In this People Magic podcast episode, Gina Bianchini challenges the conventional advice to "pick a niche" when launching a community. She argues that focusing on people who are undergoing a specific life transition—such as graduating, moving cities, getting married, having a child, opening a store, or starting a business—provides a clearer, more actionable target for community acquisition and monetization. Bianchini explains that a transition is defined as moving someone from point A to point B, and that identifying a transition (by geography, demographic, psychographic, or behavior) makes it easier for potential members to see the community as relevant, increasing sign‑ups, referrals, and willingness to pay for memberships, courses, challenges, or events. She outlines a step‑by‑step process (referenced in a masterclass) for selecting a transition, stresses the importance of starting narrow and expanding later, and highlights the dual growth opportunity that arises when members complete the first transition: you can attract more people into the original transition and also serve the next transition they face. Throughout, she uses personal anecdotes (e.g., moving to a new city) and addresses common objections about exclusivity and niche clarity, positioning the transition framework as a practical, repeatable method for building $1 million communities.
Chapters
Don't pick a niche. Identify people who are in a transition. So what's a transition? We've all been through transitions. It might be when we graduate from college and have our first job. It might be getting married, opening a, a store, or launching a community. All of these are transitions in people's lives, and you, you know, a transition is a transition if it's, how am I helping somebody go from point A to point B? Woo. Hey, I'm Gina Bianchini, and this is People Magic, where I show you the most interesting and easiest ways to create a $1 million community. Let's go ahead and dive in. Hey Gina, I feel like I'm always being told that I've got a niche down, but you're saying to do something different. find a transition? Why should I pivot and do what you're saying? How is finding a transition going to help me? It's a great question. So just a little backstory. So I started teaching community design, and I've taught it at this point to over 10,000 people, all with that same goal of like, figure out who your ideal member is. This is the person who wants and needs your community the most right now, and that it's super important that you find a niche, in part because what I was seeing was that too many people were showing up and, and for all the right reasons, wanted to be welcoming and inclusive and really think about, oh my gosh, how does my community serve all of the people that, that this idea around, you know, industriousness or around operating with integrity or around how to achieve your goals. Mm-hmm. to set up and do masterminds with people who are on the same path. As we think about all of those opportunities, what tends to happen is that the first cut that you make at launching a community, your ideal member, the people that you, you want to attract to your community upfront, it feels too narrow. What you see from me and from other people, uh, was you've gotta like pick a niche. Why? Because when you do, people see themselves in what you are offering. And if they don't see themselves in what you are offering, that's okay. Because when you are specific enough with a niche, they see people that they know. So they're like, oh, wait a second, I'm not a person in this niche, but I know somebody who is. So the, the more that you niche down, the easier it is for you to get members. So here's the problem with niching down. Nobody knows what it means. Nobody knows what it means. So I would see all of these incredibly smart people, incredibly motivated aspiring community builders, and they would get stuck on the first step. And the first step being like, who is your community for? It's made a huge difference for hosts, or what we call our customers at Mighty Networks, the people who are creating communities that then are monetized with Memberships or courses or challenges or events, and members. Because if members can more clearly see that a community is for them, they're more likely to join. Or if they see that it's for somebody that they know who they know is like in that particular niche, they're more likely to recommend your community. Works out great, except for the fact that nobody knows. What's a niche? They, they don't know when they have it. They don't know when they don't have it. And so I figured out something that has worked extraordinarily well. I'm not blowing smoke here when I say that it— the, the concept's gone viral, cuz it kind of has, which is don't pick a niche. Identify people who are in a transition. So what's a transition? We've all been through transitions. It might be when we graduate from college and have our first job. It might be getting married. It might be having your first kid. It might be moving to a new town. It might be picking up an instrument, opening a, a store, or launching a community. All of these are transitions in people's lives. And you know, a transition is a transition if it's, how am I helping somebody go from from point A to point B, before they can do this, after they can do this. And what I've found is that if you are trying to figure out how to make your life really easy when you're creating a community and monetizing it through those 4 ways that I mentioned a moment ago, you really want to just start with a transition by geography or