Episode Transcript

Hey, you made it! You’re here for this specific episode. Yeah, okay, bad pun.

But I am a stickler when it comes to being specific around your niche and your language. So today we’re tackling a concern that many of the coaches and healers and service providers that we that I connect with, have, and that is the fear that if you get too specific with your niche, you won’t be able to find enough clients.

Let me start right off the bat by saying this is a legitimate concern and one that I want to honor. Because you do need to ensure that there is enough of a market for you to build a sustainable business. That is a part of it. And here’s the counter intuitive truth, especially for service providers. The more specific you get, The more people can find the relevance in what you offer.

Today, that’s what we’re diving into, why that is, and how you can start to feel more confident about getting more specific. So, I just want to start by acknowledging that the fear of getting too specific is real. After all, when you’re trying to attract clients, especially when you don’t have enough clients, the idea of limiting your potential pool of people that you could work with can feel really risky.

And you might worry that by getting specific, that means narrowing your focus and that you’ll end up excluding too many people. And yes, you do need to make sure that there’s enough of a market to support your business and Turning some people off will turn other people on. So I think so often what I see is people, you know, they have a small list and they wonder, well, if I get too specific about who I serve, then some of these people will leave.

And that is true. Some of them probably will leave. And what we’re focused on, what our attention is being drawn to, is what is at risk of being lost. And the equal possibility that our brains are not tuning into is what is the potential gain? How many more people will I attract onto my list if I get specific about who I serve and how I work?

And who I work with and how I work. Because this is really where things get interesting. There’s, there’s this counterintuitive effect that happens when you get specific, when you narrow your focus, you’re making it easier for your right fit clients to focus. Find you. When your message is broad and general and vague, it’s really hard for people to be able to see themselves in their, in what you’re offering.

And so they move on. It doesn’t capture their attention. It doesn’t seem relevant. Alternatively, when you get specific, your message becomes clear, and the people for whom that message is for immediately can identify that it is relevant to them. When you focus on getting specific, it makes your content more Whenever you’re speaking or connecting with people more relevant and engaging, which can lead to deeper connections because your people feel understood and valued when you’re speaking directly to their unique challenges and desires.

It also eliminates a lot of the overthinking and Overwhelm that can crop up as when you are, when you’re trying to figure out what am I supposed to be talking about today? It also reduces the amount of competition that you’re, you face because you’re not competing with as many other people in similar services.

In a niche market, you can. You’re really a specialist, an expert. You’re the one that people come to for this specific thing. It makes it easier to stand out, especially for those who are looking for what you offer.

And there’s this paradox of specificity where the more specific you get, the often times there is relevance beyond what you are currently sharing because specificity makes your message clearer and people can listen.

on their own, identify how service, your services could be applied to their situation. This counterintuitive effect is the key advantage of niche marketing. And because it helps your message resonate more deeply, even beyond your niche. Your immediate target audience. So I have an example from my experience.

When I started doing niche reviews, someone heard that I was doing them, had heard really great things and testimonials about the impact of my niching support that I was giving. And they came to me asking if I could help them write a sales page. Now there was nowhere on my website in no place. Did I ever talk about copywriting?

Or sales page design, or anything of the like. They related that if I could help people get specific about what they help people with and who they help, that that would translate and be a transferable skill to other people. writing sales copy. So even though I had gotten really specific about helping people with their niche, someone could see the relevance of that in another context.

And we can see this idea about. Specificity leading to greater relevance in places beyond marketing, right? In literature and in films, we see the most relatable stories are often those with really specific details that make them feel real. Even though the story might be about a particular individual or a situation, the details help people find those universal themes and emotions that they can relate to.

Personal essays and memoirs are the same. They delve into a specific person’s experience. Authors like Cheryl Strayed and her experience in her book Wild and her stories of grief and loss and challenge and transformation with such specific detail that if you’ve read it, you absolutely can find a parallel in your own life, even though your circumstances are different.

I think the book Eat, Pray, Love, similarly, we’ve all had those laying on the floor bathroom moments. Even if it wasn’t on the bathroom floor, we know that experience as a human and the specificity of that helps us to connect on that deep emotional level. So where do you start with getting specific in your own niche?

The most impactful place is to identify the specific problem or desire that your clients have. And to get courageous enough, it really gets to the point where you think there’s got to be only one person who this is, who this is applicable for. If someone is dealing with this specific circumstance, they’re, they’re facing this problem, this one unique problem, what are the pain points?

What are they struggling with on the daily basis? And what are, what would, what’s the one thing that they would want to have changed? You might be surprised by how simple this want can be when you stop overthinking and overcomplicating. The more specific you can be, the more likely your people will be able to see themselves.

And then, this isn’t about niching your business, this is about niching an offer. So, and take that specific problem, And test it in the marketplace, gather feedback from real people to see when you talk about this problem, do people lean in? Does it engage and initiate a conversation with people? Do they say, Oh, wow, that’s so relatable.

Or do they say, Ah, I’ve totally had that experience or, Oh, my sister’s going through that right now. Are they leaning in? Or do you get a glassy eyed, Wow, that’s interesting kind of response. But here’s the other thing. Getting specific doesn’t mean that you can evolve or expand over time. In fact, as you build your business, You can broaden your focus and add new areas.

It’s the getting started piece that niching into a specific problem really gives you that advantage to be able to get started. The last thing that I want to mention is the relationship that I have found between specificity and clarity. When you aren’t specific enough, you’re probably not clear enough, and when your message isn’t clear, People don’t understand what you do.

That clarity is what will attract the right clients to you. And getting a specific helps create that clarity. If you want to feel more clear in your business, it will serve you to be more specific. Today, I want to encourage you to embrace specificity in your niching and in your messaging and in your marketing.

And to know that it really does open up more opportunities.

I invite you to think about and reflect on how specific you are and see if you can get one notch more specific. Go from a 5 to a 6 or from a 7 to an 8 and then give that a try and see what a difference it makes for you in terms of how clear you are and in terms of the kinds of responses you get. And I ask you to consider.

Shifting from what you risk losing by getting more specific into anticipating what you can gain by being more specific. As always, stay courageous.