How green beans taught 10 year old me about brand strategy
Does this sound like you: Maybe you have a business idea or maybe you’ve launched. You are excited to reach as many people as possible and tell them about your service or product. Heck, you can’t wait so you yell it at the top of your voice when you climb the Hollywood Sign.
“Everyone needs this,” you think, “EVERYONE needs to hear about it.” From experience, I can tell you, you are approaching marketing all WRONG. But first, I’ll tell you a story so you understand where I’m coming from.
Let’s step back about 10 years ago, at Christmas time where 30+ people gathered at my house. Since it was my first Christmas party, I was hell bent on being the server. There I was, 10 years old, oven mitt in one hand, a serving spoon in the other, and determination on my mind.
While everyone sat, I formulated my plan to get everyone their food. I concluded I would take EVERYONE, EVERY. SINGLE. FOOD. ITEM. and ask them, “Would you like some?”
Long story short, it took me 10 minutes per dish to get through (we had over 10 choices), so after about 30 minutes my mom stopped me, thanked me for my help, patted my head, and told everyone to serve themselves. Thank God too, I wanted to eat myself.
Now, what was the point of this story? Here it is. You are me.
Imagine how different the story would have ended if instead, I lined everyone up in terms of preferences and made them come to me. I could have:
Served each person a COMPLETE plate, leaving them satisfied
2. Saved my energy running around
3. Saved massive amounts of time
My problem wasn’t that I wanted to serve food (just like every great business idea), my problem was I didn’t do it strategically. I lost precious time and effort offering green beans to 30+ guests who didn’t want them (apparently Aunt Janet didn’t know how to cook… oops… no one told me!).
Now back to you.
If you KNOW your ideal clients inside and hour, you won’t waste the time, energy, and money offering them unnecessary services and products. You want to target the EXACT people who will find value in you and your products and services.
So let’s get started crafting YOUR ideal client, because remember, if you are serving everyone, you will end up hungry and serving no one.