The Exact Problem You Solve 🎯
Summary
TLDRThe transcript emphasizes the importance of positioning oneself clearly in subject matter expert work by identifying and focusing on the main problem one solves. It discusses the challenge of pinpointing a specific target market and the core issue they face, whether it's scaling a business, transitioning a family-owned business, or addressing personal concerns like eliminating belly fat. The speaker encourages self-reflection on what keeps the target audience up at night, suggesting that understanding their deepest fears or dreams is key to crafting a compelling personal brand and effective content strategy.
Takeaways
- 🎯 The importance of being clear on the main problem you solve in your professional work, especially for subject matter experts.
- 🚀 Positioning is crucial; you need to know how you want to be seen by your audience on platforms like LinkedIn and your website.
- 🔑 Identifying the single biggest problem you solve is key to attracting the right audience who are seeking that specific solution.
- 💡 Even though you may help in many ways, focusing on the main thing you do for your audience helps in attracting the right clients.
- 🌟 Use specific examples to illustrate the problem you solve, such as helping business owners scale and exit successfully within a certain timeframe.
- 👥 Target a specific audience with a clear problem in mind, like female tech founders who want to balance work and family while scaling their business.
- 📈 Understand the core fears and dreams of your target market to tailor your services to address their deepest concerns or aspirations.
- 🤔 Ask what keeps your target market up at night to uncover the fundamental issues they are dealing with.
- 💬 Listen to the questions and problems people frequently bring to you; these can indicate the exact problems you should be solving.
- 📚 Personalize your messaging in your own language rather than relying solely on copywriters or ghostwriters.
- 📝 Once you identify the core problem you solve, it becomes easier to create content, develop an online presence, and articulate your personal brand.
Q & A
What is the main focus of the speaker's discussion on subject matter expert work?
-The main focus is on positioning oneself clearly in terms of the exact problem one solves, which is crucial for subject matter experts to be recognized and sought after in their field.
Why is it important to identify the 'main problem' one solves according to the speaker?
-Identifying the main problem helps in attracting the right audience who are seeking a solution to that specific issue, making one's personal brand and offerings more targeted and appealing.
What does the speaker suggest as a key strategy for positioning oneself in the market?
-The speaker suggests focusing on and communicating the single biggest problem one solves as a key strategy for positioning oneself in the market.
How does the speaker illustrate the concept of positioning with the example of a fitness professional?
-The speaker uses the example of a fitness professional who specifically targets 40-year-old men wanting to get rid of belly fat, showing how a clear and specific target market and problem can make one's offerings stand out.
What is the significance of understanding the 'core problem' that keeps a target market up at night?
-Understanding the core problem addresses the fundamental issues that motivate and concern the target market, allowing one to provide solutions that resonate deeply with their needs and desires.
Why does the speaker emphasize the importance of specificity when defining one's target market?
-Specificity in defining a target market helps in creating more focused and effective marketing messages, content, and solutions that directly address the unique needs and challenges of that market.
What is the speaker's opinion on hiring professionals like copywriters or ghostwriters for personal branding?
-The speaker believes that while hiring professionals can be helpful, often their work may not resonate as well as when one creates content in their own language and style, which is more authentic and relatable.
How can understanding a target market's dreams and fears help in developing a personal brand?
-Understanding dreams and fears allows one to approach personal branding from both a problem-solving and aspirational perspective, creating a more compelling narrative that aligns with the market's desires and concerns.
What advice does the speaker give regarding the creation of content once the core problem is identified?
-The speaker advises that once the core problem is identified, it becomes easier to create content such as online learning materials, books, keynote talks, LinkedIn articles, and website copy that directly addresses that problem.
What is the potential downside of not identifying the core problem one solves, as mentioned by the speaker?
-Not identifying the core problem can make it difficult for people to understand what one does, hinder the development of a specific personal brand, and complicate the creation of targeted content and marketing materials.
How can one determine the exact problem they solve for their audience according to the speaker?
-One can determine the exact problem they solve by reflecting on what people consistently ask for help with, the issues that keep their target market up at night, and the dreams and fears of that market.
Outlines
🎯 Clarifying Your Core Problem-Solving Positioning
The speaker emphasizes the importance of being clear about the primary problem one solves in their professional field. They point out that while a subject matter expert may help with multiple issues, it's crucial to identify and communicate the main problem that one is best known for solving. This positioning helps attract the right audience, such as business owners wanting to scale and exit their businesses or family businesses looking to pass on the business successfully. The speaker uses the example of a Twitter user who specifically targets 40-year-olds looking to lose belly fat, illustrating the power of a clear and specific target market. The audience is urged to think about who they serve and how they can narrow down their focus to a single, core problem to solve.
