The Internal Problem is the feeling that the Hero feels when they encounter the External Problem.
Remember that.
If you’re trying to lose weight, the internal problem might be laziness or frustration.
If you’re drowning in debt, then the internal problem is anxiety and stress.
While the External Problem is obvious to both you and the Hero, the Internal Problem isn’t usually recognized until it is called out.
For example, if I say this:
“I understand that you want to make more money and that one of the things holding you back is that you aren’t confident in your ability to attract people to you.”
When I say the external problem WITH the internal problem, then it shows empathy (you didn’t forget about empathy yet, right?). This lets the Hero know that you understand them which is very important.
The Hero will not choose you as the Guide unless they feel you understand them.
Because you’re going to gain a better understanding of the Hero’s Internal Problem, your messaging is going to be more clear.
Your emails are going to be more powerful.
If you sit down and start listing the internal problems of the hero you’ll probably find that you can come up with at least a couple.
When starting off you only want to focus on one. You don’t want to have messaging that goes over every single internal problem because then it starts to sound like you’re talking to everybody.
You can always tackle the other internal problems down the road.
For now, ask yourself how does the External Problem make your Hero feel?