Define Your Niche To Increase Your Profits |Hot Summer Profits Day 2 | Business Coach Val Nichols

What's up everybody? Welcome to day one of the hot summer business series. We are going to be talking about so how to define your niche to increase your profits. So welcome everyone. For those of you, if you do not know who I am, my name is Val Nichols. I am a business coach for heart-centered purpose-driven entrepreneurs just like you. And I'm so incredibly excited to be coming on here and sharing with you guys all the ways that you can build your profits, build your business, and build your confidence with ease. So when you hop on, I would love to know from you, what kind of business do you have? And do you know your niche, yes or no? Let me know in the comments so that we can share with you. If this is your first time ever being a part of one of my training series, welcome. I am so incredibly excited that are here. This is going to be 4 days of amazing, incredible profit-building business trainings. So I'm super stoked you guys are here. It's going to be an amazing time, so make sure that you're queued in. So who is this training for? This is for you if you have an existing business or if you have an idea for a business. Maybe you're looking to grow and scale your business, you know, pretty much any stage of your business that you're in, you are going to get incredible information and incredible value off of these trainings. This is for you today. We're doing the defining your niche to increase your profits. So if you already know what your niche is, who your niche is, maybe you work with high-powered entrepreneurs, or maybe you work with high-achieving athletes. Maybe you work with women over 40 who are looking to redefine their life, or maybe you work with new mothers who are looking to learn how to care and nurture for their baby. You know, whatever your niche is, you may or may not know what that is. So if you do know your niche, let me know in the comments below so I know where to take this training. Do you know your niche? And what your niche is, is it's who you serve, right? Who you serve. And then we're also going to talk about how you help them. So this is for you if you are looking to really find your business success. Right? Whatever that means for you, because success is one of those things that is going to be— if I asked you, what does success mean for you? It could be one of a million things, right? If there were 16 people on this training, I'd probably get 16 different answers on what that individual personal success might look like. I know there was a time for me in my life when I thought success was having the high-paying corporate job, the car, the house, the things, right? But a lot of us are not really defined by the money. We're not defined by meeting some expectation or some mark that society has told us about. We're defined by something deeper. We're defined by something much deeper. And that is what's going to be your definition of success. So when you know who you serve, you now can create clear, concise offers, right? Like this training, day 1 is defining your niche to increase your profits. We know it's for people who want to increase their profits. We know exactly what we're going to get out of it. Who's my niche? It's the heart-centered entrepreneur or wannabe entrepreneur, right? It's the business leader. Finding your niche is going to help you refine your offers. It helps you to create an expertise. It helps you to stand out among your competition, to give you an unfair advantage. Who here wants an unfair advantage? Put me in the comments. If you want to have an unfair advantage amongst your peers, amongst your competition, then put me. And one of the biggest mistakes I see is that people are not defining their niche. And the reason why this is so important is because you're— if you don't have your niche defined, you're just kind of like throwing spaghetti against the wall hoping that something sticks, right? If you have ever felt that way, put spaghetti— like, however you spell that— put spaghetti in the comments. It can feel like you're just throwing things out there. You're, um, in a crowd saying, hey guys, look at me, look at me, right? But if you're able to really define your niche, what happens is instead of standing in a crowded mall, I don't know if there's even malls anymore, instead of standing in a crowd saying, hey you, you're now saying, hey Valerie, hey Kayla, hey Nisa, hey Angela, hey Abram, hey Dave. Like you're saying to your ideal client, you're calling them out by name. And so, you know, the thing that I see so many business people do when they come to me and they're like, I just don't know how to monetize, I don't know how to increase my profits, I don't know how to draw in my ideal client, is when I'm looking at their offers, when I'm looking at their content, when I'm looking at whatever it is that they have now, whether if it's their website, if they have social media content, if they have trainings that they're doing, is I'm noticing that their niche is either lacking It's not clear enough, or it's just not defined. It's a little bit too broad. And I know there's a lot of you out there right now that are saying, but Val, I don't want to limit myself. I don't want to cut anyone off. I don't want to shut down. But the thing that you're doing, if you're not truly getting clear in defining your niche, is that you're actually casting such wide of a net that people are going to slip through because they don't know that you are calling specifically to them and you are