Get Clear & Niche Down on What Your Podcast Tagline & Business Promise Should Be

Hey Friend!

I have an amazing niche training for you today. If you’ve attended the Stefanie Gass School or plan to, you will become very well acquainted with what I lovingly call the TSO statement, which stands for Tactical Specific Outcome.

This is one long phrase that tells your niche audience exactly what it is you do. I cannot tell you how many people get hung up on this one step in their business. Because if you do not have absolute clarity on your TSO statement and business promise, no one else will either.

Why?

• It elicits confusion,
• people leaving,
• not sticking around,
• not subscribing,
• and definitely not buying.

In this post, I’m sharing how to get super clear on your tagline for your business and your podcast.

If you join Podcast to Profit (P2P) once you’ve launched your show, you get your own community, where we do power coaching live every other week. So, there are lots of opportunities to hang out with me in a deeper capacity by joining the program. The full details on how you can work with me can be found at the Stefanie Gass School.

Listen to How I Help My Students Niche Down in This Live Training

Kara Brothers’ next question concerns her podcast tagline, Empowering Women in Home-Based Dog Treat Businesses.

She asked, “The problem as I see it, I don’t think people who want to start or grow their dog treat business are Googling these words. I think it’s high level. The tagline I like best is, Recipe Hacks, Decorating Tips, Pro Packaging, and Social Media.”

I want to help you understand the tagline. You hear me call it TSO, which stands for Tactical Specific Outcome. I’m not just calling it that because I want to; I’m calling it that because that’s what it is. It must be a Tactical Specific Outcome.

Your TSO is the tagline you put on your art and at the top of your future website. Nobody needs a website until you come into Podcast to Profit. We’ll help you build one. It’s basically to help you have a waypoint on your business map that shows, “This is where I go and live; this is my waypoint.”

For example:

• Declutter Your Home in Less Than 30 Days
• Start a Flexible Home School for Christian Moms
• Leave Corporate America and Create a Work-From-Home Law Business
• Relationship Coaching After Infidelity for Women

Do you guys see what I’m doing there? Here’s what it’s not. It’s not emotionally driven. It’s not fluffy, and it’s not a filler, okay? The TSO is your business promise.

Niche Down Your TSO: Make It Punchy and Clear

When Kara used the word empower, what did that mean, and why was it necessary? A TSO needs to be punchy and clear. A TSO is not a list of things either. When you’re talking about your list of words, those are different and can be plugged content titles. They can potentially be keywords at the top of your podcast where we list some keywords.

You can find out all about this in Podcast Pro University. A TSO answers niche questions like, “Why am I here, and what is this podcast about?” So, I would recommend that Kara’s TSO be Start and Grow a Dog Treat Business. Done. Since it’s a dog treat business, her brand is already niche. We want it to stand and breathe in and of itself as a TSO statement.

Your TSO needs to be 10 words or less

Your TSO must be short, 10 words or less, and punchy. Share what it is that you do. Do I expect all of you to say, “This is 100% what I do, and my business promise is so clear?” No, that’s why you’re coming into P2P. We’re going to optimize it, rip things apart, and rebuild. It’s all going to be okay, but I need you to get close, and I need you to be willing to dig into your niche.

Tori’s TSO example

Tori says, Improve Your Chances of Conceiving With Simple Lifestyle Habits or Understand Your Fertility So You Can Improve It Naturally. Very good. Those are great starts. Either one would be fine as a starting point. What you’ll find in P2P is exactly what your person is saying and what you want to clean up. Either one of these would be okay.

Which one does your person really want? Does she want to improve her chances of conceiving, or does she want to understand her fertility? Pick the one she wants more and go with that. Simple Lifestyle Habits is vague, but it’s okay for now.

Can you start digging into Tori’s superpower regarding lifestyle habits and her secret sauce? This is a good starting point, but keep an open mind about how she might be able to niche that down in the future.

