The Dream 100
Stop creating traffic; tap into audiences that already exist
The Dream 100 framework, adapted from Chet Holmes's concept in The Ultimate Sales Machine, involves identifying the top 100 (or more) influencers, platforms, podcasters, bloggers, and community owners who have already congregated your dream customers. Instead of asking 'How do I create traffic?', you ask 'Who has already gathered my ideal audience?'
Brunson expanded Holmes's original one-to-one sales concept into a one-to-many model. Rather than using the Dream 100 to land individual big clients, you build relationships with audience owners and gain access to their entire following. This can happen through organic promotion (working your way in) or paid advertising targeted at their followers (buying your way in).
The framework requires building separate Dream 100 lists for each platform, since people who consume content on podcasts are different from those on Instagram or YouTube. Your Dream 100 should primarily come from within your submarket (adjacent niches within the same core market), as these audiences represent your warmest traffic.
- Traffic already exists; your job is to find and tap into existing streams, not create new ones
- Your dream customers have already been congregated by someone on your Dream 100 list
- Build a separate Dream 100 for each platform because consumers prefer to stay on their favorite platform
- Focus your Dream 100 search within your submarket (adjacent niches) for the warmest traffic
- The Dream 100 is the foundation of your entire business, not just your traffic strategy
- Even if a Dream 100 member refuses to promote you, you can still buy ads targeting their followers
- Identify Your Submarket NichesStarting from your core market (health, wealth, or relationships), identify your submarket and then list all the adjacent niches within it. Ask: 'What other vehicles are people trying to use to get the same result within my submarket?' Each answer is a niche with dozens of influencers, companies, and keywords to target.
- Build Platform-Specific Dream 100 ListsFor each platform (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, podcasts, blogs, email newsletters), identify the top people, companies, and communities your dream customers follow. Write down 20-100 names per platform. Include influencers, groups, podcasts, blogs, newsletters, and channels.
- Map Search-Based CongregationsWrite out the keyword phrases your dream customers are searching for. These represent search-based congregations on Google, YouTube, Pinterest, and Quora. Even rough guesses are valuable as starting points that you will refine with keyword research tools later.
- Calculate Audience SizesAdd up the subscriber counts, follower numbers, and audience sizes across your Dream 100. This reveals the total addressable audience already congregated and waiting for your message. Brunson found over 30 million dream customers across his initial list of 185 people.
- Refresh the List RegularlyRe-create your Dream 100 list two to three times per year. Remove names that are not bringing the right customers and add new names as you discover them. The market evolves and so should your targeting.
Rachel Hollis, author of the bestseller Girl, Wash Your Face, identified the tribes her target women were already in: network marketing companies, Facebook groups, Instagram channels, and specific hashtags. She then identified tribe owners with over 200,000 followers and sent direct messages to each one, introducing herself and asking to talk. Her entire strategy revolved around finding existing congregations and infiltrating them through relationship building with the tribe owners.
Tom Bilyeu and his team researched several hundred health and fitness influencers, then sent each one handwritten letters and free product samples. They told each influencer to share their honest opinion, whether positive or negative. This authentic approach created goodwill and genuine endorsements.
Chet Holmes worked for Charlie Munger selling advertising for a legal magazine that was ranked dead last (15 out of 15) in their industry. He discovered that 167 of his 2,000 advertisers were spending 95% of their budgets with competitors. He stopped marketing to everyone else and focused exclusively on those 167 with biweekly direct mail packages followed by phone calls. After four months of zero responses, he landed Xerox as his first big client. By month six he had 28 of the 167; he doubled sales that year, went from number 15 to number 1, and kept doubling for three more years until all 167 were clients. Brunson adapted this into a one-to-many traffic strategy when he realized he could apply the same concentrated approach to audience owners rather than individual buyers.