Understand your audience's needs, wins, challenges and barriers.

IntroductionWelcome back to the Coaching Hive Podcast!

When you start a business, it can feel like you're throwing spaghetti against the wall. You know what I'm talking about? You're looking for what's going to stick, what isn't, what will work, what won't, and that's a really common feeling, but it doesn't have to be that way. There are lots of things that are common in this world, but with a little bit of pre-work, pre-planning, some insights, you know what doesn't have to be common? After all, you can start a business and even build a business without throwing any spaghetti against the wall. You can use the tools and the resources and the wisdom of others that are out there to guide the way. After all, who wants to clean up a wall or a cabinet after throwing spaghetti against it? I know I don't.

Today, as we enter a new year, we are going to be talking about creating an offer that works for your audience and for you, and I'll share some of my favorite resources for doing this and send you off with an action item for the week. So if you're ready, grab your pen and paper and let's dive in.

Understanding Your AudienceWhen I first started the Coaching Hive, I was focused on health coaches and helping them to continue growing in their coaching skills. After certification. I wasn't focused at all on building businesses, but what I quickly realized is that the market isn't established enough for what I wanted to offer. The market didn't really want what I was creating, and I was to put it mildly, throwing spaghetti noodle after spaghetti noodle against the wall. I did all of the right things, but because the offer itself wasn't what my audience wanted, it was not as successful as I would've hoped. Luckily, I have been learning from some really successful, really insightful leaders and realize this pretty quickly. So I didn't just spend my wheels and there were a few things that I did that made a difference and help me dial in what to offer and who to serve in my business.

And today I want to spend some time sharing those insights, those nuggets of information with you, so that as you begin this new year, you aren't just simply saying New year, new opportunities. You're saying New year and new possibilities, but you're doing it from a place of knowledge and wisdom and insight rather than just trying to throw spaghetti and the wall.

Now, I don't know about you, but when I first started to build an offer, I was thinking about myself and what I wanted to offer. Here's the very first thing that you need to think about when you're building any offer in your business. Start with your audience. Think about who they really are. Who are you trying to help? You really need to get to know them.

You need to understand what's going on in their life. What are their pain points? What do they need help with? What's going really well? And they just would love to shout that from the rooftops. You need to understand what barriers they have to making things happen, to making those pain points go away. You need to understand what resources they have available that can help them overcome those pain points.

And as you begin to understand your customer or your client as you think about your services and your products that you're offering, when you understand their pain points and really start to think about how you can help them with what they actually want help with, then you're starting to get somewhere. Think about what you can offer them that will be of service, that will make their life better, easier, less complicated, more pleasurable, less confusing, even just simpler, or taking a step out of a process for them so that they don't have to worry about it all the time.

I hear people saying, well, yeah, you could get that for free, but guess what? Peo