Lessons

Lesson Info

Create Your Value Story

We're about to tackle lesson five, which is create your value story. We spent the first four lessons thinking about kind of where we want our businesses to be where we want our personal lives to be what kind of prices we need to charge to make sure that our business works that it's sustainable and then we started transitioning into what is one of my favorite subjects, which is positioning understanding where you want to be in the market, what kind of story you want people to tell about your brand, what kind of brands you want your brand to be mentioned with and now we're going to talk about how you tell a story that communicates the value that your product offers in a way that the people who are most important to you, your customers can truly I understand. But first I want to talk about some of the objections that people have to raising their prices because I've heard them all I've been doing this for almost seven years now about four years ago I did ah one day workshop at the headquar...

ters and I did flash consulting with twenty different business owners through throughout the day it was crazy and at the end of the day I went back through all of them and I realized that eighties I think with eighty six point five percent of them I had told to double their prices and so I've basically been telling people to double their prices for last four five years trust me I have heard all the objections there are two raising your prices on dh we'll get into that in just a little bit but let's let's just we hash them a little bit I'd love to hear from you guys what are some of the objections that you have to raising your prices or if they're not objections at this point what are some of the for years you have around raising your prices daisy right theo search I know for me as an artist maybe because it's I'm an artist as well and I don't have like a huge amount of income but I'm always afraid that people who love my heart won't be able to afford it and I want to make my art accessible to everybody like because I know that I've seen plenty of artworks that I just fall in love with but I can't afford yeah so I want my art too you know if someone really loves it you know they should be able to for a good price have it and give them their got happiness so it's really just I wanted to be accessible and I don't want it to be out of people's price ranges yeah so you mentioned earlier that you're selling reproductions prince of what you do and I think that's a fantastic way to tackle that particular objection or that particular fear I also think that it's really important to remember that I like your frame of reference for what's affordable is just one frame of reference for what's affordable and that over the years of doing this I've really been exposed to so many other frames of reference for what's affordable based on not only just some what kind of money people have in the bank or what their salaries are but also what their personal values are and I find over and over again that people who have really strong personal values on identities around the thing that youth sell they're willing to find the money that's what they're saving money for right that's what they're reserving those splurges on that we talked about in the very first lesson so a totally valid concern and there's also ways to get around that what about some other concerns or objections about raising your prices how about over here remind me your name I got my name's men and I do graphic recording on illustrations so I think one of my concerns or fears would be that if I priced too high they just would they would rather not use it and just go with the usual just because my services air are a little bit more unique and gonna just slowly emerging yeah a little extra you like that extra quotation yeah awesome I think also a valid concern totally understandable and there are ways to mitigate that as well who you sell tio how you position it in terms of it not being an extra and maybe something that is now in this ss city for your conference your business meeting whatever it might be that starts to change the story so that price becomes less of an issue and people start looking at the real value behind it yeah kind of people charming it online and just the same themes that air coming through is the scaring off customers that you already have as well as afraid that format won't call for higher prices and just that same the competition and so therefore, you know if they're at a lower price somebody else is going toe go to that one so the same same thing so we are going to tackle all of these objections over the next a couple of hours but I want to tell you that all of these objections fall into two categories let me remind you I've been doing this for a long time I've heard them all now they all fall into these two categories one either it doesn't matter or two it could be changed a lot of the things that we are so fearful about when it comes down to it it doesn't matter uh kenna the break raised that someone was going to start someone online in the online audience was going to start their business at all lower price because there are new, they're less experienced that's a common objection that I hear and then later on they were going to raise their prices no that's that's the kind of objection that doesn't matter or it's something that can be changed if you need a specific amount of training tio charge the price that you need to charge go get that training and then launch your business most of the time that's not the reality that most of the time is you know what you're doing, you're really frickin good at it and you're just a little scared to charge what everybody else is charging that's when it falls into the doesn't matter category, I don't care that you're busy this is brand new if you provide the same results that I provide if you provide the same results that men provides, you should be charged in the same thing that I am or that menace because that's how that's one of the big ways people understand the value that you offer if you come in way under prevailing market rate people start asking the question what's wrong with that, right? And so you're actually playing into your biggest fear, which is that I'm in experienced