Today’s masterclass centers around the pivotal notion of the Authentic Customer Avatar, a concept designed to enhance the connection between your enterprise and its rightful clientele.

We embark on a journey to explore the intricacies of aligning your marketing and sales approaches with an authentic voice, thereby rekindling the warmth of genuine engagement that often eludes many businesses in the contemporary landscape.

Have you ever felt as though your message is falling flat, or perhaps found yourself ensnared in a robotic marketing rhythm? Fear not, for we shall delve into innovative strategies that will not only clarify your ideal customer but also empower your entire team to resonate with this singular vision.

By crafting a vivid representation of the individual your business serves, we will illuminate the path toward building profound connections, fostering trust, and ultimately, elevating the impact of your offerings. So, gather your thoughts, and let us embark on this enlightening adventure to discover who your authentic customer truly is!

Takeaways:

• The essence of authentic customer avatars lies in creating a fictional representation of your ideal customer, which transcends mere demographics to embody their hopes, fears, and desires.
• A well-crafted customer avatar empowers businesses to hone their messaging, ensuring that communications resonate deeply with the target audience, ultimately fostering trust and engagement.
• In engaging with your authentic customer, one discovers that serving a single individual with heartfelt sincerity can lead to broader and more impactful connections across diverse customer segments.
• The process of defining your customer avatar is not merely an exercise in marketing; it is a profound journey that invites reflection on the deeper purpose of your business and its role in the world.

Chapters:

00:07 Connecting with the Authentic Customer

01:13 Introduction to Authentic Customer Avatars

14:51 Beginning the Authentic Customer Experience

31:13 Understanding Your Client's Pain and Aspirations

37:57 Connecting with Your Authentic Customer Avatar

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Coco Sellman, the host of the Force for Good Business Show, believes business is a force for good, especially with visionary women at the helm. With over 25 years of entrepreneurial experience, she has launched five companies and guided over 500 startups. As Founder & CEO of A Force for Good, Coco supports purpose-driven women founders in unlocking exponential growth and prosperity. Her recent venture, Allumé Home Care, reached eight-figure revenues and seven-figure profits in just four years before a successful exit in 2024. A venture investor and board director, Coco’s upcoming book, *A Force for Good*, reveals a roadmap for women to lead high-impact, high-growth companies.

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Welcome to serve Deeper, Grow faster.

Today, we're going to connect with your pro market through the Authentic Customer experience and the Authentic Customer Designer.

Are you working hard to grow your company, but your message for some reason is not landing like it used to?

Or maybe your marketing and sales is not feeling perfectly aligned.

It's maybe feeling robotic or inauthentic even when you know your product or services is really valuable, working well for the customers that already have it.

Are you attracting the wrong customers and wish that you were attracting a different audience?

Are you longing to serve at a much deeper level but unsure how to connect with those you're meant to authentically serve?

If this is what's happening for you, you are 100% in the right place.

Today's masterclass is to help you identify your authentic customer avatar.

So what is an authentic customer avatar?

It is a fictional character that you create.

It's fictional.

It's not a real person.

You won't give yourself the freedom to disattach from or disidentify from any existing ideas of who it is.

Instead, you're going to create a fictional customer that is a vivid representation of the single person your business is is here to serve.

And it's designed to connect your company and your purpose and your product.

And what we'll discover here through the authentic customer experience is that when you speak to one customer with full heart and soul, it gives you the power to speak to everyone.

When you try to speak to everyone, you speak to no one.

So this tool is designed to help you capture the essence and the feeling of a single person and then be able to craft your marketing messages to them.

Today we are going to use two tools, the Authentic Customer experience, which is a guided meditation that you can that I'm going to lead you through.

Today we're also going to use the Authentic Customer Designer.

So you can see it here on this screen.

The Authentic Customer Designer is where you can download the tool at a forceforgood biz weekly tool and use it as we go along today.

So it's gonna help you craft your authentic customer avatar.

Everyone on your team can use this experience and create their own unique authentic customer avatar.

And then you can use this experience to start to frame a single customer that you want to devote the entire business to.

You'll define one key avatar that you can dedicate your entire company to.

And then you can really start to serve more deeply.

You're also going to walk away today with one new habit and one new action to help you move into the wisdom and insights that you're going to discover from this authentic customer avatar.

