Kathryn Binkley:

Hello, welcome back to the podcast. Today, I have Sarah Arnold. She's a number storyteller and personality profiler who helps clients understand their ideal clients and communicate to build a connection. Welcome, Sarah!

Sarah Arnold:

Hi, Kathryn. Thanks for having me.

Kathryn Binkley:

I'm so interested in your business and how you use personality profiling to help people grow their businesses. I love personality tests and thought it was fascinating to use them to understand ideal clients. Can you tell me more about how you got started?

Sarah Arnold:

Sure. I'm an army wife and mom of 3 boys. I've always been interested in how people work, and that's what I focused on in politics for 21 years. Then, around 2012, I got involved in data analysis and became very good at it, with a 96% accuracy in predicting election results. When I started my data analysis business, I realized I needed something else to understand my clients better. That's where personality profiling came in. I use it with data analysis to help people connect with their ideal clients on a deeper level.

Kathryn Binkley:

That's amazing! I completely agree about knowing your ideal clients well. So, how does this work? How do you work with your clients?

Sarah Arnold:

I use a variety of methods to understand a client's ideal client. We explore what they eat for breakfast, where they shop, what kind of decisions they make, and what motivates them. Then, I have clients take a Myers Briggs test as their ideal client, to understand their personality type.

Kathryn Binkley:

Wow! I actually purchased your e-book, and it's fantastic. It talks about finding ideal clients who are a good fit for us personality-wise.

Sarah Arnold:

Yes, exactly. The book helps you understand who you work well with and who you don't. It's important to consider compatibility because it can make working with clients much easier. For example, as an introvert, I don't work well with extroverts because their energy can be draining. Knowing your personality type, like mine (INTJ), helps you identify ideal client types who also value structure and order.

Kathryn Binkley:

That makes perfect sense. What are some big mistakes people make related to this?

Sarah Arnold:

The biggest mistake is not understanding yourself well. It's the foundation for everything else. My recommendation is to take personality tests, read about your type, and understand how you operate best.

Kathryn Binkley:

Absolutely! It's helped me in so many areas. It's fascinating to think about applying this to business - ideal clients, offers, even working styles! Can you recommend some resources for people who want to learn more?

Sarah Arnold:

Sure! First, my book goes into detail on this topic. Another great resource is 16personalities.com - a comprehensive website that explains personality types and how they influence work, relationships, and your best and worst qualities. Additionally, Brit Koloff's marketing personalities course is fantastic for understanding what marketing works best for your personality type.

Kathryn Binkley:

Great! I'm familiar with 16personalities.com and love it. I even require potential team members to take the Myers Briggs test! How accurate do you find these tests?

Sarah Arnold:

Online tests are generally good, but 16personalities.com is one of the more solid options, especially for understanding the Introverted/Extroverted, Intuitive/Sensing, Thinking/Feeling, and Judging/Perceiving preferences. The Myers Briggs Foundation offers a more in-depth assessment, and I also have my own quiz in development.

Kathryn Binkley:

Can you give a quick overview of the Myers Briggs preferences?

Sarah Arnold:

Sure. Introversion/Extroversion deals with where you get your energy from - internally or from people. Intuitive/Sensing focuses on how you process information - future-oriented and based on possibilities (intuitive) or present-focused and based on facts (sensing). Thinking/Feeling explores how you make decisions - based on ideas and logic (thinking) or based on feelings and people (feeling). Judging/Perceiving is about how you order your life - structured and planned (judging) or flexible and adaptable (perceiving).

Kathryn Binkley:

That's a great overview! So, these preferences combine to create 16 personality types, right? You mentioned I'm an ISTJ. Can you tell me a bit about that type?

Sarah Arnold:

ISTJs are detail-oriented and analytical, focusing on data to see the bigger picture. They tend to be more introverted than other introverted types. And one of the things that ISTJs do really well is they focus on the details of what they're working on and are able to apply those details to a bigger picture.

Sarah Arnold:

Does that make sense?

Kathryn Binkley:

It does so much sense. Do you feel that there are and I'm totally putting on you on the spot here because I'm asking you to just, like, go from memory on this stuff. I did not give you any preparation. But do you feel like there are any areas that I really should look out for as an ISTJ.

Sarah Arnold:

So, the biggest thing you want to look out for is making sure that you include people in your thinking process. A lot of ISTJs are high t's, and they tend to be more worried about, seeking truth and ideas first. And people are secondary to that. And so that would be my biggest, caution to you is to make sure that you're thinking about people when you're making decisions as well as ideas and truth.

Kathryn Binkley:

Yeah. That's been something that I've really had to be careful and cautious with because, I can come across as someone who's very insensitive even though that doesn't like, it never Even crosses my mind that I'm being insensitive. Like, I'm just stating facts. Right? Right. So, I definitely appreciate You bringing that up because I found that to be true. If you're listening, there are so many applications to knowing your Myers Briggs. As we said, with ideal clients, with the kinds of offers, with even the type of business that might be the right fit for you or whether you are cut out for this entrepreneur world or not. I imagine that there are some types that are better suited to that.

Kathryn Binkley:

Do you have any thoughts on that, Sarah?

