Episode Transcript

Welcome. I am so glad that you’re joining me today for the it’s a niche podcast, because I think one of the most common misconceptions out there about niching that a lot of people hold, especially if you’re new to coaching or online business, and it’s a niche. That niching is going to pigeonhole you.

That it’s about boxing you in and forcing you to only be able to do one thing for the rest of eternity. And when you’re being told you have to niche your business, it feels really. Restrictive as if, yeah, you’re only going to be able to do one thing. And I think that that misconception keeps a lot of, especially creative people, a lot of creative thinkers, a lot of multi passionate people, or people who see a lot of potential and opportunity, or who see the different kinds of ways and patterns and places that they could offer help to people.

And they’re like, well, if I niche down, it means that I’m limiting myself. It means, and immediately it has, you know, people, I’m, I’m similar. It made me run, just completely resist that. Um, and it made me stay really broad. Um, and maybe that’s you too. Talking and describing what you do or how you help ends up being quite broad or vague.

And also means that it’s quite unclear for people, like when people hear what you are, what you do, they have a really hard time conceptualizing what you do or who you help. Um, they can’t really identify if that’s them or if someone they know could benefit. And this becomes this kind of like, “oh, interesting” kind of response when you tell people.

Which means that when you’re big or broad, it also prevents you from getting that great word of mouth marketing, which means that other people are doing your marketing for you. It really, um, shifts the weight of marketing from you to actually, like, your fans. Um, So, yeah, so I think this is a big part of what keeps people from niching is this idea that they’re going to have to be boxed in and, and, and limited to only doing one thing.

And that was my personal experience as well. I originally niched into helping people with procrastination. Well, if there’s something that’s universal, it’s actually probably procrastination. And I thought that I could actually be kind of tricky. And what I was really trying to do was appease my business coach and what they were telling me to do.

So I kind of tried to game the system by picking something that was universal while still pretending that it was a specific niche. And the fact is, the, the results were that I didn’t game the system and it wasn’t specific. And I continued to really struggle to be able to speak clearly to my people and attract enough clients.

The idea of niching as limiting and pigeonholing or is going to box me in, I think comes from four primary places. All of which are, you know, one way of looking at niching, um, that, that again, are, are, are preventing you from, from building your business. So I want to go through all four of those today and hopefully alleviate you or get up from these misconceptions, or at least give you another potential way of looking at niching.

When you know these different ways that I have started to look at niching, when you look at it this way, does that give you a little bit more ease or does it help you resist a little bit less and see the possibilities and potential of niching to be able to grow your business.

So the first is that people think niching means narrowing down the demographics of who you work with.

The demographics are, you know, the age of the person or the particular profession that they’re in or any kind of almost like physically identifiable feature of a person. And, um, and they think that niching down means reducing those demographics to a smaller kind of narrower space. If you want to hear more about that and how that’s not how I see niching, I share all about how I define a niche in episode one.

So if you haven’t heard that one yet, um, that is where I kind of try and do my best to dispel this, Uh, this myth about niching as a, as a demographic, my definition is that niching is a problem. And so you can hear more about that in, in that episode. So that one, I think covered the second is they think that niching means that they need to niche their entire business.

And I actually think about niching as niching an offer, not an entire business. Your business model with all of your offers, I think actually is created in interaction with your clients. Your business becomes a culmination of the work that you do, and it reflects your reputation. And of course your reputation can be more than just the problem that you solve for people.

So I see niching as niching offers and your business. And the role that you play your, the role that your business plays as being much more tied to your reputation. I don’t believe that you get to sit behind a closed door and make a decision about your reputation and the place that your business holds in the market.

I think that it is co created with the market. You do, however, get to sit at your desk, taking in all the information that you know about your market and decide on a niche offer and invite people to work with you on it. But I think that this pressure to niche your business keeps people in this big picture kind of work or the vision of what they’re trying to create in an entirety and it keeps them from making offers.

Which of course your clients aren’t buying out your business. They want your help to solve a particular problem or to get a result, which is what you provide inside each of your offers. So that’s the second way that I think this idea about niching as a pigeonhole is incorrect. I don’t think that you have to niche your business. 

The third idea that I think fuels this niche is a pigeonhole thing is the idea that once you choose a niche, you have to stick with it forever. And the actuality is that nobody that has started a business ended up doing the exact thing that they thought they would be doing. I mean, I don’t think it’s anybody out there because you evolve.

The market evolves. And so your business will evolve if you make a decision to pursue a niche. And then you change your mind, big flipping deal. You are allowed to change your mind. It’s your business. And once you make a decision and take action, you’ll have new information with which you can make a new decision.

I would be more worried about people who never change their minds, because it means that you’ve never grown. You’ve never taken in information and decided that now you know something that you didn’t know before. I think one of the places that this worry comes from is that people will think you’re flaky or you can never stick to anything.

Well, I think first of all, most people aren’t paying that much attention to you or what you’re doing. You know, all of the shifts and tweaks and, um, course corrections that you’ve made. Um, but most people are just not that savvy about you. They’re much more worried about them, themselves. The other thing is that people who are judgmental of you You don’t have to live with your choices.

So they’re entitled to their own opinion and that doesn’t need to weigh you down. And you don’t need to stick to things that don’t work for you and your business. The fourth idea is that niching is pigeonholing or putting you in a box. No, that’s not what we’re doing at all. What we’re trying to do is to put your offer in a box.

So that people, when they hear what you do, can quickly and clearly understand what’s in the box. So that they can make a quality and well intentioned decision about whether what’s in the box is a fit for them and their context and what they want. You are a multifaceted beam of magical light that cannot be boxed in, so we shall not try.

We shall, however, try to fit how you describe what you do. into a tidy and clear box. And yes, you can even put a shiny bow on it. If you have a really hard time putting what you do into one box, one idea is to think about two boxes that your work bridges. So let me show you how you can use two things that people are familiar with.

And show them how they’re connected. And when you connect them, they create something new and that’s what you do. So here’s an example, you know, doctors and animals. Well, I’m a doctor for animals. I’m a veterinarian. Now, you already know what a vet is. So let’s do one that you might not be familiar with.

Okay. The example is, you know, an architect that builds things and you know, a therapist that works with emotions. Well, I’m a heart detect. I help people create a landscape of their emotions that they can navigate in. And this helps them manage conflict and stress without it feeling really so personal. So this kind of bridging from what someone is already familiar with, like an architect and a therapist to something that they aren’t a heart detect.

Is this gentle way of creating a new understanding and introducing new language to someone who’s not already familiar. So let me ask you, how much different is that from you asking somebody what they do and they say, Oh, I’m a heart detect. I work with professionals who are weighed down with conflict and stress, and I help them manage it by tapping into their emotions through.

And whatever, it doesn’t even matter because what I say, you’ve already tuned out because I left your brain way back at heart detect, like three sentences ago, because there wasn’t any scaffolding to be, be able to understand that term. For many coaches and healers, we are bridging worlds and in new ways and introducing new things into the marketplace.

So being able to articulate that will make a world of difference when it comes to the marketing and the building of your business. I wanted to bring this exercise today. Just one idea about how niching isn’t actually about pigeonholing or putting yourself in a box. And to know that niching really can be a flexible process that you can adjust and evolve as you gain more insights and feedback from your market, that niching is really about progress.

Today, I hope that you’re taking away that niching isn’t about restricting yourself into one box or one pigeonhole. It’s about providing clarity to your potential clients. and to not be afraid of evolving your niche over time. If you try out this two box strategy, I’d love to hear about it. You can find ways to connect with me at www.itsaniche.ca.

Until next time, stay courageous.