16. The Want

Your Hero wants something.

That’s a given.

What do they want?

Probably not the things that you think.

When someone goes online to search for a hammer, do they really want a hammer? Most people will think yes. Some people will take it a step further and say they don’t want a hammer, they want the ability to use a hammer to hang stuff on the wall.

But what if we took it one step further and said that they want to live in a space that brings them joy.

Wait, what?

Maybe the person you’re talking to wants to hang up pictures on the wall in a room that they are always in. These pictures will make them comfortable in the room and bring them joy.

They don’t want a hammer, they want joy.

A hammer is simply a tool that is going to help bring about joy, but do they need the hammer? Not at all.

It’s why there are command hooks. Someone realized that people don’t need to bang nails in their walls and create holes to finally achieve joy in a room.

When you write a how-to, you have to understand that it’s never about achieving the end result. It’s almost always about achieving the end feeling.

The end goal for this handbook isn’t to help you make money. That’s one of the goals, but that isn’t the end goal.

The end goal is to find joy in the life that you live and we believe that running your own business where you make your own rules, live your own life, and make a lot of money is how you can achieve that.

That’s a Pocket Business.

But that means we need to consider the feelings of the Hero.

It’s why we want to understand their fears, their dreams, their struggles, and their highs.

A Weight Loss Example

A lot of people start businesses centered around weight loss and it makes sense because the weight loss industry is a big money industry.

The problem is that almost everybody approaches it incorrectly.

They tell you that their goal is to help you lose 20 lbs. but is that really the goal of the Hero?

The goal is probably that they want to feel more self-confident. They want to be able to find joy when looking in the mirror.

Losing weight is simply a tool to help them get there.

It’s why people almost always gain weight back. Weight loss wasn’t the end goal so if you can’t actually help them feel more self-confident and find that joy, then they aren’t going to stick with it.

Emotions

It’s important to understand that humans are driven by emotion.

As logical as we want to be when something taps into our emotions, it evokes a response from us.

The messaging on your site doesn’t have to say “I help you find joy“. It will need to be more clear about what you aim to do for the person, but a lot of your messaging has to keep in mind the emotions that the Hero currently has and the emotions they want to feel after they transform.

Empathy is one of your most powerful tools when it comes to building a successful business.

When you understand the emotions of your Hero, no matter what part of the journey they’re on, you’ll build a stronger connection with them.

3. Get them to trust you

Letting the Hero know that you understand what they are going through is a great way to achieve that.