demographic, psychographic, behavior, Get as specific as you can, and then be really clear about what that transition is. If you think in terms of transitions, you are going to be set up for success in ways that if you're just kind of fuzzy in niches, it's just gonna be really, really hard to get over that first step. It's the first step, it's the most important step. And I have just found and gotten tremendous feedback from people that when you start with a transition, Mm-hmm. Everything gets easier. But what about once people are through that first transition? Aha! I'm so glad you didn't ask that question, but I'm gonna answer it anyways, which is, it's a beautiful thing when you have somebody who started in one place is now through that transition in another place, because you now have 2 interesting opportunities. Opportunity one is getting more people into The first transition. You now know it works, you know, and you feel much more confident in terms of, okay, how do I get people from point A to point B? And by the way, we have a step-by-step process for doing that. It's in the masterclass. Go ahead and grab it. See it in the beginning of this podcast, but just go back and, and have a look. We'll put it in the show notes. But then also you've got a Another transition, because all of those people who just made it through the first transition have another transition that they are excited to tackle next. Human beings are constantly in transition. That's what makes life beautiful and vivid and interesting and, and fun. Even when it's tackling tough challenges or things that have happened that are really bad, it is easier and better and much more meaningful to go through those things together with other people. It is what gives us meaning. Yeah. This energy, it's what helps us power through and ultimately get to the other side of a transition. I am a passionate believer in starting with transitions. And as much as a niche is an amazing thing, and if you nail it the first time, it's wonderful. If you're starting from scratch or, you know, you're struggling and your business isn't exactly working the way you want it to, it typically is because your niche is not clear enough. Your ideal member, that person who wants or needs your community the most right now, where right now is all caps. Is just not clear enough. And the single easiest way of making something clear is by choosing a transition. This is also a place that you start narrow and you can always go broad later. If you try to go broad too early, no one's gonna show up because they don't know if your community is for them or not. The number of people who do not like that answer is very high. Because there's something that feels like to some kind of icky in being exclusive. The flip side is you don't want to have a party and have no one show up. So this is super important to get right. And you are so much better off choosing a transition. It doesn't even have to be a transition that you've been through. That certainly makes it more natural and easier to get your head around, but it doesn't have to be a transition that. you have been through. Your role is valuable because you are the organizer, you are the host, because you are introducing people who are on the same path to each other. You don't have to be an expert. You just have to raise your hand and say, I'm putting this together so that you are able to effectively navigate a transition that you're probably pretty motivated to navigate. When we are embarking on transitions, We are the most motivated. We are the most motivated to meet people. We are the most motivated to try new things. We are the most motivated to dive in headfirst and navigate it effectively. Like, that is what we are trying to do. That is, that is the whole point. So the example I love to use is, you know, when you go to a new city or when you move to a new city, whether it's temporarily or whether it's For the long term. I don't know about you guys, but whenever I've spent time in a new place, I go out, I meet friends of friends. I am like always trying to sort of figure out how to get the most out of that city. And then I come home or I'm in a place that I'm really comfortable and I'm like, I could go out or I could meet this new person, or I could do exactly what I did last night and the night before and the night before that. So. That's the way you wanna think about finding motivation. You find it through people who are embarking on, or hungry, or ambitious for transitions. And you see this really, really concentrated way in professional networks, in health, in wellness, in new activities, in businesses, which is a, you know, variation of professional networks. Those are some of the places, if you're curious where to start, where you can start. But it's really a, a transition that you feel excited about bringing people together, excited to talk to people about it, excited to go deep with other people about it. That's really where you can find that sweet spot and, and really just make it super easy for you to get started. I'm Gina Bianchini. Thanks for tuning into People Magic, and I'll see you next time. Woo! Thank you for being a part of People Magic. If you want more of a deep dive in any of these topics, but certainly having the framework of People Magic Profit, head on over to the website. The link is in the show notes. Have your own burning question about creating people magic? Well, I wanna answer it. So here's what you're gonna do. You're gonna just drop your question in the review section wherever you're listening to this podcast. And keep tuning in.
