Lessons

Lesson Info

Your Ideal Client Profile

We're gonna get in, and we're gonna start with how to create an ideal client profile. But I do believe that the story has to be backed up a little bit as to why I feel so ardently about this thing. So, I didn't learn how to read until I was about 11 years old. I was 11 years old. I was terrible at math. I still don't know my multiplication tables. And I couldn't memorize my state capitals if my life depended on it. Instead, I read books all day. My mom was a total hippie, and she just let me do what I wanted to do, which is crazy now that I think back at it. So, I would grab a loaf of white bread, and I would grab a jar of peanut butter. And I would go into the garage, and I would grab my dad's flashlight. And I would sit behind a rusted car that didn't work with my flashlight, and I would read all day. And because of all the reading I did, I ended up tipping the scales at about 172 pounds just under five feet, and I weighed more than my dad. So, yeah, I read a lot (laughing). Okay, bu...

t here's the thing. My mom thought I was amazing. (audience laughing) My mom thought I was awesome, and she thought I was dynamic. And she thought I was engaging. And here's why, I was homeschooled. Every homeschool mom thinks that their kid is dynamic, amazing, and perfect. (audience laughing) Okay, my mom was fond of tellin' me that I was like unique, and I was special, and I was destined for big things. But it wasn't until I stepped foot, 14 years old my freshman year of high school. I walked into this massive place where people had lockers. What's a back pack? You have to walk between classes? This was foreign to me. And it was then I understood just how wrong my mom was. (audience laughing) My mom done lied to me. Because here's the thing, no matter what my mom said to think, the minute that I understood, I wasn't a special snowflake. I was one of hundreds of thousands of teenagers trying to find their way in the world. But I learned a valuable lesson. It is not enough to be awesome. It's not enough to be awesome in business just like in life because you have to present value to somebody before they perceive, before they connotate something. Obviously, my value to my mom was that I was her child so she thought that by default. But unless we're presenting value, as people, as businesses, we aren't, it's not enough to be awesome. Now you might think that you have an awesome business. You have an awesome product. You have an awesome service. You're so awesome. Great, but if your business does not help somebody, help them by losing weight, by saving time, by finding love. If your business does not make their life easier by empowering them, by helping them get organized, by managing their kids, by offering shortcuts. Or if your business does not diminish fear by demonstrating safety, by saving opportunity costs, by giving guidance. So, if your business does not help, does not empower, and does not diminish fear, you're gonna have a very hard time to have somebody pay you for your awesome product or service. It's not enough to have a great product. It's not enough to have a great service. It is not enough to be awesome at what you do. In fact, I believe that the most successful entrepreneurs aren't the best, and that rubs people the wrong way. Let me just tell you, I actually opened just the floodgates of, I don't know, I just was myself, and I didn't care. I wrote a blog post, and I said, "You don't have to be the best. "I'm not the best, and guess what? "Here are the reasons why. "It's still working for me." We're gonna get into that in a second. But the most successful entrepreneurs that I can see are those who show value to their customers period. They're not saying, "We're the best." They're saying, "We are the best for you, here's why." Those are the best businesses. I'm gonna take a minute. I'm gonna just be a little bit honest. When I first started my photography business, I was definitely criticized. And other photographers would openly make fun of my work. They would talk about all the technical mistakes that I made, and let me tell you there were a lot of technical mistakes. I had no formal training with photography. I had never as much as picked up a camera prior to 2006, and yet I had this idea that I'm gonna become a photographer. So, when I started putting my stuff online unabashedly, of course, the criticism came. That was natural. I don't back away from the fact that I made a lot of mistakes, and there was a lot of room for growth. And they questioned why anybody would hire me. So, because I was trying to help people and saying, "Here's some technical ways to get better," even though I needed to get a lot better, people were resistant to that. They're like, "Who does she think she is?" Most of what they wrote humiliated me, but it didn't stop me. Why? Because I was more focused on creating value for people who wanted to listen to what I had to say than I was being concerned about being the best technical photographer. I didn't have to be the most artistic photographer. I didn't have to be the best technical photographer. I had to be the best photographer to disseminate information to people who were willing to listen. And that is still the same dang drum I'm beating. I do not have to be the best business strategist. I don't, I just have to be the best business strategist for you. I will go farther with 20 people who believe in my message than trying to get 2000 people to get interested in me. If we change that paradigm, and I'm encouraging you to do so, focus less on the numbers and focus on the tried, your business is going to do amazing things. So, here's what happened as a result. I learned how to speak to my customers better than my competition. Why? 