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Perfect Customer Business Portraits

Basically, we're going to be creating these perfect customer portrait that show you know who you're perfect customer is, you know, thinking about who they love to work with, how you reach them and I'll guide you through a little bit of that in a sec so here because I've been in business for a while and I've been working with clients, I should have a really good idea engaging with my perfect customers all the time, so I just was able to put a picture here of who they are, and obviously you can see very creative like to have fun, very visual, mostly women. S o this kind of gives you a nice demographic of who my audiences if you're still if you're new to business and you don't quite know, this is where the perfect customer portrait collage exercise can be really helpful that you have a visual tio help you as maybe you're writing your newsletter or you're working on your marketing it's helpful to be in conversation with an actual person rather than this abstract idea of who am I talking to...

you who's my market and then it feeling really stale all right, that then it becomes like this marketing piece and the wording it just feels cold, right? But when you can put like the pictures of the people in front of you, even if it's, you know and amalgamation from different pictures in magazines it makes it more personal and then you're going toe have it be that invitation right? Cool so in terms of thinking about your perfect customers and I'm curious do you guys have a sense of who they are yeah, maybe if you can speak to that and then we'll get some suggestions for folks at home of how to deepen it too on through experience I thought well when I started out I thought mike mike perfect customer war brides and mothers of brides for planning weddings and come to find out that my products have been really popular for baby showers right and bridal shark so you know it's mother's weather is expected mothers of friends of expectant mothers mother in law uh which is really fun to help to work with them you know? They're just so excited and they just want to do this something special, huh? So it evolved right and involved because you were out there kind of working people and seeing who responded well and I think people thought, well, this would be really cute for a baby shower and then I could give him those favors and guests and so I mean it involved in my mind from just brides to parties right, right? And are they local or it could be you know most of them are through my web site or my empty store so they're not state yeah, so mostly united states with any international? Yeah, yeah. So how do you know? Kind of what types of interests they have and you know how they usually like? They're usually know what the trends are there looking for particular colors that are, you know, popular. They're looking for fun patterns. They're looking for something that they can't find in the big box stores something unique, something that it can personalize so, you know, we can add names and, uh, special touches they're looking for kind of a special touch, not just your ordinary already two core cool, cool what else do you want to share? A little bit charred? Um, my customers, I'd say, are probably seventy percent women thirty percent men, and they're mostly all going through some sort of change, whether it's a divorce, weight loss, a new job, a new career um, maybe their new mom or theirs, you know, going back into the workforce so people who are changing and they don't know how to express that through their style, you said divorce and seeing some other and collaboration way wait, wait. So for those of you at home, who might be wondering, how do I find my perfect customers, you know, what do I need to be asking some of the things no from the book and hopefully you guys have your getting the word out please sheet and I know you guys have some of the cards teo I don't know if you getting the word out card some things that you can kind of be thinking about are how old are they how much money do they make you know where they live what are their interests? Um this is on in the book so this is page seventy nine seventy eight s o seventy nine and eighty of the book but thinking about kind of there home ice situation are they divorced are they getting ready to be divorced or they married single dating anything that helps paint the picture of the perfect customer and then so there's like demographic stuff but there's also the psychographic what are they interested what they love what do they want? Can they not stand eso that helps you really get into their heads, eh? So those are some things to keep in mind you know their likes their dislikes, that kind of stuff and then also kind of like where they might hang out or get their information so as you guys were doing these perfect customer portrait's one of the things that's helpful is to be thinking about you know, what magazines do they read so for example for the ones at home home looking at my examples that first one I probably got the images from like, ready made and the whole living but more kind of creative magazines. And then the one with the professional women that was maybe, like from fast company and more professional magazines, so that can help you. You know, just by picking the magazine's might help you home. Who your market disks, those might be the magazines that they're looking at. Okay, so I like to do mine on cards like this, but it's totally up to you if you want to use if you wanted to stick it in your accordion book, like in an envelope you can use thes or you can use a big size paper or whatever you like on. Sometimes people make more than one because you might have different segments, you know, different people that you're targeting, so feel free to make more than one right? Like nathan might have one for men versus women or different phases of saying with caitlin men, women ok, that makes sense. So you guys know how to clash we've demonstrated had already. So we have people some time to do the clashing. And for those of you at home that you get to follow along. So I think that this question came up yesterday, but it has come up again from stephanie sherry. Can we write words on the person perfect customer