Creating Specificity In Your Messaging – Ep. 006

In this podcast episode, Ashley talks about the importance of moving beyond broad characteristics or demographics in your marketing. Instead, the focus is on marketing to specific situations, making the content more relatable and impactful. Ashley shares personal anecdotes and client stories to illustrate the power of highlighting specific scenarios. The approach transforms the concept of a niche, making it more dynamic and personalized.

Key Learnings:

1. Emphasize specific situations over generalized characteristics in marketing:
   • So that you can connect with your audience on a deeper level by addressing their specific experiences and challenges.
2. Personalize content by sharing relatable anecdotes and client stories:
   • So that you can create a more engaging and authentic narrative that resonates with your target audience.
3. Move away from traditional demographic-focused marketing:
   • So that you can break free from limiting stereotypes and better tailor your message to diverse and individual needs.
4. Highlighting specific scenarios can create a more impactful and resonant message:
   • So that you can effectively communicate the value of your product or service in real-life situations, making it more compelling.
5. Transforming the concept of a niche to be more dynamic and personalized leads to more effective marketing:
   • So that you can position your brand uniquely and stand out in a crowded market, attracting clients who resonate with your tailored approach.

TRANSCRIPT

I am so excited to talk about this topic today. I’m going to make this podcast interview super short and sweet. And to the point, because. I think everyone needs to hear this and because I have a call here in about 30 minutes. So we’re going to just dive right into it. This is something that I have seen in the marketing world that a lot of people don’t actually grasp.

And there’s a few people I’ve seen out there that do grasp it, but mainstream marketing doesn’t really talk about this. And since we are all here about, since we’re all here for marketing that is disruptive and different. This is going to be one for the books. Also, side note, this morning I was in the shower and I, Just had this thought about the podcast name because I just love the no farting around show But I had this thought of like I hope people don’t think I’m just out here telling people They just need to hustle their face off, which is you know, the complete opposite of what we do But I started thinking about that in a tagline.

I thought of was we’re very serious about not being serious Do you guys love it? I thought it was so funny like being serious podcast because I’m sure you’re like, seriously into not being serious because it is the no farting around show, which is just not serious, right? It’s funny because it’s talking about farts, but it’s also about, hey, yeah, we’re going to get stuff done.

But anyways, I thought that was funny. Okay, let’s get to the topic of this podcast, because I’m sure you’re like, what is it I was talking with someone the other day and they were talking about how they don’t believe in niching. Now, this is not a podcast about niching. It’s just a podcast around, I think of the term niching and the term, just even the whole concept of niching completely different.

Because I see that one causes a lot of drama about, a lot of drama. For people. And then another is sometimes they think they’re niching, but they’re not actually specific enough. Or they’ll get specific in a way that, that really doesn’t matter. It’s almost I remember like I had this one client come up to me and actually she wasn’t even a client.

She was just someone that I met and she was. Talking to me about niching and she was asking my advice and she was like, I feel like I have gotten so niched down on my ideal client. And I was like, okay who is it? She was like it’s moms between the ages of 25 and 30. And they are, have more than one kid.

It’s usually when they’re having their second kid and they. really don’t have a lot of help with their spouse, and they also don’t have family around them. And they really enjoy their time alone, but they don’t really know how to manage their time. And she just kept going on and on.

And then she was also like, Oh, and they’re in the income range of 30 to 40, 000 a year. And it was just, All of these kind of things that she was throwing at me that just felt very unnecessary because when I asked her okay what is it that you do, she was like, I’m a mindset coach. And I was like, what does that have to do with moms?

I know that sounds crazy, but it was just like, she was like I just enjoy working with moms and I’m like, okay, that’s great. But like. All the things you just listed out aren’t really necessary to do what it is you’re saying that you do with your clients. And so anyways, I say that because I think that a lot of the times people try to get really clear on this, like very specific person, this very specific niche.

Okay, I work with entrepreneurs, female mother entrepreneurs who have two kids and they make 30 to 40, 000 a year. And they, their husband is working full time and doesn’t really help and they don’t have family around them and blah, blah, blah. And like you, you like come up with all of these details to like, go and get niched down.

