[Transcript starts at 1:59]
What up my podcast people. Thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my podcast. favorite podcast. So I am back in the studio and by studio, I mean by office and we continue to have some, some pretty warm temperatures here. It's a little bit better today though. We did get some rain last week, which is like unheard of for SoCal in September.
So it cooled things off just a little bit. Uh, I got the window closed and the door closed and the fan off. It's a little bit hot, but I think I'm going to make it. Last time when I was recording, I had like legit, like, Wasn't sure if I was gonna make it, but today I'm feeling like I'm gonna make it. So, let's hop on into this.
Like I said in a little preview thing, today's episode is based on a question that a dope Insta homie slid into the old DMs, and I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna read it out to you. She wrote, when starting the THING, in all caps there, the THING, Your professional opinion on doing a thing that you're great at comes naturally to you slash lights you up, but could possibly be harder to get paying clients versus doing something you're good at and enjoy for the most part that could be easier to get paying clients.
And then she put in parentheses, because demand for that thing. is higher. So I love this question. She was also super gracious in how she wrote this. I'm going to actually read this out. After that she wrote, I know you're busy. No need to respond directly to me personally, but just a possible idea for a post.
Love what you do. Like, this is just so nice. I have the best people in my audience. You listen to this, you are the best. And DMs, everyone's just so gracious and thoughtful. And like, it just, it just really, I really appreciate this and you listen to this. That's the person that asked the question. Thank you for asking this.
I never want to like just say people's names. I don't know how they feel about like, you know, saying their name. So you listening to this, you know, it was your question. Thank you for being here. Thank you for asking it in the way that you did. It's just, it's just really, really kind. And it made my day. So I think this question is really interesting because we know that when we're choosing between like something that's good and something that's bad, it's a very easy choice.
Like immediately when I think of this question, I think about like relationships when people leave a relationship that just isn't bad, but it's not good. Right? It's not bad, but it's not great. It's just a, it can be a harder thing for people to do and for people to think about because yes, when something is like objectively bad, it's easy to make a decision.
But when things just aren't as good as they could be, that's a bit tougher for all of us. Whether it's because it's how we've been socialized or whatever. It's just a little bit tougher. So, I love this question because she makes a really good point here. Or she says something interesting here that I want to point out, which is that she's good at both things, right?
She has proficiency and she has skill in both things. And I think that's really, really important to note and really important to have if you're starting a new business endeavor. So I am actually going to drop a, I don't know, a plug for a free resource that I have. I've talked about it before. It's called the FT3 stands for first this, then that is an, an ebook that I put together to help people niche down, niche.
And I don't even know how you're supposed to say it when it's a verb. I don't really know. To help them figure out, you know, the demographic they want to be helping and the problem that they want to be solving. Largely based on what they have expertise in, what they've been doing, what people are asking them about.
And I call it the FT3 because it stands for first this, then that. Oftentimes when we're starting something new, I want people to start out with what they have expertise in. That's how you build a business, right? A business is not built on hopes and dreams. You have to actually be able to solve problems.
It's great if you, you know, can solve problems and you have hopes and dreams, but if it's just hopes and dreams, that's not really going to solve anyone's problems. They're not going to pay you for that, right? Businesses are built on solutions to problems, to quote Danny Mattei, who I'm sure borrowed that from somebody else.
So, within this FT3, this workbook that I created, It's free. Uh, Courtney, thank you for, for dropping that. It's just one, it's an opt in book. We can do another episode about what opt ins are. Uh, but within the, the ebook that I created, I have people list things out based on first this, and that's the things that they're currently receiving questions about, what they have expertise in.
And then the second part is that, and that's the things they want to be doing. Things that they're like dreaming about. If there's overlap, amazing. But if you don't have expertise in that thing yet, I don't want you to start a business in that because you have to be not one step ahead of your. potential clients, but like 50 steps ahead of your potential clients.
Even if we think about, you know, my background is physical therapy. Even if you think about something like physical therapy, when you come out, yes, you are a new grad, but you still know legitimately 50 times more than the average person. That's why we saw with The prehab guys like they started their account during school because the things you're learning in school While they may seem very rudimentary you're legit going to school.
This is your expertise So you're gonna be way ahead of the general population, even though you are still learning You're still in school. You're still way ahead this whole, you know bullshit about like just maybe one step ahead. No That's bullshit. You don't need to be one step ahead of your people. You got to be like 50 steps ahead of them.
