41. Niche Down to Level Up: How to Find Your Ideal Clients
Are you struggling to attract your ideal clients or feeling like your marketing message is falling flat? You're not alone. As entrepreneurs, we often resist niching down out of fear of limiting ourselves. But what if I told you that having a clear, specific niche is the key to making everything easier in your business?
In this episode, I share my own journey to finding the right niche and how it transformed my business. I spent years resisting the idea of niching down because I thought it would limit my business… until I finally realized that this mental drama was the exact thing holding me back.
You’re in good company if you don’t want to pick a narrow niche, and this episode is your saving grace. Join me today as I debunk common thought errors that hold us back from niching down and show you how a specific niche actually helps you reach more people, not less. By the end of this episode, you'll feel inspired to get creative with your niche and have a practical framework to identify the perfect niche for you.
Download my free guide, How to Find your Perfect Business Niche below.
This step-by-step guide will help you
discover your profitable niche market and create a clear business
focus that attracts ideal clients.
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
Why having a clear niche makes marketing your business so much easier.
How to overcome mental blocks and fears around niching down.
Two game-changing questions to ask yourself to identify your ideal niche.
Why your niche can (and should) evolve as you and your business grow.
How to test the viability of your niche and find your ideal clients.
Listen to the Full Episode:
Featured on the Show:
Click here for step-by-step instructions to leave a rating and review to let me know what you think, and don’t forget to share the podcast with others who you think would benefit!
If you want to realize your dreams of leaving corporate and starting your own business in 2025, join me for a free strategy session by clicking here!
Join us in the free Mom Entrepreneur’s Circle here!
7. The Transformative Power of Networking for Mom Entrepreneurs
35. How to Pick the Right Business Idea When You’re Multi-Passionate
Full Episode Transcript:
We all know the scenario when you're in a mom's group chat and someone posts asking for advice or recommendations. Just the other day, I had a message pop up in our neighborhood chat that I'm a part of and it said, “Help, I'm completely overwhelmed trying to organize my son's playroom and need a total overhaul.”
A year ago, I would have scrolled past, maybe offered some generic advice, but this time, I had the exact right person to recommend. A client of mine who is an interior designer specializing specifically in kids spaces, not just any interior designer, but one who understands the unique challenges of creating functional growing spaces for kids.
The mom's response in the chat was, “Oh my gosh, that's exactly what I need. I didn't even know that existed.” And that my friends is the power of a clear and specific niche. And today we're diving deep into why developing a niche is a must in your business, not only to make everything so much easier for you in all things marketing, which I'll explain, but to make it so much easier for your ideal clients to find you.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. It’s a podcast that helps working moms just like you, optimize your time, manage your mind, and start a business that helps you create more freedom, flexibility, and, yes, fun. I’m business and mindset coach Jenna Rykiel. And I offer practical tips to help you ditch the nine-to-five. I have been exactly where you are and I know what it takes to make the transition without trading one form of burnout for another. So, let’s get started.
Hi, mom friends. If you're like me, you probably started your business with a broad vision or are thinking about starting a business with a broad vision. I remember sitting at my desk trying to write my first website copy and typing out women's empowerment coach, right? I thought it was so good and specific. But whenever I shared with people about my coaching business, it got nothing but crickets.
I was very stubborn for a while. Every single mentor and coach I worked with encouraged me to niche down. And to my credit, I listened to countless episodes, podcasts, YouTube videos about niches, really trying to understand the concept and why it was so important. But I ultimately didn't want to listen.
I spent months, actually literally years, resisting the idea of a niche. And it took me so long to finally settle into a sweet spot because for a while I just didn't want to do it. I didn't want to limit myself and my business. I had a lot of mental drama that stemmed from fear that we'll get into in this episode. And you may be feeling that way right now, so I get it. And while you absolutely can build a successful business without a niche, a niche is a tool.
And it's now one of my absolute favorite tools to make everything in marketing and business a little easier for you. So if you find yourself staring at your own website or social media, and you're having trouble developing copy, or maybe you've got what you think is a great niche and you're showing up doing all the right things, but your message is met with just polite nods instead of that, "Oh my gosh, I need to work with you", or "I have the perfect person for you". This episode will be your saving grace.