putting your business in danger of either fading out, disappearing into the background, not covering enough ground in your defined niche. For example, if I were to say, hey, I have an Instagram on cars, What if I got further and said, okay, I have an Instagram page on Fords, all models, all makes, all years? Okay, great. So I might even get more specific. But if I say, hey, I am defining an Instagram page with the new Ford Bronco, I want to create one that's, you know, not just for pavement princesses, but I want to create an Instagram page for Bronco Nation, people who are off-roading, who are overlanding, who are doing all these things. You better believe believe that people are going to see that and they're going to see a reason to follow my Instagram because that catches their eye, right? So be thinking about that in your specific business, in your specific industry. What can you be doing? Who is your ideal client? This is an essential piece that so many people are missing. If we want to call in our soul-aligned ideal clients, whether if we have a service-based industry, if we are a coach, if we are a consultant, if we are a a personal trainer, if we have a service, if we have a product, you know, whatever it is, you want to be able to call in your ideal clients. And knowing your niche is going to help you do this. You want to create this niche so that you can then be known and carve out your expertise in your business, right? So if you want to be known as the go-to expert, put go-to in the comments so that I know. Another great way that defining your niche is going to help you is like it'll help you with your SEO content, right? The algorithm is always changing. We know this, we all know this, but the algorithm's always changing. And the great thing about Instagram or Facebook right now is that it's actually going to carve out and define based on your topics, based on your SEO, based on what you're talking about, based on your hashtags, it's going to push your content out. So you want to make sure that you're doing this so that you can be focused on getting your content out and on getting to the right people. I have so many clients that are creating Freaking empires out there, right? I have clients that are building empires, and I'll be honest with you. One of my clients hit a wall, and it was because she was not defining her niche. She was trying to be everything to everyone and provide content and solutions and all those things. Bless her heart! I honor and celebrate her for being so helpful and being such a person that loves to serve. But honestly, by not defining your niche, you can lead to burnout really quickly. And I've been talking about this a lot on my. Instagram page is like burnout and boundaries, right? If we don't define our niche, we're going to lead to overwhelm and burnout. If you've been there, you know what I'm talking about. But when you try to be everything to everyone and you try to serve a million different people, next thing you know, you're trying to create a million different solutions. You're trying to be everything to everyone. You're giving, giving, giving. You're the one that everyone comes to for solutions. And what happens is you end up wasting a lot of your valuable time because you're probably working with clients that are not aligned and you start getting into overwhelm and burnout. So when you're able to define your niche, it's going to help you to get into alignment. It is going to help you to make beautiful, incredible decisions in your business because now you can say, this is my niche. Does it serve me? Does it lead me toward my solution, my endgame, my goal? And if not, it's a no. And I can't tell you how often now I either outsource work, I refer people, or I just straight up say, you know, this isn't my niche, this isn't my area of expertise, and I would be doing you a disservice if I took you on as a client right now because this— I would love to refer you to a friend. So, you know, there's things like that all the time where you can get really clear, and that's going to help you maintain your passion for what you do. It's going to help you maintain your longevity. It's also going to call in the right collaborations, right? When you're known in a specific niche, you can now get expert collaborations. People are hitting you up for podcasts. You are standing out among your competition. And one of the biggest tips I can give you guys today in the business world is that authenticity Authenticity is critical to business success today. Authenticity is critical to business success today. That's why we're seeing things like short-form content. We're going away from those beautiful curated Instagram photos to now like raw, real content. Authenticity is the number one thing that is going to help you stand out in your business today. So defining your niche, knowing who it is you want to serve, is going to give you exactly what you need. So how do we do this? This is the million-dollar question. But Val, how? I know why it's important. I want to have a niche. Maybe you've been spinning your wheels for a while trying to figure this out, trying to figure it out on your own, and maybe you kind of have an idea, semi-idea of what you want to do, but you're not seeing the traction that you want. So how, how do we define our niche? How do we stand out among the competition? And how do we increase our beautiful profits? So I'm glad you guys asked. Grab your pen and paper if you're not already taking notes. You might want to write some of these down because we'll be going through it today, but