‘You Talkin’ to ME?!’ – Market Well to Sell, Sell, Sell.
Part 3/4 of the multi-passionate personal brand-based founders guide to a business that prints cash, serves well and sets you free.
This is Part Three in a series to help you set up a personal brand for success. You can view Part One here, Part Two here and Part Four here. If you’re enjoying this content, subscribe to get notified for more.
🎤 Prefer to listen to this one? Click here.
🤳 Follow me on Instagram here.
When I first quit my corporate job, it was to kickstart a career as a freelance social media manager.
It sounded so sexy on paper.
Work for yourself! Make your own money! Do it from anywhere!
Oh, how the reality did NOT live up to the brochure in my head.
Within days, I had a full-to-the-brim client roster.
‘Yay!’, I thought for all of two seconds — until it dawned on me that all I’d ACTUALLY managed to do was to swap my one boss in corporate for seven more.
Worse still, THESE bosses (I mean, clients) all came with with unreasonable expectations and a penchant for yelling mini-orders at me all day long.
Within weeks, my days were stacked and my income capped.
I felt like I was stuck on the inside of a 24/7 high intensity aerobic workout class without an exit door. I was posting, commenting, posting, commenting at all hours, all the time, without a break because SOCIAL MEDIA NEVER STOPS and angry Karens post hateful comments on client posts at 2am and yes, you need to fix it now Stevie!
Safe to say, that stint didn’t last long.
By month three, I was so far over it.
Happily, I’d managed saved some pennies along the way (I had no choice, I had no free time to spend money on anyway).
And so, I did what any good aspiring digital nomad would and hopped on a plane digi-nomad mecca, Canggu, Bali (it wasn’t so overrun with scooters, traffic and Insta-models then, I was an early adopter!) to somehow figure out how to cobble together an online course so I could blow that social media management popsicle stand forever (cue evil laugh — muahahahaha!)
Looking back on it all, I can see all of the ‘newbie founder’ mistakes I made that got me to that point of wanting to burn it all to the ground.
For starters, I’d picked the wrong business model.
As any good social media manager worth their salt knows, you generally max out at about five clients – and that’s assuming a heavy 40 to 50 hour a week workload.
Unless you hire staff or get away from charging by the hour, it’s tough going to make much more than minimum wage or work anything resembling a normal work week with anything more.
But more than that?
I’d botched my marketing, hard.
I had no niche — ‘I do social media!’, I’d boldly proclaimed.
Yeah cool, you and every other second person on the Internet Stevie. What I did was not special, it did not stand out and I was as much a commodity as a tub of butter.
I had no defined market — ‘I help everyone!’, I’d say.
Only, anyone with a heartbeat and a credit card isn’t exaccccctly a recipe for super tight messaging and positioning. I had no idea what problem I solved, I had no specific person in mind and I was about as invisible as a green frog on a mossy tree.
Oh, and also? I had no idea. About anything. So there was that, too.
And so, I’d ended up with a heap of crappy clients who all paid me peanuts (because commodities compete on price), who all did wildly different things (so I needed to reinvent the wheel and all of my processes for every single one) and REALLY NO WONDER I HATED BEING A SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER IN THOSE CIRCUMSTANCES — WHO WOULDN’T!
Fortunately, over time I learnt.
Oh, did I learn.
(A baptism of fire, I’d call it).
A few years after starting my little business though, things were looking up.
My Canggu stint was the turning point.
From there?
I successfully shifted business models.
I learnt (the very hard way) how to market like an absolute mothertrucker.
And I nailed the whole ‘online business founder’ thang to the tune of back-to-back six and multi-six figure launches $100k months and thousands of students.
So, what changed?
Simply, this:
I discovered that the secret to great marketing is actually hidden in its name, and also that up until that point I was doing it WOEFULLY.
Good marketing — marketing that sells your stuff? Requires that you speak very directly to a specific market.
It’s positioning your offer and message to them.
Market-ing.
It’s NOT enough just to have a niche, and to go three layers deep (I covered this in Part Two of this series here). You must then TAKE that niche and position it to solve ONE PERSONS PROBLEM.
THAT’S THE SECRET.
The problem, in my early days?
That I had a kind-of niche (but not really) — social media.
But then, I just started shouting that that’s what I did from the rooftops.. and it fell as flat as a pancake.
Like, NO-ONE wants social media.
Just like they don’t want a diet plan. Or a marketing strategy. Or a productivity system.
What they DO want is to have their SPECIFIC problem solved.
Aaaaand if your message doesn’t speak to that problem and instead bangs on about WHAT you do, you’ll completely miss them – because ‘them’ is actually everyone, and by speaking in broad generalities? You’re missing the BIG opportunity to tailor your message to one specific audience.
Example of NOT doing this well:
You – “Hi! I help people with their social media!”
