So last week, we were talking about your ideal clients’ “white knuckle death grip” as a way to connect with where they are now.
(For those of you who are new here: hello! We are talking about different ways to connect with potential clients in your copy.)
This week, let’s look at another way in.
Namely, using your intensity – and stop trying to be “nice” all the time.
Especially in your sales copy.
You must name – in clear, powerful language – the problem you see in your potential clients.
Without hiding it under a pile of cheesy hype-tastic marketing hooplah.
Side bar: it used to bother me when people told me I was intense. Or I would make someone cry on a sales conversation, simply because I said what I saw.
It didn’t feel very “nice.”
(My people are Midwestern (Swedish) Lutherans, so we tend to not want to rock the boat too much. Stiff upper lip. That sort of thing.)
But I’m an empath, dammit. I feel things. And I’ve had to learn how to do this in a world that would rather have us “suck it up.”
Maybe you’re in this boat, too.
Here’s the thing: our bodies are emotional creatures. Even when it’s inconvenient. Or socially uncommon.
I have been known to cry, simply because I have a lot of feelings. At restaurants. In the car. Watching credit card commercials.
It’s not even sadness (though it can be).
And often? I cry because something is beautiful.
Or real.
And sometimes , I cry when I write copy about how it feels to be heavier than you want, like your body has betrayed you.
(I have never had a weight problem in my life, but I feel it.)
Over time, I’ve come to say “hey—my intensity helps the right people find a way out of the pickle they’re in.”
I say: “my intensity helps the right people find their voice, put it in writing, and really kick ass.”
Can you relate?
I want you to you get a feel for how hiding your intensity (because you feel like an emo circus freak) actually cuts you off from a real connection with the very people you’re here to help.
I invite you to reframe how YOUR intensity serves the people you work with.
So, two things.
First, like it or not, you’re a truth teller.
You walk in the footsteps of Harriet Tubman. You’re running an underground railroad, helping your people chart their course to freedom, self-dependence, and liberation from the stuff (fear, denial, worry) that’s controlling them right now.
Second, your copy needs to hold a mirror up to their current situation.
And tell them the truth about what it’s costing them.
I want you to feel the art here.
And see how your intensity – when it’s clean – can actually be your #1 tool in getting them to look at how things aren’t working.
Here’s the thing: you can see things about your clients that they are denying in themselves.
Because you think about _______ all day.
Fill in the blank:
• weight loss
• how to get out of a job that makes you feel dead inside
• finding your soulmate
• eating food that isn’t processed or doesn’t make you sick
• financial security
• managing teams without old school control tactics
• working smarter so you can hang out with your family or travel
• or whatever
But your ideal clients don’t.
Here’s what they think about all day:
• what’s for dinner
• why is that guy looking at me
• where are my car keys
• I don’t like this shirt with these pants
• That lady is driving like a monkey
• Whatever other underlying script they run
See the disconnect that’s naturally built in here?
When you love your work, and you are a change junkie – like we are – you’re intense.
You have all these ideas and insights around your topic.
And yet, your ideal client is in a WHOLE OTHER mind space.
So get used to the fact that you might freak some people out when you say: “have you noticed that your life looks like X?”
And explore what it is to stop editing what you REALLY think. Stop biting your tongue about what you REALLY see happening.
Write it down and put it in your copy.
Watch what comes back.
Mighty thanks to Diet Munhoz flickr photostream for the reflection
