This 1 Question tells me if you have a viable business

Hello and good evening. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach, coming to you live this evening on the Facebooks, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, and on Instagram. Over here on my phone, I help ADHD business owners make more money in less time by showing them exactly how they can tune into a niche that's ready to buy from them, figure out what their offer is, learn how to sell and market their services. Hi, Sandy. Welcome. Without following the cookie cutter, like, one size fits all methodology that a lot of business coaches sell, my clients really hone in on, like, what their own business is going to look like through my build your own business method. Hi. Surround you. Oh, my gosh, Sandy, we might have to do I have to talk to you because there's. There's trivia this week. You live nearby and we should go anyway. But that's not what we're talking about. We're not talking about trivia. We're talking about the problem that you solve, okay? So I can't tell you how many times I talk to new business owners and they are so excited. They have started a business, they have a website, and they have all the ideas and all the things. And when I ask them, what's the problem that you solve? They can't answer it. They just can't answer it. They don't have an answer because they know what they like doing. They know what they're passionate about. They know, like, what they can do, right? None of those things guarantee that you are going to have a market. It doesn't guarantee just because you're talented at doing something or that you have an idea for something that there are going to be people out there who want to buy. Okay? I joked about this recently on my podcast about how, like, you know, tennis has a major problem as I see it, right? It's a summer sport. Like, they're missing out on the whole rest of the year in the most. Most of the earth, right? For most of the world. So you know what we need? We need tennis galoshes. We need tennis snowshoes so that I welcome hi back. So that tennis players don't have to be limited by just the warm months, right? If tennis players could have snow gear so that they could go out and play tennis in the cold, in the ice, in the snow, in the freezing the. Then we would be able to make the tennis. The tennis industry make so much more money. Now, you know that's a bad idea, right? You know that is a bad idea. But I just. I just Kind of launched a little mini industry in my mind. Right? The snow gear for tennis players. Right? There's shoes, there's, there's, you know, clothing, there's gear, there's like special guards for your tennis racket. I don't know. And I could absolutely go and build that. I could absolutely go and have shoemakers design the shoes and have that, you know, whatever that process is. I could hire a whole marketing team to take care of this. To launch would go nowhere. Because tennis players don't care about playing in the winter. Like, they don't want to play in the snow or when it's freezing. That's. That's not the point of the sport. Okay? I'm creating a problem that does not exist. Okay. Just because you can do something doesn't mean that there are people out there who are willing to buy from you. Hi. Yes. Thank you. I love a nice little go, Katie. So you need to figure out what is the problem that you solve. Okay. And I just want to go into, you know, there are two motivations that people have when they make a purchase, and there are only three things that people ever spend money on. All right? So the two motivations are they spend money. Their motivation to spend money is to get out of pain. Okay. There's something that's frustrating them that they're unhappy with. It might actually be causing them actual pain in their life. Or they spend money to get into pleasure. Okay, let's talk about buying a car. Okay, so like, the pain version of this is maybe you have like a two door, like a Fiat 500. I have a Fiat 500. I love it. Right, but you have a two door Fiat 500. You just got married, you just had a baby, you have a big dog. Like, you've outgrown the Fiat 500. Like, it can work, you know, like, you can kind of like really wrestle into the back to like get the baby strapped in. And, you know, the dog, like the big dog is kind of like hanging over the seats because it doesn't have enough space. And your spouse is just like so frustrated. It's just so cramped in there and it's like claustrophobic. They hate it. And you also don't really feel safe because it's such a small car. You have a baby on board. And, you know, I drive a small car. And the big cars are not nice to small cars. They are not. It's scary sometimes. So the problem is that you're feeling the pain of your small car. It's no longer working for you. So the motivation to buy a new car is that you need a bigger car, you want to get out of pain and you want to get into something that isn't painful for you, right? The other motivation for buying car could be you have a perfectly decent car. Maybe, maybe you have like, you know, 2020 Corolla. You know, it gets great gas mileage, it's clean, you take good care of it, gets you from point A to point B. It has a good sound system, has