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Your Target Market and A Day as Your Ideal Customer

Thank you and we're back for less than three your target market and a day is your ideal customer I'm really excited about this one but first let's just go back to what we just were at and that was lesson to why your customers should choose you and your brand we talked about clarifying what makes you different getting confident talking about your brand how to use your persuasive powers that you already have and then also my five step formula for confident selling and now we're moving on to your target market and a day is your ideal customer the objective of this lesson is to know your target market better than your competitors figure out what you really need to know about your ideal customer and learn how to use your idol customer profile to gain new followers and convert them into customers. What you'll learn why you might be attracting the wrong followers and customers and how to fix it, how to write an ideal customer profile that you actually use and what to do when you have multiple...

ideal customers because lots of us d'oh why you wanna break into your ideal customers habits and how to do it and why your ideal customers buying cycle matters and how to use this information if you decide to skip this lesson which you shouldn't if you don't know your ideal customer inside and out you're not going to connect with her target market which means you won't attract the right followers or engage in a way that converts them into paying customers and when we don't attract the right followers, we end up often resenting the people who are buying from us the people that were working with because they don't often value what we do as much as we dio and it just doesn't feel so good once you understand your target market marketing becomes so much easier, everything becomes so much easier when you know how to talk to them. When you know what to put in your sales page, when you know what they're going to be excited to see on instagram, I mean, every single piece becomes easier. I receive e mails all the time that say something like, I feel like you wrote this, whatever it wass just to me, and I think the reason that I get a lot of emails like this is because I have gotten to know my ideal customer, my target market really, really well. And when you start to get things like this, it means that you're doing the same thing and that you are connecting in a way that feels really good to the people that you're talking to so I can teach you how to do this. Your marketing first should be about your ideal customer and not you this is the first mistake I see people make a lot even on a sales page people will talk about themselves first and not the customer or not what they have to offer it's like I made this because I wanted to make this because or I'm excited about this because I've done that before I've made that mistake so if you have made that mistake it's not that you are ah horrible person it's just that we often that's where our minds go but because our minds go to that place so do your customers they want to know what's in it for them not why you're excited about it or why you made it now that stuff can come into play but it's a lot of times the first thing you'll see and people just made for the page they don't care why you're awesome until they really get to know you and your brand then they want to know more about you and care about that kind of stuff and as we work through this lesson I want you to concentrate on your crazy, loyal followers we talked about in the last lesson how this is really important, but a lot of times I read poppy sales pages or an email newsletter and it seems like the person is trying to convert those met people like the men prospects they're not concentrating on the people who are already excited about their stuff, which would be much easier to sell to those people, as opposed to trying to get the ones who were just like, oh, I could take it or leave it it's not as easy, tio connect with those people, so we're gonna concentrate on the crazy, loyal followers, the ones who find out that you're staying in a hotel and they want to come and they want to, like, sit in the lobby and meet you, or they're just really excited because you put on instagram that you're in their city or something like that, like the people who are just so excited, your ideal customer is not just a fictional character, this is where people get hung up. I think a lot is we feel like we're supposed to invent a fictional character so that we have an ideal customer and it's it's. Not that your ideal customer is a human being and keeping this in mind that your your idol customers, a person and she has fears and dreams and goals, and she has bad days and good days keeping that in mind we'll get you a lot further it's easy when we sit down to do anything related to marketing that were to growing are following tio kind of shutting off that human side. And that's what people connect teo because we feel like okay, it's time to sell my thing let me sit down and do it and you forget, but the other person who was reading of your sales page is is just a human being and she wants to be communicated with not sold to and that's really important. We all have to sell because we all have businesses and this is what we're doing so it's important, but communication is the most important piece think about what you really like and what feels really good to you, it's often when somebody is talking to you and not just selling to you. So in order to really get to know your target market your ideal customer really well, you have to move beyond the surface. Often I'll see an ideal customer profile and it would go something like susie q is thirty nine and she's married and has two dogs and has a kid and she lives in a brownstone and she makes this much money while that stuff is good stuff in that you can picture somebody in your mind and we'll talk about how that's really, um important to be able to dio and it can really change your writing it's not the important stuff that's the fictional character that's, not the stuff that's going to help you really connect your person so this is the stuff that you really need to know these air questions you really need to start answering and these aaron, your workbook workbook pages twenty three twenty four so start to write down what comes to mind, and I want this to be things that you know about your ideal customer often we know because we're intuitive and we can kind of figure some of this stuff out, but a lot of times, it's, because we're paying attention to what our customers air saying, I want you to think of your favorite customer that you have that you love working with what about what? How would you answer these questions for her? So who does your idol customer want? Toby, how do your products and services help her get closer to that person? I think this is a really fun question to think about, and it really helps us to figure out how we can talk to our ideal customer in a way that is beyond the surface. What does your ideal customer