Transcript
Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Aligned and Soulful Success. This week I want to share something special with you. I held a master class on how to attract dream clients you love. I'm sharing a small part of that class here. If you want to receive a recording of the class, there is a link in the show notes for you to receive that. But I would act soon because I'm only making that recording available till June 5th And I would love to hear what you received from this recording. All the links that I talk about will be available in the show notes. Enjoy All right.
Speaker 1: Next thing, so I like to talk about a niche. I was told this recently. I did a class a couple months ago on finding your niche And some of the feedback I received was they didn't realize the niche could be so multi-layered and multi-faceted. They thought that it was just one aspect And it's almost oversimplified. And so the niche has several parts And I'm going to talk more about that today. So the first part is who you actually serve Right, who is you or that person? And maybe it's like you mainly work with women, or you prefer working with teenagers, or you work with men That kind of it maybe will I work with all genders, or I work with you know it's who is that? The next part of it, which is often the one that is can be easy for some, but difficult for some, is the challenge or transformation that you provide. So what happens often when people market their businesses, they market whatever they do Right. It is like, oh, i'm this type of coach, just like I said I'm a spiritual success coach, okay, great. So what? like? what do you help me do Right? What it you know, or something else that people can say is that I'm.
Speaker 1: I've worked with someone that has a couple of clients that have tutoring businesses. So I tutor. Well, why would they want your tutoring Right? What is that going to help them with? Is it going to be more confidence? Is it going to help them have better grades? Are you going to prepare them for exams? Like, what is your tutoring actually going to help them with Right?
Speaker 1: And the last part, especially if you're just starting out, is who you actually have a network with already. So who is it that you already know? Okay? So these are the aspects of a niche, and some of these may come to you immediately and some may not. So I want to share a story, okay, and I love to share stories because we believe, i believe and I know that we learn through stories.
Speaker 1: Okay, so I had a client who has a lot of experience in the nonprofit world, right, and so she wanted to. She came to me because she's actually starting a coaching business and I'm helping her launch that, and she did not want to have anything to do with a nonprofit world. Okay, because she said she was burnt out, she left it for a reason and she didn't want it and she was very resistant. Okay, so I let that be and we continued to coach and work on the aspects of her business. And then she came forward in one session the other day and said oh, i met a former colleague somewhere and mentioned what I was doing and they wanted to have a conversation about it, right, and so that was like my opening right To coach her through that. So we worked through some of her resistance, some of the subconscious and some of the conscious resistance, and now she is utilizing that network as a starting point for her business, because it's appropriate for what she's sharing with the world And so that that is part of her niche, right, that is part of the way that she's going to market because the difference she wants to make in the world has to do with the burnout in social work and the nonprofit world.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you see how that kind of goes together. And oh, and I see in the chat, oh yeah, latricia says initially five years ago, when I identified my niche, it was invigorating. Now I feel frustrating with some of the repetitive issues. Okay, so then it might be time to kind of revisit a little bit. Maybe there's different aspect of this that you want to do right, maybe there's a different aspect of your niche. So maybe look at this through the kind of a beginner's mind, which is hard with someone with your years of experience. So start to look at this like if I could start my business all over again, who would I work with? What is the challenge that I really am excited today to help with, and who do I know right? And so this is kind of how I picture it. I picture the niche. You can see the niche is in the middle, right. So we take aspects of the network, the transformation, who you serve, and the intersecting parts of that are your niche, okay, and so oftentimes, when I've learned about niche in the past, we would work on the who you serve or transformation, right, and wouldn't consider. This Doesn't mean you have to do it that way, but it's something to really consider, and so I want to share one more story of why this is important.
Speaker 1: Okay, and let's think about something we all do in some way, shape or form, and that is shopping. Okay, so let's think about shopping and maybe even think about something specific that you need right now. So if you are going shopping for something really specific, you most likely are thinking about which store would have this item. Right, and you know, i know a lot of us will go to Amazon, right? So maybe it's Amazon, maybe it's a department store, maybe it's Walmart, maybe it's Target, whatever that store is, you go there specifically for that item, okay, and then you, you purchase, you go there to buy that item. You know why you're there, so you're actually going towards that. So that's one aspect of shopping, okay.
Speaker 1: So now what about a broader part of shopping? Okay, so you go shopping and you know you you need, let's say, a dress for something or any type of formal attire, okay, and so then you decide that you need that, but you're not sure where, you're not sure which store to go to. So maybe you go to some place where you can find other other things, right, so you can find, like a shopping mall or something like that, right, where you have multiple options, multiple places that you can go to. Okay, all right. And so how do you do that shopping? How do you look that you will go to places that you think have that item, right.