heated seats. You know, it's easy to park all the things. It's a perfectly fine car. But maybe you just got like a $50,000 bonus for the year. And maybe you have always wanted like, like a Range Rover or Land Rover, whatever they're called, and you've always wanted something that's fancier, that like, is higher up on the ground and like has really good service. You know, when you go to Land Rover for, for service, they treat you like royalty, right? You get, you also get like courtesy cars every time they have to do service on it. It's just a really beautiful experience. And you know, you just decide, you know, this is the one time that I'm going to treat myself to the thing that I really want, that I've always wanted, and you go for it, right? So those are the two motivations that people have to spend money. Okay, So I want you to bring this back to what is the problem that you solve? You know, when someone is coming to buy from you, are they buying from you? Because you are getting them out of pain, right? So for instance, like, people work with me to get out of pain, all right? They oftentimes have spent months, if not years spinning their wheels in their businesses, not understanding why they can't grow faster, not understanding why they can't make money doing this, and like just not knowing what they don't know that they're doing wrong, right? That's really painful. Like that just, it's. There's a lot of self doubt and imposter syndrome. There's a lot of fear of judgment. There's probably also genuine judgment, right? Because you have family members and loved ones around you who care about you, right? And also, what the fuck are you doing? Like, we want you to make money so that you can survive. We care about you. And so you have parents and aunts and uncles and siblings who are like, I'm really worried about you. Like, why? When are you going to give up on this stupid business? Because it doesn't seem to be taking off, right? So there's all that going on for my clients, and then they get to a point where they just can't take that anymore, right? And that's when they start working with me. Okay? So, like, that is the pain portion. You know, when people sign up with me, they also sign up to gain pleasure, right? Like, I'm really funny, I'm really fun to work with, but that's not the kind of pleasure we're talking about. We're talking about the pleasure of your dreams coming true. We're talking about that, that feeling, that satisfaction, that pride that sets in when you look back at the last two years and you see how you strategically took action to build the business that you want and you're making like a decent chunk of money now and you see the path forward and you understand what's going to take to go from here to there. And like, that's the thing that people buy when they sign up with me as well, right? So for you, it doesn't have to be a both for you. You can be the person who either just gets them out of. Out of pain or just gets them into pleasure. The best, though, is when you do both. Okay? So if you can find a problem that you solve that has them in pain and then the, like, you solving the problem gets into a point of pleasure, you are gold. Okay? But that's not just. That's not it, right? So, like, you can absolutely make up that story for, for tennis players, right? You have to check it against the market. You have to make sure that there is actually a need out there for you to solve this problem. Okay? Now those are the two motivations that people have to buy. I also want to talk about what they buy. Now, humans are very simple creatures. We are not complicated, okay? We want people to think we're complicated, but we're not, okay? We really only spend money on three things, and those three things are getting laid, getting paid, and living longer. Now, except for some, like, some like, red, red light district shenanigans, we're not actually talking about, like, buying sex or anything or buying longer life. Like, I wish we could, but no. So I want you to think about, like, why does anyone buy the red dress? Why does anyone buy the red dress and the slingback black stiletto heels? Not because they're comfortable. They're not. They are the least comfortable thing in the world, right? But you buy the red dress and the sexy heels because you're hoping you're going to get laid at some point. Like you want to attract a partner, right? And wearing Something like that. That makes you feel sexy, that makes you feel confident, that makes you feel alluring to whoever it is that you're attracted to, makes you feel like you're on your way to doing that. Right? You know, it's funny, you can also make an argument for, like, the red dress and the sexy heels make you live longer, right? Because if you wear the red dress and the sexy heels and you go out and you meet someone, they're like the love of your life, and they care about you and they want to take care of you, you know, you're likely to live longer. You really are. Because you have someone in your corner who's going to make sure that if you're sick, you get to the doctor, right? If you go on a hike and you break your leg, they're going to make sure you get out of the woods, right? They're not just going to leave you