[Transcript starts at 1:59]
Hello friends, Maestro here, and welcome back to another episode of my favorite I am stoked about this episode. So we're going to jump right on in today's topic, niching down. I actually ran the first call of round 10. My mind is blown round 10 of my Instagram intensive.
And during that call, we speak extensively about. Nitching down, figuring out your niche, looking to start finding your niche, and then communicating that via the bio. So it's top of mind right now. And I want to share my thoughts about this with you. So obviously my expertise lies within the online space.
So that is largely who I'm speaking to, what I mean, what I am speaking about right now, as it relates to the online space. And if you're looking to move your business into the online space, space, have a presence in the online space. Let's be honest. It is noisy. It is very crowded. To that end, the best way that you can cut through that is by having started 10 years ago.
The second best way is by being specific and then being repetitive or being redundant. Now this specificity. is niching down and it is quite possibly one of the hardest things that I can ask someone to do. Now, when we think about niching down, oftentimes we think about it in terms of the demographic, demographic factors of the people we serve.
In my mind, niching down is largely about the problem you are solving. Solve that will inherently exclude some people and include others from there I think the next level is how you solve that problem And then from there we have that third level of who you solve it for if there's a specific in this case Demographic that that you solve it for Some people, the things that they're interested in, the things that they're really good at, they're inherently more niched down than others, but if you, listening to this, are looking to have that presence, establish that presence, And, you know, create, run your business in the online space, niching down, a.
k. a. getting specific with the problem that you solve is in my humble opinion, imperative, right? You could just kind of be general if you want, but it's very difficult to cut. Through the noise. Now, the biggest pushback I get from people about this is that they're multi passionate, they like doing this thing.
They like doing that thing. They, they can help this person. They can help that person, which is phenomenal. But as it relates to running a business, a successful business online, you need to get a job. Specific and I honestly think I just had this discussion with Krista Gerka I honestly think that yes being multi passionate is part of the reason that people give me the pushback But I think it's largely that they're worried that they're gonna leave money on the table, right?
That's actually the phrase exact phrase that the Krista used when we were discussing this and I have a post about that right about leaving money on the table because honestly you can just Go back and get it later That's, that's the big thing. Go ahead and leave it because you can come back and get it.
But people are worried that there's not going to be enough, especially those of us who have come from the in person background where literally you can't niche down necessarily to the same extent because there just aren't enough people, right? So I've always felt 10 rounds of the Instagram intensive, and I'm still waiting for someone to be like the thumb guy, the thumb girl.
I'm still waiting for the SI joint savior. To be that specific, look at Knees Over Toes Guy, look at the success that he has had. As I'm saying this, I'm already knowing that I'm going to get some pushback and people are going to be like, but you know, I suppose I get bored. Dude, you can go in a different direction after you've crushed it.
Absolutely dominate and then go ahead and pivot. Break through that trust barrier with your people. They'll come with you in a different direction. Shit. I started off, I am still the movement maestro. I will always be the movement maestro, but my content was all about physical movement and hip flexors and SI joints.
And now look at what I'm talking about. You can go in a different direction. You just have to start off going in one. Yeah. All right, you got to establish that planting foot before you pivot. So that pushback of you know, i'm multi passionate. I don't want to niche down. It's in my opinion Largely the fear that there isn't going to be enough and I get that and I cannot Rush anyone or push anyone to move faster than they're ready to to move and faster than they want to move but But what I have seen 100 percent of the time is as people do take action in a direction, they start to get traction.
They start to realize that they actually enjoy doing this one specific thing. And they continue to niche down. Suddenly they're like, Oh, there's way more here than I thought. And I actually have more time to focus on this thing. People are viewing me as the expert in this thing. People are asking me to solve the problems I want to be solving.
I'm getting to work with the type of person on the type of problem that I want. And that comes from niching down. So the next thing I want to talk about with this is as you're thinking about niching down, the way that my brain works is largely through the lens of social media. I think Instagram is a phenomenal vehicle for people to figure out themselves, figure out what they want to be saying.
