I was talking to one of our Learning Community members, who had just made a long list of client issues that she had worked with over the last couple of years.
“I’ve worked with people on X, and Y, and Z. And also with E and F and G…”
All of them were legitimate issues, things that she could genuinely help them with. The struggle was, how to get them all into one marketing message?
The first filter.
In looking at the different kinds of clients and their issues, the first thing I asked was which ones she most liked helping people with. The truth was, she liked all of them, but there were a few that didn’t jazz her completely.
But, still, it was hard to choose, because sincere human beings needing help, and the magic that happens with a client… what’s not to like? How can you choose not to help them?
So, we turned to the second filter.
The question is: which of those clients were outliers? When we looked at all of her clients and their issues, the vast majority of them had to do with women and reproductive health of some sort. There was only one older man who had an issue unrelated to all of that.
In the early stages of a business, before you’ve done intentional, heart-centered marketing and built up networks of relationships that bring referrals, your clients tend to be a grab-bag of whoever you end up connecting with.
Which is beautiful! You end up making wonderful connections. In the very beginning of Heart of Business I had clients where there had been an intention to provide business coaching and healing, but a lot of it was actually relationship healing with their life partner. And I had a corporate executive I was coaching for awhile. And also a non-profit I was helping with fundraising.
All over the place, and I loved them all. But whoa, it was kinda crazy, and it made marketing impossible, because there was no unified message I could put out. People didn’t know how to describe the weird Sufi healing stuff I was doing along with the business support, and I didn’t know how to talk about my business.
Sound familiar? But, the truth is, the majority of people I worked with were solo practitioners in business for themselves. These nonprofit/corporate executives were outliers. Not the majority, not even half, and not my sweet spot.
One big mistake I see business owners make that keep their marketing from moving into momentum, is trying to find a marketing message, a way of talking about what they are up to, that somehow includes EVERYBODY they’ve chanced to work with.
Moving your business into momentum requires intentionality and choice.
Most of the time, when I help clients with this, if they are willing to set aside the outliers, the people they love working with, but who, in actuality, are pretty rare birds as clients, they end up with a solid 80% who have a lot of similarity, a real cohesiveness and identity as a group.
Letting go doesn’t mean turning them away
You don’t have to fire the outliers. You don’t have to turn them away if they come knocking. You can work with whomever you like to!
But, in letting go of the outliers within your marketing process and messaging, it means you don’t have to fumble when talking about what you do. You don’t have to struggle with a website that is basically meaningless and boring, trying to speak to everyone, so it speaks compellingly to no one.
It’s not even that risky, since you don’t have to fire any clients. You just allow yourself to acknowledge what’s probably already true: that a majority of your clients belong to an identifiable group, which becomes visible when you move the outliers out of the way.
Is this true for you?
It’s not true for absolutely everyone, but it’s more common than you think. What about you? Have you been trying to gather outliers, obscuring the recognizable group that is the majority?
I’d love to hear how this lands with you!
With love,
Mark Silver, M.Div.
Heart of Business, Inc.
Every act of business can be an act of love.
P.S. The Waiting List
I mentioned our Learning Community, which is temporarily closed, while we care for and integrate the new members who joined us in February. We’ll be opening it again in early summer.
If you want to be at the head of the line when we do, then join our waiting list.
We have a waiting list, and those who are on the waiting list get first dibs when we open. And, if any members complete (as they occasionally do) while we’re closed, the waiting list may have access to join before we officially re-open.
Just fill out the form below, and you’ll be automatically added to our waiting list.
If you’re wanting to know what the Learning Community is, click here
Just one more spot, twice.
I have just one more spot, twice. I have one individual client spot, and one spot open in my small coaching group.
If you’re interested, hit reply and tell me about your business and situation, and we can have a chat.
