Ep #143: How to create the “need” in your target clients so they buy from you with Christen James

 Welcome back to another episode of the Hello C. S. Dorsey podcast. I have Kristen today on the podcast.

We’re talking all about how to create a “need” in your target clients so they buy from you.

Christen N. James (fondly known as CJ) is a Side Hustle Coach and Host of The Shine to FIVE™ Method for Side Hustlers Podcast. She is a Certified Life Skills Coach, Certified Master Mindset Coach, and a Reiki Master with BA in Psychology and Certification in Solution-Focused Therapy. 

She created The Shine to FIVE™ Method - a Coaching System to empower demotivated women-identified Side-Hustlers to strategically & CONFIDENTLY quit the unfulfilling 9to5, using her 3D Exit Strategy™ (DEDICATE-DECIDE-DEPART). 

She loves to go on the journey with them from having a Boss to BEING a BOSS!

Christen’s Promo:

Pick CJ's Brain Session - 90 mins of a condensed coaching program that includes Brainstorming, Clarity & Planning for your Side Hustle! By the end you will have realistic goals and a solid action plan that leaves you fired up. Book a 15-min chat (https://bit.ly/1st-chat-with-cj) to see if it's a fit, a get a BONUS 70-min session when you mention The Hello C.S. Dorsey Podcast.

Where to Find Christen:

Website: https://www.christennjames.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christennjamesthecoach

