Copy Cats Reign – Forecasting 50

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And these case studies are very apropos because I’ve got product-based case studies, I’ve got service-based case studies. So I’m going to hit case studies from different angles this week so that hopefully there’s just one or two little nuggets that you’re hearing that myself or our company is putting into play growing other businesses. And hopefully you can use a nugget or two and use these in your own, your household or your business.

So we’re going to jump right into the second case study. And again, same place, I was out in Vermont, I was on a panel and people were walking up to a microphone and we had set this up where people would walk up to the microphone, state their name, their current business, and then they would say, and my current business challenge is, and then based on what they say, we would choose who on the panel is best suited to answer that. And with the numbers of people on the panel and how many people were coming to the microphone, I had plenty of runs at helping folks out.

So the second case study I want to roll out this week is a lady walked up to the microphone and she says, I have been an image consultant for quite some time. Matter of fact, I mean, her whole life, I want to say 30, 40 years. And her niche was focusing on self-confidence.

So an image consultant to me can go so many different ways. Is it focused on the face? Is it focused on clothing? Is it how someone holds themselves? You know, they’re an image consultant to some degree. You could say that they center on the word presence, how someone’s presence is perceived in the marketplace.

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So I did a little bit of drilling down and I found out that for the last 20, 25 years, her market has been churches. She would go in and present to a church. And then after speaking on the platform a little bit there at the podium, she would hold a conference on a Saturday and do some image consulting to a group and the church would pay her.

And her whole kind of take was that she would go in telling the seniors of that church that a lot of people, if they had some image consulting, it would really raise their self-confidence and it would help their body of parishioners get better jobs, advance their careers. And, you know, she really, really knows what she’s talking about. So anyway, long and short of it is, I said, well, what is your, sounds like you’re actually doing really well.

What is your current business challenge? And she says, well, honestly, I need a change. I need to do something different. I’ve recently began doing a couple of corporate jobs and even working with some politicians.

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And she says, I’m finding it incredibly gratifying. And the difference is, there’s a number of differences here, but the difference is, her new work has been one-on-one, where her previous work for years was in groups. And so she’s getting incredible fulfillment where these corporate folks are listening, paying attention and implementing her suggestions.

And she’s getting the feedback of how quickly it’s helping them advance careers or get elected, things like that. So to completely set the stage before I explain the suggestions I had for this person, this is a service, but a really good image consultant, it’s pretty pricey, quite frankly. And so this involves an area of building incredible trust, both online and offline, before you’re going to get any deals, you know.