or care about? What does she find interesting and relevant and fascinating you guys, I wrote a block post about dancing with the stars because I like dancing with the stars and I thought it was a really good blawg post, but I guess my ideal customer doesn't watch dancing with the stars because it wasn't a very popular born post and I was thinking to myself I thought that this was really good, but I'm paying attention to what I find interesting and relevant and fascinating and not necessarily what my ideal customer finds interesting and relevant in fascinating when it comes to something like that I think that's why that block post wasn't as exciting for my reader as other ones why it didn't get his many comments or shares or things like that so we have to focus on what your ideal customer cares about not necessarily what we care about you mean we can inject that into our stuff but not having it be the main topic of a block post maybe what does your customer think about when she's lying awake at three a m this is a good one it's a good one and what does she worry about? What are the things that kind of nag attar how does she describe herself but also how do other people describe her and how would she like to be described my friends my coworkers by family what drives her what does she love? What does she hate and again thinking about the rial people that buy from you what does your ideal customer lie to herself about? What does she lie to yourself about? This could be really interesting as well and can help you connect with your ideal customer in a way that nobody else really does for instance for me on my about page, it says that I walk my dogs for an hour and a half every day, and for a very long time I did, and then I started having health issues, and I want to still be that person so bad that I have not removed that off of my about paige, because I want to be that person that is still able to walk her dogs for an hour and a half every day, and so that's something that I liked myself about, and so somebody like a personal trainer would be able to connect with me knowing that about me, and it would be somebody that I would really want to work with, and money would kind of fall away and not be an option if she's thinking, ok, what I'm going to do is help you get strong enough again that you, khun, do these things that you really love, that would be the way to talk to me, and knowing that about me would be a really great way for her to talk to me. And how does your product or service help with this stuff? So it doesn't have to help with all of the stuff? How does it help with some of this stuff? Anybody have any answers, any good, like answers that you hadn't thought about before? Or maybe something that you have thought about before really good all of these every time that you said one of the questions was like oh that's fantastic and every other question like that's even better thes air fantastic the best one um or the one that really hit me was what does she think about when she's lying awake at three a? M I had like a visceral reaction to that question because because that's what you feel it's three a m u feel all of the things so so big and yeah, and my stuff is all about finding confidence in your own voice and stuff and we were actually having a conversation earlier about how you know, even when you feel confident have to share your voice and in conversation or in writing or in any way then you go home and we spend the entire evening up until three in the morning beating ourselves up like that was stupid and oh, I can't believe I said that and everybody thinks I'm an idiot now and I'm such a dummy and I should have spoken so much and I shouldn't have and that's what she's doing she's either saying like you can't do this, why can't you do this? You're not good enough or she's saying why did you do that everybody's going to know that you're not good enough now and that's such a horrible yeah it iss and when you can help somebody with that then you will become their person forever. Yeah, that's huge. And they can sleep at night that's great. I never thought about what does your ideal customer lie to herself about? I mean, I just never thought about that because we all have that. I don't want to admit it, right? But I mean, this is something I never even thought about thinking up from my client. Yeah, and it gives you some more insights, and it helps you to think about the person as a human being as somebody who has all of these facets and this is the important stuff. This is the stuff that really is going to help you too. Mark your business. Regardless of what kind of business you have now, you're probably not going to help your ideal customer with all of these things, but just getting you started to picturing a person who isn't one dimensional. What problem do you saw? So what problem do you sell for ideal customer? Why hasn't shared he solved it what's going on that she hasn't already figured it out. If she stock, maybe she is maybe she's not if she is what's gotten in her way. How does your customer feel about the problem now and how well your customer feel after buying from you? What will it feel like to be in your club? In your inner circle what does it say about her when she buys from you why is she stuck? I think this is a good one for you, amanda why is she stuck so why hasn't she got her brand together already? Why hasn't why doesn't her website already look amazing? Why don't her product photos already? Why aren't they already amazing and perfect and everything that she wants for her business? I think that can be really helpful for you to connect yeah, I need to think about it a little bit but I can see like she was saying the lying one and this why she stuck I can see a lot of these really I can narrow down and specifically figure out what it is that they are needing and feeling and wanting this needs some timeto yeah think about it. Yeah, the stuff often does not come right away it's stuff that is similar it gotta simoni yeah, yeah and you come up with this kind of stuff you'll be folding laundry and yeah that's a good one. You know what happens at those points in time? I think that one thing for your ideal customer in particular when it comes to website design and branding is I bet some of them say to themselves maybe this isn't that important maybe it's not that important even though she knows it's important for her business to be successful I bet some of them are trying to lie to themselves so that they don't have tio either invest the time or invest the money or whatever those extra steps are right? So that was thinking about you so my ideal customer, I'll tell you a little bit about her. She wants to be seen by her friends and family, a successful and smart, she wants to amaze them with how much money she makes from her own business, and that doesn't mean that she's making millions of dollars that often means that she's replacing her full time income and her fam please what you're able to make a full time and come from what you do that's amazing. And then they respect her more, and she feels really good about