It’s 2026, and I want to talk about the elephant in the room.

It’s not that strategies don’t work.

It’s that strategies won’t work the way you want them to when your foundation is shaky.

And the foundation is very, very simple:

Knowing exactly who it is that you serve.

Because if you don’t know who you’re talking to, then every strategy you try…
every training you watch…
every template you download…
every course you buy won’t work the way you expect it to work.

Not because you’re “bad at business” but because you’re building everything on a blurry target.

I learned this the hard way

Back in 2014, I had just moved from California to Texas to follow my husband and I needed to make some money.

So I started looking online and I saw people blogging.

I saw them teaching people how to make money through blogging.
They were traveling.
They looked free.
They looked successful.

And I thought:
“If they can do it, so can I.”

They even had a course, but I didn’t buy it we didn’t have that kind of money, and honestly, I didn’t even fully see the vision.

But I assumed blogging was the “thing”… because it’s what I saw first.

Looking back now blogging wasn’t the real issue.

The real issue was that I didn’t have:

• a clear audience
• with a clear outcome
• and a clear reason they’d choose me

I kind of had an audience in mind, military wives but I didn’t know what the clear outcome was for them.

No clear transformation.
No clear pain points.
No clear messaging.

I had the beginning… but not the foundation.

Then I repeated it in 2022

In 2022, I did the same thing just in a different way.

This time I said:
“I’m going to help busy moms” and listen… “busy moms” isn’t wrong, it isn’t complete.

It’s the first layer, the label and most people stop right there.

They stay on the first layer of their business and never go deeper.

So nothing really moves or if it moves, it’s inconsistent.

Because “busy moms” (or “women” or “entrepreneurs” or “small business owners”) is a demographic… not a real target audience.

Demographics don’t tell you:

• what they’re actually struggling with
• what they want instead
• what they’ve already tried
• what they’re tired of
• what they’re willing to pay for
• what they secretly wish someone would just fix already

And that is the stuff that makes a business work.

Target audience is the center of everything

I want you to picture a spider diagram.

In the middle, there’s one circle.

That circle is your target audience.

And everything else in your business connects to that center circle:

• your offer
• your messaging
• your content
• your emails
• your sales page
• your DMs
• your marketing strategy
• the things you buy
• the things you ignore
• the decisions you make
• the things you stop doing

When your audience is clear everything becomes easier to build.

Easier to write.
Easier to sell.
Easier to choose.

You stop guessing and stop spinning.

You stop trying to force what “should” work and I don’t even know how to describe the feeling unless you’ve experienced it.

Because when you finally get clear, you’re like:

“Oh my God… THIS is what my business has been missing this whole time.”

But when your audience is unclear?

You end up doing more with less to show for it.

The DM problem nobody wants to admit

Let’s talk about the DMs.

If you’re having 20 to 40 DM conversations and you’re only closing one to two people, that’s usually not a “you’re bad at sales” problem.

Most of the time? It’s an audience clarity problem.

It’s unclear:

• who you’re for
• what they want
• what problem you solve
• and why your offer is the right fit

So what happens?

You start talking to anyone with a pulse and then you get in the DMs and you start over explaining.

You word vomit.

Not because you’re messy but because you’re trying to make yourself sound clear, when the foundation isn’t clear.

And when your foundation isn’t clear, your message won’t be either.

So you pull in people but it’s not the right people.

The move most people avoid: the pause

This is the part nobody wants to do.

The pause.

Not forever.
Not quitting.
Not disappearing.

Just a pause long enough to get honest about:

• who you want to serve
• why you want to serve them
• what they’re dealing with right now
• what they’ve already tried
• what they actually want
• what your offer really needs to do for them

I tell my clients to pause all the time even people who aren’t my clients, if they ask me a quick question, I’m like:

“Pause. Stop. Let’s get the foundation right.”

Because if you can’t pause because you’re afraid your business will fail, that’s a deeper conversation.

That’s fear driving the business and fear will always keep you building fast… instead of building right.

Homework: poll your audience

Here’s what I want you to do.

Poll your audience and ask:

“If you’re a ___, would you want an offer that solves ___?”

• Put your target audience in the first blank
• Put the outcome / transformation of your offer in the second blank

Then let the answers teach you.

And if the answer is:

“I wouldn’t buy that.”

That’s not failure, that is clarity.

That is information you’ve been needing.

That’s your audience telling you:
“This isn’t the problem I’m trying to solve” and that is gold… if you’re willing to listen.

Want help getting clear?

I have a free 5-day challenge that helps you take the first step toward real target audience clarity.

For now, it’s free.

But I will be charging for it, because people are getting results fast — and I don’t want you to miss it while it’s still available.

Grab it here:
lisbethgraham.co/freechallenge