your your seating that in people's brains so she must not know what she's doing so she must not be good enough that's why she's charging less and then they start thinking, well, maybe that's all I can afford it that's when the client customer relationship goes off the rails okay, so either your objection doesn't matter where it can be changed. Those are the two categories so think about what what are all those fears that you have about raising your prices and assign them one of those two categories because we can talk about how it can get changed or you can ask me and I'll tell you why it doesn't matter, but you need to kind of sort things out so that, you know, is this something I need to take action on or is this something I need to start working on working with myself on to ignore that's that's it which means you really can charge whatever you want, you really can charge whatever you want. Now I'm not saying this in a like you. Well, you see, this is where it gets weird because I want to say, I don't mean you can charge ten thousand dollars for something that really should cost ted, except you could find examples of that happening all the time for reals. But what I mean is that whether you're going to the low end or whether you're going to the high end, wherever you want to be in the market, you can figure out a way to charge what you want to charge whether that's to make your business more sustainable whether it's to be in a specific part of the market you can figure it out here's what you need to dio you need to market to the right people you need to differentiate and this is where the competition really comes into it if you're afraid you can't charge more because of the competition you haven't differentiated enough we're going to talk about that I love talking about differentiation and you have to use all the right details this is this part that I was talking about earlier in the previous lessons where we were going to think about how we can make our cost customers comfortable with the price that we charge based on the experience of our entire business so market to the right people differentiate use all the right details now I could literally spend an entire course talking about each one of those things I actually have you can go back through my creative life catalog but those are the three important things that's what we're going to be talking about that your value story when you get those three things right you don't have to worry about people haggling with you you don't have to worry about people saying while why is that so x expensive are why is this so inexpensive because you get all of those pieces right and your prices just make sense so let's start off by talking about how to market to the right people. So the first question you need to ask yourself is who values your product at this price point any in any market, there's a whole variety of price points from the low end to the high end. I mean, the jewellery market is just an ideal example of that. There is jewelry at the extreme low end, and there is jewelry at the extreme extreme high end it's all jewelry, it's all the jewellery market. Sure, you can break that down in tow. Fine jewelry, costume, jewelry, kitsch, jewelry, whatever you want to break it down into, but at the end, it's a whole jewelry. So you need to think about who it is that's buying where you want to be in the market. So let's say you want to be in fine jewelry, but you want to be in the more accessible end of fine jewelry. I'm wearing a necklace right now by a jeweler named christina sumi and I think of her is really accessible, fine jeweler, jeweler. She uses material find materials, but and her price points are higher than you know what you get it, claire. So target, but they're not like skyrocketing prices, either. There are really solid, accessible, fine jewelry, price point ok and that's perfect for someone like me who wants a nice piece I can wear every single day megan's julie falls into exactly the same category accepted her work isn't so much fine jewelry most of the time as it is more commercial production jewelry so she's using different types of materials and pricing at a better price point where again I can wear it every single day and still feel like this is something really valuable I'm the right customer for both of these designers at this price point I'm the person who values jewelry at this particular price point so what's your price point and who values it at that price point a nature I'm gonna come back to you on this one because your homework and lefton three was to come up with a new price point for some of your products are all of your products but let's let's talk about one you said throw pillows is one of the things that you make right? Did you run the numbers on that one over lunch I started to but I didn't get to finish ok did you finish any of them? Yes. Ok what's one that you finished right now my throw pillows are, um retailing for sixty dollars okay? And I you learn now after running the numbers that they need to cost more uh between about eighty nine and ninety five dollars easy peasy so that's at retail right? Yes so you're looking at a wholesale price around forty five dollars perfect. So ninety dollars for a pillow is still not like in the high end pillow market, right? Sarah pillows that cost way more than that I don't have any of them. I know people out there right people out there spend that kind of money so who do you think values your product at that price point describe her to me. Ah, she lives in a major metropolitan city um she's very culturally inspired by other cultures by her own culture she likes to collect she wants her home to feel collected and not decorated um she's very vibrant and she has disposable income of at least one hundred thousand or more a year great. Great. So she's a professional? Yes he's a professional she might even be another business owner. Yes, I love that you brought up major metropolitan city that's that's really important because it tells you where to spend your money, right? You know you probably this is a product that you're going to take to new york the new york gift show new york now a supposed teo the craft show in lincoln, nebraska not that there's anything wrong with lincoln nebraska I have no problem