Profitable Podcasting

by Stephen Woessner

  CHAPTER 7

  YOUR AVATAR, DREAM 50, AND MY $2 MILLION MISTAKE

  The lessons in this chapter will help you solve one of the most expensive money-draining mistakes businesses make. The mistake occurs when there is ambiguity around identifying whom the business intends to serve as its customers. Business owners who think “everyone” is their prospect tend to spend more on marketing (often in the wrong media) and attend “networking” events that are not laser-focused.

  Many business owners today are using expensive guesswork and trial and error. This chapter solves that problem.

  You can eliminate the guesswork by getting a clear view of your ideal client and podcast listener. Not from a crystal ball but by asking yourself and your team the right questions. The outcome will be a clear view of your “client avatar”—an accurate representation of the people you want to attract to your podcast.

  This chapter will remove the mystical dark magic voodoo to creating/defining your client avatar by giving you all the questions you need to answer. After defining your avatar, we will dig in and create your “Dream 50.” Your Dream 50 prospect list represents the clients you would most like to serve in your industry. If you had the opportunity to serve them, it would be a game changer for your business.

  In my experience, however, business owners tend to answer the question of “Who are your Dream 50?” with, “I would like to work with Harley Davidson, IBM, or our regional health-care provider network.” But when business owners are asked to put pen to paper and write out the first name, last name, and title of the decision-maker at each of their Dream 50 businesses, their list-making momentum ends abruptly.

  Who are they? Why do they matter to you? And once you know, what should you do with your Dream 50 list?

  To help cement into place the importance of the Dream 50 lesson, I will share a painful $2 million mistake that I made, which could have ruined our business because I didn’t pay attention to the lessons that were directly in front of me.

  Apply the recipes in this chapter and you will remove the stress, pressure, and self-doubt you may be feeling about who you are intended to serve with your business.

  When you don’t define your avatar, when you don’t define your Dream 50, and when you don’t create a system for attracting those 50—what happens? You lose major amounts of opportunity in your business.

  Here’s the story of how I know this to be true.

  Because of my ego and pride, I refused to listen to lessons Darren Hardy was trying to teach me during our monthly phone calls and in-person meetings.

  I ignored my mentor’s recommendations to precisely define our “Dream 50 Attendees”—the people we most wanted to attend our “Predictive ROI LIVE” event in January 2014, to connect this pool of VIPs back to the “avatar” of our ideal attendee, and then to craft a value proposition our avatar would care enough about to attend our live event.

  I completed none of these.

  It’s not that Darren didn’t tell, even urge me, to get this done. It’s not that he didn’t mentor me through the process. I had access to all of the help and support I needed, yet I still didn’t take action.

  I was paralyzed with fear. Plus, I was arrogant in thinking that prospective attendees would simply figure out our value proposition on their own.

  Consequently, after selling a grand total of three seats for an event that had a $2 million operating budget, and shelling out $200,000 in expenses, we canceled Predictive ROI LIVE. Not awesome.

  My hope is that you will learn from my mistakes—and how we fixed them—so you don’t have to learn the same painful lesson.

  Let’s begin by looking at where we got off the path.

  I was unwilling to face my fear and take the necessary time to answer three simple questions. Had I answered them, there would have been a completely different outcome.

  Your answers to the three questions will guide your overall communication strategy with customers and prospects. Even deeper, your answers will establish your expertise and why your message is relevant and deserves to be heard.

  But it is critically important that your answers come from the perspective of your client, not your ego. After all, those are vastly different perspectives.

  I am also going to share with you a set of ten questions designed to help ensure that you are speaking to your avatar. Again, the ten questions are the same questions my team and I use at Predictive ROI to help our clients define their client avatar.

  Had I taken the time to answer these questions—in precise detail—we likely would not have failed with our event. We would have either had a much more precisely defined value proposition or we would have discovered that, at that point in time, the scale of the event we were planning was way too large. We were swinging for the fences when we should have been paying closer attention to getting on base and scoring some runs.

  Before we review the three questions to guide your overall communication strategy with customers and prospects, remember that your customers will not remember what you said, but how you made them feel.

  In order for them to feel something as a result of what you said, you need to have established credibility in their mind’s eye so you have permission to say what needs to be said.

  Throughout the entire conversation—heck, you may even be doing it now as you read these words—your audience will ask themselves three simple questions, and you must answer them. Or the conversation is over.

  Question 1: Who are you?

  Question 2: Why do I care?

  Question 3: What’s in it for me?

  Now, you may not like the questions. They may be too direct for your particular communication style, but they are, in reality, the essence of what your customers are asking themselves as they listen to you.

  The first two questions of “Who are you?” and “Why should I care?” are core credibility indicator questions. When beginning a conversation—especially with someone new—you need to answer these two questions as succinctly as possible.

