Live In The Feast

Today’s guest is Elliot Murphy. Elliot is the founder and CEO of KindlyOps, a DevOps and compliance consultancy for regulated industries. Elliot and his team specialize in GDPR, HIPPA, and FDA requirements and creating compliant infrastructure for clients on Amazon Web Services.

After being laid off from his role as CTO for a healthtech startup, he took his 20 years of business experience and put it toward figuring out how he could start his own business without having to leave his small town of Portland, Maine.

As Elliot was filling out job applications, he realized that many of his skills were portable across industries. After reading a book by Philip Morgan on positioning, he was able to take those skills and start niching down his services.

Due to shifts in the industry and more of the compliance process being out-of-the-box, his team has started looking for the things that cloud services can’t automate, which ended up being the more human parts of the compliance - more consulting than implementing.

Admittedly, Elliot is not great at marketing and sales, but he focuses on the elements he is good at, which is word of mouth. He speaks at conferences and is always looking for companies that are very likely to have a problem that he can solve.

Elliot is currently working on productizing some of his services to help smaller clients, and an open source governance and compliance product.

In this episode Elliot talks about:

• How he was able to niche down both his services and his client-base by focusing on an unpleasant part of business.
• Having an abundance mindset and how that can help grow your business and improve community engagement.
• Firing the biggest client he ever had and the positive affect that had on his employees and his business.

Main Takeaways

• Finding a specific problem to solve and being able to articulate that is more valuable than just being able to list off a bunch of skills.
• The value proposition is a huge aspect of building a company. If the input and output is the same regardless of the client then you have to focus on which clients find more value in the work being done and target them specifically.
• You have to take an active role in filtering out clients that aren’t the right fit for your services, so it’s important to have clear and unambiguous messaging.

Important Mentions in this Episode

• KindlyOps
• Amazon Web Services
• HavenGRC
• Contact Elliot
• The Positioning Manual by Philip Morgan

Today’s guest is John Locke. John is the owner of Lockedown Design, an SEO agency in Sacramento, CA focused on SEO for manufacturing companies.

John started his career in blue collar jobs and began doing general web design about seven years ago. In 2017, he started shifting his business toward strictly SEO because he realized search engine rankings were what his clients truly wanted.

In last week’s episode, Matt Medeiros talked about niching into a local market. John has taken the opposite approach. Initially, his business was mostly focused on his local area due to word-of-mouth marketing and local agency relationships. When he moved to focus on SEO, he removed the localization and decided to focus on the global manufacturing industry rather than base his niche on location.

John didn’t arrive at this decision overnight. Throughout his years working with his clients and with agencies, he took note of the trends he was seeing and started experimenting with case studies for the types of clients he wanted to work with. It was by no means a linear process, but eventually it paid off.

Currently, John is focused on content, regularly publishing articles on his blog as well as restructuring his YouTube account weekly videos. Content is an exciting place to experiment - providing value where prospective client’s need it most.

[click_to_tweet tweet=“As long as you pick something that’s in a viable market you should go for it because focusing on a special niche is going to help differentiate you from all the others in your industry.” quote=“As long as you pick something that’s in a viable market you should go for it because focusing on a special niche is going to help differentiate you from all the others in your industry.” theme=“style3”]

In this episode John talks about:

• Understanding his client’s true needs and specializing in meeting those needs.
• Cutting back on partnerships with agencies so he could have more control over the process.
• Building a foundation for his business with monthly retainers.

Main Takeaways

• Search engine rankings aren’t everything. If lead quality isn’t good enough, don’t be afraid to pivot or niche down.
• Experimenting and testing your niche is an important part of the process. If your original niche doesn’t work out, you can always shift to another.
• Learn to trust your gut. Know yourself and what your goals are and make sure your decisions align with those goals.

Important Mentions in this Episode

• Lockedown Design
• ViperChill
• How John Does SEO Audits
• Lockedown YouTube Channel

Today’s guest is Matt Medeiros. Matt is the very definition of a “serial maker”. He’s founded so many different businesses and projects over the years, it’s hard to list them all. He started a digital WordPress agency, Slocum Studio, nearly a decade ago. He’s also the host of several podcasts, including Matt Report, and creator of various WordPress plugins. The easiest way to find out everything Matt’s involved in is his personal website Crafted by Matt.