with lincoln nebraska that's where your customer is so you know you want to make that investment in manhattan versus in lincoln. So that's really important? Yeah, that's. Fantastic. And then once you know that customer, it tells you all sorts of other things where else does this person shop? You know, you could probably name a whole bunch of stores right here in san francisco, where she's also looking for other products, or the same thing in brooklyn or same thing in seattle or same thing in dallas. And so you could think about that and look for all the cues that you see of how they market to their customer and borrow from that. Ok, we're going to keep coming back to you, so I hope you don't mind. I think your example it's perfect are cool. So the next question asked about the people that you are marketing tio is why do they need it? And why do they need it now? Why do they need it now? There is a there is an inherent sense of urgency that you can build into any product. Now, when I say urgency in marketing a lot of people, I think the long form sales letter this is closing in twenty four hours. There are ten seats left and if you do not buy right now, you are going to miss out no, no, no, no, that is manufacturing scarcity, urgency is I have a dinner party tonight and my living room looks a mess and I could it would it would be fine if I just got some new throw pillows for my couch right now you've got a story that that starts to feel urgent you've got some details in mind so not only is this customer a professional who lives in a major metropolitan area who as disposable income and really loves to feel culture cheese probably also someone who throws dinner parties right and so now you can turn that into if not an ad just an image on your website where you've got this fantastic dinner party going on in one room and then the sofa is waiting waiting expectantly in the next room with these fantastic throw pillows on it's not that the picture now is about the throw pillows it's about how the throw pillows tied off whole room together right? And so now you've told this story with one picture that says absolutely everything about the customer that you're wanting to market tio that makes sense questions about urgency when it comes to marketing a product like this daisy looking could you use like another example like I'm trying to think of the context outside of throw pillows where you know if you steve piece of jewelry or you see a piece of artwork or you see you know something like what? What is the urgency so people buy products as tools products are always tools, they help us accomplish something, whether it's the way we feel, whether it's a certain look that we're going for whether it's the right thing for the rate situation, whatever it might be. So if someone sees a piece of jewelry let's say at a craft show they come across that they don't just say this is a fantastic piece of jewelry I love this what's going on in their head is they're thinking about the outfit that they can wear it with the event they're going to wear it too who's going to be really impressed by it, how it who it makes them feel like so we can actually trigger some identity things for them and now they've got that sense of urgency because now they've pictured themselves wearing it they've they've thought about like, how this is going to change me, how I'm going to use this and that's you can you can trigger those feelings so that it's not just when they see your your piece on, you know, laying flat on the table, but instead they see it on a model who's wearing it in the very situation that they need a piece of jewelry for makes sense so that's that's the urgency pieces you can actually trigger that instead of waiting for it to happen cool when you trigger it, now you're in control of that story that people are telling themselves about your product. So all of those details that we're about to talk about in the next lesson, you can use those details to start triggering those ideas. So again, you're in control of the way people perceive your product and how they perceive them needing it. We're needing it now. All right, so related to that? Oh, yes, I was just going to say that's what I see people talking about is sort of trying to wrap their heads around making art urgent yes, making things that might be a splurge urgent. Yeah. So continuing to dive into that? Yeah. I mean, this is something this is actually something where I give people some homework for this. I want you to go on to your instagram feed. Go on to your facebook feed, watch tv for goodnesssake, take the commercials, take the advertisements, take the promotional content that you see and break it down. How are you other kinds of marketers triggering urgency through what they're doing? Look, a cell phone commercial. What is it about that cell phone commercial that's triggering a piece of urgency. Trust me, no one needs a cell phone right now. We all have them. Do you guys all have your cell phones? Yes, you might want a new model but no one needs it now what makes you need it now? What triggers that sense of urgency is that new feature that allows you to accomplish something new artwork works the same way impulse purchases are still urgent that's actually what's impulsive about them because immediately something clicks and we think I didn't know I needed this, but I need this now because you're not conscious of it again. That's what makes it impulsive but that's what's happening? If you understand that as a maker, as a marketer, as a business owner, then you become in control of how that impulsiveness gets triggered for your customers and that's how you that's marketing right there that's marketing good, cool s o I already asked these questions, but I'll just review them again. What are you hoping to accomplish and how are people? What are your customers hoping to accomplish and how are they going to use your product? Are they going to use your product to make them feel really good on stage? Are they going to use your product to make them feel more comfortable in their home homes? Are they're going to use your product to write their new novel? What is it? How are they going to use it don't just think they're going to use my new these journals that I make to take notes take notes for