Niche down I get specific with what it is that they do right the problem that they solve as you're going to try and Communicate this so some of you that are listening that you're like, all right I think I know what it is and I'm gonna have my bio and I'm gonna say this as You're thinking about what you want to say.
I'm going to strongly encourage you Use the language of your people. You must use words that your people know. So when I look at people's bios, they have these like really esoteric bios, and they're trying to get all cutesy. We need clarity. When someone lands on your, your page, your Instagram page, what they're thinking is, what can this person do for me?
And it's not a bad thing that they're, they're thinking that, right? But that's what's happening. And if you have some like, Long ass random thing and it's got emojis in it. I'm trying to figure out what emojis are not bad But if you're using emojis instead of words and it's like hieroglyphics and I'm like, what is this person trying to say?
That's a cognitive leak right there And that is energy that I cannot Put towards something else aka looking at the rest of your stuff and I've made a decision quickly like nah This isn't this isn't for me. So number one use language that your people understand even perhaps bigger than this Maybe I should have said at first is You Solve problems that people know they have and that they want to have solved.
I will maybe amend that as per my discussion with Chris Krista. Problems that people will pay to have solved. Alright, let's just think about it. How long do you drive around with the dashboard light on? Or, you know, you know someone or you know of this concept, right? Where people will drive around with this thing, but they're actually not willing to pay for it to get it fixed.
They don't care about that thing until it's necessarily, you know, Oftentimes what I see when people are trying to niche down is they're trying to solve a problem that Their people, the audience, doesn't know they have or doesn't really care about. And I think that this does come from a good place. I think it's kind of two fold.
On the one hand, it comes from a place where people want to be helpful and they love getting deep with people and doing that big, deep work. Most of the time, people aren't coming in for that. They're coming in For something a bit more superficial. And when I ask people to make a bio, they want to communicate this amazing transformation and this deep work and that the work that they feel is valuable.
They want to communicate that first. Guess what? People don't want that. They don't know they need it. All right. And realistically, some of the things that people really want to communicate, in my opinion, this is the foundation. It's simply a foundation of being an excellent coach. I was having a discussion today with somebody from the intensive and we're talking about niching down and the things she's saying.
And I'm like, yes, that is, that is called being a good coach. coach when you listen to people and you actually Realize that the thing they came in for is not the actual problem, right? We have so so often people They they want to be seen but they don't want to be judged And so in holding all this shit in they manifest as all this other stuff and that's what they come to us for the stuff that it's manifested as back pain knee pain, whatever kind of You know disorder whatever the thing is As a good coach, we work on that deeper stuff as a, as a, as a movement professional, you know, folks, you folks know, I've said it a million times.
Physical therapy is in my opinion, one of the best first careers because we deal with humans. We work with humans and we get to show people hope in a very tangible way. I think personal trainers understand this as well, right? That person could not pick that thing up before, and now they can. They, they 100 percent could not deadlift that.
They didn't even want to think about doing it. The thought alone scared them. And now they're lifting twice that number. That is just, you show people hope with that. You open up their life. You can absolutely change someone's life with that. But they didn't come in saying, Hey, I want my life changed. They came in saying, I want to get stronger.
I want to be able to do this thing. That as a good marketer is what you need to lead with. Sell people shit that they want. All right. I, there was a quote I heard when I was a, uh, I think I was like a new grad and my friend Aaron Swanson, he said it to me because his like mentor at the time said it, uh, so I'm sure it's a very common quote, but, uh, let me, let me not butcher it.
Give people what they need, packaged in what they want. All right, one more time. Give people what they need, packaged in what they want. This is, this is, you know, human exchange 101, human relationships 101. I'm not here to convince you that you need or want something else. What do you want? I'm going to ask you.
I'm going to listen to what you're saying. And I'm going to solve that problem. But, as a good coach or someone who's super invested, we're probably going to go deeper with these things. So, one of the things that I say on the first call of the intensive is, and I lay this out, I've learned as I've gone through the many iterations, that I need to lay this out from the beginning.
And actually on the first call, I have everyone promise me that they will give it six full weeks. They will trust my discretion, they will trust how I've set this up, and they will give me six full weeks before they decide that, you know, this isn't what they signed up for. And the reason I do that is because on the first call, We are talking about finding your why and niching down for some people.
