Intuition is how you’ll grow your bootstrapped business in 2026

Two people are afraid of public speaking. One worries they’ll be ridiculed for bombing. The other worries they’ll be cast aside because they’re so good at public speaking it will make others feel bad about themselves. Knowing which camp your audience falls into, and speaking to it, would be the difference between making a ton of money as a public speaking coach and making zero dollars.

In 2026, when I interview business owners who make way more money than you would expect, it’s because they have incredible intuition. They know exactly what their audience is going through. They know exactly what their audience has been through. They know exactly what their audience dreams of for the future. They know exactly what their audience is afraid of. They know exactly what their audience dislikes about themselves. They know exactly what their audience is ashamed of.

They know the lives of their audience better than their audience knows themselves. And that’s not something AI can teach. It’s not something an influencer can teach. It comes from meandering conversations, an infinite number of DMs, and a presence that makes customers feel comfortable telling the business owner what they are going through.

I find it funny, in this time when AI is all anyone wants to talk about, that the people who are really making money are the ones thinking in this way. Sure, you can set up a system to spam email send, to pump out content, to make an AI avatar of yourself and post TikToks, but what are you saying, and to whom?

There is no differentiation if you just produce volume. There is no differentiation if you just produce in cinematic quality. Differentiation today comes from knowing and understanding the true nature of your ideal customer. Operating on the surface level, following trends, and capitalizing on the topic of the day, will get you immediate results. But if you want to build something that lasts and creates persistent profits over a long period of time, you have to speak to the nature of your customer, because human nature does not change.

Develop an intuition about your customer, and you will grow revenue.