I began my entrepreneurial journey with much self reflection. I was forever being asked 'what's your 'why', Janine?'. Everyone seemed to want me to boil things down to one simple sentence. As I sat with my umpteenth cup of tea, I wondered if I really knew why I was embarking on this path. I found the following two books instrumental to my progress in those early stages of setting up Knovolution. The learning and understanding has remained and shaped both myself and the business ever since.

'Find Your Why' - Simon Sinek https://simonsinek.com/books/find-your-why/

'Business for Punks' - James Watt https://www.amazon.co.uk/Business-Punks-Break-Rules-BrewDog/dp/0241202892

Trying to narrow down who my ideal client was became an obsession! I found that the usual guidance on demographics to be fairly useless in my case. I also found it incredibly challenging to settle on 'selling one thing to one person' and shaping my niche. I muddled through for quite some time, however this was a great discovery process. Visiting business expos, talking to people, and trying out my pitches helped me to learn more about my ideal client. I also found it invaluable to learn about their challenges, objections, and desires which ultimately influenced service design.

Here are my go to tools if I were to do this again:

- Organizational ReWilding and the 7 Stages of Growth helped me understand small-medium enterprises. See the section below for more detailed information.

- Helen Tudor has been a great inspiration for me. Although she specializes in helping business owners get leads from LinkedIn (https://getleadsfromlinkedin.com/5daychallengereg/), I've found her teachings insightful and they helped me nail who my ideal client is https://helenpritchardonline.com/

- Check out the templates on Miro for example to help you build profiles for your ideal client avatars.

- Check out Tad Hargrave's 'Five Levels of Your Ideal Client' from Marketing For Hippies to build a profile https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keC-YSPl43w. I like his prioritisation of characteristics and people-focus.

- I first came across the method of identifying customer frictions through the FORTH Innovation Methodology. It is part of the Observe & Learn Phase. Check out the 'Inspiration for Innovation' channel for some insight on using innovation techniques to shape your KM interventions https://www.youtube.com/c/INSPIRATIONFORINNOVATION

It was important to me to build the Knovolution brand mainly as a tool/backdrop/context to help me 'sell' the idea of KM. Standing there having my first conversations with people as a consultant felt very bare and abstract. I felt the absence of a common language and understanding. I also wanted to think through my brand as a foundation to help me make decisions. Stepping into the entrepreneurial world felt like a maze of choices and opportunities; having a brand gave me direction and consistency in helping me decide and make progress.

I am not saying you need a full blown brand strategy to accompany your KM interventions. I think going through the critical and creative thinking process however provides much insight. Knowing your vibe can support messaging, decisions, and ultimately the buy-in of your target supporters. I found these resources useful:

- Helen Tudor's LinkedIn headline template encouraged me to describe succinctly what I do in relation to my ideal client. Get her free template here https://getleadsfromlinkedin.com/free-headline-guide-for-linkedin/

- Find a graphic designer and try explaining your KM intervention. See how the graphic designer interprets it and be open to the questions they ask you in their effort to understand your mission. even if you don't end up using graphics, the process is useful.

- I found Column Five's resources helpful. Not all of it was relevant, as they focus on content marketing, however their Brand Strategy Toolkit had some handy templates. I found the Brand Messaging Template simple and effective (image is displayed on the resource page) https://www.columnfivemedia.com/resources/brand-strategy-brand-toolkit/

- Attempt to describe the problem you solve in one word. The trick is to think bigger or laterally. When I was working with Kim Youdan on my brand, she explained how the problem she solved for clients was 'misrepresentation' through her work in creating brand identities. I found this inspiring.

We all have our own styles and unconscious ways of interacting with each other to build rapport. I've found these resources particularly helpful:

- Through various coaching workshops in my time, I've learned about clean questioning. I don't have any particular resources but this link demonstrates some of the questioning I am referring to https://cleanchange.co.uk/clean-language-questions-of-david-grove/

- Somewhat controversial, I ended up doing my Certified Practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) out of curiosity for the basic tools of this communication method. I highly recommend my trainer, Lou Laggan, and her resources on the subject https://www.loulaggancoaching.co.uk/what-is-nlp/. The key themes that stood out to me was developing our sensory acuity, intentional use of language patterns, eye accessing cues, and the presuppositions of NLP. Decorating your mind with these subjects will positively influence your communication style to help you build rapport.

- Using 'sales talk' can be positive in terms of understanding your client and winning them over. It should be done ethically, not manipulatively. This Hubspot article and free download is a useful resource to start blending 'selling KM' into your repertoire https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/make-your-marketing-message-pop-with-nlp.