Niche Down to Stand Out
As an entrepreneur with ADHD, deciding on a niche for your business can feel like you're trying to do the impossible.
You’re juggling countless interests and ideas, and the fear of missing out on potential clients can paralyze you from making any decision.
Welcome to the Weeniecast! I'm Katie McManus, a business strategist and money mindset coach, here to help you conquer those fears and take the leap into niche picking with confidence.
In this bonus episode, we tackle why weenies - AKA those too scared to make bold business decisions - need to niche down hard to succeed.
I cut through the crap and dive into the real reason behind your fear of picking a niche: the scarcity mindset.
We cover the numbers game, emphasizing that with 7.88 billion people on Earth, finding your 600 clients is more than doable.
Ever worried that niching will limit your client base? Think again.
We'll explore how niching actually makes it easier for the right clients to find and choose you. Plus, I share the difference between running a hobby and operating a business that makes serious money—hint: it involves niching down.
By the end of this bonus episode, you'll understand how to leverage your niche to become a specialist, thus allowing you to charge more and stand out in a crowded market.
We'll cover how to identify your ideal client by talking directly to them and understanding their pain points and dreams. You'll leave better equipped to create marketing strategies that resonate deeply with your audience and close sales with confidence. Ready to stop being a weenie and step into your power as an entrepreneur? Tune in and transform your approach to business.
Takeaways:
- Niching down allows you to attract the right clients and stand out in a crowded market.
- With 7.88 billion people on Earth, finding your 600 ideal clients is entirely feasible.
- Being a generalist limits your marketing potential; specificity enhances your referrals and visibility.
- Specializing in a niche enables you to charge higher rates and reduce competition.
- Understanding your ideal client's pain points is crucial for effective marketing strategies.
- Don't let the fear of missing out on clients paralyze your decision-making process.
"Niche Down Now" timestamps
00:00 Fear niche limits clients; many potential exist.
03:39 Pick a niche or you won't get clients.
07:36 Narrow focus allows specialization, enabling higher charges.
11:40 Knowing your niche attracts diverse clients.
14:16 Identify your audience to reach your goal.
17:41 Choose coaching topics matching your skills, experience.
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Want to just buy me a coffee in return for some helpful insight? Thank you! Here's...
Squirrel.
Katie McManusI want to talk about the thing that all weenies.
Katie McManusPeople who are afraid of doing the brave ass shit that's going to get them where they want to go have in common, especially when it comes to starting a business.
Katie McManusSquirrel.
Katie McManusHi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach.
Katie McManusAnd welcome to the Weenie cast.
Katie McManusSquirrel.
Katie McManusI want to go into what the stereotypical weenie is afraid of when it comes to picking a niche.
Katie McManusWhat they're worried will happen and the mindset crap that gets in the way.
Katie McManusWe're gonna be talking about the shift that needs to happen.
Katie McManusWe're also going to be talking about the major difference it makes in your business when you actually pick a niche that you feel aligned to and that exists out there in the world, that will pay for it.
Katie McManusRight?
Katie McManusBecause you can start a business and not get any clients.
Katie McManusThat's not a business.
Katie McManusThat's a fucking hobby.
Katie McManusOkay?
Katie McManusWe're not starting hobbies here.
Katie McManusWe are starting businesses, right?
Katie McManusLet's talk about the things that the stereotypical weenie in their business is scared shitless to do when it comes to starting their business and picking a niche.
Katie McManusNumber one is they're afraid that if they pick a niche, they're going to scare away potential clients and that there aren't going to be enough clients out there in the world for them.
Katie McManusSo let's talk about how many human beings actually live on planet Earth right now.
Katie McManusOkay?
Katie McManusI looked up this number recently.
Katie McManusI talked about this in my life yesterday.
Katie McManusThere are 7.88 billion billion people on planet Earth right now.
Katie McManusIf you think that out of 7.88 billion people, you're not going to be able to find, like, 600 humans who will pay you for your thing, then, babes, you need to do something else.
Katie McManusStarting a business is not it for you.
Katie McManusAnd let's just talk about the scarcity mindset that just lives in this fear, right?
Katie McManusBecause I don't know about you guys, but, like, literally, I can't take on more than between nine to twelve clients, one on one at a time.
Katie McManusNine to twelve, one on one clients.
Katie McManusI make a fair amount of money doing that.
Katie McManusI can live a very comfortable, happy life just working one on one with clients.
Katie McManusOf course I want to work with more people.
