Kevin C. Whelan

The longer I’m in business, the less I do.

I offer fewer services today than a few years ago and focus them entirely on helping coworking spaces and marketing consultants.

Those are my two verticals.

Only rarely will I accept new clients outside of those two categories today. I used to help almost anyone.

Incidentally, doing this has also opened up a lot more opportunities for me. By focusing my efforts, I open myself up to doing better work. Deeper work. More nuanced and specific work.

It’s allowing me to build more repeatable systems and reusable assets. It allows me to charge higher rates for my consulting and create scalable group offers and education products.

People share their platform and audience with me. There’s more opportunity to be a recognized expert in a smaller area of focus.

It just feels better.

I’m going to continue on this road and see how far I can take it. It’s an interesting paradox that the less you do, the more opportunities you have to do great work. 

This post is a preview of one of the private podcast episodes inside Mindshare. If you want to learn how to create a more leveraged, systemized, and profitable marketing strategy business, sign up for a free trial here. 

There are pros and cons to specialization.

In this episode, I break down some of the main benefits of niche specialization, which include:

1. Easier sales process via differentiation
2. Lower time involvement required
3. Less downward price pressure
4. Better leverage and systemization
5. Ability to package and resell expertise as products
6. Easier to find and reach your target market
7. More efficient marketing

And many more.

When you specialize, you build a competitive moat that grows over time. Once you get your marketing engine going, it becomes a real asset to your business.

Sure, there are advantages to being a generalist, which I talk about, but as a consultant they are far outweighed by specialization.

Give this a listen and let me know your thoughts!

Last week, I did a webinar for one of the coworking software companies’ online community.

I’ve done these before and it’s always worthwhile. Over 100 registered and about 52 attended live.

Since I did the presentation, I have received a few leads, a dozen or so subscribers, and multiple LinkedIn connection requests from folks in my target market.

For a business like mine, that’s worth my time. I only need a few clients to be highly profitable.

And while I’m not taking on clients personally right now, I do have info products for sale which I was able to refer them to while adding them to my waiting list.

Every so often, opportunities will come your way. When they do, it’s good to remember what created those opportunities so you can replicate them in the future.

When I was a teenager, I could play video games on my computer for hours.

It eventually turned into a general interest in computers and the Internet at large. By age 15, I was spinning up static HTML websites and building online communities as a hobby.

What I can vividly recall is just how effortless it all felt.

Sure, it was frustrating learning how to build websites by hand on a 56k modem. But it was also extremely fun and rewarding.

It didn’t feel like work. It felt more like a puzzle.

All of this led to where I am today—a digital-minded marketing advisor.

I still chase that feeling of flow and ease that came with my early days on the computer. The endless energy that comes with exploration of your interests.

Sure, it was a hobby then. But part of me still knows it’s still possible to incorporate that into my work today.

A few years ago, I asked myself, “what could you do all day long if you had to?”.

The answer for me was talking to people. Helping them with their marketing.

Of all the things I did at the time, it was strategizing and talking to people that gave me the most energy.

The rest of the stuff that came with running an agency felt a lot more like work. It drained me of my energy. Especially the project management and quality assurance stuff. The details.

That’s what led me to advisory work. I sliced off the part I’m best at and now sell that as a service.

So ask yourself this: what do you love most about your job?

What if you could design your business so you only had to do that part? Could you do it?

Sure, there will always be the boring admin stuff like responding to emails and processing paperwork.

But could you design a business that didn’t feel like work—at least most of the time?

A few random opportunities came across my desk lately via referrals. It reminds me what it feels like to not be an expert in a niche.

The opportunities came from industries I’ve never worked in. Even though I could apply my general skills to help them, it was interesting just how I felt in terms of confidence.

I’m used to feeling extremely comfortable when talking to coworking prospects. I already know exactly how the next several months would play out and the likely issues they’re experiencing.

It feels entirely different when someone comes along in an industry I’m unfamiliar with. The contrast is stark in terms of how I feel going into the conversations.

A few years ago, I’d take on anybody with a budget and heartbeat. Today, while I’m fully booked and not taking new consulting clients, I’d still be a lot more picky about the clients I work with even if I had space.

If you’re not there yet in terms of a niche, there’s nothing to be discouraged about. But if you can find and hone your niche specialization, you will have a hard time imaging going back to your old generalist ways.

 

The best way to get clients is to be highly credible at what you do.

The best way to be highly credible at what you do is to specialize. To do similar kinds of work—ideally for similar kinds of people—for a long time.

The best way to prove that credibility as a consultant is to write. Consistently and for a long time.

Writing has three main benefits:

1. It helps you clarify and sharpen your thinking
2. It demonstrates your credibility to the world
3. It attracts people willing to pay to have your ideas applied to their situation

Find a niche, build your expertise, sharpen your thinking through writing, and use it to demonstrate your credibility and attract people willing to pay for it.

Don’t complicate it, just keep writing.

This post is a preview of one of the private podcast episodes inside Mindshare. If you want to learn how to create a more leveraged, systemized, and profitable marketing strategy business, sign up for a free trial here. 

Do you have a clear idea on who your ideal target market is?

Or, do you help your clients get clear on who theirs is?

There’s a lot of info on this subject and only some of it is really useful in a strategic marketing engagement.

In this episode, I talk about ways to create an ideal target market profile for your business and your clients’.

I also talk about using ideal client profiles vs. “customer personas” and why the difference matters.

There are lots of tactical ways to achieve this, so I’d love to hear if you have examples of ways you’ve done this and how it resulted in measurable outcomes.

Hit reply to this email and let me know how you approach it.

Have a great weekend!

—k

H/T to Mark Evans who inspired this episode with his insightful post on LinkedIn.