They're like, but this isn't what I want. So when I am selling the program, when I am talking about my marketing it, I absolutely speak to the fact that we will go over the nuances, the didactic portions of Instagram, how to make reels, how to make posts, how to make stories. I teach them that when we get on the first call.
I then also future paste them and lay it all out and I say we will go through this and call number two and call number five. They will be very technical. Today we're working on this and we're going through this deeper exercise. We're going through this niching down and I asked them to trust me because I realized that we've switched from, Hey, I really want this thing.
And in my mind, I know that actually they need to do this thing first. So I bring them in, I market this to them, what they want, and I will give them what they want. But I'm also going to give them what they need, but I'm not leading with that. I'm not leading with it by saying that we're going to find your deeper why and your deeper purpose for being on Instagram.
Nobody knows they want that. Nobody knows how that fits into the bigger picture of things. As such, use the language that people speak, and speak to the problems that they know they have, and that they actually want to solve, and they're going to pay to have solved. If we continue with this idea of, you know, the problem that people actually have, When you're trying to decide a niche, let's say you're just starting off and you're trying to figure one out.
Like for me, it was always came very naturally because I went to school for physical therapy. So obviously the thing I'm going to be talking about on Instagram would be movement related, physical therapy related. But let's say that you happen to have a choice with things. If that's the case, number one, make sure that you do your market research and see what can the market actually What can it sustain?
What can it hold? What does the market want? As opposed to trying to create something and trying to convince people that they, that they have this problem. Right? So do your homework with that. Second piece with this is do your homework on yourself. Now, when, as it relates to business, right, businesses are built on solutions to problems.
Businesses are not built on just pure passion, like this cannot be a hobby that you're passionate about and that you're only mediocre at delivering. One of the books that I recommend, or the only book I recommend when it comes to, when we, when we are going to run, when I am running the intensive, I recommend before we start that everyone reads The Go Giver.
That book, you listen to this, go read it, it's a great book. If you're looking for a short, easy book to read, that's my recommendation. But in the book, they have these laws of stratospheric success, which is cool to go through those, but if you take a step back and you look at the characters that they use to elucidate these, These principles, these laws, all of these characters are absolutely fucking remarkable at the thing that it is that they do, right?
There's a person that sells coffee. There's like a restaurateur kind of person. There's a connector guy, like they're all incredible. With what there's a real estate woman, right? They're all incredible at what they do. They're not just like, oh, I really like it Yeah, I like doing this. I love doing this, but I am the fucking best So we need to be leading with expertise when we're going to niche down.
I'm actually thinking about a business A business coaching client I had and we were talking about this and the person had, you know Kind of two directions they were thinking about going and the reality was They didn't have the expertise in this other field, this other realm, to, to niche down into that, right?
People don't want to be going to someone who's like learning the thing at the same time they are. I think there's like an old adage, an old, I don't know what the word is. There's an old approach, mindset, theory that, uh, You just have to be one step ahead of your people. That's a blatant lie. You need to be five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, a hundred steps ahead of your people.
You don't want to take your car into the person that like, no, that learned from YouTube yesterday. Cause you could do that as well. I'm like, uh, I don't know about that. I want to go to the expert. Okay. So that in mind, I shouldn't speak for you. I want to go to the expert. I don't want to take my car to the person that learned the video on YouTube yesterday.
That in mind, when I'm encouraging people to niche down, I want them to focus on the thing that they already have expertise in, that they have results in. And go with that. Uh, I'm actually going to have Courtney, if you could drop the link. I have a worksheet friends. It's called the FT3. I've pushed it, you know, promoted it a few times, but it's called the FT3 first, this, then that, and it is a worksheet workbook, if you will.
It's actually quite a few questions in it. It's a workbook that I created and Lex, my girl, made it look all pretty. So that folks could. Have a, a way to work on niching down, right? The questions that I saw out there being answers to the drills that I saw out there being done, I just felt that they were a bit incomplete, right?
