How to understand who your ideal clients are (with the help of archetypes)

How to understand who your ideal clients are

The purpose of your business is to help people solve a certain problem. 
We agree on that, right?

The next thing you need to be crystal clear about is who you want to help. 

And you want to find it out as soon as possible, because…

  • How will you know where they gather?
  • How will you know what topics to write about that are of interest to them?
  • How will you know where to share your content?

Without knowing who you serve, trying to connect with them is all guesswork!

You might end up putting a lot of effort for very little results, by doing the kind of work you like the least, in other words, marketing.

But it seems that you can only know for sure who your ideal clients are once you’ve worked with a lot of people, right?

What if you can’t reach them in the first place?

It sounds like a catch-22 situation to me.

No wonder so many healers, coaches, and consultants feel that figuring out who their ideal clients are, and what their biggest challenges, dreams, needs and wants are, is one of the most difficult things they will ever do in business.

It’s difficult, yes, but not impossible.

Here is where one of my favorite self-discovery tools comes handy.

 Let me help you gain a deep understanding of your ideal clients.

Introducing you to the Archetypes

I love working with archetypes. They have helped me understand myself and others on a deep level.

And my brain seems to have a knack for spotting them.

Archetypes are a framework based on Carl Jung’s theories, further developed by Carol S. Pearson in her book: “Awakening the hero within”, and also by my dear Caroline Myss.

Archetypes are roles we play in life. They reflect our perspective and point of view, our values, our strengths, our life story, and even the obstacles we tend to encounter in life.

Have you ever heard the saying: “When you are a hammer everything looks like a nail”? It reflects how a point of view works.

There are twelve main archetypes.

They reflect our human values and perspectives about life. In my experience, any other archetype is a combination of these twelve. 

Some will resonate with you deeply, others won’t -which only means they belong to your shadow. But you have a bit of all of them within you, at varying degrees.

Different archetypes get activated by different life circumstances. You don’t behave the same in a friend’s party than in a session with a client, see?

But there is at least one -your Primary Archetype- that plays the most important role in your life right now, acting as a lens through which you’ll interpret your life. And there is a secondary that plays a supportive role, also influencing your behavior. Those are your Active Archetypes.

This example will make it clearer for you.

Let’s say you have the Idealist archetype active in your psyche. It means you trust that the Universe is a benevolent force and that someone will always come to help you if you’re in trouble.

On the contrary, if the archetype most active in your life is the Everyperson, you’ll have the deeply rooted belief that nobody is coming to save you, so when you face any problem, you are much more likely to do all you can to solve it on your own.

Different viewpoints lead to different behaviors.

That’s also true for your ideal clients, who naturally share your world view or they wouldn’t resonate with how you work. 

Makes sense?

The 12 primary archetypes

Even though there are as many archetypes as life circumstances according to Jung; in my experience, all of them fit into one of these twelve main archetypes:

Idealist | Sage | Explorer | Maverick |Alchemist | Warrior
Passionate | Jester | Everyperson | Nurturer | Leader | Artist

There are a number of benefits from knowing your archetypes. 

If you’ve ever asked yourself, ”Who would I love to help?” Archetypes will inform you about the type of client you will enjoy working with.

And as important, archetypes will show you the type of client you can not work with (let’s be honest here, we’ve all had clients that were not the right fit for us).

But the most obvious benefit of knowing both your archetypes and that of your clients is that you will be able to speak a language that resonates deeply with them.

Interesting, huh?

I told you I loved working with archetypes. 

What archetypes are active in you right now?

If you are curious about your own archetypes, there are many ways in which you can spot yours. 

You can pay attention to your dreams, and see which archetypes show up as characters in them. You can notice the type of purchases you make, and what aspirational role are they connected to.

But to make it as easiest as possible, I created an assessment to help you discover your primary archetype.

You can take it for free by visiting: What makes you different? assessment.

It will only take you a few minutes.

You don’t need to sign up to take the quiz, but if you do, I will send you a full 6-page report about your archetype.

Sounds good?

Here is the link again: https://www.tappingyourpurpose.com/go/quiz

(Originally published on Oct 3, 2017 and updated on Dec 2, 2019)

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