Lesson 6: Your Bar Conversation

Lesson 6:
Have a Drink with Your Reader

In Lesson 6, you learned:

 How to convey that you understand and "get" your reader's problems
 How to hook your reader into staying on the page
 How to craft a message that resonates directly with your reader

This worksheet will help you put your new knowledge into practice. Print it out and use it
immediately for tangible results.

You'll also want to print a copy of this worksheet and keep it handy in a folder, as you may
need it later in the course.

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 Lesson 6: Your Bar Conversation

T
hink about what you'd overhear if your Ideal Reader walked into a bar, sat down near
you and began complaining to the sympathetic bartender about his problems. Imagine
the conversation, and what your Ideal Reader might moan about.

Play this scene out in your head, as if it were a movie. Imagine the lighting, your Ideal Reader's
expression and body language, the words he uses and says. Eavesdrop, and write down the
complaints and problems you hear.

Here’s an example of how this works. Let’s say your website focuses on travel, and your Ideal
reader is a man in his late 50s. He and his wife want to go on a big vacation… but can't settle
on where to go or what to do. He might say:

“My wife wants to go to Florida for the winter, but honestly I can’t stand the idea of sitting
around on a beach doing nothing but baking in the sun. That sounds so boring! I wanted to
take one of those Alaskan salmon-fishing cruises – I've been waiting all my life to do that. And I
know my wife would have a lot of fun. They have those big, swanky boats, and fancy meals,
and there are all kinds of activities she'd enjoy. But she’s got it in her head that it’s expensive,
and that she'd be the only woman on the boat. I can't seem to win this one. I'm sure we could
pull it off and she'd have a blast – why won't she listen to me?"

The immediate problem is clear: the man wants an Alaskan cruise and his wife prefers a
Florida beach.

But by truly listening to what the man is saying, you learn more about his true feelings, his
deeper concerns, his worries, and his frustrations, both on a surface level and – if you think
about it – on a deeper level as well.

You'll discover more in a moment, but for now, write down all you overhear in your mental
eavesdropping on the next page.

If you need a prompt to get this exercise started, use this: "Boy, what a day. (Sigh.) Have you
ever had one of those days where…."

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 Lesson 6: Your Bar Conversation

Your Ideal Reader's Bar Conversation

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 Lesson 6: Your Bar Conversation

Look back over that bar conversation. Pick out sentences that involve your Ideal Reader's
feelings, concerns, worries, and frustrations – specifically – and write them down here:

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 Lesson 6: Your Bar Conversation

Now look at those sentences. What secondary problems or concerns do they create? For
example, if you wrote, "He's worried about being bored," a secondary problem might be, "If
he's bored, he'll regret the trip, feel resentful and have bad memories."

Using "if this, then that" can really help you dig deeper. (For example, IF he's bored, THEN
he'll feel resentful.) Take each of your sentences above, and add "if" and "then" to each of
them to find the true worries your Ideal Reader has. Write them down here:

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One more time: Do any of these secondary problems create even deeper concerns for your
ideal reader? For example, if the ideal reader is worried about being bored, because then he'd
be resentful, he might also be worried about having fights with his wife after they come home.

Write some tertiary concerns the secondary problems might create here:

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 Lesson 6: Your Bar Conversation

The Pain Points

Now that you've learned more about your Ideal Reader's true concerns, create a summary of
Pain Points that you can use each time you need to write content for this person. These should
be short, concise and straightforward bullet points.

For example, the man who wants an Alaskan cruise might have the following pain points:

 His wife and are fighting over a vacation destination, and he hates the conflict between
them.
 He doesn’t like sitting around and prefers to be active so that he can build good
memories
 He’s concerned he'll end up on a vacation he regrets and will resent having spent
money on
 He feels frustrated that he doesn't know how to talk about this with his wife so they can
resolve their feelings
 He feels he lacks control of the situation, and it irks him that he doesn't seem to get a
say in the matter
 He’s unsure about how to convince his wife that his idea would be more fun than hers
without upsetting her
 He's upset that his dreams and desires always get set aside in favor of those his wife
has

Whew, that’s quite a list, all from one short conversation! Information like this is very powerful
to use in your copy and content.

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 Lesson 6: Your Bar Conversation

From the work you've done in the exercises above, write down a bullet-point list of your Ideal
Reader’s pain points. Make them specific, concise and clear:

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Armed with this list, you'll be in a better position to engage your Ideal Reader, show him or her
you understand the problems, hear the concerns and have a great solution that might help.

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 Lesson 6: Your Bar Conversation

For example, you might write a page of website copy that talks about vacation destinations that
please the couple as a whole, not just one person. Or perhaps you might write some articles or
blog posts on how to choose (together) the ideal vacation destination. Maybe you might offer a
vacation planning service for couples, or a budgeting tool that helps people see that great
vacations can be had for less than a beachside resort. Or you could write and sell an ebook on
how to plan the vacation of a lifetime… without killing each other first!

Write a list of specific ideas on copy, content, or articles you could create for your Ideal Reader
below. (If you can tie each one into a specific product, service or other money-making idea,
perfect!)

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By learning more about your Ideal Reader's true concerns, worries and problems, you've put
yourself in a much better position to engage that person and present the solution you offer –
and your reader will be all ears!

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