I recently sat down with Andrea Hammer, host of Your Life Program, to talk all things marketing, finding your ideal customer and the one thing business owners are missing when building their brand.

Andrea Hammer:
Hello, and welcome everyone to Your Life Program, where we live intentionally fabulous every day. I’m your host, Andrea Hammer. I’m a certified fitness trainer, certified health and wellness coach, certified fitness nutrition specialist, and you’re listening to SOB radio and the Radio Ear Network Project. Today, our topic is about social media. And as an entrepreneur, do you know how to brand yourself on social media? Well, today, you’re going to find out. Because my dear friend and 30-year business marketing strategist, Barbara Gobbi is here, back again on the show to share with us how to launch and grow your business with her expertise. Barbara has launched and grown hundreds of brands. She has marketing solutions that help gain clarity about what sets you apart from your competition and can help you identify your ideal customer. Barbara teaches how to create marketing messages that address your customers’ needs and creates these strategies that reach them when and where they’re shopping for services.

Andrea Hammer: (01:32)
She’s also going to be launching a new digital class and course for women entrepreneurs. So stay tuned for that because she believes that women should stop playing small and take their businesses to a new level. She believes that not only can women start and grow a successful business, but it’s their duty to share these gifts that they have, these golden nuggets, and use their talents to make the world a better place. Barbara, thank you so much for coming back to being on the show. Yay.

Barbara Gobbi: (02:01)
Yay. Thank you, Andrea. Thanks for having me.

Andrea Hammer: (02:03)
I’m so glad that you’re here because we all need your expertise. Here we have our businesses and sometimes they’re just kind of stuck in the ground, and you have a vision and know how to get us out there with your 30 years of marketing experience. But before we get into that, how did you get into marketing and gain all this wonderful experience for 30 years? What’d you do?

Barbara Gobbi: (02:26)
Well, when I went to college, I didn’t know exactly what I wanted to do. I really wanted to be a meteorologist, but my dad said “no”. So, I just chose accounting because I thought that was safe and I was horrible at it. I mean, I can’t balance my own checkbook and math is definitely my weakest area. So my guidance counselor suggested I change my major to marketing and advertising. I had no idea what that was. She did tell me it was a little bit psychology and a little bit sociology, which I thought was interesting.  And after college, I got a job in the marketing department of a hotel chain and I just worked my way up from there. I was director of marketing for hotels and conference centers. I did mergers and acquisitions, which is a really fancy term for, I wrote a lot of marketing plans. Then I moved over to the ad agency side as a media buyer. And then in 2011, I started my own marketing consulting agency.

Andrea Hammer: (03:25)
See, that is a brilliant, brilliant transition for following your dreams and doing what you love. At first, you didn’t even know what it was. And here you are doing exactly what you love, which is really a major part of knowing who your client is in helping them market themselves. When you said to me in your bio that marketing is a blend of psychology and sociology and a little bit of art and a little bit of science, it does take all that to understand who the customer is, but also who the client is so that the client understands who their customer is. So, walk us through the process that you do that helps me, the client, let’s say, identify who my target market is. Because when I first thought of somebody needing social media, it’s like everybody needs exercise, everybody needs to eat right, everybody needs to follow this plan.

Andrea Hammer: (04:13)
But no, because in my practice, each person is individual and has their own biological needs and ways their body works. So it’s very, very tailored and specific to each person. And that’s, as a concierge trainer and a fitness trainer, I look at the details and I know that as a marketing genius, you look at the details. What are some of those details you look at when you help somebody get their message and their brand out there?

Barbara Gobbi: (04:43)
Yeah, and I think every business, it’s a little bit of psychology and sociology. And I think that’s what’s missing from so many business owners is they don’t look at the why, but when in marketing we don’t necessarily look at the surface level, we look at it from the 30,000-foot view and we look at a bigger picture.

Barbara Gobbi: (05:03)
But understanding who your customer is has to be the number one thing that you do. Otherwise, you’re just selling and you’re delivering a message that doesn’t want to be heard. And the more crystal clear you are about your ideal customer, the easier it is for you to sell. And it’s like playing the game, Where’s Waldo? Once you know where Waldo is and you know exactly what to look for so you can find Waldo, that’s what I want you to look for. You need to identify who your Waldo is and go out there and find him. I see it as like going in Costco with a megaphone and shouting to everyone your marketing message. Nobody’s going to hear you, A, because it’s so crowded and cluttered but because they’re not there to hear your marketing message. But if I tell you, “Go find the man in the blue hat and whisper your marketing message to him,” someone’s going to hear it. That’s the same in business, people don’t know who their customer is. They don’t know what to look for, so they think everybody’s their customer.

