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(But read the article too ). 
 

Without further ado, this week’s article. 

***

In the next 5 minutes, I want to help you avoid the single biggest mistake I have made in business over the last 10 years.

Not (properly) defining a niche.

The most insidious thing?

I thought I had defined it.  
 

So, what’s a niche?

A niche is a small subset of the population that you, and ideally only you, can be a hero to.
 

A Bucket Full of Red Paint

If you had a bucket full of bright red paint and you poured it into the ocean, would the ocean change colour? No.

Now, if you take this same bucket of bright red paint and you pour it into a small pool, would the pool change colour? Absolutely.

The bucket represents your offer – a product or service that helps someone.

The pool and the ocean represents your potential market, the people you serve.

Fun fact: ChatGPT generated most of this image for me (not bad huh!) Apparently the lines in the blue box are the ‘waves in the ocean’ haha!
 

Your Biggest Issue = Obscurity

The biggest issue that you will face at the start of your business is not a lack of expertise.

You already know plenty of Lifestyle Medicine goodness, right?

Sure, you could learn more. But, you know enough to help people.

The problem you face is obscurity.

No one knows that you exist.

The last thing you want to be is the world’s best kept secret.

This helps no one. It doesn’t help you and it doesn’t help the person that you are best positioned to serve.
 

The Mistake of Trying to Help Everyone

When I coach LM practitioners with their business, as it pertains to marketing, this is the mistake I see over and over. (The same mistake I have made). 

They try to help everyone because technically … they can.

By definition, Lifestyle as Medicine can help everyone (the ocean).

But remember this, 

If you market to everyone, you will market to no one. (Read that over and over)

You will be a drop in the ocean and remain obscure and unknown.
 

Find your pool 

Leave the ocean for the big corporations. These big corps have multi-million dollar budgets and dedicated marketing and sales departments.

However, it’s impossible to be everything for everyone.

The big corps often miss the small parts of the population.

There are small and underserved parts of the population that are struggling.

They are not having their needs met by the ‘system’.
 

That’s where you come in.
 

You could lead your own tribe of humans.

A tribe where you ‘get them’ and they ‘get you’.
 

You could be obscure on a larger scale (the ocean), but well known within your niche (a pool).
 

Three Benefits of Niching Down

1. It can be lucrative

You only need 1,000 true fans.

The concept originates from Kevin Kelly, the founder of Wired Magazine.

A true fan is someone who will go out of their way to support you and pretty much buy anything that you offer.

If you can make $100 profit every year, from each of your 1000 true fans, that’s $100k a year.

You can play with these numbers.

It depends on how much $ you want to make and how many people you want to work with.

Financial Goal/Number of true fans = $ per true fan

e.g.

Financial Goal = $500k a year

Number of true fans = 100

$ per true fan = $5000/year

Daunting? Maybe.

Possible? Absolutely. Especially, when you extend the time horizon.

Let’s say you give yourself 3-5 years to build your ‘100’ true fan base.

It’s all doable. 
 

The main thing I am highlighting is that a niche can pay the bills, and then some.

I wrote it about it here.

2. Your offer will be waaaaay better

Let’s say that you help people who have chronic diseases. That’s the ocean.

Imagine how generic this offer would have to be. Eat well, exercise, lose weight…booring!

Now, let’s say you help women in their 40s who are newly diagnosed with diabetes and want to reverse it without going on medications. Now that’s a pool!

Imagine how tailored your offer can be.

This particular niche would have it’s own set of problems, needs, and wants.

You can design it just for them.

They will be much more inclined to open their wallet for you.

If no one else has created such a tailored offering, you have no competition.

If you have no competition, they can’t compare prices.

If they can’t compare prices, they are more likely to pay a premium to work with you. (Remember the previous point? Lucrative). 

3. Sharper Marketing

If you have identified a specific niche, then your marketing can be super specific.

Marketing = The art of getting and staying known by your target market (niche)
 

Good marketing does 2 things:

a) It tells your target market that you can help them

b) It tells everyone else that you can’t help them

Let’s take the 45 year old woman who wants to reverse their newly diagnosed diabetes without meds.

This lady will have a specific set of pains, problems, aspirations.

You can absolutely nail this in your marketing.

Now imagine marketing to ‘people with chronic disease’.

A 45 year old lady with newly diagnosed diabetes is very different to a 75 year old man with heart disease.

Where in the world would you even start?

 

Are you sold on the power of niching down yet? 

Questions? CONTACT ME BELOW and let me know

Loved it? SHARE it with a fellow LM nerd you care about. 

Much love to you and of course, myself.

Dr G

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