🌙 Identifying Pain Points and Dreams of Your Target Market
This paragraph delves into understanding the core issues that keep the target market awake at night, which could be guilt, fear, or aspirations. The speaker suggests that identifying these pain points and dreams can help in crafting a more compelling personal brand and service offerings. They advise considering whether the target market's main concern is work-life balance, fear of failure, or the desire to grow and exit their business within a certain timeframe. The speaker also mentions the importance of using one's own voice and language when defining these problems, as it resonates more authentically with the audience. They encourage reflecting on what people frequently ask for help with, as it might indicate a larger problem that one could address through products, services, or coaching.
🛠 The Importance of Defining Your Core Problem for Branding and Content Creation
The final paragraph highlights the difficulties that arise when one does not have a clear understanding of the core problem they solve. It suggests that without this clarity, it becomes challenging to develop a personal brand, create content, or even craft an elevator pitch. The speaker encourages the audience to take this as a prompt for self-reflection and homework, to define the exact problem they solve. This process is essential for building a strong online presence, engaging content, and effective marketing materials that resonate with the target audience.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Positioning
💡Main Problem
💡Target Market
💡Core Problem
💡Personal Brand
💡Content Creation
💡Tagline
💡Elevator Pitch
💡Impostor Syndrome
💡Dreams and Fears
💡Specificity
Highlights
The importance of being clear on the exact problem you solve in subject matter expert work.
Positioning yourself and how you want to be seen by defining the main problem you solve.
The challenge of identifying a single biggest problem when you solve multiple issues for clients.
Attracting founders who want to scale and exit their business within a specific timeframe.
Working with family-owned businesses to ensure successful transition of ownership.
Identifying the core problem that keeps your target audience up at night.
Using specific examples to illustrate the exact problem you solve, like helping 40-year-olds get rid of belly fat.
The need for specificity when defining your target market to avoid vague terms like 'leaders' or 'CEOs'.
Defining a target market with specific characteristics, like female tech founders with young children.
Determining the core problem for your target market, whether it's work-life balance or business growth.
Asking what keeps your target market up at night to understand their deepest fears and challenges.
Approaching problem-solving from both a dream standpoint and a fear standpoint.
The importance of being honest and direct about the problems you solve, even if it's uncomfortable.
Considering people's biggest dreams when identifying the problems you can solve for them.
The value of using your own language and voice when defining the problems you solve.
Observing what people constantly ask for help with to identify potential problems to solve.
The difficulty of developing a personal brand and content strategy without identifying the core problem you solve.
The process of identifying the exact problem you solve as a prerequisite for creating effective marketing materials.
Transcripts
we're going to talk about the exact
problem that you solve and I believe
it's so important in subject matter
expert work that we are incredibly clear
on the problem we solve now I know you
you're probably sitting there thinking
but I solve 20 problems Tom I help
people do this and do that and then they
want to talk to me about this and I help
them personally and I help them
professionally and I help their key
employees and that's wonderful
however what we're really talking about
here is positioning how are you
positioning yourself how do you want to
be seen and this is something that's
like this
so I need to know when I look at you on
LinkedIn I need to know in the content
that you put out there I need to know if
I go to your website the main problem
you solve and that's the key word here
main main key single biggest problem so
you may work with business owners and
well I help them develop work life
balance and I help them be present for
their families and I help them create a
strong culture inside their organization
and I help them navigate Key Personnel
is you know you get the idea and that's
all true and and look when we do
coaching when we do Consulting we end up
helping people in so many different ways
and that's wonderful that being said
what's the main thing you do for that
audience well the main thing I do for
them is help them scale and exit their
business successfully within three to
five years there you go now you're going
to attract Founders that say look I want
to be out of here in three to five years
who can help me do that because that's
the key problem that's the main thing
they're trying to solve now certainly
they want to accomplish all those other
things but ultimately what keeps them up
at night what motivates them to get into
the office early in the morning is I
want to build something that is growing
and wonderful and someone will pay me a
lot of money for in the next 3 to 5
years that is a core problem that you
solve for your target audience or hey I
work with familyowned businesses that
want to pass the business down
successfully from the founder owner of
the company to their child Okay now
what's the key problem well the key
problem is I want to make sure that the
business continues to grow without
senior
involved but in a way where senior can
still get paid because it's a fiveyear
or 10year
buyout well what's the core problem that
senior has well senior doesn't want
junior to screw up the business so I
help Founders transition to their
children but not screw up the business
and obviously you use slightly different
words than that but you get the idea so
that's the exact problem you solve for
your audience so uh one of my favorite
examples of this is someone I've been
I've been seeing on Twitter and he works
with 40y old dudes that want to get rid
of the belly
fat well I saw that and I click follow
because
well turning 40 and got a little bit of
