Season 2 Finale
A recap of some of the wisdom shared by my guests during Season 2, as well as an update on my projects
A recap of some of the incredible wisdom shared by my array of guests this last season, as well as updates on a few things I'm working on.
Show Notes
Work with me - https://www.conormccarthy.me/work-with-me
Link for review on Apple Podcasts
Transcription
Conor McCarthy 00:07
Hello, and welcome to the season finale of season two of the first 10 podcast, I wanted to recap some of the incredible wisdom shared by my array of guests this last season, as well, as mentioned a few things I'm working on that you might be interested in. So first up subscription club. The last episode of the season wasn't an interview per se, it was more of a discussion between myself and Brian Kenny, about the company we are co founding together called subscription club. subscription club is simple ecommerce subscription management software for your business that helps you to continue and deepen your relationship with your customers. I'm really, really excited to be on my own new first 10 customers journey in the world of e commerce. The things I'm learning and relearning as we go are feeding back into the work I do in helping you my listeners build your businesses. So whether it's through my first 10 boot camp or my one to one coaching with Business Builders, there's a really wonderful feedback loop happening. And I'm glad to be able to bring you my learnings as they happen with subscription club over the coming seasons. As the saying goes learn one, do one, teach one. And it's great to be back in the saddle in this way. Our first customers for subscription club are up and running. And I'll include links to them in the show notes so you can see the software in action. And of course, if subscription club is something you can use in your own business, of course, drop me a line. Okay, by the time this episode goes out, it'll be the last call for the next session of the freelancer marketing habit. This is a new peer accountability group that I'm starting to help freelancers get more clients. Each session is 30 days long. And for 30 minutes each of those days, all we do is market our freelance services together. It's for coaches is for consultants, designers, everyone from seasoned freelancers who need to get back into the swing of daily marketing, to those who are new to the freelance game, who need to build a solid marketing habit. Check out the links in the show notes. And even if the start date for this session has passed, I'll be running it again soon. So drop me a line and we can have a chat about your marketing. Also, I'll be running the next cohort of the first 10 customers boot camp Pretty soon, I've been helping people start and grow their businesses for the best part of a decade now. And I found that this early stage of the journey can be the most uncertain, but it's often the most rewarding if it's done right. The boot camp will teach you things like identifying your ideal audience and the real problems describing your idea in a way that those customers want to hear. It will cover marketing, load a sales technique, and of course, the art of shipping your idea to the world maybe the most important piece of the puzzle. You meet a group of like minded Business Builders and learn how to understand and serve your customers with your ideas. The boot camp includes free one to one sessions with me and frameworks and templates and all the good stuff that goes into learning something new. And there are definitely things that you can use again and again. The first boot camp happened in February. And it was it was brilliant to go through it and and see what can happen when you get together with a group of people who are on the same journey, and share ideas and share the things that you've learned and see people go out into the world and find a first time customer. So it's been really great to run it once I can't wait to run it again. There'll be new material of thought a lot about the format of us and added more to the to the programme. So please do check out the show notes and join us. Lastly, the rest of this episode is a collection of the answers to the final question I asked all my guests in this podcast. That question is, what would you say to someone just starting out to find their first 10 customers. So it's kind of a refresher for my regular listeners. And if this is your first episode of the podcast, it's great way to dip your toe in. It's actually a pretty great set of pointers for anyone looking for the first 10 customers. The goal of this podcast is to help Business Builders learn some best practice when they go out looking for their first 10 to expose the things worth doing and the things that might be dead ends and ultimately cost you time and money. We should all be recycling these days. And when it comes to understanding your customers and how you talk to them. I think there's a tonne of value that my guests have shared that is worth repeating here. So it's a little digest of all the smart stuff that my guests have said over the last season. Oh, lastly, lastly, a really big thank you. I really really love making this podcast. And I want to hear back from you that something struck home or you had an insight into your own business based on something that a guest said, is really what this is all about. I'm very grateful for all of you. And please do share the podcast wherever you see fit. If I could make one ask it would be that you go to Apple iTunes and leave a rating and review. It's more feedback that helps me make this better. And my podcast editor brand, I think is going to make some amazing images of some of those reviews. So your review might get featured earlier and I'll leave the links in the show notes. So I hope you enjoy the upcoming megamix episode. And do check out the show notes for more details on the bootcamp on the accountability course, are leaving a review and all that stuff that I mentioned earlier. Thanks again. Looking forward to season three. What would you say to someone One who's starting out on their first 10, someone who's literally four customers behind you?