Niching down is really difficult. And especially if you have background or you have experience with something else, it's really, or multiple things. It's very difficult. So I was just like, you know what? You want better answers? Let's ask better questions. And in this case, ask more questions. M O A R. Of course, it's how we're spelling it.
Ask more questions. And so I made this, this workbook. So if you are someone who's trying to niche down and you're, you're struggling with that, and you're looking for some help, click the link in the show notes. It'll take you to the landing page. You got to put your email in and then, uh, you'll get that, that ebook and you can check that out and there's quite a few questions in it.
So we'll set it aside for a time that you can actually sit with it and then you can work on that. But as it relates to that niching down, right, we're looking at leading with expertise and if you have multiple things that you have expertise in, that's awesome. Then I really want you to, yes, think about the thing that you love the most.
The thing that you are excited about. Because, no, your passion is not always profitable. But the things that stay profitable the longest, very likely, very much so, are the things that you're passionate about. All right, so, no, just because you're passionate about it doesn't mean you can turn a profit, but the way that you keep something profitable is to be passionate about it.
Be passionate about it, to actually enjoy that thing. So, if we go into the next level from here, right, we spoke about, uh, Number one, losing the language of your people, thinking about problems that people know they have that they actually want to have solved and they're willing to have solved, right?
We're not just picking something and then trying to find a crowd for that. Simon Sinek says it, do not find people for your product, find a, create. I'll say a product for your people. This is no different. Okay. We're looking to see what problems people have, not say, Hey, here's a problem I want to solve.
Let me go find some people who maybe have it or try to convince them that they have that problem. That is, is not the way. So as we're looking next and we're saying, okay, maybe you can choose if you have that, uh, that good fortune, you're like, I have this thing that I have an expertise in this thing. I have an expertise in, then we're going to pick the thing that we actually want to keep doing.
That we want to be doing. Next part here is when we go to, and cause my mind works in terms of social media, so I want to give you some, some tips there when we go to convey that. In the bio, again, we're going to circle back to what I said earlier, which is use the language of your people. It's not about being cute or creative or clever.
It's about being clear. We want to reduce those cognitive leaks where people are trying to be like, well, what actually is this? What does this person actually do? We want to say, state explicitly, this is the problem I solve. This is who I solve it to. And then we use that bio as an anchor. And what I mean by that is when you're creating posts, they should just reflect the thing that you say in your bio.
Now, this ties into the fact that I, you know, I'm always, I don't say always, but yes, I do believe that if you're trying to grow something on Instagram, you should be posting every day. I am not here to shame you if you don't have that capacity, but I also encourage you to take responsibility for your decision and not expect an outcome that you didn't work towards, right?
You didn't, the work that you did, that's the outcome that you're going to get. Let's just all take ownership for that. So when we're creating content, the content should reflect what the bio says, right? So if it's like, I help people get fit and stay happy, all of your content should be about People getting fit, you helping them getting fit, anything around getting fit, and it should be happy content.
Very, very simple. If you are, actually before I say that, let me back it up. The beautiful thing about posting daily and creating this, this, uh, body of work and having this volume to your content, Is that this is how you show who you are. This is how, or where you show how you do what you do. That whole, you know, what makes you different.
That doesn't really fit in the bio. And I see people trying to stand out with the bio. You're going to stand out with the content, not with the bio. You're going to get specific with the bio. You're going to stand out with your content, how you're showing up, just what it looks like, what you're saying. The value of the content, the stuff you're sharing in your stories, right?
How are you connecting with people? What do you look like? What do you believe? What are your values? You want to get 150 characters in your bio. You're not going to say all those things in that. You're going to have a simple statement there about the problem you solve, and who you solve it for. And please have your name in the name section.
And then that bio is going to serve as an anchor. It's going to anchor your posts. All of your posts should reflect what is said in the bio. You ever don't know what to post, go look at your bio and then that's what you're doing because you are speaking to your niche. That is why I say this is why I structure it like this.
If you are posting daily and the posts are coming pretty freely and you're like, yeah, I got this. I can do this. But, When you look at it, you're like, it doesn't really reflect what I say in the bio. Do not change the content, change your bio. Okay, so if the content comes freely, doesn't match the bio, change the bio.