It’s a TSO Statement Not Statements

Dawn says, Faith-Fueled Confidence, Clarity, and Career Transition Over 40. So, three things are listed. When I say TSO statement, I didn’t say TSO statements. It’s one Tactical Specific Outcome statement.

So what is Dawn doing for this niche? Confidence and clarity. These are filler words. These are emotional outcomes. Let’s get rid of that. You might say, Career Transitions for Christian Women Over 40. Do you see the difference? Let me repeat it. Faith-Fueled Confidence, Clarity, and Career Transition Over 40.

That’s what Dawn had. I’m asking her and challenging her to eliminate any filler and emotional outcome phrases. Faith-fueled is elusive. What does that mean? Can you label it? Do you see the difference in the stickiness of that second statement? It’s much clearer.

Niche down and get rid of the messy middle

Kori says, Embracing the Messy Middle of God-Centered Motherhood. Okay, so what have we learned? Embracing? Don’t need it. What is that? That has nothing to do with anything. You’re going to get rid of that. Messy Middle? What does that mean? Okay, so we got to drill into the niche. Then God-centered Motherhood? That is a thing like a segment of a market. So, you want to drill in. Here’s how to get more clarity on these TSO statements.

• What do I mean?
• How?
• Why?
• When I do that, what does it look like?

Ask yourself these questions. Peel your onion until you figure it out. So, you can ask, “When I sat in the messy middle of motherhood, and I wanted to get centered with God, what did I do?” What did you tangibly and tactically do? Kori might discover that she is great at journaling and finding time to read the Bible.

What is the sticky thing that allows Kori to help this mom center her motherhood on God? That’s what you want to start moving into regarding a TSO.

A TSO Is Not a List

The last niche example is from Linda Ann. She’s got Goal-Getters’ Coaching and Consulting. Very cute. But her TSO says, Dream Big, Be Bold, and Achieve More. So, this feels good, but it is not a TSO statement.

This list is elusive. We can’t touch them. But we can drill in and micro-niche down the podcast title, Goal-Getters’ Coaching, and Consulting, down a little bit.

We really want to consider your business promise and how you help people achieve their goals. How do you help them get their goals done? What is your process? What is your method?

Drill in and peel the onion to find your niche

You’ve got to look at what you did to get to this outcome that you are promising people. That’s your TSO statement. Some ideas for Linda could be Reverse Engineering Goals to Grow Your Business or Quarterly Goal Setting to Build Productivity.

Again, I don’t know her exact brand, but I give examples. What is the thing? What did you do? It’s usually something you can feel, touch, and experience. So drill in, peel the onion, and see what you come up with for your niche.

Are you starting to get it? I know you might still feel stuck. Please know that’s normal. Please know there’s confusion before the clarity. Normal! There’s frustration before the fruit. Normal! You’re good—take a deep breath. You can do hard things. It’s okay to sit in a little bit of discomfort while you get the download. You know what I’m saying? It’s okay.

Do the work. Do the journaling and brainstorming. Get out of your way of consumption and go inward. Go upward. Do the work. Get close. This process isn’t easy, but it’s worth it.

It’s a Process to Niche Down Your TSO

A question from PPU student Jennifer Skaw needing help with the tagline. Who is having an AHA moment about what this should look like? Is it becoming more clear for you? I hope so.

Clarity is an evolution. I don’t expect any of you to be exactly spot on. That’s what Podcast to Profit is for. But I do expect you to get close. I expect you to be somewhat in the right direction. Challenge yourselves here. Don’t let frustration freeze you. Challenge yourself to press into the work.

Jennifer’s recent favorite tagline is, Claiming the Life-Changing Power of a Christ-Centered Mind. Is it clear or a little bit confusing? What do you guys say? Don’t be scared. Let’s go. We’re here to coach. We’re here to do the work.

Do you guys want to know how to know if your TSO is there yet? Go ask 5 people who will tell you the truth if your sentence is clear. Does this sentence make sense? Text 5 people who will tell you the truth. If they are at all confused, you are not there yet.

