Pod Insights The $100 MBA Show MBA2724 The Fastest Way To Grow Your Business In 2026 About this episode Wondering what really drives rapid business growth? Is it another marketing hack, or something far simpler? If you’re tired of chasing the latest promotional trends and hoping they’ll finally move the needle, this lesson is for you. Omar reveals why the true engine behind a thriving business isn’t a viral ad or shiny new tool, but creating a product that’s genuinely 10x better than anything else out there. He breaks down the critical difference between marketing and product excellence, shares hard‑earned lessons from his own journey, and offers a practical checklist to help you consistently improve what you deliver to your customers. Get ready to shift your focus and discover the secret to sustainable, word‑of‑mouth growth that lasts. Hit play at the top of the page and dive into this actionable lesson. Your business and your customers will thank you. Watch the episodes on YouTube: https://lm.fm/GgRPPHiSUBSCRIBEYouTube | Apple Podcast | Spotify | Podcast Feed Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcript 0:00 Speaker 00 Today's episode is supported by Cash App. When it comes to Bitcoin, you may be surprised to learn that it was invented way back in 2008. But you still haven't made the jump to Bitcoin yet? Cash App makes it easy. When you buy Bitcoin on Cash App, they hold real Bitcoin for you, one to one, and you can withdraw it anytime. It works more like real money and less like something locked in an account. No extra steps, no restrictions, just access and control when you need it. With Cash App, you can actually do that. For a limited time, new customers can get $10 added to their balance. Just use code BITCOIN10 when you sign up. And, don't forget this part: send at least $5 to a friend in the first two weeks. Terms apply. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank.
0:45 Speaker 00 Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partners. Bitcoin services provided by Block Incorporated brand. For additional information, see the Bitcoin disclosures at cash.app/legal/podcast. Small business owners, listen up. You started your business, but you can't do it alone. And that means you have to hire people to help. That's where Justworks comes in. Justworks is a payroll, benefits, and global hiring platform to unburden your brain from all the complicated small business stuff. They handle the things you can't afford to get wrong, so you don't have to worry. So you can focus on the parts of running a business that you enjoy, knowing everything else is running smoothly. You don't have to worry when it just works.
1:28 Speaker 00 Everyone thinks that the fastest way to grow is some new marketing hack, a new ad strategy, a new social media trend, a new funnel, a new AI tool. Nope. The fastest way to grow your business is actually brutally simple. Make your product 10 times better than anything else out there. I had to learn this the hard way, because if you do that, your business will grow whether you're good at marketing or not. The truth that people don't want to admit is that marketing doesn't create growth. Marketing can't cure a bad product. Marketing amplifies growth of a good product, of a great product. Your product is the engine of your business. Marketing is the gasoline. If your engine's weak, if you're driving like a Toyota Echo,
2:10 Speaker 00 you can pour as much gasoline as you want, it's not going to go anywhere fast. But if your engine's powerful, you're driving a Porsche, just a tap of the gas pedal will send you flying.
2:27 Speaker 00 Welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host, Omar Zenhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to help you start, grow, and scale your business.
2:41 Speaker 00 I got a quick favor to ask. If this show has helped you in any way, leave me a quick review. You could do so wherever you listen to podcasts. This helps me and my team reach even more people who need the same no-fluff, practical business advice that you're getting from the show. It only takes a few seconds, but it makes a huge difference. Thanks for being a part of our journey to help others on their journey.
3:05 Speaker 00 Most entrepreneurs spend 80% trying to grow, but the fastest growth, honestly, comes when you stop trying to grow and you start trying to be great. The fastest-growing companies I've ever built or ever coached all have one thing in common: their product made people say, "Wow." It stops customers in their track and makes them say, "I need this." Growth is just a side effect of excellence. There was a time when I was growing my software company, Webinar Ninja, where I hit a wall. I hit a plateau. I was really burnt out. I was exhausted. I was frustrated. I was trying to market my way to growth. I was doing one marketing activity after another. And then one day, I realized, it's not a marketing problem.
3:48 Speaker 00 I stopped and sat with my team, and we all admitted, our product needs to be better, not just more features, but the whole experience, how customers use our product, how quickly they get a win from our product, how well we support them, how we onboard them matters, how clear the interface was, how intuitive the workflow of getting to creating a webinar was, how fast the software felt for the user, how stable it ran, how reliable it was. All of these things gave our customers confidence. So instead of another Facebook ad, we rolled up our sleeves and improved the product. Every day, we tried to make the product better than yesterday. And you know what happened?
4:30 Speaker 00 Growth, referrals, word of mouth, testimonials, great reviews. More people started to use our product. And when they used it, we had better retention, higher LTV, lifetime value, lower churn, lower support tickets, more trust from our customers. And that's exact growth that you want. You want growth that's real because you can market your business. But if your business stops growing when you stop marketing, that's a problem. Your product should be selling itself to some degree, even just a little. Business should be growing and you should be getting more and more sales just based on the merit of the product. And then if you want to make it grow even more, marketing helps. But if marketing is the only thing that's saving you from going out of business, you have a product problem.
