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Lesson 5 from ten years in business
The best marketers I know are curious people.
Not just professionally curious, although that matters too. Genuinely, fundamentally curious about people. About what drives them, what worries them, what they are actually trying to solve when they go looking for help.
And I have come to believe that curiosity is one of the most underrated business skills there is.
The assumption trap
Here is what assumption looks like in practice.
You have been in your industry for a while. You know your product or service well. You have worked with enough clients to feel like you have a reasonable read on what they need. And so, gradually, without really noticing it happening, you start to fill in the gaps yourself.
You assume you know why they are buying. You assume you know what they are worried about. You assume you know what will make them say yes, or what is making them hesitate. You stop asking and start telling.
And your marketing reflects that. It starts speaking to the client you think you have rather than the client you actually have.
This is one of the most common reasons marketing stops working, not because the strategy is wrong exactly, but because it is built on assumptions that have quietly drifted away from reality.
Why curiosity fixes this
Curiosity keeps you connected to what is actually true rather than what you have decided is true.
When you stay genuinely curious, you keep asking. Why are they buying? Why are they hesitating? What are they comparing you to? What almost stopped them from reaching out? What do they wish existed that does not yet?
Those questions produce answers that assumption never would. And those answers are where the best marketing comes from.
Not from guessing what you think will resonate. From understanding what actually matters to the people you are trying to reach.
I have had conversations with clients where a single question opened up an insight that completely reframed how I approached their marketing. Not because I asked anything clever, but because I asked instead of assumed, and then I listened to the answer properly.
The day you think you know it all
There is a version of this lesson that applies beyond marketing too.
The day you think you have nothing left to learn is the day you stop growing. And in business, stopping growing rarely stays still for long. It tends to tip fairly quickly into falling behind.
Now when i say growing, I don’t necessarily mean getting larger. I mean growing in knowledge, in how you operate, in how you connect with others, how you adapt, etc.
Industries change. Audiences change. Platforms change. What worked three years ago may not work now, and what works now may look completely different in another three years. Staying curious is what keeps you relevant, adaptable, and genuinely useful to the people you serve.
Pretending you have it all figured out is a very quick way to get left behind by someone who is still asking questions.
What this looks like in practice
Curiosity in business is not just a mindset. It is a set of habits.
1. Talk to your clients, regularly and properly.
Not just in the transactional moments of a project, but in real conversations about their experience, their challenges, and what they are noticing in their business. What you learn will almost always sharpen your marketing and your offer.
2. Ask better questions in your discovery process.
If you have a new client onboarding process, look at the questions you are asking. Are they giving you genuinely useful insight, or are they going through the motions? The best discovery conversations feel less like a form and more like a conversation where you are genuinely trying to understand.
3. Use AI to explore perspectives you have not considered.
AI tools are surprisingly good thinking partners for this. Ask one to play the role of your ideal client and respond to your marketing as they might. Ask it what objections someone might have to your offer. Ask it what questions a hesitant buyer might be sitting with. You will surface things you had not thought to ask.
4. Stay genuinely interested in your industry and beyond it.
Read widely. Follow people who think differently. Pay attention to trends in adjacent industries that might be relevant to yours. Curiosity that only lives inside your own field tends to produce incremental thinking. Curiosity that reaches beyond it tends to produce the more interesting ideas.
5. Treat feedback as information, not criticism.
When a client pushes back, when a campaign underperforms, when someone says your messaging did not quite land, get curious rather than defensive. What can you learn from this? What does it tell you about the gap between what you thought and what is actually true?
Your action this week
Pick one assumption you are currently making about your ideal client, something you have accepted as true without recently checking whether it still is.
Then find a way to test it. Have a conversation. Send a question to your email list. Look at your enquiry data with fresh eyes. See whether the assumption holds up or whether reality has quietly moved on without you.
You might be surprised what you find.
Understanding your audience deeply is at the heart of everything I do at Starfish. If your marketing has been built on assumptions that have not been tested in a while, I can help you get back to what is actually true, and build your strategy from there. [Get in touch here.]
This is part of a series expanding on the lessons from ten years of running Starfish.
Lesson 1: Do what you say you will
Lesson 2: Do not put a lit pipe in your pocket
Lesson 3: Empathy can be learned
Lesson 4: Different is not evil
Next up: Lesson 6, you do not have to agree, but you do have to listen.
Frequently Asked Questions about curiosity in business
Why is curiosity so important in marketing?
Marketing only works when it connects with the people it is trying to reach, and connection requires genuine understanding. Curiosity is what drives that understanding. When you stay curious about your ideal clients, asking what they actually need, what they are worried about, what language they use to describe their problems, your marketing becomes far more relevant and effective. When you stop being curious and start assuming, your marketing starts speaking to a version of your audience that may no longer reflect reality. Curiosity is what keeps the gap between your message and your audience as small as possible.
How do assumptions affect small business marketing?
Assumptions tend to creep in gradually, which is part of what makes them dangerous. A business owner who has been in their industry for several years starts to feel like they know their clients well, and in many ways they do. But audiences shift, needs evolve, and the reasons people buy can change significantly over time. When marketing is built on assumptions rather than current insight, it starts to feel generic, slightly off, or like it is speaking to the wrong person. The fix is not a complete overhaul, it is usually a return to asking questions and listening carefully to the answers.
What is the best way to stay curious in business without losing focus?
The key is building curiosity into your existing processes rather than treating it as a separate activity. Regular client conversations, a strong discovery process for new clients, and the habit of reviewing what is working and asking why, all keep curiosity active without requiring extra time. It is less about setting aside hours for research and more about approaching your day to day work with a genuine interest in what is actually happening, rather than what you assume is happening. Even small shifts, like asking one more question in a client meeting, or pausing to consider what you might be missing, compound significantly over time.