All right, so this way they are congruent. Don't worry as well, your bio will change over time and no one's noticing. No one's like, Oh, yo, yo, yo, yo, yo, you change your bio. And they're going to DM you or something. Like no one's on your shit like that. It's okay. I, I want to back it up for a second and, and speak again briefly about stealing language from your people because that sentence implies that you have people and this is something that I see people run up against when they're like brand new and they haven't had any clients, any customers and I get it, that can make it extremely, extremely exciting.
Extremely hard. So with that in mind number one I am going to circle back and make sure that you have expertise in this thing and it's not just a hope or dream But you were like, yeah, I am proficient in this and I have some knowledge base Yes, more proficiency comes when an expertise comes when you get more clients So I get that but just let's let's just have it out there as a foundation that you have knowledge about this This isn't just something that you're like I went through it and now I can teach it like you actually have a foundation here You So, the next thing is, if you don't have an audience yet and you're looking to build one, and you're like, okay, but like, where should I kind of take this language from?
Start by thinking about the people around you, the people that maybe you've helped for free, the people that are your friends, your family, the people that are close to you, which is typically how businesses start, where you're working with Your friends, your family are offering your services to them. And then we start to see, you know, people that you don't know.
So think about the words that they're using either to describe you, the words that they're using to describe their problems, right? That is largely what I mean when I say steal their language. It's what problems are they talking about? Yeah, it's cool to hear what they're saying about you because that can give you, you know, clue you into what they see you as the expert in and what they value about you.
But when you're looking to create that bio to state that niche, Listen to what they are saying, and listen to what they're saying in the beginning, right, when they first come to see you. Because the language that they're going to use afterwards, after they've gone through that transformation, is going to be different.
They are very likely a quote unquote different person now. So if you use that language, it's usually not going to be correct. We want to think about, have them think about, or write down what they're saying before the problem gets solved. That's the language you want to be using to attract more people like them a little bit ago in the episode I kind of corrected myself or at least mentally corrected myself about Nitching down and kind of finding your niche because the thing is I want to make sure that people know that Nitching down isn't a a singular thing.
It's not an event, right? It's a process. You will learn your know as You go It is not an event, it is a process. So when I have people doing this drill, it's just to get them started. So you know, I think back to when I first started with Instagram, 2014, I was still niched down because I was looking to speak to CrossFitters.
Again, thank God they didn't pick me, but that's why, and I see why they didn't pick me because I didn't use their language, right? But I was looking to speak to that audience. So I just need people to, I just want people to get started. looking in a specific direction, and then they can be like, no, this actually doesn't fit.
There's so much value in learning your no, there's so much value in learning you don't like doing this thing or working with that type of person or solving that problem. That is incredible. Absolutely incredible. You cross it off the list and now we're onto the next thing. So as you're trying to do this process, understand that it's exactly that.
It's a process. It's a journey. It is not a singular event that you're like, okay, I did it. And like, now I'm done. It will typically be evolving and you're learning as you go, right? You're learning your know, as you go, you're learning what you like a bit more as you go, what you don't want to do. That is going to keep, you're going to, you're also getting the, the wins there.
And like I said earlier, you're getting that proof that, yes, this is sustainable. There are enough, or maybe you're getting the opposite. And you're like, you know what? I just don't know if there, there are enough. I cannot speak to this specifically or what your specific niche is or what problem you're trying to solve.
And if there's enough people who have that, That issue and they want salt. I, I really couldn't say without speaking to you directly, but this is the type of stuff that you're going to be learning as you. So before I wrap it up fully, I think I want to end with why should we be doing this? And I said it in the beginning, and I want to say it again, kind of bookend things here.
If you're looking to move into the online space, if you're doing it in the in person space as well, you need to niche down. It's just a little bit different because you're, you're limited. In person, you're a bit more limited by who can come through your door. Whereas online, you have five people. far more eyes to pick from, the, the spicier numbers, the likelihood of there being more people that have that problem that you solve that they actually, you know, them having it and them wanting to pay to have it solved, right?