Currently an account executive at Pagely, Matt has been involved in a number of different ventures over the 15 to 20 years he’s been in the digital space.

Growing up in his family’s car sales business, he found himself drawn to the relational side of the business. That, combined with a passion for technology, led him to launching a local digital agency and mentoring business owners in his town.

In fact, one of Matt’s podcasts, We Are Here, is specifically focused on local businesses in the South Coast area of Massachusetts. Keeping his finger on the pulse of his local community has allowed him to develop more meaningful connections, foster opportunities for his agency, and find niches that weren’t obvious from the outside.

As it always does, becoming a parent has influenced his trajectory. After his first child was born and with a second on the way, Matt decided to take on a full-time job with Pagely. The constant ebb and flow of running a business can be stressful even when you’re only responsible for yourself, let alone an entire family. The job at Pagely allowed Matt to create some financial stability, while still doing work he loves. And, he’s been able to balance full-time employment without giving up his side projects and other businesses.

Whether it’s creating content at Pagely, or working on new podcasts and products, Matt is always making something. And that drive to create has only been helped by finding the right niches to focus on.

In this episode Matt talks about:

• Niching down your business based on location
• The long road to finding work you love and the people you love to work with
• Giving back to his community and creating something lasting for his family
• Balancing his freelance and consulting work with a full-time job

Main Takeaways

• When you make the decision to become a freelancer or a consultant, even if it’s just a side gig, you have to be consistent and keep showing up, keep doing the work.
• Don’t compare yourself or your business to others. You don’t always have to have the most flashy product or service to be successful.
• Get out and interact with others. Sitting behind a computer all day can start to weigh on you and hold you back from building meaningful relationships.

Important Mentions in this Episode

• Crafted by Matt
• Pagely
• Matt Report
• Slocum Studio
• PluggedIn Radio Podcast

Today’s guest is Chris Bintliff. Chris is the owner of Not Really Rocket Science, an agency focused on helping businesses bridge the gap between sales and marketing. He’s all about helping his clients understand their customers and building a marketing engine that works.

With a background in digital learning, Chris took interest in digital marketing when he realized the huge disconnect between what people felt was important and what was actually important.

Chris spends a lot of his time asking ‘why’ and encouraging his client’s to think about their customers first and then work backward to determine the type of marketing engine that will support their customer base.

There’s a constant tension between our ability to create a clear value proposition and our audience’s ability to hear it. And one of the ways Chris was able to clarify his entire approach was by focusing on one person. It can be really scary to implement, but aiming all of your marketing at one person can create a very clear and compelling message.

Confidence plays a big role in this as well. Chris started out taking $400 gigs because that’s all he could find and he wasn’t confident in his work or his abilities. But he used it as a learning experience, soaking up everything he could, and as his career matured, he was able to refine his skills and client base and find the right niche.

And the refining never stops. Currently, Chris’ business is shifting away from a consultancy to an agency model. He’s also working on courses and other related products.

In this episode Chris talks about:

• Getting to the ‘why’ of one’s marketing efforts and tactics
• Helping companies find their marketing identity
• The importance of not falling back into old marketing habits
• The value of marketing automation and relationship-building with clients

Main Takeaways

• Keep asking ‘why’ until you get to a business’ true pain points.
• You can accelerate niching down by ignoring the noise and focusing on one person.
• As the expert in your field, you have to be confident in your abilities. That’s what your clients hired you in the first place. You have to own it.

Important Mentions in this Episode

• Not Really Rocket Science
• Not Really Flight School Courses

Today’s guest is Sara Dunn. Sara is a web developer and founder of 11 Web, a full-service web design agency.

Sara was a guest on Season 2 and since then she’s been intently focused on continuing to specialize her business into a very specific niche. She started six years ago as a WordPress design and development generalist, and now specializes in search engine optimization (SEO) in the wedding industry. She also vlogs about the entire process of specialization on her YouTube channel.

Throughout the process of niching down, she realized there was a lot of fear involved. Fear of turning away potential clients. Fear of leaving money on the table. Fear of making the wrong decisions. And those fears were an obstacle that she had to overcome before she was able to truly find the right niche.

So she started a vlog on YouTube. The public nature of her videos provided accountability and kept her moving forward even when she felt like throwing in the towel.

Finding a sense of direction for herself was one thing, but then came the work of getting the rest of the team on board. It took time, but going deep in a specific vertical gave her and her team the confidence to embrace their expertise and clarify their value proposition.