Ryan Doyle 05:05
Well, it all very much depends, right? I guess if I had to make it as broad as possible, my my statement to that person would be, um, you need to find someone to talk to today about this, whether it's just shouting it out on Twitter, or dming, someone that you know, who might benefit from it. It doesn't have to be a sales pitch, necessarily, but talk to someone say, hey, look, I'm building this project, I think it's relevant to you, because I see you are a salesperson, and I'm helping salespeople would you be down to give this a go and just shoot me some feedback in an email? I have people reach out to me like that all the time. I love helping people like that, because you're always gonna see what's on the cutting edge. Um, but if you do an email feedback with them, if you get on a call, you can ask, Hey, I'm trying to make this into a business. What do you think it needs in order to get to the point where someone like you would pay for it? And you see how indirectly I asked that question. You didn't ask this person to pay? So what does it need to get someone like you to pay? Yeah. And that can be that, that question to the right person is going to help you monumentally.
Ash Roy 06:22
set yourself a goal to serve 10 people, within the next 10 days, 30 days, give yourself a timeframe. And say, I want to help 10 of these people now that these people would ideally be some someone that would benefit from your product or your service. So if you have a membership programme, like mine that helps clients grow their businesses, most business owners have one of two problems, either they don't have enough leads, or they don't have enough time, because they have so many so much business, that they're struggling to keep up with the business. But in both instances, well, in the first instance, if they can't find their customers, they're going to be out of business soon. In the second instance, if they can't serve their customers, because they've got too much business, then they're going to hurt their brand, because they're not going to fulfil on the promises they're making. So in those instances, if it would mean starting again, I would hone in on those two problems. And I would say I want to find five people who don't have enough customers, and I'm going to help them find customers in whatever way I can. That makes sense. And I'll do it for free if I have to do, because, to me, that's market research. And that was, by the way, my thinking when I was giving away those four hours of time for $99 a month, and they could cancel after the first month, that meant they would get to $1,000 worth of value for $99. Nobody cancelled after the first month, no one. They basically actually Sorry, I'm wrong, one person cancelled because he never logged in, and he had a death in the family. But basically, people got enough value that they didn't want to leave. So solve a problem, over deliver on the value under promise, over deliver, document your findings. And repeat magic,
Zach Weismann 08:33
be patient. But also, you know, I made this note, there's this pressure to feel like you have to be everyone to every you have to be everything to everyone right now. And I think that's it's a it's a palpable pressure. And that goes everything from you know, I think you can get a customer with a decent looking website and our bank account, right? Maybe not even both, you know, it's like, people get lost in all the things they need to get a customer and it's like, No, no, get a customer first. And then you can figure out how to invoice them, you know, and there there's a there's a, there's a range within that. But be patient, try to communicate value clearly and succinctly Don't underestimate the importance of sort of backwards looking networks and who you've worked with in the past who can help. And then keep it simple, you know, in that sense, and there is everybody's sort of faking it till they make it right. Like I think if we all saw the the inner workings of every quote unquote, company, we'd all be shocked, right? at some sense. Yes. It's like, send me an invoice and then the person Google's like accounting invoice software, you know, a fun tip I did when I did that for the collective. I was like, Oh my gosh, I can't send I think We did a project with Google pretty early on, and this may not be totally 100% accurate, but I remember the invoice number was like six. And I was like, No, no, I can't. I can't send my six invoice to Google. So I changed the number to like, 67.
Zach Weismann 10:20
Right? Oh, my god, they're gonna they're gonna cancel this contract if they realise like, we're the sixth client they've ever had. So there's a little bit of like, of that, you know? And how do you how do you button things up and keep things professional, but, but everybody is, you know, keeping up with systems and tools and trying and find people who are interested in deliver value, and then replicate it. You know, I do like what our guy jack says a lot about, like listening for signal, you know, and then doubling down on that signal.
