BWC Superfans in learning session

To succeed as an entrepreneur you must master strategies to create superfans in any business fast, irrespective of the industry. It doesn’t matter whether you’re running a mammoth or micro business, your strategy must aim to create superfans.

A mammoth business like Walmart generates superfans by promising everyday low prices. On the other hand Amazon creates superfans by striving to build the world’s most customer centric company. These mammoth companies’ strategies for building superfans are neither hollow taglines nor shallow tactics, but embedded in their culture.

If you’re building an education business as I do, you must also master strategies to build superfans – fast. So, if you’re building a gigantic web based education business like Skool by Alex Hormozi you must aim at superfans. And if you’re building a micro education business like Nigeria-based Paul Uduk, your strategy must revolve around superfans.

Superfans are very critical for success in business today where human attention span is said to be about ten seconds. Human attention span now equates that of the goldfish – its attention span is estimated at 9.5 seconds. Although goldfish attention span is disputed by scientists, you should not miss the bigger picture – people are super distracted today.

Superfans, also spelt super fans, are sometimes described as true fans. The management expert and co-author of The One Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard, calls superfans raving fans. Your superfans are your most dedicated apostles, disciples and cheerleaders.

Superfans are customer who have consumed your products and have been infected by the ‘fan virus’ and are hooked. Sometimes they are hooked for life and are willing to follow you to the ends of the world. That’s not all, if necessary, they are willing to lay down their lives for you. I’ve written about the phenomenon of superfans and customer centricity in my book Bridges to the Customer’s Heart.

The idea of superfans is not new as Kevin Kelly wrote about it in his seminal article, 1,000 True Fans. The article was first published in 2008 and Kelly defined a true fan as a “fan that will buy anything you produce.” Kelly went on, “These diehard fans will drive 200 miles to see you sing; they will buy the hardback and paperback and audible versions of your book…” Kevin Kelly’s original article was about artists, musicians, chefs, sculptors, saxophonists and other creators.

Kevin Kelly has since revised the concept of 1,000 True Fans to include course creators, YouTubers, and other independent producers.  The online guru and the creator of Smart Passive Income, Pat Flynn, recently latched onto the idea and wrote his book, Superfans. The subtitle of the book is, The Easy Way to Stand Out, Grow Your Tribe, and Build a Successful Business.

In the micro education business aiming to create superfans is a brilliant strategy. But this strategy doesn’t come naturally to most people. Most people prefer to play as lone wolves. They have a short term focus and are generally not generous. On the other hand players that follow a contrary strategy, driven entirely by long term focus and generosity, triumph.

In the micro education business, superfans are alumni members who are willing to stay with you for the long haul. Likely when they attended your course something resonated with them and they decided to stick around for good. Superfans transcend passive alumni members and become friends and confidants adding massive value to your group.

Here are the critical strategies or steps to build superfans.

Strategy #1: Create Alumni Groups

The first step to super fans is to create alumni group for every course you have launched. So, if you have launched 10 courses, you’ll end up having 10 alumni groups. Your alumni group members are a critical asset if properly nurtured. If you’re short term focused nurturing a group for 3 – 7 years may seem daunting but it’s not.

Strategy #2: Collapse the Alumni Groups into One.

Nurture your groups for as long as it’s necessary. Focus on building trust and adding the most value you can to your alumni members. After a while, collapse the groups into one otherwise the groups will become unmanageable.

Strategy #3: Create Groups within Groups

As you nurture your Group, you’ll notice distinct patterns. Based on the pattern, divide your group into sub-groups based on the inclinations you notice. For instance, you may have Ordinary, Premium, Platinum and Inner Circle Members.

Strategy #4: Create a Super Group within your Group

Your super group will constitute your superfans, and may constitute about 1% – 3% of your entire group. In a group of 1,000, your superfans may constitute just 10 members. If you’re someone like Ali Abdaal with over 6 million YouTube subscribers, your superfan base may range from 60,000 to 180,000.

Strategy #5: Learn how to make an Insane Offer

To succeed at scale you must learn and master how to make insane offers. An insane offer is the type you make and turn around and question your sanity. Your students will love you for it because it shows you care. The key to success is mastering how to execute profitably.