collage or school a picture is only I think it's helpful to have pictures what I actually do is on the back I write words of like the demographics and stuff but it helps to get the words out first it's perfectly fine if it ends up being just words it's fine a lot of right wingers like the visual though and I actually like having that in front of me that whatever works for you it's a hundred that brain chill pills preferential pills I mean we're just people starting tio add their portrait so I don't know if this is yeah we'll check back in which later gets that thinks I want actually circle back with these guys so you guys probably if you wanted to look at the example which is you guys have foods like the way you do yeah we're getting you're gonna look however years look at us and you know like yeah if he is a pretty big if you want their pieces of paper we could maybe take some of the fortress paper well thank you so page eighty five yeah your question situation like my perfect customer would be like the magazine art directors right but I mean it's not like the audience to reach yes that's right with exact so this was hiring you right right so keep that in mind you got a sense of it way yeah like you can look here page you know like some examples so different yeah e people exactly. So there is a bunch of images okay as well ok, so if you have you know different perfect customers some people actually I've seen people do it like all on one or you could do separate ones for each all right. So there let's uh, let's chat with some folks yes, online okay, we have some questions should we start with the questions? Okay, what if you know what? What if I know several different customers? Yeah. Should I crave more than one perfect customer portrait? You can yeah. That's what I was saying you can have several different once I would not do like twenty because then you're marketing efforts were going to be scattered I had three and then they whittled it down to two but it can be helpful just to get them on paper and even seeing how they're different and then it may end up that you start narrowing down but just to get them all out you have a sense could be helpful. So certainly you could do more than one. Um you could have them be separate ones and I was saying earlier somebody did it all on one big one but she put it on like this corner over here was mom's this corner overhears celebrities this corner over here you know so you can still have it on the same visual it's determined what business? Because some people might have two or three businesses facing tio mom's exactly. We're facing two people who exercise all the time exactly right his worst matters yeah actually builds upon that is a question from polyta who says I design craft products through different craft companies that manufacture and distribute them, huh? So her question is is my perfect customer portrait the end user or that craft company um craft company probably sets he was actually paying her right, right? Right. Um I think it be helpful to do both but like the main customer are the the businesses like the business to business element but understanding who that ultimate and user is is important too because they're gonna be so caught up so I would do anything that yeah and it's kind of like with nathan's as well, right? And I think rebecca was just saying something similar as well like working with for the photography for magazines her perfect customers are like the editors who would be selecting her photos right? So that's her perfect customer versus like us looking at the pictures yeah, so we have some people are getting really specific which I think is good gook focused in on your your your portrait of your ideal customer and we have one here she was into go I believe I read and she was saying that her ideal customer is someone who women but are they? Are they women who feel frumpy? They need to break out, and they are women who are uptight and need to relax and get into their bodies really into detail and showed them that ratio cool and so indigo and everybody else out there once you like we did yesterday. Once you are creating these collages, we would love again to see them, and if you tweet them out, take a picture and tweet that out using the hash tag r b b p for right brain business plan as well as the hash tag jennifer live. Then we would love to love to see them, even as they progress right now. It's, just like the magazines were using or the few clippings that you have it's work in progress and it's marketing for you because you're letting us know who you're perfect. Customers are like, we might know just the right person, just like connections air happening here. I mean that's, more strategic partners, but like, hey, the more the merrier, you might get your right. Your customer exactly might be watching this exactly exactly so here because a question does your customer does your perfect customer change over time, and how do you know? And do you make a new portrait such a great question totally contained over time? I know for myself personally, when I first started coaching, which is now, ten years ago, my clients were much different. It was I was doing more life coaching and people in transition, trying to figure out their life. So actually, one of my perfect customer portrait it's that's in the book was no moms and transistor, maybe they their mom, but their kids have just gone off to college. They're like, oh, what do I do with myself now? Right? And trying to figure out what's next, my audience has changed somewhat since bravery in business plan, like started to have this life of its own than the creative entrepreneur piece became really strong and so that's what I'm focusing on, certainly that picture there that represents my perfect customers, you know, they're all creative launch preneurs, so it certainly has shifted over time, and I've kind of let that go in terms of, you know, moms who are in transition here trying to figure out their life like all refer them to someone else. You absolutely you know, his passion about that, so I love this project so much. Creating your ideal customer because a lot of times we were starting our business you know we'll bring on anyone who has a polls thank you start getting really miserable in your business and you're not focusing