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"I don't want to pick a niche"... DO THIS instead. | Anna Hickman | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: "I don't want to pick a niche"... DO THIS instead.
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Video Transcript
picking a niche can be both the best and
worst thing that you do for your
business on the one hand it's the
quickest way to build an audience
attract clients and make a ton of
money in the short term but if you're
not careful it's often the quickest way
to kill your business in the long term
especially for a lot of creatives where
picking a niche and putting yourself in
this tiny little box just leaves you
feeling bored burnt out and unfulfilled
and so how do you position yourself as
the expert and make it easier to attract
clients without feeling like you're
stuck in a box that you will never get
out of well it is possible because I've
done it and so in this video I want to
show you exactly how I found my Niche or
in other words the thing that I did
better than anybody else that allowed me
to charge a premium for my web design
services and then how I grew out of this
Niche and expanded my business without
losing my original audience and having
to start all over again from scratch and
so to start off there is a reason that
every expert out there is shouting at
you to Niche Niche Niche the more
specific you are about the value you
provide in the audience you serve the
easier it is to grow an audience and
attract clients for example let's say
you are a wedding photographer looking
for a web designer to revamp your
website you're not just looking for the
budget option you're ready to invest in
an expert that's going to help you get
results so you start looking for someone
to help you and you come across three
options first you have someone over here
who is a generalist they offer
everything web design logo design
animation video editing social media
management whatever it is they do it
then person number two they just offer
web design they specialize in this one
thing and then person number three over
here is also a web designer but they
specialize in building websites for
wedding photographers and so which one
is this client choosing well the obvious
option is going to be number three the
person who specializes in building
websites for wedding photographers by
niching down this web design over here
has made themselves a no-brainer option
for this client making it not only
easier to attract more clients like this
but easier to charge more for their
services because the perceived
likelihood of this type of client
getting the results they want if they
choose this person is higher and so for
your business and for making the most
amount of money possible being this
specialist over here instead of the
generalist over here makes a lot of
sense but there are two massive mistakes
when trying to pick a niche that set you
up to fail in the long term number one
is niching down too quickly I speak to a
lot of people who are trying to launch
their business and they're stuck because
they just haven't figured out what their
niche be yet but for your Niche to
really serve you it has to do two things
it needs to be something that you enjoy
and you want to do and there has to be a
demand for this thing you need to have
an audience that are interested and need
what you're offering and so actually the
best way to find your Niche is to start
Broad and explore a little at first
explore your interest explore what works
with your audience and then slowly
narrow this down over time for example I
was running a live Workshop the other
day around building your business
through content and one of the
participants shared with me that they
they are a web designer and their
current Niche was electricians and they
found this Niche because they built a
website for an electrician who then
referred them to a bunch of other
business owners and found that there was
a demand for this service and so what
this person did here is a perfect
example of how you can find your Niche
he worked with a client did a great job
and then got a bunch of referrals from
similar clients and if he had really
enjoyed working with this client and
loved this project then I would tell him
to absolutely lean into this and pursue
that opportunity build out your offer
build out your portfolio around this
industry and use that to charge more as
a specialist for this type of client but
the problem that this guy was having was
that this wasn't necessarily a project
he enjoyed or a niche that he was really
excited about and so it's really good to
look at the market and see where the
demand is but if you don't want to be
stuck making websites for this one type
of client and it's going to suck all the
joy out of your work then do not do it
it might make you more money in the
short term but you're the one that has
to work on this day in and day out and
if you're not enjoying it you're not
excited about it then it's not
sustainable in the long term and it's
really not worth it and so my advice to
him was take all the work you can get
from these referrals behind the scenes
but don't Niche down in public just yet
only put out the work and portfolio
examples that you enjoy and you want to
do more of and there are other audiences
and other ways to specialize and you
don't have to get stuck in the first
Niche that you fall into which brings me
nicely into the second mistake that
people make so mistake number two is
thinking that there's only one way to
Niche down for most people when they
hear the word Niche they think that this
means Service Plus industry for example
they pick a service like web design then
they pick a smaller audience or industry
within this so for example web design
for Real Estate but this is just one way
of niching down there are a hundred
other things that you can become known
for and hundred other ways to set
yourself apart as the expert so you can
Niche buy service and Industry but you
can also Niche down by Design style
skill or specific knowledge by the
problem that you solve for example just
building High converting landing pages
or how you structure your offer so for
example website in a day for example at
the beginning of my web design business
I had no Niche I was just trying to find
any type of client and so I was focusing
all my attention at getting really good
at building websites I cared about
getting results for my clients and doing
a good job and so I was just learning
everything I could and then sharing what
