make your creative business

uniquely irresistible

April Bowles-Olin
 table of contents

Make Your Creative Business Uniquely Irresistible

Module 1: Your Favorite Brands Page 3

Module 2: What You Stand For Page 6
Module 3: Your One Sentence Message Page 9
Module 4: Why Choose You Page 11
Module 5: The Unique Brand Trifecta Page 13
Module 6: Your Definition of Success Page 15
Module 7: Your Passion Projects Page 18
Module 8: Why You Page 21
Module 9: What You Know to be True Page 23
Module 10: The Gold is in the Difference Page 26
Module 11: Get to Know Your Customers Page 29
Module 12: Use What You Know Page 31
Module 13: Customers not Numbers Page 33
Module 14: Your Customer Service Plan Page 35
Module 15: Customer Exeperience Page 37
Module 16: The Five Objections Page 40
Module 17: Importance of Story Page 43
Module 18: What Buying Choices Say About Us Page 45
Module 19: Your Unique About Page Page 47
Module 20: Create a Sense of Belonging Page 49
Module 21: Habits and Stories Page 52

© 2014 April Bowles-Olin 2

 your favorite brands
MODULE 1

© 2014 April Bowles-Olin 3

 Your Favorite Brands

Favorite Brand:

Why you love it:

Favorite Brand:

Why you love it:

Favorite Brand:

Why you love it:

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 Your Favorite Brands
What are some things that you listed more than once that you love about other
brands?

How can you pull some of those pieces into your business to make it more
unique and one your customers’ favorite brands?

© 2014 April Bowles-Olin 5

 what you stand for
MODULE 2

© 2014 April Bowles-Olin 6

 “Emotional points of difference, the things that
are less obvious and sometimes not even
articulated, matter. They show people that you
care. They mark out brands that stand for
something, shape cultures and create followings
of loyal customers and brand advocates that
no amount of advertising can buy.”
- Bernadette Jiwa

© 2014 April Bowles-Olin 7

 what you stand for
What do you stand for? What do you value? Consider this when making all
business decisions

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your one sentence message
MODULE 3

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 your one sentence message
Jot down five words you’d use to describe your brand.

Write your one sentence brand message. (Try out a few different options and
pick the best one.)

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 why choose you?
MODULE 4

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 why choose you?
What’s the value in buying your products? (hotel room versus romantic get-
away with champagne and an oversized shower)

What’s the meaning that your customers associate with your products? (cute
yoga clothes)

Why will your customers fall head over heels in love with your brand?

© 2014 April Bowles-Olin

 the unique brand trifecta
MODULE 5

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 the unique brand trifecta
What do you What makes you
do best? truly unique?

What are your

highest values?

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 your defintion of success
MODULE 6

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 your definition of success

suc cess (n.) sǝk-'ses

What would make you feel like you’ve made it?

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 your definition of success
What are your top priorities? (personal and professional) {Examples: family, pets,
health, community, creativity, friendship, spirituality, honesty, customer service,
prestige, helping others, learning, growth, simplicity}

Who do you want to work with and help?

What do you want to be known for?

What would you like to help change in this world?

What problems do you want to solve?

How do you want to do it?

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 your passion projects
MODULE 7

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“The work you do while you
procrastinate is probably the
work you should be doing
for the rest of your life.”
- Jessica Hische
 your passion projects
What are the things that you’ll always do no matter how much time and
money you have?

What do you feel pulled to do?

What if you had all the time and money you could ever want? Then what
would you do?

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 why you?
MODULE 8

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 why you?
Why are YOU the person to sell your products or services?

List your: experiences, job history, education, skills, strengths:

What lessons have you learned that impact who you are and how you can
help others?

What do you love? What do you hate?

Did you build your business around your experience, strengths, personality? If
you didn’t build your business around yourself, why not?

What’s one thing you can do today to add more of yourself into your business?

© 2014 April Bowles-Olin 22

 what you know to be true
MODULE 9

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 what you know to be true
What do you know to be true? (Example: I know that people are happier when
they do work they love and feel appreciated for.)

What are your beliefs? (Example: I believe that healthy competition breeds
success.)

What truly motivates you? (Example: I’m motivated by by naysayers who write
blog posts about why you shouldn’t follow your passion.)

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 what you know to be true
Are these truths built into your business?

What makes you feel really good about yourself? Is this part of your business?

What business decisions have you made from following your truths, beliefs and
values?

Have there ever been decisions that you knew weren’t aligned with your values
but you made it anyway? Why? What happened?

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the gold is in the difference
MODULE 10

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 “You don’t have to change
who you are. You have to
become more of who are.”
-Sally Hogshead

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 the gold is in the difference
What’s one thing about yourself (that makes you unique) that your audience
doesn’t know? Share it!

