Two Ways To Niche Properly
Choose the path of most resistance.
99% of coaches and consultants state their ‘niche’ is:
- business owners
- ambitious men
- career driven women
- high performance men
- Dads
- Mums
- Whatever comes out of your mouth when your own coach asks and it changes weekly..
None of these things are niches.
They are hopes.
‘Cast the net wide enough and I’ll catch enough fish to eat.’
Even when someone get’s down to an industry category they tend to stick to the middle ground in their ideas and opinions.
The other 1% understand that great relationships are seeded in tension.
Whether they be romantic, platonic or professional.
There’s a strong pull but also a push away that creates a tension and polarity.
No polarity to dance with and the relationship can flounder at any stage.
There’s two ways to do this:
Courage is needed for both which is why only 1% will choose a path.
One: Niche down so tightly it hurts.
The way the phrase niche is used is incomplete.
It actually has two parts:
Category = industry they are in
Niche = desires they have
Create an environment for a tiny group of people.
Only create for them like you are looking over their shoulder into their lives and describing their frustrations, hopes and dreams better than they can.
This naturally excludes anyone outside this group.
Pushes them away after a mere glance as it’s clearly not for them.
Pull push in action constantly.
A rule of thumb is you should wonder whether there’s enough of them in the world to build a community around.
There are only so many “residential builders from Sydney who want to build a $1m building business remotely from Bali”….
I’m yet to see a niche too small in the internet age.
(I read your mind Reply Guy, who is itching to make a comment about niching to helping one legged dog walkers from Atlanta make $10k a month)
The second way is through a powerful Identity.
A philosophy and operating system that is inherently religious in it’s dogmatism.
You can acknowledge and respect other systems and be open to learning from them but yours is The Way.
Cultivating a maniacal belief that yours is optimal for your people.
Your people being the operative word.
Demonstrate and define the Identity a small group of people will choose to step into.
Sprinkle it with some Mechanisms they can use along the journey.
Introduce and tell stories about a rich cast of characters who have done it, are doing it and their wins and losses along the way.
Both paths require you to decide and commit emotionally, spiritually and intellectually who you want to exchange energy with.
Neither work if you’re fuzzy or aiming to please or still hold the belief that your bank account will be fuller if you work with ‘everyone’.
The magic happens in tension.
Choose the path of most resistance.