Buffering your home-based business against tariffs

Attn: product makers, service-providers & network marketers

Click play to listen. ☝️

TRANSCRIPT:

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Okay, this entry is for Canadian business owners, small business owners, I should add.

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This isn't advice for anybody that is in larger scale production or larger scale

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supply chain levels in their business.

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This is more for

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The average person who's running a small business,

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maybe you have a small operation outside of your home.

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Maybe you have a storefront locally or a place that you work outside of your home.

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Maybe you have a home-based business.

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Maybe you have a digitally-based business.

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Or maybe you're a network marketer.

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Whichever one of those you are,

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I want to talk to you today about how to buffer yourself against the potential

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incoming

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US tariffs as of tomorrow, February 4th, 2025.

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I want to get this message out to as many Canadian business owners as I can,

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because my concern is that small scale operators might not see this as a big deal

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and service based and network marketers

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I definitely want you to pay attention because my concern here is that you may be

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under the impression that because you don't deal with a physical product or at

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least a physical product that you yourself are responsible for procuring,

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and distributing.

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And that means that you're not going to be impacted by tariffs.

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And so I want you to pay attention and not discount this as some tips that are just

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for people who are buying and selling physical things.

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So please share it with business owners that you know,

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share it in your business communities,

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have them come over to my Substack here.

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I would super appreciate you sending everybody over my way.

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And I also want to remind you that the doors for the Monetize Your Mind business community,

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which I have been running for two and a half years straight now,

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are always open.

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And you can trial the business community for $11 for an entire month.

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So you can come in, see what it's all about.

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And if you are finding benefit from being within that container with the education

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and resources that I provide,

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the question and answer periods that I provide on Tuesdays,

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as well as just the immense value of being surrounded by incredible business owners,

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then head to www.monetizeyourmind.ca forward slash community.

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And you can spend 11 bucks and come hang out with us.

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All right.

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I want to start with product based businesses first, because I think that's the obvious one.

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And to be totally honest with you,

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the makeup of the MYM business community is largely service based,

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a lot of in person businesses,

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a lot of digitally based businesses,

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but we do have a good amount of product based businesses,

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local makers,

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things of that nature.

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And I had someone come into my DMs just this morning saying,

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oh my God,

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you know,

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she was talking with the industry she's in and this particular product that she has

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to buy from the States.

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And she can't find a suitable competitor in Canada that she would be willing to buy

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from because of quality.

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And just a number of things where she all of a sudden it was dawning on her that if

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If she has to buy this product at a marked-up price because of the tariffs,

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this will actually cripple her profit margin.

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And this is precisely the...

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warning i was putting out in my share from a couple of days ago on trump and

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trudeau and tariffs and you can go check out that article it's a long one also

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please listen to it maybe not read it if you're able to listen please please do

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because the transcripts that you see if it's based from a recording it is quite

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literally they the word for word transcript from the audio recording which is not

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reader friendly

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I've had so many people saying, oh, I read your entry on SUBSAC.

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I'm like, oh, my God, how did you manage to get through that?

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I do provide those transcripts for people who may not be able to physically hear so

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that they can still read what I'm saying.

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So you can either listen on audio or you can make an attempt at reading through that entry.

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It's a long one.

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But this is the domino effect that I was sharing and I'm going to go a little bit

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more in depth today because this business owner realized that an increase of that

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scale to her costs would eat her profit margin.

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And so she's like,

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you know,

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she wasn't asking me for advice,

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but she's like,

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oh,

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my God,

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like all of a sudden it just kind of clicked that she as a small business owner was

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going to be hit with this.

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And she's not, you know, big supply chain.

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She's not,

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you know,

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having stuff come in on cargo ships and all like small,

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small scale,

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but still.

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When you do the math,

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realized that we got a problem here if I don't figure out a way to address this.

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So I just fired off three quick points to her and I'll share those with you now and

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then I wanna dive a little bit deeper into a couple of these things.

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So number one,

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raise your prices now to increase your cash flow to buffer against hits to your

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costs in the future.

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Businesses that have cash flow.

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have a greater chance at surviving economic downturns.

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Obviously,

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the greater your cash flow,

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the longer you can withstand the blows,

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especially if your cost increases.

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So raise your prices now, and then I'm going to get into another couple of other things.

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But the second thing that I said to her was monetize your mind.

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Think outside the box with your current offers.

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What can be created from a service standpoint that requires no physical product?

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What can be done from a service standpoint?

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Brainstorm.

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This is such a critical point that I'm going to circle back to you as well.

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And then my third point to her was digitize immediately.

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Break out of your local sphere and start reaching a wider audience through content

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and drive them towards a new solution from point number two,

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which was whatever it is that you monetized from your minds,

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which is essentially the act of taking an idea and turning it into money.

