How to Transform Who You Are and Who Your Customers Want to Be

I’m a member of The Duct Tape Marketing Consultant Network. A world-wide network of consultants started years ago by Duct Tape’s founder, John Jantsch.

I attended Duct Tape’s Annual Summit recently and although the entire summit was on Zoom it did not hinder the experience at all.

John, and his team – daughter Sara Nay, and Tricia Keels orchestrated an extremely valuable online summit. Meaning I’ll use what I’ve learned to help move the needle in my business.

After the summit, they asked any consultants who attended, if we had some key takeaways or “ah hahs”. While I would love to highlight all of the amazing speakers, including some consultants in the network, I’m going to focus on a few speakers and a recurring theme that resonated with me.

So my “ah hah” in one word: Transformation. Or more specifically, the need for businesses to go from being in the business of TRANSACTIONS to being in the business of TRANSFORMATION.

The Practice with Seth Godin

It started with the summit keynote: “The Practice” with Seth Godin

There are few people who can skillfully convey concise, thoughtful, and persuasive messages like Seth Godin. His message was simple but valuable. It was about letting go and just doing.

He said to move forward in our own Practice we should obsess a little on these three words: Shipping. Creative. Work.

Because we’ve been trained as industrialists, it's not so easy to do this. Meaning that an “obsessed with outcome” mentality has been drilled into our brains.

He then wove a little tale about “casting without a hook.” The main message of his story was about not trying too hard. To not constantly lunge for something or be so obsessed with the outcome, but to let go of perfectionism and just do.

Why is letting go and just doing such a valuable lesson? Because shipping creative work is about Flow, Creativity, and TRANSFORMATION.

If you operate with this mindset, you’ll lunge less, operate more with purpose, and as a result, open yourself up to the right people.

According to Seth, you should spend less time lunging and more time adopting a practice to redefine who you are AND who your customers want to be.

This is how you can open the door to truly transforming your customers’ businesses and as a result, do the same for your own business.

Mike Michalowicz wants to Eradicate Entrepreneurial Poverty.

And his goal is to make entrepreneurship simple.

He’s stated that the biggest challenge for most business owners is KNOWING what their biggest challenge is!"

Meaning many get stuck in a circuitous pattern and get nowhere mainly because they’re not asking themselves this: What is the vital need of my business?

He revealed that the key to answering this question and digging to uncover this vital need, is to realize that you need PURPOSE. And your business needs to serve your purpose. I’m not saying that everyone needs this to be successful (of course not) but the message resonated with me? Why?

Well, a key lesson I learned during his talk was that I need to (NO, want to) work to ALIGN my BUSINESS with my PURPOSE.

This type of alignment brings the Flow state needed to TRANSFORM your business.

And, as a result, you go from being in the business of TRANSACTIONS to being in the business of TRANSFORMATION.

So my goal is to ask potential customers the right questions to uncover THEIR desired future.

Don’t lunge. Create a practice to redefine who you are AND who your customers want to be.

That’s the power of TRANSFORMATION.

This segues perfectly into what John Jantsch, the founder of Duct Tape Marketing, is now teaching…

An innovative new way to think about marketing.

We need to view our customers more like members. To completely change how we think about success, where it’s not really about attaining a new customer but helping them attain something they’re after.

Where your mission as a business is to create a transformation rather than to simply create a customer.

People in MEMBERSHIPS are seeking TRANSFORMATION.

So you want to…

? Create a journey they want to participate in.

? Think about all the ways you can make them successful.

? Map out the stages needed to help them reach this.

Donald Miller of StoryBrand talks about potential customers being more concerned about the deeper issues. Things below the surface. I think finding these “things” is when you find out where your customers really want to go.

So don’t lunge. Create a practice to redefine who you are AND who your customers want to be.

TRANSFORM.

Mark Schaefer informed us that today the Most Human Company Wins.

And while you may be thinking this only applies to big brands with a pervasive online presence, I really believe there’s a lesson here for small business owners.

1. His main message is that emotion is missing in marketing, and he highlighted the "What is Madness" NorthFace video.

In the video

a. The customer is the hero

b. The customer is the marketer

c. And it creates a sense of BELONGING and COMMUNITY.

2. He then discussed that two characteristics come to the fore when people evaluate potential friends – WARMTH AND COMPETENCE.

People want their friends to be warm and competent and surprise, this is also how people evaluate brands. This is why your PERSONAL BRAND is now your Company Brand.

How you work on this is very important. And a key way to do this is to…

3. Build peak moments into your customer experiences. Moments have power. And, as a business owner, you can do this via text, social media email, and more.

Part of John Jantsch’s “Customers as Members” process is this…

? Create the type of journey potential customers want to participate in.

A large part of creating that journey is building in these moments – the human touch that is so desperately needed in marketing. And it’s actually not hard to do. It’s simply about changing your mindset.

Instead of thinking about attaining a new customer, focus on helping them attain something they’re after. By changing that mindset, the rest will come naturally.

Check out Mark’s “Hugged by a Brand” post.

Again. Don’t lunge. Create a practice to redefine who you are AND who your customers want to be.

TRANSFORMATION.

According to Michael Zipursky, asking the right questions is how you uncover a customer’s desired future and the true VALUE of SUCCESS.

These questions move you away from providing a commodity and help you (and the customer) uncover a big and beautiful thing called value.

So my big “ah hah?” I’ll focus less on just acquiring a customer and focus more on how I will deliver the maximum value needed to help them transform.

To create a practice to redefine who I am AND who my customers want to be.

That is why TRANSFORMATION is key.

A version of this post originally appeared on the McBreen Marketing blog.

About Craig McBreen

Craig McBreen, the owner of McBreen Marketing, is a marketing professional with 25 years of experience working with small businesses. He specializes in helping businesses develop distinct, cohesive, and systematized marketing that brings results. He is a Certified Duct Tape Marketing Consultant. Specialties: Brand Development, Marketing Strategy, Content Marketing, and Local SEO.