I would love for you to do some homework tonight, really take some time to look at this and really flesh it out on your own. Because the sad part about building a business is that I see people all the time who are spending more time planning their vacation than they are their business, right? We are spending more time planning our vacations or scrolling on TikTok than we are actually doing something that is going to move the needle forward in our business. So the number one thing I want you guys to do is to examine your interests and strengths. Right? This is if you have a business already, if you have somewhat of an idea. If you don't have a business, just know to consider what you enjoy doing. Because a lot of times, especially if you're a service-based person, if you are offering a service, if you're providing something, a lot of times you are actually going to be— your client will be a past version of you, right? Because they're going to be drawn to your story. You're going to be drawn to them. You're going to be drawn to helping them. Because of the fact that they are a past version of you. So take a look at, you know, you get to be your own client first. You get to be the ideal clients, whether that means you reach out to a business coach or mentor like myself and you become that ideal client, or you look at these things and examine it to discover who your ideal client is. So, you know, examine your strengths. Examine your interests because that's going to help you to define your unique niche. Number 2 is evaluate your inner strengths and your identity. First and foremost, consider your market and your competition and look at, you know, is there profitability in any of this that I'm doing? If you are in a saturated market, great. The more competition, the better, right? That means it's a, it's a good industry, it's an ideal industry. But again, this is where the more specific you can be. Identify your interests, identify your strengths. Like, what are you great at? If you're great at talking to multi-passionate entrepreneurs, great, carve that niche, right? I'm ADHD, I talk fast, I can jump all over the place, I can flub words, I misspell things all the time. This is a part of my brand and my identity. It's also been a huge reason why a lot of people will work with me over a competitor or over another business coach, because I understand the unique expressions, the unique ways that a neurodiverse brain functions, and the unique challenges that we have. I understand that. I'm not perfect. I'm not trying to be perfect. And a lot of people have come to me because of that fact. They're like, wow, you're so freaking real. Like, you're exactly the same when I meet you in the airport, or I'm sitting in your living room, or I'm watching you on live. You are the exact same person, and you're so Freaking real. So look at your— identify your interests and your strengths and lead from your strengths. No one is expecting you to be everything to everyone. I was just sitting with a brand new client this morning that I just signed on this morning, first day back in business after 2 months off. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I was sharing with her about how I used to hide out. I would underplay my business, like in the real world, like, oh, I just have this like little hobby thing, you know, it's just like this side thing I do on social media. It's no big deal. Blah blah blah. As I'm making like eleven or twelve thousand dollars a month, totally downplaying it. Know what your strengths are. If you are damn good at making money, lead from that. If you are damn good at creating a strategy or plan for your clients so that they know exactly what to do next, do that. Lead from that strength. Your weaknesses? Don't worry about those right now. You can either hire out for those later, hire a coach, someone that can really help fill in those gaps for you. Lead from your strengths. Strengths and ignore your weaknesses for now. So number 3 is get feedback from others. This is where having a community, having this group, having a coach, having a mentor is so important. You want to get feedback from others because so often we may think— I may think I've had so many failed launches You guys, especially in the beginning, because I was so sure my idea, my offer, what I was giving was exactly what people wanted to have. I was so sure it was going to sell out, and I poured my heart into it. I did all these things. But then when I learned to start asking for feedback and receiving feedback, what happened is I started to notice that people didn't align with certain words I was using. Or they didn't align, like they didn't need what I was offering. It wasn't helpful. So, you know, what you want to do is get from your potential clients, your ideal clients, get valuable feedback. There's ways we do that in my company that is like freaking invaluable. And there's several different ways we do that. I, you know, it's a whole other topic for another day, but, you know, get mentors, get feedback from industry experts. You know, what is it that people are actually wanting, because you want to be able to provide value and insight based upon what your prospective clients actually want, not what you think they want. A great example of this is Clear Pepsi. Do you guys remember that? I don't know, I might be dating myself here. I think it was the early '90s, they came out with this Clear Pepsi, and because it was clear, people just couldn't wrap their mind around it, and it failed. It was Pepsi, but it was clear they were giving something