Infiltrate your target market with the "Dream 100" strategy

Lead generation for beginners

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Jan 24, 2025

Every business owner, creator, or solopreneur wants to find the right clients, partners, or opportunities to grow their work.

But instead of trying to reach everyone in your market, what if you focused on the smallest number of people who could make the biggest difference in your growth—and leveraged them to infiltrate your target market?

That’s what the Dream 100 strategy is all about.

What is the Dream 100?

If you’ve never heard of it, Greg Isenberg and Jonathan Courtney (CEO of AJ&Smart) break it down brilliantly in this YouTube video. They explain how focusing on just 100 key people and organizations can be a game-changing lead gen strategy.

But the real power of the Dream 100?

It opens the door to more money.

Let’s talk about why.

How Focusing On Your Dream 100 Leads To More $$$

The fastest way to grow your income is by leveraging trust.

When you focus on your Dream 100, you’re not starting from scratch. You’re tapping into the trust and authority they’ve already built with your ideal audience.

And here’s why that matters:

You’re Seen As Credible When someone your audience already trusts introduces you, it’s an instant credibility boost. People are far more likely to buy from you or work with you when a trusted source gives you their stamp of approval.
You Gain Access To Ready-To-Buy Audiences The people who follow your Dream 100 are already engaged, interested, and often ready to spend money. Instead of spending months warming up your own audience, you’re stepping into a room of buyers who are primed to act.
You Can Skip the Hard Sell With the right collaboration, you don’t need to convince people to trust you—they already do because you’ve been vouched for. This shortens the sales cycle and makes it easier to close deals, land clients, or sell products.

So, instead of grinding out small wins, focusing on your Dream 100 allows you to scale faster—both in reach and revenue.

Let’s break it down (so you can do the same):

How To Build Your Dream 100

Building your Dream 100 isn’t complicated, but it does require focus.

You need to start by answering one big question:

“Who already has the attention of the audience I want to reach?”

This could be influencers, podcasts, newsletters, or even niche forums. The key is finding people or platforms that already have trust with your ideal audience.

But don’t overthink it.

You don’t need all 100 names upfront.

You can start with just 10-20. Even one solid collaboration can bring you more leads, subscribers, or sales than months of solo effort.

Once you’ve got a rough list, the next step is crucial:

Before you ask for anything—build the relationship

This is where most people mess up.

They skip straight to the pitch.

But the secret to the Dream 100 is showing up in their world first.

Comment on their posts.
Share their work with your audience.
Send them a thoughtful message or insight based on something they’ve posted.

Your goal is to become a familiar presence—a name they recognize before you ever make an ask.

Once you’ve done that, the next step is making an offer they can’t resist.

Ask yourself:

“What can I offer this person to make it a no brainer to collaborate with me?”

Value could come in many forms:

A guest post for their blog or newsletter.
An introduction to someone in your network.
A revenue-sharing opportunity that benefits both of you.

Make an offer people feel stupid saying “no” to.

The key is aligning your value with their goals. Show them how working with you makes their life easier, their business more profitable, or their audience happier.

Now, how do you figure out who to add to your list?

That’s where this next part comes in.

I’ve created an AI prompt to help you brainstorm your Dream 100 faster.

Your Dream 100 Brainstorm Prompt

Here’s how to use it:

Open ChatGPT (turn on the web search feature).
Copy this prompt and customize it for your business.
Run it a few times, tweak your inputs, and let the AI help you generate a list of names.

Here’s the prompt:

Act as a market research analyst specializing in helping businesses identify their Dream 100 clients.

Use Chet Holmes' Dream 100 methodology to help me create a detailed list of potential Dream 100 clients. 

Based on my INPUT, please find:

- Companies and contact names that match my criteria
- A connection anchor (e.g. something the contact wrote)
- Generate 15 names at a time.

<REQUIRED_INPUT>
Market I serve:
Target audience:
Main problem I solve:
Initial names I have:
</REQUIRED_INPUT>

<OPTIONAL_INPUT>
Geographic focus:
Company size (employee count):
Annual revenue range:
Other requirements:
</OPTIONAL_INPUT>

Please be specific.

Experiment with how you describe your audience.

And pay attention to patterns.

For example:

If the AI suggests “podcasts for solopreneurs,” push it to find the top 5 shows.
If it mentions “LinkedIn influencers,” ask for names and audience sizes.

Once you’ve got a solid list of 15-20 names, start doing your research. Use the Dream 100 Google Sheet in Greg’s show notes to help.

That’s it.

You don’t need a big audience or fancy credentials to make this work.

What you need is:

Clarity on who your audience is
Persistence in building real relationships
The creativity to pitch offers that serve both sides

And the best part?

Once you’ve done it successfully, it gets easier to repeat.

And after you’ve picked your Dream 100, the next step is to join their communities, share your offer, bring people to your sales funnel, and grow your email list.

Now, let me ask:

Who’s the first person you’d add to your Dream 100 list?

Drop a name in the comments below. I’d love to know.

Chat soon,

—Dickie & Cole

Co-Founders of Ship 30 For 30

Co-Founders of Premium Ghostwriting Academy

Co-Founders of Typeshare

Co-Founders of Write With AI

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