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So breaking out of your local sphere and start reaching a wider audience through

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content and driving towards a new solution.

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So the couple of things that I want to go into a little bit more in depth here.

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When it comes to increasing the cash flow, raising your prices is an obvious thing to do.

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Now,

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that's going to depend on a business by business,

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product by product,

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market by market basis,

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and you're going to have to look at your individual businesses and all of those

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things within it to determine if that's the right thing for you to do,

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and if it is,

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then by how much.

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You're the only person that can do that.

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You have to work your numbers, you have to understand

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how your market,

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how your existing customer base is going to respond to those price increases and

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then make those decisions accordingly.

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But other things you can do to stimulate cash flow in your business,

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think about what campaigns you can run right now.

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So if you are someone who is heavily based in,

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you know,

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markets,

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farmers markets,

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things of that nature,

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and all of a sudden,

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you're sitting here with a product based business,

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and it's freaking January and February and March,

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which in Canada,

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talk about a

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dull period of sales when it comes to merchants and selling in person.

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Your mind right now may not be in the position to think business mode because your

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peak seasons may be at the summer markets,

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the fall Thanksgiving markets,

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or the Christmas market season.

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And so you're not necessarily primed to kick it into high gear at this time of year,

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but I want you to challenge yourself.

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What campaigns can you run

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right now do you have to have a physical place to sell them or can you start

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looking at turning your sales into an online model in which case you're going to

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have to figure out what your cost model needs to be all over again because you're

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going to have to start factoring in things like packaging to be able to ship things

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from your home to shipping costs etc etc

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But don't rule it out.

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What about your existing base of customers?

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How can they be leveraged?

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I'm going to have to pause here for a second because my little baby beans are

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squeaking out the door right now to go outside.

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Hold, please.

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This is raw recording happening here in my living room.

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Come on, guys.

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And we're back.

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How can your existing base of customers be leveraged?

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Do you have a contact list?

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Do you have a stack of business cards?

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Do you have an email list?

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Like, how do you keep track of all of the people who have purchased from you?

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And if you're listening to this being like,

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oh shit,

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I have literally never tracked anybody that has ever purchased from me.

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Maybe you are a true to form market vendor and you have absolutely no contact with

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anybody that has ever purchased from you before.

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Let this be a beautiful opportunity for you to add that layer of sales activities

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marketing activities into your business by developing a system that you can

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actually retain customer information so that you can contact your customers in the

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event you run an out of cycle or an out of season type sale or campaign.

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So pull out your contact list, pull out your leads, pull out the Rolodex.

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If you do have an email list,

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maybe you're running something on Shopify or maybe you're running something

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right off of your website as a click and buy and you're already shipping things

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make sure that you have that capture there and then think about how can I reach out

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to these customers today in order to start stimulating your sales now so don't wait

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don't sit back and think oh I want to see how this plays out start selling more

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products today get a campaign going

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If you are a purely localized business where you only sell to people at a

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storefront in your town or your community or true to form markets only,

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Digitize.

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You got to get your business operating on the internet.

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For some of you that might be like an oh my god I've been trying to avoid this type

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of situation.

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Maybe you're overwhelmed at the idea of creating a storefront on the internet.

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How do I do that?

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How do I take pictures of everything?

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How do I set up my checkout information?

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How do people pay me?

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How do I factor in shipping costs etc etc.

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This is going to be

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a learning curve for you and I want to encourage you to explore this avenue for

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yourself so that you are not just solely at the mercy of your local community and

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you have a larger reach of people.

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I also want to encourage you,

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if you are locally based,

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get together with your fellow business owners in your community.

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Find each other.

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Put a call out.

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get together at a coffee shop or in a restaurant or someone's home and say,

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listen,

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we need to band together right now.

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How can we all come together and support one another

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What can we do?

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Get creative, get a big whiteboard up on the wall, post-it notes, make it fun.

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Have this beautiful interaction with everybody that has no bad ideas.

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Meaning everybody brings their own outlandish, outside the box, no rules ideas to the table.

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Nothing can be too crazy during these times.

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The power of collective minds is incredible.

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This is why so many people join business communities or networking communities or

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masterminds is because when we start to get out of our own brain and we start to

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have conversations with one another,

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we start to think,

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Oh my God,

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I never thought about that.

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Oh, you have a tip for this.

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Oh, you have a contact for that.

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Oh, you have a person on your team already that can help me get my stuff set up.

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Okay.

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I don't know how to do any of that stuff.

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You got an email person.

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Great.

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You got a virtual assistant.

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Awesome.

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You have contacts for the chamber.

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Awesome.

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Let's get them involved.

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You know, when you get people together, that's when really powerful stuff can happen.

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It also is just a beautiful thing to have for yourself from an emotional support standpoint.

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Don't discount the power of having other people alongside you as you navigate

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something difficult or challenging together.