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christennjames/

Transcript

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Welcome back to another episode of the Hello CS Dorsey podcast. I have Kristen today on the podcast. How are you doing today? I am superb, Candace. Excited to chat with you today. Thank you for having me. Yay. So happy to have you on. So tell everyone who you are and what you do. I am A side hustle coach and people will say, wow, that's so specific, but there's a story behind it. I'm sure we'll get into, I empower nine to five women who have a side hustle to confidently and strategically quit the nine to five to go from having a boss to being a boss. So I go on the journey with them. It's quite the roller coaster. It's, and I use my three pillars, emotions, mindset, and strategy to help them to get the clarity and the confidence they need to, to walk away from that stability of nine to five. Oh, yes. Um, we all need that because we're all programmed. So it's so hard to get out of that mode. So I, I love where you're going with this. So let's talk about the inspiration behind you starting your business. What was that like for you? My story started, of course, from my nine to five, when I willed my Layoff into existence. I put law of attraction. I put it out there and they actually announced a few months later that they were closing. Our department was beautiful. And once I went and got trained as a coach, I always wanted to support women in that corporate. Nine to five setting who wanted to tap into their creativity. They wanted to push past mediocrity. They felt like they were being placed in a box. I wanted to support them on following through on that dream and pushing past all the excuses, overcoming all the doubt. And as the time progressed, I realized. Especially the last few years, many of the women started a side hustle and they wanted to, but they weren't sure how to take it from employee to entrepreneur. So I just started to identify more as I'm a side hustle coach. I'm working with the side hustler to grow their, their side hustle into a thriving business so that it can. See, it's real potential and the income that they would, that they can generate the income that they would be leaving behind for the nine to five, and then build that confidence as an entrepreneur to, to be able to actually hand in the resignation, make the decision, hand in the resignation, resignation, and then walk away to become a full time entrepreneur. But the journey doesn't end there because especially that first year of entrepreneurship, they still need that support. So I'm there to, to support them. Them through it, but I was always very inspired, even in my nine to five, I loved helping, um, those on my team to advance in, in the, in their careers and, and develop professionally to move on. I always said, I don't want to see you here within a year. So I was always helping to pull out the best, um, in, in those on my team. And I wanted to do the same thing for my clients. And it just all kind of happened very organically for me. Oh, that sounds wonderful. Um, you have a new whole audience base over here in California because as expensive as it is, I know at least I can count on my hand. So many people, um, well, not count on my hand because so many of them that. Here in California, because it's so expensive, they are trying to have a side hustle. So not only do they have a full time job, they have part time job and they want to have their own thing. And it's so beautiful because I have not seen so many business owners and entrepreneurs here in California that actually have their own thing. And it is so unique, but the struggle. Of having that mentality to, um, leave a job that is quote, unquote, the norm. And you're getting the dirty looks because you don't have the benefits. You don't have the city paycheck, all of that. I can go on a whole tangent about that because I recently experienced that, but, um, I think this is so, so needed. So I'm going to get off my soapbox and I'm going to focus and I'm going to get to the questions. Okay. Okay. So can you remember a time in your business or starting out where you had a hello moment? I can. I, it all is the reason why I became a certified, uh, mindset coach as well. I realized very, very early on when I was As you said, struggling when I was struggling with solopreneurship, because going from dealing with, you know, having that setting of the nine to five to working on your own, working from home and not having that camaraderie, if you will, or a team of people to report to. I had to keep checking in with myself and I really had to make certain decisions. I knew if I wanted this to work, what do I need to do? Where do I need to be? Who do I need to speak with? And I was constantly checking in with myself. And I realized that mindset as cliche as it sounds, mindset is everything. And once we can really start to work on our mindset and shifting our mindset, the magic, that's when the magic really, really happens. So I went. I got the training as a, as a mindset coach, and I base a lot of my coaching now on just helping my clients with their mindset. And I even talk about switching and shifting their employee mindset because it is a frame of mind. We are conditioned to be, and we're trained to be employees. And many of us don't have the tools to become entrepreneurs, or don't believe we can become entrepreneurs because We are, we're so used to being told what to do. So in helping them to shift their mindset, I realized that's when my clients would be more successful. So even before getting into the goal setting and the strategy and the action plan and, and really kind of looking at long term and five years and 10 years or whatever it is, we work on, on the mindset piece. So that was really like my moment of like, if everybody knew how to address their mindset, we would see our results, the results that we really wanted. And we would see them. On our own terms and we would actually see them a lot faster. We get results a lot faster if we addressed our mindset. I love it. I love it so much. So let's talk about how to create the need in your target clients so they can buy Can you talk more about that? Yes. The first thing I like to touch on is we always hear the term ideal client. And I love that, but I feel like there's a difference between your ideal client and your target client. Now the ideal client is a person. They're perfect. They know who you are. They know exactly what you do. They know that, you know, they, they know, I can trust you. They just buy from you all the time. And it's, it's easy to acquire them. It's easy for them to find you. It's easy for you to find them. But. There's nothing perfect, there's no such thing as perfect. So the target client is really using your ideal client and then understanding how to create language that resonates with your target client. So you can create a marketing strategy to target your ideal client and in creating that need. Once you know who your ideal client is, you also need to know. The problem they have, and a lot of times in creating the need is they probably don't even realize they have this problem. They, there might be a certain part of language that you're using that resonates with them. And if you, they're listening, you can almost, so when I say need, it's almost like you're creating, creating the problem for them so that you can provide the solution for them. So for me, I would say. My clients typically their problem is they feel like they don't have time they don't have money. And that's just the surface of it, but really it comes down to a fear of failure, a lack of resources, it could be a lack of of support a fear of judgment, or, you know, you don't want to. And again, looking at the time and money, like, Oh my God, what if this doesn't work? So then if I can say, if you can overcome these fears and these doubts, you will realize you just need to take the time that you need in order to create the product or service to