Nicaila Matthews Okome 0:00

Hey, friends. Hey, it's nicaila here back with a flashback episode. You're listening to side hustle Pro, the podcast that teaches you to build and grow your side hustle from passion project to profitable business, and I'm your host, nicaila Matthews of Coleman, so let's get started. Hey, Hey guys, welcome. Welcome back to the side hustle pro podcast. It's your host, nicaila, and today we are gonna get into another boot camp episode. So this is episode two of the boot camp and in this episode, we are talking about how to find the right audience or customer for your side hustle, I'll be sharing with you two tips to get you straight to the point, straight into this activity that will help you to find the right audience and be able to take your side hustle to the next step. Because once you know your audience, you can start to put it out there. You can start to sell. You can start to do what you need to do to launch your side hustle. So let's take it to step one, step one, in order to find the right audience and the right customer for your side hustle, whether you are launching a physical product, you know, shea butter, a cookie line, an app, whether you're launching a more online product, a podcast, you know, a media company, a magazine, YouTube channels, all sorts of things, right? No matter what it is, whether it's physical or online, you're gonna have to figure out who are you talking to, or who would buy this. And the way that you start to do this is the first of all, understand that you need to talk to a person. You don't need to put this out and think you're talking conceptually to a whole bunch of people. When it comes down to this, you need to identify your target person, okay, and I'm going to emphasize this, and I'll even touch on some more about why people want to do different groups a little bit later. But starting off, step one, you need to identify your target person, there is someone who fits into an ideal of what you're looking for, for the person who wants your particular side hustle. Okay, when you are talking to everyone, you've probably heard this many times, but it's very, very true. When you're trying to talk to everyone, you end up talking to no one. Why? Because people don't realize that what you're offering is directly for them. Because sometimes you you know you position your products, or you position your podcast, and you're talking to this group the next week, you have a whole different subject matter, and you never show a common thread that links it all together so no one ever really subscribes or commits because you are not talking specifically to them. So what I want you to do is step one is to write out who you think your target customer or your target audience is your target person. So literally, take out your phone, take out your iPad, whip out a pen and paper and start to write down some things about who you think your person is. You need to identify their name. You actually need to give them a name. You know, where they work, where they live, what they do, their age, where they went to school, what kind of things they like to do on the weekend, their hobbies. And then you have to start to identify some of their challenges in life, the things that are causing them to turn to a solution that you are providing with your products and with your service. So you need to start to write down, Hey, what is this person going through? Why would they need this? Who am I looking for? So start to write that out, and I'll give you an example in a second. I'll actually read my target customer profile to you in depth, so that you can get a sense of how detailed that you need to get. Now, I'm not reading this so you can copy like, my target person is going to be different than your target person, and you'll find that out pretty quickly if you're trying to target the same person and you're not seeing the results, you need to understand who it is you're talking to. And if you're worrying like, Hey, nicaila, how in the world am I supposed to know who this person is? How am I supposed to give them a name? How am I supposed to know all this stuff about them? We'll get to that in step two. But for now, before you even get to step two, step number one is, if you have created something and if you had the idea to put something together as a side hustle, then you better have an idea of who needs it and who wants it? You already know this, and oftentimes, oftentimes it's okay for that person to start out looking like yourself. So oftentimes, we start to create something that we wish was out there, that we were looking for and we could not find, and that we wish someone else. Had created, and when we couldn't find it, we had to do it ourselves. That was certainly my experience with the side hustle pro podcast. I mean, I started it like I told you guys, at a time where I was in between jobs, I was trying to find out what to do with my life, and I was also really starting to become in tune to the stories of black women who were killing it at their jobs. You know, had bomb jobs and bomb careers, but then were also exploring their own entrepreneurial passion projects. On the side, I wanted to hear more about them, how they were juggling it. And I was looking and looking for these stories, and I would find them one off in a magazine article here, a magazine article there, but then that was it. There was no elaboration, there was no conversation. And so I could hear more of their story, none of that. And I decided, okay, I need to start this. I need to do this. So I, in a way, was my target audience, but I knew, I knew I wasn't the only one who had this desire and who would be interested in this content, so you're doing yourself a disservice if you try to write out a description of yourself and leave it there, you need to start to identify and think Through who else needs this. Now we've got our profile. Now we've written it out. I'll read mine to you so that you can get a sense. So my target customer and target listener, because when I think about myself, since I have an online service based business, my person, I think of more audience. So you might use the word customer, and that's why I use both interchangeably, because if you have a physical product that you know someone's buying right this second, then you you'll say customer, all right, so let's get into my target listener. So her name is Janelle, and Janelle is a 28 year old black woman living in Harlem. She's a marketer at American Express by day, and a budding side hustler by night, Janelle is creating her own line of natural hair products. She's always been fascinated by creating her own products, ever since she was little and used to help her grandmother make body washes. Janelle graduated from Wharton with a major in economics and received her master's in digital marketing from NYU that said she just hasn't found her calling. She'd love to focus more on creating and selling her products, but she's just not sure if she can take it seriously. She wonders if she can actually make a living off of this. Besides, she doesn't have enough money to quit her good job and live in New York City when she's not working or side hustling. Janelle lives for celebrity TV sites like the Shade Room and TMZ, and gets lost scrolling on Instagram. She's also a fashion on a budget kind of girl, and could live in Marshalls and home goods. She's passionate about social justice black women, self