Kareem Mostafa 10:49
Okay, so first of all, there's going to be a lot of like, advice out there. And there's a lot of different things that the good news is that there's a lot of different ways that work, there's a lot of different methods that work. You know, one of the things that worked for us, I'm happy to deal with detail it out here is simply Step one is to get LinkedIn Sales Navigator account, they are available for free on a trial, if you want it to. It's just kind of it's kind of like LinkedIn, but on steroids in terms of like being able to search for people. And then the second thing is to simply build out your ideal customer profile. And even if you don't know that, based on data, I know everyone talks about data. If you don't have data, just guess, guess what you think is it's going to be the target, the target like company size, the target, job title, the target, you know, what have you. And probably this process could be replicated for b2c, but I'm speaking from my experience, which is, which is only b2b, basically coming up with a list of these people and then connecting with them on LinkedIn, building up that relationship, in the form of like commenting on stuff that they posted, just following their content. And then after giving it some time, basically reach out to them for advice. So again, you're not selling at all, you're simply asking for their advice, given their experience. And when you ask for their advice, you have to make sure that it's personalised and that it's related to something that they posted, or you know, something that their company did, like, there has to be a reason. Otherwise, it's going to feel very copy paste it. And even even if you didn't copy, paste it, like people get inundated with messages like that. So you have to really do your, do your homework to make sure that it's a person, a personal and genuine outreach. And you're simply asking for 15 to 20 minutes of their time, to which hopefully, they will, they will graciously accept, especially if, if they accept it's a good sign, because usually they will check your website out, they will check out your profile. And they'll make sure that this is something that could potentially be of benefit to them as well. Especially, you know, especially in business, obviously. And so, and then the next step then is after you have that call with them, which you could obviously do using zoom or Google Hangouts or whatever, just come prepared and ask like a set of four or five questions that focus not on your solution whatsoever, but rather on the problem. Because once you've verified that there is a problem, that's when you can then realise that they're ready to hear a solution. But there's, you know, specifically in b2b, like, people are not going to buy a solution for something that they cannot match to a problem, because they have to justify that purchase decision to their boss later on. And the best way to define a problem is to simply tell them, because again, like it like Connor, like if you told me, for example, to take a blank piece of paper and draw something, I might find that task very difficult, because there's so much that I could draw or at least attempt to draw. But if it's on me carrying drug picture of a car, you've just made it so much easier for me, because now, like I can just focus on drawing a car. Similarly with the problem, it'd be a bit weird and redundant, if you tell them hey, so what problems do you currently have? Well, I have all sorts of problems, you know. And so if you tell them, Hey, you know, we, when we speak to people, we generally see that they have problem A, B, or C, and you have to come up with these problem statements early on, like we find that they don't have enough time to repurpose their content, or they we find that, you know, they are creating a lot of content, but it's not really effective for them. Or, for example, numbers, see is that they're getting, for example, leads from that content. But those leads are not really high quality leads for what they're after, which one of those resonates with you? And usually they'll say, oh, A or B, or you know what, all three of them actually. And it's so funny, because many times you'll say, you know what, all three of them. And then so that's the first question like, you know, if these are your problem statements, and then after that, it's really okay, well, can you give me proof of that? Can you give me an example of the fact that you have problem A or B or C, you're almost interviewing them? You know, in job interviews, they say tell me about a time when you did bla bla bla it's the same exact thing. Tell About a time where you've experienced this problem. It's like, oh, last week, blah, blah, blah happened. Oh, okay. What was the impact of that? You know? What was the emotional impact of that? What was the financial impact of that? Oh, I don't know. Would you say like, 100k or so? No, maybe like more? More like, you know, 50k? Okay, cool. That's good to know. So sometimes when people say, I don't know, you can just throw out an answer. And they will help you adjust that. So that's something that we learned because previously, they would say, Oh, I don't know. And I'd say okay, but how we realise you have to just give them a prompt prompt. definitely helped a lot. And yeah, last but not least, is to try and basically get them to a stage where they realise how big this problem is, and to make sure that they realise that and then and only then could you then get their feedback on on what you're building. So sorry, Connor, for the long winded answer.
Tyler Gillespie 16:07
I was thinking about this. And I think I've got two answers, I'd love to share with you. One answer one idea of actually how to do it. So one is like, you got to have, I guess, some clarity on who maybe that core avatar is. And I think, you know, initially, you're also trying to figure that out. But typically how I've done it is, you know, like, for me when I talked about applause lab was like, cool, I want to go after SAS companies. And I think you heard my example is cool. Who am I network, potentially is connected to the SAS industry or runs a sass company. Okay, great, what Facebook groups have SAS companies in them, or what SAS Facebook groups are just, that's all they are. There's, there's hundreds, but there's all these different segments and groups. And so essentially, the core of what I'm explaining is, if you can figure out who your core avatar is, or who you maybe want to target, that gives you kind of the starting point, because now it's now you want to go to where they're hanging out. So initially start with your network. That's the best place. Initially, through all my examples of all the businesses have started, like the network initially, has been kind of the quickest from like zero to one. And then after that going into whether it's groups or forums or blogs, essentially, there's this great book, and I'll recommend called the ultimate sales machine by Chet Holmes. And he talks about a concept called the dream 100. And it's essentially it's, you know, making a list of your dream 100 customers, but I like to look, take the angle of like, your dream, 100 partners. And why I go after partners is because partners are the places where your audience hang out. So that's kind of how I think about it. And I think that's a lot more powerful, because then you can go into, if you're going after SAS companies, now you go into a Facebook group with 1000, SAS companies. And now you can start networking and connecting with people, or you go to a SAS blog, and their readers are all SAS companies. So different ways to think about it. But that's kind of how I would go about it, how I've thought about it, how I approached it with a plus lab. And even now, with the productize, mentor, programme, doing the same exact thing, and how I work with a lot of people as well, and it works, you know, because you go in and go where your ideal customers actually are. And you're going to learn a lot. And if it ends up not being your ideal customer, then you can kind of change and pivot. That's really, really great.