on the right people on day once you start getting selective you know sharing that you know I have value my business has value yes I will work with the's titles kinds of people it just changes that changes the demographic and also put you more abundant space than scarcity space I love this yeah it just helps things be more clear you know where does spend your energy absolutely not spreading yourself too thin so yeah you know what events to go teo exactly wait so wait a pendrick dragging yeah she's one of the mentorship group so don't worry here so she says what's more beneficial here images and expressions of a perfect customer before they work with us or how we see them when they get more value after you want a question really I think it could be helpful for doing it before they work with you because that's how your meeting them where they are right so that's how you're gonna be communicating to them? I think actually if this is you know interesting to you roland I think doing that after one is great too because it helps you know where you're taking them it sometimes can be a little much like to be communicating about the end result when someone is still in the really stuck place because they're not going to see how to bridge that gap it feels too far away so the more you can meet them where they are I think the more traction you'll get so doing the one of where they are now will be helpful for the communication but I love this idea of like where you're taking them next and having that be kind of the aspiration right? Right right to think about totally I saw something in here people are saying, you know, your customer is someone who pays you and sometimes I mean that's of course that's a customer but also people who come and get download free newsletters from your website for yeah, yeah yeah those air products as well and they're my customer yeah, I'm actually grouping them all together yeah so those air customers as well yeah cool uh let's take another question is what are the benefits of really targeting my customer? Yeah, because I like to reach for his broader group is possible so it's a fine it's a fine line on I love that we're bringing this up I was actually just talking to somebody who's kind of an expert on there say interviewing her for my video some local and it's like the whole idea of you know, do you have in it or not the idea you know, the perspective I take is it's helpful to know who it is you're targeting and to be pretty clear so that you can speak to them directly, not going to be everything to everyone. If you try to be, you're going to go nowhere, but I know the temptation when we come from that scarcity movies like I want to reach as many people as I can, and then you're going to be confusing, you know, when people aren't gonna know if you're the right person for them so it is helpful too put a stake in the ground. No this's these are my peeps. And are you one of them and it's ok, if you're not that's a great point. Yeah, it's okay, it's okay, no it's okay, if you're not absolutely you can refer them to someone else. You know, that's where the courts come in and the competitors they become our experts, you could refer for than clients and then, you know, there's someone else. He was referring people tio absolutely way have a question here for as an artist, this is artist karen as an artist, people by ark for different reasons and are therefore different also print buyers versus original art so how you distinguish each customer? Yeah, there might be kind of different segments in terms of what people are willing to invest maybe like with prince usually it's like people wanting to get the art it a more affordable price so that might be kind of a different group being versus somebody who is willing to pay for it an original you're probably going to find them in different places you know maybe that's your doing work through a gallery right to sell your original piece versus selling prints on etc it was a very different places to find perfect customers so as you might be doing different portrait's from that perspective well thank you they're great questioned tio hone in from morgan as she starts the sex should we be looking more for images and characteristics of our company? I'm sorry our customers embody or images of what they actually d'oh really another nuanced way nothing more for images or characters or characteristics of our crust that our customers and body or images of what they do I think it could be both right yeah because that's what makes up who they are and I like that where does your customer go shopping? What is your target client eat breakfast exactly listen to exactly yeah and we'll dive into more words around that once we get the visual so again just like yesterday how he come at it from different angles we'll have different ways to access the understanding of the perfect customers I think you know continue working to perfect customer portrait's and you know, share them I'm probably going to check back in with the folks here and see where they're at and you guys can hear you know, eavesdrop in and our conversations because that might help you guys learn something and keep asking your question yes ok coming from going great yeah great way people we'll talk about it it's actually educating people to me do we want to pick people who value our service and or people who need our service people who found your service people do you know do you think it's already know what they need? You yes so for instance if you do it made me specific like um like they need styling or they appreciate style oh I think it's really looking at you know who is that you're wanting to work with and that nuance maybe not even matter in this particular exercise that kind of just like yesterday how you followed your intuition and saw how all grouped together it's just going to go with it is going to go with way we're gonna bring jobs just going over here good you're doing different ones felt sorry cathy I tio maybe too okay, I'm just picking people that I think would be in the magazine director is their creative tight huh? Some business owners you know my need photos for, you know, marketing materials and things go oh kiss me can I just kind of you know finding people for I don't think you're ready to ship out yeah mom