The Widest Net: Discover New Customers Right in Front of You – In Just 7 Minutes with Pamela Slim

Resources/Links:

• Wanting to Make a Leap and Change the World with Your Bright Ideas? Learn more on how you can build a thriving business, target the right audience, cultivate your network, and gain more profit than ever: Pamelaslim.com/thewidestnet

Summary

Have you had, or even built, a really big and life-changing idea (IP) that you just want to share with the world?

Do you find yourself having a difficult time looking for ways on how to deliver it to the right market?

Are you ready to know how to systematically market your IP to the right customers while expanding your network and creating great profit?

Pamela Slim is an award-winning author, speaker, and business coach who works with small business owners ready to scale their businesses and IP.

In this episode, Pamela talks about the importance of building networks and targeting the right audience for your products through strategic analysis and systems. She also shares some things you should be avoiding in marketing and in business when looking for the right solution.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:38 – Pamela’s ideal client: “I work with really smart people who have built amazing intellectual property that makes a positive difference in the world.”
• 01:50 – Problem Pamela helps solve: “For many, they’re at their limit. They have developed something really important, but more and more people want it and, in particular, want to have them deliver it.”
• 02:50 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Pamela: “There are two things, one is an emotional symptom, and one is usually a physical and operational symptom. So, on the emotional side, they may feel really excited that so many people are actually paying attention or listening to their work or following them.”
• 03:50 – Common mistakes that people make before they find Pamela’s solution: “I noticed there are a lot of cookie-cutter answers. So, somebody might say, “You are really an amazing author. And so, you should just create an online class.” And they say, “Okay”, and some of them invest lots and lots of money to create an online class.”
• 05:13 – Pamela’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): “So when you’re thinking about finding an audience for your work, the strategic analysis to me happens when you see your ideal customer who’s really in the center of an ecosystem in which they are looking for answers to solve whatever core problem they have, or in the case where they have an aspiration, to help them reach their aspiration.”
• 06:45 – Pamela’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Check out Pamela’s Website: Pamelaslim.com/thewidestnet
• 07:34 – Q: Why is it important to really build an audience? And why is it a valuable thing to do? A: Sometimes it feels like it’s just easier to focus on yourself and to not look sideways at other people. But I found not only strategically is it easier to open up more opportunities for yourself, but it also makes the journey less lonely.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“I found not only strategically is it easier to open up more opportunities for yourself when you just look at connecting with people who have already put in the hard work of gathering a community of people together, but it also makes the… Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:10
Welcome, everyone, to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. My name is Tom Poland beaming out to you from little Castaways Beach in Queensland, Australia, joined today by Pamela Slim. Pamela, good day from down under. A very warm welcome. Whereabouts are you based?

Pamela Slim 00:23
Mesa, Arizona.

Tom Poland 00:24
Mesa, Arizona! Is that where you take your sinuses? You know, those sort of-

Pamela Slim 00:29
Exactly! It’s where all the people up north come to thaw out in the wintertime.

Tom Poland 00:35
Folks, Pamela is an award-winning author of multiple books. She’s a speaker and a business coach. She works with small business owners ready to scale their businesses and their IP. Pamela, I can’t help but ask, I’m intrigued by the environment there. It looks- it just looks flat out a fun place to be. This is a learning center you’ve developed, is that right?

Pamela Slim 00:54
It is! It’s a Small Business Learning Lab. And we actually open right on Main Street in downtown Mesa. So, all kinds of folks walk through the door. And we really do have a great time every day learning about what it takes to make small business owners stick.

Tom Poland 01:08
I mean, I live on the white sand next to the blue ocean in little Castaways Beach. You probably couldn’t find a more remote-

Pamela Slim 01:14
Also, not bad.

Tom Poland 01:15
It’s not too shabby, but I do miss what you’ve got there. That is community. It’s involvement. It’s dropping. Yeah, a lot of- kudos! So, folks, the title today is, “The Widest Net: Discover New Customers Right in Front of You”. Pamela’s going to share with us how you can do that in just seven minutes. Pamela, our seven minutes starts now. Question number one, who is your ideal client?

Pamela Slim 01:38
I work with really smart people who have built amazing intellectual property that makes a positive difference in the world.

Tom Poland 01:45
Nice! Alright, so I’m intrigued. Question number two, then, what’s the problem you solve for them?

Pamela Slim 01:50
For many, they’re at their limit. They have developed something really important, but more and more people want it and, in particular, want to have them deliver it. So, it was like a past client, Susan Cain, who wrote the powerful book, “Quiet” where I helped her to build the quiet revolution that scaled the ideas in the book to make it accessible for many more people.

Tom Poland 02:08
Do a lot of your clients feel like they’ve got something special, but they’re the world’s best-kept secret?

Pamela Slim 02:13
Absolutely! I think folks I’m interested in working with really have been often sitting in their laboratory or in their offices creating really important stuff. And who doesn’t want their ideas out there in the world? I know I do.

Tom Poland 02:25
Yeah, absolutely! Yeah, make the world a better place. So, question number three, and we’ve got six minutes left. Tell us about the typical symptoms of one of your ideal clients- before they start working with you, what’s going on? We’ve already established they feel like they’ve got something great, but they haven’t gotten it out to the world, what else is going on either? Do they have time constraints? Are they frustrated? How does someone know that they should look at your services a bit closer?