5:14 Speaker 00 Imagine you're trying to build a giant bonfire. Marketing is the gasoline. The product is the wood. Most entrepreneurs have tiny piles of sticks and they want to create a big bonfire. They're dumping buckets of gasoline onto these piles of sticks and it just doesn't work. But if you have huge, solid logs of wood in this fire and gasoline and you light it, you have a major bonfire. That's a real product, a product that actually is burning off its own merit. To go back to the bonfire analogy, if you have a pile of really solid wood and a bunch of gasoline, all you need is a tiny spark and then boom, you have a huge fire.
5:58 Speaker 00 But if you have tiny sticks and you pour a bunch of gasoline and you light a match, it's going to take a while for that file to grow and you have to keep on feeding it and feeding it and feeding it until you're exhausted. The great thing about bonfires, especially big ones, is that it attracts a lot of people. They, "What's that fire? Let's go and check it out." Same thing in your business. People start to gather. People start inviting other people. Hey, people start to talk. People start to share. And your fire grows because your wood is great, which is your product, not because of the gasoline. I think I'm exhausted. All my metaphors here, but I think you get the picture. You always hear this quote, "The best product doesn't always win." That is a lie told by people who don't want to do the work. The best products do win consistently across all industries.
6:42 Speaker 00 For example, Apple Computers. They make the most reliable, stable, virus-free computers on the earth. They last for years, they rarely break. The resale market of these computers, computers that are five and six and seven and 10 years old, still sell on eBay and Facebook Marketplace. That's why they are number one. That's why they're the most valuable customer tech company on the planet. Let me give you another example. Michelin-starred restaurants. People think it's all presentation and hype. No, the food is phenomenal. I went once to a one-star Michelin restaurant in Hokkaido, Japan. It was one of the best meals I've ever had. It was delicious.
7:25 Speaker 00 Every bite was like an incredible experience in my mouth. My mouth was kind of in pain afterwards because it was working overtime. The taste buds were really stimulated. Today's episode is supported by Rosetta Stone. I absolutely love Rosetta Stone because it's helping me learn Italian faster than I can ever imagine. Why do I want to learn Italian? Well, who doesn't love Italy? But of course, Nicole's family is Italian and I love to have some quick Italian conversations with her mom. And Rosetta Stone just came out with Rosetta Stone Sapphire, their biggest launch in over a decade. One of the coolest features is chat missions, which turns conversation practice into a game.
8:07 Speaker 00 With chat missions, you're put in interactive scenarios and given three objectives. A mission to accomplish, like asking how much something costs, ordering a cold brew coffee, or getting a Wi-Fi password. Along the way, you get real-time corrections and feedback to help you sound more natural and confident. It's a supportive way to build confidence before putting your language skills to use in real life. I've been using Rosetta Stone for over two years and I actually can have some small Italian conversations with Nicole's mom now. Just the other day, she asked me, "When are you traveling?" And I said, Dopo domani mattina, which means after tomorrow morning. She was incredibly impressed I was able to answer in Italian. How could you put a price tag on a happy mother-in-law? If you want to take your language skills to the next level, don't wait to try Rosetta Stone Sapphire.
8:50 Speaker 00 The $100 MBA listeners can get 20% off the Rosetta Stone Sapphire subscription when they sign up today. This gets you access to Rosetta Stone Sapphire in 25 languages. Support for today's episode comes from Square. You probably know Square is the thing you tap your card on at your favorite coffee shop, restaurant, salon, or local store. But for the person running that business, Square is a whole lot more than a way to get paid. Square brings the tools you need to run and grow your business together in one system. From payments on appointments to staff, inventory, sales, and customer relationships. Whether you're selling lattes, cutting hair, detailing cars, running a restaurant, or starting something new. Square keeps your business tools working together so you can focus less on managing the moving parts and more on what's next.
9:34 Speaker 00 And right now, listeners can get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at square.com/go/mba. That's S-Q-U-A-R-E.com/go/mba. Visit Square to get started because running a business is complicated enough. Your tools don't have to be.
9:54 Speaker 00 Example number three, Singapore Airlines. They're not number one because of marketing. When's the last time you saw a Singapore Airlines ad? They treat you like royalty on the airplane. Doesn't matter what class you're in. The service is flawless. The food is exceptional. The product is superior to other airlines. Their business class is ranked number one every single year. The business class seat is a love seat. Two people could sit in this business class seat. And that's why they dominate. Great products always win because customers aren't idiots. They know quality. They recognize it. They feel the quality. They talk about quality to their friends. They stay loyal to quality because they feel like they're getting a good value. They feel like they're actually getting what they're paying for. And they tell their friends.
