On Wednesday, you completed #5 on the Stick With It or Pivot worksheet, and now you've got a detailed description of what a worthwhile business looks like.

(If you missed that email, it's here.)

Now we'll start on #4 by first answering this question...

Who do you want to serve?

What group of people would you like to spend time with and overdeliver to each day?

In exchange for your extraordinary value (#4 on the worksheet), they will help you create a worthwhile business (#5 on the worksheet).

Overdelivering takes time, energy, and resources. You'll only be able to do this for a hand selected group.

That group is your
Smallest Viable Audience...

Let's focus on the word
"Smallest" for a minute...

In This Is Marketing, Seth Godin explains it this way...

"You'll never be able to serve everyone, which is comforting, since you're less likely to be disappointed when it doesn't happen. But what if you committed to the smallest viable audience? What if you were specific about who you were seeking to serve and precisely what change you were trying to make. Organize your project, your life, and your organization around the minimum. What's the smallest market you can survive on?" - Seth Godin

Here's the same idea from nature...

A few years ago, I saw an ant trying to drag a large piece of food.

It got my attention because the food was so much heavier than the ant, and I was curious to see how he would carry it.

As I watched, I noticed that the ant kept going in one large circle, because of how heavy the food was.

I watched for about 10 minutes to see what would happen next.

The ant just kept at it...

He was working extremely hard, but because he was just going in circles, 98% of the time he was going in the wrong direction.

If the ant had just taken a smaller portion, he would have been speeding along to his destination.

The complexity of mass marketing and "trying to be all things to all people" pulls you in every direction.

Like the ant, you can avoid spending 98% of your time going in the wrong direction by choosing a smaller portion that you can actually serve.

Now let's focus on the word
"Audience" for a minute...

Your audience is the group of people you serve every day...

Choose a group to amaze...

"Everything gets easier when you walk away from the hubris of everyone. Your work is not for everyone... Find a corner of the market that can't wait for your attention... Begin there, with obsessive focus... Go to their extremes... Every good customer gets you another one." - Seth Godin

Since you're going to be talking and interacting with your audience all the time, these should be people you like being around.

Start by thinking about the general characteristics of people you already enjoy being around.

You can also use characteristics in people you don't like to be around to give you clues.

Try this quick exercise...

It's called "Like This...Not That" and is a modification of an exercise in
Do More Great Work.

Step 1: Draw a line down the middle of a piece of paper. Write "Like This..." on the left side and "Not That..." on the right side.

Step 2: Write down charactertistics of people you enjoy being around on the left side. Then write the opposite for each one on the right side.

John's Example:

Step 3: Write down any additional characteristics of people that you don't enjoy being around on the right side. Then write the opposite for each one on the left side.

John's Example:

Now that you've got a list of general characteristics of people you like to be around, you can use it to help you make a list of audiences you've served in the past.

Your notes from yesterday can be helpful here as well, as they might contain clues.

John's Example: Seeing "Optimistic" and "High energy" definitely makes me think of kids. That's who I'm currently serving with the Throw-N-Glow frisbee. "Fascinating" reminds me of the time I did some custom injection molding for Mike. Looking over the Peak Moments exercise from yesterday and seeing "High energy" and "Passionate", I can't help but think of Tim's custom disc golf project that we worked on. And he paid really well too.

Next, you'll need to narrow down to one of these specific audiences.

"Delight the few to attract the many. When a clear target audience is defined, all product and service design has clarity and focus. Whenever you can focus on a specific target audience, you immediately enhance customer perception of you as an expert. And you expect to pay an expert more for the same goods and services than you would a nonexpert. What target audiences would most appreciate excellence in the area you are most excited about?" - Doug Hall

As far as exciting goes, don't worry about what other people get excited about...

Answer these two questions:

Which of these audiences gets you the most excited?

And...

Which of these audiences would most appreciate your excellence?