love and self care, and in her spare time, she might check out an Afrobeat dance class and test out new product combinations. On weekends, she's been known to binge watch her favorite shows like Queen Sugar insecure and How to Get Away with Murder. She keeps up on the news via New York Times morning brief newsletter and NPR Facebook page. Her favorite podcasts are the read, getting grown, call your girlfriend and how I built this. So you can see that I got in depth. I got so in depth, I knew what podcast she was listening to, where she was getting her news. And this comes in handy later when you're trying to market to people. And you know that profile is the profile, by the way, I share inside of my podcast moguls podcast accelerator program. So I teach people how to do that for their own podcast listeners, and then I teach them how to then find these people online so that you can tell them about your podcast, so that you can raise awareness about your podcast, because people can't listen if they don't know that you're out there. So it starts with that, all right, so you go ahead, you can pause this, write your own profile, and then pick it up once you're done,

you Okay, now let's get into step two. So step two is to verify what you've just written down, and in order to verify, aka, ask questions that clarify the assumptions you made when you wrote that paragraph. So by the way, this paragraph was written and then revised and refined after I did step two. So step two, you're going to actually get on the phone with people who would align with your target person. So in order to do that, you're going to have to start to identify people that you know in your life who might be similar to your Janelle, and chances are, if you consider yourself to identify with your target person, then that means you probably know other people like you who have that similar desire for that product or that service that's going to be your side hustle. So start reaching out to your friend. And start reaching out to people in your network who you feel might be interested in what you have to offer with your side hustle, get them on the phone for 10 to 15 minutes. Say, hey, could we chat for 10 to 15 minutes? I'm launching this idea. Or, you know, you could tell them specifically what it is. This is not the time, by the way, to be shy or worried about people stealing your idea, please remember that it takes a lot for someone to to hear what you're working on and then replicate it and and to get where you are in the process, because you already, you know one step ahead. You already on the target listener, target audience, target customer phase of everything, right? So reach out to people, let them know. And so when I did this, it was like, hey friend, I'm launching a podcast all about black women, side hustlers and entrepreneurs. I think you'd be interested in this. And you know, can we chat? Like, can we have a quick call for 10 or 15 minutes? I would love to talk through some ideas I have and also ask you a couple of questions, just to make sure I'm cultivating content that's really meaningful and really helpful. So go from there and from there, when you get on the phone, actually ask questions to clarify the assumptions you make. So you know, make sure you know where they work, their age, what they're listening to, what they're tuned into. Then you can get specific to the particular industry that you are going to be launching your side hustle in. So, for example, if it's a cookie line, you can ask them how they choose their snacks. Or, you know, if it's a beauty line, you know what's missing from the current beauty offerings out there? What do they use for this particular issue? What do they wish existed? What are they struggling with. These are the things that this part is something that you're going to have to customize a bit. I'm happy to share a template for this. If you guys want one, let me know, and I will go ahead and create something for this episode. I haven't created it yet, but let me know. If you want to see some sample questions. I do provide sample questions for this exercise inside of podcast moguls that are podcast specific for people who want to figure out who their perfect listener would be. But for you guys, you can absolutely do this on your own. This is kind of a casual exercise. This is not something where you have to overly think about the questions and make it into some statistically significant survey with the responses. This is not that this is starting out with your paragraph which is based on your assumptions, because it's based on what you want in addition to what you think others might want. And then step two is to actually get on the phone. And I recommend getting on the phone with at least 10 people, 10, but by the time you've done 10 of these calls, you will have firmed up your understanding of what people need as it relates to your side hustle, the assumptions that were incorrect, the assumptions that were correct. And you'll also find out surprising things. Now remember, the key to this exercise is you have to get on the phone with people who match your target person profile, not match like apples for apples, like, Oh, she went to NYU. They have to go to NYU. But who have this challenge, who are in this same space? You know, for my person, she's a side hustler. She's already working on her product on the side, but she doesn't know how to make it serious. She doesn't know if she should take it serious. She is dealing with those doubts like these are the type of people that I got on the phone with. Every single person I got on the phone with was working full time and had a side hustle. And I knew about their side hustle because I would see them post about a here or there, or because I know them personally. I just know that they have goals of doing some things on the side. And so that is how I knew that they were a conversation that would be meaningful. If you just get on the phone with your friends, then people are going to start saying, hey, why don't you do this? Or have you thought about this? And you're going to get distracted. You're going to get confused. So even if you love someone and hey, they might be a business owner, or they might be an entrepreneur, or they might already have grown a side hustle. That doesn't mean you need to get on the phone with them. You need to get on the phone with people who would buy your product, use your app, listen to your podcast, pay for your service. These are the people you want to get on the phone with. So step one, write down that paragraph describing your target customer, your target audience member, get specific step two, get on the phone with them and clarify, refine and revise that paragraph. So that is how you start to find the right audience and customer for your business. And the reason I use the word start here is because you should always be learning about your customer. Your customer is going to evolve, your customer is going to change, your customer is going to go through things. And it's important that you keep your pulse on what that person is going through. But this is the start because you're getting to know them, and you're making note of what's going on, who they are, what they're. Interested in what their challenges are. So the third point I want to discuss today, before I leave you to go jump right into this exercise, is here's the thing about narrowing down your target person.