‘Them’:
The real estate agent – “Sorry, I need to double my real estate appraisals”.
The author – “Sorry, I need to increase my audience to get a book proposal”.
The solar provider – “Sorry, I need more leads for my solar company”.
You get the point.
Instead, you want to niche — by going three layers deep and picking a unique vehicle.
And THEN, you want to pick a specific market that has a problem it can solve.
And THEN.. you want to speak to THAT.
Dat’s the magic! 🪄
Examples of this done really, really well:
“I help [specific market] luxury real estate agents [specific result from solving a problem] double their appraisals with a DM-focused LinkedIn strategy targeting high net worth individuals!”
Or..
“I help [specific market]self-published authors [specific result from solving a problem] secure book deals by building the level of author platform the top five publishing houses require from non-fiction writers”.
See what I did?
I took the vehicle, and I positioned it to solve a specific problem that one specific market has.
That’s market-ing, baby!
Approaching it this way works for two reason.
Firstly, it makes your marketing message message hyper-resonant.
You’re talking to a solution to a specific problem they have (‘getting a book deal!”, “doubling appraisals!”), and you’re able to use language that addresses that.
It’s the difference between saying “I help you get more leads with social media!”, and “I help you double your appraisals with a DM focused LinkedIn Strategy”.
Yes, the latter excludes a sub-section of the market – but that’s okay, and it’s kind of the point because by doing so you’re making it so damn clear that you CAN help the specific market you’re lasering in on.
You’re not talking in boring, vague generalities – your language has colour! And vibrancy! And it feels MADE FOR THEM!
Secondly, it meets your market where they’re at.
Not everyone is ready for your solution when you offer it.
In fact, some may not even know they need it.
Imagine this:
You’re driving along, and your car suddenly shudders to a stop on the side of the road.
“Oh nooooo”, you think.
“I KNEW I should have gotten the fuel gauge fixed! I must be out of fuel”.
And so, you jump out of the car, lock it up and start walking the twenty minutes back to the nearest gas station to fill up your jerry can. The attendant is kind enough to drive you back, and waits for you to fill it up and get started again.
Only – that doesn’t fix the problem at all.
Instead? The attendant pops the bonnet and finds that the battery has died.
Whoops! You’d gone to get petrol, but the problem was ACTUALLY a flat battery.
In marketing speak, that little scenario right there is a classic ‘customer journey’ fail.
You were what is called ‘problem aware’ — you knew your car had stopped.
But you weren’t ‘solution aware’ — you thought petrol was the issue, not a flat battery!
This customer journey and where your FUTURE BUYERS are on it matters so much when it comes to nailing your marketing message.
I’ll keep this bit short, because it involves some marketing jargon — but it’s important, so bear with me.
There are four stages of the customer journey.
Unaware: Someone has a problem, but they’re not aware of it or not really motivated to solve it.
Problem Aware: That person becomes aware that they have a problem, and they start actively looking for a way to solve it. They’re not quite yet sure of the right solution to it though, so they might be testing out or researching different options.
Solution Aware: The person – through trial and error, or research – becomes aware of the RIGHT solution, and starts actively looking for the right someone or something to buy to solve it.
Product Aware: The person is aware of YOUR offer within that solution category and is deciding whether to buy it.
In our little mock scenario you were problem aware – you knew the car had broken down.
But, you weren’t yet solution aware – you thought walking for twenty minutes to pick up some more fuel would solve it.
And so, if someone were to tell you that they had the best battery on the planet – you wouldn’t want it in the first place, because you’d THINK you needed more fuel.
And so, the key to great marketing is to:
a) Pick a niche (aka vehicle aka what you do);
b) Pick a specific market;
c) Find a problem that market has that your niche can solve; and
d) Speak to that problem in your marketing, NOT to the niche.
In other words, the VEHICLE is not the thing you amplify in your marketing message.
The PROBLEM is.
Your people KNOW they have problem. They might not yet know your vehicle is the best way to solve it (and if you just derpy derpy blab on about it, you’re basically invisible to them because they don’t even know they need your thing).
So, that covers WHY picking a specific market and speaking to their problem in your marketing matters so much.
Now, let’s dive into the step-by-step of how to do it.
Part One: Pick a Specific Market to Serve
1. Brainstorm Markets That Have a Problem Your Vehicle Can Solve.
Once you’re clear on your three layers deep niche (covered in Part Two of this series), make a big list of different markets that you could help with it.
Example:
Let’s say that you have narrowed down your niche to weight loss by creating healthy packed lunches that are better than take-out (Health > Weight Loss > Lunch Prep).
Here’s a few markets that niche could serve:
White Collar Professional Men.
Perimenopausal Women.
(And you’d list more here).
2. List Their Problems
Then, list out the specific nuanced problems that market has that you could solve.