10:38 Speaker 00 So the fastest path to growing your business in 2026 is simply this. Improve your product every single Ask yourself these important questions every day you get to work. How can I make my product faster for our customer? Meaning they get the value as fast as possible. How can I make it easier? How can I make it clearer, easier to use? How can I make it more delightful? How can I make it more effective? How can I make it more reliable? How can I make it more useful? How can I make it more obvious that this is the best choice? If you make your product 1% better every day, your business will grow 10x faster than chasing the next marketing trick.
11:20 Speaker 00 I'm telling you, the reason why people don't talk about this is because it's not sexy, it's not going to get headlines, it's not clickbaity. It's just the truth and it's kind of boring, right? That you have to work on a better product and make it better and better every day. You gotta just put in the work to make sure that you're better than your competition. Because a superior product is hard to ignore. So let's put this into real action. I want to give you a daily checklist. Number one, improve the product itself. Fix any issues the product might have, flaws, bugs. Upgrade the interface or the user experience. It doesn't matter if you're selling courses, coaching, or a software product, or you're selling physical goods.
12:02 Speaker 00 They're interacting with some user experience, either a physical store or an online store. There is a way for you to upgrade that experience. Streamline the steps. Remove any friction from the customer from making a decision and buying. Make sure you're crystal clear on the value that you're adding to their life. That means improving the copy on your website. Number two, improve how customers use the product. How are you onboarding them? Can you improve the onboarding process? What kind of emails are they getting? What kind of prompts are they getting? What kind of tutorials you offer so that they know how to use your product properly? Are you reaching out to customers to make sure they're getting a win? A better first win moment is a better experience for the customer. Meaning that you want to make sure customers immediately see the value of what they just
12:47 Speaker 00 bought in the first few minutes that they interact with your product. Why? Because you want to remove all buyer's remorse. You want to make sure that customers don't have any regrets that they made this purchase. This applies if you have a physical product or a digital product. Number three, improve how you support the product. FASTER applies. This is a game changer. When I was running Webinar Ninja, our software company, the industry standard for our competitors was replying to customers within 24 hours. Some of them took 48 hours. We replied in less than a minute. So if they sent us an email or a chat within less than a minute, sometimes 30 seconds, that shocked our customers and they're like, wow, this is amazing. I'm gonna just stay for the support. Or even people that are asking questions that aren't customers yet, they see that this is the type of support they're going to get.
13:33 Speaker 00 Have more empathy with your customers when you support them. Make sure that you recognize if they're upset or if they're having a hard time and walk them through step by step and make them feel like they're a champion. Personalize the help. Don't make it generic. One of the rules that we had in customer support in our Webinar Ninja days is there's no generic applies. There are tutorials that our support agents were able to use, like a SOP, but they had to reword it for that customer. Don't be a robot. Better guides to help them through the way is also very helpful, like support tutorials. And then step four, improve outcomes. Make sure your product actually delivers on the promise. Make sure it actually transforms their experience in some way.
14:16 Speaker 00 Customers don't buy software or a book or a course. They buy outcomes, what this thing will do for them. Give them outcomes more reliably and you will grow automatically. I'm telling you, think of your own purchases in life. The courses that you bought that you really loved, the programs, the software, the physical products. Why did you love it so much? It's because you actually got what you intended to get when you bought it. You got an outcome and you told other people about it. So the fastest way to grow your business in 2026 isn't about promotion. It's about obsession. Obsessing over your customers, over quality, obsessing over results, obsessing over being the best in the opinion of your customers.
14:59 Speaker 00 Do that and your competitors won't know what hit them. If this episode has given you clarity, send it to a fellow founder who's stuck in the marketing hamster wheel. I'm sure they'll appreciate it. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Your product is the engine of your business. Marketing is the amplifier. Build an incredible engine. Built it well. Be relentless with making it better every day.
15:28 Speaker 00 If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help you start, grow, and scale your business, the best thing you could do is subscribe to this podcast. Hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, the one that you're using right now, whether it's Apple or Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. By hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically, and it's the best way to support the show. It's absolutely free, and it's a way for you to commit to growing your business. And now that you've subscribed, I'll check you in the next episode.
16:05 Speaker 01 Mazda has been named Consumer Reports' safest new car brand. It starts with our approach. Every Mazda comes standard with proactive safety features, so you're more aware of what's around you, more focused on the road ahead, and ready before problems ever start. Mazda, more of what matters most to you. Go to MazdaUSA.com to learn more. Consumer Reports does not endorse or promote any product.
Previous MBA2723 Q&A Wednesday: How Do I Find A Business Coach? Next MBA2725 How To Focus And Get Ahead Of 99% Of People Page updated November 6, 2026 · transcript and summary are machine-generated