that. She worries about neglecting her family to build her business. That's one of the things that I know pretty well, cindy, or you're not in your head. Yeah, it's one of those things that comes up especially I work with women, I work with young moms I work with, um, women who are newly married even and they feel like they are neglecting their families in order to build their businesses, and there are some people who say you have to put everything aside if you wanna have a successful business and you have to prioritize your business and that's what you have to dio I recently was watching a periscope with somebody talking about this and I was laughing because I didn't take a break for six months when I was working on my business and I had a deadline like I needed to be making money by this deadline and I didn't have kids so it was something that I could do for myself at that point in time and so it wasn't necessarily that I was disagreeing with this person by any means but I was thinking my people will not resonate with this that they have to put their lives completely on hold that they can't travel that they can't spend time with their kids that they have to work fourteen hour days every single day they won't resonate with that that's not something but this other person is really successful and people do resonate with that but it's just not my person she loves pretty things whether that be sparkly jewelry or anthropology mugs or blush pink meals or macaroons or fresh flowers and I think about this kind of stuff in really simple ways like what am I going to post on instagram today? Macaroons and fresh flowers anybody and feet and then my ideal customer loves it she lies awake worrying that her latest launch will completely flop making her feel like a failure. I have a lot of creatives that I work with that are really scared that when they finally do, they're launch it's just gonna be not good. They're not have any sales at all and it's gonna be horrible and it's gonna make them feel really bad, and then they're gonna have to tell their family that they didn't make any money because they've been working on this launch really hard and all of these things. So this is the dream for my ideal customer. She wants to be the woman who wakes up with enough time and energy to exercise, maybe take a yoga class to get ready, putting on makeup, curling her hair. She wants to put on maybe light pink midi skirt, a silky black button down top and poke it out high heels. She wants to spend her mornings on her creative work, diving completely into it, losing all thoughts of time until lunch. She wants to meet up with an entrepreneurial friend for lunch, ordering us salad with keen want strawberries and a multi grain royal role and iced tea with lemon like this is this is a dream for one of my ideal customers. I have multiple, but for one of them, this is like the dream this would be the dream morning. This is the truth she rushes in the morning to get ready for work, swiping on some lip gloss in mascara, wishing for more time and cursing that she didn't wake up sooner. She grabs the sweater from target and work pants from old navy from the pile of semi clean clothes on her dresser, she feels queasy driving to her job a job that doesn't let her up. She focuses on the few good things about her day, the yummy turkey sandwich and chips she packed for lunch the instant she'll be able to slide on her slippers and pull out her watercolors while clicking on the television the moment that she gets to get back in bed because sleep is one of her favorite times of day because she can forget about life. So knowing what the dream is and what the truth is, I can really help me talk to my person and for something like let's say jewelry for trish you're person may really wish that she he had style and dream is that she would wake up and have her outfit together and have this closet full of beautiful clothes and have her jewellery ready and know how to put things together and that might be the dream and the truth may be that she hates everything in her closet she doesn't know how to put any outfits together, she feels like nothing looks right and so knowing the where the dream is and the truth is can help you help her and talk to her in a way that gets her into your world. So I want to hear from when you guys somebody come up here to the hot seat and just talk to me about some of these questions and how you answer them for your customer. Come on. I know somebody wants to do it. Chris, come on up. We're gonna give chris a big round of applause for volunteering. Okay, so tell me about some of the answers. Oh, this is awesome. I love talking about my ideal customer because she's so cool. I really enjoy you want to be her. I don't trust him were in the way that she wears are I'll be honest. And I was because I really love connecting with my people too. That's one of the things that I get to do is spend time. I work one on one with people or I work. I do a lot of hangouts where people are invited up to be a part of it and stuff too. So I it's like madam it's, my favorite thing. So I get to think about real people for this so it's just it's, super cool. Um, and one of the things so at the very beginning, who does your ideal customer want to be? This is a really big one, like she wants. She has this story in her mind of the person that she would be if she were somebody else, like, we have this idea that other people can be this person, but not me, and the person she wants to be is confident and is somebody that she trusts, like she wants to be able to trust herself and somebody who is respected and capable, and she has this picture of her mind, but it's like a fuzzy picture, because it feels like it belongs to somebody else, and I'm really excited now about, you know, getting rid of the fuzzy, like, helping her to see that that's actually already who you are, yeah, yeah, and so that was a really big thing, and thinking about how you're my products can help her to get closer to that it's all about, like, step by step, like little pieces at a time, because it feels like making a big change or learning a new skill or jumping out there, it feels like it's all at once and there's so many moving parts and there's so many things, because we look at like that person, the end result, and there's so many things to get there that it gets so overwhelming and scary so just taking like one step and letting it be simple right? Like let it be simple and then as you do one simple step in another simple step it becomes that moving thing all those moving parts but they're all manageable because they're simple like that one of the things that really sticks out to me is getting rid of the fuzzy getting rid of what do you use that anywhere no, like it just this question made me think of it and it's like I had this image in my head because when you imagine when you imagine yourself it's like in a movie and you see that like kind of dream sequence thing and I feel like that's what it is, we have this dream sequence and it's somebody else and it's like if I were if I were the fictional character