Cara Lumen | Sing a Deeper Song

Sing a Deeper Song

target audience

Does Your Target Community Know Why They Need You?

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reach-outAt a recent face-to-face Linchpin meeting, one of the participants had just sold his business of ten years and wasn’t sure what he was going to do next.  His company created specialized software for other companies. He said the problem was that his potential clients did not even know they needed what he had to offer or how to find companies like his that specialized in creating it.  Educating our community is an ongoing process.
I can talk till I’m blue in the face about what can be accomplished by working with an experienced coach, but if my community is content to spend a lot of time searching out new information for themselves they won’t understand that I could save them time and money. I have already spent years exploring and learning many of the choices available and I could get them off to a really fast start by helping them choose the right ones for their strengths and passion.
If someone came up to you and said “What do you do?” what would you say?

Your who and do what statement

 The who and do what statement goes like this: “I help (your target community) do (what they achieve with your help) so that (the emotional reward)
“I help entrepreneurs who love to write create meaningful signature products so they can increase their expert status and make passive income. “
“I help beginning bloggers create a well optimized blog site and the cornerstone content that attracts the community they are meant to serve.”
“I am the Idea Optimizer, I help visionaries capture their ideas and organize them into a profitable product or service. I help them believe they can.”
Your turn. What is your “who and do what statement.”

Express your passion

At this same Linchpin meeting I turned to the woman beside me and asked, “What are you taking away from this meeting?” She said, “That not everyone knows their passion.” If you don’t know, others won’t get it and your passion is the most attractive thing you have to offer – your passion and your enthusiasm for following it.
Get clear about you want to offer.  Don’t look at what others are doing or even that long list of what you could be doing.  Follow your heart.
Another person at the meeting is a real estate person who specializes in people who are downsizing.  She is doing well because people are referring others in their same situation to her.  Downsizing is an emotional process and people will gravitate to someone who understands their emotional needs.  She has some coaching background and it all seems to flow together.  She said she didn’t want to shut out other potential clients, but as we all know, the more focused your niche; the more focused your success.

Explain it to a child

It’s way too easy to fall into jargon when trying to explain your business.  Keep it simple.  Keep your words basic so the meaning is clear.  I used to use a phrase “I help you uncover your passion, define your purpose, identify your path, make money from what you already know and attract the people you are meant to serve. But most of all I help you believe you can!!!”  That’s way too much and that’s how I do it, not what I do.  “I help you turn your ideas into profit.” That ultimately sounds too commercial for me; my business is more spiritually based; my emphasis is on building your business from your inside out but that phrase is a bit airy-fairy.”I keep you passionately on purpose as you work to make a difference in the world.”  I like all those phrases, but they are not emotional enough or results oriented enough.
My blog is rather philosophical and the less concrete your business is the trickier it is to explain it.  What is “serenity,” what is “inner peace?”  Identify your benefits in concrete terms, “Sleep better at night.” “Feel the relief of being safe.”
“I’m your Idea Optimizer” won’t do for a child but it might open a conversation.  To a child I might say, “I help you take your best ideas and make something special from them that others will love.”
When you get really fundamental about how you explain your business, you will get clear and then others will get it too.

Write good cornerstone content

Someplace on your web site or blog, you need to do some educating.  You have to address the emotional need of your target community and the problems that keep them awake at night and let them know what you can do for them.  For a blog it’s your Cornerstone Content, that series of posts that lay a foundation for your reader to understand what they need and how you will provide it.
For the phrase “I help you take your best ideas and make something special from them that others will love.”
I might write a series like:
•How to choose your best ideas
•How to leverage your ideas into a profitable signature product.
•Who needs what you have to offer?
I have written:
Write a series of articles that address the concerns of your community as it relates to what you have to offer.  Show them how you can help, how their lives will be different after they use your product and service and how to recognize others that might need you too. Educate your community so they know they need you.
©2010 Cara Lumen

 

Are you Selling or Serving?

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by Cara Lumen

There are so many people out there sending emails that say “Make Money Now” or things along that line.  But they are missing the boat. People know when you are trying to just sell them something and they also know when you are deeply in service to them. Which do you think is more effective?

It’s not what you want to do it’s what they need
    
There is a very interesting balance between your passion, what you are driven to do, and how to translate that passion into something that is needed by the people you are meant to serve.  Of course you have to be passionate about what you are doing, but you also have to be passionately about the changes you are making in the lives of others.

Does your target excite you?