Example:
White Collar Professional Men. Their specific problems related to weight loss might include sitting for long hours, limited time outside of long work outs to work out.
Perimenopausal Women. Their specific problems related to weight loss might include hormonal issues making it more difficult to shift weight, declining muscle mass due to aging or trying to manage a full family and work life and incorporate health and wellbeing.
You might want to conduct some market research, either online or in person (preferred!) to gain this intel.
Part Two: Make Sure It’s the RIGHT Market
Just as important as serving a specific market is making sure it’s the right now!
Pick the wrong market, and you’ll constantly feel like you’re trying to sell ice to eskimos.
Pick the right one, and as long as your message is specific and resonate they’ll be beating down your door to pay you attention and give you money.
Here’s how to do it:
1) Pick a Market With a Moniker
Make sure to pick a market that is easily accessible.
The best way to do this is to pick a market that already calls itself something — in other words, they already have a moniker.
This will make it infinitely easier to find groups of them,.
Examples:
Real Estate Agents
Surfers
Postpartum Mums
Watercolour Artists
All markets with monikers. And all of which likely already gather together, or read publications specific to them, or hang out online or in person in communities together.
An example of a market WITHOUT a moniker?
Tired mums.
People with bloat.
Uninspired women.
2) Make Sure Others Are Serving That Market
Make sure other people are successfully serving the market you want to serve.
Snoop around.
What other people, places and publications that speak directly to that market?
People: Are there online groups, communities, forums etc that cater to that market? Are there other personal brands that speak to it?
Places: Are there conferences, events or associations that cater to the market?
Publications: Are there podcasts, blogs, YouTube channels, online publications or other outlets that specifically cater to the market?
If so, it’s evidence that the market is already being served.
This is a good thing!
3) Pick a Profitable Market
It’s lovely to have a personal brand that serves others – in fact, that’s the ultimate goal!
But, you want to make money too.
So, be careful to pick a profitable market that is going to maximise your chances of doing so.
To be clear, though — picking a profitable market doesn’t mean marketing to rich people.
Instead, it means picking a market that spends on the problem you want to solve.
The subtle, important difference here is that they value getting the problem solved and they; and therefore that they are willing and able to spend more in that particular area than they would in other areas.
We all have areas where this is the case.
For me, it’s skincare.
Why?
Firstly, it solves what I perceive to be an urgent, painful problem for me – post 40, I want to slow down the aging process and look my best for my age. And secondly, I’m just wildly passionate about it in general – over and above other things in my life.
For that reason, I’m WILLING to allocate more of my spend to that specific area.
I’m also more ABLE to than I was in, say, my early twenties. My income is higher, I have more disposable cash and I am able to allocate it freely.
That’s what you want.
The easiest way to make sure you are choosing a profitable market is to look for evidence that that market you want to serve is already paying for solutions to the problem you want to solve.
To find this out, simply look for competition! Competition is GOOD — it means people are already spending money. No competition is baaaad. If no-one is making money solving the problem you want to solve for the market you want to solve it for, there’s likely a reason for it.
Part Three: Create a Positioning Statement Tailored To Your Specific Market
And now, for the pièce de résistance!
When you talk about what you do, the secret is to focus on the problem you solve for the market you have chosen — and simply include the niche/vehicle as the way you solve it.
The hero is the problem.
The way you solve it is just the supporting act.
Example:
White Collar Professional Men: “I help white-collar workers prepare packed lunches that help them lose 1kg a week without leaving their desk”.
Perimenopausal Women: “I help perimenopausal women gain prepare protein-rich packed lunches that help them maintain muscle mass throughout all of the hormonal shifts of their forties and fifties”.
And that, my friends, is how you position well to sell, sell, sell!
And so, there you have it!
That’s a wrap on Part Three of our series on how to set a personal brand-based business up for big money, big success and big impact from the get-go.
And in Part Three, we covered POSITIONING by choosing a specific market, and tailoring your marketing message to solve their problem (quite literally, market-ing!)
In the next installment in this series, we’ll cover how to take your (now) beautifully defined personal brand and give it a talkaboutable EDGE. This is the icing on the personal brand-building cake, and will bake SERIOUS BUZZ right into the very foundations of it.
Subscribe now to get it delivered to your inbox the second it drops!
Prefer to watch? Subscribe to Youtube here:
Oh, and let me know what you are thinking about the series so far!
Loving it? HATING IT? Have questions about how it all works? I’m here for you in the comments! 👇
This was great! I too started out as a social media manager so I totally resonate with the first part of this article. lol I traded one boss in for 20!!
I love this Stevie! That’s a big lesson I learned in marketing as well! How you position yourself is everything. It’s subtle, but if you get it wrong, it can stagnate your entire business.💪💪