version of myself like if I were that character, what would I be like and it's got that kind of movie haste to it and then we can just like squeaky e in that way the how clear that picture is for me when you said it, didn't anybody else really like that or is it just me? Yeah, everybody else likes not new it's really cool when you come up with something like that that you can easily then apply yeah, your business, like easily ad tio log post easily add tio, you're next facebook update or whatever it is. Yeah, yeah, I mean, just didn't throw away words using the language that I use, like I can talk about, you know, you know, that dream sequence in the movie is kind of thing and bring it up, and people can paint the rest of the picture in the mind. Yeah, yeah, I can touch on it all over the place. I like it. These air fantastic questions. Yeah. Thank you for coming. Don't worry, we have plenty more and we have plenty more hot seats. All right, so I made a promise in the previous lesson that we were going to do something that's a little bit different that only you ladies know about so far. And that is another way to get into your ideal customers world into her mind. And one of those ways is to use the phone planner pages that aaron the workbook. They're just really simple. There is one for september, and then there's one for october. And what you want to do is fill out these planner pages as if you are your ideal customer. Now, if she doesn't use a planner than that's, okay, you can then use what she uses you can fill out ever note as if you were your ideal customer or you can get all the sticky notes and put them all over the place if you were your ideal customer and that's what she does instead you want teo, just be your ideal customer and fill out kind of her schedule as if you were her because what we find out about people is what they say isn't necessarily what they dio, but what they do is really what they value at that point in time. So what you're spending your time on and what you're spending your money on which we will get to next is really what we value and really what your ideal customer values right now. So when you're filling out the planner pages I want you to think about when she wakes up. Why does she wake up at that time? Is there a specific reason? Does she eat breakfast? Does she exercise? How long does it take her to get ready? What does she wear? What does her work day look like? When does she get home? What does she do when she gets home? What does she do for dinner? What time does she go to bed? These are just some of the questions to think about when you are doing the planner pages and it helps you, teo move away from the ideal customer profile, which we're going to get to you don't you don't get out of it, but it helps you to think about it in a creative way you get your right brain involved and as a creative that can be the difference between unlocking something and not unlocking it. So I was coming up with something different that I thought could really be helpful, and then we also have your ideal customers bank statement so that's the next page that's, page twenty eight and you're going to use that to fill it out as if it's your ideal customers bank statement so what does she spend her money on? How does she make money? How much money does she make? How much does she have in her checking account? And this is really just about having fun with this stuff, like filling out the planner pages, filling out the checking account it's too, not just sit down with a blank page and try and write something out and instead to have a little bit of fun with this stuff so that you can think about it in a different way because I bet most of you have written out night till customer profile before tried teo or sat down to do it, and so this is another way to get you thinking in that direction so I would love for anybody who is watching at home to tweet me and tell me the best thing you figured out about your ideal customer so far and what information you'll use immediately I want to hear from you and use the hashtag bell live and we're all going to check each other stuff in search for the hashtag on twitter so that you can connect with each other because that's part of the fun now if you don't do this foundational work you'll probably attract customers that you don't enjoy working with you're probably going to attract the wrong people to your business and I hate to say it but it's your fault it's it's your fault if you don't like your followers your customers you're doing something to attract those people and listen I've been there I've worked with customers that I love and I've worked with customers that I didn't jive with very much and I was doing something to attract to those people that were not the right people for me to be working with so we have to do this work we have to have to have two so let's talk about what do you do when you have multiple ideal customers? Well the good news is most businesses have multiple ideal customers and this isn't a bad thing in fact it's a good thing if you have a lower price product in a higher price product you probably have different ideal customers for those products the bad news is, then you need different profiles, you need thio know who the person is for that lower price product, and you need to know who the person is for that higher price product. And I do a customer for my e book is going to be different than my ideal customer for somebody who flies across the country to come spend five days with me at creative life, they're going to be two different people in two different places, willing to invest two different amounts of money and time and all of that kind of stuff. So I need to know how to talk to those people differently. Yeah, how do you handle the blogging? If you have multiple different customers? Do you do? Just kind of scatter it out like today I'm gonna block for the high end customer. Tomorrow I'm gonna block for the low end. How do you handle that part? That's a great question. So first I feel like focus on the feeling as faras what's, the feeling you're creating for these people, because that's, usually the similar threat, is the feeling, however, yeah, you would create content for I create content for beginners, and then I create content for people who are way past the beginner stage, and people pay attention to different content and people aren't hanging on our every word, so you know they don't they don't see of log post it's not that big of a deal or that one doesn't resonate with them as much it's not that big of a deal we're going to talk about email list and segmentation and landing pages and all of that kind of stuff that's really where you want to try to get people on the right path on your email list and that will make things easier because then you will be talking to the right people in the right way that's a really good question off and I also get this question a lot when I am doing any kind of ideal customer profile surface can my ideal customer be like me? Yes, yeah, absolutely your ideal customer can be like you they're not always like you, but they can