Okay. Today, I'm going to show you how to move from the vague, everyone-is-my-client approach to building a thriving business with a clear, specific niche that has referrals and clients coming to you. Okay, by the end of this episode, you're not only going to feel inspired to get even more specific and creative with your niche, you're going to know exactly what to do next to get it done. Okay? That's because I've created a special niche development worksheet for you. It's the exact framework and questions I used and that I now use with my clients to help them find their perfect niche. And you can download it at Jenna.coach/41 in the show notes, okay?
And the best part of all of this is that the process actually makes your life so much easier as an entrepreneur and as an untrained CMO, as we all are. And the best part of all of this is that the process actually makes your life so much easier. And you will see what I mean by the end of this episode.
Okay, so let's dive in. You truly can't have a business podcast without talking about niching. Okay? My past self would have never thought I'd be doing this with the way I resisted niches, but here we are. So what's important to me in this is to have a real honest conversation about how hard it can be to find your niche. Let's start with why we don't wanna do it, okay?
The vast majority of us resist niching at first, unless we have a perfect niche that slaps us in the face, or maybe we have a product that by design comes with its own niche, but you're in good company if you don't want to pick a niche. But this is an area of opportunity for you and your business to grow. So it's important to understand why we're resisting it.
There are a few really common thought errors I hear and that I experienced myself that I want to debunk for all the niche haters out there. Okay, the most common is that we think we're saying no to potential clients if we have a niche. The truth is having a niche doesn't mean you can't work with people outside of your niche. It just means your marketing speaks directly to an ideal client.
Okay, I want to say that again, because it's going to help you feel excited about niching down. You can absolutely say yes to anyone. You can collect payment from anyone who wants to pay for your services, right? Or for your product.
From day one, I've talked about helping women and you wouldn't believe how many men I've coached. My marketing very clearly is geared towards women and yet men find me and want to work with me for a number of reasons. And that is okay. I don't mind getting paid by people who don't fit nicely in my niche.
Next one, my coaching can serve more people, right? And this thought, I don't want to limit myself. This was my biggest block, right? I thought by saying I help moms leave corporate, I was excluding all the other amazing women I could help through coaching. But here's what happened. When I got specific, my message actually reached more people because it was clear and compelling. And while I've heard countless times that if you can help everyone, you help no one. And while I fought against the sentiment for so long in my own business, it's true. Kind of like a lot of the advice you get as a mom.
So when we have a broad niche, it's like whispering in a crowded room. Everyone is there, but nobody's really listening. Okay. Nobody's really listening or hearing what you have to say because you're not speaking to them directly. Even if you feel like your coaching can serve more people, you want your marketing to speak to one specific person.
All right, another thought error, what if I decide and I'm wrong? Okay, that's another really common one. This is similar to what I talked about in episode 35 with our multi-passionate moms who are hesitant to choose a business because they have so many talents and business ideas and don't want to pick the wrong one. You don't have to be married to your niche.
Yes, you should stick with it long enough to see if it's a viable business and whether it's something you enjoy, but you can always shift your business. You can always pivot. And I'll talk about my own really personal example of that to show you exactly what I mean. If you end up needing to switch your niche or get even more specific for whatever reason, it's not starting over, I promise. Each step and niche taught me something valuable and led me closer to where I needed to be, even though it didn't feel that way at the moment.
And another important thing to remember is that no one is following you as closely as you think they are. Very few people are paying attention. So when you start to make these small shifts in your marketing and messaging, nobody will care as much as you think they will. Most people won't even notice.
Another error is there's too much competition in my niche. Competition is exactly the reason we want to get even more specific. Competition actually validates that there's a market for what you offer and getting even more granular within that market in who you specifically help will be a tool to help you stand out. The key is finding your unique angle.
For example, there are tons of travel agents out there, but how many specifically help moms plan and book trips that are completely kid-friendly? We recently worked with a travel agent who does this, and she found us multiple hotels in Portugal that offer childcare. That sounds amazing, right? I'll put her link in the show notes because she's fabulous, and if you're wanting to travel with kids, you'll want her as part of your board of directors.
