Niche, Please! Finding Your Happy Place in Business

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Hello and welcome to the 101st episode of the Choosing Happy Podcast.

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I'm Heather Masters, the host of the Choosing Happy Podcast, and we're looking at niching today, but from a very different perspective.

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I want to take you on a journey of looking at why you might be struggling with it and reframing that so by the end of this episode, you have a clear idea of who you want to work with, what you want to work on, and what your passion is really all about.

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So stay tuned for this week's Choosing Happy Podcast.

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Hello, everyone, it's Heather here, the host of the Choosing Happy Podcast.

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And it's lovely to have you listening today.

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And I am really grateful for all of those who take time out to listen to the podcast.

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Today I'm discussing niching, but I want to talk about it from a completely different perspective because it's something that I've realized for myself.

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Being a big picture person, being an entrepreneur, a creator.

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I love doing many things.

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I'm easily bored.

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I love change.

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And I am very guilty of the, you know, the next shiny object syndrome of jumping from one thing to another.

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And I have learned to my cost on many occasions that just sharing your time over many projects really affects not only putting you or me in overwhelm, but putting a risk on the project, on not getting anything finished.

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You know, it's that thing of trying to catch six rabbits at the same time rather than just going after the one.

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And that's been a massive, massive learning for me.

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And it's something I want to explore, but from perhaps a different perspective, because I think what we do sometimes in our business has a lot more to do with what we're resisting and also how we make choices.

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So that's something I want to start off with.

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You probably have a good idea of what you want to do and your niche, and it might be what we'd call a universal idea, really quite high level.

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So you want to help people, you want to bring transformation to their lives.

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But when we think about niching, it's about really getting quite specific about who we help.

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We often resist this.

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I know I resisted this because I thought, well, if I do that, I'm going to cut down the number of people I reach.

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I'm going to really reduce the things that I do.

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And I have massively broad skills and my big picture view.

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And being able to see things as a complete system has been one of my strengths in terms of technology.

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Being able to see where things fit into the jigsaw.

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It's like Being able to see the, the finished, finished jigsaw before you start putting the pieces together.

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But while you're doing the jigsaw, if you're like me, you'll tend to focus on getting one thing done at a time, maybe doing the frame first or finishing one image, whether it's a cat or a dog.

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So you, you focus in on.

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On completing that one thing.

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And, and that's how I think about niching and about how focusing in.

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On.

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On areas of your business.

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So even on an everyday basis, maybe if you put out podcasts or content, having a content creation day so that your focus is all in one place, on completing one area, the, the energy it takes to shift from different topics is often what causes us to do constantly failing, completing tasks because our focus has to split off into a different direction.

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So if we choose to put our energy in one place, whether it's a niche, whether it's creating content today, whether it's creating four podcasts, whatever we do, keeping that focus and that energy flowing in that one direction will make things much more effortless for us.

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And I'm talking from experience because I haven't been the person who did that.

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I have been the person who'd like to jump around and put it down to I'd get bored if I kept focused.

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And that's actually a myth as well, because if you're passionate about podcasts or you're passionate about the content that you create, it's about being present in the moment and putting that love and attention, that service into creating the content, into creating what ultimately is going to serve other people.

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So if your content's valuable, it should never be boring for you to create systems and putting things into a structure.

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I know that as a creator and as an entrepreneur, even though I create the systems myself, I often resist following them.

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But I'm finding that there's relief in following them.

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There's relief in creating a niche.

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There's a relief in choosing what you're doing each day and setting a schedule around it.

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And that relief is releasing all of the overwhelm, actually knowing what you're doing before you start the day.

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And yes, it doesn't always work out as planned, but because you know what you meant to do that day, it's much easier to come back to it if you've been distracted.

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So I'll invite you to really consider the benefits of niching, the benefits of making choices and decisions and actually committing.

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I am so guilty of jumping around because I didn't commit.

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I know that when I 100% go all in, burn the boats, I deliver, I am focused, I am on point, I create quality, I'm passionate.

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The jumping around, the not choosing the niche, the inability to commit is the stuff that stops me from achieving, from getting the results I want.

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Not just in my business, but in my life.

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So if you're finding yourself jumping around, doing the shiny object syndrome, being distracted, it's a good place to ask, what are you not committing to?

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Where are your values?

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Why isn't what you're trying to do important enough for it to no longer be a try and for you to actually commit to doing it and getting it finished?

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If it's something that you actually really don't want to do or don't see the value in, then let it go.

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It removes that.

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Make that commitment to something else, but make that choice, choose differently.

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So when we're looking at our niche, choose something that really aligns with you.

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Really go as niche as possible in terms of something that you're passionate about, that you can put your energy in, that you know will serve that specific audience and you don't have to stay in that niche forever.