what make sure you have the whole story, make sure you know exactly how they're going to use it even if you've got twenty different scenarios guess what every different scenario you have is a different ad it's a different way that people value the price point that you're putting on your product so that's marketing to the right people. All of the answers to these questions are valuable information you can use to create story about your product that resonates with your potential customers. Residents is a big word for me right now I am so tired of people promoting it is time to stop promoting and start resonating, and when we resonate, we're connecting our products to what people really need to what they really want to what they really value when someone is connected to what they need to, how they're going to use your product and how they really value what it is that you create, they're willing to pay whatever it is that you want to charge within their means, right and their means air very variable. People are very crafty when it comes to getting money no pun intended so creating resonance puts you in control and that's the whole that's the first piece of this charge, whatever you want puzzle now questions any more questions about marketing to the right people. No, you guys are so smart, yes, well, I think I think this is a really important one because this person said it feels manipulative to trigger fink feelings or needs within customers how do you overcome the guilt a feeling like you're manipulating people but obviously I think you do it a lot you practice because it's easier so I would highly recommend a book by dan pinck called to sell is human if you have any ill feelings about marketing or sales whatsoever because what he talks about he talks about what I call residents he calls attunement but he also talks about you know just how natural it is that every single one of us is trying to convince to move to sell people on things every single day just even when you put your kids to bed at night you are selling madam on a bad time right? You are manipulating that it's what we do as human beings until marketing is part of that insure when you add money into the picture it becomes a little weird but that's what marketing is and so I like to think about it as connecting and the important part here tio is that I'm not trying to convince or convert someone who doesn't want to buy what I'm selling I on ly want to connect my product to the people who need it now and so if that's my goal than then introducing them to my product through the marketing that I create thee triggers thes feelings that triggers these stories for them is a service sales is service mike drop no seriously I think that is the shift that so many people on dh such a struggle is creatives need to get over is that when you're feeling bad about asking people to spend money on the things that you're creating when you shift it to I'm helping these people get something that they want yeah like that's the to egypt a huge shift absolutely they don't know about your product they want to know about their your product they just don't know it yet your job is to make that connection to make that introduction yeah awesome now let's talk about differentiation oh I have some fun things to say about this okay, what makes your product different? Easy question what makes your product different different from your direct competitors and different from your in direct competitors? What makes your product different? I would like to get some answers from the studio audience on this one kidney what makes your product different? I know you have thoughts on differentiation ideo uh tiffany staley my site is artist dd and I make the law less scary for creatives I think one of my differentiations is that I'm a creative myself that my photography background I'm surrounded by creative entrepreneurs all day both through my law practice and in my personal life are all differentiator shires I also think that um as terror knows I've done the sally hogshead fascination kind of report and part of mine is that I am a listener that I kind of sit back and absorb all of information and then I'm able tio concisely spit back out how I could make the biggest impact and so I think all of those things help differentiate what I bring to the table yeah let's talk about that listening piece because that's really interesting because I think that you know maybe actually a lot of lawyers I have a talent for listening it might even be why they got into law to begin with so that's less about differentiating from the rest of the field and more about differentiating from people's purses exception of the rest of the field I think people perceive lawyers as aggressive maybe as telling them what to dio instead of sitting back and really listening to the whole story right well I think a lot of I think that law school trains and some of the personality types that are attracted to law tend to be boxed into being more aggressive and they might naturally be our profession is very contentious in general and so I think that even that if that isn't someone's go to that you get pushed that direction over time yeah yeah totally awesome how about a never another day differentiator west say I'm gonna come back to you oh I think it's far my leather products go I add a little detail in it for you to not only carry your ah you're you're you know cards and money but something a little extra like a usb drive a lie there headphones so there's a little bit of different thing than what you and and it's a front pocket wallet so you know that people you know mostly make the foldable card you know, a bulky on your back pocket I like the ones that are in front pocket because I can't I don't like sitting on a big bulky wallet in my pocket so I've never understood the oh yeah perfect ok, those are two very clear different differentiators both of which can help you up your price in charge whatever you want if you want tio awesome perfect yes um j violence yeah make teachers sauce which is a spinach sauce that I am recently uh created for a woody harrelson event it's a vegan sauce it's spanish I make the mistake of assuming people know everything or have common sense wait I'll make that mistake every day totally where they have the same