'Cause I showed up, and I spoke to my customers. Did I make a lot of mistakes along the way? Yes. Was it embarrassing? Yes. Was I ridiculed? Yes. But did it stop me? No. And as a result, in my first year of business, I made over a hundred thousand dollars. And I've never said that ever out in the open because that was my business. But today that's changing because I don't wanna put out that you must be something you are not. I wasn't an artistic photographer, and I wasn't the most technical photographer. But I was a profitable photographer my first year of business, and here's the best part. Over the years, I became more artistic. Over the years, I became more technical. And guess what? Over the years, I became more profitable. That is what I want for you. To embrace where you are. To understand that you are flawed and pockmarked. And people like that more. To sit in yourself and say, "I don't need to be the best. "I need to be profitable." If that's what we end up leaving today, then I have done my job. Because being the best is not what your success is dependent upon. You don't have to be the smartest. You don't have to be the fastest. You don't have to be the cutest, and you don't have to be the most qualified. Your business depends on you and the value you communicate to your customers. So, if your business is moving too slowly, or if you came here because you're like, "my business just feels stuck. "I'm not going in the direction that I want," there's a good chance that you're showcasing what you do not who you are, why you do it, and the value. I mean, I just think you guys are just takin' me to church right now. Here's the thing that I'm like, I'm hearing, "Mmm hmm, yeah, mmm hmm." So, I just need you to commit. Like if you're gonna go out to church, you gotta be at the church at Creative Live. And here, it's not like "Mmm hmm." Because let me just be real with you. My daddy is a pastor in east Los Angeles, California. So, like, when they do church, they do church. Like, it's like you're in or you're out. There's no lukewarm. (audience laughing) You're cold and you're silent the way that they do those proper Orange County churches or you're in East L.A. where it's like, "Yeah." Okay so, if we're gonna commit to this, we're gonna commit to this. Okay, and this is more than anything, this is conversation. I'm not up here. I do not want this to be a presentation, why? I am not a professional speaker. Right now, my mouth is dry as all get out. I'm sweating, thank God I'm wearing black. And I have the shakes, okay. So, now that that's all in the open, the conversation what I'm hoping is a conversation and not a presentation. But, let's get back to these things that we talk about. Right, we're very with comfortable showcasing what we do. We're showcasing our product, our service. We're comfortable with that. But we get very uncomfortable showcasing who we are, why we do it, and the value that we have for our customers. And I'm going to talk about things that are gonna make you uncomfortable today. I just wanna state that from in the open. Basically, what I'm trying to do is to cut away, cut away, cut away. Let me tell you all the reasons why you should not be watching this class. I'm gonna lay it all on the line. I'm gonna make you uncomfortable, I am. I'm gonna give you advice that seems counterintuitive to the thing that you have done. And what happens is when I suggest new ways of thinking, when I suggest new ways of running your business, what happens in my experience when I talk to entrepreneurs about this, is they immediately shut down. They will tune me out, and what they start doing is they start listing all the reasons why it won't work for them. They immediately say, "Well, that just works "for that Jasmine Star girl. "She's from California." (audience laughing) She's x, she's y, she's not this. She doesn't live in a small town. She's not from a big city. She's too young, she's too old. She's not white, she's not brown. There's a reason why people will start saying it doesn't work for them. But they spend more time poking holes in what I'm presenting instead of thinking the possibility of how I could change them. Today, I want you to focus on the reasons why it will work for your business and not excuses as to why it won't. Today, we are open-palmed, and today we are going to receive. So, let me repeat something once again because as I answer questions, your questions, I'm gonna go back to this. If your business does not showcase who you are, why you do what you do, and the value that you present to your followers and customers and clients, you're gonna have a very hard time getting people to purchase the thing that you're selling, which could result in why you feel that your business is stuck. That's what we're gonna be focusing on today.