So if you haven't already, go ahead and download the Authentic Customer Designer right now at a forceforgood Biz Weekly tool.

So why is this so great?

The authentic customer avatar is very important in helping you serve your customers at a higher level.

First, you're going to be able to hone your voice.

Understanding your authentic customer avatar enables your company to determine the most effective tone, message and personality coming to your audience.

Number two, you'll find the best fit.

Some prospective customers will not appreciate your approach, not resonate with your values, and not care about your core purpose.

And that is okay.

A clear, thoughtful voice will attract your most desired customers, the ones you are meant to serve you and your company, allowing your team to do its best work for those who will derive the greatest value from what your company offers.

The third reason is you'll cultivate real engagement.

Being able to speak directly to what your customer is looking for, thinking about and interested in transforms your marketing and communications leading to a more effective, powerful and dynamic conversation with those you serve.

Number four, It'll help you grow trust.

Think about how important that is.

When your customer feels like you genuinely understand their motivations and care about them, you build the important bridge of trust needed for them to consider implementing your product or service into their lives.

The fifth reason is because it will help you develop internal integrity and alignment.

Because your company is deeply focused on delivering solutions that customers deeply need, marketing and selling your products and services will feel more like a mission than a transaction.

This removes all fear and conflict from making the sale.

It emboldens you and your team to become evangelists for your brand and to do so with real conviction.

The sixth reason to have an authentic customer avatar is loyalty.

All of this works together to organically establish and further the loyalty of your customers and your team.

Very important.

Number seven, Having an authentic customer will help you be preceded by your reputation.

Once you have loyal fans as both customers and team members, the positive reputation of your company will grow and spread, creating a virtuous cycle that draws in more customers and attracts great hires.

This experience of having a customer avatar as a company and then each team member also having their own very personal connection with who you serve, will give you this powerful advantage.

All right, let's talk about some examples of an authentic customer avatar.

We've got four examples here.

Here's what we mean by an avatar.

This is not spreadsheets.

It's not demographics.

It's feelings.

It's storytelling.

It's an idea, a concept.

So the first one we have is, is one that we created for Illumie Home Care, the health care company I founded and recently exited.

And we had in mind a particular mother of a child, a mother that we were going to be able to talk to, connect you enroll, and then be able to take care of her medically fragile child who was coming home from the hospital.

So for Uma Home Care, we had Janet Lightfoot as our authentic customer avatar.

Janet is 25 years old and she is the single mother of three children.

Her youngest child, Caitlin, was born at just 27 weeks rather than the regular 40 and still hasn't come home from the hospital.

Janet is terrified to bring her home because her child has a ventilator and feeding tube and she's nervous about this.

And she's also worried about her job.

She can't afford to stop working.

She needs to have reliable care she's praying for in home nursing care so she can keep her job and care for her child and, and her other two children.

Another example is with a beauty brand.

It's a fictional character, Marisol Rivera.

Marisol is 41 years old.

She's a high school counselor and mother of two.

She's exhausted, juggling family and aging parents and hasn't felt radiant in years.

She's not chasing youth.

She wants to feel powerful in her skin.

She's looking for clean, culturally rooted beauty that honors her worth.

Now we're thinking about a software company, a SaaS company, and we're thinking of an authentic customer whose name we've decided is Darren cho.

Darren is 38 and he runs a 12 person healthcare startup.

He's overwhelmed by chaos.

No systems, no visibility, constant follow up.

And he needs clarity within his team.

He needs accountability and he needs calm growth within his company.

He has come to the SaaS company to build order without complexity.

Last, we have Amina Clark, who is the authentic customer avatar of a sustainability brand.

Amina is 34.

She is a new homeowner and architect and she dreams of a low impact, toxin free home that feels lost in greenwashing and overwhelm.

She needs trustworthy, beautiful, sustainable products that align with her values and her budget.

So these are four examples of what an authentic customer avatar is.

So imagine that every time I would or my recruiting manager or a customer service representative or a marketing manager would, would write a letter or create a new product or service at a lume, we have to think About Janet, this 25 year old single mother with three children, one of them just coming home from the hospital with an event and trait.

So this is how it becomes very pos, very powerful.

You're going to dedicate everything you do to this person.

And by being very specific in how you speak to this person, it's going to connect to hearts and minds, even if they're not exactly the person who represents your authentic customer avatar.

