Once we realize the focus of our business is not about us, it opens up a gaping hole in our messaging.
So who is it all about then?
We know the correct answer is "The Customer."
But who is your customer?
Is it just anyone with money on their credit card and a pulse? Are the credentials for doing business with you that they can fog a mirror on a cold day? If that's the case, you may be in trouble of being too vague in how you market your business.
You may be at risk of what Zig Ziglar used to call a "Wandering Generality."
This entrepreneur goes from one idea to the next with no focus, no impact, and no serious income.
Who is your target?
There are a lot of questions that we kind of just gloss over when we're creating marketing collateral for people and when we're working through customer-centric marketing.
- What are they like?
- And what makes them tick?
- And where are they located?
- Are they geographically limited? Can you reach anyone across the entire world?
- Could you handle a client in New Zealand, Sweden, or anywhere in North America?
- What's their demographic, what's driving them psychologically?
It's so important to get this right. It's that essential first step to make sure you're headed in the right direction.
And this is what I realized around year two, that without clarity on who our ideal customer is, a StoryBrand message will still be confusing. You spend all that time, money and energy, working through your marketing stuff, messaging website, lead generator, and email campaign. And you only realize that the very first step was wrong. And then you have to do it all over again. What a tragic moment to recognize that even though you are a StoryBrand fan and you're excited about it, you paid all the money; and you still came out of it with a confusing message. You started with a confusing message, but without a clear idea of your hero, you're still at risk of having a confusing message.
Get the Who right, and then the rest of it will flow out of that. The journey of appropriately applying the StoryBrand framework to your business begins with committing to serving a Who. Why not try to reach everyone? Why do we have to specify? Why do we struggle with the commitment to a who? There are many reasons. Let's just go through a few of them. For many of us, commitment is scary. You think, "Why would I commit to just one person? Am I saying no to everyone else?"
And anybody married will know that it's not very empowering to walk into a room of people and stare around and say, "No, I can't be with them, no, no, no, no, no." Instead, you look at your spouse or partner, and you say, "yes, I'm committing to them." Like this is exciting to me. And as a result, the relationship has a lot more opportunity to grow than just trying to have a shallow relationship with everybody. That was worth the price of the course right there. I'm not sure who that's for, but there is lifelong value in commitment.
Commitment is a four-letter word for some.
Like you could say, I could be with any person in this room; why would I choose one? You realize that in a committed, lifelong relationship, you can get to know somebody so much better. And the commitment is worth it. Sure, commitment can feel scary, but it shouldn't be because when you commit to a Who, you're developing a relationship with them. You're not saying no to business. You're saying yes to a group of people that you're going to devote yourself to helping. So in the early days, I don't think you should be saying no to many businesses, especially when you have bills to pay and mouths to feed.
The big picture is that it's far more rewarding if you can commit to a who. In the early stage, anyone who's an entrepreneur and has started a business knows you'll make money from anybody, but that's not the long-term play. Instead, the long-term play is to serve a niche, to be devoted to helping them, committed to solving problems for them, delivering excellent outcomes for them, and then letting them reward you with money, fulfillment, and purpose in your work.
Another reason we struggle to commit to a niche is because we don't know our customers well enough - that's a huge thing when we haven't taken time to understand our people. Software people struggle with this a lot. There, they spend their days engineering a product. They're not listening to what the public is saying or what the market is saying because they're just so busy with their head down developing software or some sort of product.
As a result, you end up being a mile wide and an inch deep.
As my mentor once told me,
"Jon, if you try to be everything to everyone, you're going to mean very little to a whole lot of people."
So I would instead do the opposite. I'd rather mean a lot to a few people and just let the rest of the people have their own opinions as it may be.
Another reason we don't commit is that it's easier to be a generalist. What's harder: Taking the time to listen to people or just doing what I think they want. As a married man, I have a lot easier time talking than I do listening. I would get so much further if I could just learn to listen. But I'm better at talking. Listening is hard. But with listening, you get understanding. Shotguns are easier than sniper rifles. So it's a lot easier just to shoot at a target and just have the bullets just spraying everywhere and see what you hit rather than have to painstakingly aim a sniper rifle. And it takes effort and a little more thinking than just shooting a shotgun.
