Bonnie asks a question in this show that took us where I didn’t expect we’d go.
As Corbett, Barrett and I started responding to her question (which is as funny as it is important) we travelled into a conversation about choosing a better niche.
Niche advice grows like trees in the internet business world. Here at Fizzle we talk about the “niche please” mindset often.
And not always in a dubious way. The target market guide that’s helped so many people is simply another method for choosing your niche… a people first method.
Bonnie’s question in this episode gets us into a situation many of us have found ourselves in and adds some real, human light to the moment where we’re forced to make a decision. (I share my own moment of discovery in this episode.) Enjoy!
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““The exact moment I chose a better niche.””
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Show Notes
Finding Your Voice — The Fizzle Show 001
Finding Your Voice Pt. 2 — The Fizzle Show 002
Youth Speaker and Teen Expert Josh Shipp
YSU · FREE Speaker Training Series
A Life Beyond Fear: How to Release the Grip of Anxiety
Billy Collins on Finding Your Voice
Steven Pressfield on What 10,000 Hours Gets You
Bill Murray on Secrets About Living
Learn how to set goals that actually stick!
The Top 10 Mistakes in Online Business
Every week we talk with entrepreneurs. We talk about what’s working and what isn’t. We talk about successes and failures. We spend time with complete newbies, seasoned veterans, and everything in between.
One topic that comes up over and over again with both groups is mistakes made in starting businesses. Newbies love to learn about mistakes so they can avoid them. Veterans love to talk about what they wish they had known when starting out.
These conversations have been fascinating, so we compiled a list of the 10 mistakes we hear most often into a nifty lil' guide. Get the 10 Most Common Mistakes in Starting an Online Business here »
That opening question is hilarious. Totally had me hooked.
It is amazing how many of us have a voice but have a hard time refining it and targeting the right people. Thank you for all the great advice, I have some thinking to do.
Happy that you are bypassing the Coors Light in favor of tequila, Coach Kip!
Man, guys. This one really had my brain gears going. Two big thoughts/questions/inspirations:
Oh. my. gosh. Bonnie’s life is sooo me!!!! “Wait honey I’m on a call, take the dog out the trash can please…”
I’ve had this specific itch that I haven’t been able to scratch for ages and still find it tough becomes I love so many things!
Thanks for the FAB content guys love it!
Dr. Bonnie’s situation is common in the fitness field, too. Certified trainers and coaches who also work in the field need CEUs, and some offer CEUs. They behave as themselves with clients, and b/c they are respected in their field, they can sell their courses, workshops and methods to their peers. With CMAs, success in your field helps validate your courses. That fact alone doesn’t present an obstacle to, or conflict with, your anxiety course customers. To me it’s a marketing question more than a voice question. You are still you, in either role–helping people with anxiety or helping others get their CMAs. But it’s just tricky to drive your stuff to the store in the same truck. Let me explain:
Hidden Valley Ranch is owned by Clorox. Which also owns Fresh Step cat litter. The same big company makes money off all these products which are sold in different areas of the store. But they don’t deliver salad dressing to grocery stores out of a truck with bleach or kitty litter ads all over it. There are different marketing messages and vehicles to reaching different buyers. While having two products for different purposes in the same brand family can be almost double the marketing work, some aspects can be consolidated to share resources and the same mission and values can apply. So you don’t need to dilute your authentic voice to help your anxiety patients if you have another truck to deliver your CMA courses from.
For Chase: Bonnie Raitt has great songs to reference for marketing & serving clients, thanks for reminding me– Let’s give em something to talk about. I can’t make you love me, if you won’t. Have a heart… and Are you ready for a thing called love? :-D
HA! Bonnie Raitt bit is perfect, Faith :)
Picking a niche to commit to seems a lot like deciding whether or not to get married to an idea. If you’re going to serve a certain target market over the long term, it’s a lot like committing to a serious relationship for the long term. Are these the people and activities you want to wake up next to, day after day, year after year? Are you willing to steward the relationships you develop, through all the ups and downs that will inevitably come as those relationships deepen?
Or is your idea a “fling” that seems like it would be fun for the short term, but loses its shine in the future?
Thinking in these terms has helped me pick the things I’m NOT going to do, which is a much harder thing, than finding something I want to do. It also makes a clear distinction between those classic side projects and actual business ideas.
I think you’re right, Kay. That’s what it feels like. But it’s not true. We’ve worked with so many entrepreneurs now and I’ve seen it time and again that niches move and change over time. You do one thing for a while (fully expecting to be married to this path), and after several months get a bit more perspective, start to use some different words in your marketing, a new tag line… slowly it morphs and solidifies.
But those feelings up front, the “i better pick good cuz this is the rest of my life” feelings, are intense. They create tons of worry and stress and excitement. And what I’ve learned seeing so many people actually building businesses over time is that the most important thing is to pick decent and dive in, trusting the idea will guide you and grow with you over time.
So i’d encourage everyone to notice those intense marriage feelings, realize we don’t have all the answers, we’ve got so much to learn from our customers over time, and the only way to learn is to pick the best we can and dive in.
Thanks so much, guys, for answering my question on the show (and for plugging my course on Udemy)! Here are two disclaimers: 1. I am a psychologist, but not a therapist. I help people to find therapy if they need it, and to use self-help if they are able to do so. 2. No child fell from any roof in the making of my question.
Now then, on to more important matters…
I really appreciate Faith’s analogy of Clorox not delivering kitty litter and salad dressing from the same truck. I kind of feel that’s what I’d be doing if I had both psychology professionals and anxious laypeople going to the same site. So I will definitely have a different site for the pros. It’s funny that you mentioned fitness, Faith — I’ve been teaching fitness classes longer than I’ve been doing anything (including psychology), and I definitely bring a different persona to that situation, more the “class clown” me.
And Kay, I get your reluctance to choose THE idea you want to go with. The main reason I am serving two very different audiences is that I don’t yet know which one I will be successful with (or maybe it will be both, or maybe neither). I also know that I don’t want to be married to one idea for the rest of my career. I get bored too easily, and just the opportunity to switch back and forth between two different hats makes me much more likely to keep at something for a long time.
Awesome, Bonnie. Thank you *so* much for the great question :)