#65 - Be a Funnel Pro : Part 2 : 3 ways to niche down (to level-up) your VA or OBM business

The more specialized you can be, the better your knowledge and your skills will become and therefore the more dialed in your systems and offers will be. Therefore the better and faster the results that you can get for your clients. Therefore the easier it is to attract dream clients and to amaze them and therefore. Drumroll please. The more you are going to be valued and therefore the more you can charge like it has this whole ripple effect.

This is the Doing It Online podcast with your host, cereal entrepreneur, 6 and 7 figure funnel strategist and super nerd Kate McKibben. Where every week we're here talking nerdy and sharing the things that actually work to help you do what you do online. But better, easier and with a ton more profit too. Are you ready? Let's do it.

Hello. Hello everybody and welcome to episode number 65 of the Doing It Online podcast. I am Kate McKibben, your host here from HelloFunnels Co and we are coming back to you with our second part of our special three part series on how to become a Funnel Pro. And by Funnel Pro, for anyone who hasn't listened in to our other episodes, by what I mean is someone who is going to be able to step up and fill the huge gap that there is in the market right now as someone who can be a really trusted strategic advisor, the six, seven, eight, even nine figure businesses and help them to plan, to strategize, to execute, to optimize, to audit and create amazingly successful funnels for these businesses. That's what I mean by Funnel Pro. It's not just about being able to connect some emails together with a couple of zaps. That is, you know, that is one piece of the puzzle. I mean, I do that really well. It's an important piece, but there's a lot more to it. And for those who are ready and willing to step up to upskill to really dive in and learn those extra pieces, which aren't crazy hard to learn, but there are some specific bits that you do need to know to go from being a tech VA or OBM into being a Funnel Pro, into being able to actually offer these premium funnel strategy and build offers out there in the market. It's going to completely change your business and it's so needed. I have my own clients who are screaming for it. They're like, we want people to help us build funnels because unless you're a nerd like me, not everyone loves building these funnels. So if you do enjoy the automation side of things, then this is amazing. There's a great Opportunity for you here. And that's what these couple of episodes are about. It's for the nerdy people who are listening, who are like, hey, you know, I like doing this. I like going, playing with this like big online jigsaw puzzle and seeing how we can problem solve and seeing how we can figure it all out. Like, if your inner motto is, hmm, I wonder if I could automate that, then this is absolutely an episode for you. And yeah, grab a notebook, get comfy, grab a cup of tea, whatever it is. Because today we're going to be talking about three different ways that you can niche down and by doing so, level up your VA or OBM business by offering funnels. This is all, like I said, this is around niching down and leveling up because we've all heard the saying, right, that the riches are in the niches or niches depending on which part of the world that you're from. But it doesn't quite make as as much sense. So which basically just means that the more specialized you can be, the better your knowledge and your skills will become. And therefore the more dialed in your systems and offers will be. Therefore the better and faster the results that you can get for your clients. Therefore, the easier it is to attract dream clients and to amaze them. And therefore, drum roll please. The more you are going to be valued and therefore the more you can charge. Like it has this whole ripple effect, this niching down, this making these couple small decisions will then go on to have massive impact throughout your business in so, so many positive ways. But there are a lot of different ways that you can niche down instead of just trying to be kind of good at everything and always challenging kind of good prices. What we're talking about here is making these couple of decisions so that you can be really freaking amazing at a smaller group of things, of specific things. And never has this been more true when you are offering some kind of services, right? So if you are off, if you're a service provider, there is a thousand and one ways you can do anything and by that kind of makes you that sort of jack of all trades, master of none. What we want to talk about here is mastery, as I said, of being able to be premium, be able to be seen as a leader, as an expert, as like the go to person. So to do that you got a niche down. How exactly should you do that? I'm gonna talk through a couple of different ways that you can really niche down and specialize that will as it will have ripple effects over everything you do, particularly in this space of building funnels. This one is gonna be a little controversial, but it's very true and I highly recommend it. Particularly people getting started is that you niche down and specialize in certain types of tech. To be able to really uplevel your funnel building skills and therefore your offers as quickly as possible, you need to be able to focus on really learning the ins and outs and nuances of just a handful of tech platforms and tools, not all of them. People do not pay top dollar like we said, for the jack of all trades person who kind of knows how to do stuff, but they don't know the real, they don't have that real finesse with the platforms that only comes from really, really knowing them inside out. So they want someone who knows everything there is to know about the funnels that they are building, who