But what you’re doing is you are actually marketing to categorized characteristics and. I think this is taught a lot in marketing, right? We are told we need to get very specific on the person. And I also believe you need to get very specific on your ideal client, right? Like I talk about my five a method constantly.

That’s like my signature thing almost. But there’s a difference in it, right? Because What I believe is that when you are marketing, you are not marketing to some characterized characteristics. You’re not marketing to a demographic, right? Because it doesn’t matter, especially when it comes to mindset.

Someone who makes 30, 000 to 40, 000 a year is going to have a lot of the same negative beliefs as someone who makes millions. And you might be like that’s stupid. No, there’s no way. Yes way. I’ve seen it. And believe me, a lot of people think that. People who reach a certain income amount, just all of a sudden their worries just disappear.

And that is simply not true. I have told this story multiple times, and I will tell it again, in case you have not heard it. I had a client who was making eight figures in their business. eight figures. They actually owned multiple businesses. And then I also had a client who was barely making 2, 000 a month.

And I had them, their calls on the exact same day. And I ended up coaching them on the exact same thing. And what was crazy is they both had the exact same underlying thought. The only thing that was different was the actions that they took. And then. Yeah, the actions that they took and everything else was the same.

And the results were different in that the numbers were different, but the emotion and the thought and the, like all the feelings, everything was the same. So what that thought was, it was my eight figure client. He basically had been told he had this line in his family that his dad used to say all the time and his, I’m just going to make up his last name.

I’m going to say Smith. And so he said his dad would always say, Smith’s don’t get ahead. We just get by. And this was drilled into this man for years and years. And so he was here making eight figures and he was just getting by. He had created situations where he was making all this money, but the profit margins were like.

Barely make it was like almost in the red, it was nuts. And so in his mind, he just kept telling me every single month, I just need to get by, I just need to make sure I can pay the employees and I see to make sure I can just bring in this amount to pay the bills and then we can start changing.

And this went on for, before he hired me for years and we realized it was main thought that he had this thought that he was not allowed to get ahead. He just had to get by because that’s what they did. That’s what people in his family did. And then, so what was happening is he had this thought, and again, he was making all this money, his profit margins were crap.

He kept putting himself in situations where he was just barely getting by. He just could not get ahead. And if he did get ahead, he immediately self sabotaged it immediately. He would be ahead and he’d be like, okay let me go hire somebody else and do this. And he would create all of these issues, all of these problems for himself.

And then my other client, and let me keep going actually, so he’d create all these problems, and then he would feel incredibly overwhelmed, and frustrated, and angry, and bitter, and the, actions that he would take was he scrambled every single month, he was constantly doing things that We’re just random.

And he was just basically scrambling constantly, right? Because he just needed to get by. He just needed to get by. It wasn’t trying to get ahead. He wasn’t being smart. He just needed to get by. So the result was, yeah, he was making this certain amount of money, but it was just getting by. He was barely breaking even.

And sometimes he didn’t break even and he was trying to like, borrow money and pull things from other places. And this was multiple businesses guys. So then my other client that was barely making 2, 000 a month. Her thought wasn’t the exact of, she didn’t have that drilled in her mind of, Smith’s just.

They don’t get ahead, they just get by. What she was thinking, what happened with her and a lot of her background was her family had immigrated here. And so they had this mindset, this mentality of you need to be grateful for what you have. And that you cannot have more, because if you have more, you are a selfish, greedy American.

Basically, it was like, we just need enough to get by. So it wasn’t the exact same thought that, My other client had, but it was something along the same lines of that, just be grateful you’re here and take what there’s this phrase at my daughter’s school that says you get what you get and you don’t throw a fit.

And that was very, I think that fits right here, right? It is you just take what you just get what you get. And you don’t try to get more because if you try to get more than you’re selfish and you’re greedy and her parents coming who had immigrated over here and basically came from nothing, they, instilled in her not purposefully guys like this isn’t like these parents are manipulative and they’re like, they, we pick up on these things when we’re younger.

And her thought was. I’m not allowed to have more because my parents sacrificed everything. And like what we had, I needed to just be grateful for what we have. And there was never overflow because if it was overflow, then I was being stingy or selfish and I was being, I was doing better than other people.

