Kenrick Cleveland

I am ready. I have launched.

Kenrick Cleveland

Is it specifically to messaging?

One of the things that we do and that I’ve been working, creating, and trying to make more concrete is the idea that throwing garbage against the wall isn’t probably going to get you much other than a dirty wall.

Kenrick Cleveland

I like to say that features and benefits are pretty much like garbage against the wall. They can be educated guesses about what a person wants. But in reality, we don’t know what they want until we ask and until we find out. So it’s a reverse way of aiming.

A regular way of aiming is we find our sight. We target it, and we pull the trigger.

Well, in this case, how do you find the target and know your audience? If you’re writing copy or selling, maybe, you’re in front of somebody or a group of people, and you got to say something. So how do we know what to talk about? How do we know where to aim our message?

We can do the obvious. We have our program. We have what we want people to buy. We think it’s appropriate. And so, we want to say something.

Most people then, get into features and benefits, and I propose that you don’t do that. I suggest that you get into a particular method of targeting your messages to know your audience. You’ve already said that people don’t buy based on logic. They buy based on emotion.

The only problem is nobody ever tells you how to address and find that emotion. What do we do? Jump up and down and go, “Woo-hoo! Let’s get excited.” That isn’t an emotion. That’s fake.

So how do we get into it? What we do is we have a way, and we can talk the specifics of targeting that emotion. Then, targeting our words at it so that in the mind of our listener, what they’re looking for and our idea, our self, our product, our service, is intimately tied with that.

Kenrick Cleveland

We become the only solution and thus, we eliminate our competition. It’s not because we’re bad mouthing at people. It’s because we’re the only one that can do what it is they’re looking for.

Kenrick Cleveland

Let me show you how to know your audience.

Luis, you wanted me on this show.

Kenrick Cleveland

And you wanted me to be on the show for a reason. May I ask what it is?

Kenrick Cleveland

But there are millions of experts. Why me? Why now?

Kenrick Cleveland

Out of curiosity, what’s important about, “Different” that stands out in my mind as you say that?

Kenrick Cleveland

I think that’s wonderful.

Help me understand just a little bit further. Ultimately, if you can stand out, what does that do for you?

Kenrick Cleveland

Luis, here’s the bottom line.

You don’t want to be forgotten. You can’t afford to be forgotten.

If you are forgotten, then nothing was worth it. All the money you’ve spent on advertising and marketing, all the great copywriting, everything is out the window because people don’t remember.

The bottom line is what I can help anyone do is help them to be remembered, never to be forgotten. To make it such that even you, right now, as you listen to what it is I’m saying to you. You begin to get that applying this, drives deeply into the message center. And make you go, “Oh my god, this is the answer to not being forgotten. I’m going to be different. I can stand out. I can make messaging that matters.”

Kenrick Cleveland

Let’s dissect what I just did.

I used the exact system I’m talking about. I asked you questions, and they’re very simple. This does not have to be hard. This is easy.

All I did is I asked you in essence what’s important about and that I named the context that we’re in. “What’s important about this interview?” I don’t care what we’re doing. I would have asked you the same question just change the name of the context. You told me, and I asked again. “What’s important about that?” That’s when I heard you say, “Ultimately, it’s being different.”

Kenrick Cleveland

The third time I asked you, I got “Ultimately, it’s being different, so we’re not being forgotten.” So it’s different so that we’re not forgotten.

Now, everybody’s not going to answer that way, but to you, that matters. That will grab your attention, and if you associate me with being different and not being forgotten, my work here is pretty well done.

Kenrick Cleveland

Not everybody is going to have that.

Kenrick Cleveland

Exactly.

If you can get right straight in so you know what’s motivating them, then yes, you can do exactly this. It is really easy. You saw how fast I did it. It was just blinding fast.

Kenrick Cleveland

Let me give you a couple of them that can help you know your audience.

Anyone that is a coach, a marketer, a sales person, it doesn’t matter. You got to talk to someone just like we’re talking right now.

Kenrick Cleveland

So, the first way of applying this if you’re talking is to do specifically what I just did. We want to ask them “So tell me what’s important to you about –.” And then, we’re going to bring up what we’re talking about, and advice. You might say, “What’s important to you about the next advice or you’ll find yourself working with?”

The coach could say the same thing. “What’s important about the next coach you’ll find yourself working with?” Or, “Why did you wish to talk to me now?” It could be any number of ways of starting that conversation so that we can immediately ask twice more, and basically, it’s asking three times.

1. “What’s important about?” Name the context to know your audience.
2. Whatever they answer, “What’s important about”
3. Then, say what they just answered.

Ultimately, what will have that do for you, give you their values.

For Luis, it’s not being forgotten. Every time I say that, he’s going to have a special little tingle because he doesn’t want to be forgotten. It may not affect you that way. You may not have that special tingle like that but he will.

That’s easy to do if we’re doing it one on one. Any coach can do this in a heartbeat. The trick becomes what do we do if we’re writing? That’s the trick in it because we can’t ask our people as easily.

Kenrick Cleveland

Okay. So, what do we do then?

Kenrick Cleveland

Sometimes people don’t like to hear this but it is the truth, and that is they need to ask. So how can they do that? It’s easy. They just talk to their market. That’s all they have to do. It’s nothing big. All they have to do, and usually it’s about 10. So, if you are going to write a letter to a market, first of all, you better know well the market.