be like you and the mistake is is that you think they're exactly like you and that's usually not the case like dancing with the stars? I mean, come on people hire to watching dancing with the stars so you they're probably somewhat like you they might be for instance a few steps behind you if you teach something, maybe they are you twelve months ago so still knowing who that person is and especially if you're in some sort of service based business so that you're talking to them on the level that's going to be the most helpful for them I know sometimes I will say something like copy and somebody will be like what's copy and like born in april you have to explain things in a way that people get it depending on who you're talking to. So now we have to do the hard work that nobody likes to dio but that is really, really necessary and hopefully it's going to be a lot more fun because you've already been thinking about your ideal customer and all of these fun ways and it's writing an ideal customer profile that you'll actually use now when you write the profile, I want you to include the important stuff yes being able to picture somebody is great but really the questions that you answered and putting that stuff together into a profile of a person is going to be much more important that's something that you'll use when you go to write your next product description that's something that you can use when you're planning out your block content no it's not something you can do in two seconds so it's part of the homework but as things come to you to start jotting them down I keep a notebook with things that I learned about my target market my ideal customer and I just keep adding to it and then that way when I am going to think about okay I'm putting out this new product or service how am I going to talk to this person? I've already got something there for me so hopefully with the planner pages in the checking account and thinking of the answers to the questions this stuff will become easier you want to know your ideal customer better better than your competition because that's what's going to help you that's what's gonna help you get ahead so how do you do that? Well look at what they're doing online your favorite customers your favorite people to work with if you have customers let's start there let's say you have customers what is happening for them online where they blogging about if they have a blogger what air they posting about on facebook what are they talking about on twitter what is their instagram account look life we can find out so much about people now just by checking out what's going on with them online and you can find out really what they're interested in pretty easily okay so let's say you don't have customers where do you start? I get that question a lot too well you can check out competitors and their customers they're blogger readers somebody that is leaving loss of comments then go and check out what they're doing online this isn't to steal your competitors customers it's just to get to know this market better so that's why you're using that information and then the best way to do it is to just actually talk to people who are in your target market just talk to them, just ask them questions get to know them, and of course there is a bonus planner page, and this one is when you have found an ideal customer to keep track of them and to write down some of these details and keep it all together. If you have a planner and you have little sections in your planner, having a section that is all about your ideal customers, and you have maybe thirty of these in there, and you just keep track of people who are your favorite people to work with, or when you check out somebody else's, blawg, and you see somebody and you're like, oh, I like that I would get along with that person really well, that person would be a great customer for me, seeing what they're doing online and just writing down some of the details. This makes writing an ideal customer profile feel more riel and less like I'm creating a fictional character. So what do you ask somebody when you actually get to talk to them? Well, for those who have recently bought from yul questions to ask our, why did you choose my product service? Would you recommend my product or service to a friend? If, yes, why what did you enjoy most about my product or service? What would you like to see change about my product or service? Just asking those questions right there can get you a lot of information for those who have never bought why haven't you bought yet? Have you seriously thought about buying, but didn't? If so, what happened that can give you more information than anything else? If somebody has been kind of lurking and you've built a relationship with this person, let's say they leave block comments a lot and you've gotten to know them and you talk to them via your blogger on social media, then you can reach out to them and say, hey, I had this launch, I knew you were on my list. I would love some feedback from you if you're willing to give it to me. I'm wondering if you considered buying this product if you did, can you tell me why you possibly didn't? No hard feelings like this is not to put you on the spot. This is just for me to learn and grow and get better at what I d'oh and see what they have to say, because sometimes it's that you're not talking to them in the right way or you didn't put certain information on the sales page that would have gotten them to buy or they didn't have enough information or whatever it is it could be really telling to get this information so this is the first part of it and then the other information that I like to get our what are your favorite blog's websites magazines what are your favorite things to spend time on? What was the last book you read tv show you watched movie you saw in the theatre fashion item you bought what do you worry the most about what would you love to change about yourself or your life? It can be really helpful to know this kind of information about your person and again if you have multiple customers they're gonna have multiple answers to this stuff but you can start pulling it in in different ways into your business and when you talk to one person everybody feels like you're talking to them everybody who's your right person feels like you're talking to them when I write an email with one person in mind so let's say I'm I'm writing an e mail and I'm picturing a man to sue in my mind not everybody is a man to steal but I might get an email from somebody else who's very unlike a man to see you sing I feel like you wrote this to me and it's not that I wrote it for that person it's because I wrote it in a way that feels very personal and that there is that connection that's, the piece that works really well and then there are more bonus plan our pages. I put together the ideal customer interview questions into planner pages so that you could keep all of that stuff together if you wanted to and then you also have stuff within your workbook in case you are not a planner person and you want to be doing it in your workbooks. So we've