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But the idea is to get you focused and actually building your brand, being known for something, becoming the expert in your field, even if the niche is yourself.

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And what do I mean by that?

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There is a number of ways of niching.

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You can niche on the person you serve, you can niche in the service that you deliver, you can niche in the industry that you serve, or you can niche on the particular strength that you have in what you deliver, what you want to be known for, what you are known for.

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Sometimes we struggle to niche when other people have already put us in a niche because they really know what we're good at.

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So if we're good at helping people overcome procrastination, for instance, people randomly, our friends will ring us and say, I'm really stuck, I can't get focused.

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What can I do to focus?

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And maybe you're known for that.

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You could be known for the person, the go to person when it comes to tech and getting people unstuck with their websites, for instance, or their automation.

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Or you could be the person people go to when they need a piece of copy written that they know is going to be real quality, on point messaging.

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You might already do it.

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So becoming that go to person, you can then choose, well, who do I serve best?

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Who are the people who are coming to me?

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And I want to illustrate that because I am really good at tech.

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I've Been in tech for a very, very long time and I was looking at AI and I'm learning AI and then I'm looking at the fact that I'm pretty good at coaching as well.

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My clients get really powerful results and I'm good at consultancy and I see the bigger picture and I'm good at writing and I have the creative writing group and I freelance as a technical writer as well.

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And my problem from niching point of view, even from a business perspective, is where do I focus?

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What do I want to become known as?

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And I have decided that I want to become known as someone a premium ghostwriter who creates educational email courses for transformational practitioners to attract their perfect and ideal clients and warm them up so that they are ready to buy and to convert.

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And why does that work for me?

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It includes my writing skills, it includes my coaching consultancy skills, it includes the tech skills because I set up all of the marketing and the automations and the landing pages.

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So it builds all of that into it.

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It includes what I'm learning with AI because it allows me to include customer service AI bots as well as any of the automations that are going to make the conversion for the client effortless.

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And it really helps transformational people.

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So my background is also personal development, nlp, hypnosis, spirituality, intuitive coaching.

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So I have a huge knowledge of that.

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So when I'm writing the copy, I'm bringing that expertise with me.

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I understand the niche, I understand the client already, so I'm bringing all of that with me.

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And whereas before I was seeing having all of those skills as a problem in terms of choosing a niche, I can see how doing this one thing actually involves me using all of those skills, using that uniqueness that I have in my breadth of skills, if you like, and offering, bringing it all together and offering one thing, one package, and not, you know, really defining that and not going over the borders, not, not doing anything bespoke and just getting really good at serving my audience.

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So they are getting those 30 to 50% conversions from the emails.

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And that's really, you know, that's, that's a nice challenge to have as well to, to be able to create level of success for my clients.

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So that's massively cleared up my niching and jumping around and shiny object syndrome because I'm still learning, I'll still be learning different tech in terms of convertkits and all of the new AI automations that go with autoresponders and with CRM tech.

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So the things I'm passionate about all come together in delivering this one service and delivering the results as a service as well.

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I encourage you to begin to think of your niche as that, because once you choose it and once you commit, and this is the important part, commit to doing that for maybe six months to two years to you have established yourself, you've established your niche, you've established your expertise, you have case studies, you have examples of your own.

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For instance, for me, my example of my own educational email courses, I'm setting them up for my choosing Happy accounts and I'm also setting them up for my creative writing account as we speak.

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So I have examples of where they're working and I'm measuring where I am am now in terms of conversions and what the conversions will be a couple of weeks after these are implemented.

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And I encourage you to really think about what is it?

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If you have all of these wide skills, ask your unconscious, ask universe, ask the great goodness what it is that would bring these together and be willing to commit to whatever that is at this time that you are open to doing and actually aligned to doing.

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I think that's the important bit, aligning yourself to delivering that at the end of the day you're still working out who you serve best and it's really good to look at, for instance, with personal development and with nlp.

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Originally, when I was thinking about doing the email courses, I was thinking about doing it in the tech industry because I'm familiar with that as well.

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But tech is changing so quickly.

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I knew I could very quickly get into overwhelm and into trying to commit to different learnings as well.

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Learning things like AI, like Web3, like blockchain.

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It would have overwhelmed me and stopped me from delivering the result.

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So the result is an educational email course that's really going to help someone.

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I can see.

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I already see the websites of tech companies who struggle with their messaging because they're written often by the tech person themselves and not for the end client.

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Yes, I could do that, but it didn't.

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Although I'm passionate about tech, that didn't light me up yet.

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I have really been dipping my toe back into NLP and to spirituality.

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I'm committing to my own path in terms of what I think my purpose is here and to really getting back into working with my own energy to create results.

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And because of that, that audience is ideal for me because I bring that understanding of my own journey as well as already working with some of the best trainers in the world in terms of personal development and NLP and hypnosis and spirituality and intuition.

