Painkiller or Vitamin: Which Is Needed For Your Business?

What's up, everyone. This is Alex Lieberman, co-founder, and Executive Chairman of Morning Brew. Welcome back to Founder’s Journal, my personal audio diary, where I give you, the business builder, the tools you need to think better in order to build better, whether that's building a business, a team, or a new product. Today, I am talking about why to focus on painkillers instead of vitamins when building a company or a career. Let's hop into it. 

Solving a big problem versus preventing a future one

So I've been thinking a lot about this analogy of painkiller-versus-vitamin recently, and before getting into why, let me start with definitions. A painkiller in business is probably just what you would imagine: It is a product that solves a big, urgent problem. It is a need-to-have, and people will pay for it happily because it alleviates some big problem. So let's talk about in B2C, or business-to-consumer, painkillers solve major problems for consumers, like needing a product and needing it now, aka Amazon, or needing money to buy a home, aka a bank. In B2B or business-to-business, painkillers solve major problems for businesses like, one, finding new customers, aka what Facebook or Google does through advertising for millions of businesses or something like providing server space so you can run your business effectively, aka Amazon web services. Then on the other side, you have vitamins, and vitamins solve small problems that may or may not be urgent. Vitamins are nice-to-haves, not need-to-haves, which is obviously the exact idea of these two concepts in real life. Go a day without a vitamin and you don't notice the difference. Go a day without a painkiller if you’re in pain, you're going to suffer. My general rule of thumb has always been, build painkillers not vitamins, but I also think there's a lot more nuance to this rule and it can be applied in many contexts, not just products or business, but also your career.

The problem matrix

First of all, the way that I visualize this painkiller-versus-vitamin analogy is in a two-by-two chart that's actually not all that different from the Eisenhower matrix that I talked about in a past Founder's Journal, we'll link to it in the show notes. So in this two-by-two, there are two axes. The vertical axis I call urgency of problem. The higher up you go on the axis, the more urgent, the problem, the lower you go on the axis, the less urgent, the problem. Then you have the horizontal axis, which I call size of problem. Further to the right, the larger, the problem further to the left, the smaller the problem. And so basically you can look at this grid in three ways: as a founder, you want to live in the top-right of the grid, where you are solving big, urgent problems for consumers. As an employee, you want to work at a company that is in the top-right solving big, urgent problems for consumers, because you want to believe in the company and what it is building. And as a professional, you want to be doing work that is solving the biggest, most urgent problems that your job title allows, so that you are either solving big, nagging problems for your company, or you're solving big nagging problems for your boss and by doing so, it makes you indispensable within your company. Now that's how I think about the grid and how I think about these different lenses, whether you're a founder, whether you're a boss, or whether you're an employee to think about painkiller-versus-vitamin, or think about it in terms of urgency of problem or size of problem. But one personal context that I've always thought about this idea of painkiller-versus-vitamin is actually just with Morning Brew and the category of media and content. I have always said that content has to do one of two things, otherwise people will not feel compelled to consume it: Content either has to solve a clear problem or content has to serve a deep passion. And in both of these cases, I believe the content acts as a painkiller because the need is both urgent and the problem is big for the consumer, but this goes a step further. People have always asked me, why don't we charge for Morning Brew since we have this large and loyal audience that gets our daily newsletter? And my answer has always been because I think our content, while a painkiller, is a weak painkiller versus a strong painkiller. And let me explain what I mean. Sure, Morning Brew has become a habit for people. It has become the equivalent to drinking a coffee in the morning or brushing your teeth every day the week. But I think there are two things that make it a weak painkiller. 

When is a painkiller worth paying for?

First on the size-of-problem axis, right? So on the axis of, is it a big problem or a small problem that's being solved, I don't think that Morning Brew is at the very top. It is definitely solving a problem, but it's not solving the biggest problem. I'd say the problem it's solving is the fear of embarrassment or not knowing what you're talking about when talking to colleagues or your boss. It's a problem, but is it the biggest problem? Probably not. Second, there are several other painkillers in the space of Morning Brew that consumers can choose from. And so going back to the original question, why not charge money? For Morning Brew to charge money, I believe the size of the problem would have to be bigger or the number of free alternatives that are also painkillers would have to be smaller. In the world of content, what comes to mind when I think of stuff that people are actually willing to pay for, is something like research content that solves a big problem, which is you not doing your job right in a specific industry or specific job function. And so you pay for research content because you can't afford to not do your job well. Or another example would be investing content where this content specifically helps you prevent from losing money and find ways to preserve and grow your wealth through smart investment decisions. That is something that is a big, urgent problem that you're willing to spend on. Now I mentioned before, how you can think about painkillers versus vitamins in the context of your career as well, to make sure you're working somewhere that you believe is building painkillers, or you're focusing your job on painkillers for your company or for your boss. But there's one other way that I look at it as well, which is painkillers-versus-vitamins in the context of brand and marketing. 

Marketing a vitamin as a painkiller

Sometimes I believe great marketing helps people realize that products solve an urgent big problem, even if it's not obviously apparent while they are using a product. So here's one perfect example, and that is journaling. Selling journals is a tough business. It's competitive and it's a vitamin. The act of journaling every single day doesn't necessarily solve an obviously urgent problem. It is more a practice like meditation or exercising or taking vitamins that you believe will compound over time and have long-term benefits. But that's a hard sell because we're human and humans want obvious benefit immediately. This is where marketing can come in rather than sell a journal as a vitamin. How can it be marketed as a painkiller? And that is by focusing on specific, urgent, big problems. Maybe you market your journal as a place to work through a painful breakup. Maybe you market your journal as a place to think through a job you're really unhappy about, or a boss that you can't stand working for. Maybe you market your journal as a place to organize all of your thoughts around a stressful, big decision, like buying a home or planning a wedding. The product hasn't changed, but the marketing has made clear how the product can situationally be a painkiller.

I want to hear from you

Now I'd love to hear your thoughts. Do you believe that the product you are building at your company or the company you work for is offering a painkiller or a vitamin? Why or why not? Shoot me an email to alex@morningbrew.com or DM me on Twitter @businessbarista. Also, if you haven’t done so yet, make sure to pound the subscribe button for Founder’s Journal on Apple, Spotify, or the podcast player of your choice. It is the number one way we grow the show and it's also how you can get notified about content when it drops. And if you already subscribed to Founder’s Journal on your podcast feed, make sure to check out Founder’s Journal on Morning Brew’s YouTube channel as well. Go to YouTube, search Morning Brew, and click on our channel. There, you'll see an entire playlist of Founder’s Journal content from how to deal with imposter syndrome to why Ethereum matters. As always,  thank you so much for listening and I'll catch you next episode. A big thank you to American Express business who made today's show possible.