Craig Hewitt 18:58
Yeah, I think the easiest thing is to talk to people in your kind of existing circles and talk to people that you know, from, you know, your industry or your existing customers from another business or, you know, friends or something like that. Ask for ask for referrals from those people to take like one step out of that initial group. Um, but But yeah, start with people that you know, and are friendly, especially those first one or two customers to say like, Hey, this is what I'm doing or what I'm thinking about, what do you think, like, is this interesting is this valuable, but but, you know, sending cold email as your first way to try to sell a new customer when you haven't gotten that value proposition and really nailed that, I think is really hard. So I think that if you don't have people, you know, already, that could be your customers. Um, that that's just a harder road to go. So is is as you're able to kind of craft what you're going to do to be somewhere in the circles that you already run, I think that it would be quite a bit easier. And if you don't, then then just getting to know people in those in those worlds. So in those slack groups and those Facebook groups, just get in there and communicate be valuable, be helpful to folks there understand exactly what they need, hear the language that they're using about the pains and the solutions that they see in their world. And then just kind of use that that same language back to them
Gary Fox 20:20
Offer advice, succinct advice, I suppose. What advice? Look, it depends on the industry as well. Yeah. And what you're going after, my advice is probably while I talked about already is just to stress test your assumptions. So have an idea of who your customers are. But then go out and stress test that in a various different means. So put together your basic where you can point people to whether it's a website, or whether it's something simple. I'd always start a website, because it's the most logical people kind of tend to jump to social media. And I think it's nice to hear here, it's difficult to keep up that cadence of posting all the time. And so I would start a website, point people to that have an action Do you can people can take, don't just like send them to a second website? Which nothing on us? What's the action you want them to take? Is it by is it subscribe? Is it download? What is it? And then I would test your assumptions, who your customers are? Who are they? What do they look like? Try traditional media, try social media, try going to farmers markets, try literally selling it one to one to one, try everything, because you never know what's going to work you unless you've already had a business in this area, you just don't know what's gonna work and just be consistent. That's the only bit of advice you need to find your first 10 you might find them in a week, you might find them in a year. But if you're gonna do as businesses in for the long haul, so just be consistent. And just keep churning it out every day. That's it don't get disheartened after like, one customer, or don't get as hard enough to zero customers, because it's going to take you a go by design.
Anita Moorthy 22:02
What I have seen is people that are hyper targeted. And so the first thing you want to do is understand who your dream customers are, make a list. Make a list of your dream customers. leverage your network, to see if you have any warm intros that you can do. And then if you don't have that, like let's say you're trying to build something for an audience that you don't have that network for. The other thing that I've seen from some of the entrepreneurs that I've had on my show, say is know where they are, if they're not in your network, they're part of some community, go join those communities, and start engaging with them. start engaging with them, start providing value, give them your point of view, build some familiarity first. And then reach out and see if you can have a conversation and informational call with them. And don't ask for anything, just maybe share something that you're doing, and get advice from them and build that trust and relationship. And that can help you I think, get your first end customer. So either through finding out a community with your customers already hanging out, or making your dream live, I mean, first make your dream list and see if you have it in your network. If you don't, then I think the community aspect may be the way to go.
Steve McLeod 23:26
So I'm going to assume you're at this point where people are at least coming to your website or trying your product, talk to them talk to each one of them. And you know, even if this just one or two people talk to them. In fact, I think this first couple of people will respond because it's going to be very obvious when you're just starting out that you are just starting out, we think we've put on a very professional facade. But it's obvious when a when a product is new and a site new and somebody new you're writing these emails, talk to anyone you can if if you don't have anyone to talk to who's signing up for your product, find people who are in your target market and talk to them. For example, in a non pandemic world. You can go to meetups with people who are in your target market go and just tell them what you're doing and ask if they'd be willing to try it out and give you feedback. The more you can do that, the better.
Conor McCarthy 24:16
That's a wrap. I hope you enjoyed this episode and that there was something in there that was actionable and insightful for your business. Do check out the show notes for more information on what we discussed, as well as ways to contact my guest. And it would really make by year if you could help me grow the podcast by leaving a rating or even a review. Helping you identify and create those first 10 customers is what I do. So if you like what you hear on this podcast and want more information, including a bunch of free resources on how to find your first customers and grow your business, do check out www.first10podcast.com, or find me on Twitter @TheFirst10Pod.
