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Join for freePosted: Fri 17th Jul 2026
Most business owners are brilliant at what they do – but invisible to the people who need them.
In this session, Patrick Tarpey breaks down why "being everywhere" doesn't mean being seen and gives you a simple, repeatable way to work out who you're really talking to, what they need to hear and where to show up so it actually lands.
Why "more marketing" usually isn't the answer – and what to focus on instead
A simple way to work out who you're really speaking to (even if you think you already know)
A practical 30-day route card to start being seen by the right people, without overhauling everything
Patrick is the founder of Magnitude, a coaching and marketing advisory practice in Wolverhampton built on the philosophy "Solved, not Sold".
A former physics teacher of nearly 30 years, qualified Mountain Leader and Entrepreneurs' Circle Certified Coach, Patrick brings a background in systems thinking and expedition leadership to the very ordinary problem most small business owners share – being brilliant at what they do, but invisible to the people who need them.
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Lightly edited for clarity.
Beth: Hello, everyone, and welcome to today's Lunch and Learn. My name is Beth, and I'll be your host today.
For those of you attending a Lunch and Learn for the first time, Enterprise Nation is a vibrant community platform for start-ups and small businesses.
I'm very pleased to introduce Patrick Tarpey, who is the founder of Magnitude.
In this session, Patrick will give you a simple, repeatable way to work out who you're really talking to, what they need to hear and where to show up so that it actually lands.
If you have any questions throughout the webinar, please post them in the chat, and we'll do our best to answer them at the end of the session.
Today's webinar will be recorded, and we will send an email with the recording and further resources today. Over to you, Patrick.
Patrick: Good morning. Good afternoon. My name is Patrick, and this is all about making yourselves more visible.
Really, I want you to do three things. I want you to eat and have your lunch. You can't think if you've got no food in your brain. I'd like you to learn, and then we're going to apply what you know in the session.
You might need a bit of paper and a pen to take some notes, but not now. We're going to come back to it a bit later. So get that, and I'll let you know when you need it.
Visibility is not what you think it is.
It's not being everywhere to everybody. It's making sure that you're found by the right person at the right time. That's what makes it easier for you to be found.
We're going to try to unpick this. The way to think about it is market, media and message.
Market is the thing we're going to look at first, then the media, and then what you're actually going to say to people so they can find you.
We're going to start with the market. This is really the fundamental bit.
It's what most people seem to get wrong. When they think about findability, they're not too clear on the market, and they overcook it.
As I say, it's not about being found by everybody, and you shouldn't be found by just anybody. What you should be doing is being found by the people who are going to buy your products.
Don't go chasing and getting yourself everywhere at all times.
I want to talk quickly about my mother and my grandma. They are, or were in my grandma's case, both very feisty. However, they're very short. Neither of them is five foot, even when wearing high heels. So they are literally two old ladies.
My grandma, Emily, wanted a nice warm room. No fuss. Nothing to think about. Just a room that's warm.
She was never going to search online for a mobile portable radiator. Never in a million years. But her daughter, my mum, Elaine, is. She's the one who's going to look for it.
That's the bit people miss. The person searching isn't always the person you're actually serving.
If you only ever think of the end user, you'll be writing and producing your stuff for the wrong person. You'll be invisible to the one who's actually doing the finding.
Think of dog food. Dogs don't buy dog food. Humans buy dog food.
All the marketing, packaging, smell and texture are designed for humans because it's humans who buy the tins of dog food and give it to the dogs. The dog is the end user in this case.
So you need to think about who is actually going to be buying the stuff.
There is a company I know about, and I'm going to call them Warmstead. They make portable radiators. It's an actual company, but I'm not going to use their real name.
They knew their market for years and years was little old ladies, like my mum and grandma. But they wanted to expand their market, so they thought about other people.
They first started to look at universities with student accommodation.
In that case, you've got the procurement officer of the student accommodation. You've got the person in the university leadership who is signing off the deal. And then you've also got the students who actually use it.
So you've got three types of users. It's the same radiator and the same box as the one you might sell to your grandma.
Then, of course, you've got property investors. They need some way of keeping their property warm.
But if you started talking about comfort and cosiness to them, they'd think you were selling them an IT system.
In the same way, if you started talking about compliance and efficiency to my mother, it would mean nothing. It would go straight over her head because she's looking for simple and straightforward.
So you can have the same product in the same place. It's just about where the customers are going to be.
With this media bit, what the radiator company did for the little old ladies was run TV adverts very successfully during Emmerdale and Coronation Street, because that's when people like my mother are watching.
Suddenly, an advert comes up for a radiator and she thinks: "Oh, my mum would love one of those."
Whereas procurement officers might watch those programmes, but they're more likely to be found through LinkedIn, trade magazines and trade shows.
But you have to change your message according to the market.
So the question is: what do they need to hear? What does that person need to hear to buy your product?
You need to think about the question they need to see. When they see your product, they need to go: "That's for me." They need to recognise themselves in whatever message you're saying.
That's the thing you're aiming for: this is for me. You've got the same product, two or three different messages, and where you are.