and dad are among the daughter silver in this ex birthday awesome right is that mantra exactly I love that actually for the folks at home cathy is just you know picked a picture that represents and she wrote on the back mom and daughter planning for a birthday was that six yeah there's six play for party is very special so once you start getting the images on I was going to get to that I love that kathy naturally went there is to start than putting words to it and you can put that on the back so that you can actually be even clear and the example on the website that the example that last one down that's amy bacon burgers I think she even has I can't remember what the label is that amy and if you're in chat maybe you can share your different names that you called your groups I think there was one edge you creators tribe and light seekers I know you had some really creative ways that you groups your people and then you use those when you're marketing to them so the bride and groom writing green yet you can create fun names for them if you like the creative process like mandy mandy yeah, I think a lot of money at the end of it how's it going here it's going well I'm seeing two different ones forming or is this the slowly treated different ones ok I'm not sure where she goes yet it's ok because he's kind of I think she goes over here okay um but yeah, my client's going to be like late twenties mid to late thirties women kind of going through career subs and then um interesting one has been like mid fifties ok early seventies interests on a yacht and like care giving uh huh right too much giving too much yet and it's been interesting pops it yeah, great it's cool to kind of see how? See them in their own portrait straight yeah, totally go look forward to talking with him. Yes, you're gone here super fantastic. You're making multiple ones to figure my relations maybe seventy five, twenty five the high mills so there you go. What that's great ones in here there's bacon grab big pieces of paper with you want no yeah, well, you know, like the flip chart paper there's flip charts over there let's see what they can do it you can always like paying these with a good clip. Uh yeah, you know, close fight get like example with fingers I know you like something sorry. Okay, cool. You know one thing I forgot it was just kind of forgot potential testing was about like, I'm dating sites like having you know a managed dot com cross promotions like one person on that every week gets to be featured on this site right? So there's two ways to look at it either is like direct competition thursday meeting side what that seems like it I didn't ask to kind of freedom my dating right so great partners partner lee on eharmony wait that rotates lots of ideas coming forth school when we when we break all make sure that we write about on a landscape there yeah creative life oh ok magazine theory and this is always an art to actually just get magazine exactly and then you know, speaking of magazines for those of you at home maybe you're finding you don't quite have the right magazine tio I represent your target market since you're at home just you know google images works great can get stock photography there's lots of different examples different ways you can get your images before this workshop was announced it was hard to find all the images in magazines from maybe states so maybe I'll do a mind movie and just grab the images online and writing them together. Exactly. Yeah yeah because that's kind of easy in certain respects because you can conjure images usually right generally have you some questions? Yeah that's a good I mean it's great time to do that great so so let's see mrs smith sorry adina is wondering I'm wanting of my target market is too abroad she says I want to mostly market towards women but as a holistic health practitioner I can also work with families men, people who are in l health people who are health conscious, pregnant women, single mothers elderly and the list goes on and so on that specific scenario is yeah, this exercise what would you think about writing the list is pretty long and I think if you were to try and target all of them you would run yourself ragged and we need your own kind of help they're so for that I would ask yourself who really lights you up like who do you just get jazzed about working with and focus on those? And if that is all of them may be another way to hone it down might be who most likely would be willing to pay you like who's the easy kind of a customer that you can convert over and start there but that list is a pretty long list silent recommend filtering from those two questions, right? Yeah that's great. I would also add maybe like having a specific marketing campaign towards women and then whoever comes in along with you know you'll yeah the men but just maybe market marketing specifics specifics of them in one group exactly and then maybe if others come in that okay? I said I still resonate with you. You don't have to say no, but it's like where you're investing your money and energy in the marketing. Yeah, yeah. I like that concept of, I think, reminding you that people will come along to our navy. You're doing what people aspire to be as well. That sort of that aspirational. Exactly. Target person and militiamen says always go for the customers who value and appreciate us because they will be willing to pay and appreciate the effort you put in. Yes. Get you referrals. Exactly. That's. A great reminder to people. Exactly. We had someone I was talking. Anyone with a pulse and she's like that resonate with this. I am taking on anyone with a pulse. So what would you say to people here? Kind of like, a little bit starting their business. They needed money tio around? Yeah. On dh. This kind of feels like, uh, a little tio afraid of and outside the rally at their needs right now. Yeah, I would say still give yourself time, tio. Vision this for yourself. I totally get being a survivor moon and like having to just take you know clients where you can and you'll actually learn a ton from that we learn here, so I don't like working, so actually, as you're doing that, I think it's a conscious choice like, you know, this time period, I need to be just doing what I can and that's where I am that's perfectly fine, how