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Knowing that you're not alone in something can be so powerful.

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empowering so comforting so strengthening fill you with a little bit more courage

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knowing that you're not the you know the only person out there trying to figure

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this out when you do it together you're more likely to stay in the game and with

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all of these contacts that you have in your local community how can you collaborate

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are there businesses in your local community that complement yours and and yours

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them

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Are there things that you can do together?

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Going back to my other point of like what campaigns can you get going right now?

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How can you stimulate your sales right now?

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Is there something that you can do in your local community?

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Are you going to get a market going in the middle of February when your community

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typically doesn't ever have a market?

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Can you get them to rally around your businesses right now for extra support?

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The atmosphere in our country right now is primed to support Canadian business.

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While I am blown away by the fact that it took all of this to make people realize

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how important it is to buy Canadian made,

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especially locally made,

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you now have the advantage of people looking everywhere in their backyard to try

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and find what they can buy to avoid buying something that is made in America.

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So make sure your business is actually in front of them so they know that you are an option.

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So if you're selling soap,

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if you are selling candles,

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if you're selling food products,

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if you're selling earrings,

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jewelry,

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if you're selling books,

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maybe you're a poet,

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maybe you are a children's writer,

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maybe you're selling artwork and people are like,

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I'm not going to go to HomeSense anymore and get my art.

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Who are the local artists all around me?

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Who can I support?

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People are primed right now to spend money on Canadian and local businesses.

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So make sure that you are not hiding.

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Now, the last thing that I want to circle back to is the concept of monetizing your mind.

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So I touched on this earlier.

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When you turn an idea into money, that's what monetize your mind means.

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It is for the purpose of not just starting a business,

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but diversifying how money flows into your business.

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So this is the whole concept of creating multiple streams of income.

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Product-based business owners seem to have a more difficult time thinking about how

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they can do that because they sell a physical,

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tangible thing.

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So what I want you to start thinking of,

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and when you go hit up your whiteboard or hang out with your local business besties,

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I want you to think in terms of community,

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education,

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and service.

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And so when you are spitballing ideas of like, what can we do?

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What can we do?

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I want you to think of how you can leverage your existing business model in order

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to create a sense of community,

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to provide education to people,

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how to's,

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workshops,

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live demonstrations,

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parties,

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get-togethers, hosting things in people's homes.

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I could go on.

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This stuff is super easy for me to just come up with endless ideas of what you can do.

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But I want you to stimulate your own creative process here.

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And then how can you just be of service to people?

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How can you help people?

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Maybe that is something that ends up complementing

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your existing product-based business,

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or maybe now is the time where you're like,

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you know what,

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I've been wanting to do this other thing for so long now,

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and it's rooted in service,

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meaning there's not a physical,

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tangible exchange of a product taking place.

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It's an energy exchange.

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It's a service exchange.

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You are receiving money for the purpose of helping someone else solve a problem.

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Now's the time, my friend.

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Don't hold off on that.

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And it is now time for me to bring my dogs back in.

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So hold, please.

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I guess that's the only benefit of it being like minus 30 here today,

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that the dogs do their business real quick.

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All right,

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there's one thing that I am going to talk about around who you're actually targeting,

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your ideal client,

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but I'm gonna save that for after I get through service-based businesses and

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network marketers because this one thing actually applies to all of you.

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So I'm going to dive into service-based businesses now.

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So if you are someone who is

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providing services maybe directly in your home maybe you have a destination that

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you go to to provide services workshops seminars retreats events maybe you have a

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clinical type of practice maybe you are completely digitally based much like myself

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where your services are provided over the internet a couple of things that I want

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you to have on your radar

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you will be hit by the economic impact of tariffs.

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Just because you don't have a physical product that's going to be hit with a

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taxable event doesn't mean that your business isn't going to be impacted.

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Your business is going to be impacted because your client base might be impacted to

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varying different degrees

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based on who your market is so your critical examination of who your market is and

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understanding what the implications of the impact on them is going to be critical

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because what what is that what is the impact going to do for your base based on how

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deeply they are impacted it's going to impact their consumer behavior

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Which means you need to understand how your service is viewed in the eyes of your market.

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Are you a nice to have when there's extra money to spend?

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Are you something that is gifted to people from other people so that they can

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experience your services?

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Is your service a need?

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Is the priority of that need going to change as a result of a change in consumer

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buying behavior?

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Is the problem that you help people solve going to become even more important as a

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result of how your individual market is impacted?

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economically, or is it going to become less important?

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Meaning the problem that your services help people solve under the,

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the new scope of what your market is facing is no longer as important as it was before.

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You really need to read your market right now.

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So don't think that you're not going to be impacted because your,

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your market based on who that may be might very well be impacted.

