Creating Your Avatar Client (step by step)

Creating a customer avatar is essential in running your business and just having one in general. But a lot of people don't do it because they don't want to do these weird exercises where you got to think about how old the person is and what their job description is and all that kind of stuff. And that stuff is really helpful, which we're going to get into today. But you don't need to spend as much time as you think in actually building it. Now, if you don't really know what a customer avatar is, a customer avatar is a buying persona. It's a depiction of your perfect customer or client that you work with. And it's so valuable to understand this. And I like to think about it as having like a compass, if you will. So if you're ever curious about what should I write for my opt-in copy or my sales page, or what products should I create, or what content should I create, you can always fall back on this customer avatar, this ideal depiction that you have inside your mind of the perfect person that you ultimately want to attract to work with you. So when you understand who your ideal customer is, what they look like, their habits, their interests, their intentions, their challenges, aspirations, and so on, you're going to be way more effective in being able to market to these people or to this specific person. Usually when you come up with one, you can hit a lot of people. Yeah, you don't need to spend a ridiculous amount of time on this and really like, like weeks or anything. My intention is that you can go through today's episode pull out a pen and paper, write down the things that I'm going to walk you through. And literally step by step, we're going to walk through how to actually build your customer avatar so that you can just be done with it, roll on and start marketing, start building out your business. Ready? Let's dive in. Welcome to episode number 11 of the Profit Your Knowledge podcast. I'm your host, James Allen here to help you turn your knowledge, passions, and skills into an online business so that you can be your own boss and control your schedule and ultimately build a life of freedom. So it is episode 11. I've officially ran out of hands or fingers, I guess, on my two hands to, to count my episodes. So I'm gonna stop doing that now. But today is going to be really important because we are going to craft out your perfect customer. And this is going to be super big in helping you actually build a life of freedom and build your online business. And, you know, I'd love to actually hear from you. Let me know down in the comments if you're on YouTube anyway, or if you're on the podcast, you can leave a review, I guess, and let me know. But I'd love to hear what is a life of freedom look like to you? What does that look like to you? Let me know down in the comments. And hey, if you're just starting out, you're thinking about getting the ball rolling on your business, you're hearing about a customer avatar and now you're kind of researching like, how do I actually do this? What is this? Maybe you're working a job, or maybe you've been going down the route of working at building some sort of business, teaching things that you know, that you love, that you're passionate about, and you're kind of just frustrated, a little unclear on what to do, then I have a great solution for you. I created a 5-step action plan or action guide, if you will, that walks you through an exact model. There's many ways to build an online business teaching things that you know, that you love, that you're passionate about. But this is a great business model. It's going to help you create scalable income, which means you don't need to trade your time for money. And it, it'll help you build a business that can run by itself without you having to constantly be glued to the phone, which is really the coolest type of business model in my opinion. I love coaching. I love working with my clients and being on the phone and doing that kind of stuff. But what I think is way more awesome is being able to get discovered online bring people to your website, to your business, and then be able to make sales to them and make offers to them on the backend, all on autopilot. So if you're interested in that kind of stuff, my guide will walk you through every single piece of it. Even if you don't know what your business idea is, we're going to touch on that as well. There's videos inside. And really the point of it is just to give you clarity on a proven business model that does work, that's helped people build 5, 6, or even 7-figure online businesses. And be able to run it consistently while working under 20 hours per week. So if you want to check that out, my gift to you is highly actionable. It's short, actionable, and it literally walks you through step 1, do this, step 2, step 3, step 4, step 5. So it'll give you clarity. Use it. That's the biggest thing. To get your guide, just go to ProfitYourKnowledge.com/guide, or there is a link in the description of this episode as well. So today we're talking about customer avatars. And, you know, I actually pushed this off for a long time because, because I tried writing out like your customer avatar and doing all the demographics and stuff. And I never really understood like why it was so important. And I think that's why I pushed it off. I figured it was just something that like, yeah, people talked about, but I didn't really need to do. But like, there's a reason that everybody talks about doing this. Because it is so valuable. So if you think about creating a customer avatar, this is the perfect person that is most likely to buy from you, that you would love to work with, the