And again, I get it. I really do. When I first started my business, I wanted to help everyone and I was capable of helping anyone and everyone, right? The thought of narrowing down felt like I was closing doors. But once you truly commit to one specific ideal client, you'll experience a sense of relief and clarity that you and your clients will benefit from, I promise.
So as promised, let me share my niche journey with you because I think it'll help you see that finding your perfect niche is more of an evolution than a lightning bolt moment. So if you're sitting there frustrated and unsure what to do, this I know will be helpful. I started where many of you might be right now, right? As a women's empowerment coach.
And when I told people what I did, they'd nod politely and say, oh, that's nice. But they never had anyone specific in mind to refer to me. And honestly, I struggled to even really explain what that meant. It's just so broad.
So the game-changer came when a marketing coach I was working with asked me two simple questions. And these are a couple of questions that I want you to ask yourself as well. They will also be in the free guide if you go to Jenna.coach/41. The questions are, what problem are you solving and for who? Right? Those questions led me through a journey that might sound familiar.
So first, I tried to make empowering women work. But here's the thing. When your target market is half of the population, you end up paralyzed. Should I talk about confidence, career growth? Should I empower women by helping them find their voice? How do you speak to both a 25-year-old and a 50-year-old woman when their challenges are completely different. So I struggled a lot.
So I knew I needed to get more specific, right? My coach let me know that I needed to get more specific. So then what I did was I looked at my background, okay? And this is what I want you to think about as well for yourself. I had a Master's in counseling, I had corporate leadership experience, you know, over a decade. And so what that led me to was deciding to help corporate leaders prevent burnout, which is better, right? I had a clear problem, burnout, and a clear audience, corporate leaders. I knew where to find them and how to speak their language, which is also important when you're picking a niche.
But then something happened, a life change. I had a baby. Suddenly my values shifted. I felt called to not only support moms. And initially I thought I'd help moms return to work after maternity leave. It made sense with my corporate background, but something felt off. I realized I didn't want to help moms fit better into a system that wasn't built for them. I wanted to help them create something new.
And that's how I found my current niche, which is of course, helping moms leave corporate to build businesses they love. It perfectly combines my experience, passion, and real market need, right?
I was always hearing from other moms that they wanted more flexibility, They wanted to be there for their kiddos. They hated requesting PTO every time somebody was sick in the household. Right? And here's what's beautiful. That initial mission of empowering women, it's still there. It's just focused like a laser beam on exactly who I serve and how I serve them.
Okay, and of course your journey to finding the right niche for you might look different than mine, but I want you to know that it's okay if it takes some turns to find the perfect fit. What matters is getting clear on that problem that you solve and who you solve it for.
Let me share what typically happens when someone really nails their niche. When you nail your niche and you talk about it in the wild, a common response is, I have someone that I absolutely need to connect you with. When you focus on a very specific audience, it allows your marketing to get very targeted. You know where to go to find your people and your people know where to find you.
Okay. So let's consider the few examples I've given so far, right? So my client who designs kid spaces and my kid-friendly travel agent friend, Where will these folks go to find their people? Groups that have moms in them, right? I met Charlotte, the travel agent at a networking event in DC with a group called Hey Mama, and now I'm her client.
But it's not just groups that have moms in them. Both of these entrepreneurs could be guests on podcasts with mom listeners. They could write an article to be featured in a mom-friendly blog or magazine. The possibilities are literally endless.
And even though it feels scary, these two entrepreneurs could even niche down more and throw in that they work with families or within kids spaces for elementary school or younger, right? To create even clearer messaging and more clarity around where to find their ideal client. And that's the power of specificity.
A niche is an amazing tool to differentiate you in your industry. I always hear about competition, like I said before, and the more specific you can get, the less competition there's going to be. Yes, travel agents are a dime a dozen, but travel agents who specialize in kid-friendly vacations and itineraries are not. I'm sure everyone's ears perked up when I talked about my own experience working with a kid-friendly travel agent.
As moms, we know it's someone who knows our challenges and probably knows more about our pain points than we know. And definitely knows more about how to solve them, right? We don't need luxury. We need accommodations with a playground, childcare, and an indoor pool, which by the way, I had no idea there were places that existed that offered childcare. This is a game changer for travel.