common sense exactly and I come from, you know, years and years of knowing everything right so what I'm making in the sauce is something that brings aa lot of what a lot of people like but haven't put it together, you know in the way I have um so it's ah of a friend of mine calls it friendly sauce okay you know but it's unique and it really doesn't I can't I'm startling finding a question to ask you along with putting it next to another the product it's like saying I want to be mentioned next to this product because it's small batch artisan it's a foodie product um what it what it we were talking about belief system which is what I've learned from you in the past and you know the belief systems and bringing you know the values of that um in a customer and supplying him with that and then giving them something that will be unique at their party or elevate their next dish or whatever they make um you know, it will make it unique and it makes it very easy to, um as faras pricing and making it more expensive. I'd love to sell a jar for ten thousand dollars and, you know, self ten jars and month, right? But it's it's seven dollars a jar which is in the realm of a buck announce for organic products you know, which is pretty so you're you're looking about seventy eight ounces to a jar it's an eight ounce jar I used to make a sixteen ounce yeah, but then I got scared of selling a sixteen dollars jar sauce I wonder if that might be a mistake actually because this's so weird, but I was just at the grocery store, so I think that in montana, with my partners extended family and you know, we're trying to make a much dinner is humanly possible for, you know, ten people for his little money as possible and for lots of different reasons, and we were making spaghetti that night, and so I was in the jarred spaghetti ill I hadn't been in the jared spaghetti ill in forever, but that's, that was the consensus of what we were going to do that night, and so we were picking out sauce, and I mean, not not the emerald sauce and not the newman sauce, but the there's, an italian restaurant in new york that really famous and what is it? Thank you, rayo sauce wass seven or eight dollars for whatever the twelve or sixteen ounce jar it's probably sixteen there, yeah, but, you know, a normal size spaghetti jar, and so I'm just thinking, in terms of sauce like you don't, if you're double a mass produced sauce that's totally reasonable that's telling a story about who you are now, you absolutely have to differentiate their because rio sauce looks like it might be artisan small batch it now, if it's being sold in major grocery stores, right, so you need to be able to say somewhere on their this is artists in this is small batch I think also there's more to this story and let me come back to this example because this actually really beautifully makes my next point which is handmade is not a differentiating factor handmade is not differentiating factor I would like you all to say it with me right now handmade is not a different judy factor fantastic now all of you out there need to say it is well I'll leave that to you this is this is the truth when etc is a gosh I don't even remember what the last number was fifty seventy five million dollars business a year in revenue no it's got to be more than that now I think my numbers are totally off however much money they're making handmade is not different anymore handmade is everywhere the designers that target might be working with their products may not be handmade but they're coming from that world their people the people who are purchasing them are inspired by the handmade handcrafted artists and world handmade artisan small batch is not a differentiating factor now it can be part of it but I want you to think beyond that I want you to think beyond that what is it that you are imbuing into that product in while you're making it by hand or while someone else is making it by hand j for you I think this sauce might be the way you've described it is that it's something very different it's something people haven't had before but it's also really accessible so it's that thing that you could surprise everyone with at the dinner party or at the cookout or whatever it might be but the thing that also you know everyone's going to like and so those you know mikey likes it kind of commercials that might be the kind of thing that you need to run with you know, this is something that your foodie friends are going to love and their kids too yeah so that could be a differentiating factor weird food is normally scary on by weird I mean different right? But this is weird food that's not scary in a kind of produce phrasing you could make that more positive or you could have a lot of fun with it, teo and you could do you could exactly say that exactly this is weird food that everyone loves all right cool so handmade is not a differentiating factor look for something else because here's the other thing handmade businesses largely the way they've been run for the last five, ten, fifty, one hundred, one hundred fifty thousand years are not sustainable you want to take a vacation, don't get into a handmade business unless you're going toe operated a very particular part of the market handmade is probably not your long term strategy you're going to bring in a production assistant you're going to start outsourcing some parts of the process so if you're selling your whole business on handmade and then you need to make a change because you're growing that's a problem you've just lost your marketing angle so differentiation helps you communicate how your product is unique when your product is unique there is less pricing baggage it's harder to say oh well I could buy this tomato sauce for this price for this tomato sauce for this price they're the same I'm going to go with the cheaper one when things were the same people largely do make buying decisions based on price when things were different people make buying decisions based on value or based on their particular connection to a product so differentiation really helps you eliminate the pricing baggage that most of us are concerned about people buy products to reinforce their identity or membership to a particular community we touched on this a lot a little bit but this is a