can make the whole process as EAS possible, who will give great advice. He'll be able to optimize, he'll be able to improve, he'll be able to make their funnels as amazing as they can be. And to do that you need to focus on mastering, like I said, just a few of those top tools, not all of them. So then the question becomes, okay, well which ones? Like if you were going to go out today and you know, you've probably got a bit of experience here and there, but you're going to go all in on a couple of tools, which ones should you choose? So to start off with, you gotta understand that different tools fall into what I call into three main categories. So first up, there are what I call the beginner BFF tools. These are things like mailchimp, wix, teachable, even flodesk. Even though it hurts me to say it because I know you guys are coming up with some awesome stuff for flodesk and it's just not out here yet, but right now it is, it is still a bit more beginner friendly. Now, we don't actually recommend that. If you're wanting to step up and be a funnel pro, we don't recommend you specialize in any of these tools. As usually businesses who are using these tools are also in the beginner phases of their business. And so therefore they're more interested in like those are the kind of businesses who are all about the diy. They're figuring most of it out themselves, they're googling stuff and then they're going to pay a little bit when they get stuck for someone to come in and fix stuff. But they're not kind of at that point yet when they are really probably appreciating the benefits that you can bring to them, the business probably doesn't have the right bits in place yet anyway. And so they're not going to be at that place where they will appreciate, be able to afford and value the premium soft service that you can offer. Also these tools, they're quite limited even what they can do. And any funnels that you do build using these tools are going to require a lot of behind the scenes digital band aids, which is normally in the form of zaps and things which are problematic in themselves because they're not that reliable. And that's never a good idea. You want to build something that is rock solid, you don't want to build something that breaks all the time because it's not a good experience for anybody. So the second category, you then have what I call your workhorse tools. These are things like ActiveCampaign, which is my personal favorite. ConvertKit, Kartra, Kajabi, click Funnels. Now the pricing and the features of these tools means that you'll find the bulk of online entrepreneurs either can or do use them. So there's a lot of opportunity to find new clients here. Plus they offer some of the best in market features as well and they have everything that you'll need to create 6, 7, 8, 9 figure funnels. They are also usually fairly intuitive to use and usually I say that in commerce they have great customer service. So choosing to start by learning from a selection of these tools first is a great way to really break your teeth into funnels and you know, the automations world. And then you'll also find that a lot of the functions on methodologies you learn from just learning a couple of these systems will translate really nicely into any other systems that you're going to need in the future. So I would recommend that you choose one or two from that list. My personal favorite is always ActiveCampaign and then you pick whatever other one is kind of, you know, you're called to and then just start with those. Now the third category, these are what I call dynasty tools. And these are things like ontraport and infusionsoft, AKA confusionsoft. Now these are renowned for being overly complicated and overpriced, super buggy and with terrible support. It's a really weird combo. Like how they can charge so much and give so little. I don't understand but for some reason, and I think it's because it's the old school, it's what like the OG people in this space were Using because there wasn't anything better around. So a lot of people just followed them and signed up for what they had. Like I said, a lot of people who've been in the space a really long time are using these tools and platforms and using them really successfully. I'm not saying that they can't be great tools, but I just think for they're, they take a long time to learn. And like I said, the entry, like the. What's it called, and like I said, it's not really an entry point tool. This is. A lot of people these days aren't coming in and signing up for these because the price to get in is crazy, the setup time is crazy. They're going for those workhorse tools in the middle. So again, another reason we don't really recommend people start with these tools is, you know, one, the learning curve is super steep. But also the target market that most likely is already using these, they usually already probably have a team. So yes, these are people who probably have big budgets. They're probably doing like 7, 8, 9 figures. These are the big spenders out there. But these people that the level of experience they're going to be looking for is really high and if they don't already have someone in house that's doing it for them. So not really. Like I said, the place we'd recommend if you're going, I'm going to choose a couple to niche down on. It's not the ones that I would choose. Now, of course, there is new cool automation software launched pretty much every other week. I call these new kids on the block tools. And again, I wouldn't recommend that you go all in on trying to learn these tools either yet, because from my experience, a tool, particularly any kind of automation tool, because there is so much to it, there's a lot of kinks to be worked out and it usually takes them a minimum of two years to work them out. You're going to get in there, there's going to be buggy, it's