So when you get specific, again, your ideal clients immediately recognize themselves in your message, Right? Referrals become effortless because people know exactly who needs your service, right? When I say women's empowerment coach, it feels like every single woman falls into that category, which means that I'm in that bucket of if you can help everyone you help no one.
Your marketing message writes itself when you are specific because you're speaking to a very specific pain point. Ones that you very much understand as the expert in your field. You don't need to necessarily experience them firsthand, but you'll do enough market research within your niche to know what people need to hear in order to be intrigued by what you offer.
Your expertise in that narrow field becomes clearer and more valuable to the ideal client that you wanna work with. The beauty of niching down specifically is that your client feels like you're reading their minds. You're not just solving a general problem you're solving their exact problem in their exact situation, and as I mentioned before a 20-something year old is going to be very different when we're talking about women's empowerment than what a 50-year-old needs.
So if you're like I was early on, you probably still aren't convinced and you might need to learn from experience. But if I've successfully convinced you, let's talk about how to find your niche.
I want to share a practical framework for you to find your niche. I want you to start with your expertise and experiences. Similar to what I suggest in episode six, How to Build a Business, there's a wealth of opportunities within what you already know. Okay?
So think about your professional background. Think about what personal experiences have shaped you. What problems do you love solving? Where do your eyes light up in conversation? What podcasts do you listen to in your own free time? What do friends and family come to you for help and advice with? If you yourself were your own niche, just you, what would be the characteristics of that niche?
The next thing is to look at your network. Who naturally comes to you for advice? Who are the people you surround yourself with the most? What groups are you a part of? Networking is going to be so important for you initially in your business and at all stages of the business. I have a whole podcast episode on it, actually two at this point, episode 7 and episode 38 are both all about networking. So look at your network and see who's in it.
When I first started my business, it made so much sense for me to coach within a corporate niche because my entire network was corporate. As I evolved as a mom, as I evolved as an entrepreneur, my network shifted and then so did my niche. Now it was more about helping women start a business and certainly I'm helping women leave corporate so that corporate network is still valuable to me. But there's so many other layers to it as I've evolved and as my business has evolved. So you want to look at your network.
The next thing, number three, is test for viability. Okay? Start playing around with narrowing down your niche and see how writing content and copy feels. I want you to check out the free worksheet that I've mentioned a couple of times in the show notes, and answer some of the questions to understand if this is a niche you want to work with, and then take action, right? Try it out. Figure out can these people pay for your services? Do they actively look for solutions? Where do they gather? And I touched on that earlier.
Go to those places, start talking to these folks, and really get an idea of whether or not this niche is a good fit for you. When you sit down with that worksheet, you'll find a whole section dedicated to finding your people. The questions will guide you through thinking about where does your ideal client go when they're struggling? What podcasts do they listen to? What social media platforms do they prefer? What local events are they at? What conferences do they attend? Where do they go for support and community?
These answers will be unique to your niche. And that's exactly what makes them powerful. When you know precisely where your people hang out, marketing becomes so much more focused and effective. When you have a specific niche, your brain naturally generates ideas about where to find these people. Your brain will be so relieved because it limits all of the things that you could be doing to the most effective things that you should be doing to find a very specific person. The more you know about your niche and their pain points, the easier it is for you to find them and speak authentically to how you can solve whatever problem you solve in your business.
So let's recap. I want to summarize some of the key takeaways from this episode because it's so important. Number one, a specific niche makes your life easier, not harder, and it allows you to help more people, not less. And I know that feels counterintuitive, but it's not. Trust me.
Next, your niche can evolve as you evolve. Give yourself and your business patience and grace. We always want things to happen right now. It's hard to open ourselves up to the evolution, but give yourself time and space for it to happen.
Next, the right niche feels both exciting and slightly scary. So like I've said many times before, if you feel like throwing up at any point, you're doing something right. I know it feels uncomfortable to say that you work with a very specific person. It challenges so much of our thinking about limiting our business and how we're going to find clients and are there enough people, but that feeling of discomfort and fear, that's a good thing.
Lastly, success comes from testing and refining. So don't let a niche hold you back from taking action. You don't have to figure it all out before you start testing and refining. It's okay if on social media, you post about an area of expertise one day, and then it shifts the following day. Like I said before, not very many people are paying attention, at least not as many as you think.
