Welcome to Lesson 3. We’ve established that your entire business rests on the foundation of your Messaging and your Offer.
This leads to the most important question in business: How do we know if our message and offer are any good?
The answer is simple, but profound: You don’t decide. Your market does.
Think of yourself as a locksmith and your market as a person with a locked door.
The Locked Door is your market’s painful problem.
The Key is your offer.
It is not up to you, the locksmith, to decide which key fits the lock. You can’t stand back, admire a key you’ve made, and declare, “This is a brilliant key! It should work.” Your opinion is irrelevant.
Your only job is to test keys until one turns the lock.
This is the process of iteration. You test a key (an offer). If it doesn’t turn, you don’t blame the lock (the market). You analyze why it didn’t fit and you cut a new key. You repeat this process until you find the one that clicks.
And you will know when it clicks. There is no ambiguity. When the key turns, the door opens.
If you are questioning whether your message or offer is good enough, I can tell you right now: the key doesn’t fit yet.
When we work with clients, we see this all the time. They’ll post content every day with a key that doesn’t fit, and get no response. Then, we help them cut the right key—the right message for the right market—and they make one post and get three clients. That is the “click.” That is what we are aiming for.
So, how do we systematically test and iterate to find the right key? We use the Iteration Matrix. We can change four key variables of our “key” to see what fits the “lock.”
Your core skill (e.g., helping with weight loss) stays the same. What changes are the variables you combine.
The process of iteration is simply mixing and matching these variables to create different “keys” to test.
Key 1: I help [Parents] get [More Energy] so they can [Play with their kids] via a [Group Program].
Key 2: I help [Professionals] get [More Confidence] so they can [Get a promotion] via [1-on-1 Coaching].
Key 3: I help [Athletes] get [More Focus] so they can [Improve performance] via a [DIY Course].
The core skill is the same, but the Messaging (WHO, WHAT, WHY) and the Offer (HOW) are completely different for each.
This is why we start here. If you change your WHO, your entire marketing plan must change. Your ads, your content, your website—everything is built on this foundation. We must find the right key before we build the house.
It’s time to start cutting your own keys.
Access the “Iteration Matrix Tool”
Brainstorm Variables: For your own business, brainstorm at least 3-5 different options for each column.
WHO: Who are all the different types of people you could help?
WHAT: What are all the different tangible results you could provide?
WHY: What are the deep, emotional reasons they would want those results?
HOW: What are the different ways you could package and deliver your service?
Create 3 “Keys”: Combine variables from your columns to create three distinct “Key Statements” just like the examples above.
This matrix is now your testing ground. In the upcoming lessons, we’ll show you how to take these keys and test them against the market to find your “click.”