How will you use this?

It's going to be a very personalized experience.

You're going to listen within and you're going to have a journaling and write down experience.

And then you're going from that, you'll be able to craft it into a succinct series of sentences similar to this.

And everyone on the team is invited to create their very own customer avatar who guides every team member in being of highest service.

You can choose one primary avatar for the company, and later on you can choose other avatars to fit specific market segments.

And then with your team, you can refer to them.

You can talk about Janet, or you can talk about Steve, or you can talk about Jimmy, and you can talk about whatever their circumstances are.

And that will make it more personal when you're designing your communications as well as your products and services.

Okay, so where does this fit in the grand scheme of the force for good system?

We always go back to the four page growth plan, which you can always pick up at a forceforgood biz weekly tool.

You can download the four page growth plan and on the four page growth plan are all the core growth elements.

One of the core growth elements is the authentic customer avatar.

So on page one, in that sort of middle of the page, there's three boxes that comprise the authentic customer avatar.

And it's really where we talk about who they are, what they need, and the who and what statement.

Now, we will talk about those more specifically in other masterclasses.

But just know that when you design your authentic customer avatar, this is where you're going to go and put some of those details.

Your authentic customer avatar is meant to inspire everything on the entire four page growth plan.

This is the customer you're serving.

So whether you're talking about the first section of the plan of knowing your purpose, certainly the purpose needs to resonate with your authentic customer.

The second part of the four page growth plan, which happens to be on the bottom half of page one and onto page two, is knowing who you serve.

And then the last two pages are knowing your impact plan, how you're going to create the impact over the next 10 years, three years and 12 months that your company longs to create in terms of impact, scale and profit.

Your authentic customer is going to inspire a need who would be aligned with everything.

So this is a very powerful exercise that I'm excited to share with you today.

We're going to go right in to the Authentic Customer experience.

We're going to settle into your heart.

I'm going to lead you through the guided visualization.

You're going to have the Authentic Customer Designer sitting next to you and you'll be able to take notes as we go.

And then at the end, you'll be able to write your Authentic Customer avatar on the last page of the Authentic Customer Designer.

Are you ready?

Let's go ahead.

Who is your company meant to serve?

So you're going to prepare for the Authentic customer experience and record your insights on the Authentic Customer customer desire.

Welcome to the Authentic Customer Experience.

In a few moments, I'm going to lead you through a guided visualization experience.

I will invite you to close your eyes and draw your awareness inside.

Listening to my voice.

Just give yourself permission to go inside.

I will first guide your breath to relax and connect with your heart.

And then I will guide you to a garden where you will meet and have tea with someone you are authentically meant to serve.

Allow this to be a person you haven't yet met.

This person lives in your imagination.

The idea is simply to allow yourself to connect to a heart level with one person for whom you are meant to serve, knowing that there will be thousands of others who might be similar or different than this person.

The object today is not to try to define your target market per se.

Free yourself from trying to think strategically about how you answer the questions or which person you choose to invite to visit you.

Rather gently allow your inner wisdom and imagination to carry you.

Simply allow yourself to meet someone new who can offer you wisdom.

Have the service avatar Revealer next to you so that you can make any notes as you go through this process.

Okay, go ahead and put your body in a comfortable position.

Close your eyes and gently breathe with each breath in.

Breathe in light and with each exhale, allow that light to expand within you.

As I count you down from 10 to 1.

Allow yourself to fall deeper and deeper inside.

1.

Breathe softness into your heart to allow softness to expand.

3, 4.

5.

6.

Just allow yourself to relax.

1.

7.

8.

Feel the safety of your breath.

9.

10.

Allow yourself to feel deeply surrounded by warm, loving light.

And on your next breath.

Imagine you.

Are sitting in a beautiful garden.

Breathe in the beauty around you.

Maybe there are plants or trees, flowers.

And blue Skies, maybe you hear birds or sea butterflies.

Allow yourself to breathe in and out, focusing on the trees, flowers, and soft air all around you.

As you explore this safe, beautiful place, allow yourself to see a table set for two.

Breathe into your heart and give yourself permission to settle into one of the two chairs.

Allow yourself to feel your feet on the ground, your back in the chair, and affirm for yourself that this seat.

Is where you will meet someone very important to you.

In a few moments, you will call.