When you get a chance to sit down with the worksheet I've created for you, you'll find it walks you through each step we've covered today and so much more. It's designed to help you not just identify your niche, but really understand how to speak their language and show up where they are.
Next week, we're gonna build on this foundation and talk about another strategy that evolves over time, but really helps us start putting value out in the world so that it can come back to us tenfold, okay? And that's the world of freebies or lead magnets.
Trust me, once you get clear on who you serve, each step from here becomes so much easier. Remember to grab that free worksheet at Jenna.coach/41. And I'd love to hear your insights once you've had a chance to work through it. I'm happy to give feedback on your niche. Reach out, DM me. My social media links are in the show notes and you can always email me as well.
And if you're loving the podcast, please write a review. Okay, follow and review the podcast. I'm always grateful to hear from you all in my email and DMs. But a nice little review is something that other moms will benefit from as well. So they know whether investing time listening is right for them.
I am so glad you decided to invest this time in yourself and hope you take action and I will see you next week. Bye-bye.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
A year ago, I would have scrolled past, maybe offered some generic advice, but this time, I had the exact right person to recommend. A client of mine who is an interior designer specializing specifically in kids spaces, not just any interior designer, but one who understands the unique challenges of creating functional growing spaces for kids.
The mom's response in the chat was, “Oh my gosh, that's exactly what I need. I didn't even know that existed.” And that my friends is the power of a clear and specific niche. And today we're diving deep into why developing a niche is a must in your business, not only to make everything so much easier for you in all things marketing, which I'll explain, but to make it so much easier for your ideal clients to find you.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. It’s a podcast that helps working moms just like you, optimize your time, manage your mind, and start a business that helps you create more freedom, flexibility, and, yes, fun. I’m business and mindset coach Jenna Rykiel. And I offer practical tips to help you ditch the nine-to-five. I have been exactly where you are and I know what it takes to make the transition without trading one form of burnout for another. So, let’s get started.
Hi, mom friends. If you're like me, you probably started your business with a broad vision or are thinking about starting a business with a broad vision. I remember sitting at my desk trying to write my first website copy and typing out women's empowerment coach, right? I thought it was so good and specific. But whenever I shared with people about my coaching business, it got nothing but crickets.
I was very stubborn for a while. Every single mentor and coach I worked with encouraged me to niche down. And to my credit, I listened to countless episodes, podcasts, YouTube videos about niches, really trying to understand the concept and why it was so important. But I ultimately didn't want to listen.
I spent months, actually literally years, resisting the idea of a niche. And it took me so long to finally settle into a sweet spot because for a while I just didn't want to do it. I didn't want to limit myself and my business. I had a lot of mental drama that stemmed from fear that we'll get into in this episode. And you may be feeling that way right now, so I get it. And while you absolutely can build a successful business without a niche, a niche is a tool.
And it's now one of my absolute favorite tools to make everything in marketing and business a little easier for you. So if you find yourself staring at your own website or social media, and you're having trouble developing copy, or maybe you've got what you think is a great niche and you're showing up doing all the right things, but your message is met with just polite nods instead of that, "Oh my gosh, I need to work with you", or "I have the perfect person for you". This episode will be your saving grace.
Okay. Today, I'm going to show you how to move from the vague, everyone-is-my-client approach to building a thriving business with a clear, specific niche that has referrals and clients coming to you. Okay, by the end of this episode, you're not only going to feel inspired to get even more specific and creative with your niche, you're going to know exactly what to do next to get it done. Okay? That's because I've created a special niche development worksheet for you. It's the exact framework and questions I used and that I now use with my clients to help them find their perfect niche. And you can download it at Jenna.coach/41 in the show notes, okay?
And the best part of all of this is that the process actually makes your life so much easier as an entrepreneur and as an untrained CMO, as we all are. And the best part of all of this is that the process actually makes your life so much easier. And you will see what I mean by the end of this episode.
Okay, so let's dive in. You truly can't have a business podcast without talking about niching. Okay? My past self would have never thought I'd be doing this with the way I resisted niches, but here we are. So what's important to me in this is to have a real honest conversation about how hard it can be to find your niche. Let's start with why we don't wanna do it, okay?
