Venn Zen: Be One with Your Audience

I was mightily inspired recently by one of our authorpreneur clients who tested us on our theory of building an Audience Avatar. (I love it when they do that! It’s what keeps us on our toes.) I’ll get to that test in a moment, but first I want to share with you the two-phase process we go through. Step one was to have her coach (me, in this case) interview her as if she was one person at the centre of the most likely audience for her content.

I asked her to envision this person, give her a name, and describe her demographic characteristics. “How old are you?” I asked. “Where do you work? Are you married? Do you have kids?” We went on like this for about a half hour, exploring her Avatar’s life—her beliefs and behaviours, as well as spending, reading and communication habits. We dove into her key influencers, and discussed her hopes, dreams and fears.

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