How many times have you been to a networking event and when someone asks you, "what do you do?", you totally freeze. Or word vomit.

Or maybe you're updating your website or your bio and you feel like something is always missing when you describe what you do. This is so common!

It can be really hard as the person who markets your business and delivers in your business, to zoom out and condense everything that you do for people into one concise, specific statement that attracts the right people.

I usually find that the more complex the business or the offer is the harder it seems for the business owner to summarize this in a way that means something to the right person, and feels authentic.

It's kind of like the saying "You can't see the forest for the trees." You're so entrenched in the delivery, and the details of your business that it can be really hard to back up and meet your client where they're at, which is not in the trenches with you.

It's experiencing the problem that you solve. I see this gap a lot in personal brands, and it's because people tend to talk to their audience like they've already bought in- You're trying to serve them through your content because everyone tells you to give value... right?

But you've got to back up a little bit. You've got to serve them in a way that says that you're the best person to help them solve this problem. Not to try to get them the full transformation through your content or your podcast.

This 4 part, simple framework is going to hit multiple pillars of your brand message, which is super important when it comes to attracting the right type of people.

Before we dig in: Don't get frustrated with yourself If you come up against some resistance when it comes to answering certain questions; it's not uncommon for you to have multiple things to choose from when you start putting these pieces together. You might find yourself waffling between serving two people, solving two problems, or maybe even delivering two different things.

As you go through this, I want you to consider a few things:

• What do you love delivering? (Regardless of what you can or are making money at)
• What do you need to do market research around? (If something is really hard to answer, or you simply don't know, ask your people.)

Part One: Who do you serve?

The worst thing that you can do here is keep this conversation really surface level and try to broaden up who you work with and try to be really broad. When we try to talk to everyone, we can not get specific enough to really resonate with any one person. If they can't resonate, and self identify with what you're saying, they're going to hire someone else to help them with their problem who they're 100% sure understands them.

1. Use one internal descriptor to describe your ideal client.

2. Use one external descriptor to describe your ideal client.

Examples:

You're a coach who works with ambitious women in business, their most prominent internal characteristic that relates them to you is the ambitious part, right? The niche that you work with on the outside is the woman in business part. 

You're a graphic designer who works with bespoke travel brands. The bespoke part kind of gives you the vibe and the travel brand is the literal descriptor of the person that you're working with externally.

So you can see how we're not only including our niche, but who is a good fit based on either a value or an internal characteristic- for us. 

If you're having trouble landing on the one adjective to describe them, try to zoom out a bit. Think about what characteristic makes them the best fit for your brand for your brand. 

Is it that they're overwhelmed? Is it something values-based like they're a Christian woman? Is it something, um, more like mental? Is it ADHD? Is it being Euro divergent? So don't overthink this. This can be really as simple or complex as you want it to be.

If you're stuck on some of the internal factors that make your person of fit. Besides the physical outside, like the demographics or the industry, that means it's time to do some market research.

Have some close conversations with your clients, and see what they call out in you that you don't see yourself. Ask your people what they resonate with, and what's important to them.

Part Two: What is their biggest problem?

What's the main problem that they are going to overcome by working with you?

Be as specific as possible without getting lost in the weeds. Don't try to include everyyyy little thing that you could solve for somebody, or every little tangible thing that comes up for people when they work with you.

What is the main, big problem that you solve? What do you want to be known for solving? 

Bonus points If you can describe this problem in a way that your ideal client would! 

Example:

If you help newbie investors get started in the stock market, they're probably not talking about 'expanding their portfolio.' They're probably using more beginner language. Be clear about how your people would talk about their problem, and use that language.

Part Three: How do you help them solve it?

It's finally time for the "what you actually do" part! How you solve the problem.

This is pretty simple, but I do want to caution you on one thing: Be careful not to use word salad when you describe what you do- I know you want to differentiate yourself, and I know you want to stand out from other people who are offering the same services or teaching the same things as you. But clarity for the people listening is everything here!

The last thing that you want to do is confuse someone, and lose them at this "How" mark because they don't know what it is, and maybe they weren't invested enough yet to try to figure it out.

Even if they don't need you themselves, they can't refer you out to other people if they can't easily relay what you do.

They can't shout you out on social media, they can't send your name to a friend if they're still confused about what you offer.

You always have full green light in my opinion, to get creative. (I mean, I am a girl who names everything after cake. But just make sure you don't get too cutesy creative so that people can decipher what you're talking about.)

So far we've got: Who we serve, What we solve for them, How we help them with that.

And now we want to move on to why.

Part Four: Why do they want it solved?

Why is arguably the most important part of this framework , because the WHY is going to give your people the internal motivation.

The why is so that we can appeal to the transformation, and show them what can actually be achieved, and what their life can look like after they work with you.

Ex: Let's go back to the coach who works with ambitious women in her business. (who) She helps them (how) with business coaching, so they can scale their business, (what) and have more income and more impact. (why)

She's going to show them through that statement, not only what she offers, but why it's important to them.

The idea of putting all of this together is that we want this statement to fully resonate with the right person.

When all of these pieces are validated, and aligned- You get someone who resonates with the pain points, the solution, AND what they get after working with you.

You get someone who not only is the right fit for your solution, but is in a good position to receive it.

In example, one of my clients came to me feeling a frustrated because she finally grew her business to the point where she was making consistent income... But unfortunately she was not enjoying the services she was delivering on, and the people she was working with.

She was  becoming a catch-all for her clients, and she wasn't enjoying the type of businesses that she was working with. 

Of course, she didn't want to add more to her to do list, so the first thing that we did was go through this framework.

She was able to make a huge shift in her business based on changing this one statement. Most of her clients come from networking, so making a change in this statement allowed people to clearly understand exactly the type of business owner she was looking for.

She started getting the right type of people inquiring, and she also started getting the right type of referrals. Instead of feeling obligated to take on her friends' friends, and referrals who weren't a good fit, she started attracting the right type of people.

She not only booked out her services- but will be actually happy delivering them! 

What's the point of building a business if you are just as miserable as when you worked in corporate? 

So many aspects of your business are impacted by your message.

So many of your business problems- the boundaries, the price, objections, the scope creep- could be solved by simply shifting your message to work with a better fit client who is in the best position to receive the transformation that you offer.

If you are a woman in business and you feel like you're experiencing this same thing- you're getting the wrong type of clients into your offers and programs, you know, you need to shift your messaging, but you're just not sure how to get out of that class bottle- I would love to have you in my intimate group program Piece Of Cake Copy.

Piece Of Cake Copy is a 4-month hybrid program where you get access to 1:1 and group coaching. In this program I'm going to help you clarify your message so that you're speaking to the right people, and bringing the right people into your audience and offers. I'll help you write compelling copy, and content that makes it a lot easier for you to bring those people into your world consistently.