The vast majority of us resist niching at first, unless we have a perfect niche that slaps us in the face, or maybe we have a product that by design comes with its own niche, but you're in good company if you don't want to pick a niche. But this is an area of opportunity for you and your business to grow. So it's important to understand why we're resisting it.
There are a few really common thought errors I hear and that I experienced myself that I want to debunk for all the niche haters out there. Okay, the most common is that we think we're saying no to potential clients if we have a niche. The truth is having a niche doesn't mean you can't work with people outside of your niche. It just means your marketing speaks directly to an ideal client.
Okay, I want to say that again, because it's going to help you feel excited about niching down. You can absolutely say yes to anyone. You can collect payment from anyone who wants to pay for your services, right? Or for your product.
From day one, I've talked about helping women and you wouldn't believe how many men I've coached. My marketing very clearly is geared towards women and yet men find me and want to work with me for a number of reasons. And that is okay. I don't mind getting paid by people who don't fit nicely in my niche.
Next one, my coaching can serve more people, right? And this thought, I don't want to limit myself. This was my biggest block, right? I thought by saying I help moms leave corporate, I was excluding all the other amazing women I could help through coaching. But here's what happened. When I got specific, my message actually reached more people because it was clear and compelling. And while I've heard countless times that if you can help everyone, you help no one. And while I fought against the sentiment for so long in my own business, it's true. Kind of like a lot of the advice you get as a mom.
So when we have a broad niche, it's like whispering in a crowded room. Everyone is there, but nobody's really listening. Okay. Nobody's really listening or hearing what you have to say because you're not speaking to them directly. Even if you feel like your coaching can serve more people, you want your marketing to speak to one specific person.
All right, another thought error, what if I decide and I'm wrong? Okay, that's another really common one. This is similar to what I talked about in episode 35 with our multi-passionate moms who are hesitant to choose a business because they have so many talents and business ideas and don't want to pick the wrong one. You don't have to be married to your niche.
Yes, you should stick with it long enough to see if it's a viable business and whether it's something you enjoy, but you can always shift your business. You can always pivot. And I'll talk about my own really personal example of that to show you exactly what I mean. If you end up needing to switch your niche or get even more specific for whatever reason, it's not starting over, I promise. Each step and niche taught me something valuable and led me closer to where I needed to be, even though it didn't feel that way at the moment.
And another important thing to remember is that no one is following you as closely as you think they are. Very few people are paying attention. So when you start to make these small shifts in your marketing and messaging, nobody will care as much as you think they will. Most people won't even notice.
Another error is there's too much competition in my niche. Competition is exactly the reason we want to get even more specific. Competition actually validates that there's a market for what you offer and getting even more granular within that market in who you specifically help will be a tool to help you stand out. The key is finding your unique angle.
For example, there are tons of travel agents out there, but how many specifically help moms plan and book trips that are completely kid-friendly? We recently worked with a travel agent who does this, and she found us multiple hotels in Portugal that offer childcare. That sounds amazing, right? I'll put her link in the show notes because she's fabulous, and if you're wanting to travel with kids, you'll want her as part of your board of directors.
And again, I get it. I really do. When I first started my business, I wanted to help everyone and I was capable of helping anyone and everyone, right? The thought of narrowing down felt like I was closing doors. But once you truly commit to one specific ideal client, you'll experience a sense of relief and clarity that you and your clients will benefit from, I promise.
So as promised, let me share my niche journey with you because I think it'll help you see that finding your perfect niche is more of an evolution than a lightning bolt moment. So if you're sitting there frustrated and unsure what to do, this I know will be helpful. I started where many of you might be right now, right? As a women's empowerment coach.
And when I told people what I did, they'd nod politely and say, oh, that's nice. But they never had anyone specific in mind to refer to me. And honestly, I struggled to even really explain what that meant. It's just so broad.
So the game-changer came when a marketing coach I was working with asked me two simple questions. And these are a couple of questions that I want you to ask yourself as well. They will also be in the free guide if you go to Jenna.coach/41. The questions are, what problem are you solving and for who? Right? Those questions led me through a journey that might sound familiar.
So first, I tried to make empowering women work. But here's the thing. When your target market is half of the population, you end up paralyzed. Should I talk about confidence, career growth? Should I empower women by helping them find their voice? How do you speak to both a 25-year-old and a 50-year-old woman when their challenges are completely different. So I struggled a lot.
