I think too often we will look at what our competitors are doing, or
we'll look at what everyone else is doing, and we assume that that's what
we need to be doing, because if it's working for them, then it
must work for us. For example, if everyone's doing Masterminds and you see
everyone around you doing Masterminds, of course you're going to think, oh,
I have to deliver a mastermind. Welcome to imperfect Action. I'm Steph Taylor.
For years, I read all the books, downloaded all the freebies,
and did all the courses, but it wasn't until I started taking imperfect action
that my business had its first million dollars year. Imperfect action is about doing
things before you're ready, prioritizing consistent action over perfect action, and moving forward
even when you're not sure you're doing it right. On this show, you
can expect mindset advice, actionable marketing tips and strategies to build a business that
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Sign up at Steph Taylor dot co. Forward slash DBB or at the
link in your show notes. Hey, welcome back to Imperfect Action. This
is episode seven hundred and eighty two. Today we're talking about what you sell
and how this can impact who your business attrunds. Now, this episode is
going to be a really nice, short, sweet one, but it's super
relevant for you if you're struggling to stand out in a really saturated market right
now. I know what it's like online. I'm in one of the most
saturated markets right where I'm talking to online business owners, and so is everybody
else. But if you're feeling like me right now where it's really noisy online,
this episode's going to help you to stand out. It's also relevant for
you if you are noticing that you've had a lot of people shopping around for
the cheapest option, and when they do choose you, they might be a
little bit painful. They don't value what you do and they demand the world
right. You get those painful clients who just want you because you're the cheapest
or they're just looking for the cheapest option out there. Now, I've spoken
a lot about Niching on this podcast, but here's the thing Niching down is
one of the simplest ways to shift who your business attracts. It's one of
the simplest ways to shift who your business attracts. And when I spoke about
it recently in the episode with some signs that you are in the wrong niche,
that was a bit of a big shift on the way that we think
about niching, Because a lot of the time we think about niching as I
only serve these people. I only work with cost creators, I only sell
to online business owners, I only work with professional women. That's what people
think of as niching. And as soon as I talk about niching, the
questions that come up are inevitably always how do I niche down? How niche
is to niche? Which niche should I choose? Won't I limit my business
by niching down? And this is when we think about niching as a way
of limiting our market rather than as a way of getting really clear about who
we want to attract and who we want to work with. When we think
about niche as limiting our market, that's when we start to think about,
oh, which niche should I choose? Well I limit my business? Am
I gonna have enough people to sell to. But when we think about niching
as who do I want to serve? Who do I want to attract,
that becomes a very different gain. That becomes you're not just niching so that
you can say that you've niched and tick that box, but it becomes you're
niching down to particular people that you really want to help, or you're niching
down by particular things that you really want to do, particular comes you really
want to deliver. Let me put it in a really easy to understand way.
Think of your business like a restaurant. Now, in most major cities,
there are hundreds or thousands of restaurants, and they're all competing against each
other for a certain number of people who are going out for dinner that night
or lunch or whatever. And think about the last time that you chose a
restaurant. What made you choose that particular restaurant. You probably didn't just think,
well, i'm hungry, let me pick the first one that I see,
or maybe you didn't think I'm hungry, let me just find a place
that sells food. To be fair, though, that is sometimes my approach,
Like if I'm in a shopping mall and I'm hungry. Just give me
the first thing, because if I'm hungry and there are people around, I'm
not a pleasant person. But when you were picking that restaurant, you might
have chosen it because you were craving pizza, you're craving sushi, or because
you'd seen photos of it on Instagram and you thought, oh, the vibe
looks great, or the food that that food looks like a great experience.
Right, So when we are niching down, there are actually three different ways
that you can niche that restaurant. Let's call it a restaurant. Niching your
restaurant. So the first way is we only serve kids. This is how
way too many businesses niche. This is the the I only work with high
performing women. I see this a lot with coaches as well, like business
coach for creatives or coach for overachievers. Great, that's one way to niche
other two ways. So the next one is niching your restaurant by saying we
only serve Italian food. This is now where you are niching by what you
offer, so you're not then trying to sell Italian food to someone who is
craving Japanese food, and it means that you are not then trying to create
Japanese food when you really don't enjoy doing it and you really just want to
be making pizza and Italian food instead. And then the third way is niching
by saying, well, we offer a high end experience. Niching by the
kind of experience that you deliver, and it doesn't have to be a high
end experience. Thinking like with the restaurant analogy, Right, there's a restaurant
there used to be a restaurant here, I don't know if it still exists
where you could go in and they would blindfold you and you would have this
entire dinner not being able to see any of the food. Now, that's
a fun experience that not many other places offer. So they're not having to
compete against the restaurant that's only serving Italian food for somebody who's looking for a
really fun experience, fun unique experience that they could maybe take somebody on a
date to. Right, And again, like fast food, McDonald's is a
particular type of experience that they deliver, and because of the experience they are
delivering, they're not trying to compete against Novu, which is like one of
the high end restaurants that I think is pretty well known around the world.