that they thought their clients wanted, not what their clients actually wanted. So get feedback from others, from your potential clients, and that is going to help you to define your niche. So number 4 is to develop your unique value proposition. This is a term they used in business school that I was like, oh my God, nobody's asking me this. We are. We're just saying it in different language. So once you've developed your niche, now to move into being profitable, we want to be able to develop our unique value proposition. What this means is that once you've identified your niche, then it is very important to develop an offer or something that sets you apart from your competition. So why you? Why you? If you're an insurance agent and I say, well, why should I pick you over anyone else? Right? There's a million insurance agents out there. I might have an insurance agent that says, well, have you ever blown a tire or had a flat tire on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere? Hmm. Yeah. No, you know, I ran out of— I ran out of gas one time on my way to Idaho in the middle of nowhere. And if they said, you know, well, how would you feel if you have to deal with this app or this automated process? Or do you actually want to have someone that when you call, they're going to answer their phone and they're going to walk you through your options? That's why you pick me, right? So what is it that's going to help you stand out amongst your competition? Why you? What is a unique product or service that you offer And are you going to offer exceptional customer service? Do you have a strong personal brand? Do you have a strong personal brand? If you don't know what that is, that's okay. We're going to talk about that in later dates in this training. But, you know, having a strong personal brand is what's going to help you stand out. People will know you as the person, you know, like people know me as Val Nichols. That is a personal brand. This is going to be very valuable in learning how to go from having your niche into being actually profitable. So when you establish yourself as an expert, when you know who your niche is, you now know what makes you stand out. So again, you guys want to spend some time going through this, take out your notebook, really go deep and keep asking yourself these questions. Why you? What helps you stand out? And then what you want to do is be able to establish yourself as an expert. All right, so establish yourself as an expert. And you want to think about the fact that you're like building a house and you're occupying this niche, this business niche. You're living in this house, you're talking about this house, you are establishing yourself as a leader in this field. You are talking about the things you want to talk about. You are— any opportunity you have, and you want to think about catering to your specific niche. What does your niche need, right? If you think about 2 extremes, for example, Walmart, they cater to a specific niche— low cost. People aren't as likely to be like, ooh, is this sustainably sourced, or is it just the cheapest thing on the shelf? As opposed to something like Lamborghini. You don't see advertisements for Lamborghini. Lamborghini has a specific niche. It's a status symbol. Right? It's a product that stands out and caters to a niche. And you better believe when you're walking onto the lot of Lamborghini, it's not going to be like Walmart. Like, you are going to be catered to. It is going to be a white glove experience. You know, like when I bought my BMW, it was like so many hands were on me. Like, every single person in that building had contact with me and developed a relationship with me. When I go there to get service done, it is a high touch, high experience. I feel very catered to. And it's a very luxurious experience. So think about that. Is your niche— do they want a lot of catering? Do they want a lot of high touch? Do they need a lot of personal experience? Do they want a lot of handholding? There's a big difference between the people who are looking for the cheapest product out there, like if they just want a low-cost product that's going to give them whatever it is that they need, and then the people who are like my VIP clients who are very high touch I'm involved with their clients. I'm involved with their teams. I'm training their teams. They're messaging me. They're texting me. They're calling me to celebrate their wins. They're updating me on their status. I have one client right now doing this huge event in September, and she's constantly telling me, oh my gosh, we have 8 speakers. We have this many signups and we're in constant contact. And I'm shoulder to shoulder with her building out her beautiful profitable empire. So, you know, what type of client do you have? Because this is really going to help you to define your profitability, and to define your unique value proposition. So why you? Why you? So I'm going to turn it back to you guys now. Look at— we know the reasons why. To like wrap up what we talked about today, we know the reasons why. Why do we need a niche? Because if we want to have longevity, if we want to be a business that's still around in 5 years, 6 years, 10 years— I'm in year 6 of my company now, this company, Val Nichols Business Coaching, And most companies, most businesses, especially startup companies, do not make it this long, much less, you know, 5, 6 years. But if you want to have longevity, if you want to have profitability, and you want to turn your business or your side hustle into something real, really make