CREATE: Find your 'Zone of Genius' and use it to appeal to your target audience

Disclaimer: As an affiliate partner, we might profit from your purchases from third-party websites, however, we do not charge you extra in the process. Read my Disclaimer Policy here.

So you’ve found your niche and target audience for your business start-up. Now, how do you use your target audience to flock to your products?

Of course, they’ll just know you have a great product for them and you’ll be an instant success.

Wrong.

As I’ve worked through CREATE An Intensive Biz Playbook & Planner: Scale Your Online Business, Create Explosive Growth and Build a Brand You Crave, I’ve been able to learn more about the message behind a brand that needs to accompany the creative graphic design elements. As a designer, I can be consumed by the visuals a brand produces rather than the cohesive message that binds several images and aesthetics of a brand together. By reading Meera Kothand’s section on finding your Zone of Genius, I was able to create a better-branded message that can appeal to my target audience.

Kothand takes you through your thoughts of how you would like to perceive your business to how others perceive your process and your interactions with your clients. There aren’t many stones left unturned. If you work with suppliers or outside sources, you might also mark down how you are perceived by them as well, but it is not specifically written in CREATE An Intensive Biz Playbook & Planner: Scale Your Online Business, Create Explosive Growth and Build a Brand You Crave.

Your business should be judged fairly and honestly to get the best results. If you haven’t started your business yet, explain your concept to some of the people in your target audience and your niche to see what would attract them to your business compared to another’s.

How to find your Zone of Genius

So what is your ‘Zone of Genius?’

In short, your Zone of Genius is how you manifest your brand message to your clients. You might have considered your brand image, as many people imagine your brand as your logo or your business’ look, but your brand message is how you want to be perceived by your clients.

You not only want to be firm in what values and beliefs your business start-up embody but you want your customers to see those values and beliefs as well through interactions and services or products produced by your company.

Zone of Genius Step 1: Determine your core values

Before I wrote down my core values in CREATE An Intensive Biz Playbook & Planner: Scale Your Online Business, Create Explosive Growth and Build a Brand You Crave, I stopped for a minute and thought long and hard about what I wanted my values to be for my small creative business. I knew who I wanted to help and why. This task shouldn’t be so hard, right?

While I knew why I wanted to help my target audience, I knew I had to delve deeper to find my core values. I felt, at the base of my business, I should embody similar core values to my own, which largely remained when I finished the process. Keeping true to your core beliefs and how you want to empower others through your business is the root of defining your core values for your Zone of Genius.

Zone of Genius Step 2: Find what YOU want your business to stand for

Once you determine your core values, you should be able to find out what you want your business to stand for. Some people might say your core values and your purpose for your business are interchangeable or are too similar to differentiate. This is not the case

Your purpose might encompass your core values, but that does not mean they are enough. By determining your core values first, you can determine how those values will impact your business. Those impacts are what you put down for what your business stands for.

Zone of Genius Step 3: What makes your business unique?

Making a unique business can stem from several things. Whether you have a unique process or a specific target market, something about your business should be unique to your clients. If you can’t identify why your target is unique, you might work on your target market or process to appeal to find your unique spin on your business.

When you determine your unique business market plan, you should be able to find how it can be important or impactful to your client. While you might know why you are doing business with your target audience in mind, taking a unique spin on how will appeal and separate your business from others in your field.

Zone of Genius Step 4: How do you want your client to view your business?

This is still your perception of your business. You should know how you want your business to be perceived by your ideal client and make note of it here. You know why you want to provide this business for your target audience, so now determine how you want your client to feel and remember your business.

While you hope that every customer or supplier is pleased with your business, you should also not possible shortcomings that you already find in your brand message here as well. Don’t dwell on the negatives too much here but it’s useful to take note of for future sections.

Zone of Genius Step 5: Have your clients describe your business

Now that you know how you want to be perceived, learn about how your ideal client perceives you. If you’ve already started interacting with clients, see if you can provide an anonymous survey or if they can provide feedback or testimonials for future clients.

If you haven’t started reaching out to or have hired any clients as of yet, reach out through Facebook groups or potential ideal clients to see how they would react to your business plan. Having a vague business plan or brand message in place could be a stretch for some, so see if you can barter or volunteer your services for testimonials if you are in a position to do so.

Zone of Genius Step 6: Describe the differences between your view and your customers’ view of your business

Compare what you perceive your business to look like and evoke to one of your ideal client’s views. It’s not enough to spread your views about your business, because if your clients see your business as something different, it’ll be that much harder to make an impact with your niche and target audience.

When asking your ideal clients about your business start-up, allow them to be critical and honest about various aspects of your business. You might be spot on with your delivery but your process might leave your clients unfulfilled.

Zone of Genius Step 7: What changes do you need to make to align your and your clients’ views?

As you finish comparing your’s and your client’s views, see how they are different. You’ll want to probably note what is the same and what is different as you compare but for now focus on the differences.

Some of these differences might be ok. This comparison is not necessarily negative, just different, in nature. By looking at the differences, you’ll need to determine which differences are good for your business start-up and which are bad.

Once you’ve made it through all of your steps to solidify your branding message, CREATE An Intensive Biz Playbook & Planner: Scale Your Online Business, Create Explosive Growth and Build a Brand You Crave allows you to continue to improving your business and your relationship with your clients. So focus on answering this question: How should your brand change and what tools and skills can you use to make a better experience for your clients?

Heres a three-step process to identify and overcome your shortcomings within your business.

Overcoming Shortcomings Step 1: Identify your fears, vices, and poor abilities

While this can be an uncomfortable step for a lot of people, identifying your shortcoming is a great start to overcoming them. You might find it difficult to admit a fault about something in your business, like what if a client says I ask for too much money or if you have a difficult time focusing on one task at a time, but this is the best step to take first so you know what to tackle first.

Taking an inventory of your shortcomings in your business will help you understand what should be prioritized for you and throughout your business. If there is something you are not talented at, your next steps could be investing time to make it work or outsourcing that branch of your business. Seeing what you are lacking for your business will be the best step in determining what you can do about improving your business.

Overcoming Shortcomings Step 2: How can you counteract your shortcomings?

Now that you know what your shortcomings are, you will have to decide how to counteract them. There are many ways you can do this step. Some people will be able to outsource certain tasks to other people, but other shortcomings will have to be dealt with on a more personal level.

It can be easy to give a task to someone with more credibility but when dealing with a vice or a fear, you will have to determine why you are acting or thinking that way before pushing it off to the side on someone else. Allow yourself time to understand why you are approaching certain tasks or your business as a whole with these shortcomings and develop a plan and goal for how to counteract them before they become a liability.

Overcoming Shortcomings Step 3: What plans or investments should I make?

Now that you have a plan in place, you should be able to plan on investments you need to make for your business. Investments can revolve around how to spend money, time, or resources to improve your business. When you think about investments in your business, you are putting effort into an area of your business to make it stronger. Enacting your plan is a type of investment, but you might need tools or resources to make it effective for your business.

There are also many ways you can plan out your investments. It might be a lump sum or a continual payment to invest enough time and effort into getting the desired results, but if you plan accordingly, you should be able to get a valuable return for your efforts.

You’ve done a lot for one portion of CREATE, but finding your Zone of Genius will help you discover your process when you confront problems and branding awareness in a systematic way.

Do you feel like you’ve achieved your Zone of Genius? What other steps have you taken to ensure your business’ brand message is clear to your clients?

Do you need additional help to establish your brand message and overcome your shortcomings to find your Zone of Genius? Join my e-newsletter to learn more about how to start your business and finding your Zone of Genius.