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So I can bring all of that to my clients.

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And it's something that I am so passionate about, especially at this time when I really do believe that taking responsibility for our own lives and our own outcomes in alignment with our internal guidance is where it's at.

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So that sort of passion and bringing that to what I do is important.

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And I'm sharing this because I hope there's something that you can think about that you're really passionate about at the moment, that you maybe were thinking that it wasn't part of your niche.

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What are you standing for in your own world?

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What is it that you're passionate about to make a difference for you?

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So how do you bring that into your niche?

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There's lots of aspects to the niche and I think it's about choosing.

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The important thing is it's about choosing what you want to be known for, what you actually stand for, what you're passionate about and the reason about being passionate.

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So I love writing.

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I already create content.

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I spend my life creating content at the moment.

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So to be able to do that for someone else about a subject I'm passionate about and knowing the results it brings, and I get to set up and play with the tech as well.

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It's kind of heaven, my perfect sweet spot, if you like.

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And that's what you're kind of looking for.

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And I'm sharing this because I want you to think about if you have all of these things in your head, where you could go off and serve the tech people and you could stay in tech, or you could go serve the personal development people, how do you bring them together?

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I do think there's an opportunity and it's not about necessarily thinking about it.

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I think it's about asking and allowing your unconscious and allowing your intuition to bring it up for you to ask that question where at this point in time, because I personally think we're in a big shift, where at this point in time am I being called to commit my passion, my services, to help me step forward into this new economy, this new culture, this new technological landscape, this great evolution that not just the planet is going through, but the whole, the systems, the global systems, around the world, markets are going through is what we're finding is that people are reluctant to buy unless they really trust you.

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So the purchasing process is longer than it's probably ever been.

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So what is it that you are willing to be really expert at?

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To become the trusted advisor in, to become the go to person that people really want to work with and often that only comes from alignment and passion and your love of doing what you do and, and at the same time your ability to really focus and say, yes, this is what I'm going to do, this is what I'm going to be known for, this is what I'm going to commit to and I am going to burn the boats on everything else, I'm going to clear my website of all of the other offers and I'm going to focus down on this one offer and work with my clients to bring amazing results and get brilliant case studies and know that I'm helping them create transformation around the world as well.

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So I know this has been unusual.

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It's not probably your normal niching session.

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You will find the step by step niches using your ikiago and that's a good place to start.

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So looking at what the market wants, what you're really good at, what you're passionate about, where your skills are and looking at where they mix in the middle.

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And that's what I'm saying.

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But I'm taking a little bit broader because what I'm good at there was quite a lot of things and it was trying to choose that one thing.

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And I know that there are lots of entrepreneurs and business owners out there who are really good at a number of things and it's asking that question, what is it?

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If I pull all of those together, what is the service that I bring?

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What's the unusual service?

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Because this can really give you your USP as well and your brand and everything else.

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And once you know it, it's like everything else falls away, but it only falls away once you make that decision to commit, to draw the line in the sand, to step over it and say, this is what I do, this is who I am, this is why I do it, this is what I'm passionate about, this is what I stand for and this is what I am delivering for the next year to two years.

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And at the same time I'm saying that and I'm very aware that technology and markets are changing at the same time.

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So there's that adaptability, but having that foundation and being willing to adapt around that one thing can make a massive, massive difference to you and it gives you such clarity.

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It's much easier then to create your content.

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It's much easier to show up and be passionate about who you're helping and why you're helping them.

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It's much easier to plan your day when you're not trying to do 300 different things.

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And wondering which one's going to work.

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It's choosing that one thing, knowing that it's going to work.

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And this is the real important thing, actually choosing to know that without a doubt that this is the thing that is right for you.

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And it's not about knowing it up front.

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It's been certain in uncertainty and that's a gift as well.

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So just to summarize, it's about looking at all of your skills, all of your interests, looking at who naturally comes to you, what you naturally solve, and choosing a niche that makes you the expert in that thing, serving those people and can bring some of your hidden skills.

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You don't have to market all of your skills, you can bring them into that one space and eventually, once you're really good at it, you add different layers, you do upsell in your funnel and how you create that.

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But basically using that core skill is the main thing to get you started and to moving forward and growing your business business.

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Whereas you might be stagnant and confused, especially in these very strange times where AI is impacting everyone.

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So I hope this helps.

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Please do let me know, do drop me a message and let me know if this has been valuable to you.

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I really hope it has and I look forward to seeing you on next week's Choosing Happy Podcast.

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Thank you so much for listening.

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Thank you so much for taking the time to listen to this week's episode.

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If you enjoyed it or think it would be valuable to others, please do share.

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And if you really enjoyed it, please leave me a review.

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It really helps the podcast.

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All of the links are in the show notes and I look forward to seeing you next week on the Choosing Happy Podcast.