there, right? They're going to be like, no, you have to come home and get better so you can wear the red dress again. Right. You know, like, for men. Like, let's talk about suits. You know, I had a client, one of my programs this year, who is a tailor, custom tailor. She designs custom suits for men. And they're beautiful. They're beautiful. Like, you see her clients, the pictures of them. And these are ordinary men. Not that, like, I mean, they're extraordinary. No offense if you're. If you're one of Alex's clients, but, like, you know, they're just. They're just guys. They're just guys. They come out of her studio looking like models. Looking like models. And you know what it does? It skyrocket. Rockets their confidence. It's got. It makes them look dapper and, like, sophisticated and confident, all the things. And when they walk into meetings, they take all that with them, right? When they go to negotiate a deal, if they look like that, like, they're gonna have that much more judge to go and negotiate that deal. Not only that, but if they're at a party and they look elevated, they're going to attract more people with more opportunities, right? Because they look the part, right? When, like, you might just be selling clothes, but you could also be selling get laid, get paid, and live longer. And if you're just joining us, we're talking about the three things that people buy. I don't want to start. I don't want to not explain, since we're talking about buying, getting laid. So oftentimes, what you sell will actually fulfill one, if not all three of those things. Right. So I'll use my own business as an example here. Okay? So imagine you go from, like, struggling, not really sure how to make this business happen. You don't really know what you're doing, and you're not making any money from it. And you go from there to the next year. You're making six figures in your business. You have a list of clients, they love working with you. They refer new clients to you all the time. You're showing up on social media, you're getting invited to speak at events like you have. There's need for you out in the world, right? And you're confident in what you're doing. You feel good about it, right? Now, imagine you're walking into a bar. Imagine you're walking into a bar after having a really amazing day, doing what you love and making good money doing it. You're probably going to be a lot more confident than you were a year ago when you weren't sure what you were doing and you were feeling complete imposter syndrome about the whole thing, right? So you're probably going to attract, you know, more people who will be genuinely interested in that energy. Okay, so that's getting late, right? Getting paid. You are attracting clients. Like, that's a literal thing. Like, you're attracting clients and they're wanting to pay you. So you're getting paid and living longer. Now, if you're generally. If you're attracting people who care about you and you're making more money, you will have more people who care about you to make sure you stay alive and more resources to make sure that you can stay alive. I'm talking medical care, good food, really comfortable mattress, because sleep is really important. Personal training, all these factors that go into you living longer. Right now, you do not. I'm just. I have all this. I'm shedding. I don't know what's happening to me like a dog. Anyway, you do not have to make, like, a super obvious case for, like, working with me is going to get you laid or working with me is going to get you paid or living longer. Unless, like, what you do is, like, very tied to that. What you do have to do is you have to frame up the problem as they see it. That's why you need to know what the problem is, right? And you have to say, hey, listen, like this. These are all the factors that are going on for you right here, right now, in this moment, okay? And just so you know, my clients all start there. They're. They're all in that camp. And if you're there right now, I want you to know that you're not alone. Okay? You're not a freak. You're not like some weirdo anomaly because you're struggling with this. A lot of people struggle with this. And by the way, if you're ready to be done with this whole struggle, that's what I help my clients do. I help them get out of that and into this. All right? That's all you have to do. This is what I call empathetic marketing. It's what I train in my build your own business group programs and with my one on one clients. The magic of empathetic marketing is that you do not actually need to have testimonials when you're just starting your business in order to get clients with it. Right. Because when you're first starting out, it's this catch 22. Everyone says, oh, we'll share testimonials, share case studies of all your wins. Great. If you haven't actually done this for paying clients before, maybe you did this before with a job or you just got trained as like a coach or an accountant or whatever. Um, you don't have testimonials. You know your stuff, right? You're qualified, but you just don't have anyone who's willing to, who can honestly say that they worked with you for X amount of time and you help them get from here to here right when you're first starting