really important one when it comes to creating residents for knowing who those right people are you want to think about the identity that comes with your product who is someone that owns what you make and not only who are they now but who do they want to become? Who do they want to become there's a great book I like make book recommendations on this fire is a great book called who do your customers want to become by a guy named michael schrage it's, a kindle single it's very short you groom read most of it in about an hour that's about all you need to read but it really talks about thinking forward for your customers because if you can break into that aspiration that they have to become someone new to shift their identity, you've created an extremely valuable connection to them. The first example that he cites in this book is about the disney princess phenomenon. Disney princesses are not old there might have been disney princesses and sleeping beauty and cinderella but the marketing phenomenon of disney princess is a big early contemporary construct and it came about when the guy who was in charge of marketing went to a disney on ice show with his kid and noticed all the little girls who came in costumes of their favorite disney princesses long before disney princess and their costumes were a thing he realized that those customers those people wanted to see themselves as princesses as special as the as you know the subject of a particular story that to those customers wanted to become both their parents and the kids right? And so he was able to tap into that and create this multi billion dollar brand of disney princess you can do the same thing maybe not on the same scale but you can tap into that same aspirational thread when you think about why people buy your products in terms of their identity or membership to a particular community why do I dress a certain way when I'm a creative life because I want to be a part of the community of professional speakers, professional teachers the of the kind of caliber that we have here at creative live so I dress to match that I buy particular close to do that sure, I put my own spin on it sure I wanna looking mekas well but I make certain buying decisions because of who I want to be one of the kinds of buying decisions that you make because of who you want to be and who your customers want to become and how can you influence they're buying decision by knowing that so who do your customers want to be how did they want to be seen? Yeah so um it's a snobbish word I think but cultivated you know um thiss whole spanish tapas culture is so hyped up in the past you know, five, six years seven years and when you become more wherever it like I have focusing on it um you notice it a lot more and it's like have you been to spain? Have you been to spain? You know all this kind of stuff um so what what it happens when you grab a jar of pinchot sauce off the shelf and you take it home it's it could just sit there and then boom, you know the word you may not know how to say it at first, but even that is a conversation starter, which the laptop was culture, conversation, right can be committed reality, so, you know, and then everything in it is about heritage, you know, my heritage, spanish heritage, the history of everybody that went to spain, which is like, you know, everybody pray your product helps people tap into membership of the community of cultivated food, right? Yeah, that identity is really important for a lot of people, and just like I said, I spent a lot of my budget on food. A lot of other people do too, and so yet absolutely you're excluding part of the market with that who may actually love that sauce, but you're creating a really clear connection with those people. And so if you if you craft the details of your business and your marketing and your pricing and all of those things to suit those people, sure you're bring along some of the other people in the rest of the market, but you'll have the sea super tight connection to these people who are going to either make or break your business and they're usually people that will make themselves heard yeah absolutely then it's a great market so they'll tell two friends and so on you know yeah exactly so what about your product can reinforce that identity or perception jay's product is a great example of that an interest product that we've been working with a lot today is also a great example of this boning a pillow that you make reinforces a very core part of your customer's identity right what do you think that that core part of their identity is a cultural connection kind of somewhat similar the majority of textiles that are user african textiles they're using you know from many countries throughout the continent but that connection to africa whether they've been there or they aspire to go it's a great way to introduce that culture into your home will remind you that you have gone or inspire you to want to go there um and even if you cannot um identify with e the fact that the textiles are african you can identify with the colors they're very vibrant you don't see them everywhere um so that really stands out you're drawn to it culturally but you also drawn to it because it's so vibrant and that's what the feedback I get from a lot of customers just like wow these patterns our beautiful their vibrant colorful I haven't seen anything like this yeah yeah and even beyond just a like that core identity piece for your customers it's also connecting them tow a whole community of other people who value those things this well right? And so that dinner party that we mentioned you know, when we were talking about market a it's probably a dinner party of all people who were so spon similarly to the conference right? And even if even if it's not an intentional choice by your consumer there they make decisions based on how they want to be perceived by other people perception is huge perception is reality, right? And so if you can tie into that as you market your product again, you're triggering those feelings those stories this connections to other people that's great experiences you've had in the past and now your product isn't just a throw pillow it's a connection to all of those different things and again, when it's a connection to stories