Pain Creates Demand

Pain drives action. Whether it’s a small inconvenience or a major frustration, people actively seek solutions to their problems. If your content or product directly addresses a real pain point, your audience needs what you’re offering.

Think about the most engaged online communities—whether it’s indie hackers trying to escape 9-5 jobs, startup founders struggling with distribution, or artists looking for sustainable monetization. Each of these groups rallies around a shared pain, making them highly motivated to engage, share, and adopt solutions.

Example: Farcaster and Monetization

Many creators are tired of the lack of monetization on traditional platforms. Farcaster didn’t build the tipping economy itself—it built the decentralized social network that made it possible. The ecosystem now includes tipping tokens like $DEGEN and $MOXIE, NFT-based subscriptions via Hypersub (which offer raffles, drops, early mints, referrals, and subscriber rewards), and the Warpcast Wallet, which sends USDC rewards directly to creators. Warpcast also gives weekly rewards to top creators via its leaderboard. This open design unlocked new ways for creators to turn content into currency.

Building Trust Through Empathy

People follow those who understand them. When you consistently acknowledge and articulate their struggles, you position yourself as someone who "gets it." This creates a deeper connection than generic content ever could.

By focusing on user pain, you shift from being just another voice in the noise to becoming a trusted guide. When people trust you, they listen to your insights, engage with your content, and buy your products.

Example: The Rise of No-Code Tools

No-code platforms like Webflow and Bubble gained traction by addressing a clear pain: non-technical founders struggling to build software. Their audience wasn’t looking for another SaaS tool—they wanted empowerment. By framing their product as a solution to this frustration, they built loyal communities.

Pain Is a Stronger Hook Than Aspiration

Aspirational messaging—showing people an ideal outcome—can be powerful. But pain is often more immediate and urgent. People don’t necessarily wake up thinking, “I need to achieve my dream life.” But they do wake up thinking, “I need to fix this problem before it gets worse.”

When you craft content around pain, you speak to people at the exact moment they are looking for answers. This makes your message stickier and your audience more engaged.

Introducing the Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) Framework

To go deeper into understanding and communicating pain, we can use the Jobs to Be Done framework. It helps uncover not just what your audience is trying to do but how they feel and how they want to be seen.

There are three types of jobs:

• Functional Jobs – These are the practical tasks or objectives your audience is trying to accomplish. It’s the “get it done” part of their need. For example, scheduling meetings, fixing a technical bug, or launching a campaign.

• Emotional Jobs – These speak to how your audience wants to feel during or after completing a task. It might be about feeling confident, in control, reassured, or even proud. Emotional jobs are often tied to reducing anxiety, creating peace of mind, or affirming self-worth.

• Social Jobs – These are about perception. How does the user want to be seen by others? For instance, using a product that signals innovation, status, or responsibility can fulfill a social job. Think of someone buying an eco-friendly car to be seen as environmentally conscious.

While emotional and social jobs are sometimes lumped together, it helps to distinguish them. Social jobs are about external perception. Emotional jobs are about internal experience. Most founders stop at functional jobs. That’s a mistake. If you ignore emotional and social layers, your messaging may inform—but it won’t move people to take action like trying or buying.

Example: Hair Loss and ED Ads (Through JTBD)

Marketers in sensitive industries like hair loss or ED treatments are some of the best at tapping into all three types of jobs:

• Functional Jobs
  “I want to stop my hair from falling out.”
  “I want a discreet, effective ED solution.”

• Emotional Jobs
  “I want to feel confident again.”
  “I’m tired of feeling ashamed or anxious.”

• Social Jobs
  “I want to be seen as attractive, youthful, and capable.”
  “I want to maintain intimacy in my relationship.”

You’ll see messaging like:

“Take control of your hairline before it’s too late.”
“Discreet, doctor-approved treatment shipped to your door.”
“Because confidence isn’t optional.”

They aren’t just selling a product—they’re offering identity, control, and dignity.

👉 Don’t do this: Stop at the functional jobs and expect your message to land. You’ll sound like a generic how-to manual—useful, but forgettable.
👉 Do this instead: Speak to emotional and social jobs, too. That’s how you create content that moves people to try, to share, and to buy.

User Pain Sharpens Your Content Strategy

When you build around pain, your strategy becomes clearer, more targeted, and more memorable. It’s not about creating funnels—it’s about guiding a journey of understanding. One way to do this is by using the Learn → Use → Remember method:

Learn → Use → Remember Framework

• Learn the Pain
  What’s the core frustration your audience is experiencing?

• Use the Insight
  Break it into specific problems and offer ways to act on them. Give people something they can apply or try immediately.

• Remember the Value
  Help them retain the message by reinforcing it with emotional relevance and clear positioning. Make them feel seen.

When you build content like this, your product or service becomes a natural next step—not a hard sell.

Final Thought

If you want to build an audience that listens, shares, and buys, don’t start with your story. Start with their pain.

Find the pain. Speak to it. Solve it.

That’s how you build an audience that actually matters.

🌀 Want to go deeper into building your audience and distribution strategy from day one? I’m writing a book on this—follow along here or reach out on Farcaster (@jonathancolton.eth) to get early access. Let me know if you'd like a quote card or hero image to go with the post!