I understand if you're thinking, "I don't want to say no to people." On the other hand, I'm not sure about this idea of niche niching down or niching down. Some of the reasons are listed here, but maybe not -it is scary, but it is far more rewarding. And the reason why I know that is because I've spent the last two years studying this and I have enjoyed it.
I love this idea of businesses devoting themselves to the service of a who and then your Whos rewarding you back.
Your business exists for the service of others and for your satisfaction.
You can find meaning and purpose by showing up at work as you put energy into helping a specific group of people who are struggling with a problem. Without any solution, they'll never get better. They're only going to be more miserable. That's where you come into their lives.
You show up.
You're there to do something to make them less sad and more fulfilled and happy. Doing that will bring you joy. It sounds like work but on the other end of it is joy. That's how I've found a renewed joy in business. In this broken world, people are all facing something, and businesses show up to help.
I love how customer-centric marketing works with this idea that everybody is a hero trying to win their story. And they're looking for us as guides to resonate with this idea that we show up every day to work as a guide to help heroes win.
So far, we've explored some of the reasons why people are afraid to commit to a particular Who.
Now let's talk about the reasons why I think it's the best way forward to develop and scale a business.
1. You stay close to a market.
Every business is at-risk or has this fear of being disrupted, right? Technology is changing so fast. Out there somewhere, there's a hungry entrepreneur, starting a business, buying a domain right now who wants to eat your very lunch.
They want to steal your idea, your customers or improve on what you're already doing. And so nobody wants to be disrupted.
How do you avoid being disrupted? You stay close to the market, and you keep your ear and heart close to the market. When you do this, you know what the market is asking for and what the market is struggling with. You can hear their longing for a better way and you can be constantly evaluating whether your company has the right solution.
Our job is to listen to them and to provide what they need to win their story.
Now, if you try to listen to everybody, there's just a whole lot of murmuring and chattering.
There's this area in London I liked to visit when I was studying in England. It's really cool. It's called Speaker's Corner. And anybody who's got a gripe about anything around the world will just go there and they will talk about it. They speak in any kind of language about any kind of topic. So everyone gets on their own soapbox. It's just chaos sometimes at Speaker's Corner. But imagine taking one of those speakers aside and having a conversation one on one. You could really get to know them and get somewhere.
That's what it is to take a who aside in a world of chaos and noise, and everybody's on their soapbox, and you're taking a group of people aside and saying, what is it that's bugging you?
How can I be a part of the solution to make your life better? How can I be your guide to help you in your story? I think that's so important.
The reason why we need a who is because we need to have those conversations with a group of people because we can't help everybody, but we can help somebody.
2. It saves you time and helps you scale your business.
If you're trying to do a new thing with every new client, it's going to take a lot of time. Your profitability will stink. Recall earlier how I said that it's excusable when you're just starting a business to be a little vague with your target audience. We all get a grace period to find out who were are good at serving and what we do best. I remember when I was first starting a marketing agency. There was nothing I would say no to. You need a WordPress website? Sure. I've never done one before but they have Youtube Tutorials. Logo design? Sure. Google Ads? Yeah, I'll figure that out. Hide a body for you? Why not. It's in the premium package though.
The problem is that you spend the whole time learning how to do all these new things over and over. When you don't know the industry, you have to do a ton of research each time. This will frustrate your team, slow you down and cut into your profits.
If you've ever tried to lead a team where you're just offering all kinds of services all over the place, it creates chaos. Staff won’t stick around in chaos for long. They want order, structure and consistency. Without these systems, you're never gonna be able to scale at all. Because you're trying to do all kinds of things. You're spread thin, like jam over too much toast.
Having a clear Who with a system in place where everyone on your team can deliver consistent results helps you move a lot faster. The only way you can do that is to have a clearly defined person that you help with a clearly defined problem that you can solve with an outcome that you deliver every single time. And you just get good at that. That's how starting with Who helps you scale a business.