So the people that these restaurants, these different niches of restaurants attract, they
are attracting different people because of the different things that they sell. We only
serve kids restaurant, well, if they don't serve parents, then that's going
to be a bit of an issue. But somebody who if it's a kid's
food first kind of restaurant, then parents with picky eaters are probably going to
prioritize going to that restaurant. Somebody who's craving Italian food is going to go
to an Italian restaurant. Somebody who wants a really fun, unusual experience,
they're going to go to that blindfolded restaurant. Or somebody who wants a really
high end, you know, completely out of this world food experience is going
to go to a high end restaurant that sells that high end experience. So
if you are struggling to stand out and you're finding that people are just shopping
for the cheapest option rather than seeing the value in what you sell, it
could be that you need to niche down what you are offering. You need
to think about what you are offering and think about how could you potentially choose
to offer just one particular, one particular niche Right, So, the Italian
food, it doesn't mean you only only do pizza. It doesn't mean you
only do one type of pizza, but it means you aren't creating pizza and
sushi, you aren't selling pizza and sushi. Or maybe you need to think
about what is the experience? What is an experience that you can offer?
Right, So some questions for you to reflect on it. Two questions for
you to reflect on that. Firstly, what could you offer? What is
something new that you could offer that nobody else in your space is doing.
I think too often we will look at what our competitors are doing, or
we'll look at what everyone else is doing, and we assume that that's what
we need to be doing, because if it's working for them, then it
must work for us. For example, if everyone's doing masterminds and you see
everyone around you doing masterminds, of course you're going to think I have to
deliver a mastermind. Or if everyone around you is delivering VIP days, you're
gonna think, oh, I have to do a VIP day? Am I
missing out if I don't have a VIP day? And then suddenly you are
now competing against all of these people who are also offering VIP days when there
might be somebody in your market, or there might be a segment of your
market who is like, I don't want to do a VIP day, I
want a VIP week. Cool. That's a new offer, right, and
now you're not competing against those people who are selling VIP dates. The second
question to reflect on what kind of experience could you offer that would attract your
dream clients. If you are wanting to attract premium clients, you need to
offer them a premium experience. Right. Premium clients will play pay a premium
price point for a premium experience, but they won't pay a premium price point
for a McDonald's experience. So what kind of experience could you offer that would
attract your dream clients. Somebody who really inspired me with the whole experience idea
is Darcy Benenkosa. She's a photography business coach and she I met her at
a retreat that we were both speaking at in Tuloom, and she talked about
how one of the experiences that she put together for her clients is they meet
her in Paris. So she travels to Paris a few times a year,
and they meet her in Paris, and she's put together this beautiful long day
for them where they visit all of these different locations and they eat these amazing
meals, and at all of the different locations, she's taking photos for them
so that at the end of the day they have all of their social media
content sorted. That is a premium That's an example of a premium experience that
nobody else is really doing. She's not having to compete against other people because
it's a one of a kind experience. So what could you do? What
could you offer that somebody would pay that premium price tag for and that will
help you to stand out. So there you have a nice little, short,
short, sweet episode. It actually ended up being a little bit longer
than I thought it would oops, But a short, sweet episode to get
you thinking about how you can really shift who you attract just by shifting what
you sell. Now, thank you to all of you who have been leaving
some amazing reviews. I've definitely I've noticed the uptick I've been reading all of
them. They are incredible. So I really want to say thank you to
everyone who has I appreciate you endlessly. And if you haven't yet and you
have thirty seconds to spare right now, I'd love it if you could please
open up your podcast app and leave me a quick rating and a review so
that somebody who's considering listening to the show knows what they're getting into before they
listen to an episode. It's a huge It has a huge impact on who
chooses to listen to the show, so I appreciate every single one and it
means a lot to me. That is all for today's episode. Thank you
so much for listening. Catch you next time.