Forth the image of someone you are meant to serve.

And when you're ready, go ahead, take a deep breath and call forth an image of someone you are meant to serve.

As you breathe, allow a person you are meant to serve to come into your presence.

Just allow an image of a person you're you've never seen before to appear.

Imagine you can meet them for tea and get to know them right here in your inner space.

And in this conversation, you will ask them several questions.

Listen to them from your heart.

Just allow the answers to gently appear.

Simply journal your responses to each question as they come.

Allow the answers to come simply, even easily, effortlessly.

Write down the first thing that comes to mind.

If you're not sure how your avatar would respond, just make it up.

Pretend.

Allow your imagination to carry you, and indeed you will find exactly what you need from this journey.

So take a deep breath and allow this person to become vivid in your presence.

Take a look in their eyes and have a moment to discover what they look like, what they smell like.

Describe this person in your presence.

Write down whatever you're noticing.

What do they look like?

What do they sound like?

What do you notice about them?

Breathe into your heart and let yourself notice.

What is their energy?

What feelings do they convey in your presence?

Under number two, just write down, what is their energy?

What feelings are in their presence?

Keep breathing and then just ask them, what is your name?

Let them tell you.

What is their name?

How old are they?

Them tell you a little about themselves.

Give yourself permission to write down who they are.

As you breathe into your heart, affirm.

For yourself that this is a person you are meant to serve at the highest level.

This is your authentic customer, Avatar, who has come to offer you wisdom and guidance on your unique gifts and how you're meant to serve.

So just take a deep breath.

Now, breathing in their presence and looking into their eyes.

Just ask them, why have you come to me today?

Why have you come to me today?

Let yourself hear why they came to you.

Write down whatever you're sensing.

Why they came to you breathe into your heart and let yourself hear what is important to them?

What is important to them?

What matters to them in their life?

What do they value?

Write down what is important to them.

Now take another deep breath.

Connecting through their eyes.

Look into their eyes.

Feel their energy and presence and just ask them what do you what do they wish was different in their life?

Just ask them, what do you wish.

Is different in your life?

What do you wish was different?

Allow them to describe what they wish was a little different in their life.

Keep breathing.

Write down what they wish could be different in their life.

Now take another deep breath.

Drop even deeper into your heart and let your heart hear them.

Ask them what causes you pain?

What causes you pain?

Let yourself hear their pain.

What problems and challenges keep them awake at night?

What problems do they wish they could solve?

Hear their pain.

Write it down.

Let yourself feel their pain too.

Notice how it feels.

How does that pain make them feel?

How does that pain make them feel?

Does it make them feel scared?

Anxious?

Afraid?

Nervous?

Sad?

Defeated?

Angry?

How does that pain make them feel Alone?

Breathe in.

Allow yourself here straight from their heart.

What would bring them release?

Breathe deeply and allow yourself to hear.

What would bring them relief?

What would bring them hope?

What would move them towards joy?

Let yourself hear them.

What do they desire?

What are they longing for?

What would bring them relief?

Hope, even joy?

Write it down.

Let yourself understand what they're longing for.

Keep breathing.

And now breathe and just ask them, what do you hope will change?

Just ask them, what do you hope will change?

What is the wish they are hoping you can help them solve?

What's their wish?

Write down their wish for what you can help them solve.

Keep breathing.

Let yourself receive their wish.

Let yourself understand that this person has come to you today to ask you for help.

So go ahead and listen from your heart.

Now that you really know them, ask them what is their story of pain and loss?

What is their story of pain and loss?

Allow them to tell you about their life, their family, their health.

Let them share about the pain and loss in their career, their work, their finances.

What is causing them pain?

Allow yourself to listen with an open heart and jot down whatever you notice is coming up.

Write down their story of pain and loss.

Breathe deeply into your heart.

And now let yourself hear that they have come to you for a reason.

They are here because you have a gift you are meant to share.

So just ask them, what is the gift I am meant to share with you?

What is the gift you are meant to share with them?

What is the gift only you can share with them.

Breathe deeply as you receive the answer.

Your gift that you are meant to share.

Write it down.

And now just let yourself breathe.

Receive all the gifts that they've given to you.

Integrate their pain, their story of loss, all their hopes and dreams.

And now just let yourself understand they're going to give you guidance.

