Are you on the struggle bus trying to simplify what you actually do? Do you feel like you could go in so many directions with your new business? Or maybe, if you’re already in a business. You feel like you’re all over the place; it’s a little too big, too broad? Today’s blog is for you. I’m going to be answering a question about how to simplify what you do when there are so many things you could do. I’m going to take you through a four-step framework that will help you not only discover what your thing is, but actually niche it down so you can get started easily when you launch your business.
Lose the Struggle. Simplify so You Can Launch Your Business
I got asked this question from a listener recently:
“I struggle with niching down my ideas. I have a lot of experience in online marketing and website building. I’m trying so hard to streamline what I’m doing but it still feels so hard to simplify. So I was wondering if you had any advice about simplifying what you do when you have so many things you could offer.”
If you are feeling this, you are not alone in your struggle, my friend. So many people tell me, “I’m great at a lot of things and I’m struggling to figure out what the one thing is.”
I think we can swirl and swirl, and over-think it because it doesn’t feel like there’s a clear one thing we can pull. Often, 99% of the time, there is something you can pull to create your very own micro-niche from all the things you’re good at. So the specific question was, “How do you simplify what you do when you can do so many things?”
I wrote down four things I want you to do before you launch your business. You’re going to follow this exact framework to simplify this. This is covered in its entirety inside Clarify Your Calling, so if you want to dig into this topic even more, I highly recommend you join that course.
1. Write everything out that you do
Before you launch your business, write everything that you want to do. Brain dump all the things you do. You can do this on a sheet of paper, or a whiteboard, or one of my favorite tools for a brain dump is mindmeister.com. Start for free and brain-dump everything.
Let’s say you wrote down website creation, content, copy, graphics, social marketing, and reels creation. Throw out anything that’s an outlier. Ask yourself, “Is this something I’d have a brand around? Is it something I would teach someone?” If not, just throw it out.
2. Look for buckets & consistencies
For example, maybe one of the buckets is called Websites. It could include website copy, building a freebie, website tech, etc. Now bucket all the things on your list as best you can. You’re shooting for less than four buckets. Preferably three. If you have four, decide which three go together the best and get rid of the fourth one. In our example, our buckets become Websites, Content Creation, and Social Marketing.
Your buckets end up being the content pillars for your future podcast when you launch your business. In our example, you’d be podcasting about building websites, starting a website, what should be on the home page of your website, etc. Then you might have episodes on content creation, like “Two Things to Post on Your Instagram Feed Every Week.” Then you can have something on social marketing like “Three Unique Ways to Use a Poll in Your Facebook Group.”
That’s going to help you know what content to create so you never go rogue. Your buckets and pillars should be related, but not the same niche.
3. Determine your umbrella to launch your business
Look at your three buckets & figure out what umbrella they fit under. If we return to our example of the three buckets of Websites, Content Creation, and Social Marketing, the umbrella you might choose over those three things might be Organic Marketing or Brand Building or Brand Creation. You’re trying to find the phrase that covers the three buckets – ONE phrase – one or two words – that is it; that’s your thing. That’s what you’re going to serve people with when you launch your business.
4. Micro-Niche down
We can’t just launch your business here, because it’s too big. The umbrella is too big and you need to niche. You actually need to micro-niche after you find your thing. Either add another element that makes it more specific OR by adding the Who to this niche you have discovered.
Back to our example, if your umbrella is Organic Marketing, now it can become Organic Marketing for Life Coaches. Now you have a micro-niche. Not only do you have one thing, which is Organic Marketing, but you have a Who to tie to it, which is Life Coaches.
Another idea might be Organic Marketing Through Highly Converting Websites. Organic Marketing is the ‘what’, and the ‘how we’re going to get them there’ is highly converting websites.
This is where you can start to see a tagline emerge, your TSO statement. When you’re in Clarify Your Calling or Podcast Pro University you will intimately get to know the TSO statement because it’s critically important when you launch your business.
Take the leap and launch your business
This exercise will start to create that vision for you of “What do I do? Or What am I going to do?” Even if you’ve started, you may still not know what you do sometimes. So micro-niche and drill it down.
Put these four steps together to take you from “I have way too many ideas!” to the one thing you’re going to do. Now you know how to sort through all those different ideas and narrow them down to your niche so you can confidently launch your business!
Before you go, be sure to watch the free workshop!
This free workshop is for you if you want to grow an online business in less time.
It will teach you how to explode your audience without the social media hustle, make consistent sales using a podcast, and plan, record, and launch a podcast with ease!
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