Speaker 1: And so think about this in your business, right, do your? do your clients look for you specifically when you need help? and when your clients need help, are they looking for something really specific, right, and they come to you for that. Is it more of like this broader kind of idea of, well, i'm like, you know, dresses and that's what I do, and so they, they, they will probably then, like this person, the example I gave them shopping, probably have more choices, okay, of where they can get that item, get that, those services.
Speaker 1: And then let's think of the last scenario Okay, you're going to the mall, you need some clothes, okay, and so you just go to many different stores and you just you maybe you get a tea Shirt here, maybe you get a pair of pants here, maybe you get, you know you get, i mean, a pair of earrings here, whatever, right, and so you're buying all these things. You don't have a specific purpose, you just need a few things, okay. And so think of that in the realm of services. When a person is in a place that they actually don't know what they need, or they need multiple things, does the service you provide kind of fit in that category? And so I see this a lot in like the general coaching world or general massage therapist or a general tutoring business, right, it's like, yeah, they need, they know they need kind of tutoring and you know there's so many aspects of tutoring. There's reading tutoring, there's writing tutoring, there's test prep, there's, you know, even help with essay writing. There's so many aspects of tutoring, right. So, as you as a service provider, where do you fit, okay, right now?
Speaker 1: And in that realm, when you figure out where you are right now, then think about how easy it is for people to find you, okay. So in the first example I gave, which is like I need this specific item, i know which store to go to and I go and get that, or are you more of like the general, like I help people realm, and they kind of go, and you may be one of them. So nothing is wrong with any of those, by the way. It's important to know where you are, okay, that's kind of telling you where you are in your niche. It's just I'm giving you the story so you have a different way and a different perspective to look at it, and so oftentimes people will move between those things, and that's okay, right.
Speaker 1: And so maybe you start with more general and you are able to then work with people, and then you figure out what you enjoy more, okay, and then you get even more clear and you're like I really just want to focus mainly on this. Or you start really focused and you realize, oh, there's so much more I want to do. When you stare somewhere in the middle, the marketing challenges, though, for each of those are a little different. Okay, if you're really clear, you can see. If you're really clear about what you offer and it's very specific it is much easier to come up with where your client is, how to market, what to talk to, who you're talking to, right, or if it's more general, it's a little bit more difficult, right, and so there's ways to do that as well. Okay, i just want you to broaden that perspective of what a niche is. Figure out exactly where you are right now and maybe where you want to go next. Right, if you're somewhere in the middle. Do you want to be more defined? Do you want people to be really clear about what you do and the way that you serve them, or do you want to broaden up a little bit? Okay, so, just really sit with that firm moment so you know. So, when you know this, you can see how attracting the dream clients with this clarity is a really key step, okay. So step number two, all right, is marketing aligned with your strengths. So you can see I chose this picture on purpose.
Speaker 1: I'm a visual person and she's drinking something, maybe tea, coffee, i don't know. It looks like an espresso to me. It's so tiny, and then she has all these things around her, okay, and so a lot of the people that I work with, the clients that I work with, they're doing all these things, they're marketing in all these ways, or they're picking something to market with or a way to market, and it's misaligned. And so, instead of really examining what they're doing to market their business, they just continue to add and add and add, and then it looks kind of like this picture right, and so it's so important.
Speaker 1: There's so many ways to build a business. There are so many ways to build a business and I want to repeat that because often you will hear out there in this world of online businesses and service-based businesses that there's a specific way that you need to do this. This is the formula and this is how you should do it. The ideal way to build a business is to know what your strengths are. Then, from there, choose offline, online, marketing, mix of both. You may do some advertising. You may do some networking, either through traditional networking events or the other ways to network. Then the secret formula is based on you. The secret formula is taking all of this, taking your strengths, taking what you enjoy doing and, from there, marketing and creating a plan. There's a lot of noise and a lot of people telling you that there's one way to do things. Like I said, it's shared.
Speaker 1: In the beginning, i consider myself an introvert, tend to be the quiet one in the room. I'm not the loudest in the room. I've had to learn to come out of that kind of shell, to be with people, to talk to people more. One of my strengths is that I am able to see a person and connect with them and have a deep connection, like a true connection. It comes so easy to me that I forget that that's one of my strengths. Take a moment now and think about for yourself what are some strengths that you have. If you're not sure, even think about it in this way. What are some things that come so easily to you that you could do it in your sleep?
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Aligned and Selfful Success. As I mentioned in the beginning of this podcast, if you want to hear the rest of this class, there's a link available in the show notes. If, after hearing this, you know that you want to connect with me and hear more about ways that we can work together, use the link in the show notes to book a business elevation call. In this call, we will dive into where you are in your business and steps that you can take to move forward, can help you recognize where the gaps can be, and then we can talk about if working together is a good fit. I only have a few spots available for these calls this month, so if that is something you want to do, i'm going to encourage you to book that And, if not, as always, take good care.