Andrea Hammer: (06:06)
So, how do you help your client find their ideal customer? What are some of the questions you ask them? What are some of the methodologies you use to pinpoint what that customer would be like to them? Because like you said, we sometimes don’t know exactly who that is and how do we go about finding them?

Barbara Gobbi: (06:25)
Right. And you need to know your customer better than they know themselves. So, some of the exercises I take them through, I mean, even close your eyes for a minute and picture your ideal customer right now. You might be thinking, “Well, it’s everybody.” Well, is it adults? Okay, well that’s half the population. Is it men or is it women? Now you’ve just narrowed it down even further. Are they in their 20s, their 30s, their 40s, their 50s, what age group are they in? What kind of a job do they have? So we ask these kinds of questions because then what I want you to focus on is, what are their challenges? What are their pain points? How can your product or service solve that?

Barbara Gobbi: (07:06)
So, for example, if it’s a woman in her 50s and you’re talking about fitness and nutrition, well, some of her pain points are, “My metabolism has changed. I feel tired all the time.” So, they have different challenges than someone in their 20s. Then you can customize your message for that person so that they think, “Oh my gosh, it’s like she’s speaking directly to me.” And that’s what we do is we peel back the layers to really figure out who your customer is so that you can speak their language.

Andrea Hammer: (07:43)
See, well that is something that no one ever thinks about when they’re a new entrepreneur getting into business. They just jump in whole hog sometimes and like you said, throw something out there. “Here I am, this is what I can do.” But it’s not. “Here I am, this is what I could do, specifically for you in this situation that will help you with this particular issue. And it will be in these particular steps that’ll particularly work with what you need and how you like it.” So, like you said, when you break it down into all these little bits of psychology and sociology where do they live? What do they do? How do they operate? And knowing that, that can help them really customize what they want to say in order to have them really feel cared about.

Andrea Hammer: (08:30)
I think that’s pretty much the most important thing is the person before the product, the person before the program, person before the protocol. And in your practice of social media marketing and business marketing, you help your client really know the person.

Barbara Gobbi: (08:47)
And the first person you need to know is yourself. And it’s interesting, I’ll have business owners who will either tell me, Everybody’s my competition, there’s so much competition out there.” Or they’ll tell me, “There’s no competition, no one does what I do,” and you’re both wrong. Because what you really need to know is there is competition, even if it’s someone who doesn’t do exactly what you do, it’s a choice or an alternative to what you do. So if you have a pizza restaurant and there’s no other pizza restaurants in town, that doesn’t mean you don’t have competition. It could mean the Greek restaurant across the street is your competition.

Andrea Hammer: (09:24)
Right.

Barbara Gobbi: (09:25)
I take business owners through an analysis of their competition to figure out what makes them different, and different is better, different is better than better. I don’t want to hear, “I’m the best.” I want to hear why you’re different because that is your unique selling proposition. That’s your marketing message, is the one thing that makes you different. And then what I do is I tell them, “Now, take that competition, crumble it up and throw it away. Because I don’t want you to drink in the compare-schlager all day and saying, ‘They do this better than I do.'” And yeah, think of racehorses. My mantra is, “Put on your blinders and stay in your lane.” So, racehorses know there’s a racehorse next to them but they’re not concerned about, Well, boy, that racehorse has nicer, shinier hair than I do.” No. They use that to make them run faster. So, that’s what is the most important thing is first knowing yourself and what makes you different.

Andrea Hammer: (10:23)
See there, when you laser in on that, you really have to dig deep about yourself. And I’m sure that when you make your customers, you ask your customers, to look for that uniqueness and that specialness about them, it really makes them have to pause and go in there. And I tell this to all my students, too. Out of 8 billion people on the planet, 8 billion, there is zero, exactly zero who are you. There’s not one person that’ll speak the same words, think the same thing, and have that dancing golden nugget in their eye about what is their unique thing. Everyone has it in their own way and in their own voice. And when you really, really love and appreciate that about yourself, you’ll really be able to tap into it and use that for good in the world.

Andrea Hammer: (11:08)
And if you use that because your product, your service, your message is from that, which, if you dig down inside, you’ll find that it is, that’s what will connect to other people. And I love your detective skills. That’s really what you are. You’re a marketing detective that helps people really search for these clues and the answers, so that they can market themselves in the most honest and authentic, holistic way that really generates huge profits in the end. Because if someone really loves you because of who you are uniquely and your different thing, they’re going to want to come to you and buy your service or your product. Being able to succinctly find it and fine-tune it, and then get it out there, that’s even more icing on the cake, which we’ll talk about icing on the cake another day.

