You are listening to My Freedom Grove podcast with Gretchen Hernandez, episode 130.

Welcome to My Freedom Grove Podcast, your calm space for practical help to get your dream business up and running while being authentically you and taking care of your mental health. I'm your host, Gretchen Hernandez. I'm so glad you're here!

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Hi my strong friends.  Happy back to school time.  Yay!  I’m so excited all of my kids are back in school.  I love having them home, but it’s so much more engaging when we are all doing our own guided activities and making progress on life and business goals.

I have the house all to myself during most of my work hours.  The pro is that I have zero kid interruptions or sound concerns.  The con is that I have to take more breaks to let my dogs outside.  It’s not a bad thing.  I get to check out the ocean while I wait for them to do their business.

Then I get to go back to work creating the rest of the courses for the Unshakable Business Co-Lab membership.  This is exciting stuff!  I can’t wait until I can open the doors.  This week I’m working on the Love Your Client, Love Your Product course. 

The Love Your Client, Love Your Product Course helps you:

1. Refine your niche
2. Create a high demand product/service your clients can’t wait to buy. 

I want to ensure you have plenty of room for creativity in the type of product/service you offer.

I also want to make it easy for you with premade project plans and pricing guides.  In the course I’m covering 1:1, group programs, workshops, memberships and online courses. 

It’s going to be so good!  Those premade project plans are really going to accelerate your progress.  I can’t wait for you to get your hands on it.

In the meantime, I want to get you ready with the first part - Refine Your Niche

WHAT’S A NICHE?

Just in case you are not familiar with this term, a Niche is a specialized segment of the market for a particular kind of product or service.  The term niche can be used as a Noun, Adjective or Verb.

In order to have a high demand product/service that is easy to sell, you need to know who it is for.  And you need to ensure it is exactly what your customer wants and needs to reach their goal.

If you don’t know who your customer is, you won’t know which obstacles they are encountering along their journey.  And you may not totally understand their goal and the phases they will go through. 

You want your business to be easy right?  Wouldn’t it be great if your product/service just flew off the shelf?  Making sure you design the right one for people that really want it is essential.

Before we jump into the 5 easy steps to refine your niche, let’s address your mindset.

NICHE RESISTANCE

You may be feeling a lot of resistance to either picking a niche or getting really specific by refining your niche.

That resistance is coming from your thoughts and beliefs.

You have a different set of thoughts and beliefs in your mindset at the beginning of your Entrepreneur Journey.  You’re used to being an employee.  You have an employee mindset.  Those thoughts and beliefs were working fine as an employee.  But, some have to be challenged and flipped if you are going to be an entrepreneur.  You need to have an Entrepreneur Mindset.


The most common thought you have to challenge - “I won’t get enough clients if I niche”

Of course you’re going to think that if you are just looking outside your living room window.  It also makes sense if you live in a small town where you only see about 20 people walking around.

It ONLY makes sense if this is the ONLY set of people you are willing to offer your product/service to.

For example, if you want to offer Dog Obedience training, and there is only 1 dog owner in your town of 20 people, yes.  You have limited your chance of having enough clients.

I want you to Google the Population Numbers for the segment of the world you want to work with.

7.7 Billion worldwide

329 Million in the US

38 Million in Canada

25 Million in Australia

You can offer your product/service worldwide, within just a couple of countries, just 1 country, just one part of the country…or in a town of 20.

Would you rather work in a small geographical location, helping with everything under the sun?  Or pick the few things you really enjoy doing, with the people you really like working with, but just broaden your reach?

There are people all over the world that will be your favorite clients.  You just haven’t met them yet.  But they are there.  And they are searching and praying for a product/service just like yours.

Sure, you’ll have to learn how to reach them.  It has a learning curve, but you are good at learning.

Besides, you were already prepared to learn how to help anybody with anything.  That has a much larger learning curve.

You could reduce your learning curve and time to success by niching.  You focus on one segment and process for helping them.  You reduce your learning to just how to expand your reach.  Marketing, you have to learn no matter what.  By niching, you decrease the amount you have to learn in marketing.

So why not do what lights you up and have a shorter learning curve?