So when you're looking to start an endeavor, you need expertise. And you know, I am a big proponent. I talk about it a lot of being the best at that thing. And it's very clear when you're the best because people tell you. And perhaps that's, you know, my sports background coming through, but there's no like ambiguity of whether you're not, you're the best.
Yes. When people are trying to like compare players that played in different decades, that's different. But when you're going head to head, Someone wins, and someone loses. It's as simple as that. You know when you're the best. Even if you, you know, maybe you do lose, you're winning overall. You're winning the most games.
You're winning the most tournaments. Whatever. You're the best at playing events. Whatever the thing is. It's objective. And people tell you. So, if no one's telling you this yet, well then you're not the best yet. And this doesn't need to be the best in the whole world. You need to be the best at the thing you do for the people that are around you, the people that you're serving.
It's as simple as that. So, yes, you do have to have that expertise if we are looking to Circling back to her question, the cool part here is that she, you know, enjoys both. She has expertise in both, which means she could do either, which I think makes the decision a little bit harder. You already know that I'm going to tell her to do what she is passionate about and what brings her joy and what lights her up.
She already knew that. In the second part of that, the third part actually of the DM, she was just like, I know which way I'm being pulled. I had, you know, my intuition and this, that, and the other thing. But just, you know, wanted to hear what you guys say and thought it might be a cool podcast episode, which I think it's going to be a cool episode.
So yes, I'm going to tell her to go with that thing that brings her joy, even though there's some less demand. And I'll get into that in a second. But I really do want to highlight and harp on the fact that she has this expertise, that's super, super important, perhaps makes her decision a little bit harder.
But if you are, you know, faced with this question, make sure you have expertise. If you don't, then And you're like, but I want to start something. Well, I would say just honestly holding off and you can just be sharing what you're learning as you go, but it's, you gotta be ahead of your people. All right.
You gotta be able to solve their problems. So should she choose the thing that has more demand or the thing that brings her more joy? Now, no, this doesn't have to be a binary. Cause I know that you folks listening to this are like, well, why is it about to be one or the other? It doesn't at all. But in her situation, we see that one thing does bring her a bit more joy, and the other thing is a bit easier with, in terms of demand, in terms of demand as she currently sees it.
And perhaps as it objectively is, I do want to highlight and commend the fact that she's even looking at demand. Realistically, when it comes to starting a business, we do want to think about is there enough demand to support what I want to be doing. And actually let me refine that statement. Is there enough demand to support my enough?
And I'm going to borrow that from, you know, that concept of enough from Laura Jean. I brought her on the podcast. I don't know what episode it is. Thank you for linking that Courtney, but we got to take a step back and think about what is our enough? What does that look like? And. The reason that I don't necessarily want to harp on it too much is because of something that I spoke about in episode 388.
I do want us to think about what is my enough, but depending on the phase of life that you're in, that could change. So in episode 388, I talk about embracing seasonality and talking about seasonality in business and also seasonality in life. And I think that we have three phases that We are in at any point in time and we go through them and it's cyclical and seasonal and, you know, spirality comes into that, but if I'm going to, the way that I, that I broke it down in that episode was the expand phase, the experience phase, and the pivot phase.
If you want to keep it. cool and have it alliteration and everything begin with the letter E, then it'd be the expand phase, the experience phase, and the evolve phase. And so expanding is when you're like, I want to learn a lot of things. I want to make all the money. I want to just like work so hard. I want to just, I'm in it.
The experience is when you're like, this is great. Maybe it's kind of like summertime, right? You're like, I just want to enjoy it. So we call it an experience less enjoy, right? You're enjoying the I just want to chill. Maybe you're in your business and you're like, yeah, I don't need to grow any bigger. I'm just good.
Right. I'm good right here. I love it. And then there's that evolve or that pivot phase. And that's oftentimes when people are looking to start something new. They are looking to, you know, they've left a career or a career has ended. I'm thinking of someone right now. Uh, she ended her phenomenal career as a teacher.
and is now going into the, uh, fitness kind of health and fitness space, right? That's an evolution or a pivot phase. We're going from one thing to the other. And that typically can, that may lead into an expand phase, but given that she's not, you know, 22, maybe it doesn't lead into that same kind of expand or what, what is her enough is different than when she was 22.
So we want to think about that in general. And that's why I didn't want to Part on it too much of like decide what your enough is and know for sure because that can change But it is something they wouldn't be thinking about like, what is my enough? Do I do I want a mansion somewhere? Do I want to have like five kids and you know, that's gonna take that's gonna cause a lot of money Or do I want to have five cats?