and experiences and people and your identity, you'll pay whatever it costs to own that already comes up a lot to yeah yeah so connecting to a worldly perspective told of land. All right, so what do we do with all of this information? I want you right now at home in the studio to write two to three sentences about who your product is for why they need it now, how they'll use it and how it's different right two to three sentences about who your product as for why they need it now how they'll use it and how it's different and I need a volunteer for a hot seat and actually I'm not going to have a volunteer to bring you up ron we're nice to meet you I haven't heard from you very much so I decided to pick my idea come on up uh tell us who you are where we can find you online and what it is that you make I am bronwyn mach I have a small jewelry company called tireless hearts and you can find my shop on betsy and I have a facebook page called tireless hearts as well perfect on dh tell us a little bit about your product with I began making this when thes products when I was teaching a bike shop program to junior high school students in brooklyn and uh found that my girl students my female students would sort of disappear they would vaporize in seventh grade okay six grade loved bike shop love getting dirty all that but in seventh grade they were women has no longer be in the bike shop you know? So I started a lunchtime uh jewels secret lunchtime jewelry club that is that they could get a pass to get out of the lunch room which is a minefield for girls at that age and no one would know they were in the bike shop and they got to make something in giggle and it was somewhat successful but what really came out of it was that I enjoyed doing it a lot more than they did so uh what were you know and I had no budget for it as well. So I was like, what can we use? And it started with inner tubes and nuts and bolts and stuff like that and I realized that a lot of these tiny parts that come off of bicycles and bike shops and usually get swept up and thrown out at the end of the day actually are quite beautiful when put in a totally different context and I started to make little charms that were heart shaped out of unusual red colored innertube o and in they've inside of them would be ball bearings to give them a little bit of weight and ultimately it was like the entire product was ah reused up cycles repurposed would however you would prefer to term it and so is something that would appeal to people who understand and are attracted to sustainability um and you know, I just kind of started it from that perspective and I find this whole part of your congress that your your presentation really confusing and difficult for me okay, well then I'm glad you're here because I thought I knew who my customer wass and I was completely wrong s so tell me about that because that's the first question who's your customer bike shop people and people who are interested in bikes do not value what I do at all interesting all right? Or I should say there are a few a few wonderful exceptions to that but generally speaking because they know what it is what the source material is they think of it as discards auras trash right they can't see it as a transformed uh ree repurposed remade recreated thing they have a very hard time with that um over time I've discovered that the people who respond to it the most are people that have no idea what it is and are thrilled when they find out what it is interesting so who are those people they could be an eighty year old grandma it could be you know, it's actually kind of hard to pin down who that person is because it's somebody who like he was saying is, you know, cultivated or cultured somebody who is not um has a personal style that's not dictated by anybody yeah, you know that is very confident about how they present themselves and doesn't need you know, a fashion magazine to tell them which way to go um and also somebody who's familiar with sort of the far you know like some somebody who might have subscribed or subscribes to like ornament magazine and has seen a lot of like high end artists in jewelry in their time and has a sort of ah practised eye okay, all right, that that tends to give me some good okay? What other? Um where else do they spend their money? That's what? I don't know that I'm they you know I can conjecture is because the people that buy seemed to be so different from one another a lot of times um and in part because there's such confident generally confident people they don't share a lot of details about themselves unless they're you know, megalomania just inherent in the market right when the market is people who value their uniqueness yeah, they're not all going to look the same, so you have to serve pulling back the layers and look for some of the belief belief systems that are the same and that I think you're actually much, much closer to that than you may realize they are people who value their uniqueness. They are people who value looking different, being different thinking differently than the mainstream they value their independence. It just so happens that that's a really vibrant part of the american market it may not be a huge part of the american market market, but it's very vibrant and there's actually a lot out there that those people are spending money on right now I would say yoga studios, they're spending money at yoga studios, they might be spending money on continuing education, they're spending money on a mme interesting textiles for sure they probably spent a lot of money on what goes into their home. They're definitely spending a lot of money on food as wells, whether it's food that's coming home and they're making it or that they're going out or both they're spending a lot of money on that as well, and then I think probably galleries would be another key piece that might actually be something that I would encourage you to think about is is it possible to make the jump from I make jewelry to I make art that just happens to be jewelry because there are so many galleries that also sell jewelry there's also so many design stores that also sell jewelry, and that could be a really great market for you to ok, so wait basically know who these customers are there people who really