3. You can emerge as an industry expert.
When you’re an expert, new customers come to you. When people are coming to you, you can charge what you're worth because you're delivering a better result for your clients. Not only that but you’re saving them and yourself time.
4. A well-defined niche helps you communicate your message clearly.
Let me take you back to my story about Speakers Corner. Imagine trying to talk to all the people there at the same time. What language are you going to choose? It's impossible to speak to everybody. But if you choose one language and one message, then you can clearly communicate your point. And if you try to do all kinds of different messaging to all different kinds of people, you're going to end up reaching none of them. Having that clear message to the clearly defined hero is going to help you in your communication because you only have one type of customer. Can it be done where you have two types of customers? Of course it can. Companies can't be everywhere. Let's say you had a great message and wanted to be a guest on a podcast to get the message out there. Which podcast do you choose? Do you try to be a guest on all the podcasts? Well, of course not. That's not gonna work, right? So you want to, for the example of the podcast, ask which podcasts in my industry are best for me? That leads to our next point.
5. We have the opportunity to become an authority in our space.
No one wants to be a celebrity where you can’t go out for dinner without someone asking for autographs.
I guess you don’t want to be chased by paparazzi for the rest of you life. But what if you could get invited to speak at conferences, be a guest on podcasts and have people taking you out for nice dinners and then picking up the tab because they were so excited to spend time with you.
Who would argue that it is easier to sell something to someone who already knows you, likes you, and trusts you than to have to convince someone you’re the best option for them. You can't just show up one day and earn that kind of recognition. It takes time and being intentional. You have to show up in season and out of season, and slowly become known as the person to trust in your industry.
After you've done that for a while, your Whos will start to seek you out and demand that you work with them because they need the expertise that you offer.
6. You'll have a clear focus on where to show up.
"Where do I go to reach more customers?" I hear it all the time. To be an authority like we mentioned, you need to show up where your Whos are at and deliver value to them. But where do you show up? For example, you may be thinking "what social media channels should I be on? Should I be dancing on Tik TOK? Should I be sharing my sage advice on LinkedIn? Should I be posting on Twitter? Or should I be in a part of Facebook groups?" You could be everywhere, but that's not going to be effective because you have this limitation as a human of being in one place at one time. You need to be where the people are that you want to help. Let's use another hunting analogy. We've already talked about guns so this lesson is going to be cancelled anyway. If you had a ticket to hunt moose, which in Canada is a popular pastime, you need to go where the moose are. You don't just show up with a shotgun in any kind of random forest and just start shooting everything that that's moving.
The hunter thinks "Where can I strategically position myself? What's the best time? How should I dress? What sounds do I make to draw them?" And then you're going to find your moose (sorry for all the PETA people out there). Maybe you don't like my hunting analogy, but it is helpful for understanding where should we be showing up.
7. It makes for a rewarding life.
We spend around one third of our lives at work. You and your team show up for work every day with the potential to transform lives. Stats are overwhelming that only 20% of the global workforce feels engaged at work. I wonder how much more engaged we'd all be if we were connected to a customer story. It's a story about how someone had a problem, then they called your company...and you made their life a little better. They’ve improved their health, or made a bit more money to take their family on a vacation, or they stopped fighting with their spouse...whatever it is that you do, And if you and your team know and recite this customer story, everyone will find it rewarding, and they will stay engaged each day.
It's not about the money at that point or who's got a better ping pong table in the staff room, or if you offer a fair-trade coffee or not. Whats really going to matter is if they feek like they're a part of this customer's story? Are they a part of this company, having a role in serving this customer?
That's how people find joy and meaning in their work.
8. You get better referrals.
When you have a clearly defined who, they are your favorite customers and they can replicate themselves, right? Wouldn't you love to have more of your favorite people and less of your fewer favorite people, right?
So imagine if the people that you provide the best outcomes for because your processes were clear, your messaging was bang on, and they just started repopulating it like bunnies. All of a sudden, you had your best client after best client eager to hire you. That's the utopia of business, right? And you just want to have great people. You'll have better referrals because your best people will be referring you to their friends who are also very similar to them.