age range, those kind of things. And when it comes to marketing and making sales, you are able to speak the language of what that person finds valuable and be able to relate to the perfect person. So by doing that, you're going to weed out the people that you don't want to work with. And the more clear that you can be on this customer avatar, the more efficient and effective your marketing is going to be. Here's an example. The way that you talk to someone who is just starting out in whatever it is you teach, whether it's fitness or business or art or guitar playing or anything, is going to be totally different than someone who's been doing it for a long time, very seasoned in it. Okay? And that's why we create a customer avatar. Now you can have multiple customer avatars. I would say go no more than 3. And a quick example in my own life, I have 3. I have one person, one type of person who's in a business or who's in a job like a 9 to 5, and they're just like, dude, I'm tired of this. I want to create my own business. I want to do my own thing and be my own boss and be able to make money and help people make a difference in the world. But they're in this job. So that's one type of person. Another type of person that is perfect to work with me is someone who is already successful in their local area. So I've worked with many people in this. They have like a fitness business and they are very successful in their local area. Um, but they feel confined to their local area and they want to make a global impact. So they're doing like full-time, like 6 figures or whatever. Um, and now they want to move on to the online space, but they have no idea how to go about that, how to convert what they've done in person to an online setting. So that's a different type of avatar that I create in the process I'm about to walk you through as well. The third type of person is someone who is very successful online. They are like— I work with a lot of coaches and experts and trainers and things like that. So this person is someone who is very successful. They're doing a lot of phone calls, but that's kind of their problem. They are putting in so much time and energy into running their online business and they don't have a problem getting clients. But they're kind of just like, I don't want to be glued to the phone all the time. So you'll probably notice me that I say that you don't have to be glued to the phone all the time because the business model that I have learned and that I teach, I definitely value coaching and being on the phone because you can do high-ticket sales, which is amazing. And it's phenomenal being able to make $5,000 or $10,000 or more in a phone call. But what's way cooler is being able to replicate that process into an online system that's automated. So that's another way that I'll help with these people. But the, the process that I take people through, whether it's any one of those avatar clients that I just mentioned for me, then it's the same process for every single person. Really, the person just starting out will be a little bit different. I'll kind of recommend them to do more time on booking phone calls to kind of get their business going because we can make money a lot faster that way. Okay. But the way that I talk to someone who has been very successful online. They know who their customer avatar is. They just want to convert it into an automated system. That person is going to be way different than the other two type of people who are like, I don't know where to begin on starting my online journey. Okay. So that's who I like to market to more because in terms of like my YouTube content, my podcast and those kinds of things. So being very transparent with you on how I think about this kind of stuff so that you have a better understanding when it comes to growing your online business. So I'm done flapping my gums about my avatar clients. I just hope you can see now the value in knowing who you're actually talking to for different products. One other example, I guess, is like if you think about opt-in copy, like someone's going to pick up your lead magnet, your free guide, the way that you write that copy is the way that you're talking to the people that land on your website and that land on that page. And it's going to bring in different people. If you're talking in the way of like, here's how we're going to get your business going or how we're going to get you started with X, that is going to weed out the people because the people who are the people who've already been doing it for a long time, the people who've been doing it for a long time, they're like, I already know that. So I'm not going to opt in because I don't want to do that. But that's who you're targeting. Okay. So I hope you can understand the, the point of what we're doing here. So let's get into how to actually create your customer avatar step by step. Uh, we're going to focus on demographics, which is like the name, age, that kind of stuff. And then we're going to focus on the psychographics. And I have 10 questions for you to ask yourself, um, in terms of psychographics that help you paint the picture of who you're talking to and why you're talking to them. So pull out a pen and paper, pull out a document, take your time with this, and, um, let's dive in. Demographics. First, give your avatar a name. You don't think too much on this. Just go with like John or Susie. Think, is this person a male? Are they female or anything else from nowadays? Because you never know. How do they identify themselves, I guess? And then how old is your prospect as well? So literally write this out, right? Name, age, gender, I guess you can say, or male, female. How do