Media is about being where the people are. It could be TV adverts. It could be trade magazines.
An area most people miss is Google Business Profile. You've got a Google profile, and that's free advertising.
It sits there. All you have to do is go on to Google and claim it. It's like having your own free website.
Put your pictures there, and then anybody in your area looking for your stuff will find you. You've seen these things on Google Maps. They pop up, and they're there all the time. What you need to do, though, is make sure it's up to date.
I update mine weekly. I put on a few pictures or anything, just so long as Google knows it's active.
Then there's LinkedIn. You could use LinkedIn if you're looking for professional people. Just one post a week.
The trick is not to be everywhere all the time, shouting and making noise. It's to be very specific and very focused on who you're looking at.
Do one thing well, rather than spreading yourself thinly and merging into the background.
Being everywhere isn't about being easy to find. What you need is to be in the right place at the right time, and make sure it's done well.
Think about who's doing the buying, not who's using your product.
With your Google profiles and LinkedIn, another important thing is reviews. People look at reviews and they act on them. So make sure you keep your reviews active.
Don't rely on people just giving you a review. You need a system. Systemise getting reviews.
Some people ask: when is the best time to get a review? The best time to get a review is immediately after they've bought your product. Ask them directly.
A problem people sometimes have is that they don't get the right reviews. So basically, tell them what you want them to write.
I might say: "Do you think Patrick helped me with this, this and this? Do you think Patrick did this? Do you think Patrick did that?" And they say: "Yes, yes, yes."
Then you say: "This is what you've said. Could you write a review based on what you've told me?" Then you get a far better review than you would otherwise.
Remember, you're trying to get people to think: "This is for me." So when they see your stuff, they think: "That's what I want. This is for me."
Now I did say I was going to look at a way we could apply this.
So I want you to get your piece of paper out now. On that piece of paper, I want you to put four boxes.
One of the boxes is going to be labelled market. In that market box, we're talking about who is actually looking right here, right now. Not everyone. Just one person.
I don't like avatars. I always think of one person. When I write a sales letter, or even a blog post, I imagine one person is looking at that. So I think of one person, and I write completely to them, almost on a personal level.
That way, what you put over is individualised, and it's straight away to who they are.
The next box is the message. Here, you're thinking: what do they actually need to hear? What do they actually need to think, so their brain goes: "This is for me"?
So you've got your market. You've got your message.
In the third box, that's the media box. In the media box, we need to think about where they are looking. Where are they actually showing up?
It's like flowers you get from petrol stations. They sit the flowers on the forecourt. They're not down inside. They're on the forecourt outside.
So there you are. Well, I'm a bloke filling up my car with petrol, eyes darting around, looking for something. And what do I see? I see a whole row of flowers on the side, and I think: "Ah, I know somebody who needs some flowers."
The flowers are really well placed for absent-minded blokes who forget birthdays. Did I say that? That's your media. Where they're actually looking.
Then you've got action. What are you going to do in the next week or 10 days to make yourself less invisible?
Make it small. Make it specific. Make it so easy you can't possibly fail at doing it. Boring even. Simple, straightforward, boring. But do take action.
So you should now have your piece of paper with four boxes and those little prompts that I've just said that go in them.
What I want to do now is give you five minutes. I might be a bit quieter than normal. In those five minutes, you're going to sit and do some real thinking.
I would suggest you start with the market, then your media, then the message, and then the action.
This is the bit where it's over to you. Five minutes begins now.
Remember, in your box, you want to think about three things. Make them small. Make them specific.
It could be fix your Google listing. Rewrite the first line of your home page. So that one person gets it specifically.
You don't need any more ideas. You've got all the ideas you need. What you actually need is one idea that you finish.
I always find that small and specific beats big and vague every time. Remember also, easier to find beats louder every time. Being in the right place, with the right message, to the right person, at the right time.
The good thing about plans is that the best plan is the one you're going to be doing in April next year, starting now. Not some vague one that you can't possibly do.
Make it consistent. Make time to think about it. And like I said, think of one person. Make sure you know them.
I tend to use real people for mine. They don't know it, but all the members of my family have different roles in my business, and I write to them. And people I meet in the streets. People I meet.
Another trick I use is that I pick my favourite customer, my best customer.
If I had 50 of him, I'd be fantastic. So he's my best customer, and I write everything to him because I want to attract more people like him.
So think about that one person, your best customer, and write to them. You've got a minute to go now.
I'm still banging on about this: the right person at the right time. That's it. If you get anything else today, just remember that. The right person at the right time.
You do not need to be everywhere to be findable or to increase your brand. You just need to be in the right place. I'm going to say it again: the right place at the right time. Not everywhere. One place. One place well.
Finally, in this section, three small actions beat one big idea you never start.
Don't wait until it's perfect before you begin. Begin today. It doesn't have to be the perfect solution. Just make it one that you can do, and you can always get better at it.
You should now have a piece of paper with your message, your market, your media and the actions you're going to take.
I want you to take that away as the main thing today.
I've been Patrick Tarpey. I don't help superheroes. I just help ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things.