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If you are in the nice to have industry,

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where it is heavily focused on uh having disposable income that is not put towards

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really anything else like yeah i'll i'll go and spend you know a few hundred bucks

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at the spa or i'll spend x amount of dollars getting my eyebrows waxed or my hoo-ha

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waxed or my legs done my pedicure my

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Is that something that people,

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based on your market and who you cater to,

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is that something that people are going to pull back on because now their funds

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might be hit and they're going to need to use that money for something else?

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What is the parameters around your ideal client?

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That's the thing that I'm going to get to at the end of this conversation.

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to understand the sliding scale of your ideal market.

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Who's falling off as a result of this larger scale event?

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Who is now in your market that wasn't there before?

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These are important things to think about.

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So if you're looking at,

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well,

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my market is just my market,

(00:23:09):

you're wrong because your market,

(00:23:12):

if you're not proactive with this,

(00:23:15):

And if you just say the market is just my market,

(00:23:17):

if you're not proactive,

(00:23:19):

you're going to lose people.

(00:23:19):

Then you're gonna be like, where'd everybody go?

(00:23:21):

This is so hard.

(00:23:22):

I'm not making any money.

(00:23:23):

It's like,

(00:23:23):

yeah,

(00:23:24):

because you're trying to cater to the same exact group of people prior to a major event.

(00:23:33):

changing and impacting their lives.

(00:23:36):

So we have to be flexible and we have to be understanding and our eyes have to be

(00:23:40):

like wide open and observing our markets.

(00:23:44):

You might want to do some market research.

(00:23:46):

What are the concerns of your market?

(00:23:49):

Get into their minds a little bit,

(00:23:50):

get into their thought process,

(00:23:52):

help you just get a better understanding of whether or not you're going to be

(00:23:56):

impacted and to what degree based on who

(00:24:03):

your market actually is.

(00:24:07):

Think about other ways.

(00:24:09):

If you have a group of people where you're like,

(00:24:11):

man,

(00:24:11):

I'm really concerned about how the macro economy level is going to hit my market,

(00:24:16):

then start thinking in terms of how do I continue to support them?

(00:24:20):

So instead of just saying, oh, well, people can't afford me anymore.

(00:24:23):

Shit.

(00:24:24):

Guess I'm screwed.

(00:24:26):

Well,

(00:24:27):

What can they afford and what are they willing to prioritize in their life and to what extent?

(00:24:32):

And are you able to provide that service to them?

(00:24:35):

So if all of a sudden they're not able to afford your $90 service or maybe they

(00:24:39):

can't afford your $200 a month fee or whatever it is,

(00:24:42):

or maybe they can't.

(00:24:46):

You're going to lose some high ticket coaching because people are like,

(00:24:49):

oh,

(00:24:49):

you know,

(00:24:49):

that 20,

(00:24:50):

30 grand might want to throw that in gold and silver instead.

(00:24:54):

You know, you never know what people might be thinking.

(00:24:58):

How else can you continue to be of service to these people just in a different way?

(00:25:02):

So you're going to want to think about how do you diversify your existing base of

(00:25:07):

offers to be there to catch the people who may fall off.

(00:25:14):

So this could be in terms of a temporary discount or a temporary decrease in price.

(00:25:19):

I mean, those are the obvious things.

(00:25:21):

But I'm encouraging you to think about where you may have lacked in providing a

(00:25:28):

robust service offering.

(00:25:31):

So what's the vastness of how you can provide your services?

(00:25:36):

Are there other ways that you can provide them?

(00:25:39):

So let's just say,

(00:25:41):

we'll take my monetize your mind business community,

(00:25:44):

for example,

(00:25:45):

maybe someone say,

(00:25:46):

you know what,

(00:25:46):

I can't afford this.

(00:25:48):

Or I'm going to choose to direct this money into something else.

(00:25:50):

What's something that I could do to continue to be of service to this individual?

(00:25:56):

Is it maybe a quarterly business check-in?

(00:25:59):

Do I provide a service where it's like,

(00:26:01):

okay,

(00:26:03):

for the next four quarters,

(00:26:05):

I'm going to support you in a different way than I do in the Monetize Your Mind

(00:26:08):

business community.

(00:26:10):

I'm going to be here for you to be able to check in.

(00:26:12):

I understand that you might not want to spend the monthly fee on this,

(00:26:15):

but I'm going to create another offering where it's just we meet four times a year.

(00:26:19):

I'm there to hold you accountable.

(00:26:21):

Ask me questions.

(00:26:22):

We'll keep you steered in the right direction.

(00:26:24):

And then for the next three months, you're on your own.

(00:26:26):

Then we reconvene again.