What is a specific action they would like you to take on their behalf?

What is a specific action they would like you to take to bring your gifts into the world?

What action do they want you to take today?

Breathe deeply and write down the specific action that's coming into your presence.

Something specific specific you can do today.

Breathe deeply as you receive this wise guidance.

And just take your heart hands and place them over your heart.

Receive everything they've give to given to you thus far and just allow yourself to connect with them and ask if there's anything else they would like to convey to you.

Is there anything else they want you to know to help you share your gifts?

What else would they like to share with you?

Write down anything else they need to.

Say to feel complete.

Now just take a moment and thank them.

Breathe into your heart and thank them for coming to visit you today.

Thank them for the wisdom and insights you received.

Thank them for helping you discover the.

Gifts you're meant to share with others.

Affirm in your heart that you can call on them anytime for guidance.

Allow yourself to see they are always here to help you understand how you're meant to be of service.

And when you are ready, allow them to dissipate from your beautiful garden, knowing they are always present within your heart to ask for guidance and instruction.

They are always here within you with the answers you need.

Take a few breaths in and acknowledge to yourself and send gratitude to them for all the wisdom and guidance you've received.

And go ahead and gently breathe yourself back into the room where you're seated, taking a moment to thank yourself for giving this time of reflection just for you.

And you the next few minutes to stay connected.

Journal and breathe and write down whatever.

You'Ve just heard from within.

Who's your authentic customer?

What do they long for?

What are they asking you to do?

Keep breathing.

And on the final page of the Authentic Customer Designer.

Go ahead and take.

A few minutes to breathe.

Bring it all together in three or four sentences.

Create a description of who your authentic customer avatar is, what they need, what.

They hope for, and how your company is meant to serve them.

Acknowledge yourself for this deep, profound work.

This deep and profound work.

All right, now I want to take a moment and acknowledge you and the wisdom you've received.

So today you created a clear picture of the person your company is meant to serve.

You created insights to your customers, hidden fears, their needs, their unspoken longings.

Hopefully you've discovered a new connection to your company's unique role in their transformation and discovered connection to their emotion and the emotional language that you can use within your communications.

And today, hopefully you discovered a soul level connection to why you're meant to serve them.

And just remember at all times your authentic customer avatar lives within you and that you can connect to this part of you anytime to ask for guidance.

It can be guidance on your business.

It can also be personal guidance on.

How you can be of highest and best service.

And when you're ready you can go over to your four page growth plan and you can make adjustments throughout the entire document guided by your authentic customer avatar.

I encourage you to just drop in some language on who they are, what they need and the who what statement that's on page one.

Really thank yourself for this journey today.

So what's one habit that you can install?

What's one habit?

So one thing you can do starting today or this week and doing ongoing that will help you connect with that authentic customer.

So maybe it has to do with your weekly team check ins or maybe you bring up that avatar in your weekly meeting.

Or you could add the avatar and the story that you created about the avatar to your onboarding and hiring.

Maybe you revisit this visualization quarterly.

Or maybe you create a culture where everyone owns their own avatar.

So make a decision on a habit.

Something you can do not just today or not just this week, but over and over to instill the guidance from.

This avatar and the high potency action.

This is a bold move that accelerates impact and I encourage you to take the action that was given to you by your avatar today in the authentic customer experience.

Other actions that might support you is to record a two minute video to introduce your avatar to your team.

Perhaps you go to your homepage and rewrite your homepage speaking directly to this avatar.

Or maybe create a new marketing message speaking from their perspective or adjust a particular product feature to serve them better.

Maybe you sent a thank you card to a customer who reminds you of your avatar.

So today we did so much.

You defined your authentic customer avatar.

Move through the authentic customer experience that guided visualization and you use the authentic customer designer.

You integrated and grew the four page growth plan plan.

You identified a high leverage habit and committed to a high potency action.

Great work.

Be sure to sign up for the Course for Good Tool of the Week at Of Course for Good Biz Weekly Tool and you'll get a free new tool and masterclass every week.

You can also buy the book where you'll get access to all of the tools and the full book explains how to use each of the tools.

You can also join a growth accelerator at atorceforgood Biz Accelerator.

It's an online system, a guided learning system that you can do alone or with your team.

Thank you again for being here today.

Be sure to visit us at afforceforgood Biz weeklytool.

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