  The third question, “What’s in it for me?” is the ultimate value proposition question. One of the reasons our Predictive ROI LIVE event failed was because I personally could never explain or define why a business owner would want to invest $7,000 and head to the Ritz-Carlton in Orlando, Florida, for four days to learn about digital marketing strategies.

  The pricing was off, the value proposition was nonexistent, and the worst part was that Darren had asked me this same question during every call:

  “Stephen, why would anyone want to come to this thing?”

  I never set my ego aside. I never listened. I never answered his very simple question.

  Once you have your core message defined, it’s time to crystallize with whom you are going to share your message (your avatar!) and how to create an emotional impact with your audience by answering ten questions you and your team need to ask one another. No surface answers. Challenge yourself and your team. Dig deep and find specific examples of situations that reinforce or contradict what is currently believed to be true.

  1.What are our customers’ challenges right now?

  2.What are our customers’ emotional fears or worries?

  3.What are their dreams and aspirations?

  4.What are their pain points?

  5.What are their values—and are they the same as ours?

  6.Whom do they want to impress the most?

  7.What frustrates them about our business or others like us in the industry?

  8.What do they want from our business?

  9.What’s the one result that, if you could guarantee it, your customers would pay a premium for?

  10.Finish this sentence on behalf of your customers as if they were saying this to you: “You will gain my trust and comfort by . . .”

  Once you have collected that data, you will have all you need in order to create your avatar.

  Some words of caution: Your avatar is one person. Not an email list of 25,000 people. Every piece of
communication you send to your customers and prospect lists needs to speak directly to your avatar. And because of that you should give your avatar a name. Think of it as though you were having a one-on-one conversation with each email you send or social media post you create.

  Hang a photo of your avatar on your conference room wall, and every time you write an email campaign or shoot a video, speak directly to it!

  Let me take you inside Predictive ROI to illustrate this point. Our client avatars are named “Harry” and “Sally.” We chose those names because When Harry Met Sally is one of my favorite movies of all time.

  All of our conversations with Harry and Sally are personal—they are emotional—and they are always authentic.

  This is Sally:

  She and her team are ambitious and want to learn new things.

  She knows there is more opportunity and growth “out there” and is frustrated she does not know how to capitalize on it, faster.

  She reads lots of books but doesn’t know a good idea from a bad one.

  She is uncertain and afraid to fail.

  She has been fooled before and does not know whom to believe.

  She thinks everything sounds too good to be true.

  She has said to me, “Stephen, I want to trust that you can do what you say you can do. Show me the evidence quickly that it is working and that you are delivering on your promises.”

  During more than one presentation to a prospective client, “Sally” has said to me, “My goodness, that’s me!” I love it when that happens because I know we just made a powerful, emotional connection.

  Now what?

  The final recipe in this lesson is another principle Darren taught me. He called it “Romancing Your Dream 50.”

  Your Dream 50 prospects fit two criteria: (1) They were aligned with your avatar so you are able to connect with them on an emotional level because you really understand them, and (2) They are the easiest to reach, they are the fastest to make a decision, they are the most profitable, and it would be your absolute dream to call these 50 your clients. The people who make it to your Dream 50 list likely represent your best buyer profile.

  So how will you romance them? How will you show them how much they mean to you? How much value can you deliver to them—before you are working with or for them?

  Interview each of your Dream 50 on your podcast—and then quote and share their wisdom over social media and with your email list. Your email list will appreciate the additional insights, and your guest will think it’s awesome how you spread the word. Great things will happen!

  Create an industry research report and ask your Dream 50 to participate in exchange for giving them a free copy of the report when the project is complete.

  Invite members of your Dream 50 to co-teach a webinar with you. This adds value to your list while giving you an exceptional opportunity to connect with your top prospects in a completely different way.

  Host a party, wine tasting, dinner, or similar event.

  Or, maybe you’re a power connector with a titanium Rolodex. You effortlessly make connections. Awesome. Then solve the problems of your Dream 50 by introducing them to people who could help—people they would love to do business with. This adds tremendous value to your prospective clients. As a result, they may be open to doing business with you because of how you delivered and solved their needs first!

  Those are just a few quick strategies for how you can “Romance Your Dream 50.” I wish you the best in applying them and taking the definition of your avatar deeper than ever before.

  YOUR AVATAR CREATION CHECKLIST

  Answer the questions of “Who are you?” “Why do I care?” and “What’s in it for me?” on behalf of your audience because your answers will form the foundation of your podcast’s value proposition.

  Complete the avatar exercise in this chapter.

  Give your avatar a name and introduce him or her to your team.

  Work with your team to define your Dream 50. Be specific with first names, last names, email addresses, and companies. “We’re going to target the market leaders in the XYZ industry” is not sufficient.