(00:26:28):

That's just spitballed,

(00:26:30):

spur of the moment,

(00:26:31):

right out of my brain of immediately something that I could do should my market

(00:26:35):

actually be something that I'm concerned about when it comes to,

(00:26:39):

oh,

(00:26:39):

am I going to lose a bunch of people because of the macro impact on the economy?

(00:26:44):

So think about this.

(00:26:46):

How can you provide them with a different type of support or a different level of

(00:26:52):

support at a different price point so that it doesn't go from they're your customer

(00:26:57):

that's actively paying you on a regular basis to all of a sudden they're not paying

(00:27:01):

you at all?

(00:27:02):

It would be better if they continued to pay you even if it is at a different rate.

(00:27:10):

All right?

(00:27:11):

So food for thought, guys.

(00:27:14):

What else here?

(00:27:14):

Network marketers.

(00:27:15):

You're going to get hit too, my friends.

(00:27:21):

Again, to varying different degrees.

(00:27:24):

Depends on what your product is with the company that you've partnered with.

(00:27:28):

depends on the health of the company that you have partnered with.

(00:27:34):

I would be curious about understanding the cash position of the company that I am

(00:27:42):

partnered with for my network marketing business.

(00:27:44):

I am very confident in the network marketing business that I am partnered with for

(00:27:50):

my gold and silver business.

(00:27:52):

Cash flow, no debt.

(00:27:55):

That's a good position to be in when we're heading into a potential recession or at

(00:28:01):

the very least a pretty severe hit at the macroeconomy level.

(00:28:05):

What's the product that you're working with?

(00:28:08):

Similar to the other business models, is that product a need?

(00:28:13):

As a result of these times, is it growing in demand or is it decreasing in demand?

(00:28:20):

If it's growing in demand, who is it growing in demand for?

(00:28:23):

And can you shift your focus to those people?

(00:28:27):

What about the business model?

(00:28:29):

A lot of network marketers get into network marketing because all I got to do is

(00:28:33):

just share this with people and bing,

(00:28:34):

bang,

(00:28:35):

boom,

(00:28:35):

I'm going to be rich.

(00:28:36):

And then people get into network marketing and realize that while it is that simple,

(00:28:40):

it is most certainly not that easy.

(00:28:44):

Who's your ideal candidate for the business opportunity in your network marketing model?

(00:28:51):

How are they being impacted?

(00:28:54):

Is this business model something that could actually help them during these times?

(00:28:57):

Network marketers, I'd say you're up right now during these times in a good way.

(00:29:02):

Because people are actively seeking how do I buffer myself financially financially?

(00:29:07):

How do I make sure I have another flow of income coming in?

(00:29:10):

And to partner with a network marketing company or an affiliate marketing type of

(00:29:15):

company is way easier than starting your own company from scratch.

(00:29:21):

This is why a lot of people go the network marketing route because someone else has

(00:29:24):

already built the business,

(00:29:24):

right?

(00:29:26):

So who out there based on the product that you are partnered with is actually the

(00:29:31):

best candidate to join you in building out your network marketing business?

(00:29:37):

This is something that I say to my team all the time.

(00:29:40):

Who's your ideal candidate for the product?

(00:29:42):

Who's your ideal candidate for the business?

(00:29:44):

Because they're not necessarily the same person.

(00:29:47):

And a lot of network marketers get this so wrong.

(00:29:50):

They think,

(00:29:50):

if I just talk about the product all the time,

(00:29:52):

then these people are going to get the business model.

(00:29:55):

No.

(00:29:57):

The business model will appeal to people who are ready to take on something like a

(00:30:01):

business model.

(00:30:03):

Whereas the product consumers may just want to solve the problem that your product

(00:30:09):

helps them solve and they have no interest at all in creating another stream of

(00:30:14):

income or sharing an opportunity or selling to people or being affiliated with a

(00:30:19):

network marketing company.

(00:30:20):

A lot of people were just like, no, thank you.

(00:30:21):

I'm happy to just buy the product and I want nothing to do with building a business

(00:30:26):

through the network marketing model because unfortunately there's still a stigma.

(00:30:32):

So again, think about what is your company's position right now?

(00:30:36):

Find out.

(00:30:38):

What's your product?

(00:30:40):

So are you selling yoga gear?

(00:30:43):

Are you selling protein shakes and power bars?

(00:30:47):

Are you selling cleaning products?

(00:30:48):

Are you selling essential oils?

(00:30:50):

Are you selling gold and silver?

(00:30:52):

Whatever it is,

(00:30:53):

there's network marketing companies popping up everywhere,

(00:30:57):

which I think is so awesome.

(00:30:59):

And more people are getting over the stigma, which is even better.

(00:31:05):

But we still have to understand the role that the product plays in our world today.

(00:31:12):

I'm a business person when it comes to network marketing.

(00:31:16):

I purchase products from many of my network marketing friends and I have absolutely

(00:31:22):

no interest in taking part in the network marketing business opportunity with those

(00:31:27):

companies because I'm not passionate enough.