it happen, you want to define your niche. You want to be able to know how do you help your ideal client? Who is your ideal client? And believe me, you're not going to be cutting people out. Or leaving people out by defining your niche, what you're going to do is you're actually going to be serving the people more. You're going to be serving the people and calling forward the ones that you are meant to work with. So you want to hone your skills as an expert by defining your niche. You can make smarter decisions in your business. It is going to create less burnout and is going to help you to get laser focused on what you Going to do in your business, what goals you're going to work toward, and it is going to save you a ton of headache and heartache in the long run. So how do you define your niche? Number 1, examine your interests and strengths. Know that your clients are most likely a past version of you. So where have you been in your life? What are your interests, hobbies, strengths? So that you can look at the skills and the experiences of what your client is who they are. So consider your experiences. How can you create trainings, or how are you serving people? Evaluate your strengths in your potential niche. So evaluate the strengths of your niche. What do they do well? What are they looking for? What do they need you for? And what do you want them to feel? How are they going to feel after they experience your product? How are they going to feel after they experience your service? Because this is really going to help you define and move the needle forward in defining your niche. So number 4 is get valuable feedback from others. Get valuable feedback from a mentor, from a coach, someone who's been there, done that, who can help you save time, money, and heartache in the long run by not making all the crazy mistakes that I myself had to make. And now my clients don't have to. Get valuable feedback from your ideal clients, whether if that's you're surveying people, you're sitting down with people who are ideal clients, maybe you're sitting with current clients and asking them these questions. About how they feel, what's going on. You're getting that valuable feedback from experts in the industry, you know, like industry experts. Number 3— I'm sorry, number 4 is now that you know your niche, you want to be able to move into profits. You want to be able to increase your profits. How we do that is by defining your unique value proposition, AKA what the heck do you do, why you, and why do you stand out amongst your competition. This could be your unique story, right? There's beautiful ways to tell your story so that you are not having to sell. You sell by not selling. That's what I do. You sell by not selling. I did that in corporate. I blew the minds of all my corporate bosses who said that I had to use sleazy sales tactics and really rude— honestly, I thought were very rude questions and pushy tactics to get people to buy, right? But I never did it. I refused. I would sell by not selling. And the way how I did this was I defined What is our unique value proposition? Why us? How are we going to cater to you? What are we going to do specifically for you that's going to help us stand out among the competition? A lot of that was I would go to the competition, I would look at their value, I would actually do a list of their assets, what they did well, what we did well, why we didn't do some of the things they did like chicken coops and all these things. I did senior living. And so, it was like they had all these different things that a lot of it was like, you know, some of the things were just selling to the client or the ideal person who's making the decision, but wasn't actually valuable to the senior who was moving in long-term, who's going to live there. So, the way I spoke to the granddaughter who's looking at the senior living community and the actual 75-year-old senior was a lot different. And I would have to define why us, why pick us, what's going to, like, put us above the competition, and how are we going to be a unique value To you. So it's the term, what's in it for me? You want to be constantly putting yourself into the shoes of your ideal client and be thinking, what's in it for me? Right? And this is where a lot of people get it wrong in business. They make their business about them. They make their business 100% about them, about them making money, about them making profit, about them making a sale. And what we need to remember is our business is not about us. Our business is about, is about the people that are coming in our life that we get the honor to serve. And that's what it's all about. I hope this was helpful for you guys. Let me know in the comments what did you get? What else do you have on this topic? Did I miss anything? Is there anything you want me to go deeper into? What is your niche? You might even put like my niche is da da da da da. I serve who to do what? I serve who to do what? I would love to hear what your guys' niches are so that I can give you valuable feedback. We can all give you valuable feedback because we are in this together. I love you guys. Thanks for hanging out with us today. Thanks. For hanging out with me and for being here in this live. We are going to be coming back today or tomorrow for day 2 of Hot Summer Profits, creating your powerful business strategy, if I remember right. Let me know what is your niche, what is your unique value proposition, and what makes you stand out among your competition. Hope you got a ton out of this, and I will see you guys tomorrow. Bye!