Katie McManusI want to be able to empower more and more folks to be able to start their businesses.
Katie McManusI have group programs, but still through my group programs, like, I anticipate, like, I hope at some point to be able to have 500 people going through my programs every year.
Katie McManusOkay.
Katie McManusAnd assume I work for another 30 years.
Katie McManus500 times 30.
Katie McManusNot that many, especially when we're considering that amount comes out of 7.888 billion humans, some of which may not even be alive yet.
Katie McManusThere could be someone born today who I will be coaching in 29 years.
Katie McManusAnd you have no idea.
Katie McManusYou have to believe that your people are out there.
Katie McManusAnd believe me, they are.
Katie McManusThey are.
Katie McManusAnd they are waiting for you.
Katie McManusAnd honestly, you're just being a selfish asshole for not niching down and making it easier, easy for them to find you.
Katie McManusSo you need to pick a niche.
Katie McManusThe numbers are in your favor.
Katie McManusThere are billions of people out there in the world.
Katie McManusYou're likely to be able to get, you know, enough of them to make a good living doing this work.
Katie McManusBut here's the key.
Katie McManusThey're not going to be able to work with you and give you their money and have impact from your work experience.
Katie McManusIt if they don't know that you existed, it's just never going to happen.
Katie McManusOkay?
Katie McManusSo if you continue to be a weenie about not picking a niche, then guess what's going to happen?
Katie McManusYou're not going to get any clients because how are they going to know that you're useful to them?
Katie McManusAnd the example that I like to use, like, you know, I'm a trained life coach.
Katie McManusI went to life coach school.
Katie McManusI'm certified.
Katie McManusAll this stuff, I use it, you know, in conjunction with a lot of the other stuff that I do.
Katie McManusOkay.
Katie McManusBut there's always that joke of the life coach.
Katie McManusLike, the life coach goes out to get clients and people ask, cool, like, who's your ideal client?
Katie McManusAnd the life coach says, well, people who suck at life, I help them get better at being at life, you know, or in life or whatever.
Katie McManusHow do you sort through, like, the list of friends and loved ones that, you know, for the people who are shitty at life?
Katie McManusI mean, I know we all have some people that were like, they could really use some help.
Katie McManusBut then, like, even if you can think of one to five people, how do you make that introduction?
Katie McManusDo you go, hey, George, you really suck at life, dude.
Katie McManusLike, you out of one out of ten.
Katie McManusLike ten being the best one.
Katie McManusYou're a negative two.
Katie McManusAnd I think you could use some help.
Katie McManusI heard about this life coach who helps people who are shit at life.
Katie McManusI think you need to talk to them and let me introduce you.
Katie McManusNo, no one's doing that.
Katie McManusNo one's referring people like that.
Katie McManusOkay.
Katie McManusOkay.
Katie McManusVersus.
Katie McManusYou have a coach, let's call her Jane.
Katie McManusThis is the example that I put in my email today.
Katie McManusJane, who is a dating coach for lesbian moms who are recently divorced and who want to find their next partner, who will also be a great co parent for the children that they share custody of.
Katie McManusLike, that's very, very specific.
Katie McManusRight?
Katie McManusSo you may not know someone who is a lesbian, who's a mom who's just gotten divorced and is ready to start dating right off the bat.
Katie McManusOkay?
Katie McManusYou.
Katie McManusIf you do, you're like, oh, my God, this is so exciting.
Katie McManusAnd, like, I have someone who needs to work with you, and you need to work with her because it's tough.
Katie McManusLike, it's tough to find a partner, especially when you're a mom and especially when you're sharing, casting, all this stuff.
Katie McManusLike, you, you need to be able to really strategize how you're finding that next love of your life.
Katie McManusLike, how excited would you be to be able to turn to your friend and be like, I found someone who can help you in this, like, major life project that you're working on right now.
Katie McManusLike, let me make this introduction.
Katie McManusOkay, that that could happen if you know that person.
Katie McManusBut here's the other thing you're more likely to remember, Jane.
Katie McManusYou are far more likely to remember this person who niched down so specifically than you are to remember, you know, someone who's just a life coach.
Katie McManusLife coaches are a dime a dozen.
Katie McManusLet's be real.
Katie McManusI was in a pilates class once.
Katie McManusI was, you know, in my business, and, you know, someone asked me what I did, and I said, you know, I didn't really want to talk about it.
Katie McManusSo I was just like, I'm a life coach.