this I want to get rid of so you know it
it it's it's such a clear Target mark
Market it's so specific that you go okay
I get the I get who he helps and how he
helps them and all of the content all of
his products and services and offerings
are all solving that problem for that
audience now does he talk about dieting
does he talk about work life balance
does he talk about you know all these
other things sure but the core problem
is 40-year-old dudes not having belly
fat and that's how he says it and it's
very very direct so couple things that
that you need to be thinking about who
is your target market and how specific
can you get that Target Market what I
hate is when people say oh I work with
leaders or I work with CEOs or I work
with Founders well every founder or just
female Founders or just male Founders or
just Founders that are under a certain
age or just Founders that run a certain
siiz company or Founders inside a
specific industry or all of those things
I work with female Founders in the tech
industry that want to scale and
successfully exit their business and
they have young children at home so they
value work life balance hey that's a
target market now what's the core
problem they want to solve well that's
for you to decide is it the work life
balance thing is it the scalability
thing is it being present for their
family pick one I know you're going to
help them in all those ways I know
they're going to want to talk to you
about all of those things but what's the
one thing and you know a great question
that's been around for as long as time
is what keeps you up at night so my
question would be what keeps that Target
Market up at night that female Tech
founder that you work with what's the
main thing is it guilt that she's not
spending enough time with her children
is it fear that she doesn't know how to
behave as a woman in a male-dominated
industry
is it that she fears she won't be able
to raise money the same way men can is
it that she wants to grow her business
so she can exit within three to five
years and that's important to her you
know really getting to the core you see
what I'm saying I mean I know I'm saying
some things that well they're a little
uncomfortable and well but but that's
the real world that's what keep these
are the issues that keep people up at
night so being willing to say this is is
specifically who I help and this is the
exact problem that I solve for them and
frankly it may be uncomfortable for
those people to hear that because they
know they have that problem and they
know they're waking up at night thinking
about it and they know that they have
guilt or challenges or impostor syndrome
around it so you being honest because
that person's going to go damn it you're
right I need to read your book I need to
hire you as a one onone coach I need you
to come in and work for actually inside
my company um another thing to think
about with your target market is what
are their biggest dreams so you know I'm
talking about pain which is a core
problem you can solve but you can also
approach it from
dreams I want to be able to leave my
office at 5:00 pm Monday through Friday
and not work on weekends that's my dream
that's my goal my goal is to coach
t-ball my goal is to grow my business
while I shrink my
waistline and if you're a fitness person
that works with entrepreneurs that could
be fantastic language so again what are
what are my dreams so you can approach
this from a dream standpoint or a fear
standpoint um you know what do they fear
what are they scared of what are they
afraid could happen and that's for you
to decide because you can go at it so
many different ways some some of it
depends on the work you do some of it
depends on your target market some of it
depends on your personality so you got
to make this work for you and this is
why I know it's nice hey I want to hire
a copywriter or I want my coach to write
this for me or I want someone to ghost
write this
but you know a lot of times it just
needs to be in your own language because
I've hired a lot of copywriters ghost
writers marketing professionals over the
years and I'll tell you most of the time
what they come up with sucks uh I
remember years ago I had someone create
a marketing brochure for me it was a
head shot it was certain colors it was a
certain tagline and I looked at it and I
hated it but I said well this is someone
that knows more about this space than me
so I'll run with it and it lasted six
months I hated it so much I eventually
changed it I like us coming up with this
stuff um another thing to think about
too in terms of you determining the
exact problem you solve is what are
people asking you helpful with and I I
often overlook this it takes me
sometimes a long time to go you know um
every week someone asks me if I can do
such and such or they come to me with
this problem and they've been doing it
for a long time now hm perhaps there's a
product or a service or coaching or
online education that could be created
based on it so what are people
constantly coming to you asking for help
um or what are they always trying to do
so hey I'm trying to do this or I'm
trying to do that or gosh I have a lot
of cups of coffee with uh CEOs of
companies and they're always trying to
figure out their culture they're always
you know trying to create a better
culture especially in a work from home
environment and they're asking me what
they should do H maybe there's something
there maybe that's the problem that I
should be solving for them so hope this
gave you a lot to think about but if you
don't identify this problem it's tough
for people to understand what you do
it's tough for you to have a very
specific personal brand and way that you
position yourself it's also tough for
you to develop content because once this
once you identify that core problem you
solve it's easy to write content it's
easy to create online learning or write
books or develop keynote talks or push
out LinkedIn articles it's easy to come
up with a tagline underneath your
LinkedIn profile it's easy to build copy
for your website it's easy to give your
elevator pitch but until you solve the
core problem of you deciding what the
problem you solve it's tough for you to
do these things so I hope this was
helpful and I hope it gave you some
homework and some things to think about
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