I'm sure you're convinced by now, but we have another reason to focus on your Who.
9. You increase the value of your business.
A business that has a clearly defined target market is a lot easier to sell to anyone looking to buy a company that reaches their target demographic. A company may want access to your clients and they'll buy your company for it. If your list is too broad, it won't generate interest from a company that is focused. You can actually have one of those great exits that entrepreneurs dream about because you've found a way to make a great impact that led to a great payout one day to a company that was looking to grow into that market, and this is the last point.
10. You commit to a niche for search engine optimization purposes.
If people are searching for, let's say a lawyer in Kansas City. If you're a lawyer in Kansas City and your Who is someone in the area looking for a lawyer, maybe a personal injury attorney in Kansas City, then you can actually make sure that you have those terms in the right place, ready to show up for anyone searching. But if you're too general, you're not going to have the right words or content to show up when someone is looking for something specific.
You can actually build all of your marketing and all of your web foundation on presence around the terms, questions and issues your Who is working through. And so the clearer you are, the better your SEO will be as well. The first thing an SEO expert is going to ask you is who is the end-user of your product. The next thing they’re going to do is build out your content around what that person is searching for so that you show up on a search.
There you have ten compelling reasons why it’s better to get clear on your Who and commit to helping them.
How To Find Your Niche
Let's work on putting some pen to paper when it comes to finding your own niche. I want you to start thinking through the demographics of your Who. And there's so many different points of interest for understanding demographics. There’s a demographic for every business. Pick a segment of society you help best. Maybe your Who is defined by age. Or your services apply to people in a certain area, or maybe young moms with kids that are between one and five. If you have a product or a service or something that you offer, or it's preschool, grade school, seniors or something like that.
Of course, all the various industries have their own specific problems. And the thing is that even in those industries, as people are solving problems, it just opens up more problems, right?
I think of some people like if you're a chiropractor or physical therapist or in some kind of healthcare, you're going to be kind of limited to a location. Whereas if you have a service, internet service-based or something, then that's not a factor at all. I think of focussing on different lifestyles.
Are they active? Are they sedentary? Are they desk jockeys? Maybe it is something they do for their leisure that segments them for you. You could focus on people that are maybe fishermen or any of the different hobbies out there. Maybe it's some something with travel-related or you have a course for piano players. There's so many things that people are doing that could be done better if they just had you as their guide. You could help them in the form of a course or a product or a service, something that you can do to solve this problem for those people.
You can pick an industry and say, what are the biggest problems in this industry, maybe the size of business, right? So maybe you could pick a certain industry and say, we're going to work with only startups, or are we going to only work with global enterprises? You could also distinguish on the rate at which the company is growing. You could put “Fast-Growing” in there. My mentor only does consulting for fast-growing companies. He has a history of helping them manage their people when they are trying to scale. There are some very obvious problems that fast growth companies face and he helps them with the people part of it.
To work with this mentor of mine, you have to show an amount of growth and employee size for him to work with you. I know why he does that. I think it's pretty brilliant. He doesn't want to work with people that are not fast-growing, because he doesn’t have the right temperament for it. Companies plateauing or in decline hang on too tight to their wallets and tend to be too skeptical. They won’t pay a premium for his services. And as a result, he just says, "you know, you're not my ideal client. I focus on solving the problems that come with fast growth in a company". And he knows what those problems are, so he can pinpoint them on those calls and say, "you're probably struggling with ABC." They say, "yeah, yeah, I am.". He says "You'd like to have this happen. 1, 2, 3. I can deliver that for you." And that's all he does all day, is just show up for those fast-growing companies. And they all love it.
By this point, we’ve only looked at demographics...this is the boring part of your Who. Next module we're going to look at the psychoanalytical side of your, who, like what drives them and what's holding them back from getting what they want and all that. But for now, we're just thinking, “Who are these people, what do they do, and where are they located?”
Five Clarifying Questions
Before we finish, I'm going to ask five clarifying questions for you to get you clarity on finding a Who. I encourage you to take some time to reflect on each question.
