How to explain what you do in one simple sentence

I have recently been talking with some business owners about how to position yourself as an expert and how to communicate your expertise. The main question being, how do I explain what I do? …without fumbling over my words or rambling for ages. There’s also been a common theme of people feeling like their messaging is confusing and that it’s probably not really connecting with their ideal clients. This got me thinking that if some people are asking it, then other people are probably asking it as well. And so, I thought it would be super helpful to share my tips with my community, so that you no longer have to struggle to explain what you do in a way that actually converts and that actually connects with your ideal client.

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To kick things off, I want to share my statement. It’s a one liner that I use when I’m explaining what I do, and particularly when I’m explaining what I do to my ideal clients in a group of other business owners.

“I help female entrepreneurs become the number one choice for their dream clients with copywriting that converts so they don’t have to waste time working with the wrong clients.”

Now, that is a pretty simple statement, but I actually put a lot of effort into creating it. And the reason why I use this statement is because it instantly tells people how I help them.

Before I break my statement down, let me address something first. I feel that when people try and explain what they do, they only talk about themselves. This also goes for any sort of copywriting, especially on your website, people tend to get stuck in this habit of only talking about themselves. But really, we need to reframe this. The way that you should be talking or writing your copy is that your focus should be talking about your ideal clients or your dream clients. You should be talking in a way that’s going to make sense to them, it’s going to serve them and it’s going to show them the transformation that you can create for them. This is the time we need to be a little less selfish and we need to remember to frame these sorts of sentences in terms of what our ideal clients want and what’s actually going to connect with them.

Now there are a few parts to my statement and that you will need to include in yours, so let’s break it down.

1. Identity

First of all, there is the identity. So the identity is who you actually serve. In words that they understand. For me, mine is female entrepreneurs. It’s crystal clear who it is. And anyone who is a female entrepreneur should be able to put their hand up and go, “that is for me”.

2. Desire

The next thing is, there is a deep desire or a transformation for your ideal clients to achieve, right? This is the desire or the transformation that your ideal clients want in their actual words. Mine is become the number one choice for your dream clients. It is super clear what this transformation is.

3. Pain Point

Thirdly, there is this big pain point, this thing that they want to avoid. For my clients, this is the wrong clients. I found out through heaps and heaps of research that they actually don’t want to work with the wrong clients who won’t pay them what they’re worth. Instead, they want to avoid the wrong clients and filter them out when writing their copywriting. By using their copywriting to position them as the number one choice for their dream clients, they will be able to actually filter out all of those wrong people.

4. How

And then lastly, there is the how. *Now, I want to make a disclaimer here and say that you don’t always need to include the how in this statement.* It’s not always necessary because sometimes the transformation or the deep desire will actually cover this. But if you are someone who uses a very particular type of platform, or a particular type of strategy that absolutely needs to be included because otherwise the statement could be confusing or too broad, then definitely include it.

For example, I have specified my how, which is with copywriting that converts because that is the specific strategy I teach. I also don’t want anyone coming to me, whether in my DM’s or jumping on an enquiry call and not actually knowing how they’re going to become the number one choice. Or not knowing that my strategy is centred around copywriting. So, for me, it makes sense to include the how in my statement.

Another example of when this may make sense, is if you told people how to use Instagram to attract clients. Right? Or Facebook, or TikTok, or YouTube, or something else that’s really specific. Maybe if you’re a bookkeeper or an accountant, because we need to know, obviously, how you do that and what sort of that the how is behind the transformation,

But remember, including the how is not relevant for everyone and I want to make that known. Whether or not to include the how will be determined on a case by case basis, depending on what you do and whether you think including the how is actually going to add value to the statement. Ultimately, will including the how make your statement clearer for your dream clients? If you think “yes, my statement needs more clarification”, include the how. If you think “no, my statement is already crystal clear”, you don’t need to include the how.

Now that I have shared the framework with you for what should be included in your statement, I want to talk about actually writing your statement.

Choosing your words

I don’t want you to pull your words out of thin air, even if you’ve got some thoughts coming to mind already. Because here’s the thing. The number one reason why I see people’s messaging not actually connecting with their dream clients is because they’ve just assumed what their dream clients are thinking. I know that a lot of marketing gurus will teach you to do things like ideal client profiles and avatars, or similar activities. And look, that kind of has its place. But it kind of also doesn’t…

Those kind of activities could be helpful as a starting point to gaining an understanding about who your dream client is. However, assuming what someone is thinking or feeling or struggling with is not the best approach. For example, if you’re someone who helps your clients increase their income, you may assume that your ideal client’s desire is to make $10,000 each month in their business. When, in actual fact, that ideal client is actually thinking, “I just wish I could make an extra $2,000 a month in my business so that I can support my family”. But you wouldn’t know that unless you actually talk to them. So as you can see, the best way to collate the words you should use in your statement, is to actually get inside your dream client’s head by talking to them.

That’s why doing deep research is important, as your research will form the basis of all of your messaging. Therefore, the quality and depth of your research will determine whether your messaging will allow you to connect with your ideal clients or whether you’re going to stay disconnected.

Conduct client research

If you’ve been a part of my community for a while, you’ll know that I’m big on research. I don’t want you throwing words out there and hoping they connect with your dream client. I want you to actually be confident with your messaging so that when you put it out there in the world, you will know without a doubt that it will connect and it will convert because it’s based on research and data. Now, how do we conduct effective research? I have a framework for this, so you’re in for a treat.

