Happy Accidents #018 - Katelyn Bourgoin

How a failed start-up went from looking like a disaster to being a blessing in disguise. This week we're diving into the Happy Accident story of Katelyn Bourgoin. I was blessed to have her share the details of her journey with me for this newsletter.

Let's dig in, shall we?

SETTING THE STAGE

What exactly was Katelyn up to before her Happy Accident? She certainly wasn't just sitting around waiting for it to come find her. Check it out...

Before her wildly successful market research and buyer psychology consulting company, newsletter, and social media following, Katelyn Bourgoin thought she'd failed.

Let's rewind the clock back a few years where we find Katelyn running a small branding agency while also bootstrapping a tech startup.

The startup was a software platform that served as a skill-swapping marketplace for women entrepreneurs. The idea sounded great on the surface, but they struggled to get funding.

Katelyn really wanted to see her tech start-up make it. But was it in the cards? She was certainly giving it everything she had.

In fact, every dollar her branding agency made got funneled back into her startup while she tried to raise a seed round. But investors were not taking her seriously.

As a result, Katelyn was barely paying herself a dime and was feeling absolutely crushed under the weight of it all. Eventually she was forced to make the tough decision to close the business. Her tech start-up (and her dreams) came to a crashing halt.

At the time, it felt like a huge failure, But Katelyn would tell you (as she told me) it actually turned out to be a happy accident in disguise.

THE HAPPY ACCIDENT

So what happened next? What was her Happy Accident?

After closing her startup, she fell back on what she knew—marketing consulting.

She'd built an amazing network of startup founders and her original VC hired her to work with some of their portfolio companies. She quickly discovered they were struggling with a different problem than she'd had at her own startup.

As a non-technical founder, Katelyn was really good at attracting users to her platform (the marketing side). Her struggle was with building a great product (the tech side).

These founders were awesome on the product side and built great solutions. But they didn't know who the right customers were for their products or how to get more of them.

This was an 'aha' moment for Katelyn.

Suddenly she realized that many businesses were struggling because they didn't deeply understand their buyers. That led her to focus her consultancy on helping clients do customer research and understand their market.

CAPITALIZING

Like any great entrepreneur, Katelyn saw an opportunity and ran with it...

This newfound focal point became the catalyst for everything she does today — from her newsletter to her online products.

By accidentally stumbling across a pain point so many entrepreneurs and start-ups had, she was able to explore the problem in depth. This led her down the path to discover the 'jobs to be done' (JTBD) innovation theory, which then inspired her to shift her business to focus on customer research.

It also led Katelyn to develop a passion for buyer psychology (more formally known as behavioral economics), which in turn inspired the topic of her now wildly successful newsletter, 'Why We Buy'

Katelyn has now recently launched a popular new group challenge, 'Un-ignorable', which she co-created with the talented team at Demand Curve (NOTE: I was blessed to be a part of the very first Un-ignorable cohort earlier this year).

All of this transpired as the ripple effect of a failed tech startup. A serendipitous chain reaction unfolded that brought her to where she is today.

Would Katelyn have fallen into helping tech founders better understand their customers?

Would she have stumbled across JTDB and delved deeper into buyer psychology (a subject she is now seen as a guru by many)?

Would she be the influential marketing mind she is today if not for this series of fortunate discoveries that kicked off from a seemingly bad situation?

Hindsight tells us Katelyn's failed tech start-up was a Happy Accident in disguise 🙂.

Some fun facts:

• Today, Katelyn has over 200,000+ followers across Twitter, LinkedIn, and her newsletter

• Her 'Why We Buy' newsletter along with the Un-Ignorable challenge account for 80% of her revenue and are projected to generate $500,000+ this year.

• And the best part, according to Katelyn when I interviewed her for this newsletter: "I run my business as a solopreneur and work closely with talented contractors. My business is calm, rewarding, and very profitable. The sky is the limit."

The lessons here:

• Build a Personal Brand: Katelyn Bourgoin has built a strong personal brand that's helped her stand out in a crowded market. She has done this by creating valuable content, speaking at conferences, and being active on social media. By building a personal brand, she has been able to establish herself as a thought leader in her industry and attract new clients.

• Continuously Learn: Katelyn is always learning and improving her skills. She has taken courses in marketing, design, and entrepreneurship, and she reads books and blogs on a regular basis. By continuously learning, she is able to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and techniques in her industry and provide her clients with the best possible service.

• Be Persistent: Finally, Katelyn's success as a solopreneur can be attributed to her persistence. Starting a business is never easy, and there were many times when she faced setbacks and challenges. However, she kept pushing forward and never gave up on her goals. As a result, she has been able to build a successful business that's helped many companies and individuals achieve their own success.

Looking to increase your luck surface area? Here're a few ways I can help:

If you're looking to start your own one person coaching or consulting business (like I did), here's a couple of resources that might help:

→ The Accidental Solopreneur This best selling book brings you a gripping parable along with a playbook for leaving corporate and starting your own solopreneur business

→ The Solopreneur Playbook This 90 minute video course brings you a 6 step playbook (and workbook) for finding your niche, packaging and selling your offer, and building your audience.

Having trouble establishing or gaining credibility as an expert in your niche?

→ The Author's Playbook Establish yourself as the credible expert by publishing a great book. This 90 minute course teaches you everything I've learned about writing, publishing, and marketing best-selling books.

Need to work through some challenges in your business?

→ 1:1 Coaching Call Book at 60 minute coaching session with me. Together we can work through your niche, your branding, your marketing, your offer, or various other challenges you may be facing in your business.