Pamela Slim 02:50
There are two things, one is an emotional symptom, and one is usually a physical and operational symptom. So, on the emotional side, they may feel really excited that so many people are actually paying attention or listening to their work or following them. They can get a big increase in crisper speaking or have more people who are interested in participating. But then they also feel guilty because they’re so busy that the quality of life starts to go down. And they feel bad for feeling bad because they’re doing well. And that’s often the point where they realize they need to make a shift. What’s happening in the business is there’s not the capacity operationally or staff-wise in order to address the market need.

Tom Poland 03:29
Well said! So, five minutes left, question four. These folks are going to be aware of those symptoms and they’re growth orientated. You said they’re smart people. So, they’re going to try stuff, but they’re probably going to be in the town of the donkey to start with, not knowing exactly what to do. So, what are some of the common mistakes that you’ve noticed people are making before they find your solution?

Pamela Slim 03:50
I noticed there are a lot of cookie-cutter answers. So, somebody might say, “You are really an amazing author. And so, you should just create an online class.” And they say, “Okay”, and some of them invest lots and lots of money to create an online class. I love online classes. I’m an instructional designer by trade, so it can be a great solution. However, if you don’t do an analysis and figure out is the right fit for my market? Do I have the marketing mechanisms in place to actually promote? Is this class being sold into the same market that I’m really successful within my service business? It can end up creating a lot of problems. So that’s one thing that people often find. They just don’t know what they should do, and they just follow cookie-cutter advice. Or they pay a lot of money for somebody who has the bulletproof solution. And I don’t think anybody usually has the bulletproof solution. It takes discernment and conversation to figure it out.

Tom Poland 04:41
Yeah. So, what I hear you saying there is that a lot of those strategic questions need to be answered before they jump into a solution. It’s-

Pamela Slim 04:48
You got it!

Tom Poland 04:48
A very, very common mistake. I was cringing because I was just reflecting on a new client who’d spent $150,000 on a new website and got nothing to show for it other than a really nice website. Okay, so that’s ubiquitous, those mistakes. Thank you for that. Three and a half minutes left. Question five, what I’m after here is a valuable free action. It’s like a top tip. It’s not going to solve the whole problem, but it might get someone started down the road towards the right solution.

Pamela Slim 05:13
So, when you’re thinking about finding an audience for your work, the strategic analysis to me happens when you see your ideal customer who’s really in the center of an ecosystem in which they are looking for answers to solve whatever core problem they have, or in the case where they have an aspiration, to help them reach their aspiration. So, in my world, I work with business owners, like you do, sounds like a day in and day out. So, I’m always looking for who are some of these other partners who my clients actually love. Or their authors? Or their organizations? Or their favorite podcasts? And so, when you can begin to lean in and actually pay attention to highly complementary, but maybe not competitive kinds of resources, those are the best places to start. To be thinking about places where your intellectual property, in some cases, your services, can live. Doing that analysis about who’s in the ecosystem is really at the heart of the work that I do.

Tom Poland 06:06
I have to say that you are one of the smartest people that I’ve interviewed in years! This-

Pamela Slim 06:11
That’s very kind! Thank you.

Tom Poland 06:13
Well, it’s true. I was going to tell you that after we finish the interview, but I might let everyone else know that as well. Your grasp on the critically important points of bringing this person and getting the gift out to the world is quite remarkable! And which is all of which to say is that I agree with you, so, therefore, I’m also very smart.

Pamela Slim 06:33
By default!

Tom Poland 06:35
All right, so let’s keep going. We’ve got just under two minutes left. One valuable free resource. Where can we direct people so they can find out more about your work and what you do and help them along their way a bit as well?

Pamela Slim 06:45
The best place for current information is Pamelaslim.com/thewidestnet, which happens to be the place where I talk about a new book that I have. And my website, in general, is a place for years, since 2005, where I’ve been sharing all kinds of ideas and inspiration for small business owners.

Tom Poland 07:05
Yeah, and there’s a beautiful endorsement there from Guy Kawasaki who’s, you know, an extraordinary marketer in his own right and Business Builder. Thank you for that. So, it’s Pamelaslim, S-L-I-M, .com/thewidestnet. Go get the book! And folks, if you do nothing else, then go and have a look at that web page. It is a shining example of how to put together a book offer page. 50 seconds left, Pamela. Question number seven, what’s the one question I should have asked you but didn’t?

Pamela Slim 07:34
Why is it important to really build an audience? And why is it a valuable thing to do? Sometimes it feels like it’s just easier to focus on yourself and not look sideways at other people. But I found not only strategically is it easier to open up more opportunities for yourself when you just look at connecting with people who have already put in the hard work of gathering a community of people together, but it also makes the journey less lonely. And if there’s anything I know here for five years at the Main Street Learning Lab, it feels really good when you walk out on Main Street and you know people and you care about each other. And you help each other out.

Tom Poland 08:08
Perfect! Pamela Slim, thank you so much for your observations, your insights, and your sweetness. Cheers!

Pamela Slim 08:14
Thanks for having me.

Tom Poland 08:16
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.