Hey, I’m talking to YOU

I was working with a client on Story this week, and we were talking about a concept I call Thrilled Beyond Belief clients.

The idea is that if we are going to expend a lot of energy putting ourselves and our work out in the world that we point our efforts towards calling in the people we love most, who make our hearts sing, with whom we can do the most exalted form of our work.

Sometimes when we think about audience, we think in terms of who we “could” work with. And then we come up with a list of all kinds of people but if we don’t take time to narrow that list down we risk doing work to attract people who aren’t going to fill our hearts with joy.

Sometimes we don’t believe that we can have the clients we most desire. We get caught in old stories and constructs that it has to be hard work, we have to hustle, we have to make do. Or we have a deep inner story that there aren’t enough people out there who love us, who get us, so we look frantically for ANYONE who will say yes instead of allowing ourselves to be selective.

We also get stuck when we think that the description of our Thrilled Beyond Belief client has to be about demographics. That we have to have that avatar, to know we work with Jill who is 42, has two kids, drives a Volvo and lives in the suburbs.

That was where my client was getting stuck. She was adamant that she didn’t want a narrow client niche. That she loves working with diverse clients. That she loves the clients who get and respond to what she puts out in the world.

But I wanted to help her get more clear who she was speaking to when she wrote her Story.

One thing that helped was sharing with her what I call the “hey you” principle.

The “hey you” principle is based on the idea that people only pay attention to what we have to say when they get that we are speaking to THEM.

I like to tell this story, that there was a time when my husband and I both worked from home. Sometimes I’d hear his voice, but I wouldn’t tune in to what he was saying. Hey, I didn’t know that he was speaking to me. For all I knew, he could be on the phone, or talking to the dog. He learned over time that if he wanted my attention, he needed to start by saying “hey, Isabel!”

Once I had my cue, I would tune in and be able to hear what he had to say.

So in our marketing, we need to do our own version of “hey, Isabel.”

We need to write and speak to our people in a way that clearly indicates we are talking to THEM and not to every human in the world.

So it’s less about demographics and more about the qualities and the characteristics of the people you most love working with.

First, it’s about knowing and owning who you love in this world. What kind of humans open your heart and make you come alive.

And what makes them different from humans you feel more neutral about.

Are they creatives who move through the world with their brains on fire creating chaos in their wake?

Are they dreamers who struggle to make the gorgeous visions they conjure real and tangible?

Are they high achievers who realize that something is missing from their perch at the top of the corporate food chain?

Your people.

I want you to consider that out there in the world are YOUR people.

People on the same wavelength. People who similar resonances. People who can see you in all your glory.

It’s worth taking time to figure out who they are.

It’s worth speaking to the heart and soul of those people.

That’s how they hear “hey you”. Through your clarity. And through your courage to speak to them, and not to everyone.

Through not just the language, but the energy you put out that says “hey you, love bug, come close. I’ve got something for you.”

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