Welcome to lesson 2 in the Messaging Mastery section. In this lesson, you’re going to create a list of obstacles your Dream Client is up against when it comes to getting the result she wants, and then you’ll outline the outcomes she gets when she overcomes those obstacles.

And I have to point out here that the Outcomes are really important if you want to create content that attracts your Dream Client without pushing on pain points. Many marketing programs have you spend a ton of time getting clear on Obstacles and pain points, but never address the flipside- the outcomes your Dream Client wants!

But when your messaging is focused on the solution or Outcome your Dream Client can get as a result of buying your offer, your marketing materials resonate so much more deeply with those people who are already looking forward to the result, and won’t draw in those people who are stuck in a victim mentality or who expect someone else to fix their problem for them.

So today you’re going to outline Obstacles in 4 key areas. These are the 4 areas all humans can expect to experience obstacles within, as they travel down the path of the Transformation Journey. There are external obstacles (or things that they need to overcome or do differently) and there are internal obstacles. Internal are those things that are their limiting beliefs or misconceptions about the root of their problem that are keeping them stuck.

Let’s get to it!

The four layers of Obstacles that your Dream Client will experience:

Villain: What she blames. This is the gut reaction answer if you ask her “why don’t you have X result”.

External Obstacle: This is the thing that you as the expert in your industry know is that actual obstacle.

Internal Feeling: This is the emotional block, limiting belief, misunderstanding, or misconception that is keeping her from making progress.

Philosophical Obstacle: This is the deep dark question that keeps her awake at night or that she doesn’t want to admit is her biggest fear.

Examples for my Firm Foundations program.

Villain: Marketing - They just hate marketing.
External: They don’t have a clear plan to follow for their marketing.
Internal: I don’t know what to do.
Philosophical: Do I have to become slimy and sleazy to be successful?

There are many obstacles in each layer that keep your Dream Client from reaching the result or outcome that she wants. Spend some time here and list as many as you can for each layer in this section. You’ll use them as content ideas and inspirations in the Content that Converts Module later in this course.

I’d like you to pause the video here, and spend 10-20 minutes outlining several Obstacles in each layer.

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How did that go? Did you feel some resistance in that lesson? It can be difficult to brainstorm a lot of ideas here all at once, so please come back to this part of the workbook as often as you need and continue to brainstorm ideas.

I find that for many people, this is an eye-opening lesson. You think that there is just one or two things that keep your Dream Client from having success, but once you dive into this work, you realize that there are so many Obstacles! And while that may feel overwhelming right now, that’s actually a really good thing.

As you’ll learn in the Niching per Post lesson, each of these Obstacles will resonate with just a few people in your audience and so as you work through creating marketing materials that address each one, you’ll eventually create content that hits every person in your audience.

For the next part of this lesson, I want you to pick just one obstacle in each layer to focus on. Pick the one that you think is the most critical or the most important to your Dream Client. Just like in the “Your Guiding Light lesson” pick the one that you think is her gut reaction - the thing that she’s the most frustrated with or feeling stuck by.

We’ll call this the Core Obstacle in each layer.

For each of those 4 Core Obstacles, you’re now going to describe the Outcome that is the flipside of that Obstacle you outlined. In other words, when they buy your offer, they’ll work through the Obstacle and achieve what?

These four Outcomes for your Core Obstacles are your Core Outcomes.

In the next lesson, you’ll take the Core Outcomes and extrapolate them into Real Results, which you’ll then use in your Sales Post.

For now, you can scroll back up to the Obstacles & Outcomes section and continue to map out additional obstacles and outcomes that you will later plug into your Content Planner.

You can come back to this lesson as often as you need to brainstorm more Obstacles and more Outcomes. But for now, bring your Core Outcomes into the lesson so we can get clear on your Real Results!

Obstacles & Outcomes

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Welcome to Master Your Messaging

Audience Alignment

Offer Optimization

Messaging Mastery

Content that Converts