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“And now, I’m wondering what my brand is? Who is my target customer? What pain point am I solving? What is missing from our current suite of brands out there?“
Hello! If you're new around here, my name is Krystal and I've committed to journaling every day for a year. I write these raw journal entries. What is unique about my style of writing is that I don't necessarily follow the rules or writing. My aim is to write as closely as I talk. What you will also find in my journal entries is transparency. I give you a front row seat to my inner dialogue. That inner critic who shows up from time to time, I show you exactly when it shows up and how I shift. My hope is that I inspire you to keep on going despite what your inner critic is telling you at the moment.
March 19th, 2024
I am off to a little bit of a late start. I got up about 20 minutes later than I usually do and good thing I had the coffee on a delayed timer. It is always so nice when the coffee is ready for me when I wake up. And omg it is so cold, First day of spring and it is currently 28 degrees outside.
This Missouri weather is ridiculous, 80 degree weather a few days ago and now 28. But later today it will be 64. So go figure.
I'm currently sitting in what I call the cozy room. It’s the room in front of the house that is supposed to be the formal dining room, or some people call it the sitting room. I call it the cozy room because it’s intention is to be cozy, warm and relaxing. Sitting rooms to me are cold and often unwelcoming. Where you’re not allowed to be comfortable so I didn’t want that in my
house.
I have a king sized fuzzy blanket on my lap, under that a smaller fuzzy blanket with snowflakes on it. I’m also wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a shawl type blanket over top that. I think I’m starting to finally warm up, but my fingers are still freezing. It’s like there is no point in turning up the heat because in a few short hours it will be warm. So for now, I get to be bundled up in my 5 layers to keep warm.
Yesterday I continued reading the book 12 months to 1 million. I added it to my Amazon Kindle and began reading it Sunday night. I was able to get through 9/12 chapters yesterday. I’ll outline What I’m learning and likely turn this piece into a dedicated blog post. I just have a few more chapters to read, so I’ll summarize what I learned so far, and then continue tomorrow.
A quick overview of the book…so far.
The intention of the book is to teach entrepreneurs how to go from basically 0 dollars to 1 million in 12 months. The author, Ryan, breaks this into three parts, the grind, growing and gold (I think I got all those right).
The Grind
The grind portion of the book discusses the importance of creating a brand. A brand is a trusted source that customers return to over and over again. He mentioned time and time again, that when creating a brand you are not just selling products. A Brand has a purpose, knows their target customer inside and out, is solving a real pain point for them, and can then offer other products that are under that brand.
The inverse is just selling a product to sell a product. This is done all the time. People chase the product that they think will make them the most money.
A lot of the youtube videos I've also watched lately promote this method. I don’t think that there is anything inherently wrong with it, because there is something someone can learn if they do that. I also don’t think it’s a great long term strategy.
In the grind phase, you’re picking your product, getting feedback, ordering it, and creating buzz around the product. So that when you launch, you’ve already got a bunch of hype around it. The author talks about “stacking the deck,” basically sharing strategies on how to create the most hype.
Once that product is launched then the first goal is to get to 25 sales per day. Once you achieve that, it’s time to launch product number 2. There is some foresight here that you need to have before launching your first product. You needed to have come up with 3-5 other products that your target customer would also be wanting. When you are ready to launch product number 2, then you are ready to go.
There is a momentum that can be created when launching the second, and then the third, fourth and fifth in this manner. Once that fly wheel gets going,
Growing
Once you’ve got your 2 or so products selling, then you’re in the growth phase. (there is more here, which I may cover on a later date)
The biggest take away
The biggest takeaways for me from that book: building a brand and to know your customer.
I know those sound like such simple concepts, and I’m someone who is in the process of getting an MBA and I worked to help people grow their businesses and was very aware of these concepts.
Since this is my own business and something I'm responsible for, hearing these words just hit differently. Like I could be a real company one day. With a real purpose, and a real line of products that I sell, that solves a major pain point for other people. I mean, they can even just be digital products, But the intention is to create a brand.
One example that the book gave was an entrepreneur who sold coffee. He wasn't just selling coffee, he was selling performance. Ie Drink this coffee that is low on mold and see how your performance increases. From there he was able to create additional products that enhanced performance.
Again, it seems so simple, but so many people just sell a product. I’ve also seen so much of that on shark tank. Countless times I’d hear Mark Cuban say, “You’re not a company, you're a product.”
With the context I have now from reading that book so far. I get it.
And now, I’m wondering what my brand is? Who is my target customer? What pain point am I solving? What is missing from our current suite of brands out there?
The thing that comes to mind is around self-expression. That is the topic that keeps coming up. I deeply want people to be able to express themselves fully. And the question is, what is the pain point there? Who would I be targeting with my products?Today I’ll be doing research on what are some gaps in the market around the topic and ideating on different product Ideas that I could sell.
This is all really exciting, because I’ve had both of these thoughts running.
Thought one, what product can I sell that can make me a lot of money
Thought two, is what is the brand I want to create. So while this thought was here, it was being overshadowed by thought number one.
Now I get to take some time to think about this brand.
Excited to report back to show you what I learned!
Much Love,
Krystal Lavender
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