So I knew I needed to get more specific, right? My coach let me know that I needed to get more specific. So then what I did was I looked at my background, okay? And this is what I want you to think about as well for yourself. I had a Master's in counseling, I had corporate leadership experience, you know, over a decade. And so what that led me to was deciding to help corporate leaders prevent burnout, which is better, right? I had a clear problem, burnout, and a clear audience, corporate leaders. I knew where to find them and how to speak their language, which is also important when you're picking a niche.
But then something happened, a life change. I had a baby. Suddenly my values shifted. I felt called to not only support moms. And initially I thought I'd help moms return to work after maternity leave. It made sense with my corporate background, but something felt off. I realized I didn't want to help moms fit better into a system that wasn't built for them. I wanted to help them create something new.
And that's how I found my current niche, which is of course, helping moms leave corporate to build businesses they love. It perfectly combines my experience, passion, and real market need, right?
I was always hearing from other moms that they wanted more flexibility, They wanted to be there for their kiddos. They hated requesting PTO every time somebody was sick in the household. Right? And here's what's beautiful. That initial mission of empowering women, it's still there. It's just focused like a laser beam on exactly who I serve and how I serve them.
Okay, and of course your journey to finding the right niche for you might look different than mine, but I want you to know that it's okay if it takes some turns to find the perfect fit. What matters is getting clear on that problem that you solve and who you solve it for.
Let me share what typically happens when someone really nails their niche. When you nail your niche and you talk about it in the wild, a common response is, I have someone that I absolutely need to connect you with. When you focus on a very specific audience, it allows your marketing to get very targeted. You know where to go to find your people and your people know where to find you.
Okay. So let's consider the few examples I've given so far, right? So my client who designs kid spaces and my kid-friendly travel agent friend, Where will these folks go to find their people? Groups that have moms in them, right? I met Charlotte, the travel agent at a networking event in DC with a group called Hey Mama, and now I'm her client.
But it's not just groups that have moms in them. Both of these entrepreneurs could be guests on podcasts with mom listeners. They could write an article to be featured in a mom-friendly blog or magazine. The possibilities are literally endless.
And even though it feels scary, these two entrepreneurs could even niche down more and throw in that they work with families or within kids spaces for elementary school or younger, right? To create even clearer messaging and more clarity around where to find their ideal client. And that's the power of specificity.
A niche is an amazing tool to differentiate you in your industry. I always hear about competition, like I said before, and the more specific you can get, the less competition there's going to be. Yes, travel agents are a dime a dozen, but travel agents who specialize in kid-friendly vacations and itineraries are not. I'm sure everyone's ears perked up when I talked about my own experience working with a kid-friendly travel agent.
As moms, we know it's someone who knows our challenges and probably knows more about our pain points than we know. And definitely knows more about how to solve them, right? We don't need luxury. We need accommodations with a playground, childcare, and an indoor pool, which by the way, I had no idea there were places that existed that offered childcare. This is a game changer for travel.
So when you get specific, again, your ideal clients immediately recognize themselves in your message, Right? Referrals become effortless because people know exactly who needs your service, right? When I say women's empowerment coach, it feels like every single woman falls into that category, which means that I'm in that bucket of if you can help everyone you help no one.
Your marketing message writes itself when you are specific because you're speaking to a very specific pain point. Ones that you very much understand as the expert in your field. You don't need to necessarily experience them firsthand, but you'll do enough market research within your niche to know what people need to hear in order to be intrigued by what you offer.
Your expertise in that narrow field becomes clearer and more valuable to the ideal client that you wanna work with. The beauty of niching down specifically is that your client feels like you're reading their minds. You're not just solving a general problem you're solving their exact problem in their exact situation, and as I mentioned before a 20-something year old is going to be very different when we're talking about women's empowerment than what a 50-year-old needs.
So if you're like I was early on, you probably still aren't convinced and you might need to learn from experience. But if I've successfully convinced you, let's talk about how to find your niche.
I want to share a practical framework for you to find your niche. I want you to start with your expertise and experiences. Similar to what I suggest in episode six, How to Build a Business, there's a wealth of opportunities within what you already know. Okay?
