Your Ideal Client Persona Might Not be Ideal Anymore!
By Levina Kusumadjaja
Let’s talk about you for the next few minutes.
Let’s talk about you as a creative, as a strategist, as a brand.
In building your own brand and business, you will have a group of people who will fit your ideal client persona, people who are your super fans. These are people who would obsess over every new product and service you launch. They will proudly tell everybody they know about you. Knowing your ideal clients is crucial because it is key to building an emotional connection with them. It’s easier for you to practice empathy with someone when you know their struggles and dreams, and it is empathy that will bring emotional connection.
Unfortunately, the word “ideal” often comes with the pressure to perform and to be perfect. The concept of finding ideal clients can come with the notion that those clients represent a fixed template of what is best for you at any given time, forever. As a result, you become so focused on trying to figure out who these clients are because you are striving to find something “perfect” or “ideal”.
Your ideal client persona isn’t a set persona that you have to stick with for the rest of your life.
The reality is, this ideal client persona isn’t a set thing. It’s a persona that will always evolve as you yourself progress in your own journey. Your ideal client persona today might not be your ideal client persona 10 years from now, not because the potential clients you have now become different people, but mostly because you might not be doing the same things 10 years from now.
For example, I have a friend whose goal was to do brand strategy and create designs for people who teach yoga and wellness to others. After a few months of connecting with people, she became well-known in her local community of yoga practitioners and started getting clients for brand strategy. 3 clients in, she was making good money and had people in line for her service, but she realized she didn’t want to work with yoga instructors. The 3 client work helped her see who she really wanted to serve as a brand strategist. She uncovered the mindsets she would love to work with and she decided to pivot to a different direction.
Did my friend fail to identify her ideal client? Was there something wrong with her? Of course not, she didn’t do anything wrong. All she did was grow in her own journey as a brand strategist and business owner.
The key is to be aware of your growth, to understand your own changes and evolution as a creative, leader, thinker, and strategist. To constantly ask yourself what value you can give to others and who will benefit most from what you do best. As the answers to these questions change, your ideal clients will change—and that’s 100% okay. Just keep giving value and impact through what you do, however that looks like and for whoever that may be, no matter how often these things change as you grow.
Cheers!
Levina
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About the author:
Levina is a writer based in Indonesia. Because of Melinda Livsey, she recognized the power of brand strategy for every creative. She is sharing about her learnings as she goes to help creatives have fun in their growth and journey of building brands. Connect with her on LinkedIn and say hi!