got a couple of different options for you. Has anybody interviewed there? Has anybody done something like this where you have talked to your ideal customer? Yes, and you tell us what I came with the idea to decide to go into the coaching port portion of my business? I had a lady that was on my facebook page and I just said, hey, I have this idea or no if I can interview you just to see if I'm going in the right direction and so I interviewed her and I offered my services for free for a couple of weeks and now she's my customer like I actually signs up monthly for coaching with me and so she's she tells me I need you you know, she's like I really need you in my life right now because she's going through a lot and plus trying to build a business now, that's, because I interviewed her, that was why really and why did you pick her specifically? Because I knew she was building a business trying to build us. I was watching her, you know, being research, we watch people, and so I just reached out to her just her personality. She just seems like she's hot for us and I could talk to and that she would be willinto take the time out to meet with me, and she did, and it worked, so I'm grateful for her that's amazing that's, that's, that's kind of like the perfect story one you get information and you know you're headed in the right direction and then you get a customer out of it. I have done a lot of in the very beginning. I did a lot of hey, can we chat on skype for ten or fifteen minutes? You can ask me anything, and then I'll ask you a little bit about yourself. I'm just really trying to get to know the people who are reading my blawg and who might be interested in purchasing for me down the line. And I got information from those people that was invaluable to my business, it really wasn't valuable to my business, anybody else actually talk to the ideal customer? Friends with a lot of my customers I don't know if I have to work on boundaries a little bit and my my calls like I do the google hangouts when I do one on one stuff and it's like I know that I have to give myself an extra long chunk of time on either end because we're just gonna hang out for a while, they just know we are, but I haven't done like a really specific interview like this and I think and I'm thinking that this is gonna happen today like when we're done beware wearing my market, I'm coming for you, you were gonna talk and then we want to think about how we can use the information to gain more followers because that's what this is all about right? Taking this information and then getting more people in to our business. So for instance, I know that time management gets in my ideal customers away all the time she really struggles with time management and juggling a bunch of different things, and I hear often one of the things I hear a lot is I get distracted like I'm we're feeling one thing and then I get distracted by this and then I'm working on that and then they get distracted and I don't finish that were that and then at the end of the day I feel like I have of it on anything and knowing that can help me come up with content ideas that's going to attract more of those people because those people are really good customers for me there people that I work really well with and one of the reasons is because I am very unlike that I can stick with something and make sure it gets done and then move on to the next thing and so I can help somebody who on the other end of that is struggling with the un organization in issues and getting distracted and all of that kind of stuff I picture my mother in law my mother in law I love her to death but she gets distracted like nobody else and she was an art teacher she's retired now but choosing our teacher for many, many years and it's just her personality and so I think about her often because I attract a lot of that kind of person and that kind of person seems to get a lot of help from the structure that I can provide so I can say came user the steps you need to take and let's set some deadlines and I'm gonna give you some deadlines manda creek I've set deadlines for you yeah and it helps to kind of push past the fear because of the fear is lingering there and you need somebody to kind of help you sometimes yeah eso knowing that about my person I can attract more of that person all right, we've got a hot seat and I've already got somebody in mind for this patty you're coming up in joining may because patty emailed me saying that she thinks that I could be one of her ideal customers because I'm a knitter I can have a seat with me I'm a knitter and so she thought that asking me some questions might help her get to know her ideal customer better so I am at your disposal and we have some of these questions so if you want teo oh go from any of these or if you think anything else would help you to get to know your target market better I am happy to answer. Okay, so what kinds of things do you like to knit? Okay, so I like to knit scarves I like to knit fingerless gloves and I have I tried I have started a hat okay? I haven't finished it yet. Okay, circular needles kind of are one of those things that freak me out a little bit okay, I gotten stuck on my like I go straight and everything works out fine, okay, so that's it so unit your gloves flattened then seen who's okay, I could totally help you with that all right? Yes, so do you have, like, a favorite movies uh I'm I like netflix a lot so I'm on netflix a lot but I'm more of a tv show kind of person tv show well I know go more horrible more girls parenthood okay dancing with the stars so do you do you work on projects when you're watching tv and dok syria tv netter so then I would assume you prefer something more basic yeah super complicated okay all right I cannot read a pattern for the life of may okay I don't even know if I've really tried I mean I have sort of because there have been projects that I'm like this would be very cool if I could make this and then I think I can't make this so so I'm gonna ask my sister in law who is much better and it even may I will can you make this for me because I don't think coming today so you need confidence building maybe step by step how to get from the straight scarf to the circular needles yeah ok yeah we could tell help you with that videos helped me the most yes yeah that's um that's where I need to go now the video's yes I was speaking with olivia earlier about how to do those overhead videos yeah so yeah she's amazing at them yes brush lettering I know it's really cool you have to build a contraption now to make that work are you on periscope? Um I've done that a couple of times but I feel really awkward about it I'm just not used to broadcasting that way so yeah, I will tell you that the first handful of times I did a periscope I felt really good about it and I do stuff like this so even for somebody who was used to it it feels awkward in the beginning did anybody yeah, it feels offered so no matter what I feel like you have to get past that once you do I would say ten it starts to feel a little bit more like okay, I understand this a little