THE BIGGEST MISTAKE THAT CONFUSES EVERYONE

As coaches, healers and educators we have a tendency to lead first with what we want to teach people or the method we want to use to resolve the root cause of a client's obstacle.  So we either start teaching people immediately.  Or we start coaching or healing on 1 thing at a time. 

Further, when asked what we do, we’ll launch into the laundry list of all the root causes we solve and the tools or techniques we use.  When we are talking with our peers, this is fine.  We get it.  We have the context.  However, our clients don’t have the context.

The problem is, we leave it up to the client to guess how to apply the information or the tool.

It’s like going into a hardware store, seeing a tool you never knew existed.  The tool may seem cool and interesting.  But what Home Improvement project are you working on?  What if you don’t have any project you’re working on?  The tool is irrelevant.

The poor sales person is stuck suggesting all of the different home improvement projects they can work on and how this tool would be useful.  They basically have to convince the shopper to DO a home improvement project, just to get them to buy the tool.

It is so much easier when the person is already doing a home improvement project.  They got stuck on something. They realized they needed a tool.  Then they went looking for their options.

The 5 Niche Refinement Steps will help you pinpoint The Project your Clients have already identified.  Tons of people in the world will have the same project.  There will be some that already know their project plan.  They are just looking for the tools and the teacher to help them.  Others have Identified The Project in general terms, but need a skilled Project Manager to lead them through the preplanned steps and help them finish.  At the end of the day, they just want to finish their project.  If they are in pain, they want to be out of pain.  If they are trying to fix something, they want it fixed.  If they are trying to achieve a dream, they want to actually achieve it.  As quickly as they can, while having a great experience.

The 5 Niche Refinement Steps help you get crystal clear on who and what.

      1. Value Proposition (aka Elevator Pitch)

2. 3 High Level Niche Buckets
3. Niche Refinement - Specific Journey and Phase
4. Your Product/Service Success Path
5. Milestones and process steps
   
   
   Steps 4 and 5 will help you frame the context.  It’s basically your high level Project Plan to get them an end result.  Don’t worry, you are not going to get into the nitty gritty details of steps 4 and 5 today.  It is just going to be food for thought.
   
   

  Let’s get started.

VALUE PROPOSITION

A simple, succinct statement to convey what you do.  I help X do Y so that they Z.

Value Proposition happens at two levels of your business. 

• Total Business Value Proposition
• Specific product/service Value Proposition.
  
   

When a business owner gives their Elevator Pitch, they are saying their Total Business Value Proposition. 

I help X to do Y so that they Z.

X= the specific customer they help

Y= the activity or end result

Z= the final benefit

Let me use the Hardware Store example again.

Hardware store

Whole Business Value Prop - We help DIY homeowners by providing basic repair tools so they can fix anything in their house.

Specific product Value Prop - This Staple Gun helps DIY homeowners create elaborate Christmas light displays quickly so they can wow their neighbors.

Specific service Value Prop - We offer an Inground Sprinkler Repair Workshop to DIY Homeowners to educate and develop their skillset so you can quickly respond in emergency situations.

Seems pretty clear, right?  As a potential customer I know exactly why I would go to them.

The goal is to get your messaging this clear.

I want to normalize how difficult and drawn out the struggle can be to make the decision for this Value Prop sentence.  I worked on my Whole Business Value Prop for over 3 years.  This is affectionately called “Niche Drama”.

Because of the struggle, I wasn’t able to accept a lot of collaboration and cross promotion opportunities.

You know why?  The first thing in any interview is “Please introduce yourself and tell us what you do.”  It was like running into a brick wall.  I could say my name.  And then hard stop.  It sucked.  I spent good money to get into great rooms just to find I couldn’t even introduce myself.

If you are going through this same experience, I see you.  I feel for you.  And I want to make your life easier.  I don’t want you to swirl in “Niche Drama” for years like I did.

Through these 5 steps I want to provide a process that will help you get to your value proposition a lot faster.

In this first step, all you need to do is come up with a general person you want to help.