And so same thing, she was barely getting by in her business and barely paying her bills. And she was just so overwhelmed. And again, she felt anger, resentment, bitterness. Especially towards her audience and her clients, it was crazy to see that she would, get on every call and she would just be so resentful that people weren’t buying and that people weren’t paying attention to her and that, it was just infuriating that she wasn’t making more money and that people weren’t paying her, right?

Those were her emotions. And then her actions were she would scramble, she would go and try to pick up odd jobs or post like a random offer that she didn’t even want to offer, which again, there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s a time and a place but it was coming from this place of I can’t get ahead, right?

Like I, I’m not allowed to be ahead. I just need to get by. I just need to make it work. I just need to scrap by or scrape by. And so again, result was she was making. Money, but it wasn’t enough. She was barely breaking even same thing guys two very different income levels Same situation happening coming from some underlying belief that was there and so I say this because if you were to go out and try to market to this eight figure client that I had, you would be thinking, Oh they don’t have money troubles.

They’re making all of this money, right? And they’re this age, which means X, Y, and Z, and they have this car and they have blah, blah, blah, like all of these, crazy, silly, characterized. Characteristics is what, or categorized characteristics. Sorry. Categorized characteristics, right? You’re like, Oh, they’re male.

So it must mean this or they’re female. So it must mean this or X, Y, Z. And guys, I like absolutely can’t stand this type of marketing because it really just does you a disservice and your client a disservice. Like your client isn’t just. Roped up in some box of, hey, they’re a female mom with two kids.

So they must, need this or want this or all these things. Like it just doesn’t feel good. And I’ll give you a really great example. Cause you guys know, I’m all about examples with using the same characteristics I had right after I had my first daughter, Emory. I was in the hospital, still in the mother flipping hospital.

And I had posted about the birth and I had post about it on Facebook and Instagram, and I ended up getting a DM from someone who was a fitness coach, and she had messaged me and it was like, hi, congratulations on your baby.

I love to specifically work with, I’m a fitness coach and I love to work with moms and help them lose the baby weight. And. You guys, I was, first of all, irate. I was like, first no, you’re not trying to pitch me after I just had a baby. I just literally pushed a baby out of my vagina, and I am sitting here trying to bond with my baby, and I just, posted on social media to let all of my friends and family know that my daughter was okay.

There was a, it was a Pretty crazy event that happened towards the end and it was like so stressful and I had to get, I had to get emergency induced and it was just a whole whirlwind of things and this person is trying to sell me on their fitness and I didn’t actually, I don’t even know if I responded or not, I don’t remember, but I think about that because it’s like her, if I were to ask her who her, who, her, or what her niche was, she would probably say, New moms, but she knew no specifics about me.

She didn’t know that I had just gone through a very traumatic birth. She didn’t even know if I was trying to lose the baby weight. And to be honest, like I only had gained very, like probably 15 to 15 to 18 pounds with my first pregnancy. And after I had her, I literally was, I like left the hospital in.

Pre pregnancy close. So it was like, I didn’t even really need to lose weight. And honestly, I didn’t need to lose weight because there was just so much like going on. I had trouble gaining weight while I was pregnant with her. And so it was like, she didn’t know any of these things. And so because she was out here trying to market to her niche, she was causing a lot of destruction, really, truly.

Like I was very upset about it. And so she obviously didn’t sign me as a client, but. I, I look at those situations and I like see that people are taught this type of marketing that you need to pick a, you need to pick a person and throw out some random characteristics about them or demographic, right?

Like you’re trying to market to a demographic when really everyone in that demographic could be very different. Like even, I’m not even going to throw in astrology really quick. What if I, not every Capricorn that you know is the same and you’re like, Oh, I market to Capricorns. Every single Capricorn you meet is going to be different, every single one.

And trying to say that everyone in this specific age range or this specific type of person or this specific fox is all the same, is just doing a huge disservice, right? So I actually do not teach this type of marketing. I don’t love the marketing to demographics. I don’t love the characterized character or the categorized, I cannot say this, the categorized characteristics of people.

