Niche or Just Admit You’re Headed For Irrelevance

If you’re jonesing to be more than just an average player in the expertise space, you no longer have a choice.

It’s not a question of SHOULD you niche, but how.

Think about it.

You’re not a financial advisor. You partner with women who run service businesses in NYC to build their wealth.

You’re not a human resource consultant. You design pay systems for fast-growing technology companies.

You’re not an executive coach. You build C-suite leaders in Fortune 500 consumer products companies.

See the difference? And of course adding in the essential on-brand emotional call to action will add the sizzle to elevate you beyond the competition.

There’s an art to picking a niche, especially when it comes to selling advisory, consulting or coaching services and all that goes with it—books, podcasts, TED talks, speeches.

Your niche has to be small enough for you to own it (think white space where no one has gone before)—and yet expansive enough to let you grow the biggest vision you have for yourself.

But you have to start with biting the bullet and drilling down to the right niche for you, right here, right now. The one that allows you to pull in your sweet-spot clients and buyers pretty much immediately. And that typically means utter clarity, with an exquisitely crafted come-hither message to your tribe.

“But what about the clients I already have who don’t fit my new niche?” If you’re serving them well, this change will hardly make them leave you. And they just might become your apostles and start spreading the word.

“But there aren’t enough of my dream targets in my own backyard to make sense specializing.” If you’ve picked the niche chock-full of the work you are thrilled to do, then it’s time to think bigger. Start building a digital pipeline to bring new clients to your virtual door.

“But, but, but…can’t I just come up with a snazzy new logo and tagline and call it a day?” Uh, no.

Hey, I get it. Commitment to a niche is pretty high up on the fear scale. It closes off other avenues. It feels downright scary.

But the alternative is worse. You stagnate. You become—eventually—irrelevant.

It’s the business equivalent of crawling off to die in a corner. Unappreciated. Alone.

Are you really willing to settle for that?

I didn’t think so.

So here’s a start. Make a list of the best clients and the best work you’ve ever done. The people and projects you’d re-create 10 times over if you could. I guarantee there is gold there if you mine it closely.

Make your barometer joy—however you (and ONLY you) define it. The temperament or situation of your clients, the work itself, your work style, the pay for that work, your teammates or all of the above.

If you’ve been working at this and spinning your wheels, check out your options to work with me here.

Invest in building yourself EXACTLY the right niche.

And give irrelevance the finger.