Gender________________________________________

Age___________________________________________

Any other roles or descriptors_______________________

3 HIGH LEVEL NICHE BUCKETS

Before we get into the specifics, let’s make a broad scoping decision.  Successful coaching, healing and education niches fall into 1 of 3 buckets: Health, Wealth, or Relationship

#1 Health - Physical or Mental Health

#2 Wealth - Career, Business, Debt Relief, Investments

#3 Relationships - with themselves, family members, friends, co-workers or general society

For the person from step #1, which of these 3 high level buckets refers to the general area you want to help them with?

NICHE REFINEMENT

Now that you picked the High Level Bucket, think about their full journey.  I’m not implying you are going to help them with the whole journey.  I just need you to imagine all the phases.

Either in your head, or on paper, draw a long horizontal line. What are the high level phases of this journey?  When did they start?  What is the phase where they are done?  What are the phases in between?  Don’t worry about getting too specific.  We’re looking for the 5-10 phases.  

Once you can see all of the phases, put a dot on the phase where you “pick up” your client.  That is their Before spot.  Which spot do you help them get to?  Put another dot at that end point.  This helps you scope things down.

I learned this technique from Frank Kern.  I was so grateful when he showed it to me.  He was showing the specific journey of marketing and selling a product.  He had about 5 phases on the journey line.  One phase was Facebook Ads.

In most instances there is still a sales and fulfillment piece on this journey. 

He circled Facebook Ads.  Although he was familiar with all of the phases, he chose his service to be about Facebook Ads only.  He made his whole business be about that for a while and did quite well.  There are so many nitty gritty details to master to be able to be a good service provider for that 1 aspect.

I started studying the other journeys that Coaches, Healers and Educators may service.  I noticed the phases of those journeys.  Then I recognized which businesses were serving each phase.

Let’s take a look at Relationship phases, for example.  Depending on the type of relationship, the journey will be different.


Basic Romantic Relationship Journey

Meet → Date→Commitment→Breakup

There are businesses that help:

People meet (apps, activity and event organizers, Social Anxiety specialists)

People date (apps, in person matchmakers, speed dating services, dating specialists)

Commitment (books, communication, intimacy, relationship specialists, couples massage, Bed and Breakfast)

Breakup (pre-breakup, authors of books, support groups, breakup specialists)

Those businesses “Pick Up” the client in one phase and help them get to the next phase.

There are billions of people in the world going through each phase.  There is a business opportunity in each phase.  

There are a variety of products/services the specialists can provide in each of those phases.

The process to help someone will be different depending on the stage.

Let’s look at a Customer Journey with even more phases.

Complex Romantic Relationship

Meet → Date →Commitment →Marriage→Kids→Divorce→Date w/Kids→Marriage/Step Family→Empty Nesters→Retirement→Death

Can you see how a business could “Pick Up” a client in one phase and help them get to the next phase?  Let me clarify the retirement to death phase.  We are not trying to help them die.  Although there is Palliative Care.  There are services between the two phases.  And services for a surviving spouse and family.

The business can also help them just learn about the phase.  Or make the phase work better.  No need for advancement.  It depends on what the customer wants for the end result.

Do they want to advance to the next phase?  Or do they want to improve their current phase?

Now, I want you to think about your Customer’s Journey.  

1. What are all the phases they go through? 
2. Which phase do you “Pick them Up”?
3. Are you helping them get to the next phase?  Or are you helping them learn about or improve their current phase?

YOUR PRODUCT/SERVICE SUCCESS PATH

The Success Path is the micro-evolutionary phases your client goes through to achieve their final result.

Think about their Before and After.

For Weight Loss Clients, we see Before and After pictures of their body.  It’s pretty easy to see the body change.  But we all know there are more changes than that.

Before:

Body (of course)
Lifestyle
Mindset
Thoughts about Themselves

After

Body looks different
Lifestyle looks different

Mindset Shifts Happened
Thoughts about Themselves changed

When you do a Before and After of your Clients, get specific.

BEFORE: Lifestyle

What was the schedule for 24 hours and each day of the week? 

What were the activities?
What was the quality of the activities?
What additional impact or benefit were they experiencing in personal or professional life?

AFTER: Lifestyle

Use the same questions

BEFORE: Mindset Shifts
 

What were thoughts and beliefs that held them back?  What were the triggers?