Firstly, I recommend finding 5 to 10 dream clients who you would just love to work with. These should be people who you haven’t already worked with and are not already indoctrinated into your system or the way you do things in your courses, programmes, memberships, one on one services or masterminds. They also should not already understand the industry lingo that you use, because we want to make sure that your messaging is going to be able to convert to anyone out there, not just people who are already super familiar with you and your work. So you need to find dream clients who you would love to work with and then reach out to them and invite them to have a conversation with you. And I promise you, this is not as scary as it seems. People are more willing than you think and you will find those that will be more than willing to jump on a Zoom call with you.

The purpose of a Zoom call is to conduct an interview to find out from them what their identity is, their deepest desire, the transformation they want to achieve and their biggest pain point. You can also ask them what some common questions are that they or others that they know in the industry may have and would like to ask an expert (that’s you!). So here are a few types of questions that you could ask.

For this example, let’s pretend I’m a website designer.

1. Hey, [dream client], I’m so glad that we could jump on this call together. I really appreciate your time.
   
   Make sure you start the interview by thanking your dream client for taking the time to be a part of your research.
   
   
2. I just want to clarify, what do you call yourself? Would you call yourself an entrepreneur? Would you call yourself an online business owner? Would you call yourself a female business owner? Would you call yourself a work from home mom? What sort of terminology would you use to describe yourself?
   
   What I recommend doing is to give some examples of what they might call themselves, because sometimes people won’t be sure what they would call themselves. That way they can consider what identity they actually resonate with and you will then get a more accurate answer.
   
   
3. What do you struggle with when it comes to designing your website?
   
   Your interviewee may then say “it’s just so overwhelming,” so you would need to dig deeper. I want you to imagine these questions and this interviewing process like an onion. The onion has many layers, so you need to peel back the layers, dig deeper and get to the core of what is actually their biggest problem or their deepest desire. You can do this by asking follow up questions.
   
   
4. So what’s overwhelming about the process? What do you find overwhelming in regards to your website? Tell me about that.
   
   In asking these follow up questions, you’re peeling back a layer. Your dream client might answer, “Oh, it’s just so difficult to know where to put everything and how to structure it.” The you can ask another follow up question.
   
   
5. So if you did know exactly how to structure your website design, what would that mean for you? If you did have a perfect website design that worked and it converted for you, what would that mean for you?
   
   This kind of follow up question can help your dream client to reveal their desire. They may then answer, “That will mean that I can actually book five new clients every month”. Or, “That would mean that I can finally book new clients via my website without having to post on Instagram all the time.” If they’re not as specific, be sure to ask extra follow up questions.
   
   
6. How many clients would you like to book with your website each month?
   
   These kind of questions will help you to dig deeper.
   
   
7. If you could ask a website designer just one question, what would it be?
   
   They might answer, “I just want to know how my website can actually be structured to book new clients every month.” Or, “I just want to know how my website could be designed strategically.”
   
   So you see that by following this process, you are peeling back those layers and uncovering the deep desires, the pain points and the biggest questions.
   
   I do want to mention though that this is me only scraping the top here. But I cover this in much more depth and include my entire interview framework inside my membership, the Copywriting Academy.

Analyse your data

Once you have collected all of your data from your interviews, you need to make sure you actually collate it and have the data somewhere easily accessible.

If you’ve completed an interview and you’ve recorded it, you can transcribe it using one of the many amazing programmes available online. Or you can simply take notes, but you will need to make sure those notes are in their words. The key thing here, is really just to make sure that the information you have is actually in your ideal clients words. You don’t want to accidentally paraphrase it and change their words to yours. We really want it to be in their words.

You should put their words in a spreadsheet or in a Google doc. Then you can analyse the data that you collected. Start by going through the 5 to 10 interviews and find the common identity. What identity did people most resonate with and what identity answer was given the most. Then you can categorise the deep desires in one one list and the pain points in another list. When it comes to their deep desires and pain points, you to make sure they’re actually tangible.

For example, if an interviewee answers “I’m just overwhelmed.” What does overwhelmed actually mean? What are they overwhelmed about? As you can see, that answer is not tangible and it’s also not deep enough. So you really need to make sure their answers are tangible.

As another example, a desire being “attract clients” could be considered tangible, but we can make it more tangible by saying “attract new clients every day,” or “attract new leads every day,” or “attract ten new clients.” So it’s important that you keep asking follow up questions until you get detailed answers.

Write your statement

Once you’ve collated and analysed the interview information, you can write your statement using the following framework.

I help [identity] [desired transformation] with/ using [how] so they don’t have to/ without [pain point].

We’ve got the identity, the transformation, the the how and then the without the pain point.

Based off the website designer example, this would be my statement.

I help female entrepreneurs book five new clients every month with strategic website design so they don’t have to post on Instagram every day.

Do you see how clear that is? It says exactly who it’s for (female entrepreneurs), what the transformation is (booking five new clients every month), how they’re going to get there (with strategic website design) and what pain point they will avoid (not having to post on Instagram every day). Remember, I filled in this statement framework with my hypothetical research. So once you’ve done your research, you will write this statement using the data you collected.

Don’t forget to use the ‘I help’ framework. And remember that it is ultimately the research that really is the key here. Research is the foundation to any good messaging and any good copywriting. Without research, we’re just assuming and I don’t want you to make assumptions because I care so deeply about you actually being able to connect with your ideal clients. Because when you can connect, that is the very first step to then being able to convert them into paying clients, students or members of yours.

Now, I want you to write this statement for yourself and then you can use it in your business.

I’d love to hear your thoughts

Thanks for reading this post! I hope you found it valuable. As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Comment down below and let me know what you found most helpful or surprising about using one simple sentence to explain what you do!