How find your “Niche”

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3 quick questions before we start -

Do you know who you serve?

Do you know what results you can get them?

Do you have a vehicle(product/service) to get them said results?

It’s okay if your answers are broad, but it’s important that you have answers for these questions.

Your answers can evolve over time, will get more refined and pointed.

But that will only happen if you write them down today, and start taking action on them.

Okay I’m getting ahead of myself here, let me back up a little.

Let’s start at the very beginning.

🗃️ Finding your Niche

Let’s start with the advice - “Find your niche”

Niche a complicated word for most creators online. Especially when starting out, you feel like you’re artificially forced to box yourself in a niche, while in reality, you’re a multi-potentialite generalist.

Breaking news: Most humans are generalists!

But when it comes to judging other people we like to assign categories to them, it’s just how our brains funciton.

That’s why the sane thing to do early on is to find a niche, test it, and evolve and broaden with experience.

Okay, makes sense, but how do you do it?

🪜 Value Ladder Mission Statement

This is where I like the idea of the “Value Ladder Mission Statement”

I came across it when I was reading Russel Brunson’s ‘Dotcom Secrets’.

Once I read it, I could see it everywhere, every successful business you see has a VLMS, either explicit or implicit in their offerings.

Here’s how Russel describes it in the book -

“We help [insert who] to [insert result they wan to achieve] through [insert your new opportunity]”

This is why I asked you the 3 questions at the top.

Who: who you serve

Result: What outcome you can get them

New Opportunity: Your product or service

Once you answer this, run with it, test it, refine it a couple of times, your niche will start to emerge.

Here’s what I could come up with for myself -

“I help solopreneurs build independent businesses through my offering X”

I left out the X, because that’s the fun part.

The “Value Ladder” in the VLMS is where all your offerings should lie.

Once you know who you’re serving, and what result you want them to achieve, you can create an entire value ladder to help them do this.

So I can replace the X above with my value ladder -

Twitter content (Tweets and thread on my Twitter account)

SuperFrameworks (this newsletter)

SuperFrameworks Premium Products (ebooks, courses, guides on my website)

Indie Masterminds (mastermind program)

1:1 coaching/consulting

Every offering here is serving the same person and helping them achieve the same result.

The only difference is the amount of direct involvement I have, and the price the customers have to pay. (Related - Value Ladder Framework)

This now also helps me answer all the other complex questions around my niche, the products I create, the topics I write about and the communities I hang out in.

Like, just yesterday I did a workshop on "Early Stage Marketing" for the Indie Masterminds Community members. I shared what's working for me, and what I've seen work for others. The choice of topic and content for the workshop was very obvious because I was clear on my VLMS.

Answering the 3 questions at the top and writing down your VLMS is an important exercise no matter which stage of your journey you are in.

Or what kind of online business you do.

This works for content, services and even SaaS businesses.

🤔 How to do this when starting out

Yes, if you’re just starting out it can be hard nail down. But you can always look at a 2 year younger version of yourself, and create your offerings for them -

Who you serve: You from 2 years ago

Result: The most recent outcome you’re proud of

New Opportunity: Product or service you can offer to help someone achieve that outcome

Write this down, and go out and start testing it in the market.

Your niche will start to emerge and you can update these answers with time. And your offers will change as well with that.

That’s why in 2023:

I killed 2 newsletters

Limited the topics I talk about on Twitter and in this newsletter.

Narrowed down the products and services I promote

2 years ago I was grappling with the niche question and writing about random topics ranging from self development to mental models to geopolitics and global warming.

After all I am a generalist 🙈

So if you think you’re lost, you’re not as lost as I was back then.

And if you ever feel confused, feel free to reach out, I’ll do my best to help.

That’s it for today.

Hope this helped you a bit.

If it did, please share it with a friend.

Cheers

🔗 Super Links

Useful links you don't want to miss -

If your landing page lives on Carrd, this is the easiest way to set up testimonials on it

This made me laugh, thanks Daniel 😆

If you want to learn from books, but don’t have a ton of time, this is a great alternative

If you want to improve X, do it everyday. Thanks Marc for the reminder.

Profound insights in this short post from DHH

*Links in bold are classified ads, to book your own ad here, please send me a DM on Twitter.

Arunima is a long time Twitter friend, a fantastic writer and a master at creating digital products.

She recently started her newsletter where she she shares actionable strategies to build digital products, launc your online business and eventually escape your 9-5 ✊

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