bit better and this feels better and people are interacting and it feels like more fun yeah, I was thinking, um incorporating periscope in by doing like a nit night so like um you know, we would have a project we would talk about on the block and then I could be there live and we could get together and then for people who are reluctant to pick it up is ah a hobby because they say they don't have enough time it's almost like they would have that appointment and then they could say I'll check in on my girlfriends were there because not everybody can get to you're in store or get together and then again you could do the replay so I thought I'd try that when I go home you know what for me who I am introverted I would much rather do something like that then go to a yarn store and hang out and it in that kind of way I would prefer that um truthfully uh so what I because I I'm not able to talk in it because I have to pay attention and then if I'm talking to people I lose track of what I'm doing and then I go home the mass so I don't get anything done on dh so yeah yeah and I guess it's the whole introvert side of personality yeah and I bet you would attract people who are introverted yes yeah yeah and then um so let me ask you how do you feel about harry potter you love harry paying the harry potter okay, okay. Yeah yeah on the tiny guess. Alright, alright, right, right. She's my favorite too. Yeah, of course. That's anything I love them too. Yeah, that whole universes is incredible. Yeah, it's really fine. So is this helpful? Yeah, as a matter of fact, yes. Ok, good. And then I get a lot of ideas um, to put in the notebook and then I dropped my pen so well, I am here all we could wait here for a while so we can talk don't you worry, theo all right, another way teo kind of use this information to really connect with the right people is thinking about the words that you use let's, take an example of a three hundred dollar lace dress would a twenty two year old preschool teacher making nine dollars an hour and a thirty four year old entrepreneur making seven figures look at it differently? Would you sell to them differently? Or could you say exactly the same things? Very different, very different, right? And it doesn't mean that the twenty two year old preschool teacher wouldn't buy the dress. Maybe it would be a splurge for her for a wedding or really special event, and that's how you would talk to her about it, and then he would talk teo, the entrepreneur who is making second seven figures in a different way, maybe that's the kind of thing that she wants to be wearing to work every day, and so you would talk to her in a different way. So the words that you use matter, the language that use the the only thing that is very similar in this situation again is the feeling so they both probably want to feel beautiful, and they want to feel like this three hundred dollar dress makes them feel like the prettiest woman in the room, or really beautiful for their spouse or whatever it is there is that similarity that runs through a lot of this stuff but you would talk to these people in different ways so you want to talk in a way that she understands and enjoys and when you make a misstep and they don't respond then you just know like I probably won't use dancing with the stars in my eyes marketing materials because it just it wasn't one of those things that was very popular and we all do it because we don't know for sure all the time we have to experiment in play and that's the fun part of the about this stuff this is your business and nobody's going to care if they don't like your post on dancing with the stars there's like you guys are still gonna like me and be my friend even though you don't like that particular block post so I want you to think about your current marketing how does it make your target market feel and for each new piece how will this make my ideal customer feel will it attract my ideal customer? Will she want to read it? Will she want to share it? Ask that before you post something on twitter or facebook would my ideal customer want to share this not just read it but also share it and if not how can you make it better how can I make it so that it really gives her that feeling that I want her to have so that she would share it so that she would get excited about it. Then we want to think about if you're a part of your ideal customer story, her daily rituals, her habits, because when you become a part of your customers habits, that's it you're n you have made it and it's not always easy, but once you get there again, you've made it so once somebody is wearing tricia tricia's jewelry every single day, she's in that person's gonna be buying from her over and over and over again. So the way that I do this within my business, as I think, that my ideal customer looks forward to my social media updates for inspiration, education, encouragement. So she looks forward to seeing the pictures that I post on instagram, because it gives her this kind of pretty space where she can imagine what successful entrepreneurship looks like and how she wants to get to that place. When she joins me on periscope. And I am just talking about whatever is happening or what's going on for me that day and my business, and how she can apply it to her business, then she gets education and inspiration from that, and I have lots of people who join my periscopes very often, some of you are right here, and I think you guys look forward to it there are names on periscope that I'm like yes, I got that click click I'm trying to get on this fast as possible and that person has become a part of my daily habits because for instance, hillary rushford I watch her periscopes all the time and when I see that she's live if I can make it I'm there and I really enjoy it she's become a part of my day and then when I don't have it I miss her, which is strange but it's true and then another thing is my ideal customer uses my techniques and advice and hopefully becomes more successful and so then I become a part of her story and when she talked us out how she built this business I'm part of that story and then the last thing you want to really think about is your ideal customers buying cycle and this is important no matter what, but I think product based businesses it really effects you guys, especially knowing that this is when people buy for me the most and this is what I'm gonna have these down times and planning for that and knowing okay, this is a great time to set up a sales funnel because I know that I'm going to be slow during this time so I can get this other thing's set up so that when I am rock and roll in things they're kind of moving on a good pace my ideal customer does not usually buy for me during the holidays I did a launch once close to thanksgiving bad idea it was not a good idea I did the same sort of launch six months later and different story very successful and it was something that I had thought about well maybe I just won't offer it may be my ideal customer doesn't like this I don't I don't really know why it didn't work but it was the timing was the timing