So we're niching down because we're looking to cut through the noise. We're looking to get specific. We're looking to let people know that, yeah, I can help you. So the, the quote that's out there, right? Is if you market to everyone, you market to no one. And I'm not fully convinced that that is correct. I think you still market to some people, but I think the, for me, the bigger issue, and I'm pretty sure that I heard some iteration of this from, from Winnie Langevic, because she's just the best, but to me, The issue when you try to market to everyone is that you miss the chance to be remarkable for someone.
One more time. When you market to everyone, you miss the opportunity to be remarkable for someone. There is someone out there. There are multiple someone's out there, but we'll start with singular. There is someone out there who you can rock their world. They have this problem. They want it solved. And you are the person who could do it for them, right?
Cause this is the thing you love. You love solving that problem in that specific way. For that specific type of person, that's what you do. But when we are, you know, when it comes from a good place, when it comes from that place a little bit, I think of being worried that there's not enough, but the other side of like, but I can help that person.
And I can help that person. And you know, I can help that person. I get that. When we move to the online space, you get to choose who you help. You get to choose the problem that you solve. And if you want to cut through the noise, I implore you, get specific with the problem that you solve. All right, looking at the time.
We're closing in on 30 minutes here. Gonna wrap it up. I do have one announcement before I let you folks go. Last weekend, I decided to do the thing and I created ReelsU as a DIY. course. I had a good number of people, good number of people asking for it. And I knew that it just wouldn't be a good user experience to sell the replay as is because it was three hours long.
So I took about 20 hours over the weekend and I chopped it up. I put it into Kajabi. I made it into 38 individual chapters. Yes, 38 individual chapters. But given that it's 38 chapters, it's super digestible. I cut out some of the. Kind of dead spaces. And so it's down to about two and a half hours long. Uh, 38 chapters, two and a half hours long.
The shortest chapter is about 49 seconds long. And I think the longest chapter is like nine and a half minutes. So again, I did it like this because I wanted it to be digestible and I wanted it to be useful and usable and a resource that people could actually refer back to and be like, I just want to learn about that thing.
I just want to learn about how to import music, which is a new thing that you can do. Uh, you know, I just want to learn about. How to, uh, do transitions or, you know, I just want to learn about how to add text to the video. I got you. It's all in separate chapters. So if you want to learn about how to use and make Reels, I should say how to really make, create Reels for Instagram.
I got you. ReelsU, the DIY version is now available. Courtney, if you can link that in the show notes, that would be great. Uh, it's 97 bucks, not going to hide the price or anything like that. It is 97 monies. Uh, so if you want to go check that out, click the, I don't know if I should, I don't know if I just said bio, but It's going to be in the show notes.
Uh, click the link in the show notes, shoot me a DM. If you got any questions at all. Uh, I, I honestly don't know how long I'm going to be selling it for. And I don't say that as to impart any kind of false scarcity or urgency, but dude, Instagram changes and updates so quickly, I actually had to record two new Instagram posts.
Chapters for the DIY course. I ran that course live in December as a workshop. It's one month later and they've already changed things and I had to add two modules to add two chapters to it. And so I learned that my lesson with when I had the Instagramming with the maestro course You know, it's just really almost impossible to keep up with the updates and keep having to keep having to change and record things so what my My decision is is I'm gonna sell it for as long as it's as long as it's relevant And when it stops being relevant, it's outdated.
I'm just gonna pull it down So for those of you that are wanting to learn Reels, I'm going to encourage you get on it now. Yes, Instagram is going to change, but if you get the foundation, you will be ready and prepared and able to understand and adapt to any change, any update that Instagram rolls out.
So if you got any questions about it, number one, check out the registration page. It has all of the information on there. If you still got questions, shoot me a DM, the movement maestro. You can. Text me, you know, I'm always asking for texts. You can text me 310 737 2345, uh, and I will get back to you very quickly cause I love those forms of communication.
All right. That is all that I got for you today. If you liked the episode, if you love the episode, do me a solid thumbs up. Share it with somebody who you think might enjoy it. Alright, that's it, officially wrapping it up. As always, endlessly grateful for every single one of you. Until next time, friends, Maestro out.
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