SPI 738: The Niche Goal

SPI 738: The Niche Goal

Announcer: You’re listening to the Smart Passive Income Podcast, a proud member of the Entrepreneur Podcast Network, a show that’s all about working hard now, so you can sit back and reap the benefits later. And now your host, one of his favorite bands from back in the day, is New Found Glory, Pat Flynn.

Pat Flynn: It is December. Which means we are just a few days away from my birthday! And also Matt’s birthday, cause I don’t know if you know this, but the CEO of SPI Media, Matt Gartland, shares the same birthday as me. Like, literally the same day and the same year. December 6th, though. Fun fact. Today I want to talk about niches. Or niches.

We all think about niches sometimes in the sense of demographics, right? And that is one way to think about it, but I’m gonna give you the best way to think about it. Where it actually goes beyond the age of somebody or the gender, the education, even the location. Those are all different ways to define your market and that is really important.

But I want you to think about with relation to the target market that you have, the niche that you’re in, the position that you’re taking. I want you to think about it from the perspective of the goals of those people. Because you can have people that are the same age. However, they might have different goals.

You could have people from the same location, however, within that location, there could be several different goals. And the issue with just going with something as defined as age or location, which is very specific, is that it’s not specific enough. Because it doesn’t reference their goals. So, on our sales pages, within our emails, the way we think about who we’re serving, we need to think about it from the perspective of the goals of those people.

And I would recommend having one goal for them. There might be two. Maybe three, but once you get beyond three, you’re going to start mixing messages and people who follow you or find you for goal number one, although goal number two and three still may be relatable, it’s not quite as sticky. It’s not as, Ooh, this is for me, right?

And this was the issue with my Pat Flynn YouTube channel. Pat Flynn YouTube channel has grown, but it started in 2009 and it was a very slow start. In fact, it took about eight to nine years before even hitting 100,000 subscribers. And I always had an issue, and the issue was not really knowing who I was creating these videos for.

Some of those videos were for people who wanted to literally start a podcast, and other people watched my videos because they found me for how to do presentations. Other people found me because they found some advanced SEO stuff, and other people found me because I talked about the mindset of an entrepreneur.

And although a lot of those things obviously do relate to each other, and a person who finds one of those videos could find some of the other videos very helpful, especially in the world of YouTube, when one of those other videos that’s not related to the goal that they have, when it pops up on their feed, they’re not watching it.

Because we want to give stuff to people where they know this is for them. And so as a result, my YouTube channel grew quite slowly, and I was sending mixed signals to people who were subscribed, and also to YouTube as far as who to send these videos to that I was creating. It almost was like extra hard work for YouTube to figure out who my videos were for.

Now, sometimes they figured it out, and interestingly enough, whenever I create a video about podcasting, it seems to do very well. However, sometimes I’ll spend time on another topic that is related to podcasting, but not necessarily the goal of starting one or growing one, and it usually falls way short compared to what the podcasting type videos have done.

And then we look at my other YouTube channel, like Deep Pocket Monster, which is for Pokemon enthusiasts. However, if you look at it on the surface… You’ll find that there’s all kinds of different age ranges. The majority of the age range is going to be 30 to 40 years old. These are people who are my age, a little bit younger, who grew up with Pokemon, who watched it, who used to play Pokemon, who played the video games growing up, and now they have money to spend on it, and it is nostalgic for them.

A majority of our audience, as well, is also kids. Kids who are growing up with Pokemon right now, the new generations of Pokemon are exciting to them, they are excited about collecting, they are excited about trading, all those kinds of things. Different range, as far as age, but actually… very similar goals as those who are older.

Different genders, different education bases, different locations, worldwide audience. Yes, I could hypothetically niche down to just a particular location or just a particular age. But when you think about the goals, that’s where the content comes alive. Because you can create content that relate to those goals, that actually paint a picture of the future of what it might be like to achieve those goals.

You might be able to actually show people how you are going to achieve those same goals, and how you’ve made mistakes, or perhaps you get vulnerable so that they know that you are going through it with them. Because it’s goal specific. It’s reverse engineering from the goal, or goals, and determining what content can best showcase that A, you know what path they’re on, B, you have expert knowledge or experience to help them through that path.