I do not. Enjoy that. Do I think like you should completely eliminate it? No, but I think there’s a better, much, much better way of marketing. And that is what I’m calling specific situations. So marketing to specific circumstances, specific events. So let me give you a great example. This would look like, let’s say, normal marketing would say, Hey, I market to women who feel burnt out.

That’s so vague. And you might say Oh yeah, so this is one of the characteristics of my ideal client. They’re a female and they’re burnt out. That is so broad. And then what happens is you’ll try to go more specific and you’ll say something like they’re burnt out and they’re overwhelmed, which basically means the same thing.

Or, they’ll throw in some other characteristics. They’re ages 25 to 30. Like you’re not getting more specific. You’re just putting them further into a box is what you’re doing. And the thing about it is when you mark it to specific situations, you can actually show them what does burnt out look like, what is an example of being burnt out, right?

So what would that look like? So let’s say you are marketing to a female who is burnt out a specific situation of that could say you’re burnt out, burnt out. Looks like, making, let’s say doing a week long launch and only, and with over a hundred pieces of content and only.

Signing two clients, that is a very specific situation of being burnt out. So do you see how, let’s say you are a launch strategist, right? You could easily talk about a lot of my clients typically do a week long launch and they have anywhere between 50 to a hundred pieces of content that they have created for this launch.

And then they sign less, less than five clients. A lot of people will resonate with that. They will actually see what being burnt out feels looks like. It’s not just, hey, you’re burnt out. Because when you say, I work with women and they’re burnt out. What if this could attract someone who’s never even done a launch?

Who doesn’t even know anything about launching? And that takes you out of your expertise because you’re not trying to teach someone how to launch. Maybe you’re trying to reposition their launches. Help them, go in and find what worked and what didn’t work and then re basically re position and create a whole new strategy for their launch.

Do you see that? Do you see the specific nuances? The very specific nuances and here’s the thing to my two clients that I gave the example of the one that was an eight figure and the one that was the one that was in the two, like around 2000 a month range, a specific situation for both of them that still would have attracted both of them would be something around you have spent, you spend 40 hours a week.

Running the back end of your business and at the end of the month, you just can’t, you only seem to break even because both of them felt angry. Both of them felt bitter. Both of them felt frustrated. And if I were to be like, yep, if I were out there marketing, you just feel so frustrated. You’re not making the money you want to make.

That’s not very specific. Everybody feels that. Even billionaires feel like, hey, I’m not making the money I want to make because they’ll look at their profit margins and they’ll say, hey, we can lower these profit margins or these profits margins can be larger, right? We really want to Increase this, right?

So they might still have the thought. I’m not making the money. I want to make and it’s not coming from a place of scarcity. It’s coming from a place of strategy, right? It’s coming from. Hey, I know that the, the profit margin is only 30%. No, we need to have I know that this business can be upwards of 50%.

We could have a 50 percent profit margin. So they’re not making the money they want to make, but it’s not coming from scarcity. It’s coming from strategy, right? So both of them could easily think I’m not making the money I want to make, but I had to go into marketing to the specific situation. I talked about you’re spending 40 hours a week running your business.

And at the end of the month, you are just breaking even you’re just breaking even. And then I can even get more specific. What were some of the actions? that they’re taking that allowed them to get specific, right? Give you an example. Both of them were paying team members that weren’t actually needed in their business.

One of my the eight figure one was paying an entire marketing team that really wasn’t bringing in profit because they didn’t actually know the specifics of what the person was selling to be able to make that marketing. Very like high conversion, which is why they hired me in the first place because I’m like, Hey, I’m a messaging strategist.

Like I can come in and help you figure out what is the specifics of your offer, who is the perfect fit person for it based off the 5a method and then creating messaging to go out and sell that offer. So all of those things, right? Marketing to specific situations versus categorized characteristics. Or demographics.

I just don’t really love the word demographic because it just feels weird to me, but those are the two things. And so you’re probably like, actually, this sounds wonderful, right? How can you get, how can I get specific? I would just ask myself that look at what right now, what care, what categorized characteristics do you have right now for your client?

And if you are saying, Hey, yeah, they feel burnt out or you see all the time. I, I want to do a series. I might actually do a series, just reading random content on the internet. And then how I would make it more specific. I think that should be a series. I think I’m going to do that because it feels really fun.