generate the leads and to convert that into sales. But if my ideal client. Slash target client is always just thinking, well, I don't have the time and the money. They're not going to realize they need, they need to hire a coach. They need to hire a side hustle coach in order to get the results. They, they do, they, they need in order to become successful as an entrepreneur. So being able to have those conversations with them to understand them and their needs, then I can create a problem and say, this is actually what you're dealing with. And this is what you need. And guess who has a solution for it. So spend some time really like identifying, once you do identify your ideal client, identifying, just identifying their problem, but why they have that problem. How would they feel about, some people like to stay in that problem stage, because they use it then as an excuse. Well, Oh, I don't have the time. I don't have the money. So it's never going to work. But once you start to dig a little bit deeper from having those conversations and connecting with them, then you can say, well, it actually sounds like it's this. And if it's this. Then here's what you need to do. And if you do this, this is this, I can walk you through these steps for you to get, these are the results you want. This is how you want to feel. And these, this is how your life can look when you walk away from a nine to five a year from now, five years from now, they're like, ah, so I've created the need, you create the need in them. So they buy from you, but you want to be able to be the person, the solution. Once you create the problem, you also have the solution ready because the problem is specific to them. So your solution is also specific to them. So it's a no brainer that they come directly to you for the solution. I love it. I love it. So, um, I'm going to ask her a question. Uh, it's probably going to be like a little side segway. Okay. So. Do you have any tips for how can someone actually, um, get the information? Because we hear so much about, you know, um, talk like your clients or, um, what is your ideal client saying? It's like, okay, um, well, how do I find Unless How to do that, like, do you suggest like going into groups or going online, seeing, you know, what people are asking or just like having a simple conversation like we are having right now and then have them like, ask them questions. Can you like, uh, give some tips on how they can search for that? Well, it's, it, it starts really with, like, I take my clients through an exercise designing their ideal client. And they're, I think, 40 questions on this exercise, but really getting very specific. Beyond like the demographics getting very specific and you can picture your ideal client and maybe give them a name or, or maybe it might be a group or whatever it is, but going through creating almost a scenario for your ideal client. So, you know, exactly who, and the thing is your ideal client, especially as a business evolves, your ideal client will absolutely evolve as well. So this will be an ongoing thing that you would do because needs as much as you might identify certain needs, Each person's experience is very unique, but there is always like they're common trends or problems or needs you you if you will, that your ideal client might want might be encountering. But once you make a decision on who you want to work with, you get really clear on who you want to. You see in front of you, especially I, as a coach, you can see the person and I can see the person in front of, in front of me and I can walk them through something and it feels good. And I can really tap into what makes me unique, what is my competitive advantage, what's my secret sauce and why they should be working with me. When you realize what kind of solution you want to provide in creating that problem, you could almost kind of create that avatar. And then when, and like you said, if you want to go into groups or you want to go online. You start to build those relationships. Some people have a hard time with that. You might have to put out a call and say, Hey, like, are you dealing with check one, two, three, four? I would like to, I'd like to just have a conversation with you to just find out more. And then you're also building your portfolio or you're building your toolbox to be able to provide them with the solution. So yes, doing a little bit of market research for sure is absolutely important. Spending time doing the research in the beginning. I know people, some people say don't niche down and don't do this and don't do that. But I think if you're being specific with youth speaking to one group, at least in the beginning, it really would help. I like to use the analogy of Think about you're speaking to a room of a hundred people and your message is you're trying to convey this message to a hundred people, but because all their needs are different, everything about them is different. You leave them, everyone confused. But if you know there are 20 people in this room, if I can speak to those 20 people, I can probably guarantee afterwards these 20 people coming up afterward. Uh, to talk to me and that will be a way of generating your leads. So now you've found a niche and you speak specifically to those people. Don't worry about the a hundred people. Cause they either can leave a hundred people really, really, really confused or your message resonate with 20 people because you know exactly what they need. So show up in those places, know exactly who you want to target and where figure out where you want to hang out online too. And if they're hanging out there online, you don't have to be on all the. Platforms doing all the things and trying to connect with all the people start small. Get feel what, figure out what you're comfortable with, where you're comfortable hanging out, what kind of content you like to consume, what kind of content you like to create, all of that comes into, comes into play as well. And then you start to create your own little strategy to be able to generate your own leads, essentially. I love it. Yes. So wonderful. Good stuff. Awesome. So any last minute advice that you have for our listeners out there? I feel like the one thing that I encounter a lot, especially for side hustlers, is if you have an idea, at least tap into it, at least try, don't just leave it in the idea phase, take it from idea ideation to creation to at least know that. You've tapped into your creativity. If you know, your creativity is being stunted. If you're, and also I find doubt, I treat doubt as like a catalyst. So if you're starting to doubt something, because we are hardwired to resist change. So if you are starting to doubt something, it means that there's a huge change. It could be really, really beautiful on the other side. Doubt is always a good thing because it means it's something that you really want is really something that you want to tap into. And it's now testing you as to how far you can go. So push past the doubt, use that doubt as a catalyst and dive into that, that, that piece of creativity, that thing about you that makes you unique because you are doing everyone a disservice, yourself included, when you do not tap into that creativity to share it with the world, essentially. So where can everyone find you? I am. My website is kristin n james.com. Two n c h r i s t e n n james.com. But I'm also on Instagram at Kristin n James. You can slide in my dms. Tell me about your side hustle. I'm also on LinkedIn. And I also have a podcast, the Shonda five method for side hustlers. I share a lot of tips and feedback and insight to guide, um, women identified side hustlers who want to, to tap into their creativity and have their own thing thing. Awesome. We will definitely link those up in the show notes. Well, Kristen, I'm so happy that you came on the show today. Really good, informative information. Very helpful. Thank you for having me. I always love chatting about this, of course, so I'm excited to have shared this with your audience.