John's Example: While kids that have a Throw-N-Glow frisbee do enjoy it, most kids just don't care that much about the little details that I spent so much time on. On the other hand, Tim really needed those fine details to make the perfect golf disc. And it definitely played a part in him winning the U.S. Disc Golf Championship. Now that I think about it, I spend a good bit of time hanging out with my disc golf buddies. But I never thought about serving that particular audience until now.

Now it's time to go even smaller.

You're looking for a group within the audience that isn't being served well.

Let's use Seth Godin's exercise
Positioning As A Service...

Step 1: On a piece of paper, draw an X/Y grid.

Step 2: Pick two different attributes that your audience cares about.

For each attribute, pick two words that represent the extremes for that attribute, then put one pair on the X axis and one pair on the Y axis.

John's Example: The first attribute I'm thinking about is the intensity of the players. There are players who are trying to go pro and compete and there are amateurs who are just there to have a little fun. The second attribute I'm thinking about would be the type of golf discs they use. On one extreme, there are custom discs and at the other extreme, there are the inexpensive discs you can buy at any sports store.

Step 3: Mark the grid to show the specific areas currently being served.

John's Example: Walmart sells a beginner set of 4 golf discs. But if you want something nicer, you'd have to go down to Sports World. Golf Mania has a small selection of high quality discs, but if you really want the best discs, you have to order them from DiscWorld. For custom discs, DiscGifts will print your custom design, but the discs themselves are not much better quality than the beginner discs at Walmart.

Step 4: Look at the grid and see if there's a small audience that's not being served well.

John's Example: There doesn't seem to be anyone serving the semi-pro and pro disc golf players with high quality, customized discs. That's why Tim came to me in the first place back in 2011.

Seth Godin points out that this X/Y grid also makes it very clear why "someone would be correct in their decision not to choose you".

When you choose a particular point on the grid, you can say with confidence: "That audience has different needs that I'm not able to serve right now because I've chosen to overdeliver to this audience."

"The most difficult yet important question you make when focusing is deciding what you're not going to be. Saying no is difficult. With each "no", we feel we are giving up something that could be valuable. Say no. Say no with conviction. Say no because it gives you a greater chance of success. Say no for the good of the business." - Doug Hall

"Sales is a disqualification process. The more junk you can eliminate before you spend money and effort, the more effective you are." - Perry Marshall, 80/20 Sales and Marketing

When you get this selective, you can make something really special for your audience.

And when you honestly share with them what you've done, the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is obvious.

In other words, it's not "just words".

Your product really is unique.

"In Cincinnati, there's a fellow who understands focus. His name is Ken Eilers. He's "the screen man." He fixes screens for buildings. He doesn't do doors, windows, or window boxes. Ken and his customized Screen Mobile fix screens. Ken says it's a simple concept: "I don't want to compare myself to a brain surgeon, but if you only do one thing, you tend to get good." Ken is booked months in advance because of his expertise. When you deliver true excellence in one very focused area, it tends to give credibility to all parts of your business." - Jump Start Your Business Brain, pg. 63

What about competitors?...

"Is it ok to pick an audience if there is some competition?"

Competition can be a good thing, because it means that a market exists.

"Market matters most; neither a stellar team nor a fantastic product will redeem a bad market. Markets that don't exist don't care how smart you are." - Marc Andreesen, Netscape Founder

Let me be clear...

You're not trying to create a new audience that doesn't exist. You're trying to find an existing audience that isn't being served well, so you can "roll out the red carpet".

When you focus all your energy to give them world class service, you become the "only business" they want to work with.

"All businesses exist on a continuum between 100% commodity and 100% monopoly. Your mission should be to create a business that is as close as possible to being a monopoly." - Doug Hall

Lastly, let's talk about
"Viable" for a second...

At this point, you've found a "small audience", but you don't know if it's "viable" yet.

That's coming next...

Next week, I'll show you a simple way to find out what problems this audience has, so you can know how valuable a solution would be.

And once you know how valuable your solution could be, you'll know if you've found your "smallest viable audience" just by looking at #5 on your worksheet...

Until then,
Jack Duncan
MarketBold.com