they identify themselves? Non-binary, whatever it is. But you want to just be clear on that because the way that you talk to men is different than the way that we talk to women. So we just want to think who's the perfect person that we would love to talk to and the age range for them. Now, if you're just starting out in your business, maybe you haven't even like really worked with anyone. Like, don't get so caught up on this. Really throw out an idea of like general, I'd like to work with these type of people. You can always change this. You can create other avatars down the road. Maybe you've been working with a lot of people and you've had many star clients that are just the perfect people that you love working with, and maybe you're still working with them or not anymore. So you want to create your avatar and all the things that we're talking about around that person. Literally, you can use their name. Let's say Susan. Susan was just a total rock star client. She was about— or she was a woman she identified as. Her name was Susan, and she She was about 30 years old, we'll say. Cool. Next, we just want to think, how much income does this person make per month or per year? Just general. It could be 6 figures a year. They're working at a job. It could be that they're already an online business coach or something doing $10,000 months. Maybe they're doing $20,000 months. Okay. But just kind of write down they're making this amount of money per year, per month, because ideally when we create a customer avatar, This is the perfect client. This is the person that is most ideal for you and your situation and who you love to work with. And part of that is having someone that is fun to work with, that you enjoy, that you can relate to in terms of your age, but also that can afford you, that can afford your products, that can afford your services. So think about a price range of that type of person. Okay, next, education level. High school? Did they go to college, university? Were they a dropout? Did they get a bachelor's? Are they a doctor? Write it down. And if you really like are like, dude, I don't know, you can just say college or just say high school degree. Fine. Okay. Don't, don't get too caught up on this. Next, are they married, divorced? Are they widowed or are they single? Important to think about because a single person, a single guy is going to be different than a single girl, the way that you maybe talk to them. Okay. Someone looking to find love. compared to a married man or a married woman that has kids. And that's actually the next thing. Do they have kids? If so, how old are they and how many kids do they have? Okay. This is all going to make more sense when we get into the psychographics, but think about this. Okay. So, so far we have the person's name, how old they are, what they identify as, man, woman, anything else, and then how much money are they making? Their education level. Are they married, divorced, widowed, or single? Do they have kids? Do they have pets? Some people, the pet is like their life. That is everything to them. And pet people think differently than other people, especially if you sell something that relates to pets. But if so, they have pets, what kind? How many? Okay, and again, this is just kind of like throwing out ideas. Think about this also. Are they fit and healthy, or are they overweight and a total couch potato? If you teach fitness, then this is going to be really helpful for you because like the way that you would teach someone who's already fit and healthy but maybe wants to level up their fitness game or their performance in whatever sport they are in, that's a completely different person than the person who is overweight, doesn't even know where to begin, has zero motivation in terms of getting off the couch and getting like their first mile recorded. Okay, totally different person, but it helps you get clarity on it. Is this person fit and healthy? Where are they at, I guess, on a physical level? And then what do they do for a living? That's the other thing. Again, if you can't think of anything, you can just throw out an idea like they do accounting. Okay, so let me just kind of paint a picture of demographics so far. Let's say we have an avatar named Susan. She's 30 years old. She identifies herself as a female. She's doing, let's just say, six figures a year. She has a good job. She does accounting, we'll say. And she went to college, ended up getting a pretty good job. And she's a single woman. She doesn't have any kids right now. And she has a cat named Cleo. Cleo, that's the name. Okay, we're going to go with that. And she's really fit. She likes to take care of herself. She's healthy. She's 30 years old. Okay. You can already see I'm just literally throwing random facts here. Off the top of my head, and you can already see a type of person that this is. Okay, so you want to make sure that it's the type of person you want to work with. For example, if you are growing a coaching practice or you want to have more conversations with people for like life coaching, we'll say, and you're looking on social media or you go to an event and you're talking with people and you have this clear picture of the type of person you'd love to work with, you can spot people out. Okay. It taps into our reticular activating system, like the whole thing of If you are considering buying a red Honda now, you see red Hondas everywhere. That's the same thing that's happening here. You're going to be able to spot these people way better. And in terms of your marketing, you'll be like, hey, look, I get it. You're in your 30s, you have a cat that you just love and you want to take care of, but you're single and you're thinking like you're undateable, for example, or there's no good guys out there. Okay, so that's the power of doing this. So run through this. And the more that you work with people, the clearer that this will get. And that's really the big thing. You just got to work with people. Okay, so we've gone through all of that. Hopefully that was clear for you. Now we get into the juicy stuff. 