And C, of course, the inspiration and the encouragement to get there. In the Pokemon space, there are a couple different goals that we look at and pay attention to in the space that I’m in. The first one is completing a collection. Right, this is a goal that a lot of people who enjoy Pokemon have, not all of them, and if that’s not their goal, then these videos aren’t necessarily for them, but it is definitely a major focus for the brand.

Our videos that have done extremely well are set completion videos, because people are in the middle of completing their own sets. And sharing that journey, sharing the trials and tribulations, the trades, the money spent, the money wasted, the money earned, the ups, the downs, the different locations, the negotiations, all the things that an audience member who has that same goal may or may not have experience going through.

And if I can, through a video, show that I’m just thinking just like them or I’m trying to experiment with a different way that they can follow suit with as well then it’s more entertaining. It’s more relatable and it’s more likely to be shared because YouTube and those people will know who has the same behavior same goals based on videos that they’ve watched or just conversations that they’ve had and that’s how explosive growth happens on YouTube when you niche down another goal that we often think about in the deep pocket monster world are, in fact, collection, storage and sort of organizational goals, right?

So a lot of the goals that a kid and an adult would have with relation to the mounds of Pokemon cards that they collect is, well, how do I organize these? How do I store these things? And again, sharing videos that address that exact specific goal, because it talks about the problem that they might have, and whether you are a kid, or you are an adult, or you are from Africa, or you are from Asia, or you are from the United States, you know what it’s like to have a messy collection and the anxiety that that comes with as well as the drive to just wish things were organized well so that you can look at them so you can enjoy these things, right? The pain of disorganization or messiness is something we can all relate to. And this is where the videos, another set of videos or collection of videos, if you will, pun intended, that have done very well with relation to organization.

Because again, it’s another thing that is more widely relatable. There are some other people, other creators in this space, who are very, very specific about… Grading cards and grading cards is something that I do as well, but I don’t focus on that because I want the widest audience possible. That’s not to say that these creators who are talking about grading cards all the time are not doing well.

They’re doing well, but you have to understand that the range of people that are interested in that are much, much smaller. And if you focus on that sometimes, you’re going to have to realize that people who follow you for your other videos may or may not be interested in that because it’s very specialized.

And you could either become the go to person with that and grow big and become a person’s favorite with relation to that, or you can try to cast a wider net and figure some way to maybe incorporate that into what you’re doing, but not necessarily make it the thing. So I want to offer you a little exercise.

Within the people that you speak to or the audience that you believe you have or are set out to go and find, I want you to ask yourself, what are the main goals of this audience? And if you find that there are any conflicting goals… That’s where you might need to either make sacrifices or maybe put one aside or let it go so that you can focus more on one of them.

So here’s what I mean by that at SPI. At SPI, we’ve always been in favor of helping entrepreneurs at all parts of their journey and we still are. However. With relation to goals, we were always in the middle with relation to, well, it could be a side hustle or you could quit your job and do this thing full time.

Those are two different goals. And as a result of that, our content may or may not stick all the time with both sides. When you were doing something on the side and you are building a business in that regard. I mean, you’re not going to put as much effort in or you’re going to approach it a different way.

Part of the not putting effort in is literally you just don’t have the time. But either way, and again, this is where time becomes a theme, a goal, right? That’s a more universal goal. But we are becoming more prominent with regards to our stance and who it is that we serve. Because we know that we can best serve you by helping you determine what can be your new full time career. Doing something entrepreneurial that maybe you do start on the side, but that’s not the goal. The goal isn’t to just have something on the side. The goal is to have something that you can call your own. Something that you can be proud of.

Something that you can go all in with. Still have and maintain control, still maintain composure, and not go crazy, and not burn out, and all those kinds of things. And this is why the EIR program that’s coming inside of SPI is so powerful. Because even with SPI, you’re going to see very soon, I don’t know if, I’m just going to announce it now, we will be going through a design change on the website very, very soon, in fact, it’s been in the works for the last half year.