Currently, the goal is to go deeper in the wedding industry and take on fewer generalist projects. In 2019, Sara hopes to start speaking at wedding-related conferences and growing her reputation that specialized work.

In this episode Sara talks about:

• Creating and demonstrating your value proposition
• How to take the time necessary to find the right niche before going all-in
• Experimenting with your business and marketing tactics
• Positioning yourself as an expert and how that adds value to your team and your clients

Main Takeaways

• Just because you love what you are doing doesn’t mean you should settle. Keep pushing to find the specialty that’s right for you.
• Get content out there that proves your expertise in your niche. This will help bring in leads and keep you true to your chosen niche.
• Progress is incremental and transitions should be gradual. Don’t try to change your business overnight.

Important Mentions in this Episode

• 11 Web
• Sara’s YouTube Channel
• Sara Dunn’s Website

Today’s guest is Josh Doody. Josh is a salary negotiation coach. He’s the author of Fearless Salary Negotiation and helps his clients earn what they’re worth with the strategies and tactics he’s created and refined as both an employee and entrepreneur.

Josh started out as an engineer before finding his way to a project management role at a small software company. Part of his job was to help businesses implement performance management software, which directly exposed him to the inner workings of how many companies modeled compensation and paid their employees.

Josh used that experience and knowledge to significantly increase his own salary multiple times. After helping friends and family achieve the same success, Josh decided to write a book and share these tactics with the wider world. That would eventually become the Fearless Salary Negotiation book and course.

Josh found that his experience and expertise were well suited for software developers, so he niched down and began focusing exclusively on coaching and salary negotiation for software developers.

Through lots of experimentation and listening to client feedback, Josh has been able to continually refine and iterate on his content, which improves his organic visibility.

Josh is currently working on growing his business to replace the income of the full-time job he left more than three years ago now. He spends much of his time experimenting with his content and products and working with his coaching clients.

In this episode Josh talks about:

• How to use your clients’ language in your own content.
• The importance of connecting your offering directly to your customers’ ROI.
• Creating content that can stand the test of time and provide ongoing success.

Main Takeaways

• Listening to your customers and their feedback is critical to niching down and better positioning.
• Giving away high quality content is a great way to build your brand and solidify your credibility in a specific niche.
• Create the content that your audience asks you for.

Important Mentions in this Episode

• Fearless Salary Negotiation
• Josh Doody on Twitter
• Patrick McKenzie negotiation article
• Josh Kaufman

Niching down is something you’ve heard talked about on this show  way back at the start.

Many people I’ve spoken to have seen the value in niching down, but haven’t found that solution that shows them the way, or at the very least points them in a direction.

There are many fears and questions to be addressed and answered.

Questions like “how do you test the waters while still doing existing client work?”

“How to fill-in the gaps in a niche that’s already occupied?”

“How to build a proper value proposition to explain what you do?”

“How to position yourself as the go-to person in your niche”

“How to get and use the language of your client?”

“How do you expand the niche?”

Each week in Season 4 I’ll bring on a co-host who’s specialized their business and we’ll dive deep on one of these questions.

Each co-host has niched down and has a very specific business model that serves a particular client extremely well.

The episode they come on will be focused on what they’ve been more successful in.

By the end of the season you’ll understand why niching down is beneficial to not just you and your business, but more so for your clients.

You’ll have a comprehensive look at the entire process of niching down and hear actionable strategies that work in today’s market.

Season 4 of Live In The Feast is shaping up to be the best freelancer podcast season you’ve ever heard.

You don’t want to miss it. And so you don’t, head on over to iTunes and Subscribe to Live In The Feast today.

While you are there, why not take 34 seconds and leave a 5-star rating and review on Season 3 or your favorite episode.

By subscribing you’ll be sure to get notified each and every single week of Season 4 when a new episode packed with actionable strategies and tips is dropped.

We’ll be back in a few short weeks with Season 4, and until then, you’ll get a few new episodes in between that you’ll want to catch. I guarantee it!

-------------------
👉 For full show notes to this episode & more resources for you.
-------------------

With Season 3 all wrapped up, I want to this opportunity to thank, Justin, Curtis, Philip, Paul, Carrie, Vincent, Matt, Val, Bridget, Ryan, Avani, and Tom for sharing their experiences, their defining moments, and journeys through their lives.