Andrea Hammer: (12:01)
But so, when you have somebody who’s brand new, like you’re going to launch soon, a new women’s entrepreneur program because women sometimes do not believe that they can grow a successful business. Because they’ve been home with kids and they’ve taken care of everyone else but themselves, and now they might have empty nest and the second half of their life has so much opportunity and potential. But “I don’t know, what do I do? And how do I do it? Who’s going to help me out? I don’t have the money, I don’t know what to do.” And here you come and you say, “Look what I have that can show you your steps.”

Barbara Gobbi: (12:37)
Yeah.

Andrea Hammer: (12:37)
Tell us about your new idea.

Barbara Gobbi: (12:40)
Well, I really started listening more. And when I started my agency, it’s because I wanted to help more companies than just the one I was working for. But then, because of bandwidth, and even though I’ve added people to my team, there was only so much we could do and I was turning people away, and it hurt my heart. And I really listened to them say, “But I don’t know what to do.” They’re in their 40s or 50s or 60s, and they’re starting a business or they have their own business but they didn’t grow up in social media. It’s all very different to them and the technology is confusing. And I felt bad turning them away because we couldn’t take them.

Barbara Gobbi: (13:18)
That’s when I said, “It’s my duty to do this.” It’s my duty to help women become the best, their best selves, and stop playing small, and really grow and launch their business. Because we as a society, women, we’re so competitive and in a catty way, and we have to stop that. We have to start lifting women up. We have a hard enough time breaking the glass ceiling and getting a seat at the table. So, I said that this is my duty is to help other women, sharing the gifts that I have. I don’t have a million gifts. I can’t do pushups like you, Andrea.

Andrea Hammer: (13:57)
And I can’t press the buttons on social media. So, we all have our talents. That’s exactly right.

Barbara Gobbi: (14:03)
Right. And I live from an abundance mindset that there’s enough to go around that we don’t have to be competitive with each other. If you think Starbucks is competitive because there’s one in every corner, there’s two marketing agencies on every corner. But you know what? I mean, it doesn’t bother me at all because there’s so much to go around. We all have different skills and strategies. And I have great relationships with other marketing agencies. When someone calls me, I’ll say, “I think this might be a better fit for this agency over here. Let me make an introduction for you.” So, I refer business to other agencies all the time. That’s what we need to do is lift each other up.

Barbara Gobbi: (14:45)
When I started looking at this digital course, I started calling some of the women that I know that have these challenges and I listened to them and they told me, with psychological safety and without feeling embarrassed, where are they stuck? And I said, “I have to do this because this is stuff that I know.” So I can create this digital course that they can do at home and they can log in any time and learn a new skill, to help grow their business. It’s about empowering others.

Andrea Hammer: (15:14)
See, that is so brilliant. See, all your expertise and what you know is now being channeled into a new area that helps people help themselves get started. And of course, you’re there to help back up and be there for them. But for them to at least have this new way to start in an area where they have no clue about. Because like you said, it’s so vast and confusing. But to have the step-by-step instructions, it’s brilliant that you even made this course. Tell us what the name of it is and when it’s launching and how the listeners can get it or get on it and learn about it. Because there is something in their heart, there is something they want to do. There is something that with the encouragement and confidence and the ability to do it, they’ll start. And having the ability to do it privately in your own home that’s affordable and that is easy to follow, that doesn’t give them any pressure, that someone’s going to judge them on this.

Andrea Hammer: (16:17)
Because that’s, I think, a huge aspect why women don’t do anything or get themselves going. They’re afraid of that. But you have the most authentic, empowered heart for other people and women’s business, especially. And creating this course for them is something that is literally going to change their lives. Because it’s going to help them move themselves forward towards their potential and their dreams and their successes in their life. So, tell us more about how people can get it, what it’s called, and how to order it, when it’s going to be ready, all that stuff.

Barbara Gobbi: (16:50)
Right. So, it’s the Marketing Plan Masterclass and we walk you through four different steps. One is knowing yourself. The next one is knowing your customers. Then we do a marketing 101, so all these terms that are confusing, we break it down for you. Then we help you write a plan. And I think that the plan is the one thing that’s really missing and studies show that when you write down your goals, you’re 42% more likely to achieve them. The beginning of this year, I wrote a goal that I was going to double my revenue. And I doubled my revenue because I wrote it down. So, we walk you through those processes and because it’s the self-reflection, and then that’s going to help you have a better understanding of yourself and your business and what makes you different.