going to be problems, things are going to break, they're going to change things a lot. They're going to take away features. Their customer support normally isn't amazing because they don't really have a budget for that many people on customer support and they're quite overworked with all the complaints. Again, I avoid new tools like the plague. I keep an eye on them like, hey, nice to see you over there. But I'm not going to spend all my time getting to know you yet because it's you know, they're going to take a little while, they need to be broken in sense. Okay, so that's how you can niche down by selecting your tools. Next way you can niche down is with the types of clients. You know, if you're wanting to stand out in the market, one of the best ways to do that, one of the most traditional ways to do that is of course to niche down on the types of clients that you serve. And you can still do this with funnel building. And this is going to serve you really well in any online marketing space. Because the thing is, often clients with similar niches will be looking for similar outcomes and funnels and they will have similar expectations of cost and delivery as well. And this is great for three reasons. Firstly, it lets you systemize like a champ. So you template the bejesus out of it, which is great timesaver. It means, you know, things work, it's just win, win, win. And that means that you can really deliver an amazing experience that just runs like clockwork for your clients and you. Secondly, it's going to help with creating your offers, packages and marketing materials because if they're all aimed at a similar people, it's really easy that, you know, the messaging, the pricing, the things that you include, it's going to make a lot more sense and make a lot clearer of what you need to offer. And thirdly, word of mouth is always going to be as a service provider, one of your biggest drivers for getting new clients. And funnily enough, business owners tend to hang out with other similar business owners. So it's going to make referrals really easy as well. And it hasn't, doesn't have to be too crazy restrictive though. You don't have to go down and say I'm only going to target 25 year old female coaches who teach TikTok. You don't have to do that, but maybe you just refine down by going, okay, I'm going to target life coaches or female entrepreneurs or e commerce businesses or businesses in the health space. Just adding like one or two extra descriptors here can make a big, big difference. Okay, the last way that you can niche down and specialize and this one is a bit more advanced and it's probably more something that you would do down the line rather than right up front. But that is becoming known as the go to for a certain type of funnel. Maybe you're going to become the lead generation funnels expert or maybe you become the expert for webinar funnels or self liquidating offers or Application funnels. This is probably something you're going to just naturally develop over time. I wouldn't necessarily pick this right from the get go because it's probably going to take a little bit of trial and error and just seeing what your clients are asking for and what they're loving. But it's definitely good to have at the back of your mind that this can be an amazing way to next level, your next level, if that makes sense. So by going Funnel Pro, you're next leveling anyway. But then by becoming a really specialized funnel Pro, that's the next level again. Now what about pricing and what about the kinds of funnels and services that you know which ones are going to sell best? I can hear you asking all of these questions all the way from here and I'm of course here to help you because these are bigger, chunkier questions. So I've actually created a brand new live one hour Funnel Pro masterclass which is dedicated completely to how to do this for your business, like how to make this work for your business and whichever niche you choose to go for. And I'm going to take you behind the scenes of exactly how we are building some really amazing, really cool new high converting funnels with our current clients as well as our exclusive funnel planning and building system. This is exactly what we use in our own funnels as we build them with our own clients and which translates so beautifully over to help you to plan out and to project manage and to just make it really, really pro when you're building funnels for other people as well. We're also going to walk you through the funnels that you need in your own business as a funnel pro. Because thing is that your funnels like the experience, the automated experience people are going to have when they come across you on the Internet. That's going to be your calling card. That's going to be like one of your best pieces of your best testimonials is people see how you do it and they're going to like that experience and they're going to want that in their own businesses. So you can't skimp on that. You can't brush that off for later. You can't be like the handbag designer wandering around with a plastic shopping bag. You need to make sure you do this and do this well. And we're going to break it all down inside this workshop. I said it's going to be live. It's on October 6, Aussie time, which is October 5 for most other people. So make sure you go grab yourself a free seat. Just head to be a funnelpro.com right now. Grab your seat or the link is in the show notes and we will see you inside. And until then guys, keep doing what you do and I'll see you online. Bye.

Thanks so much for listening to the Doing It Online podcast. If you love this episode, don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review. And if you're ready to take your online course sales to the next level with your own six or seven figure funnel, let Kate show you exactly how today@StealMyFunnel.com.

Sat.