Cause less money. Do I, you know, want to have five cars? Do I want to ride a bike? Do I want to live in South Bay? Do I want to live? In text, I don't know, you're thinking about these things and then what does that require, right? So, breaking it down, taking it back a step, we're looking at demand versus joy.
But, before that, considering what our enough is. And the reason that that matters to a certain extent is because you don't need a zillion people. If you're, you're enough is not, uh, you know, some huge thing, some exorbitant amount of money or tremendous amount of money that requires more people or requires more demand.
Now, yes, if you want to just like kind of like blow smoke and be like a lot of marketers out there, we could say like any number of could support any number of people could support, Wow. Got excited. Any number of people could support that lifestyle that you want. And it's like. I guess you could like have three people and charge them each a million dollars, but like that's a really hard sell and depending on what you're trying to sell.
So I really do like taking that realistic approach of like, what do people typically value this thing at? Which from a, uh, not just a monetary perspective, but a worth kind of perspective and how much, time they're willing to put into it, and yeah, so much money they're willing to pay. What kind of problem does it solve for them?
How big is this pain point for them? Now, yes, again, there can be unicorns out there that are like, I just love this thing, and I just want to learn how to juggle, and I will pay someone anything to teach me how to do that. And now that also requires that that person has that kind of, money to be able to pay you anything to teach them how to juggle.
So I do like being realistic with it and thinking, okay, what is, what is the going rate here? What's accepted? Do I want, like, yes. And then from there, how many people do I think are in this market? Yeah, that is a very valid thing. Something to think about kind of tying into this, maybe we'll do a different episode on it, but just, you know, In terms of, we'll say scalability, there's kind of two sides of this, where if we're looking at the demographic, sometimes it can be easier to sell to a demographic, one demographic, but there may be more people in a different demographic.
demographic, right? So I'm thinking B2B versus B2C here. So business to business versus business to consumer. If you are a fit, let's say a fitness business coach. Yes, it is typically easier to sell a solution to another business owner because they can see the ROI there typically make more money and people value that because it's very tangible.
Whereas, and there's like, you know, there can be a big pain point there. Whereas if you go B to C business to consumer and you're selling fitness, that can be a harder sell for people. It's a pain point, but maybe they're not going to pay as much for it. We know it's a longer timeframe for them to get the ROI that maybe they're looking for.
So maybe it's a little bit of a harder sell. But if we're thinking about scalability, there are far more people who could utilize your services as a fitness professional than there are business owners who could utilize your services. It's just, that's just a fact. All right, so there's two sides to that coin there.
But if we're thinking about demand versus joy, kind of going back to that, and if we're thinking about just in general, if as a new business owner, and you're like, okay, I'm looking to start something, what do you suggest maestro? Yes, let's look into demand. Are there enough people in this demographic? But the biggest thing is going to be the expertise, which is why I think her question is so interesting.
This is because the better you are at something, and this is going to tie into also how passionate you are about it, if you can be the best at that thing, and there's enough people, there doesn't have to be a tremendous amount of people in that, that demographic, in that niche, but there's enough to support your enough.
That almost sounded like urine. That was weird. But if there's enough to support your enough, you're good because you become the best at that thing and you corner that market. So, while her question was talking about demand, there was a little bit in, you know, she spoke about in the first half of it, she spoke about how it would be easier to sell to the one demographic versus the other.
So yes, that somewhat speaks to demand, but there's also leaning on just how easy it is to sell, not just how many people there are in general, because those are two different things. So, in my opinion, if you were in her shoes and you have expertise in both things, you But one may be a little bit easier to sell and there's a little bit more demand versus the other one that's a little bit harder to sell, but it lights you up, you go after the one that lights you up, why?
Because you're going to bring that enjoyment, that fulfillment, that passion, and that's actually what's going to keep you going ultimately. And that's what's going to drive you to be the best, which is what's going to allow you to corner that market, be the best in that market, and excel. Like, my brain is just thinking in E's right, right now.
It's going to allow you to excel and make the money that hopefully is your enough. I'm thinking about Ben Patrick right now and Knees Over Toes guy, and I'm not sure if people would realize that like how big the market is. Like now we see it, but I'm not sure if before, if you would be like, he just does knees, like that's his thing.