(00:31:30):

to be able to sell those products.

(00:31:32):

I'm happy with the products.

(00:31:33):

That's why I buy them.

(00:31:34):

But in order for me to get real fired up passionately and authentically about these products,

(00:31:41):

I can't do that.

(00:31:42):

I just want to use them for my own good.

(00:31:44):

So if you're with a network marketing company and you are not authentically powered

(00:31:51):

buy your enthusiasm for the product you're with the wrong network marketing company

(00:31:58):

you're partnered with the wrong product and so if you want to stay with the network

(00:32:02):

marketing model find a network marketing company that is going to be easier for you

(00:32:08):

to share easier for you to introduce to other people easier for you to engage in

(00:32:13):

selling conversations

(00:32:16):

And ideally partnering with the network marketing company that is positioned really

(00:32:21):

well to be able to navigate difficult financial times.

(00:32:26):

So the one thing that I want to just wrap all of this up,

(00:32:28):

there's so much more that I could get into.

(00:32:30):

I'm trying to cram this into like a 30 minute episode.

(00:32:33):

Please, if you want more in-depth

(00:32:36):

service and support.

(00:32:37):

Get into my MYM business community, monetizeyourmind.ca forward slash community.

(00:32:42):

You can literally try it for 11 bucks for 30 days.

(00:32:46):

The last thing that I'm going to share with you is the concept of the ideal client.

(00:32:50):

This is something that consistently blows people's minds,

(00:32:54):

especially when I work with people one-on-one and we're really able to get into the

(00:32:59):

nitty-gritty

(00:33:01):

We go through this in MYM through the MYM business course as well,

(00:33:07):

which by the way,

(00:33:08):

if you go to my Instagram at I am Sarah Swain,

(00:33:11):

you can go to the link in my bio and just get the course for free.

(00:33:15):

So if you don't want to join the community,

(00:33:16):

you just want to go at it on your own and answer all the questions in my course.

(00:33:20):

And don't worry, I don't tell you what to do in the course.

(00:33:23):

I ask you questions so that you understand what you need to do

(00:33:28):

based on you,

(00:33:29):

your business,

(00:33:30):

your product or your service and the market of people that you're catering to.

(00:33:33):

So if you got nothing extra in your financial tank right now,

(00:33:37):

at least just go get the course for free.

(00:33:39):

Again, link in my bio.

(00:33:41):

I am Sarah Swain on Instagram.

(00:33:45):

The concept of the ideal client is a game changer.

(00:33:48):

I know that there's a lot of exercises out there where it's like narrow your niche

(00:33:51):

or the riches are in the niches.

(00:33:53):

If you're American and you say niche and we say niche up here in Canada, the ideal client

(00:34:01):

is the most powerful thing that you can focus on in your business a lot of people

(00:34:07):

get real hyped up about our branding you get real hyped up about content creation

(00:34:13):

and marketing you get real hyped up about like i'm so excited to create this that

(00:34:17):

or the other thing and you're you're skipping over the most fundamental part of

(00:34:22):

business which is who you are even creating this business for

(00:34:27):

And understanding that person inside out, upside down, every which freaking way from Sunday.

(00:34:34):

So that what you're actually creating,

(00:34:36):

whether it's your service or your product,

(00:34:39):

is actually what that specific person needs.

(00:34:43):

So that when you actually brand yourself,

(00:34:46):

you're attracting the right type of person into your brand that would be best

(00:34:49):

suited to consume that product or service.

(00:34:52):

And when you're marketing, you know exactly who you're speaking to.

(00:34:56):

Really important.

(00:34:58):

But what also takes the ideal client across the finish line is understanding what's

(00:35:03):

important for you to see in a client or a customer.

(00:35:07):

The overarching target market is one exercise.

(00:35:10):

That's really about understanding,

(00:35:11):

okay,

(00:35:12):

what is the problem that people are out there experiencing?

(00:35:16):

And how does my product or service solve that?

(00:35:18):

So we first have to understand what's the problem.

(00:35:21):

Too many people don't even think about that.

(00:35:24):

They go right to the solution because we're excited about it.

(00:35:27):

If we go right to the solution, we're missing the human.

(00:35:31):

If we don't understand the human,

(00:35:33):

it's going to be a miss on the product or service,

(00:35:35):

going to be a miss on branding,

(00:35:36):

going to be a miss on marketing,

(00:35:37):

and that is ultimately,

(00:35:39):

obviously going to be a miss on sales.

(00:35:43):

So know your target market inside out, backwards, upside down.

(00:35:47):

What's the problem they're currently experiencing?

(00:35:50):

What are they thinking?

(00:35:51):

What are they feeling?

(00:35:52):

What's keeping them up at night?