Katie McManusCause, you know, no one usually knows what to say when you say you're a life coach.
Katie McManusThe lady that was asking was like, oh, I have a life coach.
Katie McManusShe communes with my dead animals for me.
Katie McManusAnd I did not know how to respond to that because that is not life coaching.
Katie McManusOkay?
Katie McManusSo there are a lot of people out there calling whatever it is they do, life coaching.
Katie McManusAll right?
Katie McManusIf you're just going out and say, I'm a life coach, no one knows what you're doing.
Katie McManusNo one knows how you can help.
Katie McManusNo one knows who you are useful to.
Katie McManusAll right?
Katie McManusYou need to tell people exactly who you are useful to.
Katie McManusNow, there's this other woman who I came across on Facebook.
Katie McManusI just read this post that she did, and she is a health coach for people in the party industry.
Katie McManusSo bartenders, DJ's, and managers of nightclubs.
Katie McManusOkay.
Katie McManusShe helps them design more healthy lives and healthy habits around their extremely unhealthy lifestyle without compromising the work that they love.
Katie McManusNow, that's incredible.
Katie McManusAnd that's also really easy to refer to.
Katie McManusOkay, so you can pick a niche that, you know, has a bunch of people, or you can pick a niche that has a narrow slice of humans.
Katie McManusBut I want to remind you, the more niche down you are, the more specialized you are, which means you can charge more.
Katie McManusYour general doctor, your general practitioner, probably makes, you know, $200,000 a year cardiologist who works on babies probably makes closer to a million, if not more, because they specialize.
Katie McManusA neurosurgeon is going to make more because they specialize.
Katie McManusAll right?
Katie McManusYou get to specialize in your business, and you're going to get to charge more because who are you competing against?
Katie McManusCompeting against other people who just say that they're life coaches?
Katie McManusNo one wants to hire.
Katie McManusNo offense, guys.
Katie McManusYou really need a niche, though.
Katie McManusThere's also this belief that, you know, like, but I can help everyone.
Katie McManusI can help everyone.
Katie McManusWhat I do is so easily applied to so many different scenarios.
Katie McManusLike, there are people out there who need my help, and they're not gonna.
Katie McManusThey're not gonna be able to get help from me if I niche down.
Katie McManusThey're not gonna get help from you anyway if they don't know what you're doing.
Katie McManusAnd it's really hard for people to understand what you do if you're not telling them who you're useful to.
Katie McManusOkay.
Katie McManusI teach this in my build your own business beginner group program because it is such a critical part of building your business.
Katie McManusLike, if you do not have a niche, you can't go and market.
Katie McManusIf you don't have a niche, running sales calls is going to be so incredibly painful.
Katie McManusIf you don't have a niche, like, you can't.
Katie McManusYou can't design a website, it's going to be really hard to show up on social media.
Katie McManusLike, you might get some people who just like what you have to say, but they're never going to buy from you.
Katie McManusOkay?
Katie McManusThat is freebie chaser central when you're just out there giving value and spewing out all your beliefs about stuff.
Katie McManusStuff.
Katie McManusYes.
Katie McManusThe gazelle.
Katie McManusFind your niche 100%.
Katie McManusSo, so, so, so here are the three areas that I have my clients in my build your own business beginner program, and in my one on one coaching, like, everywhere, I have them ask themselves, okay, so, number one, everyone thinks that when you pick a niche, you're describing what you do.
Katie McManusNo, no.
Katie McManusYour niche is not that you're a facilitator.
Katie McManusYour niche is not that you're a leadership coach.
Katie McManusYour niche is not that you are a stylist.
Katie McManusThat is not your niche, okay?
Katie McManusWhat you do, it informs how you describe your niche because, you know, if you're a builder, you're not going to say that you empower people to live in the best home of their lives.
Katie McManusLike, that is missing a part.
Katie McManusYou know?
Katie McManusLike, you also help build the house that they want to live in.
Katie McManusYour niche is a combination of two things, okay?
Katie McManusIt's who you help, the descriptor of that person and the problems they have and the solution they want or the outcomes that they want.
Katie McManusOkay?
Katie McManusYou need both.
Katie McManusOkay?
Katie McManusBut here's where, if you do this well, you're actually going to get more people that are outside your niche.
Katie McManusOkay?
Katie McManusSo let me explain.
Katie McManusSo when I started doing business coaching and showing people how to start their businesses, I was very much in the coaching space, okay?
Katie McManusI still am.