10 magic questions to help us really identify this target audience or this target person. Now, I didn't make these questions up, by the way. I got these from two guys named Barry and Clive over at teachcopywriting.com because I learn a lot about copywriting because it's such a valuable skill. Uh, topic for a different day, but these are 10 questions that are like incredibly valuable, incredibly important. It really helps you dive deeper into this fictional character that we have like thought about on the surface level. And we're going to stick with ours named Susan, the single girl with the cat named Cleo. So now we're going to dive deep into Barry and Clive's 10 magic questions, because I love these and I stole them, but I always give them credit. So. They're the mad genius behind all of this. 10 magic questions. Number 1, get your pen and paper ready. What keeps this person up at night staring at the ceiling? So we have our girl avatar client, our woman, 30 years old named Susan. She has a stable job doing accounting. Just made that up. Doing 6 figures a year. Like, she's pretty freaking sweet. You know, she's got a quality woman here. She went to college. She's single. She's got her cat named Cleo, very fit and healthy, and she likes to take care of herself. She just feels like what keeps her up at night is that she wants to find a partner. You know, she's 30. She's at the point where she's like, I want to start having like kids, you know, I want to find a quality person that I can be with and I can stay with. I'm kind of at that point in my life. Okay. Notice how this is different than someone who's like younger, just kind of getting into dating. Or someone who's maybe later in life, like in their 50s, and they're like, I'm not trying to have kids, I've already had kids, or I'm just not interested in that, my body's not ready for that. Okay, you're not going to have kids. See the difference? But we're sticking with Susan. So what causes her to stare at the ceiling at night and just kind of get really frustrated and keeps her up at night is just being able to think like, I can't find a quality guy that I want to spend the rest of my life with. And I really want to have kids. You know, it's a dream of mine. but I, I can't, I can't find that person. Okay, that's what keeps her up at night staring at the ceiling. Question number 1. Question number 2: What's this person most afraid of? What's Susan most afraid of? Well, Susan's afraid that she's never going to find someone quality. She keeps dating guys, and getting dates isn't a problem. It's, it's finding that right guy, the guy that takes care of her, that loves her, that makes her laugh, you know, that hit, that checks all the boxes for her and that she'd really be comfortable having a kid with and spending her life with. Because that's just a dream of hers, is just to have this kid, you know, with a quality man, have a quality family, because maybe she didn't have that growing up. Ooh, you see, now we're getting, now we're getting deeper into the story of Susan. And we're just making this up, which is crazy because it's literally someone's life. There are billions and billions of people. It's like 7 or 8 billion people at this point. Um, last I checked it was 7. But anyway, there's so many people in this world, and you just making up a story for someone that's the perfect person for you is literally somebody's life. It's a group of people's life in this mass, uh, array of people on the world— in the world. Okay, so Susan's afraid that I'm never gonna find this guy, I'm never gonna have a kid and fulfill my dream. Question number 3: What or who is this person angry with? Who's Susan angry with? And obviously make it related to your topic. Susan's angry with all the crappy guys in the world, and she's starting to think, is it me? Is something wrong with me? She's frustrated with herself. Maybe she's being— she thinks she's being too selective with people. She's being too hard on these people and holding too high of a standard. Hmm. Okay. So she's, maybe she's angry with herself, but maybe she's also angry with just with like blaming the world of all the crappy guys out there and thinking there's no crappy or there's no quality men, which is not true. Susan, if you're watching this, it's not true. Okay. If you're listening to this. So who or what is this person angry with? Maybe it's something related to your industry or niche. Okay. Maybe it's something related to that, but answer that question. Side note, by the way, I know we're going through 10 different questions. You don't need to answer all of these, but the more that you answer, the clearer that you're going to be. Okay. So I think you can answer all of these. There's some maybe later on that you might be like, I don't really know, but answer like at least 7 of these 10 questions. Ideally all of them though. Okay. So, so far, just to recap, what keeps this person up at night staring at the ceiling? What's this person afraid of most? What or who is this person angry with? Number 4, what are their 3 biggest frustrations? Now, I talk a lot about customer research, doing customer research, how to do it, and I have plenty of videos on my YouTube channel on how to actually do it. And I even walk you through how to do it. There's