Mark: What if the secret to a wildly successful business isn't finding more customers, but actively turning them away? It sounds completely crazy, but today we’re exploring why having a line out the door—and a growing waiting list—is the only way to truly thrive in the modern world. Michelle: Okay, that sounds like the worst business advice I've ever heard. "Hello, welcome to my new cafe! Please, get out." It makes no sense. Are we talking about building an anti-business? Mark: It feels that way on the surface, but it's actually a profound strategic shift. This whole idea is the core of Daniel Priestley's book, Oversubscribed: How to Get People Lining Up to Do Business with You. It’s a book that has been wildly popular in entrepreneurial circles, and for good reason. Michelle: And Priestley isn't just some business guru writing from an ivory tower, right? I read that he's an entrepreneur who built multiple multi-million dollar companies before he even turned 30. So he's actually lived this stuff. Mark: He absolutely has. He’s the co-founder of Dent Global, which is a major business accelerator. His whole career is built on these principles. And he opens the book with a perfect, mind-bending story that shows exactly what this "anti-business" idea looks like in practice. It’s a story that completely rewired how I think about supply and demand. Michelle: I’m intrigued. And a little skeptical. Let's hear it.

Mark: Alright. So Priestley's company was launching a new office in Sydney, Australia, and they were holding these large, premium-priced business events. Think big theaters, not stuffy hotel conference rooms. Now, most business events in Sydney, especially the free ones, struggle to get 100 people in the door. Michelle: Yeah, I can picture that. Lots of empty chairs and a speaker trying to project energy into the void. Mark: Exactly. But Priestley’s team did the opposite. They sold out the 700-seat venue. And then they kept selling. They created a waiting list. They were, in a word, oversubscribed. Michelle: Okay, that's a good problem to have. But it's still a problem. You have a bunch of angry people on a waiting list and you can't deliver. Mark: This is where it gets wild. Instead of just apologizing, they sent an email to everyone who had a ticket. And the email said something like this, and I'm paraphrasing from the book: "We have sold too many tickets to the event... If you’d like to sell your ticket back to us... we will buy it back today for DOUBLE what you paid." Michelle: Hold on. Double? That has to be a marketing gimmick. A publicity stunt. No one in their right mind actually wants to give money back, let alone double it. That’s just burning cash for headlines. Mark: That's what it looks like, but Priestley insists it was a genuine offer to manage the situation. And here’s the genius of it. Think about the signals that one email sends. If you're a ticket holder, you immediately think, "Wow, this ticket is so valuable they're willing to pay me to give it up. I'm definitely not selling. I have to be there." Michelle: Huh. Okay, I see that. It instantly kills any buyer's remorse. Your ticket just became an asset. What about the people on the waiting list? Mark: For them, the signal is even stronger. It tells them, "This event is so in-demand, so essential, that people are holding onto their tickets even when offered double the price. I need to get into the next one, no matter the cost." It creates this incredible FOMO—fear of missing out. Michelle: So the money they 'lost' buying back a few tickets was actually a massive investment in building buzz and desire. It's like paying for an advertisement, but it's a hundred times more powerful because it's a real story that people will tell for years. Mark: Precisely. It’s a story that proves the value of the event without saying a word about the content. It demonstrates demand. Priestley’s core argument is that businesses spend all their time and money trying to convince people to buy, when they should be focusing their energy on creating the conditions where people are desperate to buy. You shift from chasing clients to curating them. Michelle: I like that phrase, "curating them." It sounds more intentional, more dignified than just scrambling for sales. But does this principle apply outside of big, one-off events? It feels like a special case. Mark: It does, and that's where the philosophy gets really interesting. The principle isn't about the tactic of buying back tickets. It's about engineering a reality where demand exceeds supply. For a restaurant, it’s the waiting list. For a consultant, it’s being booked three months in advance. For a product, it’s selling out on launch day. Michelle: Right, so it’s about creating social proof. When we see other people wanting something, our own desire for it increases. We’re wired to want what's popular and scarce. Mark: Exactly. And when you're in that position, you get to do your best work. You're not desperate, so you don't take on bad clients. You can invest more in the clients you have, making the experience even better, which in turn creates more word-of-mouth and more demand. It becomes a virtuous cycle. Michelle: That makes a lot of sense. It flips the power dynamic completely. You're no longer the seller begging for attention; you're the curator of a valuable experience that people are clamoring to be a part of. Mark: And that allows you to focus on what really matters. As Priestley says, "Being oversubscribed is the way for you to do your best work and spend more time with your current clients rather than chasing new ones." Michelle: That makes sense for a service or an event, but it feels harder to replicate for a physical product you sell every day. How do you build that kind of 'oversubscribed' energy into something people can just buy off a shelf? Or can't they? Mark: That's the perfect question, and it brings us to the most powerful story in the book, which is about how you build a brand that people will wait years for. It’s a story that shows this isn't just about managing supply; it's about creating a soul for your business.