can I use this as a great learning opportunity says you're working with people, start making a list of like here, the things I really love from this particular client and add that to your list, here's, what I can't stand hated like I don't want to have that as part of my client's moving forward, that's going to help you get clear about who did it continue targeting as you move forward. But give yourself this space in the permission right now in this exercise to envision who that perfect customer is, whether it feels attainable right now or not have another it's kind of a comment slash question, but in terms of defining that ideal client, what do you say about tapping into your existing clients and asking them what they like about working with you? Yes, on dh, what they like about your work so that you can find more people life? Exactly, yeah, many do's and don'ts about going about talking with your existing right? I think it's a brilliant idea and actually that three woods exercise is a shortened version of something like that in the book there is an actual interview guy that you could s and two existing clients asking you know, those types of questions I just have some example questions it's really tapping into the people who know and love you and finding out like what's working for them what do they want to see more of and that's going to give you insight into how do I get more people like that, right? I mean, sometimes perfect customers may be more of these please thing and then, you know, having memory for you it's great referrals from clients we have a question from a bureau galbreath and basically this is kind of like maybe their clients their business isn't b two c like business to consumer business to business yet so she's like, oh, do I just visualize companies? Perhaps? Yeah, exactly. And so if their specific companies yet put them on the customer portrait, you know, if it's certain brands like a couple of these guys were doing that here in their own way, like I was saying my back is like focusing on editors of magazines, you know, and even rebecca we're just talking about when you're doing your perfect customers or maybe businesses there might be specific magazines I yeah, so they may not be here, but when you go home, you might even want to clip like their logos and put it on there so that you know who you're running teo, reach out to yeah. So even if you have specific brands or companies include that, okay, yeah, it's really helpful. And sarah jane ganic says that what we were just talking about in terms of asked your clients is really hopeful because she worked mainly with doctors, lawyers and professionals that have a large income in, and she has been meeting many of their friends, and that has really helped to get more clients that can afford her nice that's, great that's, great! And I want to speak to I'm sure there's people who haven't had any clients yet, so, like, I don't have anyone to ask, right? So in the book, and I don't have in front of me. But I think even before the interview guide for clients, I think I have some questions that you can just ask your friends or colleagues, you know, like let's say, you've got your nine to five job, but you're wanting to transition. There are people who know you in terms of your professional skills, and all of that you might have some insights is, too, no things that you do well in all of that so just because you don't have any clients is you can't ask people for right some pots usually your friends or your first plans actually way so and I don't know it's that we just have a few minutes before one so so I don't know this one is activists question it might be actually foreshadowing okay, we'll hear it and we'll split it you will see it's from the left and lind on dso she says other professionals who help you with the actual steps from identifying that clear ideal client portrait to reaching them in the real world is that something will be will be moving in that direction from like ok now understanding your perfect customers how do you then connect with them? So we'll have some exercises to do that and then in terms of she wanted to work with someone I mean their social media experts out there they're marketing consultants there's a lot of pr people right? But I think you know if you're just starting out it's really helpful for you to be in charge of that piece because you're going to want to be connecting with your perfect customers personally see understand them right? Yeah, great well I'm going to circle back with you and then we'll we'll update on you going how's it going so what's going on here guys working away you're done okay and if you wanted to work through lunch like we did last time you're welcome to do that for me if you want me to flesh out more I can do great and you wrote some notes words out ok so how are these all part of one I just felt like this would be a kind of a good visual thematic introduction on alright so out of that what's your customer base and then you have something like that cool so something if you wanted to start working on which will kind of get into next is like riding a character sketches of these folks so I feel like there's a whole back story behind this you can maybe free form about what's going on on that border their struggles like what's happening here I'm kind of a day in the life of this person okay if you want to take that on as additional sure sure you mean so pertaining specifically there was picture already in the life of the average dc user we talked about this picture um it would be of the average user so I didn't know I thought that might be okay okay yeah awesome cool get the extreme on is found yet and then like success happens jail client I like it when they're happy thriving in the age no um couples who want families on success again and uh you know, family planning big good thing people right there mom wants to have a baby, actually, or have essentially you actually got, captured her whole family and have a ripple effect, right? Like, in a way, thanks, jon bon jovi, this's corporate. I want to say, how can we, you know, um, customize the party for, like, corporate, and yet. So how can they make a big splash for their party, right? So they say, doesn't get any towards what was coming out, and I can change it.