2 Tips to Find Your Niche [part 1]

I’ll never forget sitting in a windowless conference room for countless hours during my first-ever business training weekend seminar, trying to soak up all the foreign concepts that were being shared.

When the topic of niching came up, my first thought as a functional health practitioner was…

“But I can help everyone”

I resisted the idea of niching down.  It was limiting.  I had the knowledge and the tools to change lives, so why would I deny anyone the opportunity to have better health? Plus my scarcity and lack-money mindset at the time totally backed up my aversion to niching.

I fought myself through the entire 90-minute niching exercise and left the conference determined to help everyone, not just a certain person.

Let me tell you how that worked out for me…

It didn’t.

I attracted all of the wrong clients.  The ones who did not show for consultations or appointments, who weren’t committed to the work, who wanted meal planning when that wasn’t a service I provided, and who ultimately sucked time and energy out of me.

Needless to say, I wasn’t loving my job as much as I wanted to AND I wasn’t creating a steady stream of income either.

Although I initially did things the hard way by not niching down, I did get super clear on who I didn’t want to work with, which helped me understand who I did want to work with.

After failing at first, I decided it was time to try this niching thing to see if it really worked, but I was going to do it my way.  My niche wasn’t going to be a condition, age range, gender, or socioeconomic status. My niche was going to be a real person, one that felt authentic to me.

What I came up with was a non-traditional approach to niching that has brought me more clarity and income than ever before, and it has helped other functional health practitioners do the same. 

In this week’s video and blog, I’m sharing my number one tip to finding your niche in a non-traditional way that will improve your clarity and income too

As marketing experts such as Seth Godin say, you want to target 3% of the market.  The trick is finding out what 3% of the market is right for you.  Even if you say your niche is thyroid, for example, you still have to ask yourself what 3% of the thyroid market do you really want to work with?

And I’m not just talking about niching into hyper, hypo or autoimmune thyroid issues.  I’m talking about “WHO” are the people you are best designed to work with that will bring you the same amount of joy and fulfillment as the results and transformation you provide them. 

When you are getting the same amount of joy and financial freedom out of your work as you’re putting in, and your clients are equally receiving results, transformation, and joy out of their investment in you, you’ve created energy equality and nailed your niche. 

So how do you find these people exactly? 

In my non-traditional approach to niching, I’ve come up with two tried-and-true tips to help you find your niche.

Here’s tip #1 to help you generate more clarity and income than ever before…

#1 – Check Your Reflection
Look in the mirror right now.  Seriously.  Your ideal client aka niche is a reflection of you.  Your experiences in life have perfectly prepared you to give them the results they are looking for, and your story is the most powerful marketing tool at your fingertips that doesn’t cost you a thing.

Need proof?

I started attracting clients with thyroid issues months before I was diagnosed with a thyroid condition.  It wasn’t the thyroid issue that attracted them to me.  Who I was as a person and the experiences I was sharing are what attracted them to me…the health-minded, high-performing professional who was dealing with low energy, weight gain, irregular periods, and acne while being told they were the picture of perfect health by other medical experts.

Here’s another fascinating example. I grew up with an alcoholic mom. I don’t frequently share this part of my story and I certainly don’t bring it up in client consultations, but interestingly the vast majority of my clients end up revealing they have had a similar experience in their life too.  This type of life experience has shaped who we are, giving us similar personality traits that we can mutually relate to. 

To nail your niche, reflect on your personal story, experiences, and the solutions you were looking for, then summarize it in one sentence to formulate what I call your niche pitch also known as your elevator pitch.

Here’s the formula…

I help/guide/support (list 2-3 personality traits or characteristics of yourself/client) who are feeling/dealing with (list your/their everyday struggle or pain point in their everyday words) so they can have/do/feel (summarize what they wake up wishing you/they had every day)

Here’s mine as an example…

I help busy, health-minded professionals who want to get their hands on the right lab tests and resources to find the missing pieces of their health puzzle, so they can fix what is wrong and get back to feeling like themselves again.

This was me 100% before I became a functional health practitioner, and even in the early days of being one while I worked on feeling like myself again. 

I’ve always been a busy overachiever (that’s the professional part).  I was the kid who played sports, took advanced classes, and worked a part-time job while entertaining a robust social schedule.  From the outside, I appeared healthy, and I tried to be. But on the inside, I didn’t feel that way; something was missing.  Once I got my hands on the right lab tests and resources I found the missing pieces to my health puzzle and finally got back to feeling like myself again.

Sit down and write your story from the beginning to now, starting from when you were not aware of any health issues you had so you can see the full evolution and gain a greater understanding of the journey your ideal client is on too.  

Put yourself back in their (your) shoes to get intimately familiar with your niche. 

I really want you to spend some time exploring this aspect to nail your niche and create more clarity and income than ever before.

I’ll share tip #2 with you in my next blog so stay tuned!  Working on tip #1 will tee you up for tip #2 BTW 🙂

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