Katie McManusOkay?
Katie McManusI'm a trained and certified coach.
Katie McManusI, like, accidentally fell into doing this because I come from a background in sales and marketing.
Katie McManusAnd when I started, a lot of my friends were like, wait a minute.
Katie McManusHow did you get clients so fast?
Katie McManusBecause they didn't know a lot of my early clients were coaches.
Katie McManusAnd to this day, I have a lot of coaches in my client list.
Katie McManusSo when you have a niche, when you know who you serve, you get to be very specific about the problems that they experience.
Katie McManusSo when I started marketing, that I was helping coaches start their businesses, I'm a big believer in empathetic marketing.
Katie McManusOkay?
Katie McManusSo I would go and I would just say, hey, listen, you know, you're probably struggling with, you know, figuring out what to post online, and this comes up for you.
Katie McManusYou have this fear that you're gonna look stupid.
Katie McManusYou have this fear that people are like, oh, my God, what are they trying now?
Katie McManusAnd I just go through, like, you know, listing off exactly what's going on in their minds right now.
Katie McManusAnd what was funny is I'm describing all these problems that coaches had in starting their businesses.
Katie McManusAnd I was very specific that I helped coaches move through all these blocks.
Katie McManusAnd you know what?
Katie McManusI got photographers and lawyers and copywriters and social media marketers popping through and asking me, hey, I know you work with coaches, but all the problems you're listing are things I struggle with.
Katie McManusAnd I don't know, but I really like your vibe, and I would really like to work with you.
Katie McManusIf you take non coaches as clients, that is the power of knowing your niche, inside and outside, frontward, backward, sideways, all the ways.
Katie McManusRight?
Katie McManusSo your niche is a combination of the problems that your ideal client has that you help solve.
Katie McManusThe things that they wake up in the morning so stressed out about, the things that keep them awake at night, the stuff they fight with their spouse about.
Katie McManusOkay?
Katie McManusThe things that, like, they play over and over and over in their mind.
Katie McManusYou know, I like to describe it to my clients.
Katie McManusLike, imagine your ideal client is out.
Katie McManusYou know, they're meeting up with a girlfriend or guy friend.
Katie McManusYou know, after work.
Katie McManusThey got there early.
Katie McManusThey already had a glass of wine.
Katie McManusThey're halfway through their second one.
Katie McManusTheir friend shows up.
Katie McManusWhat are they bitching about?
Katie McManusWell, it's like the torrent of complaints that they have about their day in their life to this friend.
Katie McManusOkay, that is exactly what you should be posting out on social media.
Katie McManusOn the flip side, what is it they want for their life?
Katie McManusYou know, what is it that they just wish that they could have that they don't think is available to them?
Katie McManusYou know, what's something that they've always wanted but haven't really had the courage to go for it?
Katie McManusWhat's the thing that, like, the goal that they have been working towards and working towards and working towards and can never just quite get there?
Katie McManusI used to work for a fitness company, and there would always be that, you know, stereotypical person who would come in.
Katie McManusYou know, they had lost a lot of weight.
Katie McManusYou know, they went from being really, really heavy and unhealthy.
Katie McManusThey lost weight.
Katie McManusThey're in the healthy range, and they just wanted to lose the last ten pounds.
Katie McManusThe last ten pounds to get down to, like, a certain weight that their doctor recommended or whatever.
Katie McManusLike, that problem.
Katie McManusLike, it's just.
Katie McManusThat's just a sticking point, right?
Katie McManusIf you can identify, like, what is that final stretch of your goal?
Katie McManusAnd I want to help you get there, that is really powerful.
Katie McManusBut here's the thing.
Katie McManusTo know those problems, to know what they want, you have to figure out who you want to serve.
Katie McManusWho do you want to work with?
Katie McManusBecause let me tell you, let's stick with the fitness analogy, right?
Katie McManusSo imagine you have, like, this ex wrestler, meathead, personal trainer, really nice guy, really nice guy, maybe a dad of two, you know, really passionate about personal training, and he decides that he wants to work with postpartum moms, women who just gave birth maybe in the last year.
Katie McManusAnd he is like, yeah, I'm gonna be a postpartum personal trainer.
Katie McManusIs he gonna fare as well as the woman who's also had children, who's a personal trainer who's been through it?
Katie McManusNo, no, no.
Katie McManusAlso, a regular personal trainer is not gonna be able to market to, say, the meatheads who want to, like, build muscle mass and the postpartum moms who want to recover and get their bodies back to what they're comfortable with.
