F53-041: Going Against The Experts - No Niche and Less Marketing

Show Summary: Today's show is about why I'm going against "the experts," why I’m stopping my quest to niche, and why I'm doing less marketing. For the last three months in the podcast and months prior, I spent a tremendous amount of time on the concept of niching down and you'll hear it said many different ways out in the industry. "The riches are in the niches" or "If you don't niche, you don't know who your audience is" and so on and so forth. Niching Down Is Not for Me When I was really doubting in my avatar, I was focusing on my niche and I struggled with it. I've had a really hard time with it mentally for me. I just didn't feel like I was the expert in underwater basket-weaving or anything similar and that's where I wanted to focus. It just didn't feel right. I felt very strongly that my strength is in the wit of my knowledge and my ability to work across multiple businesses, multiple verticals, and different business units like technology, operations, customer service, people and process, etc. I've fought hard to fall the commonly stated wisdom of a mile deep in knowledge and an inch-wide versus mile-wide and an inch-deep. I've come to the grips with the reality that for me, I'm a half-mile wide and 2-inch deep. I'm not either one of those and trying to force myself into that has been limiting. Niching to me has been so limiting that it's hurt a little bit. It's limiting in the following ways: Who I should work with How and what I say What my value is So I’ve decided not to niche down and it felt awesome. But let me be clear... Niching is important. It really is an important thing for marketing. You have to know who you're talking to. I should have known my "why" early on. But I have learned along the process so I want to share this with you. Dipping My Toes into a Very Noisy Space I'm not a marketer and more importantly, I'm not wanting to be a marketer. I don't enjoy it that much. So the business coach/the internet entrepreneur space is so crowded. There is such a low bar of entry and it's really noisy with crap and mounds of information sprinkled with some good stuff. The space has been so noisy over the last three months and being in it, I've been able to see how crowded it really is and been able to observe that the concept of "best coaches and entrepreneurs" are really just marketers. So you see a massive flood of online courses, webinars, workshops, digital products, intensives, digital downloads, etc. They're not all bad. There are some great content out there and a lot of it serves a very specific purpose. But majority is created by marketers with good marketing copy. Experience versus Marketing Tactics And when you peel back the layers of whatever you signed up for, you just see great sales copy, great marketing narrative, and some information that won't likely transform you or your business. It's created by somebody that doesn't really have a depth of experience in whatever you're looking for but simply creating something because they think it will sell and they're savvy enough to know how to get to the right "niche" to deliver that. They put their nice sales copy around it and they're able to make some sales. That's just not for me. I'm not an expert in basket-weaving nor a marketer or my goal is to sell a well-designed marketing product to ten thousand people. So it's taken a couple of months for me to really get into the space, see it, and understand it. The reality is it hasn't taken that amount of time for me to feel it. Part of my struggle was going against what the "experts" say or common convention and I didn't pick a passion or a niche, create an avatar, a product, and market it towards them. I was a bit of an outlier even then. This isn't a knock on those types of businesses as some are successful. Some create very good content. Some create content used by people and they become successful at it. This is not a knock on the good ones but it's just sadly so noisy. Finding A Quick Fix People look for quick fix when there is no quick fix for a lot of the problems. So these people are sadly trying to create a windfall with a product or two and live a boomer bust lifestyle going from product launch to another when they don't have a depth in knowledge of. There's nothing wrong with it but it just doesn't work for me. The 5-Minute Journal So I keep a 5-minute journal that has my goals for the day, what I did, some accomplishments, things I'm happy about, and things I need to work on. I've been documenting my struggles with this for a while since even before I started this podcast. A few things I documented: It didn't feel right. I didn't feel like I was serving my purpose. The good news… These feelings are very normal which are the same feelings you get when you're leaning into something that's out on your uncomfortable zone and that is where all growth happens. It's how I felt when I did my first podcast. It was very uncomfortable but that's where growth happens. So it's normal, natural, and something I needed to do to go through these learning experience if I really needed to niche down, create an avatar, and focus on basket-weaving. I've learned it and set back and realized it's just not for me. My Endeavors Moving Forward Podcast I'm still doing the podcast and interviews. I love to do this. I also love to be interviewed. It improves my communication skills and the audience learns. Little to no niching The show is focused on: Business operations, process and people I will continue to help out companies that are a good fit for me. Virtual Chief Operating Officer I help people run their businesses better. High impact coaching Directly working with high performers to help them reach massive goals. I ask really tough questions. We dream big together. I get them to view their world in a different way than they saw it before. Less marketing Less videos, less blog posts, less social media management, less emails, less caring about subscribers, likes, downloads, open rates, website traffic, etc. What I'm going to do now is more of what I'm best at and that's connecting with people, learning about them, learning about their business, about their struggles, challenges, goals, shoot for half or most of them, setting their visions and goals, helping them find or solve issues, taking them to the next level. All of this aligns much better with my why, what I want to do, and how I want to do it. Niching down felt so constraining and it's just been a massive relief not to care about it. Key Takeaways from this episode: This is not a "pivot" but a course correction for myself. My main why or purpose is to help people out. That's my vision and how I'm getting there has changed a little bit. Self-reflection Create a space in your day, in your week, in your life that you can sit back and reflect on how things are going and how you felt. Really sit back and look at what you're fundamentally doing and understand what's going on. An important part of that was making sure what I felt and what I was doing fundamentally matched up with my purpose. Creating raw content I do love powerful content but trying to get into the fast lane of the marketing chaos is unproductive for me. Being true to myself A lot of coaches and digital entrepreneurs are faking it until they make it. They come with their courses and products straight right out of the rear. That's not how I want to run my business and not what I'm trying to build. It's a game I don't want to win and a game I don't want to play. I'm just going back old school. The same principles that have allowed me to be successful in the corporate world and with the web design company are the same principles I'm going for here. I'm just going to be Ryan and I'm going to be delivering my services, my value, and the things I hold near and dear to my heart and the things I consider myself excellent at.   Books, People, & Resources: The Prosperous Coach by Rich Litvin and Steve Chandler eye9design - A boutique web design and WordPress agency that just celebrated 10 years in business (an eternity in the web design space). They built hundreds of websites for businesses of all sizes. Finding a web design company is hard. There are lots of options, lots of good ones but lots of bad ones. 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