Nicolas Cole tells Natalie to stop trying to serve everyone. Pick one customer type with one specific problem, then solve it with AI. He gives an example: target marketing agencies under $10M in revenue with accounting inefficiency, offer five AI-built financial systems. Say who you don't serve to attract the right people.
The grass is always greener. Like, I think AI is such a great example of a trend where everyone looks at it and thinks, oh, if I just do the AI version, all my problems go away. Life is so much easier. You know, that's what everyone wants. And like, I think it's important to remember that whenever new trends pop up, two opposing things are true. One is that the new trend is popular and it does take off and some things are easier. But at the same time, because the new thing becomes popular and everyone sort of fixates on it and it becomes a shiny object, it actually makes all of the things that are opposite that increase in value. Like, a hilarious example is all of these, like, very tech-forward VC firms that are now all coming out with reports being like, yeah, AI is the future and You know what jobs are going to be very high demand in the next 10, 20 years? It's all the blue-collar jobs. It's all the non-AI jobs. It's like plumbers and HVAC specialists and pool cleaners. And it's like all these blue-collar jobs that are the complete opposite of AI. And so I think like writing and the industry we're in is actually a really good example. It's like, yeah, we're adding in some AI things because I think it's an important skill. And that doesn't mean that we're gonna stop talking about all the non-AI-related writing skills. So, I think the reason I share that is for you, Natalie, is it depends on, like, do you actually see value? And is there actually something that you feel like would be really beneficial to combine whatever thing you're giving people with AI? Do you think it's necessary, or is it just like a shiny object, like everyone's doing it, so I feel like I should too?
No, yeah, uh, it definitely provides value because my audience is, uh, you know, entrepreneurs, online business owners who want recurring revenue in their business. So anytime you can create systems, automation, workflows that speed up what is sometimes a burden or, you know, for a team too.
Like, yeah, that's great.
What I'm doing, what I'm doing in Claude is useful.
Yeah. Then my recommendation would be I would— my personal recommendation is I would try to not frame it as systems for all entrepreneurs who want recurring revenue because that's like infinite use cases. And instead I would try and go, I've narrowed down to this specific type of business that has this specific type of problem that I have solved with AI, and I am very good at that specific thing. And then you go help all the businesses that fit that specific thing. Like, like to show you the level of granularity, like I would go agencies less than $10 million in revenue. Have this specific accounting inefficiency, and there are 5 systems that you need set up that run the financials of a sub-$10 million marketing agency so that you don't need to hire a CFO, and I will implement those 5 systems for you. Like, that level of specificity is how you would go about it. But if you go, I help all entrepreneurs unlock monthly recurring revenue, like the problem that a CPG startup or a beverage startup has with recurring purchases is gonna be completely different than a SaaS startup that's selling digital air.
Yeah, you're so right. Thanks. Yeah, that just like illustrated the point for me beautifully 'cause the workflows even just to dial in, like here are the workflows that you need to build and, you know, quad co-work for an online business owner making, you know, up to $250K, something like that.
Yeah, but I would try and like, Yes, revenue, revenue is a specific marker and that specificity is good. But don't underestimate the nuanced differences between industries, you know, because—
Right. I need to think about that.
Yeah. If you go all industries but like $250K in revenue, like there's still— there's, there's too many nuanced differences between an agency versus a digital product business versus a consulting business versus a legal firm versus a health and wealth, you know what I mean? Like, it's, it's just way too ambiguous. And I think where, where people go wrong with services is they take a service and they go, I can help everyone. And in reality, in saying you can help everyone, you, you make your life a lot harder. It's so much easier to say, I don't help anyone except this specific person with this specific problem, and then the internet's great at you finding all the people that are like that.
Okay, does that make sense? I need to spend some time refining that part of it in the messaging.
Yeah, thank you. And I would just, I would just look at who have you helped so far and who was easy and who was profitable and go find more people like that and call it out.
Yes, be very like, call that out with the parameters each time.
Yes. Okay, you know, one of the most effective copywriting techniques, period, is on a page saying who should not work with you. So yeah, you're like, this is who I help, and by the way, if you are this person or this person or this person, do not reach out to me. Like, that, that is one of the most effective things you can do because then it's very clear when the right person sees that, they're like, oh, this was handmade for me. But if you just say I help everyone, then everyone goes to the page and everyone goes, ah, it seems like they can't help me.
Yeah, yeah, that needs to be crystal clear. So back to the selling. So when you, 'cause I know you've said that you solved a problem for yourself, with AI, using AI, and then you would maybe offer it up to your audience, like, hey, I needed this and, you know, here you go, you can have it. Does that still hold true though? Like, you know, for my use case with, if I'm like using Claude to solve problems with my own business and I know my people probably encounter that and need it, do you find that it's still, I mean, I'm trying to look back at like at the context of like, how I was trying to upgrade, you know, products and that, you know, my people could use. So does that still hold true, do you think?
Yeah, absolutely. The golden word is congruence. So you're like, I help marketing agencies under $10 million in revenue fix these 5 specific problems in their accounting department. I also have a newsletter where I write about AI systems for marketing agencies under $10 million in revenue. In that newsletter, I give you assets that I've built for myself and/or my clients that you can use too. Like, all of it is congruent with each other. And you can give the whole asset, you could give a part of an asset, you could, you could bundle multiple assets together. But like, the whole game is just I write about it and I give things away to the person that I'm trying to help, and some percentage of those people want me to work with them. Congruence.
Okay, thanks. Makes sense for answering my question.
Yeah, yeah, it's a good question. I appreciate you asking it. Thanks, Natalie.
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What Every Writer Gets Wrong About Their Audience #writing #creator #writingtips