1. Who do you enjoy helping the most?
Who are the people and businesses that you love working with? Like when they show up in your calendar, when they book consultation calls - you just light up like a Christmas tree, you just love it and you want to help them more with whom have I had success? You should enjoy these people because you’re going to be hanging out at their conferences and pouring out your time and resources to helping them. You should enjoy that part.
2. With whom have you had success in the past?
You may pick somebody that you assume you’ll enjoy working with. For example, “I love working with billionaires because they have really nice conferences, write the biggest checks!”. But have you had success with billionaires who actually hired you? It's one thing to get the idea of who you'd like to help, but who are you actually good at helping? You know how to solve their problems and it comes naturally for you. It's a crisis for them, but for you, it's just another Thursday morning.
That's when you know you're in your sweet spot in your business. You can just show up and you help people without even thinking. They're like, “Wow, that's amazing. That's so great.” And you're just like, “I don't know what I did". You're just telling them what you do, what you're trained in. What is a fog to the client, you can see clearly. They're just blown away. Those are the kinds of people that you'll get a ton of joy in helping them as you give them successful outcomes.
3. Who do you understand the most?
To understand them is to know their pain points, and you care about solving them. You know how to solve them. You know their struggles and you can finish their sentences. You understand what makes them tick and what keeps them up at night. And then you can understand them - they love it when you can articulate their problems even better than they can oh my goodness. "Have you been reading my mail? You totally described what I was going through. I haven't even been able to describe it like that." That's how you build trust. That's how people trust you in business. They want someone who understands them.
4. Who are you passionate about helping?
Once you solve your financial problems, you need to have passion to show up at work every single day and do it over and over again. If you want to make a career out of it, you need to be passionate about these people and excited to think of ways to help more of them.
When you're passionate about a Who, you dream about new possibilities for them. That's where you get excited about the bigger story that your life is telling as a guide. You spend free thoughts imagining how to make a bigger impact in an industry. How can you and your team help an entire industry? How much better is the world because you showed up to work and served these people? Who are you passionate about helping?
The fifth question we need to ask is a sensitive one because it deals with money...and you do deserve to get paid well for doing a great job.
5. Who pays you the most for what you do?
If you had the choice, why not get paid double to do the exact same thing you do right now? Who wouldn't want to have more free time to spend time with your family or take better vacations or be more philanthropic? Why not take it if it's there, because these people will increase your joy, and why not show up for them in helping them if they're paying you well for it.
If your Who doesn’t have access to cash or is not willing to pay you for it, you have a hobby. Hobbies are great but without compensation as a Thank You for your services, you’re not going to get far in your career...or anywhere because you won’t be able to afford the cost of getting there.
So you could volunteer your time, you could make the bare minimum, or you could make more for the same amount of work. Some Whos will pinch every penny and pay you late every time. Some will try to pay you the least possible and make your life miserable through an entire project. And some people, for the exact same amount of work, will pay double, no problem. I'd take the third one. Even if the outcomes are the same. Even if you’re not motivated by money, if you have two choices of a Who, pick the one who pays more and give away the extra.
If you have clients, you already know that when you charge high ticket, those clients tend to be like, "I'll just write the check and get the problem solved." Those are the people I love helping the most, to be honest with you.
What did you decide on your Who? Should I say, "Who did you decide?" I hope that you've been processing what you've been hearing and thinking about your ideal client throughout this time. Maybe going through those questions slowly will bring out a frontrunner for Who your company will choose to serve. It's a commitment, and you have to go for it. Like any relationship, commitment is the best way to grow together. Without commitment, you'll never achieve the depth and effectiveness that you know you want from your work
Review
Today we have covered a lot of ground. First, we looked at the importance of starting with a clear Who. Then we addressed some of the fears that may come up when you commit to a Who. Then I went through ten compelling reasons why it's better to choose a niche and focus on serving that community. Finally, we got specific, and I asked you questions guiding you to choose someone that you would focus on through the duration of this course.
Thanks for taking this in and for taking good notes. If you're watching this, you are my who. I want to help you get clarity on who your ideal client is and how you can show up and help them so that they can win. And you can feel like you've lived an empowering, meaningful life of purpose at work.
