Nobody cares what you do.
They don’t care if you do ontological coaching, holistic coaching or solution-focused coaching. They don’t care if you’re a certified coach or if you have a PhD. They don’t care what coach training school you attended. They don’t care about your background in Rapid application development, Lean or Six Sigma methodologies.
They know, “I’m here. I want to be there.”
They want to know, “Do you understand me? Can you help me?”
The only way you can answer the question “Can you help me?” is to give people a powerful experience of what you do.
The only way someone will want a powerful experience of what you do, is when you can answer their question “Do you understand me?”
When someone feels that you understand them and they have had a powerful experience of what you do, they will send you a check.
Psychographics vs Demographics
Most coaches have a filter around demographics. They will say things like, I work with men in their forties… I work with women in transition… I work with leaders who are scaling their business from 5 million dollars to 10 million…
The thing about a demographic is that it’s completely made up. And almost always, you’re not really attached to that demographic. If someone from outside that demographic came along and you really love what they are up to and you know you can help them, you’ll happily break your rule and say yes anyway.
What’s much more powerful is a filter around a psychographic. A filter by mindset…
Rockstar Personal Assistant
I was recently looking for a new PA. Here’s what I wrote in the ad:
- If your flight is cancelled, are you the one person who gets on the only other flight out?
- When you were a kid, did you have the tidiest bedroom in the family?
- Do you alphabetize your books?
- Is your email inbox completely empty? Always.
- Are all your bills on autopay?
- Do you have a calendar reminder for every friend’s birthday? And a stack of birthday cards that you’ve purchased, months in advance.
- Do you know, to the penny, how much money you’ve spent today?
- Do you do your own taxes? And enjoy it!
- If you call the doctor and no appointments are available, do you get to see the doctor, no matter what?
If so, contact me. Don’t send a resume, I don’t care what you did yesterday. I need the right person tomorrow. Tell me on a YouTube video why YOU are the right person.
There are just a handful of people on the planet who would answer yes to all of these questions.
If you’re reading this article, chances are this is not you, right?! I am looking for the mindsets of a dream PA, not an incredible coach or a successful leader.
I am filtering for the mindsets I need most in the person who is going to plan and coordinate almost every aspect of my life and business – from my calendar, to my travel, to supporting my top clients.
I am looking for a very specific person to be my Rockstar Personal Assistant. I am trying to polarize people. This is not a job for anyone.
Your clients should be a Hell Yes or a Hell No. Nothing in between.
But how do you define a Hell Yes client?
The 3×3 Tool is designed to help you define and then create your ideal clients.
STEP 1
Your first step is to write down the names of your 3 favorite clients. They can be current clients or past clients. It doesn’t matter if they were paid clients or if you only ever did a single pro bono session with them.
They must be clients who make your heart sing. Clients you absolutely love working with, or who you’d say yes to working with again in a heartbeat.
It’s important to note that this tool only works if you know the people you are thinking about. You cannot guess the answers to the following questions. You can’t say Elon Musk is a dream client and put his name in the box!
STEP 2:
In the second column, write down what you love, admire or respect about them. Their mindsets, their values.
STEP 3:
In the third column, write 1-2 ways each client is holding themselves back the most.
STEP 4:
To fill in the last column, take each answer or value that you admire and look for it’s dark side.
For example, I am a visionary leader. That’s a great quality. Sometimes! You see, one dark side of being a visionary leader is that I frustrate my team with the number of new ideas I have each week. Another dark side is that I am so future-focused that I rarely slow down and I can become exhausted before I know it.
EXAMPLE
Let me make this real for you. I’ve reflected on 3 of my favorite ever clients and filled in the table.
Once you’ve done this, your final step is to take everything in each column and turn it into a single paragraph, to describe your dream client. But turn each sentence into a question.
Watch me do just this:
Are you highly accomplished? Are you constantly reading and learning? Do you take rapid action? Have you experienced failure and you know that it’s just part of the path to success? Do you have a great sense of humor? Are you willing to speak your truth to power, when needed?
But – despite all of your successes – do you sometimes struggle to see how powerful you really are? Do you want to be known in the world, or to make a big impact? And are you scared or maybe a little intimidated to go after what you really want next, in life?
Do you have a secret dark side to your gifts that most people never see? Maybe you operate at such a high speed that you can forget to slow down to see what is really important? Maybe you are dismissing your past successes because you can’t see how they are relevant to the next stage of your life or business? Maybe you take your successes for granted – and you don’t see just how extraordinary you are?
If this sounds like you, then you and I should have a conversation. Get in touch…
Two interesting things just happened:
- I just created a filter for my dream clients. You may even have had the thought, as you read it, “That’s me!”
- Do you know who else says “Yes!” to every single one of the questions above?
Me!
You see, the secret behind this entire exercise is that your dream client is the person who looks back at you in the mirror – every morning…
Your dream client is you.
Do this exercise and then send me your 3 paragraphs to describe your dream client. I promise to read every one.
Love. Rich