A long time ago when I became a Reiki Master Teacher we stood in a circle sharing about how we would take our new service out into the world.  My answer was that I was going to teach people who were already helping other people and that my work would enable them to reach even more people.  And it still is today.  

My target is entrepreneurs – people with a passion that have a lot to give and just don’t quite know how to make that happen.  It is incredibly exciting to see them focus their passion into a viable, marketable, service. Of course that’s exciting to me – I help them and they help others.  Perfect.

Corral that passion

It’s taken me a lot of years to focus my passion – I’m one of those people who keeps having ideas and is more enchanted with creating them than maintaining them.  Perhaps you know the type.  It helped tremendously when I realized that my passion was about learning and sharing what I learn with others.  But at the core of that was organizing – organizing thoughts into words that touched people’s hearts, organizing ideas into a plan of action helping people sort out their passion and their ideas and turn it into a way to touch the lives of others.

If you passion is huge, rein it in.  Keep looking beneath what you love to do for what it is about how you do it that is so appealing.  That will bring you closer to the core.

Are you selling or serving?

I put off learning about marketing because I knew I couldn’t sell anything to anyone.  I still can’t.  But I sure can help them.  I can help them find what they need to do next.  I can help them decide how to organize their marketing plan, or organize their ideas into signature products. Each email I send, each landing page I write is an invitation, an invitation to get to know me better, to check out what I’m up to and if it’s something that you need or that simply appeals to you, then let’s connect.  It’s always about inviting.  It’s about building a community that likes you and trusts you and that you love to serve.  Stop selling and start serving.  You’ll love the results.

© 2010 Cara Lumen

 

How Nimble is Your Business?

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by Cara Lumen

Suddenly the weather is affecting my personal calendar and I find myself with yet one more thing to consider when scheduling my week.  I moved from California to Kansas City and now I have to care when the next snowfall is coming.  So even though I set aside a patrician time in my schedule to go get groceries, I suddenly have to care exactly when I go according to the weather report so I’m not stomping through snow to do it. I have to keep my schedule fluid. I have to keep it flexible. And I have to be willing to change.

Watch for the latest needs of your Target Audience

We have to stay flexible in our business, too.  We have to be nimble in our response.  We have to leave room for change.  Nimble means lively, quick, and dexterous.  As an entrepreneur we have to be ready to quickly address the most recent needs of our target audience.  What do they need to know right now?  How can I offer a part or all of that knowledge?  How rapidly can I get it to them?

Economy is always a factor, it changes and people are looking for innovative, inexpensive ways to get their problem solved or the job done.  What do I do?

How can you change what you offer?

I’ve been collaborating with Judy Stewart of www.jstewartdesigns.com for a lot of years creating web sites for our clients.  I do the content development and she does the web design.  We work in DreamWeaver and we have our clients get Contribute so they can work in it too.  But a new client made me start looking at alternatives I could offer, based on what I now know.  I looked at WordPress.  I know there are a lot of free templates out there but my clients want unique, made-for-them designs and Judy can do them.  Now I have recently found another partner Adam Sayler of www.impressionengineers.com who can translate those designs into WordPress.  And suddenly, I have another version of a website to offer my clients.  And another person to collaborate with.

What new collaborative partners can you develop?

Who do you need to collaborate with to create new services and products for your clients? Adam and I are going to create a blogging course together – he knows WordPress, I know the marketing.  How can you create a Collaborative Partnership that will double the people you reach and create something you neither one can offer by yourselves. And how rapidly can you bring it into existence?

Are your systems in place and ready to move quickly?

Get your systems in place so you can respond quickly to the new needs of your clients.  Your intake forms, your invoicing system, your social media update system, your virtual team, your product development plans.  

Review your ideas regularly

It turns out I have a lot of half finished ebooks.  I know, that’s not a good thing, unless I suddenly see a new need that I have not addressed and can pull up one of those ebooks and get it out there in a week. Now that’s nimble.  And with that much of a head start it may turn into a telecourse rather rapidly.  I’m not saying to keep a lot of half-completed projects on hand, but do keep your ideas handy so you can develop them on a minute’s notice.

Be Prepared to create and adjust

Be nimble with your ability to change directions. I taught a course “How to Build a Magnetic Marketing Plan.”  I was going to turn it into a home study course.  But after I taught it I realized it needed to be a workbook so people could go through the material at their own pace.  Create and adjust.  Create and adjust.  

Nimble is about being skillful, it is about anticipating, it is about keeping your fingers on the pulse of the people you serve and stepping in quickly to fill their most current pressing need.  How nimble is your business?

© 2010 Cara Lumen