I want to challenge anybody that thinks they do.

If you’re writing for more than one market, then probably don’t know your market.

Kenrick Cleveland

Have the ten conversations. Imagine your ideal client and then find 10 of those. Do the process I just said. Add the criteria and values. Write them down. Each person will have 3 and then, add them together.

You’ll find that every single one of those people probably will have one at least in common. The one that’s spoken of the most will be number one. Then, the second and the third will be the same process.

Whatever you find the most, those are what you’re going to be putting into your copy.

Now, you’ll know that with you Luis, I was able to understand if your values were leading you towards something or away from something.

Are you looking for more of something or are you trying not to do that?

Kenrick Cleveland

Yeah. Are you moving away from pain? Are you moving towards pleasure?

Kenrick Cleveland

Okay. Let’s dive deep into how you can know your audience.

So, once I know you’re moving away from, then I am aware that the concept of being different is an “Away from” value.

If it’s an, “away from,” for most of the people I’m talking with, then I’ll be writing about it in that “away from” way of talking, which would mean saying things like, “Here’s the deal. You can be like everybody else and that will be the death of what you’re doing. You’ll soon be forgotten, but with us, you have a competitive advantage. Nobody will ever forget you.”

Whatever it is that your people are doing and you found from interviewing your 10 ideal clients, you’ll be able to put that into copy and presto! You’ve got a mesmerizing copy.

Kenrick Cleveland

You can hear in his voice when I bring it up. You can hear it. We’re hitting him at a very deep level.

In fact, I can even go a little further, and say, “You know Luis, there are so many people out there. You know, supposed experts, and yet, if you engage what they do, you end up being forgotten. They don’t get it, and you become another me too, and you know in your heart that that’s true, and you rebel against it. Of course, you rebel. You can’t be as they are. You must be different. Be different or die. And that’s what we’re going to focus.

In this program, you learn how to be different. We don’t die. We excel. The faster you want to get away from the death of being forgotten, the faster you want to engage us in our services to help you do exactly that.”

Kenrick Cleveland

You know what? It’s so simple to know your audience.

You are working here with Luis on this. So let me ask you, besides the fact that you do this together, what was the reason that you wanted to talk with me?

You started this interview so tell me what was behind that for you.

Kenrick Cleveland

What’s important for you about connecting with them? So I understand you.

Kenrick Cleveland

So, ultimately, if you can connect with big name people and elevate your success, what will that do for you?

Kenrick Cleveland

So let me ask you. Do you have freedom now?

Kenrick Cleveland

Fantastic. Know your audience to be able to move to the next level.

In a way, you’ve arrived. In a way, you’re there, and in a way, you get to get better every single day. Because you’ve already accomplished something so profound that now, you can just take that next step. You can just reach and get to that next level. That’s who we look for.

It’s people just like you that wanted just put their hand out and take that next step. Just in faith. Take the next step forward. Looking for a bigger horizon, looking for that next thing you can do for yourself, and add more value to all those that you work with. Then, in turn, that connection adds to you, and I think that’s just a beautiful thing, and those are some of our most successful clients as well.

Kenrick Cleveland

That’s the power of this. Know your audience that’s powerful.

If you are a coach or whatever it is you’re doing, you can get this information so fast. It’s almost unbelievable. Get it from 10 and use it in your copy. This is the difference between the people that are connecting at a deep level and not being forgotten, and expanding their horizons and making a difference.

Kenrick Cleveland

That’s why I’m known. I think.

It’s a lot of fun. I love doing this. Helping people to achieve these kinds of dreams is what separates me. This is my absolute love, and you’re seeing it. You asked for flow. You’re going to get it.

Kenrick Cleveland

It would probably be better to say “What’s important to you about being in flow?”

“Why?” is a great question to ask because it can be a double-edged sword and you can end up getting the person to go in the wrong direction unless you know how to control it well.

But I’ll tell you what motivates me to do it. It’s because when I started out almost 40 years ago in all of this, it didn’t exist. I was working in sales when I was 18 years old and my sales manager couldn’t. He’d say, “Just go after their hot button.” And I’ll be like “They don’t have a sign around their damn neck. How do I find it?” “Why don’t you just ask them questions?”

He could get there but not reliably. I saw smoke, and I knew that where there’s smoke, there had to be fire, but I couldn’t find it. So I determined I would find it.

Then I discovered NLP, Richard Bandler, and Dr. Milton Erickson. I found a whole bunch of smoke. Again, I knew that with where there’s more smoke, there probably had to be fire.

I zeroed in, and I’m the person who translated that from therapy to business, and I figured out how to do it. It was an accomplishment of a life-long dream. How do I help somebody get right to what works and make it work, and do it reliably, and do it artistically? Do it powerfully so that you get the yes.

That’s what we’re all about. It’s about getting Yeses.

Kenrick Cleveland

That’s right.

Kenrick Cleveland

And teach people to do it.

Kenrick Cleveland

I get to the point of being able to do that many years ago. But to show people how to do it and to make a difference in their life, to help individuals with this same exact skills get ahead. This is what excites me. I get letters about that every day and it excites me.