AFTER: Mindset Shifts

With the same triggers, what are their thoughts or beliefs now?

Now that you have a clear idea of their Before and After, what are the micro-evolutions in between?

Now would you name those evolutionary phases?


This is a high level exercise.  You don’t have to get into the nitty gritty of the evolutionary phases.  It’s just to help you reframe how you do things.  It is not the specific how and the techniques.  It is about the client.  What is different for them as a result of your technique?

If you haven’t had a lot of clients to establish a clear cut vision of this, don’t worry.  Just estimate it for now.

It’s Ok to change this part later on once you are making your actual product/service.

MILESTONES AND PROCESS STEPS

This step is going to be food for thought for you.  Later on when you are designing and building your product or service, we’ll get specific about this.

People buy a result.  The result is their final Milestone.  They want to achieve it.  That’s why they paid for your product/service.

It’s possible that your product/service may take some calendar time to complete.  It is helpful for people to have milestones along the way to know they made progress.

I have Personal Evolution, Business Deliverables and Financial Milestones I use with my clients inside the Unshakable Business Co-Lab and in my 1:1s.

I’ll share the Financial Milestones.  You can use this as a framework to find the equivalent for your product/service.

1. 1st Sale
2. Breakeven Revenue
3. Sustainable Revenue
4. Bold Revenue

Unlike other masterminds, I don’t assign a specific dollar amount.  Each client determines their dollar amount based on their unique business.

The point is just to pick significant milestones. 

Next, your customers will want to know how long it will take them to achieve those milestones.  You might not know the answer at first.  You are still trying out all of your techniques and fine tuning your processes.

AND, more importantly, you don’t know all of your Ideal Customer’s obstacles you will need to help them with.  Unexpected obstacles pop up a lot in the beginning.  Over time, you will have seen it all.

Now it is time for your specific knowledge, processes and techniques.  Remember, all that stuff you led with before?  It comes at the end.

You have to know the specific who.  Which journey. Which phase.  The part you help them with.  The Before and After. The Milestones.  And the target time to reach each milestone.  

Then you pick and choose which of your skills and techniques you will apply to help them achieve it in the time frame.  Unfortunately, you may leave a bunch of your skills and techniques on the cutting room floor.

Even the best movies have to cut out amazing scenes.  Otherwise the move would be 7 hours long.  People typically don’t want a 7 hour long movie. 

I know it is hard to let go of some of the really best stuff.  But we have to put our customer’s requirements first.  They just want their result.

Whew!  That’s a lot. 

Today, it is just food for thought.

When you are ready to do this work, I have worksheets inside the new Love Your Client, Love Your Product course that will help you.  

If you want help during coaching calls, we’ll use the Google Jamboard to visually flush out these details.

When you choose to work with me 1:1 you get 2 hours a week to work through all of the details of your niche, products/services and more.

When you choose to work with me inside the Unshakable Business Co-Lab membership, you take turns getting coached during 2 calls each week.  Each person gets 15-30 minutes depending on how many people show up to the call and how many actually want coaching that day. You’ll be surprised how much progress you make just from watching other people get coached.

The Unshakable Business Co-Lab membership includes all of the courses, Coaching, Action Steps, Project Plans, Mindset Shifts and Community Support to help you get your business up and running smoothly and profitably while putting your Mental Health First.

I invite you to go check out the details of the Unshakable Business Co-Lab and get on the Waiting List.  Go to www.myfreedomgrove.com/join

If you want more time with me, or you don’t want to wait until the Membership is open, consider a 1:1 Business Journey.  Schedule your free consultation with me today by going to the Contact Me page on my website.

My friends, get out of Niche Drama as fast as you can.  I know making the decision is hard.  But your anxiety will continue to be high if you keep spinning.  Be kind to yourself.

My friends, have a great week.  I’ll talk with you soon.  Bye-bye

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 Thank you for listening to My Freedom Grove Podcast. When you are ready to make your dream business a reality and take care of your mental health, I invite you to join the Unshakable Business Co-Lab. This is the mastermind membership you've been waiting for. There's no limits on your imagination, nor your timeline. We're with you every step of the way. To learn more, please visit www.myfreedomgrove.com/join. I'll see you there!