of it so knowing your ideal customers buying cycle I now take off usually pretty much all of december I mean I will do some things I usually like to keep up with blogging and email on social media too degree and then I give myself time off because that's when my ideal customer is working her buns off to get all of her holiday sales going and so she's not paying attention to what I'm saying so knowing this stuff is really important does anybody have this that this affects their business? Yeah well for knitting because people think christmas for them on his part and gift giving I don't knit at all in the summer ok at fall and it's because I feel like the yarn is going to make my hand's sweaty and it's not as enjoyable in the fall that's it I get inspired immediately and I start looking for projects and I want to sit by my wood burning stove and I wanted in it and I wanna have my mug of tea yes and I want to put on gilmore girls and I want to be in my pajamas and just snuggle up and have a really fun evening exactly but in the summer I'm not paying attention to anything to do with knitting and so knowing that kind of stuff really helps so that you know when teo focus your marketing efforts and you still want to have stuff going on during the other times but knowing when you're going to be selling and how it impacts things people are figuring out now with periscope. One of the interesting things is that when school started again people noticed that a lot less people were on periscope and nobody had noticed that before because it's a new platform and so nobody knew what it was like when school was going to start and of people we're talking about like why aren't why aren't people in periscope and then lots of people were saying well I'm not on periscope because my kids are starting school and I just don't have the time for it right now or whatever it is and so it's interesting to know this stuff so you know when to focus your efforts on things so what does it mean for your marketing usually means they're paying attention at different times and so it's important for you to be talking to them in different ways at different times. Does anybody have any questions? Kind of ruled through that information? I'm feeling good. This is one of the things that I know I need I know I need to understand this better, and I'm I'm learning more and more about how I need to make my year work in my life this summer. I learned that a lot because I have to you kids who are just coming into teenager hood, so they're just getting to the age where when school's done in this summer, they're not going to do other kid things where someone's taking care there now in my space with me and it's really hard to run a business well, when you've got a couple wonderful there, mom watching I love you girls, wonderful ladies in your home with you who have lives that are happening and stuff too. So I realized that I need to change the way that I do summer, which is good because it's good to know how to handle my own stuff, but it's really difficult to figure out those cycles without having to do the failure thing, you know what I mean? Like having going all of the effort to go into doing a launch and I know learning is so valuable but I don't want that to be the only thing that comes out of all of that effort eso would how would you recommend that we go about really figuring out these buying cycles in a way even if it's just like giving ourselves a first draft of understanding what the buying cycles are before we attempt these launches tto learn whether or not our first draft was correct yeah yeah that's a great question I would say the best thing to do is talk teo your ideal customer and ask her when she's working on whatever it is or when she's paying attention to whatever it is that you sell like with patty I don't pay attention anything to do with your inner netting and the summer at all and she probably has customers that d'oh but I bet there are a lot of people that put it down for that season so just knowing that is going to be helpful for her but asking people and knowing is even better and in hearing it from somebody is even better so I would say the ladies here asking them when they're really excited about the stuff that you're working on like with your blogging boot camp when they're focused on improving their blogged I have found that people get really excited at the beginning of fall for me because it's like this season of learning and so has somebody that each is the beginning of fall is always perfect toe have something like this because people are paying attention and they're excited again and I think it's because people are going back to school that's one part of it, but also we've done this for our entire lives, so it's kind of that getting excited for my fault boots, air coming out, and I want to learn some new stuff, and so I would say talking to people is your best bet. And then and then, of course, paying attention to but you want to go in with your best guess when I went in and had a launch near thanksgiving, that was not my best guess that was me saying I should probably make some money before the holidays let's see what let's see what's gonna happen here and putting something together? I was in the beginning of my business, I didn't know I would need it to be paying attention that this kind of stuff and so I just tried something out and learn from it that way, but if we can give it our best guests first, then we can kind of hopefully avoid some of that stuff I think we can avoid all of it, but unfortunately, I wish magic button, please, okay, so today's mission. Is to finish writing your ideal customer profile and really writing one that you're going to use. And so if that means you right now, our only writing, a few really good paragraphs, that of stuff that really matters, as opposed to trying to write up an entire fictional characters life that's okay, so writing an ideal customer profile that you're going to use and then using the profile to write one social media post that will engage her so you can pick wherever on social media twitter, facebook, instagram, you could even dio a scope on periscope something that's going to engage her using the profile that you I have written and talked to one of your ideal customers, so use the questions provided in the workbook for starting point if you want, you can come up with your own questions, but the reason I provided them for us because lots of people are like, well, I don't know where to start so you can use those is a starting point, and then often what I do when I'm interviewing somebody that's an ideal customer is I'll go in with kind of a game plan. I'll have some questions I really want to get answered, but I just go with where the conversation goes. So when somebody starts to tell me that I'm really struggling with this, instead of being like, okay, well, may. Next question is this. Also, tell me more about that. I want to hear more about whatever it is that kind of piques my interest. I'm like let's. Go in this direction, so just use them as a starting point, and you'll be fine. You'll be good.