Exercise: Find three pictures of yourself that show the “real” you. What do you
like about them? What do they say about you? (This is just another fun, creative
way to think about how you are unique.)

Is there anything you do within your business that you do just because it’s the
norm and the way it’s always been done?

How do you incite conversation with your brand?

Does your brand have a distinct point of view?

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get to know your customers
MODULE 11

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 get to know your customers
What are your customers: world views, values, habits (good and bad), daily be-
haviors, loves, hates?

Where does your customer spend her time online? What does this say about
her?

What does your customer ACTUALLY do, not what she says that she does?

What’s the difference them and what does this say about her?

What does your customer believe to be true?

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 use what you know
MODULE 12

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 use what you know
How can you use this information to better your business, products and content
marketing?

What do your customers really want from you?

What do they desire? You have to give them what they desire--not just what
they need.

How could you apply this knowledge to your blog posts, email newsletter, social
media updates?

How could you apply this to the product or service that you’re currently working
on or marketing?

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 customers not numbers
MODULE 13

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 customers not numbers
What are you doing for your current subscribers, blog readers, customers? How
can you help your customers even more?

What’s an extra step you can take every once in a while to show your
customers you care about them?

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your customer service plan
MODULE 14

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 your customer service plan
How do you make your customers feel cared for and valued? How do you
respond to customers?

What’s your customer service plan?

How can you go above and beyond with customer service?

What’s one thing you can put into place now to improve your customer
service?

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 customer experience
MODULE 15

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 customer experience
What do your customers say about your business?

What do they say on social media?

What do they say in the comments on your blog?

What do they say in follow-up emails and surveys?

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 customer experience
Step into your customer’s shoes for the day with the customer experience test.

How do you want your customers to FEEL when interacting with your business?
When they’re on your website, trying to contact you, purchasing from you,
using one of your products? Pick three main feelings.

Then, interact with your business as if you’re the customer. Try to imagine every-
thing as if it’s the first time. How does your website make you feel? Is it easy to
navigate? Check out through your shopping cart. What is that experience like?
How did it make you feel?

Send yourself your product in the mail. Experience how you feel when you get
it. What’s the packaging like after it has been shipped? Does it hold up? Open
the product. Does everything look good?

Test your employees. Call and ask for something as a customer or email them
from a different email account to make a complaint. See how they handle it.

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 the five objection profiles
MODULE 16

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 the five objection profiles
Objection 1: I’m not sure I can afford this.

How do you deal with this objection?

Objection 2: I don’t know if I can trust you.

How do you deal with this objection?

Objection 3: That works well for so-and-so, but not for me.

How do you deal with this objection?

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 the five objection profiles
Objection 4: I don’t know if I really need this right now.

How do you deal with this objection?

Objection 5: I don’t know if I have time.

How do you deal with this objection?

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 importance of story
MODULE 17

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 Importance of story
What stories do you think your customers tell about their experiences with your
brand?

How do you delight your customers? What do you make them feel?

Jot down a couple sentences for two to three different business-related stories.
Try out these stories on some of your friends and see which ones they respond
to--which ones they are most interested in. You want to practice and hone your
storytelling skills.

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what buying choices say about us
MODULE 18

© 2014 April Bowles-Olin 45

 what buying choices say about us
Who does your customer WANT to be? How are you helping her become that?

What does it mean to them to buy your product or service?

What do they associate with your brand?

How can you use this information in your branding and marketing?

© 2014 April Bowles-Olin 46

 your unique about page
MODULE 19

© 2014 April Bowles-Olin 47

 your unique about page

Your Unique About Page Checklist:

Most of the text is written in the first person

You let your target market know how you can help them

You use your ideal customer’s language

You use professional quality photos of you

You make your ideal customer feel understood

It’s sprinkled with story

You include your experience and education so you build trust

It’s packed with personality (you’ve avoided dull copy)

It’s been updated within the past year

There aren’t any big chunks of text

You used headings, bullets, lists and photos to break up text

You included an opt-in near the bottom (or in the middle)

If you included a third-person bio, it’s only a small part of the page

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create a sense of belonging
MODULE 20

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 create a sense of belonging
How do you create a sense of belonging among your customers?

How do you create a sense of community?

 “Why do we like to shop,
but hate to be sold?
Because shopping is ours,
selling is theirs.”
-Tom Asacker

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 habits and stories
MODULE 21

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 habits and stories
Brainstorm a list of ideas that work for your brand and business. Consider
physical and digital options.

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 The End

I hope you enjoyed this course and workbook! Tweet me

@blacksburgbelle and let me know what your biggest ‘aha’
moment was. I’d love to know what helped you the most.

© 2014 April Bowles-Olin 54