like videos about copywriting where it's really customer research. So I go into all that stuff, not the topic for today, but customer research and having a document, getting to know people maybe from past clients you've worked with. You can think about 3 of the biggest frustrations that these people have that you can list out here. And you can do bullet points too. That's fine. Susan's biggest frustrations: she can't find any quality guys. She's frustrated that— I guess probably the biggest one, she can't find quality guys. She's frustrated with herself thinking, maybe I'm holding too high of a standard. What else? She— I don't know. I can't think of a third one for that one, but take time. The more customer research you do and understanding people and having conversations with people who relate similar to like the kind of problems you want to solve, the easier this is to put in. Because I'm coming up with Susan off the top of my head. I'm not a dating coach. So question number 4: What are the 3 biggest frustrations that this person is going through? Question number 5: What changes are happening in their life? Maybe they're getting married, Maybe they're experiencing a job transition or having health problems of some kind. Maybe they're going through a divorce or maybe they're having kids and so on. Okay, these are examples for you. What changes are happening in Susan's life? She's not getting married. I guess the health problem could be that she's getting to that point in her life where she feels like, I don't want to miss my window to have kids. Okay, what changes are happening in her life or in your person's life? Because that's— and then go into detail as much as you can on these questions, by the way, because that's going to help paint the picture. That's what we're doing here, painting a picture so we can have a, like, empathy really for this type of person and feel this person even though they're just made up. But really guaranteed it's a real person. Question number 6. What do they secretly desire more than anything? Examples of this would be better sex, being their own boss, finding love, losing weight, getting married, building a business, and so on. What does Susan secretly desire more than anything? To have kids, to get married, to be with a quality man. But when she's hanging out with her friends, maybe she's like, I don't really feel comfortable doing that because they're all in that situation of where I want to be. Okay, so secretly she doesn't feel comfortable opening up to that. Okay, that's what we want to think about. What do they secretly desire more than anything? Question number 7: Does this person have any built-in bias or rules when making decisions? So example, great example is talking to a spouse or talking to parents or someone, maybe their cat Cleo, before making an investment of some kind. Okay. Uh, it's, this is just helpful for us to think about, especially when it comes to like copywriting. Do they have any built-in bias or rules when making decisions? Some people are like, I need to wait 30 days to make this decision before I actually do it. Um, again, if you can't think of anything in terms of that one, you can skip it. Okay. I challenge you with all of these to not just skip one of the questions. You're like, I don't know. It's like, no, do your best to try and answer it. Come up with something. Okay, because the more you can answer these questions, the clearer that we're going to be. Okay, now question number 8: What are their values? Think about what type of person is this? Are they open-minded? Are they reliable? Are they trustworthy? Are they dependable? Are they none of those things? Are they the polar opposite? Are they funny? Are they lazy? What are the things that this person values? Susan is someone who values her fitness. She values her time. She, um, values connection with people. Okay, that's why she's going on different dates trying to find this right guy for her. She values family because she didn't have that kind of family growing up, that the family that she wants to create in her life. Okay, and she's got a great sense of humor. She just can't— she's having trouble finding that perfect guy. Okay, so what does your person value? Question number 9. We're almost there, guys. Question number 9. What— or no, question number 9. Who do they want to please most? Who does this person want to please most? Who does Susan want to please most? Well, Susan wants to— she wants to please her family, I guess. Actually, no, no, she doesn't, because her family wasn't really her family's just pure chaos, we'll say. I mean, she really wants to please herself and make herself proud, but also she kind of like secretly she does want to please and show her friends that she made it happen, that she has a really quality boyfriend because some— a lot of her friends, even though they have families, they're not really happy because Susan wants to have that family where she can like show off her man. She shows off her family. She's pumped, okay? And she kind of wants to show that off secretly, okay? That's just— that's human nature. That's what she wants to do, okay? So who does your person want to please most? Everybody wants to please someone, okay? We all want to please someone and show someone that we made it happen, whether that's a spouse, your girlfriend, your boyfriend, uh, whoever it is. Who does your person, your avatar client, want to please most? You're really digging into I guess the real heartstrings you're tugging on the heartstrings right now because like this is— these are the questions you ask when you're like, I really want to understand my customer better than they do, like be able