A lot of people struggle with this exercise because they can't let go of this concept that there are many different types of people who would want their product or their service, and you're absolutely right. There are different groups of people who you can be talking to, and I'm not suggesting that you should not talk to different people or more than one type of person. What I am letting you know is that your content needs to be targeted to one person, because when you're targeting one person, it doesn't mean that other people aren't served. In the case of side hustle Pro, my perfect listener is a black woman living in New York City who is a side hustler. So obviously my audience are people who are like Janelle. That doesn't mean other people can't listen. In fact, I know for a fact that lots of different types of people listen. You know, I have men who listen. I have non binary people who listen. I have, you know, white men who listen. A matter of fact, when I was booked on the Today Show, it was because of a white male producer who listens to and loves the side hustle pro podcast. Thank you for that. And you know, I love that. So what I call those listeners are secondary listeners, or sometimes byproduct listeners. And I do that because, one, I don't want to make them seem less important. But what they are are people who listen. They know what this podcast is about. They know what your product is about and who is for, and they love that they support that they also find the content to be very helpful and very meaningful. Because let's face it, what you're creating is resourceful, is helpful, is tasty, is entertaining, be and it's going to be entertaining to more than one type of person, but when you create it for that person, that means you're having a conversation. You are meeting their needs and their interests. When you think about how you're going to design that packaging, you have Janelle in mind, right? You know, Hey, she's going to be attracted to this look and feel, because she loves things that are sleek and sexy. It helps you along every single point of your creation journey for your product or your service when you know who you are created for, because when you have a custom person in mind, you can create custom solutions, you can create a custom product, you can create a custom podcast. You can create a custom service. And it's important to do that, because people need to know that it's for them, in order to buy in, in order to spend their money, in order to say, I'm going to subscribe and tune in week after week. Because this is for me. It's not for, you know, the secondary listeners. The secondary listeners are going to listen no matter what the secondary audience is going to support. It's kind of like an ally, right? They're going to support. They're here for it. They find it informative, and they find it helpful, and they find it something that is tasty or whatever, like I keep saying, depend on what your product is. They find it something that, hey, this works on a shea butter that you're creating is going to work on everyone's skin, okay, for the most part, unless you have some kind of allergy, but it's going to work on many people. However, when you design that packaging, you're going to think about what your target person is looking for, and then you're also going to think about, where is she hanging out? You know, what festivals Can I go to to start to get this in front of her? What Instagram profiles is she following that I can start to target my ads alongside those. So these are just some of the reasons why you narrow down who your customer is. Remember that it doesn't mean that you will never, ever get another customer again, but what you have done is made it easier for your person to find you. And that's all we want. We want to make it easy for people to find us know what we're about. And the final reason why you need to narrow down your audience is you need to make it easy to share. So when people who I call my secondary listeners, love y'all, when they do listen to my podcast, you know, they find it helpful, and then what they do is they share they share it with people who they know are in my target audience. So if they know a black woman who's side hustling, they'll say, Have you listened to side hustle Pro? Because she's talking to black women entrepreneurs who started as side hustlers. I know you're doing this. You should definitely check out this episode. So when you make it so clear who your product is for when your secondary audience experiences your product experiences your service experiences what your side hustle is. They become ambassadors too, and they want to make sure that your primary audience knows that you exist so you are helping everyone when you make it clear what you do, what your product is. Is and who is for So good luck with this week's assignment. If you have any questions, be sure to hit me up at Hi at side hustle pro.co and you guys, if you haven't officially joined the boot camp, make sure you go ahead and do that at side hustle pro.co/boot camp. And remember that we're sending out weekly emails. We're doing check ins on Facebook, and you will get a recap guide at the end. So make sure to go over to side hustle pro.co/boot, camp for all of that, and I'll talk to you next week. Hey guys, thanks for listening to side hustle Pro. If you like the show, be sure to subscribe, rate and review on Apple podcasts. It helps other side hustlers, just like you, to find the show. And if you want to hear more from me, you can follow me on Instagram at side hustle Pro Plus sign up for my six foot Saturday newsletter at side hustle pro.co/newsletter when you sign up, you will receive weekly nuggets from me, including what I'm up to, personal lessons and my business tip of the week again, that's side hustle pro.co/newsletter to sign up talk to you soon you.

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