I think people who are in business trying to do a living and trying to serve other people are actually doing an extraordinary thing. That's my job.
What I want to do now is take questions, and we can see where it goes from there.
Beth: Brilliant. Thanks so much, Patrick. That was great.
We've had a nice comment in from the Q&A saying: "Hi, Patrick. Thank you for the teaching and the effort. I appreciate it all."
We have a question in. This person has a really clear idea, a crystal-clear idea, of their target audience. But what are the key headlines here, the takeaway from the session? How do they find these customers?
Patrick: It goes back to where they're going to be. Could you be more specific about who they are trying to find?
Beth: Absolutely. If you want to post that in the chat, I will come back to that question. Let's move on to some more.
You say that many business owners are invisible. What are the biggest reasons businesses struggle to get noticed?
Patrick: They are trying to compete with big businesses that have big budgets, and they try to play like a big business.
The big thing they've got that big businesses haven't got is that they can give more personal service.
The advantage they've got is that they can use word of mouth more, and that really comes from making sure they are responsive, talking to their current customers and turning those current customers into raving fans.
The best advertising and marketing you can get is from your current client base. You want to make them feel so good that they're going to go out and tell everybody else about it. That will beat the big people every time.
Beth: Absolutely. That's great. We've got a question from Trevor.
He says: "I produce two magazines advertising local companies. The magazines are delivered to homes. My target isn't the readers. It's the advertisers. What would be the best message to them on various media?"
I believe they are local businesses.
Patrick: You could go to where those people are already advertising. If they are local businesses, emphasise local things.
Nothing beats direct contact either. Go to a local business and say: "I've got this audience size for you."
Be specific about what audience size you have, the demographics and where you're delivering. Is it a region? Is it an income bracket?
Make the audience you're delivering the magazine to desirable to the people who want to advertise.
It's no use selling conservatories in an area that's just terraced streets, for example. You've got to tailor your marketing to that.
Beth: Absolutely. Trevor says thank you. Many businesses believe they already know their ideal customer. What are the biggest misconceptions you see here?
Patrick: That they believe they already know their ideal customer. You'd be surprised that people think they know.
The way to beat that is to ask them. Talk to them. Find out what they do like and what they want.
You'll be surprised at the answers they give, and it might not be what you're expecting at all.
Beth: Absolutely. How can a business tell the difference between being busy with marketing and actually being visible to the right people?
Patrick: You don't want to be busy for busy's sake. The right people are the people who are going to pay the right price for your products.
Really, it comes down to the bottom line. Are you profitable?
If you're profitable and you're making more profit, then you know you're advertising to the right people in the right place.
If you're not profitable and you're not getting the throughput of people you need to keep your products going and selling, then you're obviously not in the right place. You're just being busy for the sake of being busy.
Beth: Absolutely. If more marketing isn't the answer, where should small businesses focus their time and energy instead?
Patrick: It's the delivery of your product. I didn't talk about it in the session, but there was a company I know about based on the south coast of England, and they sell flowers.
They were just an ordinary florist, but they looked at other things to improve it.
One of the things they did was give all the drivers badges with their name and "deliverer of happiness" on them.
If they went to deliver flowers to a person and that person wasn't in, they went next door.
They gave the neighbour a small box of chocolates and said: "Could you deliver these flowers to your next-door neighbour?"
For doing that, they gave them the small box of chocolates with the company details on it.
It's all about care and service. If you make people feel special, then they come back.
I've got an idea that everybody I meet in my business has a little sticker on their head that says PMMFS, which stands for "please make me feel special".
That is what I do, and that's the best way of marketing. Make every customer feel special, and it doesn't have to cost money.
It really doesn't cost money, but it makes a big difference.
Beth: That's great. One more question, if that's OK, Patrick.
I've got a question from Lindsay, and it looks like she's got two quite similar customer bases for her business.
To give you a bit of context, she's a tech therapist helping therapists with their tech. She also runs a community meetup for health and wellbeing practitioners.
Lindsay would like to know, would the market be the same for these? She currently has two Google profiles for each. Should she concentrate on two different customers there, or could she combine those?
Patrick: I would suggest that you make it specific. It's the problem you're trying to solve that needs to be focused on. The two problems are different, and then it's the product.
You're solving somebody's problem, hopefully, with your product. So I suggest that it's tailored. It's one message, one media, for one market, and then for the other one again.
So yes, two separate profiles and two different things. They won't see both of them. They'll only see the one they need to see.
Beth: That's brilliant. Thank you.
Unfortunately, that is all we have time for today. I know there are a few more questions in the chat, but I've popped Patrick's Enterprise Nation profile and his LinkedIn into the chat.
I'm sure he'd be more than happy to answer some of the questions we didn't get around to today, so please do connect with him after.
Thanks so much for joining today, Patrick, and thanks to everyone who joined and had your lunch with us.
As I mentioned earlier, we will send the recording and some further resources.
Patrick, there are lots of thank yous in the chat. That's very nice to see.
I hope everyone has a lovely weekend, and we'll see you for the next one. Bye.
Patrick: Bye.
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