How do you stick to your guns when it comes to your ideal client and clearly defining what it is you do and what you don’t do, so that you can stop being an order taker and start being boss? We’re giving our tips on how to stick to your niche and the dream clients you want to work with rather than being a gun for hire.
Kathleen Shannon 0:02
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Emily Thompson 0:29
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Kathleen Shannon 1:08
Today's episode, we've got a good question from a listener. They wrote in about sticking to their guns when it comes to ideal clients.
Emily Thompson 1:18
We get an email from Amanda and it reads First, the being boss site is beautiful. And the podcast is perfectly imperfect. It isn't all figured out. But I love that I feel like I'm witnessing something amazing grow. Thank you, Amanda. I can't
Kathleen Shannon 1:37
I mean, we're we're the first to not take ourselves too seriously. But we do spend a lot of time trying to be perfect with our red lipstick. And we spend a lot of time trying to figure this out. No, but I get what you're saying. Amanda, I'm glad that like you feel like you're along for the ride. I just have to
Emily Thompson 1:55
lie agree I yes. Because this is going to be amazing. Guys. Get ready. All right. So question. I'm a grad student and non creative business owner with the side with excuse me with a creative side hustle. I have student loans and operating costs, I need income. I've chased $1 so far that I've said yes to services, I don't offer and worked with nightmare clients. I feel like a gun for hire rather than a sought after expert. Week after week, I hear you both speak with so much confidence about your ideal client services and prices. When you were young in business, was this ever an issue? What is your advice and sticking to your ideal client even in financial desperation, hopeful boss, Lady Amanda,
Kathleen Shannon 2:38
oh a man go. Nothing kills creativity like desperation, your side hustle. And I've said it before on this podcast, it should be giving you energy and not depleting it. So first off, if you have a full time job that you're using to pay off those student loans and to generate that income, awesome. If you're taking on any work on the side that does not support your side hustle or the direction that you want to take that you need to let it go. Second off whenever I was young, in my business, yeah, I worked with nightmare clients and I took on people just to pay the bills, I'm putting that in air quotes. Because I do have bills to pay. And I think everyone does this even even now we'll take on Oh, that's not true. I mean, most of our clients are super, totally dreamy. But if the project takes a turn that we don't necessarily love, we won't show it in our portfolio. So that's like my second point is that you can take on less than dreamy clients to pay the bills. But don't show off that work. Because you're just gonna attract more of the stuff that you show and share. And so with your side hustle, you have a limited amount of time. only work on the stuff that you want to work on that will pad your portfolio with pieces that show what you want to attract more of. Does that make sense? Yeah,
Emily Thompson 4:03
I agree. And I think a huge part of that, too, is is the idea of feeling like a gun for hire rather than a sought after expert and that's probably because you're not positioning yourself as an expert. And and maybe you are on like a website side or at least like in the hiring process. But maybe you're not in the in the actually dealing with the client process. That's something that I run into a lot with the clients that I that I coach is that they will they'll have it all together in terms of what their website looks like but whenever or and how they sell themselves and how they present themselves online. whenever it comes to actually doing a project they lose boundaries and restraint and allow their clients to sort of dictated an entire project. And that a lot of times can make a non drinker or make a dreamy client not dreamy because at that point they sort of lose that trust in you because you sort of back away from expertise now that you've been hired and are in a project. So so one claiming your expertise will make you a sought after expert and to maintaining your expertise throughout a client engagement, I think is really, really important for for sort of elevating each project one after another, to be building you to only having and working with your dreamiest dream customers.
Kathleen Shannon 5:25
Bam, amen. I have more to say, but I'm trying to decide if I want to say it or not. But this, I've chased $1 so far that I've said yes to services I don't offer. There are a lot of things I could do for $1 that I will not do for $1. I know what I'm saying. Yeah,
Emily Thompson 5:43
well, yeah. And I think that's just like putting boundaries up and what you are, or are not willing to do, I think maybe you should talk to a money coach. I mean, if you are like are holding on to $1 that hard, and I think there's some like, like money issues going on in there, especially if you're going to say you're willing to do things that you wouldn't normally do. I think I think there's probably some bigger things there, then, then you may be letting on or not. But I think I think getting clear about your money, setting some clear goals, making taking baby steps to get where you need to be. So that so that you can be making the money you want to be making, and then putting yourself out there in the clearest, most authentic way so that you are only attracting the dreamiest clients. And then this is a good one too. And I think something that should be addressed is is how to weed out dream customers in the sales process, I think is really important. And that's one of those things that just takes time. But you have to figure out like how people talk to you via email or on the phone, that's going to be red flags as to whether or not they're going to be dream customers. And once they actually hire you
Kathleen Shannon 6:57
is huge. I was just coaching a client yesterday. And I said, I want you to start a list of red flags. So like the clients that you've worked with, write down red flags, even things that you wouldn't necessarily think of like, the tone in the email or how much information they did or didn't give you the kinds of and you can start to recognize these patterns amongst red flags. And you know that it's red flag and you can say no, one thing that you might try Amanda is literally take out a piece of paper and on the left side write down I am not draw a line down the middle on the right side, right I am and on the left side, right that everything that you are not. So I am not, you know, I don't have a whole lot of information on what you're doing here. But write down the things that the services that you don't offer whenever under the I am not write down the services that you do offer under I am only take on those clients only say yes to those clients, especially if it's your side hustle. Yes, you only need you really need to anyone with a side hustle, you've got to focus that you have to have laser focus on your side hustle in order to grow it enough that you can leave your day job and still pay the
Emily Thompson 8:13
bills. So here's the things that we would suggest that you do to make sure that you were sticking to your guns and only getting hired by your dream clients. So number one, I think those red flags define like what those are whenever you're talking to potential clients so that you know who is going to be a dream client and who isn't.
Kathleen Shannon 8:34
Write down what you offer and what you don't offer but are constantly being asked to do. And those lines can easily get blurred whenever industries overlap, but be clear on what you do and what you don't do. And only say yes to the stuff that you do.
Emily Thompson 8:48
Yeah, and if you if you're having problems, bringing in enough money and attracting and attracting dream customers, it's something that is becoming an ongoing and long term issue. Find a coach, I think that having a money coach or or help or having someone help you define your dream customer very clearly to make sure that your services and your brand is attracting that dream customer can be super beneficial and well worth the investment.
Kathleen Shannon 9:17
Also, you can say yes to not so dreamy clients if you really need to pay the bills, but only share the work that you want more of in your portfolio. So I hope that helps. Thanks for giving us a little bit of your time today. I hope that this insight will help all of you listening. And if you haven't already, please be sure to check out our full episodes on loving boss comm on iTunes, SoundCloud, and Stitcher. Thanks as always for leaving us amazing reviews on iTunes. It really does make a difference as far as who we're able to reach an impact. So thank you for that. We've got a Facebook group. You guys can find that on our show notes at love being boss box. calm. And that's all
Kathleen Shannon 10:04
this minisode was brought to you by twenty20. Check them out at twenty20.com/beingboss, that's t w e n t y 20 as in the number.com slash being boss.
Emily Thompson 10:18
Did you like this minisode Be sure to check us out on our website at beingboss.club, where you can find more from being boss including our full episodes minisodes and blog posts. And while you're there, be sure to sign up for our mailing list so that you can get access to behind the scenes and exclusive content from Kathleen and myself to help you be more boss in your work and life. Do the work be boss
