The best marketing lesson on a fantastic episode of RelishTHIS didn’t come from a campaign. It came from a pair of socks
Mitch Stein, founder and CEO of Pond, told me about Dina Lichtman, who started Knock Knock Give a Sock. In college she made sandwiches and handed out extra food to neighbors on the street – until someone said, “You know, I actually have plenty of food. But we don’t have any socks.” That was the seminal moment: she’d been solving the problem she assumed people had, not the one they actually had. (We’ve seen this pattern on RelishTHIS multiple times. People solving the wrong problem because they neglected to listen first.)
Mitch’s whole point is that nonprofits – and startups, and honestly everyone – have to keep asking whether we’re inflicting help or actually solving the problem. He calls it minimum viable audience over minimum viable product: before you build the program, buy the shiny tool, or chase the new channel, ask the actual people what they need. Pond itself only clicked once Mitch flipped his model to match what stakeholders actually wanted, rather than what he assumed they’d want.
This is a Connect-phase discipline as much as a product one. Getting excited about crypto donations or a new TikTok strategy? Before you invest a ton of time and money, ask a handful of your donors: do you even have cryptocurrency? Would you give it? Their answer will save you months.
Mitch also models something I love for the Attract phase: share before you’re the expert. He built both sides of Pond’s marketplace largely by being an open book on LinkedIn – posting the real challenges, the in-progress lessons, the honest numbers. The polished, after-the-fact founder story makes success feel unattainable. The messy middle builds trust now. As long as you don’t claim to be the guru, honest build-in-public content earns you an audience.
Two moves, one theme: stop assuming, start asking, and share the journey out loud while you figure it out.
Want a framework for doing more good through marketing? Mission Uncomfortable is free at missionuncomfortablebook.com, and your Purpose-Driven Marketing Score is waiting here. And, as always, if you need some help, give us a shout.