How to know if your TSO is there yet

Jen shared, Perfect Peace Choosing Loyalty to God’s Thoughts Instead of Your Own. Choosing loyalty is unnecessary, so what I had for Jen was, Stop Negative Thinking by Renewing Your Mind. That’s what I had as maybe a try to get closer. So that’s an option.

Label what she would call it

If you want to say, Perfect Peace, again that’s elusive because what does that mean? So I chose Negative Thinking because everybody struggles with that. Jen could also say, Stop Comparison or Stop the Negative Mindset. Let’s label it something that she would be calling it. Perfect Peace would be an outcome and I think it‘s hard to touch that. Choosing Loyalty is filler. Cut that out. God’s Thoughts, is closer but again what does that mean?

• Is it renewing the mind?
• Is it memorizing scripture?
• Is it connecting with God through prayer?

What is it when you say that? What does that mean? Drill in just a little bit. Jen is getting closer and doing a great job. What I had for Jen was, Stop Negative Thinking by Renewing Your Mind.

What did you do

Again, you want to ask yourself, “What is my method?” or “What was my method?” That’s going to give you so many clues. Your method was not something fluffy. Your method was not about how you felt better and empowered to find your identity in Christ. That’s not what happened. You did something. What did you do?

For me, it was like I hit rock bottom. Then I went to church, surrendered, and began reading scripture daily. I got disciplined, opened my Bible, and sought wise counsel.

What did you do? That’s the secret sauce. What ONE thing do you want to teach other people to do? That’s how you drill into your niche. That’s how you grow your business and brand because it’s something you can touch and feel and experience.

Cut out the filler words

Okay, let’s discuss one more student. Dani wants some help on drilling down a big sentence to a TSO. So, Dani says, “I am a holistic relationship coach, helping Christian women recover from trauma through the word of God and biology, to help her fight and win in times of doubt so she can walk in confidence in who she is because of Whose she is.” Great. So you’ll want to cut out any filler words for this big root statement. Clarify Your Calling teaches this.

Cut out any emotional outcome. Cut out any unnecessary explanatory words. In this example, we would cut out “win in times of doubt” and “walk in confidence in who she is because of Whose she is.” We’d cut all of that out.

Circle things that are super clear and tactical

Dani said, “Holistic relationship coach.” Oh, I would circle that. She said, “Christian women,” I would circle this. She also said, “Recover from trauma.” It’s trauma recovery in a way. She could circle the Word of God because she said, “through the Word of God.” She also said, “biology,” so she could circle that. However, I would want her to drill more into what that means in her niche and if she would be Googling that.

So, what I have for Dani is Holistic Relationship Coaching for Christian Women. That’s it. Done. Simplify it. Let’s not be confusing. Maybe your pillars are Trauma Recovery, the Word of God, and Mindset. However, mindset is the inner work of holistic relationship coaching.

The Process to Find Your Niche It’s Not Going to Be Perfect

I hope this was helpful. Remember, this is not going to be perfect, and you will change this TSO again—I promise. But get as close and as clear as you can.

• Make It Simple
• Ten Words or Less
• Tactical Specific
• What Is Your Method?
• What Did You Do?
• What Do You Mean by That?
• What Did You Actually Do?
• Can You Touch and Feel This?
• Can You Remove Any Filler Words?
• Can You Remove Any Emotional Outcome Words?

Get it all done. Get it all clean, clear, and crispy. No lists, please. No emotional fillers.

The work in all of your lives, whether ministry or marketplace, is fruitful. There is so much favor for every one of you.

Push through the uncomfortable

Keep pushing through the uncomfortable spots. When you do, you gain clarity, move into kingdom authority and capacity, and do the hard thing.

You’ll say, “Look what I just did.” And keep going. You CAN do this hard thing. You press into it, do it, and move into the next right step. That’s how you will operate if you’re here with me. My courses lead you through the process. We will take the next right step, get clear, press in, do the work, and move to the next thing.

I pray this blesses you!

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