I was learning with my audience and as I
was learning I then became obsessed with
sales psychology and copywriting and
this was something that really excited
me and I leaned into this a lot to
improve my services and the results that
I got my clients and after a while when
clients came to me they would all say
something like I saw your content I
loved your approach around storytelling
and crafting messaging to connect with
your customers and so I leaned into my
interest and I became known for my
unique approach to to web design through
storytelling and sales psychology this
was what set me apart and I only had to
be good at this one thing I didn't have
to be the best at everything my design
style wasn't the best visually there are
better web designers out there I didn't
specialize in a specific audience or
industry but I was really good at
crafting messaging that converts and
that was my Unique Edge over other web
designers so whatever it is you just
want to focus all your energy on
improving your skills and the results
that you get your clients and forget
about trying to label and put yourself
in a box and then you'll find that
naturally over time you'll become known
and recognized for the thing that you do
really well and this is how you find
your Niche and then once you do this
once you start to become known at being
really good at this one thing then
something really really cool also starts
to happen and this is called the halo
effect and so what this means is that
when you show the world something that
you are really good at they start to
assume that you are really good at
everything else too but the problem is
that the opposite is also true if you
try and do everything and show the word
a bunch of things that you're just
average at then they're going to judge
you on your worst work they'll see the
one thing that you're not very good at
and then presume that you're at
everything else too and so you want to
show the world only your very best work
you want to achieve credibility for the
one thing that you really excel at and
then use that to grow your audience and
your business then once you have an
audience that trusts you you can go
broad from there for me I started with
web design and then from there I
specialized in celles Psychology and
copyrighting and The credibility and and
the audience that I built from that
allowed me to Branch out and go broad
into more overall online business
strategy I discovered notion and
productivity systems and I now sell
templates to all kind of Freelancers and
business owners and I make content and
have an audience that trusts me to talk
about everything online business
audience growth business strategies
Business Systems digital products
personal branding and so going deep at
first and getting really good at one
thing allowed me to then Branch out in
the future and this audience trusted me
and followed me because I had built up a
lot of trust and credibility with them
from being good at this one thing first
so another example of this in practice
is Ali abdal he grew his initial
audience making videos about what he
knew helping people study and get into
medicine and then as his audience grew
he continuously pursued his curiosity
and passions and now makes content about
productivity books Tech and everything
around building a life that you love so
while no one knows you you want to start
specific and then use that to build
recognizability and this is going to
help you grow your business quicker in
the short term and also start making
more money faster and then you can
Branch out from there and the other very
important thing that allows you to do
this is a personal brand this is another
question I get asked a lot should I pick
a niche or build a personal brand and
the answer is both they are not mutually
exclusive to build your business and
grow an audience you need to be very
specific in who you're talking to and
the value that you offer and so go niche
in the value and the service that you
Prov provide but make sure that people
connect that value to you your face your
personality your experience you are the
memorable thing or the brand rather than
having a logo or an agency name and the
benefits of doing this is that it allows
you to one build up an incredible amount
of trust very quickly with your audience
people connect with people over Brands
Tesla has 30 million followers but Elon
Musk has 187 million followers virgin
has 700,000 followers but Richard
Branson has 15 million and so especially
when there's so much content and
competition out there people gravitate
towards people that they can relate to
and connect with and it gives you that
additional Edge over someone else and
the second thing it allows you to do is
Pivot and grow your business you're
building an audience that trusts you and
will follow you in whatever Direction
you choose to go in the future personal
branding doesn't have to be exhausting
or complicated you really don't have to
Poe everything about your life it's just
about attaching your face to the value
that you're providing making sure that
people remember you and so I don't share
a lot about my personal life in my
content in fact I hardly share anything
the way that I bring myself into my
content and make myself memorable is
just by using my personal experience to
build connection with my audience I'm
very transparent about my failures my
struggles my wins and all the ups and
downs in my business and I just do my
best to present myself as a
multi-dimensional person and not just
this all knowing Picture Perfect expert
the a lot of people try to be in their
businesses and their content and this
Builds an audience that trust you and
connect with you as a person and so for
all you multi-passionate creatives and
business owners looking for a way to
build a business and an audience that
gives you complete freedom to take your
business in whichever direction you want
to go in the future in the most simple
terms here is the strategy one start
specific go Niche at first to make it
easier to build an audience and attract
customers number two show your face to
build a personal connection and an
audience that trusts you then number
three use this audience to go Broad and
take your business in whichever
direction you want in the future and if
you need a step-by step for how to get
started with this then this video here
will give you five pieces of content
that you can post today to help you
position yourself as the expert and
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