What up everybody? It’s Q & A Tuesday time!
Q: Today’s question is from Sarah and Sarah writes: “Hi, Marie. You’re so charming, sassy and to the point practical Love it and love you!” Thank you, Sarah! “My question, my partner and I are writing a book and building a website that acknowledges us as openly gay women. As two out-gay women who work in social media and marketing, we’ve both become pretty visible within our communities and we’ve no problem with being known as such. Still we don’t want to alienate our potential clients and fans who may not be LGBT. Do you have any advice on how to approach this?”
What a juicy question, Sarah! Thank you so much for asking it. And, Sarah is writing us from queerveganfood.com. Just so you know.
A: Here’s the deal, Sarah. It does not matter whether you’re gay or you’re straight or you’re bi-sexual or tri-sexual or yellow or purple or pink or brown, or whatever. You’re a rainbow or you’re a Smurf. You are perfect exactly as you are. I’m sure you know that already but just so everybody knows you can be anything you want to be in this world including in your business.
As Ms. Lady Gaga says, “Baby, you were born this way!” “Ooh, there ain’t no other way. Baby, I was born this way. Baby, I was born this way. Born this way! I’m on the right track, baby. I was born this way!”
Sarah, what is the primary aim of your business? I really want you to ask yourself this question, is it about being LGBT or is it about helping people solve health issues through veganism? In business it’s like there’s a spotlight and you either shine that spotlight on you. Everything about you and what you believe or you take that spotlight and shine it on your customer. Her needs, her problems, her frustrations, and more specifically, on how you help her solve her biggest problems and reach her dreams.
You see Sarah, most people who are selling information and advice are failing because they have this spotlight on themselves rather than on the problems and needs of their customers. So here’s what I want you to do, Sarah. First, I want you to get clear on the primary aim of your business; what exactly are you selling? What problems are you solving for your customers? I want you to remember to shine the spotlight on them, not on you.
Next, you’ve got to get clear on exactly who you are selling it to. The more specific you can get about your market, the easier it’s going to be not only to make money but to actually help people change their lives. Finally, you need to get over wanting everybody to like you. Get over even worrying about whether or not you’re alienating people. Why? Because not everybody’s going to like you and you are going to alienate some people. It’s the nature of business.
We all do it. I alienate people all the time. Think about it. I use naughty language in my videos, slightly inappropriate advice from time to time. We talk about sex, we talk about business, bop, baa, bop, baa. There’s people that just don’t like me. I don’t care because they’re not my people. The goal of your business is to solve problems for your ideal clients. Those are the people that you want to talk to and those are the people who are really going to hear what you have to say.
Before we wrap this up, there’s one more example that I want to share. You know and I was thinking about your question, the first person that came to my mind was Ms. Ellen DeGeneres. She is amazing! She’s one of my favorite talk show hosts. Here’s the thing about Ellen, yes she is openly gay. Just like you are and yes, she promotes veganism just like you do. But she doesn’t lead with those things. Ellen is one of the most talented entertainers of our age right now.
She’s all about serving her audience, being the best comic that she can be. Having an amazing show that inspires and uplifts people, and makes them laugh. So while she’s gay and while she’s passionate about veganism and passionate about breast cancer, and also about animals. She has those things in the background. She doesn’t hide them but it’s not the forefront of her business.
Sarah that was today’s A to your Q! Hope you enjoyed it. And if for anyone watching, if you like this video. You found value from it, please like it, share it with your friends on social media. And if you’re not yet on the newsletter list and you want to see new videos each and every week. Come on over to marieforleo.com, jump on the newsletter list and you will get a little email from me that’s not only entertaining but also useful. Thank you so much for watching and I’ll catch you next time!
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“On the right track baby! I was born this way!” (Video guy: Alright, I got it. It looked great the first take then I stopped paying attention to you guys because Emily was doing the robot. And so…”)