Mark: To build a truly oversubscribed brand, Priestley argues you need a powerful story. And his prime example is a British watch company called Bremont. Now, if you wanted to create an expensive men's watch, what are the two rules you'd think you have to follow? Michelle: Oh, that's easy. It has to be Swiss, and the company needs to have been founded in, like, 1785. It needs a long, fancy-sounding history. Mark: Exactly. You need heritage and geography. Bremont had neither. It was founded in 2002 by two British brothers, Nick and Giles English. They were not Swiss, and they had no century-old history. By all conventional logic, they should have failed. Michelle: So how on earth did they compete with the giants of the watch world? Mark: They didn't compete on the old rules. They created new ones. Their story is rooted in a deep, personal passion and a terrible tragedy. The brothers grew up restoring old planes and flying with their father, Euan, who was a brilliant pilot and engineer. In the late 90s, their father was killed in a crash during an airshow practice. Nick, one of the brothers, was in the plane with him and broke over 30 bones. Michelle: Wow, that's absolutely devastating. Mark: It was. And in the wake of that tragedy, the brothers decided to create something that would honor their father's memory and their shared love for aviation and engineering. They decided to build a watch company. Bremont wasn't just a business; it was a tribute. Michelle: That’s an incredible origin story. You're not just buying a piece of machinery; you're buying into their tribute to their father. It's about legacy, adventure, and resilience. Mark: That is precisely Priestley's point. Bremont watches are mechanically superb, but people don't line up for them because of the gears and springs. They line up because of the story. Each watch model is tied to a historic plane or a famous expedition. They even incorporate actual materials from historic artifacts—like wood from the deck of HMS Victory or metal from a Spitfire plane—into limited edition watches. Michelle: That's genius. It creates genuine, un-replicable scarcity. There's only so much wood from a historic ship. It's not an artificial limit; it's a real one. Mark: And it works. They became a globally respected brand, competing with the best in the world. There’s a quote from one of the founders, Giles English, that sums it all up. He says, "Under a critic’s scrutiny, every watch we make has to be of the highest quality... however, we know the reason people buy our watches is because of the emotion and the passion that comes through in our story." Michelle: That gives me chills. So the lesson is that you become oversubscribed by creating something that people connect with on an emotional level. It's about building a tribe of people who share your values and believe in your story. Mark: Yes. Priestley says you have to "make your market, then make your sales." Bremont didn't try to appeal to every luxury watch buyer. They created their own market: people who love aviation, adventure, British engineering, and a story of overcoming adversity. For that specific group, Bremont isn't just a choice; it's the only choice. Michelle: It seems like the 'oversubscribed' model, while it sounds exclusive, is actually rooted in being incredibly specific and generous to a small, dedicated group. You serve them so well that they become your evangelists. Mark: That's the heart of it. You're not trying to be everything to everyone. You're trying to be everything to someone. And when you do that, the world takes notice. The book has been highly praised for this insight, but some critics do point out that it can feel a bit repetitive. They ask if this one core idea really needs a whole book. Michelle: I can see that. But maybe the repetition is the point? It’s a simple idea, but it’s so contrary to how most of us are taught to think about business that you need to hear it in a few different ways for it to really sink in. It’s a fundamental mindset shift. Mark: I think so too. It's not a list of 50 marketing tricks. It's a singular, powerful philosophy that, if you truly embrace it, changes every decision you make.

Michelle: So when we boil it all down, what's the big, central takeaway here? Is the advice for every business owner listening to just start creating artificial scarcity and turning people away tomorrow? Mark: I don't think so. The deeper insight is that in a world drowning in noise, options, and advertising, the most valuable currency is a clear, authentic signal of value. Being oversubscribed is the ultimate signal. It's tangible proof that you've created something remarkable, something people genuinely want to be a part of. Michelle: So it’s not about the tricks or tactics. It's about the truth. The scarcity has to be a consequence of genuine quality and a compelling story, not the other way around. Mark: Exactly. The scarcity is the smoke that proves there's a fire. If you try to create the smoke without the fire, people will see right through it. The Bremont story works because it's real. The Sydney event story works because the event was genuinely valuable. Michelle: That means the first step for anyone listening isn't a marketing tactic at all. It's looking inward and asking, "Is what I'm offering truly remarkable? Is my story authentic and compelling?" If the answer is no, you have to start there, before any of this will work. Mark: You've hit the nail on the head. And Priestley offers a beautiful, counter-intuitive way to begin that process. He says to start by sharing your ideas and your passion abundantly. Give away your best thinking for free. He has this fantastic line in the book: "There’s no scarcity in the world for people who share abundantly." Michelle: I love that. It feels generous, not manipulative. You build your tribe by giving them value, by showing them your passion, and that naturally attracts the right people. Then, when you offer something for sale, they're already lined up because they trust you and believe in what you do. Mark: That's the entire model. You educate, you entertain, you build a community, and the oversubscription becomes the natural, inevitable result of all that groundwork. Michelle: It’s a much more hopeful and, frankly, more interesting way to think about building a business. We'd love to hear what our listeners think. What's a brand or a person you've seen that just feels 'oversubscribed'? Let us know on our socials, we're always curious to see more examples of this in the wild. Mark: This is Aibrary, signing off.