But those specific things, right? Yeah, if you’re saying, yeah, I help them overcome anxiety, what is an actual specific situation that highlights the emotion of anxiety? I’m going to give you just a really great example, and this might not have anything to do with business, but let’s say you’re like saying, hey, I help you overcome anxiety.

A specific situation of that might be jumping on a sales call, right? Let’s talk about sales calls. They might get incredibly anxious on a sales call because they want are putting so much pressure on that person saying yes, right? They also might, they also might have a fear of public speaking and they are public speaking to somebody else.

They might not feel confident in their sales strategy and that causes a ton of anxiety. So here you are, let’s say you are a sales coach. You’re not saying I help you overcome anxiety or you’re a business coach and you’re saying, I help you overcome anxiety. So what specific situations cause that anxiety?

And when you market to those specific situations, when you talk about those specific situations, People resonate with it more, right? That would just be like me saying, Hey, I love fun people. Okay. Fun is subjective. Sometimes people think roller coasters are fun, and some other people think, going to a coffee shop with a book is fun.

Who are your people? What are the situation? Yeah, they’re not just fun people. What do you consider fun? What is a specific situation that is fun? I think about that too, because I think, a lot of people tell me, after they work with me, that their marketing and their messaging just feels fun.

And so I wouldn’t be, I wouldn’t go out there and be like, people tell me, after they work with me, my marketing and messaging feels fun. I would give specific situations. On how it became fun for them. I’ll give you a really great example. I have a client who really loves looking at other products.

They love looking at other products and basically coming up with some very creative angles. And so she just steps into that. She is a branding expert for these companies. And she writes very like comical, witty, fun. Think Pooh Paree type commercials like she loves doing that and so beforehand, she was just talking about, hey, here’s how to add punchy copywriting, blah, blah, blah.

And so I said what, What would be fun. And so for her, it became fun when she started taking these concepts and actually using that as part of her marketing. And it was like gangbusters. Everybody freaking loved it. So then they actually started sending her random products like, Hey, what would you like?

How would you write a product description for this? How would you write a product description for this X, Y, Z, and it became part of her marketing. And it was. So fun for her. And it landed her so many clients because people actually got to see her fun. And so to me, I have a lot of my clients tell me that.

And so I’m not going to go out there and market. I help mark. I help you create marketing. That’s fun. No, I give specific situations like that. I talk about specific situations. And, yeah, that looks, that’s a creative way to market. And I’ve had a lot of other people say, Oh my gosh, they would see her.

And I was like, Oh my God, I love her marketing strategy and what she’s doing. Can you help me come up with something like that for me? Heck yeah, I can. It’s one of my favorite things to do. So do you see that it is all about marketing to specific situations versus categorized characteristics.

And when you do this, let me just say your niche no longer becomes. Quote, unquote, a niche. I think niches are just, I just don’t even love that word. It doesn’t become like so much pressure on a niche. You just know exactly. It’s almost like telling a story. It’s like sitting down with your best friend and telling them this event that happened at this party.

And you’re like juicy gossip. And you’re like, so ready to sit down and tell them like, Oh my God, you will not believe what happened to me. You will not believe what happened to this person, like blah, blah, blah. And they’re telling, let’s say they’re telling this, story. Your best friend is going to resonate with that story versus you’re saying, yeah, this woman was so embarrassed at this party.

What? Like, how was she embarrassed? I don’t know. She was just embarrassed, right? And that’s what marketing you guys, like a lot of people out there in marketing, like I help you overcome anxiety. I help you live a life you’d want to live, or I help you feel more. I help you create an income and an impact.

What does the impact actually look like? What is a specific situation? And I tell you guys, this one shift will change everything for you. People love to know specifics. People love, love, love to know what it what’s in it for them. And a great way to do that is highlighting very specific situations for your idle client.

Okay, I’m done. I have to go jump on this other call. I hope this was super, super helpful. And if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me. I will be happy to answer any questions that you have, but yeah, try this, try it. What does this look like? How does like, what can you, how can you get specific about it and go out and create a piece of content around it?

It’s going to resonate with people. I promise. So I hope you all have a great rest of your day and I’ll see you on the next episode.