I truly appreciate you, your time and respect each and every one of you very dearly.

As I listened back on Season 3, listening to the stories and all the defining moments, every single person has their own story to tell and is very unique. But there are some overarching themes that I didn’t see coming when I started this season.

One thing I didn’t see coming was that when I asked what the defining moment in life so far was, regardless if it was getting married, having a child, starting their own business, or a pivot point in their business after the 30-45 minutes of conversation, where they are today and headed towards in the future all circles back to that one moment in time.

Makes sense right? Their defining moment has become their compass, their guiding light, their mission.

I would encourage you to ask yourself “What is your defining moment in life so far?”

For this episode, I want to bring to you some interesting quotes and conversation points from this season about being a bit uncomfortable.

In this episode:

• New opportunities won’t open up until you let something go.
• Your positioning and confidence wins over clients.
• There is always another project around the corner.
• Real growth (of yourself and the business) happen when you step outside the box.

Main Takeaways

• Be you and that will attract the clients you want to work with.
• Accelerate your growth and learning by hiring a coach.
• Say “No” when you normally would have said “Yes”

Season 3 of Live In The Feast - Origin Stories

With Season 3 all wrapped up, I want to this opportunity to thank, Justin, Curtis, Philip, Paul, Carrie, Vincent, Matt, Val, Bridget, Ryan, Avani, and Tom for sharing their experiences, their defining moments, and journeys through their lives.

I truly appreciate you, your time and respect each and every one of you very dearly.

As I listened back on Season 3, listening to the stories and all the defining moments, every single person has their own story to tell and is very unique. But there are some overarching themes that I didn’t see coming when I started this season.

One thing I didn’t see coming was that when I asked what the defining moment in life so far was, regardless if it was getting married, having a child, starting their own business, or a pivot point in their business after the 30-45 minutes of conversation, where they are today and headed towards in the future all circles back to that one moment in time.

Makes sense right? Their defining moment has become their compass, their guiding light, their mission.

I would encourage you to ask yourself “What is your defining moment in life so far?”

For this episode, I want to bring to you some interesting quotes and conversation points from this season about building relationships.

In this episode:

• Create long-standing relationships and get a bit uncomfortable.
• Work-of-mouth is your biggest marketing strategy.
• Human factor - "The Cheers Factor" adds a personal touch to your business.
• The real power of relationships happens when you niche down

Main Takeaways

• Your business will be built upon those relationships you build.
• Growth happens in the mundane tasks.
• Go grab your social feed of choice and engage in a conversation each and every day.

Season 3 of Live In The Feast - Origin Stories

Today’s guest is Tom McFarlin. Tom is a WordPress developer, blogger, and guitar player. He operates his own business building custom WordPress sites and products and writes the Practical WordPress Development blog.

Tom is from Atlanta (which, incidentally, is where The Walking Dead is filmed). Tom and I happen to be huge fans of the show and it’s one of the first things over which we bonded. Each season, Tom scouts out the places where they filmed the show and then shares his photos online - it’s a fun project.

Tom started blogging back before it was a thing, and grew his audience with consistent, high-quality content (sometimes posting up to five times a week). Beyond writing and teaching, Tom has been doing WordPress consulting, theme development, plugin development, web application development throughout his career.

Part of the journey was learning to lean into his strengths, which, for him, meant focusing on development and partnering with other designers. Tom applied this same process to business, which has lead him to focus on small businesses and entrepreneurs. Being able to work with clients he likes and solve interesting problems, while providing for his family has created a lot of career satisfaction.

Though there has always been a teaching element to Tom’s work, he eventually created a membership site for WordPress developers. He’s currently working on “phase two” of this project.

In this episode Tom talks about:

• Growing his audience through consistent blogging.
• Finding the sweet spot for his business and career.
• Building a business that can sustain itself for the long-term.
• How having a supportive partner and family can make all the difference when it comes to pursuing your ideal career.

Main Takeaways

• Sometimes the best thing you can do for your business is to rely on the strengths of others rather than forcing yourself to do things you’re not good at.
• Choosing your niche customer isn’t always about the money, it should also be about what you love to do.
• Every industry has its highs and lows but it is possible to build a business that can withstand those changes.

Important Mentions in this Episode

• Practical WordPress Development Blog
• Practical WordPress Development Membership Site