Katie McManusYou need a niche.
Katie McManusYou need to know exactly who your clients are, and in doing so, you'll understand on a very cellular level what they're struggling with and what they want instead.
Katie McManusThat is your niche.
Katie McManusNow, this is hard to get into.
Katie McManusThis is hard to understand because oftentimes when we think niche, we think, okay, cool, well, I'm going to work with women who, who are between the ages of 30 and 45, who have professional jobs and who are stressed out.
Katie McManusAnd you know what I'm going to tell you, right?
Katie McManusThat's not a niche.
Katie McManusThat's not a niche that.
Katie McManusNo, no, no.
Katie McManusA niche is also not.
Katie McManusI help people going through transitions.
Katie McManusI don't know a single person in my life who isn't going through a transition of some kind or other.
Katie McManusEveryone goes through transitions.
Katie McManusThat's what life is all about.
Katie McManusWe're just all.
Katie McManusThat's.
Katie McManusThat's just, like, a cuter way of saying that you're a life coach and no one knows what a life coach does.
Katie McManusNo one knows who a life coach is helpful to.
Katie McManusIf you want to say that, you help, say, parents whose children are getting sent off to boarding school because they are problematic.
Katie McManusLike, that's a big transition.
Katie McManusThat's a big thing.
Katie McManusYou can absolutely niche down in that.
Katie McManusAnyway, so here are the things that I do with my clients when they join build your own business, beginner, and all of my programs, we get really deep into what are the conversations that you want to have all the time?
Katie McManusLike, what are you interested in?
Katie McManusBecause especially if you're not even sure, like, really what your business is going to look like, it's really important to start at least there, because how miserable would it be to start a business that you're bored of?
Katie McManusSix months in, like, this happened to me.
Katie McManusI went through this.
Katie McManusI picked the wrong niche.
Katie McManusWhen I first started, I was going to be a dating coach for men, and I went out and I announced I'm a dating coach for men.
Katie McManusAnd I got mostly female clients, and only one of my clients, one woman, stuck with the dating coaching topic, and I got so bored talking about her dating life all the time.
Katie McManusI loved her to death.
Katie McManusShe was an incredible client.
Katie McManusShe did the work.
Katie McManusI was so thrilled for her, but I was so bored of it.
Katie McManusI just.
Katie McManusI didn't want to do it anymore.
Katie McManusAnd that's one of the reasons I switched to leadership coaching.
Katie McManusYou know, it was also where my clients naturally needed support.
Katie McManusBut you need to figure out what topics you're interested in, right?
Katie McManusWhat can you stick with for a good chunk of time?
Katie McManusIt doesn't mean you can't change it.
Katie McManusI've changed multiple times in my career.
Katie McManusBut you need to start there.
Katie McManusYou then need to look at what are your skills, what are your strengths?
Katie McManusWhat's your life experience?
Katie McManusAre you a recovering alcoholic and you've had this, like, road to redemption in your life and you are really claiming your new identity and you are establishing yourself and wanting to turn around and help people who have also gone through a twelve step program of some sort.
Katie McManusThat life experience is so valuable because people who've gone through that want someone who really gets them.
Katie McManusAll right?
Katie McManusAnd are you willing to go there?
Katie McManusYou know, for a lot of people, if they want to coach on stuff that is related to the trauma that they actually have, it can take a while for them to get into it.
Katie McManusAnd there's nothing wrong with that if that's really the impact you want to have.
Katie McManusYou just have to plan like a bigger gap of time for you to work on this.
Katie McManusRight.
Katie McManusYou also need to go out there and you need to talk to your ideal clients.
Katie McManusOne of the things that I stress in all of my programs, and let me tell you, this is the number one indicator of success, okay?
Katie McManusThe only clients that I've had who didn't get any results with me are the only ones who didn't do this step.
Katie McManusAnd that is you have to go and interview your ideal clients.
Katie McManusYou have to find out what they're afraid of, what they're struggling with, what they want, all this stuff.
Katie McManusSquirrel, squirrel.
Katie McManusIf you're ready to stop being a weenie and actually run a business that makes money, then go ahead and book a generate income strategy.
Katie McManusCall with me by going to weeniecast.com strategycall.
Katie McManusOn this call, we will talk about your goals, your dreams, and your frustrations in getting there.
Katie McManusAnd if it's a fit for both of us, then we can talk about different ways to work together.