Not so clear what your ideal client profile is yet? It’s ok - this is an iterative process.

Yes, your ICP may be “behind” you, but there are other possibilities as well.

When I was pivoting my services away from executive ghostwriting a while back, I did a broadening brainstorm with the help of a coach before narrowing down to one target persona.

First, I started with: what’s my differentiating expertise?

For me, it was extracting and synthesizing other people’s expertise.

(Very meta, I know.)

Then, I asked what types of people do I know in real life could use that kind of help?

I came up with three:

If you didn’t zoom in, it was: tech CEOs, mid-career tech professionals, and independent consultants.

Despite being wildly different profiles, I could see a pretty clear path of how my unique expertise could serve them, in theory anyway. (More on that later.)

Looking back at these 3 profiles now, I see that they’re actually three different buckets:

• Who I had served before: Tech CEO/founder/aspiring thought leader
• Who I was before: Mid-career tech professional with buried or underutilized expertise
• Who I am today: Independent consultant re-designing their service

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As you’re considering (or re-considering) your ICP, try the same exercise:

• What’s your differentiating skill or expertise?
• Who could benefit from it? Through 3 lenses:
  • A person/team/company you’ve served as a consultant before?
  • A team/company similar to one you’ve worked full-time for before?
  • A peer who might be just a few steps behind you?
• What is a high-level premise of a service for each of those three that leverages your differentiator to solve a pressing problem?

This should leave you with three potential ICPs and service paths.

Then, it’s time to validate and narrow…

💡

-Wes

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