Barbara Gobbi: (17:36)
Then we have all the resource modules. So if you just want to learn Instagram or just want to learn LinkedIn or Pinterest or how to blog or how to send email sequences, we have those modules. Then you can customize your program to fit your needs, once you discover who you are and who your customer is and where they are. And then those modules, you have lifetime access to them. So they get updated all the time. Because by the time this recording airs, Facebook will have changed its algorithm. So, we want to keep you informed. And that’s the biggest thing is, women entrepreneurs especially, they feel like, in their business, they have to have a website and they have to have a Facebook page. As soon as they get that done, the rug is pulled out from underneath them and it all changed. And “no, wait, now you need Instagram or now you need Pinterest.” So we keep you up-to-date on all of those in this course.

Andrea Hammer: (18:27)
That’s wonderful. How do people buy it and get it and implement, where do they go to start getting onto it? And what is their link to it?

Barbara Gobbi: (18:38)
Well, it launches in February. We will start, our cart will open in January to purchase the course. But in the meantime, I have a gift for your listeners. They can go to BarbaraGobbi.com/Hammer. And it’s barbaragobbi.com/Hammer. I have a free gift for them. They can download a marketing plan template. It’s a little toolkit that I have for them to at least gain some clarity. I’d love them to start with this before 2020, so that they can have their 2020 vision and have their goals in place. And then we’ll help them reach those goals with this course.

Andrea Hammer: (19:19)
That’s brilliant. See, so already before they even take the course, this gift is going to get them ready and prepped to take the course.

Barbara Gobbi: (19:27)
Yep. It’ll get you ready. And then, we’ve got some webinars coming up in January. We’re going to break down a few different topics, so we’ll keep emailing you when those things are happening. And on top of just the course, we have other resources as well. We’ll have a private Facebook group where you can go in and talk to other entrepreneurs and say, “I have this challenge with X, Y, Z. Does anyone have that experience?” And then, you can help each other. So it’s all about lifting each other up within this private group.

Andrea Hammer: (20:00)
See, Barbara, your brilliance and your love for business and people merging together is what is going to make this new course, even for you as the creator and developer and owner of this, successful for you as well. Because when you do something from the love of it, for the joy of it, and for the betterment of humanity, that’s where you are. I hear this from… I know you for many, many years. You’ve been a dear friend of mine for so long. And everything you’ve ever done has always been to help people fulfill their dreams. The way that you help them fulfill their dreams is by providing them financial security, by being able to have a successful business. And we all have to work in the world. We all have to pay our bills, we all have to earn some money. And some people get stuck because they don’t know how to promote their business.

Andrea Hammer: (20:58)
Beyond just making the money and promoting the business, you really help them because you love to help them find the truth of who they are, which then makes their business even better, and then launch it and then grow it, and then get other people to see the beauty and grace and love of the person whose business is out there. This course is going to really, especially for women entrepreneurs, help them have the confidence in themselves to go do that. And I couldn’t be happier that you’re sharing all of this information and these details. So that as many women who have a dream out there that are listening, please look up Barbara Gobbi and look up her program, learn to improve yourself, step it up a notch, believe in yourself, and be a leading force in the world with who you are because that’s, like what Barbara said, it’s our duty. She felt it was her duty to provide this for others so that we can all make the world a better place with what we do and who we are.

Andrea Hammer: (22:01)
But you can’t, no one can call you if they don’t know ya. They can’t buy your product if they don’t know what it is, and they aren’t going to know what it is if you don’t get it out there. And with all the methodologies and tools today to do so, Barbara truly has your answers. I’m so happy and thankful that you’re here on the show to share all this today, Barbara. Give us your website and your email address one more time and have everybody be able to contact you.

Barbara Gobbi: (22:25)
Yeah, so it’s BarbaraGobbi.com. And again, if they go to BarbaraGobbi.com/Hammer, they can get that free gift that I have for them. And they can just find me anywhere at Barbara Gobbi, kind of bought it all.

Andrea Hammer: (22:41)
Okay, that’s great. Well, of course you would.

Barbara Gobbi: (22:45)
That’s marketing.

Andrea Hammer: (22:46)
It’s marketing. It’s marketing, it’s life, it’s joy, it’s success, and it is my pleasure so much to have you again on the show. Thank you for being here.

Barbara Gobbi: (22:55)
Thank you.

Andrea Hammer: (22:56)
And thank you, listeners, for joining us. I love to hear your comments and your questions about all this amazing information and the inspiration that we shared here on the show today. You can reach me, Andrea@HammerHealthAndFitness.com. I’m on all social media as well: Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter. Barbara has helped me with all of it. And I love to just hear all that you have to share and say because I’m here to help you with Your Life Program, so that you can live intentionally fabulous every day. Thanks so much for joining.