Sarah Arnold:

Yes. I tend to think that Js are better for entrepreneurs because they're self-driven and self-motivated, and I also think introverts tend to be better entrepreneurs because they can work by themselves rather than having to be out and see people. I see a lot of extroverts in the Entrepreneurial world, and they talk about how lonely it is for them. And so, I feel like introverts tend to be better suited towards the entrepreneurial world because it is so much of working by yourself.

Sarah Arnold:

So, those would be probably the 2 areas I would look at based on where you work best.

Kathryn Binkley:

Yeah. You know, I really love that too, for me personally, it helps me reframe things because oftentimes, I guess, I have this belief, and it's just a belief. But because I'm introverted, I do have this belief that, oh, well, people are going to be attracted to other people because they're extroverted, and they're showing all of this personality and their I mean, not that I don't have personality, but I kind of I do keep it to myself, and I'm not as engaged in social settings, if you will. I prefer to retreat. And so, it's interesting to look at the pros of being an introvert and how that can be helpful. It's a good reframe for me because, there are some benefits. Yes.

Sarah Arnold:

And that's actually something I work with a lot of introverted moms in particular. That's kind of who I target in my Own marketing and me as my own dream client, and I found that there's a lot of misconceptions about introverts. And so, one of the things I try to do, especially on my Instagram, is kind of talk about how being an introvert is actually a superpower because I feel like it there it's so misunderstood. It's Everyone thinks it's about being shy and about being, socially awkward, and that's just totally not what interpreted actually means.

Kathryn Binkley:

Right.

Sarah Arnold:

And so, I feel like it's really important to look at that and, like you said, reframe it, because introverts have the superpower of being able to function really well as an as an entrepreneur because they are by themselves some and they get their energy from being alone. They work really well on social media because you can control how much social interaction you have they're versus in a public setting where you may not be able to control that as well. They work really well because then they don't have to be, outgoing at a job where you have to interact with other people. So, it's really Quiet the superpower, I think, as an entrepreneur to be an introvert.

Kathryn Binkley:

Yeah. That's so good. So good. And you mentioned that you talk about that on your Instagram. Do you mind sharing your handle so people can find you?

Sarah Arnold:

Sure. It's blue stocking data.

Kathryn Binkley:

Okay. And we'll drop that in the show notes as well. Alright. Is there anything else that you feel like we should dive into?

Sarah Arnold:

I think the only thing that I was thinking about that we haven't covered yet is that it's really important to focus on how your personality and your dream client's personality play together. So, for me, my dream client is an ISFJ, and I'm an INTJ. So, we look at the parts that are similar, the I and the j, so we know we match well there. And then the opposite parts, I can help a sensing type fill the big picture role because, intuitive is someone who looks at the big picture of everything and kind of sees all of the dots and can connect them, so I'm able to help them take the data that they have and turn that into something that's bigger and more meaningful. And then, as a thinker, I can help bring out the ideas and truth side of the feeler type who is more focused on people. So, for me, it's about making sure that I know my strengths and how my strengths can best help my ideal client.

Kathryn Binkley:

Amazing. Okay. I have really enjoyed chatting about this, and I enjoyed learning about this in general. I hope that, If if those of you who are listening have enjoyed this, that you'll go check out, her Instagram and website and ebook and all the things to dive in even more. Before we wrap up, Sarah, will you share a little bit about What lights you up about doing this work and having this business? I like to talk about that a lot, and there's certainly some applications here, with personality and how that even relates to doing what lights you up. So maybe on either front, you could comment for us.

Sarah Arnold:

Absolutely. For me, it's understanding people. I love knowing who a person is. I got my love of Personality profiling actually from listening to true crime and profiling serial killers and that kind of stuff.  So, for me, it's just about understanding the human mind and knowing how it interacts with other people, and that is what really lights me up about what I do. It makes me really passionate about what I do. And then I think on the other hand, it can help light you up to know who your dream Client is in how to speak to them well.

Sarah Arnold:

So, once you know your dream client and they have a living, breathing personality, you can talk to them like Person rather than a two-dimensional avatar, and I think that's really important.

Kathryn Binkley:

Yeah. For sure. I think that there's so many applications to apply this within marketing. And I know we've touched on a few things here, but now that really makes me think even within the messaging and not just what your dream clients do, but why they do what they do and appealing to that piece.

Sarah Arnold:

Exactly. And one of the things that I do in my book is I have a list of words that are characteristics of each of the of the client or of the personality types. Mhmm. And those are words you can use in your copy. So, when you're talking about an ISFJ, for example, meticulous and methodical are 2 of the words that come to mind for me. You can use words like that in your copy that are attractive to them that will then draw them into speaking to you more.

Kathryn Binkley

So good. Oh, my goodness. Okay. If you want to learn more about how to do this, how to use this in your own marketing, how to attract those ideal clients, then you've got to connect with Sarah. Go check the links in the show notes. And, for sure, get the e-book and then talk to her about working more. Sarah, thank you so much for joining me today. I could talk about this for so long.

Kathryn Binkley:

It's so fun.

Sarah Arnold:

Me too. Thank you so much for having me!

Kathryn Binkley:

You're welcome. Talk soon!