Lessons

Lesson Info

Steps in the Journey

Now what I want to do now briefly is really to just walk through some of the other specific steps in particular coincidently that we happen to be doing in these next three days but the reason why we're doing them is they're actually the steps that I used when I've been working with individual clients, right? All the pieces we want to cover so the first thing that we're going to be doing um and the first step in the journey is to really understand yourself understand who are you in all of your full and complete glory? What are your strengths what's your life experience? What what is your cultural background? What are areas of interest? What are significant things that have happened with you personally? We've we're going when we get to that section in our class all of you had the opportunity to take some assessments which we can discuss a little bit, which I'm hoping we're illuminating as you as you learned a little bit more about yourself and your skills and strengths. But when you're i...

n this first stage of really understanding yourself, I primarily really, really fundamentally believe that a great business is going to be built on your own strength on really leveraging who you actually are and sometimes there's this whole charade that we play that often in the corporate world I think is exacerbated a little bit right where it's not really safe to bring all of yourself to work right sometimes that people know you know some of your hobbies or some of your experience there's personal experiences that people have with grief with addiction with you know abuse with all kinds of things that happen is part of our personal journeys and often it's not fair it's not really safe in that environment to bring that up it could put you in a bad position where people might view you differently now as a coach I personally think that all of that is part of what makes you who you are doesn't mean that we all have to share all of our business we probably all you know sometimes had that experience of like I'd actually like to know a little bit less you know about that sometimes we we know share everything but you know when you integrate that journey that is part of your experience and you can choose how it is that you really want to be sharing that with with the world it is part of your life experience and so you really want to be ableto bring it forward in the design of what you do so that first stage before you really start to talk it's all about who you want to serve or what the businesses is all about you and that's a really really important first step so that's the first place that we're going to look at now after that and this again is before you're really testing out different business ideas is where you start to look at who are the people who you really want to serve and I call them your ideal client avatars it comes from a lot of marketing research in background where you can define specific characteristics about people who you're uniquely wired to serve and the more that you can describe them the better work that you khun dio sometimes I don't if you've ever had that experience where you have somebody who's, a client in the early stages of business or a client who pays you, which is like awesome att first that's your ideal client avatar, but sometimes you have a client who is a kryptonite to your superpowers, right? Like you've done great work with one other person and everything was wonderful and you do your work with somebody else and you feel like a total beginner and it doesn't work and it feels awkward if any of you ever had that experience before. We don't need to name names, please, but describe mike, what was that situation like? I mean, I've had coaching clients were like, we're just not a fit and I feel like I'm hitting my head on a brick wall and both of us were like, eyes just this just isn't working, you know, they're they're not receptive to coaching or they they think they know it all and you know, it just happens. There's those clients were just for some reason. It's okay, this isn't working. I love you, but you know, exactly and that's, uh, sounds like data. I love you, it's not working out, but there's many there's many parallels, right with that a healthy approach, it sounds like what it is that you've taken is when you do recognise that, and especially from a strength perspective, you can say, I really want you client to get the very best help that you need in it's apparent that I may not be the best person for you. So let me help you to get what you need, often by referring them to somebody else or in business, which I think is a great practice of saying, you know, I know you paid me in advance, but, you know, let me give you a refund for these sessions if it's really not working for me, it's not working for you. The reason why I think it can come from a strength based perspective is because you're not saying what's wrong with me, why can't I coach this person, right? Sometimes there's people who push us to our edge in a good way where you can learn and grow in this case is a coach, right? But other times, it's, you keep forcing yourself to try to be somebody that you're not, and in that case, it's often better just to really, you know, cut the ties. I think an example of an ideal client avatar is somebody who is a perfect fit for your particular business, for your strengths, for your medicine, right for exactly what you how you conserve them, and also it is really fun to work with them. You get personally energized, you get excited, you feel good, you all feel good after working together. Not everybody shares my opinion, which is totally cool, but this is my class. So this is my opinion, my definition, you know, for ideal client avatar in overtime, that's, what gives you that sustaining energy when you're really working with people that you like? That is something that even after all these years has been a real challenge, because when everyone talks about identifying your ideal client, I mean, that makes sense, and I try to help my clients do that same thing, because most people want to try to serve too many different types of people because it's easier it's less scary, they don't have to close door, but I find that once one thing that's tricky is that it's often times of a person, individuals that you can't pre identified by they work in a certain field or in a certain position in a company and so that's something that I kind of constantly struggle with, you know, because you'll find really cool people toe work with that that that aren't sapping your energy in kind of the most unlikely places. And so that's, where I get tripped up on may weaken work that we're totally gonna work on that. Yeah, and I think you know, you don't always know, so when we talk, we're going to talk about it in a whole number of different ways. So one way is looking at the description of the avatars, another is going to be that way, my friend susan buyer who's coming here tomorrow. We're so lucky to have her because she has a way of looking at how you describe your ideal client avatars in different ways than just saying owners of digital marketing agencies who were between the age of twenty five and thirty five. Sometimes we just go totally demographic, which means they're other psychographic characteristics, personality traits and so forth that really characterized some somebody so we can hit it that way. The other way is where you actually have steps in your sales process where you do have qualifying questions so it's not just anybody that comes through the door, but you make sure that there's, a mutual fit and sometimes the more you can define it specifically, then you can also screen for certain kinds of people it's never a perfect science, because sometimes just like in a job interview, right, some people appear to be a certain way, and then when they really when you really get working with them, it could be a different thing. But that's, I think we're definitely going to be addressing it in multiple ways and it's a very common common thing. So with without when you're identifying the ideal client avatar, then we're also going to look at what I call ecosystems and watering holes. We all live in systems and literal organic systems and geographically, wherever it is that we are, and we live in ecosystems of like minded people, so there are different, you know, people that live in different environment. It's online watering holes is within an ecosystem of let's, say, creative people if we look at creative life right within the creative life ecosystem, we have people who are often creative entrepreneurs and that they do creative, you know, artistic things photographers or people who have a creative approach to life coaches, graphic designers, video folks, right? Um, and then within that they're watering holes particular places where, ah, whole bunch of ideal clients are all in one place so in the case of the world domination summit that I was at this past week, that's an example for me of a watering hole, I can't walk one foot without running into a former client or somebody who would be a great client or somebody who's appear or somebody who's a high council of jedi knight. Remember, I got to introduce nancy duarte, who I love those folks who loved design no nancy duarte from door to dot com is an amazing storyteller and author on dh she was there. It was kind of an example of just having a watering hole. So from a marketing perspective, when you're able to define those places, imagine how much easier it isthe to be connecting with ideal clients. So if there is one particular show, you know where a lot of people go that are great pierre designers or buyers for you? If there are blog's ah block could be a watering hole right where ideal folks hang out. Um, so these air ways that we can really identify the context of where our folks are it's very overwhelming to think about just, you know, sitting at your desk in front of your computer and hoping that you can say something where people out there can find you. As opposed to what I like is, you just show up in the right places and with people who are ideal for you. And then it becomes much more natural and organic. So that's, that's, that's, second stage of entrepreneurship, right, you really understand yourself. How are you wired? What your particular ingredients, then whom do you actually want to serve, right? Who is your ideal client? Where do they live? In which kinds of ecosystems, where the particular watering holes, where they hang out?