and potentially get a chance to interview. 

What I’m finding is that the more I follow and engage with my ideal collaborators and clients on social media and elsewhere, the easier and more natural it is to communicate with them. One influencer who I sent a short email to ended up having a long discussion with me and offering some personal advice on podcasting. 

How to Find the Right People to Build Your Dream Business

What’s your vision for your dream business – is it an Amazon-sized online company, or a small brick and mortar store? There’s no right or wrong answer, but regardless of where you want to go, the dream 100 strategy can get your there.

One important consideration in this process is going to be working with the right people. Whether we’re talking about co-workers or clients, hanging out with people who don’t support your goals will drain your energy over time.

How I Find Ideal Clients

While I haven’t started working with anyone on my dream 100 list yet, framing my search for clients and collaborators through this lens has helped immensely. I don’t have very many clients, but those that I do work with are really excellent businesses that pay well and provide learning opportunities on the job. 

All I really did to find such great clients is stand up for myself and exercise a mindset of abundance. If you are coming from a place of scarcity when you’re looking for clients, you’ll scare off the good ones and sign on with anyone else out of desperation. You’ll probably end up regretting it, and you’ll have wasted a ton of time and energy which you could have spent on good clients.

If on the other hand you exclusively seek great clients that represent your dream one hundred well, even if they aren’t on your list they will still be ideal clients. When you don’t have a lot of work it can be hard to say “no” to anyone, but remember that saying no to the wrong client frees you up to say yes to the right one.

Making the Dream a Reality

Once you have worked with some people who are similar to your dream clients and collaborators, approaching the influencers will seem less frightening. At that point, it may seem like the next logical step. For example, say you wanted to work with Neil Degrasse Tyson; you might put him at the top of your dream 100. 

How would you go about meeting him? Spending a year or more working with other well known scientists would give you the experience to comfortably approach him. You might even meet some peers of his who could introduce you in the process.

On the other hand, if your ambition is to become an author, you might add authors of different types of books to your list. If you intend to publish on Kindle, writers who have made it big with books on that platform would be a good base for your dream 100.

How to Meet People Outside Your Circle

There are a number of ways to improve your odds of success with cold outreach; one example is using Linkedin to interact with someone before sending them a customized connection request and message. This will increase the chances that they might read something about your product or service. You can do the same type of thing on any platform from Twitter to Facebook.

They real key to making your dream work-life a reality is maintaining the relationships once they exist. It would be great to shake an influencer’s hand, but that doesn’t mean much if they forget your name the next day. 

Don’t annoy them – find ways to contribute original, organic value that they might actually notice. To run with the example above, if you wanted to attract Neil Degrasse Tyson’s attention, you might publish a paper that references his work or quotations, and then send him a copy/link to the article.

At the end of the day, remember this; influencers and dream clients are just people, like you and me. They need to have a chance to get to know you, just like anyone else would.