to communicate because I understand these things way better than anybody else so that they read my copy, they watch my content on YouTube or my podcast or my blogs, and they're like, this person gets me because you're looking beyond what everybody else is kind of seeing. You're digging deep. Okay. Question number 10. Last question. Who are their heroes that they look up to most? Let's take Susan. Susan has one friend. Actually, no. Susan has a— she has an aunt, an aunt of hers. Who lives on the other side of the country, but she just looks up to her because her aunt replicates the type of family that Susan really wants to have. She looks at her aunt and says, man, that is exactly what I want. So she's who she looks up to. She calls her for advice and talks with her, and that's her like perfect, that's her golden star. Okay, so who are the people that your customer or your ideal person looks up to most? These are, I mean, these are all just things that we're understanding about our customer, and that's why it's so valuable. You may think, well, how's this going to make a difference? Well, it's about— business is about relationships in the grand scheme of things, especially when you're coaching people, you're teaching people things. You got to understand your people. And these are going to help us have and more of an emotional connection on our part with our target audience and the people that we would love to work with. These are the perfect people that we would love to work with. So let me recap the 10 magic questions from Barry and Clive at teachhappywriting.com, because those guys are legit. Question number 1: What keeps this person up at night staring at the ceiling? Question number 2: What is this person afraid of most? 3, what or who is this person angry with related to your topic or industry? Number 4, what are the 3 biggest frustrations? Number 5, what changes are happening in their life? Getting married, job transition, divorce, having kids, health problems, etc. 6, what do they secretly desire more than anything? Better sex, being their own boss, losing weight, getting married, having kids. Building a business, whatever it is. 7. Do they have any built-in bias or rules when making decisions? 8. What is this person's values? What do they value more than anything? 9. Who do they want to please most? And number 10, who are their heroes that they look up to most? Take your time going through this. Honestly, you could have built this workshop, or maybe you're just kind of running through and you're going to come back to it. This piece of content, go through it and really take your time to answer these questions to the best of your ability. I hope I was able to inspire some answers about your perfect customer avatar inside your mind, but I guarantee when you run through this, the demographics, and then paint the picture of this person's life that is not seen by many people and you're just making this up, you're going to realize like, that sounds like a real person, or that sounds like someone that I know that is just a perfect person for me to work with. Your marketing is going to become so much easier because when you write opt-in copy or you write a sales page or build a product, you're thinking, this is for Susan or this is for John. And if you do create or want to have multiple avatars, like I have a couple, don't go more than 3. Keep it 1 to 3 or 2 different people that are like different situations. But these are perfect people to work with me. If you do create multiple, run through this exercise for each one of those people. Okay, that's what I'm encouraging and challenging you to do. So watch this episode a couple of times, lay out your couple people, have a few different documents ready for them, uh, and answer all these questions, check off all the boxes to the best of your ability. And, uh, the more you work with people, you can update, you can change, you can redo them. It's totally fine. Okay. But this is going to give you a great start. About who you're writing things for, what you're— who you're creating products for and content for as well. Okay. So that is literally a straight walkthrough of how I create customer avatars when I'm doing this stuff. Okay. Take it, use it. That's the biggest thing. If you got value from today's episode, please share this episode, whether it's on the podcast or the YouTube channel. It really helps with me growing this, this channel and this platform, and I'm doing the best I can to give you as much value as possible. So if you did get value from this, please take it, share it with people. That would be awesome. And hey, if you are in a position where you're thinking, I really want to start building this online business, I'm just lacking the clarity or the lack of direction department, that's kind of where I'm at, then pick up my 5-Step Action Plan. This guide is going to walk you through literally how to build a business with a proven business model that is going to allow you to grow your business. And the more that your business grows, the less time you will be able to work, which is pretty amazing. It's what I love, and it's really just a sweet business model that I know is going to do you right. So make sure you pick up that guide so you have an understanding of it. If you ever have questions, feel free to reach out to me through my website or just in a comment on YouTube. That's all I got for you today. Hope you have an epic day. Check out some other videos on the channel or the podcast if you are new, and take what you learned here, get out there and create your customer avatar. But most importantly, make a difference in someone's life. I'll see you in the next one. Mm-hmm.