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# A new product is not the solution to your problem
- URL: https://www.renehjetting.com/a-new-product-is-not-the-solution-to-your-problem/
- Published: 2025-05-23T06:41:23.000Z
- Updated: 2025-07-31T05:14:43.000Z
- Author: René Hjetting

**Just before** the coronavirus hit us in early 2020, I had a successful business writing for clients, and everything looked bright.

Then the coronavirus arrived, and my clients began to **stop requesting content** because they were uncertain about the situation.

From one day to the next, my turnover fell by more than 50%, and I was a little panicked.

I couldn't pay myself a salary – and that's the **worst nightmare** when you're self-employed.

I was down for a few weeks, but then I started looking around: **What could I do?**

I thought, ‘If I can't write for people, maybe I should teach people **how to write?**’

I sat down and developed a course on how to write better. I wanted to run it online, as it was in the middle of the pandemic.

**I launched the workshop, and few people signed up.**

I did a few other workshops, and the result was the same: **few sign-ups.**

I thought about the whole situation.

I had asked around and researched whether there was a need for my workshops – and there was.

But I didn't have a **large enough audience** to sell eight spots on a workshop.

So I took my own medicine and started building my audience. 

I felt a little stupid, as I had just written a book on the same subject.

I focused on building my audience, and I sold more places on my workshops.

So you would think **everything was fine** – until the end of 2022, when ChatGPT came into the world.

Within a few months, everyone could write using ChatGPT, and my regular workshops on teaching people to write were no longer selling.

I could have given up and found a new way to make a living, but luckily I'm a curious soul.

**So I adopted AI and taught myself how to use it.**

I created my first workshop on writing with AI, and it sold out in a matter of hours. It went really well.

**Why did my workshop sell so well?**

The headline of this newsletter is a bit misleading, of course, but that's because I've since focused on building my audience every single day.

**Not just building new products.**

Not just making my audience bigger, but letting it grow with the right people.

**So my advice to you is**: You should also focus on building your audience continuously, all the time. And it's easier than you think if you have a plan for it.

**Happy writing!**

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