July 1, 2025

Success story from reader Frederick Buskey

Long-time list member Frederick Buskey responded to a recent message (i.e., Stop Spinning Circles) to share a positioning success story (shared with permission):

Jonathan,

This was so hard for me the first three years, but I read your email every day. Finally, I landed on Assistant Principals.

They aren’t actually buyers, but APs become Principals and they ARE buyers, and by the time they get to that point, they know me very well.

Also, many of my friends who have excellent podcasts in the “Ed Leader” space are experiencing stagnation (for pod numbers). The market is so saturated.

Meanwhile, The Assistant Principal Podcast has grown 52% since December. It is the only podcast for assistant principals, and so it is easy to find for my target audience.

Cheers!

Frederick

Congrats to FB!

This is a classic example of my longer-term “gardening” approach to marketing vs a more short-term “hunting” approach.

Is one better than the other?

They both can work.

Which you use is mostly a personal preference.

And you can blend them (but that’s a story for another day).

Here’s the thing...

The key to using the gardening approach is that it works better if you know what kind of vegetables you are trying to grow.

Why?

Because the tools, techniques, and conditions required to grow tomatoes won’t also produce corn.

What’s the moral of the story?

Decide what kind of clients you’re trying to attract, and it’ll be easier to attract them.

Yours,

—J