And first of all, it looks amazing. You’re going to see it later, if not already, by the time you listen to this. If it’s not available yet, don’t worry, it’s coming. But you’re going to notice right at the top, we are now very, very clear with who it is that we’re helping. The everyday person to quit their job or create a full time career online.

That’s what we’re gonna be about. And that’s what we’ve always been about, I feel like. However, we were never as pronounced with that. We were never as, okay, this is gonna be the goal that we help people achieve. And the byproduct of something like this is you’ll be able to even better track how well you do that.

We’ve had thousands of people send emails and notes. I’ve gotten DMs personally from people who have done exactly this. Quit their job and go full time with their career. Some of them becoming full time podcasters. Many of them actually creating physical products as a result of a lot of the case study with SwitchPod and some of the Amazon stuff I talked about a long time ago.

Many people becoming coaches. Many people literally now having their lives changed as a result of SPI. And I’m sure there’s many of you and many of the audience who have also created side gigs. And that’s fine too. And we understand that when we focus on the one, the full time entrepreneur online, we know that we’ll also have the ability to help those who do want a side, side job.

We want to go all in with our messaging. We want to go all in with the community of people who are going to be surrounded by other people just like them who are going to be more likely to achieve success because of that more focused stance. Again, from the goals that we know you have. We’re also going to be, or I will at least in the content that I have, very much in favor of supporting those who maybe are on the fence of going full time.

And maybe just settling with a part time gig or something on the side, a side hustle. We don’t want to do side hustle. I want to encourage those people with a side hustle to go full hustle. And again, I don’t really like that word hustle. Hustle means different things to different people. To me, hustle is not just work, work, work, work, work, to quote Rihanna.

But it’s also work, work, pause. Enjoy life, breathe, work, enjoy it, et cetera. I’m just so excited for the EIR program, oh my gosh. You’ve probably seen emails about it inside of SPI. Myself and Matt are two of the founding EIR members, as well as Terry Rice and Jason Feifer. Four leaders in the space coming in SPI Pro.

And we have many, many more coming and this is going to be an amazing way to not just grow our leadership within SPI and thus our ability to help more people across different fields and different expertise and different experiences. For example, Terry is an incredible coach and has been able to really help other coaches because that is his focus and that’s what he does.

I can’t teach as well as he can on that regard. And some of you have coaching practices and clients in that regard and he’s better able to serve you than me. But beyond the leadership expansion within SPI, it’s the community expansion. Because Terry and Jason and our future EIRs are going to be bringing in other like minded people into the community.

And the networking possibilities are going to be endless. The partnership opportunities, the connections that are made, the advice sharing, the help that’s going to be offered, not just from us, but from each other. It’s going to be incredible. I am so, so excited for 2024. This is our 10X move inside of the entrepreneurial space.

If you’ve read or have heard of the book, 10X is easier than 2X. This is our move. This is our big move. So super, super excited to have Terry and Jason on board. You’ve heard them in the recent Friday episodes, just one on one interviews to get to know them a little bit more so you can see who they are, you know, beyond just entrepreneurial leaders.

But I’m so excited. I hope you’re excited too. And for those of you who are already in SPI Pro, I mean, there’s nothing extra you have to do. You already have gotten access to us and I am more regularly available in there as well as a result of this too. So I’m proud to be a part of it and just proud of the team for putting this together and proud of Terry and Jason for trusting us and proud of you.

So anyway, whether you check out SPI Pro or not, I wanted to show this episode because it really It’s a result, the EIR program, the Experts in Residence program is a result of us really getting clear with the kind of entrepreneur that we want to serve, right? Through the content we can serve many, but through our messaging we want to focus on one because we can do it much better and we can have the messaging be much clearer and bring the community of the right people together at the same time.

Anyway, thank you so much. I appreciate you. Here is to a very, very happy December for you and your family. Stay safe, stay well, stay healthy, and I’ll see you the next episode. Cheers.

Thank you so much for listening to the Smart Passive Income podcast at SmartPassiveIncome.com. I’m your host, Pat Flynn. Sound editing by Duncan Brown. Our senior producer is David Grabowski, and our executive producer is Matt Gartland. The Smart Passive Income Podcast is a production of SPI Media, and a proud member of the Entrepreneur Podcast Network. Catch you next week!