value different on their people who value independence? And it might just be a simple as that they may be a slightly older woman. Ah, professional, maybe she works in academia all of that stuff that's not necessary. I know these things so that might not all be necessary to include in your value story, but pieces of that help paint a picture of who this person is, why did they need this now? Well, like I'll tell ish is short of stories I can I had one woman who who actually did say a lot to may you know did sort of tipped her cards to me a bit when she bought my by one of my hearts and she immediately I said oh how how poetic you know it's has duality it has two sides which is I like the way you know and I was like could you say that again into the tape it was it was the perfect sort of response and illustration of what what I feel about the product as well you know, like it's it does have a lot of of symbolism and meaning and all of that to me yeah so I actually want to stop you there because you said something she tipped her cards to me you don't have to wait for people to do this you can ask them on dso a lot of times people say well how do you get this information if people aren't talking to you about it well you talked to them about it and you ask the question what do you see in this piece? Why did you buy this? Why did you buy this? People will tell you actually once especially with artists and makers and designers they love telling you what they love about what you make because it plays into the identity that they want to have rights she doesn't just want to buy a poetic peace and she wants to be a poet wearing that jewelry is part of assuming that identity from her right and so telling her how she feels and what she sees in your product is actually also part of that identity on dso you can really help your customers out by asking them what they think ok so I want to encourage you to do that actually going to go back to the slide to make sure I cover all the points with you because this is a really good example why did they need it now probably it's a simple is there's never enough there's never enough poetry there's never enough art jewelry there's never enough amazing tex stiles yes they probably have a very curated collection but they're always looking for the next piece yeah and it's also you know it's it's kind of an honor to have someone of that nature want to put part of your piece in the collection and clearly that's that's something that I've found plays into that wanting to be you know, the identity of wanting to be very unique yeah and it's a treasure hunt right? They can't just go anywhere they can't even know that from one show to the next near that they're going to find something even at the same show right so it's a treasure hunt for them and if you can kind of bring that in that's urgency teo I want to find the next piece for my collection um how they're going to use it I think we've already talked about that and how it's different there's all sorts of things that we could wear that again for you I think can made is not the differentiator I do think the materials are the differentiator but I also just the way you've talked about it and the way that customer talked about and I'm sure many other customers have talked about it to themselves or with their friend that poetry that duality there's probably a lot of symbolism mitt built into it that's how it's different so even beyond just it's up cycled yeah that doesn't get you very that doesn't get you very far if you want to go way farther than that you want to sell in galleries if you want to sell in design stores you need to be able to tell that value story around the poetry and the symbolism in the meaning okay all right, I'll work on it okay? Questions um you know I will come up with the questions about twenty minutes from now. Okay. Well that's fine. Thank you very much. All right, so we've got our hot seat. So now you have your value story. I hope you guys have been writing down as we were talking that two to three sentence story of who your products for why they need it now what's important to them about it and how it's different because that's your value story you can actually work on that and you know tweak it edited practice it and use it when you're at the trade show booth when you're at the craft show booth when you're writing your product descriptions this is these are the questions that you need to answer over and over and over again every time you have a customer interaction the more you do it and yes you will feel repetitive but repetitive is good because it you can probably imagine how many times it takes someone hearing something for it to really sink in every time you do it you're creating your strengthening that value story that's going to help you charge whatever whatever it is that you want to charge question coming from debbie o'neill how does this translate if you are selling not a physical product product but a creative service or class is it the same yeah that's the way it's exactly the same I hate that that's a non answer I'm sorry you just want to acknowledge that there's no difference where you know they're really there really is no difference you know most of the time I worked with service providers but I still work with with products makers an awful lot and I just wish everyone would talk to each other more because especially in today's market especially in today's caught economy the difference between selling a service and selling a product is almost nothing if your product doesn't perform a service for your customers, you've got problems. You've got serious marketing problems and for service providers, if you don't incorporate elements of understanding how our product works, why someone makes an impulsive buying decision. Then again, you've got serious problems. Those problems might even be structural. All of these things are intertwined on, and really, the line between them is very, very small, if at all, existent. Thank you, yeah, absolutely. So now let's. Apply your value story to every detail of your brand and products, because just being able to articulate your values story doesn't mean someone's going to be comfortable buying what it is that you have to sell at the price point that you want to sell it at.