(00:35:54):

What is their current lived experience?

(00:35:56):

Why can't they solve this problem themselves?

(00:35:58):

Why do they need you?

(00:36:00):

Why can't they just go out there and figure this out on their own or deal with this

(00:36:04):

on their own?

(00:36:05):

And you get into their psyche,

(00:36:07):

you get into their emotional experience,

(00:36:09):

you get into their day-to-day life to develop that understanding that's actually

(00:36:13):

required for you to truly be of service to another person at that point.

(00:36:18):

Then figure out what your product and your service is going to be,

(00:36:20):

how you're going to brand,

(00:36:20):

how you're going to market,

(00:36:21):

etc.

(00:36:23):

Then take it the extra mile,

(00:36:24):

and this is specifically,

(00:36:26):

this isn't so much for product-based businesses unless you get into the world of service,

(00:36:31):

which I hope you do in order to diversify your streams of income.

(00:36:34):

I want you to think about this.

(00:36:36):

If you're a service-based business or especially if you're a network marketer,

(00:36:40):

what are the qualities that you need to see in a person that make them ideal for you?

(00:36:45):

Who's the right candidate for you?

(00:36:48):

Be unapologetic here.

(00:36:50):

your ability to slice through the noise of the internet.

(00:36:56):

If you're going digital,

(00:36:57):

if you're leveraging social media in any way,

(00:37:00):

if you are creating a personal brand for yourself,

(00:37:04):

understanding what is critical for you to see in a client,

(00:37:08):

and then courageously leading

(00:37:12):

That from the front in your brand is what's going to separate you from the rest of

(00:37:15):

your industry.

(00:37:16):

If you try and play it safe right now in your brand because you don't want people

(00:37:21):

to be upset with you,

(00:37:23):

you don't want people to disagree with you,

(00:37:25):

you don't want people to have a poor taste in their mouth about how you create your

(00:37:32):

thing or how you...

(00:37:33):

how you buy your your materials etc like whatever it is that people like oh you

(00:37:38):

know we got to play it safe we don't want our customers this we don't want our

(00:37:40):

clients to think that blah blah blah you're flattening your brand you're diluting

(00:37:45):

your brand i want you to just take a quick inventory of brands that you know that

(00:37:50):

stick out like a sore thumb right it's because they've got a differentiating factor

(00:37:56):

that sticks out from the rest of the brands in their industry because they've

(00:37:59):

chosen to go on something that they know will deeply resonate with their clients

(00:38:04):

and that they would like to see in their clients in return.

(00:38:07):

So let's take, I don't know, maybe you're operating a cleaning company.

(00:38:12):

and you're gonna be providing cleaning services or you're gonna be creating a

(00:38:15):

community of some sort or an event or whatever it is you're doing.

(00:38:19):

And humor is something that is important to you so that you can have a joyous

(00:38:23):

interaction with your clients and customers and you can

(00:38:28):

joke with people and you can use fun flashy uh puns and jokes and you know dark

(00:38:36):

humor side humor whatever it is because that's natural for you it's important for

(00:38:40):

you it's important to you that your your ideal candidate appreciates a sense of

(00:38:46):

humor appreciates playfulness then you have to allow yourself to be humorous and

(00:38:51):

playful in your brand

(00:38:54):

Otherwise, guess what?

(00:38:55):

If you're humorous and playful,

(00:38:57):

but all of a sudden you put your business pants on and your brand,

(00:39:01):

A,

(00:39:02):

you're going to blend in with everybody else in your industry,

(00:39:03):

and B,

(00:39:04):

you're going to be working with people that are not ideal.

(00:39:08):

So understand what makes your client ideal.

(00:39:11):

Again, go download my free business course.

(00:39:15):

I'll ask you a bunch of questions to help you kind of pinpoint what those things

(00:39:19):

are if you're not clear on that.

(00:39:21):

The thing,

(00:39:21):

though,

(00:39:21):

specifically about the ideal client when it comes to the times we are in is

(00:39:26):

understanding that the ideal client is not a standstill target that doesn't move.

(00:39:33):

I always describe the ideal client as the puck that shoots out of a machine and

(00:39:40):

you're skeet shooting.

(00:39:42):

Why?

(00:39:44):

Because of exactly what's happening in our world right now.

(00:39:48):

Things are constantly going on in people's lives that cause them to reprioritize

(00:39:55):

how critical it is for them to solve a problem.

(00:40:00):

New things happen.

(00:40:02):

Sometimes things don't happen for a person.

(00:40:06):

People are impacted by things.

(00:40:08):

Sometimes people go for years and years and years without ever being impacted by

(00:40:12):

something significantly that they have to reprioritize what's important for them in life.

(00:40:16):

People have critical life events.

(00:40:18):

People have wins.