So think about your professional background. Think about what personal experiences have shaped you. What problems do you love solving? Where do your eyes light up in conversation? What podcasts do you listen to in your own free time? What do friends and family come to you for help and advice with? If you yourself were your own niche, just you, what would be the characteristics of that niche?
The next thing is to look at your network. Who naturally comes to you for advice? Who are the people you surround yourself with the most? What groups are you a part of? Networking is going to be so important for you initially in your business and at all stages of the business. I have a whole podcast episode on it, actually two at this point, episode 7 and episode 38 are both all about networking. So look at your network and see who's in it.
When I first started my business, it made so much sense for me to coach within a corporate niche because my entire network was corporate. As I evolved as a mom, as I evolved as an entrepreneur, my network shifted and then so did my niche. Now it was more about helping women start a business and certainly I'm helping women leave corporate so that corporate network is still valuable to me. But there's so many other layers to it as I've evolved and as my business has evolved. So you want to look at your network.
The next thing, number three, is test for viability. Okay? Start playing around with narrowing down your niche and see how writing content and copy feels. I want you to check out the free worksheet that I've mentioned a couple of times in the show notes, and answer some of the questions to understand if this is a niche you want to work with, and then take action, right? Try it out. Figure out can these people pay for your services? Do they actively look for solutions? Where do they gather? And I touched on that earlier.
Go to those places, start talking to these folks, and really get an idea of whether or not this niche is a good fit for you. When you sit down with that worksheet, you'll find a whole section dedicated to finding your people. The questions will guide you through thinking about where does your ideal client go when they're struggling? What podcasts do they listen to? What social media platforms do they prefer? What local events are they at? What conferences do they attend? Where do they go for support and community?
These answers will be unique to your niche. And that's exactly what makes them powerful. When you know precisely where your people hang out, marketing becomes so much more focused and effective. When you have a specific niche, your brain naturally generates ideas about where to find these people. Your brain will be so relieved because it limits all of the things that you could be doing to the most effective things that you should be doing to find a very specific person. The more you know about your niche and their pain points, the easier it is for you to find them and speak authentically to how you can solve whatever problem you solve in your business.
So let's recap. I want to summarize some of the key takeaways from this episode because it's so important. Number one, a specific niche makes your life easier, not harder, and it allows you to help more people, not less. And I know that feels counterintuitive, but it's not. Trust me.
Next, your niche can evolve as you evolve. Give yourself and your business patience and grace. We always want things to happen right now. It's hard to open ourselves up to the evolution, but give yourself time and space for it to happen.
Next, the right niche feels both exciting and slightly scary. So like I've said many times before, if you feel like throwing up at any point, you're doing something right. I know it feels uncomfortable to say that you work with a very specific person. It challenges so much of our thinking about limiting our business and how we're going to find clients and are there enough people, but that feeling of discomfort and fear, that's a good thing.
Lastly, success comes from testing and refining. So don't let a niche hold you back from taking action. You don't have to figure it all out before you start testing and refining. It's okay if on social media, you post about an area of expertise one day, and then it shifts the following day. Like I said before, not very many people are paying attention, at least not as many as you think.
When you get a chance to sit down with the worksheet I've created for you, you'll find it walks you through each step we've covered today and so much more. It's designed to help you not just identify your niche, but really understand how to speak their language and show up where they are.
Next week, we're gonna build on this foundation and talk about another strategy that evolves over time, but really helps us start putting value out in the world so that it can come back to us tenfold, okay? And that's the world of freebies or lead magnets.
Trust me, once you get clear on who you serve, each step from here becomes so much easier. Remember to grab that free worksheet at Jenna.coach/41. And I'd love to hear your insights once you've had a chance to work through it. I'm happy to give feedback on your niche. Reach out, DM me. My social media links are in the show notes and you can always email me as well.
And if you're loving the podcast, please write a review. Okay, follow and review the podcast. I'm always grateful to hear from you all in my email and DMs. But a nice little review is something that other moms will benefit from as well. So they know whether investing time listening is right for them.
I am so glad you decided to invest this time in yourself and hope you take action and I will see you next week. Bye-bye.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
Enjoy the Show?
Don’t miss an episode, follow the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or RSS.
