Day 23 Goal
Your goal today is to identify your target audience and collaborators. Essentially, you should answer two questions:
- What groups of people or groups do you want to work with?
- What groups or people should want to collaborate with you?
How to Make it Happen
Target customers/clients
Imagine having the perfect customers every day — you are in sync, they love your work, and you never have to issue any refunds or haggle over money. Your projects and your business invigorate you. And, while every day may not be easy, you know you’re making people’s lives better. Thus, you are highly motivated and excited each day.
Wouldn’t it be awesome to have folks lining up to consume your content, work with/hire you, and buy whatever you’re selling? Imagine being the Prince or Beyoncé of your field–your entire job would be to create, because your reputation and work alone would sell your products and services.
The good news is that you can definitely have this kind of business with these kinds of customers.
The challenge is that finding this sweet spot is hard, because oftentimes it means turning down money and opportunities from people and groups who aren’t part of your target audience.
But, you’ll be glad you took this route in the long run. Working with the wrong people is, in my opinion, worse than not working at all.
The hard work starts by identifying and focusing only on the right people for your business. Today, you’ll identify who these people are.
You’ve already started identifying your target audience in the Vision Challenge – flip back to Day 5 and Day 16.
Now that you’ve gotten deeper into the challenge, I want you to take the information from these two days and find the overlaps. Most importantly, describe the people or groups you will serve and their common characteristics.
It is okay if you leave people out of this description–you actually should probably whittle it down a bit. The goal isn’t for you to serve EVERYBODY. The goal is for you to clearly and consistently resonate with the right people.
For example, in my own business, my target audience is women with a significant amount of work and life experience who want to expand their impact and professional reach. However, not everyone who follows me, listens to my podcast, or hires me falls within this category.
This is fine–anyone can come along with me (and I hope they do!). However, my messaging, my offerings, and my work are created with that one group in mind.
With my target audience, I don’t have to convince them of my value or beg them to work with me. They know that I deliver value in their lives and solve their pain points, because I create everything with them in mind.
Similarly, you should build your business around the target audience that you can bring the most value to.
Target collaborators
Finally, I’d also like you to consider if you need other collaborators or partners. What kind of partnerships would help both the collaborator and your business?
Not only should you build your own platform, you should consider where you can leverage other people’s platforms (and vice versa!).
For example, consider who else has your target customer base (ideally for a different product/service). If you are both trying to reach the same people or groups, perhaps joining forces makes sense.
In addition, think about the other products and services your customers need that you don’t provide. Bundling some offerings together could be appealing for your business, a collaborator, and the ultimate customers.
Finally, who wants access to customers like yours but doesn’t know how to reach them? Desperation is the mother of many collaborations.
This is not always the right approach for new businesses, but it is worth thinking about. In my experience, a new business first needs to get crystal clear on what it is doing and then focus on doing that incredibly well. Then, after working out the kinks, taking on collaborations can make sense.
At any rate, brainstorm about future collaborators and consider where you might start once you have solid footing in your business.
Join my support network
In addition, studies show that you’re more likely to meet your goals when you have accountability partners! To work together with a supportive community of other side-hustlers, creatives and entrepreneurs, you can join my private group by clicking this link or via the Mighty Networks App.
Download the Mighty Network app by clicking here. Once it downloads, click “Find a Mighty Network” and search for Shontavia Johnson. You’ll find accountability partners and other content there that I may not share elsewhere.
New to the #VisionChallenge? You can learn more about it, and sign up to take the challenge, by clicking here.
Sometimes I will refer you to other books, products or services. While I may be an affiliate of these companies, creators, or authors, these are all things I have used and trust. I would not recommend these things to you if I hadn’t experienced them myself.