out. Yes. Like if you could find a way to do that ethically, absolutely. Get some testimonials. But you don't need to do that to get clients. Like there are some clients who will need that, but not everyone. Empathetic marketing helps you say to your client, hey you and get you. I understand everything's going in your life so well that I'm just writing about it blindly on the social media post. I don't even know if you're seeing this. But you know what? Like, this is what my clients go through and I help them get out of that. And by the way, that big dream that you have that like, and you can paint the picture of like a very specific dream, even if it's not the exact dream that your ideal client has, it's still going to be enough. Like, if it's close enough to like the typical big dream that your ideal clients have, they will actually sub out the details. Right? So maybe you have clients who are like all about wanting freedom and flexibility in their life. They want to sell their house, they want to get an rv, they want to Travel the country. They want to be able to work anywhere at any time with anyone they want or not. Right. You can describe that whole scenario now. Someone who doesn't really want to get an rv, but they want to go backpacking through Europe and be a digital nomad, it doesn't matter. They're going to sub in their dream. For what you've put, okay, the key here is you have to know the problem you solve and the pleasure you help them get into. You have to be very specific about it. At minimum. Like, you know, everyone's always so concerned about what their elevator pitch should be. You know, like how should they describe in. In two seconds, like how they, how they do their job and what their title is and like how impressive they are. No one actually cares about your title. No one actually cares about what you do, okay? They don't. They care about how you are useful to them. Okay. And if you're not useful to them, how you could be useful to someone that they know, could they refer you to someone? All right, that is, that is magical. I know. I always love it when I meet someone who is like a plumber and the next day I run into someone else who's like, oh my God, I really need a plumber. Do you know someone? I'm like, oh my God. So funny that you said that. I just met a plumber yesterday. Let me connect you to. Right, because what does that do? It lets me help two people in my world, which ups my social capital. Right. We as humans are not complicated. We like doing stuff like that. But for someone to be able to introduce you to your ideal client, you have to be crystal clear in like 5 year old understandable language about the problem you solve and what you help people accomplish instead. All right? So if you're in the middle of your business, if you're just getting started, if you're growing, if you're feeling stuck, I want you to really think about that. What is the problem that you solve? And also if you're stuck and you just don't know what to do next. Right. Maybe you do know the problem that you solve and you just don't know the actual steps it's going to take for you to get from here to actually having a full business, I want you to book a generate income strategy call with me. Okay. This is a 30 minute call that I do. It's for free, but it's not necessarily a free call. What we're going to do is we're going to get crystal clear on what your goals are for the business, what your big dreams are and where you're getting stuck along the way and building it on your own. Okay, if it's a fit, and only if it's a fit. I told someone today that it was not a fit. And I am very. I have a lot of integrity around this because I only want people in my programs who are going to be successful. If it's a fit, we will talk about different ways to work together. And if it's not a fit, like with the person today, I will point you in the direction of some resources that will better serve you than working with me. Me. Okay, but regardless, whether you want to work with me or not, what is the problem that you solve? What is it? That is all people want to know when they meet you. I mean, they want to know your name, they want to, like, know what you like and all this stuff. But, like, if they want to be in business with you, they have to, at minimum, know that. Okay? So if you don't know that, work on that. That is your homework for tonight. Zach and Sandy and I don't know who else was watching from the other places. I didn't get any comments. Comments over there. So if anyone commented and I didn't shout you out, they did not come through. So I love these to be interactive but didn't see anything come through. So know that I'm not ignoring you. Just, you know, maybe the technology's not working. Anyway, thank you for being here. I hope you found this super helpful. I will be going live again tomorrow and Thursday and Friday because I'm on a Monday through Friday 30 day kick. If you have any topics that you'd like me to go live on or if you have any questions, please do DM them to me because you know, I can always use more ideas for what to go live on. And in the meantime, I hope you have a great night. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach. See you all tomorrow.