If people would be like, Oh, like, yeah, totally go after that market. Or they'd be like, that's not enough. Not enough people. Meanwhile, he's shown us when you niche down and you are the best at that thing. And you are so passionate about that thing. And you just believe in that thing to no end. It's like, you almost start creating that demand.
Now, I kind of hesitate to say that because I don't know if he's actually creating it or if he's kind of just shedding light on a problem and providing a solution and people are like, Oh, I do want that, which essentially is creating demand, but I don't know, I hesitate to say that, but the, the take home there being having the expertise, having the passion for that thing and proving, showing that actually, if you are the best at that, there can be enough.
And even if initially when you start, there isn't as much demand or it's a harder sell, right? I would really like to lean on that. Especially it's a harder sell. That's okay. Become the best at that thing. Getting results, or I should say, become the best at getting results for that thing. That's the best form of marketing.
You can then get additional marketing help if you need. And you can highlight, hey, this is a problem that I have a solution for. If you have this problem, here's how I solve it. If you want help, I got you. And run with it. Again, I'm going to circle back because I think it's really important. You got to have expertise in this thing.
You got to be able to get results for people. And now I get it. Maybe you're listening to this and you're like, but I'm just starting. I'm brand new. Your first clients are going to be your friends and your family. I talk about that meme all the time. The meme that I made that is. Like the episode from Sex and the City where Samantha is talking to Smith Jarrett and she said, first come the gays, then the girls, then the industry.
Same thing for online business. First comes your family, then your friends, then the strangers. But you have to have some expertise there. And I don't really want people to just be like, I'm going to just start this brand and like ask for sales. And I just, I don't think that's the way to go about it. I will do an episode on the approach that I like, but specifically to answer her question, she's starting out.
Enjoys both. enjoys one more than the other. It comes really naturally. She's got a lot of passion for it, but it's a little bit harder to sell this thing versus the other one that it's fine. She likes it, but there's a bit more demand for that. I'm going to lean in the direction of the thing that brings you, brings her the most joy.
So if you are starting out right now and you're thinking, you know, What should I lean into? The three things, and we're going to go with ease again, the three things that I think are important to think about are expertise, excitement, and enough people. Now that's going to be enough people to support your enough, which can change and evolve over time, but it is something smart to think about.
And like, let's look at the market and then let's get realistic because maybe you're like, you know what? I love this thing. I don't care. Amazing. Then change your goals. You're like, there's only three people that want this thing. It's just really not, you know, a known thing. It's not as much demand that I see.
That's fine. Just get realistic with it. Get realistic about, you know, how the longevity of this thing, and maybe you can quote unquote create some demand there, but you gotta understand then that that's gonna take a long ass time, so you might want to in the meantime get a job doing something else. Pay those bills while you are building this thing up.
So, My homie that reached out with this question, you already know I'm pushing you towards or leaning towards the job, the job that she's creating that lights you up. That's the thing that's going to keep you going and keep you in it because we know the online business in general, business in general, online business and business in general.
It's a long play game. Things don't happen overnight. So there does need to be some excitement about it and some, some passion about it. Big thing if you are listening to this and you're just starting out the three E's I want you to think about expertise Excitement and are there enough people to support your enough if there aren't I'm not saying, you know squash your dreams Forget about it.
But also I you do have bills to pay so think about that Perhaps you lean into something else that you have expertise in and or or you just go with a job. That's that's It's simple and pays the bills while you are building up this thing, while you are attracting the demand, while you are showing that you can solve this problem for people and, you know, creating that enough demand to support whatever you're enough to do.
Alright, it's starting to get hot in here, so I'm going to wrap this episode up. I got one little announcement for you. This episode is going to drop on September 12th, so if you are listening to this the day it drops, that means doors are open for round number 12 of my interview. Instagram Intensive. We actually have more than half of the spots already gone.
The waitlist popped off. I think we got like 15 spots left. So if you're interested in that, click the link in the show notes. It'll take you to the registration page. You can see all of the things. For those who don't know, the Instagram Intensive is my six weeks, six week online group coaching program for folks who are looking to learn how to use Instagram for business.
The tagline that I like to use is The Instagram Intensive isn't just Instagram coaching, it's business coaching for Instagram. So if that's something that interests you, go ahead, check it out. Shoot me a DM if you have any questions. And remember the doors will close this Friday, September 16th. So make some moves.
Alrighty, that's all I got for you as always. endlessly appreciative for every single one of you. Until next time, friends. Actually, especially grateful for the homie that asks that question. Until next time, friends. Maestro.
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