  Describe how you will romance your Dream 50 and show them how much they mean to you.

  Review the plan with your team.

  CHAPTER 8

  STAGE 1:

  STRATEGIC PLANNING AND PRODUCTION KICKOFF

  Welcome to the seven stages of production for your profitable podcast. The next seven chapters provide all of the technical step-by-step recipes and ingredients you need to create and launch your podcast. Each stage contains several interdependent recipes all woven together into a cohesive production process.

  Please trust the process—even if the order of a particular recipe seems out of place. For example, why would you begin website groundwork in Stage 2 when you haven’t recorded any interviews yet? Rest assured, my team at Predictive ROI created this process from scratch, has made several comprehensive revisions to it, and has perfected it over hundreds of executions. Each recipe has been placed into the production process at the exact position to make the overall flow as smooth as possible. The launch of your podcast website will require several weeks of production time, so completing the groundwork early on in Stage 2 will help ensure that once your episodes are finished in post-production, they can be uploaded into Libsyn, and then immediately pulled into your website, which should be fully functional by then.

  The beginning of each chapter includes a high-level illustration of that stage’s major production milestones and overarching goal. In the case of Stage 1, your goal will be to complete the “Project Sheet” with all the details necessary to move on to Stage 2.

  Let’s move into Stage 1—Strategic Planning and Production Kickoff. Figure 8-1 illustrates the highlights of the production process in this stage.

  The Project Sheet template (see Figure 8-2, pp. 80–82) is available for your free download at PredictiveROI.com/resources/Stage-1. It is a Google Sheets template so you can copy it into your Google Docs account and then share the file with all of the members of your team who are involved with the production of your podcast. The Project Sheet is designed to help you and your team keep all of the tasks in Stage 1 moving along efficiently.

  You and your team should be able to accomplish all of the tasks with the Stage 1 Project Sheet during a ninety-minute kickoff.

  FIGURE 8-1

  FIGURE 8-2

  Recipe 1: Contact Information

  Contact Information on the Project Sheet will take you or someone on your team only a few minutes to fill out before your kickoff meeting.

  Recipe 2: Details

  Details continues with the tactical gathering of information into one location so you and your team won’t have to continually search and hunt for the data points you will need on a consistent basis. The Google Sheet shown in Figure 8-3 (see next page) can be found as a template for free download at Predictive ROI.com/Resources/Stage-1 and will help you keep track of any third-party expenses associated with your podcast, whether they be monthly or onetime fees.

  Recipe 3: Avatar, Monetization, Vital Priority, and Vital Metrics

  This recipe involves several key strategic decisions that are important to make during the kickoff meeting because changing direction down the line will extend your timeline and potentially increase cost. For example, you and your team should also consider and answer the following questions:

  What topics do we want to use the podcast to help us learn more about so we can create content and thought leadership?

  What questions would help us collect the right information?

  Will the show be branded as its own platform, e.g., Onward Nation not The Predictive ROI Podcast? Or will your podcast and company brands be interchangeable?

  Next come decisions regarding interview type. What type of show format aligns best with our goals? Here are some questions to consider:

  •Are you the type of person who likes to keep conversations free flowing, open-
ended, and spontaneous? If so, you may want to consider scripting out several questions for each guest in advance by doing your research but letting your guest know you plan to “go off script” and head down paths that come up during discussion.

  FIGURE 8-3

  •Or, you may want to follow a specific interview flow with predetermined questions you can email to your guests in advance for their review. The majority of Onward Nation guests appreciate having an opportunity to review the questions as well as prepare their answers in advance of the interview. The rare exceptions are guests like author Gary Vaynerchuk or marketing expert Chris Brogan who prefer to be 100 percent spontaneous in their answers during the interview. That is not a good fit for the majority of guests. We recommend you prepare a specific list of questions, save it as a PDF, and provide it to your guests in the invitation as well as one of the interview reminders. We will cover the details of this process during Stage 2.

  •Do you want to use your podcast purely as a “solocast”? This is ideal for thought leadership–focused podcasts where the host is the star. But, this format will limit your opportunity to use your podcast to grow revenue because, as we discussed in Chapter 4, your Dream 50 prospect list would not make their way onto your show. Or, perhaps you and your team would prefer a hybrid method where you offer your audience an occasional solocast for thought leadership but the majority of your episodes will consist of interviews with your Dream 50 prospects as your guests. Regardless of your preference, the kickoff meeting is the time to make your decision regarding show format.

  “Avatar” is listed as an ingredient in Recipe 3. However, if you’ve been working through this book in a linear process, you will have already completed your Avatar exercise back in Chapter 7.

  What will you name your podcast? Is there a domain name available for the podcast name you like the most?