(00:40:19):

They have losses.

(00:40:21):

All sorts of different things can take the ideal market that you just had last week

(00:40:27):

and shake it up into a big old strainer and shake a lot of people out the holes

(00:40:32):

that are no longer your ideal client market just seven days later.

(00:40:37):

But then all of a sudden,

(00:40:38):

all these new people just poured into your strainer that weren't there seven days ago.

(00:40:43):

So if you look at it as a sliding scale,

(00:40:46):

based on what's happening in the lives of your ideal client in your larger market,

(00:40:50):

again,

(00:40:51):

that comes down to you knowing who these people are,

(00:40:55):

first and foremost,

(00:40:56):

how they're going to be impacted by these times.

(00:41:01):

You are inevitably going to lose people

(00:41:04):

But as I said earlier,

(00:41:05):

figure out a way to continue to serve and support them and be more financially

(00:41:10):

available to them through a different modality of an offering.

(00:41:16):

But then you're going to have all these other people that are swinging in from the other side.

(00:41:20):

Again,

(00:41:21):

depending on what it is that you are selling,

(00:41:24):

that is all of a sudden of critical importance to them.

(00:41:27):

They need to figure this out.

(00:41:29):

Who can help me with this right now?

(00:41:32):

Oh, okay, this person over here.

(00:41:34):

So you've lost some on one side, you've picked some up on the other.

(00:41:36):

That's what I mean by a sliding scale that your ideal market is on.

(00:41:41):

This comes down to you,

(00:41:43):

again,

(00:41:43):

I'm going to beat this to death,

(00:41:45):

knowing your people inside out,

(00:41:47):

backwards,

(00:41:47):

upside down,

(00:41:48):

understanding what the difference is between your ideal client or customer versus

(00:41:52):

your overarching target market.

(00:41:54):

That is just simply out there experiencing the problem that you have the solution to,

(00:41:58):

but they're not necessarily ideal.

(00:42:00):

That's the difference between the target market and the ideal client.

(00:42:03):

And then add in the layer of based on who these people are,

(00:42:07):

how are they likely to experience the times that are ahead?

(00:42:11):

And what do I need to do to be of service to the people that I might lose,

(00:42:15):

that might drop off,

(00:42:17):

get ahead of that,

(00:42:17):

be ready to pick them up,

(00:42:19):

be ready to catch them.

(00:42:21):

And who do I need to get ready for that is now qualified in my ideal market that

(00:42:27):

wasn't there before?

(00:42:30):

So lots of things to consider.

(00:42:32):

Again, just scratching the surface here.

(00:42:34):

These are some of the easier,

(00:42:36):

obvious solutions to start stimulating the creative process,

(00:42:41):

stimulating the brainstorming,

(00:42:42):

stimulating the truth of it's all possible.

(00:42:47):

When we get into these tough times,

(00:42:49):

especially when the collective energy is so dense and heavy and there's so much,

(00:42:55):

you know,

(00:42:56):

emotion.

(00:42:56):

I mean, a freak.

(00:42:57):

I experience it clearly.

(00:43:01):

It is super important that we come back to our creativity.

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That is literally, in my opinion, like a law of humanity.

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We are creators by default,

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and we can lose sight of that when we become afraid and we become short-sighted.

(00:43:18):

So open up the idea tank again.

(00:43:22):

Let the ideas swirl.

(00:43:24):

Figure out what type of environment you need to create for yourself in order for

(00:43:28):

you to feel stimulated in these ways to think,

(00:43:32):

okay,

(00:43:32):

what have I not thought of before?

(00:43:33):

Who do I need to talk to?

(00:43:34):

What do I need to prepare for?

(00:43:36):

What do I need to get going on in the background?

(00:43:38):

What do I need to do with my pricing model?

(00:43:40):

What do I need to do with my cost model?

(00:43:42):

What do I need to do with where I'm sourcing my current products?

(00:43:46):

What do I need to do to diversify the streams of income that I already have?

(00:43:50):

Do I have enough streams of income?

(00:43:52):

Are they diversified enough that if one takes a complete and total blow,

(00:43:57):

the other one is going to remain relatively unaffected?

(00:44:01):

Start asking the questions, okay?

(00:44:03):

Get off freaking social media.

(00:44:05):

Stop consuming the doom and gloom.

(00:44:08):

Boundary yourself on how you stay aware of current events so that you can focus on

(00:44:12):

how these things are going to impact your business and then get back to work.

(00:44:18):

Let me know what you guys think.

(00:44:20):

Again,

(00:44:20):

share it with your business owners,

(00:44:21):

fellow entrepreneurial friends,

(00:44:24):

and hopefully we'll see you in the MYM business community.

(00:44:27):

And remember, catch the course over on my Instagram account at I am Sarah Swain.

(00:44:32):

See you later.