Let’s put in context how your superfans can fuel your growth. Imagine a superfan base of 180,000 spending $10 with you monthly without any adverts, you can become insanely wealthy. That is how Ali Abdaal has been able to quit his job as a medical doctor and live life on his own terms.  First, he left the UK to the US, and is now staying in Hong Kong.

So, that in a nutshell is how you build superfans in any business fast irrespective of industry. To start with, I assume you know exactly what you’re doing because you can’t give what you don’t have. To master strategies to build superfans in any business fast irrespective of the industry you must be willing to learn. What do you have to learn and how do you go about it?

These are questions your coach and /or mentor should be able to answer for you as experiences differ. Mastering strategies to build superfans in any business fast will depend on the level of your existing skills. Your level of expertise is also important and so also is the level of experience of your coach. That’s why choosing the right coach is super critical for success.

What can you offer your superfans?

Gurus give their superfans assorted names, but the most common names are Premium, Inner Circle, Platinum, and Gold Card Members. These members are treated with velvet gloves and sometimes enjoy perks in excess of 100 times what ordinary members enjoy. The irony is that typically superfans pay just 3, 5, or 7 times more than ordinary members.

You can arrange priority passes and massive group discounts in choice properties, airlines, hotels, etc. for your superfans. Tee shirts are common. Top engagement forums include masterminds, roundtables, premium members’ only books, e-books, get-togethers and other learning experiences.

More importantly, superfans gain access to you for 1 – 1 mentoring and coaching at designated intervals. As the guru James Kemp, points out, the role of the coach is to “show somebody they already have it inside them.” In short, the role of the coach is to provide ‘psychological safety net’ to his or her superfans.

I started experimenting with the idea of Inner Circle Group in 2022 but the experiment didn’t work out. In 2023 I created the first Premium BWC & iBMC Group and 35 members joined. In 2024 the number of Premium Members plummeted to 12, meaning less than 35% renewed their Premium membership. Something was clearly missing not minding the Nigerian economy has been on tailspin since May 2023.

Borrowing a leaf from Alex Hormozi, I needed to learn how to make my offers truly irresistible.  Alex is the co-founder of Acquisition dot, and the author several iconic books, including $100M Offers. The full title of the book is, $100M OFFERS: How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No. Learn more about metaskills.

While thinking about how to make more BWC and iBMC Alumni Members succeed, I had a light-bulb moment. While BWC has about 350 determined members, less than 40 have written books, that’s 11.42% success rate or 88.58% failure rate. While our success rate is more than double the industry average of 3% – 5%, it was unacceptable to me. That’s when the idea of BWC INTENSIVE struck me.

What about if I could work with our members directly to create their books’ outlines. A book’s outline is the most critical element in getting a book off the ground. In addition, what about if I edited, formatted, and crested cover images? Would they be willing to pay a higher fee? Would providing enlarged service resonate with members at all? I knew it would because there were several members struggling on their own to complete their books.

But to confirm I needed to test the idea or hypothesis that members needed more support to complete their books. That’s how BWC INTENSIVE with five tier packages was born. The packages consisted of STANDARD, ENHANCED, SUPER ENHANCED, PREMIUM, and PLATINUM.

The PLATINUM Package included admission to INNER CIRCLE Membership with direct access to The Coach and 1 – 1 coaching. The PLATINUM PACKAGE was 2.7 times higher than the Premium Package. This is what happened: Over 80% of the members registered for the PLATINUM PACKAGE after seeing how cost effective it was.

Only one person registered for one of the lower packages. More stunningly, the FREE package did not attract a single person even though the offer was opened to non-BWC members. It was eye opening. So, as you package your offers, don’t be afraid to stack insane value to attract value buyers. While cheap doesn’t mean valueless, procrastinators and coin counters will not pay no matter how cheap. Focus on the high end of the market. As Alex Hormozi says, the offer must be so good people feel stupid saying no.

I hope master strategies to build superfans in any business fast irrespective of the industry has been helpful. To some, the strategies are no more that tactics. You can even call them steps and you would not be wrong. Remember, business is strategy built around people, so focus on the bigger picture and not the semantics.

If you have any questions or need help to publish your book in 2025, reach out to me. For course creators, making offers that will help your courageous students succeed at whatever they do is the new normal. Figuring out how to help students while keeping cost low is the master strategy to building superfans in business fast.