Why can’t I help everyone?

Today we are going to focus on Why can’t I help everyone.

Why do you ask? Well, I hear the following sentence so often from my clients: “I want to help everyone”, a.k.a., “I don’t want to reject anyone”. I understand. I really, really do.

A lot of us get into the field in order to help as many people as we can, and while that is noble and all, I’m really inviting you today to think about the logical sequence that you will have to take in order to, in the end, help as many people as you can. But unfortunately, that actually starts by becoming super clear on just one tangent of who you will help, and then, with time, you’ll be able to open it up. We also call that niching.

Why am I talking about this and why is this so important to me? (I briefly mentioned it when we talked about branding.)

Here’s why:

• I know that it can be really, really scary when your coach or your business mentor or advisor is asking you to define the one person you want to work with or the one type of person you want to work with. It automatically triggers us and it tells us, “But then I’m discriminating against so many other people.” That’s the emotional part. But it also makes us think that we’re going to leave so much money on the table because if I’m disqualifying so many people, I have fewer people coming to work with me, which means it will be so much harder to make an income.

And that is where you’re wrong. You need to understand that people will find you because they know exactly what you do. In order for them to understand that, you need to be crystal, crystal clear; you need to be very defined and niched. Once you do that, people will get to know you, and then they’ll understand what you do, and they might see that you can help other people as well, and they will refer you out that way.

But in order to get your business off the ground and to even get those people into your network and have those people referring you, and even to have your real first clients, you need to be as clear as possible.

• People who need help are desperate. They’re very often tired and frustrated, no matter what we’re talking about. If they come to your website, to your blog post, to your social media account, and they first have to scroll and guess and read everything to figure out what it is that you actually do, they will leave. They will go to someone else; they’ll go to their Instagram handle, and they’ll be like, “Ah, that’s what I want to do. Yes, question, answer,” or “Question, no, that’s not for me; then I can continue to the next one.” But if it’s too vague, they are not going to be interested.

The other thing is that very often when we are vague, it sounds suspicious. If you say, for example in the health industry, “I can help you with weight loss, your thyroid, cellulitis, your autoimmune condition, your sleep, and your skin” — I know it’s true because it’s all connected, but your potential client will think, “This is a one-trick pony. This is not possible. I want someone who’s specialized, who can really help with my issue. I want an expert,” and someone who knows it all is not necessarily an expert. So you want to really focus on one thing.

• The other reason why that is important is that it will make it so much easier for Google to pick you up and to show you to your perfect customer. It’s just the way it works. Google is your biggest referral partner in the world, especially if you’re running an online business. You really want to make it easy for Google to connect the dots and see, “Oh, she talks about this,” or “He talks about this. It’s always the same topic connected to this website or to this name.” It will focus on the search results. It’s incredibly smart.

So, for Sleep Like a Boss, my name is now connected to sleep. A lot of people know me for sleep. When you say “sleep,” it’s followed by, “Oh, Christine Hansen,” right? That’s what you want to do, with whatever it is that you want. I can help people with hormones and all that stuff as well, obviously, but it’s not what I’m advertising. You really want to hone in on one particular element.

The best one to do is obviously the one that interests you the most, but also where you know that you have a need, that there are a lot of people looking for this, and also that you enjoy and have fun working with. It doesn’t mean that you won’t have the other things in your protocol, but it does mean that you’ll be a lot clearer in your messaging and people will know you for this and will refer you out for this. It is really important.

Now, here’s a little myth-buster for you: Even though you niche down, you’ll still attract people from other areas.

Sleep Like a Boss was intended for women only, and I had a very certain type of woman in mind: CEOs and high executives. That was what I started out with. The Sleep Like a Boss website is very feminine; the branding is pink and gold, very feminine fonts. And yet I work with more men than women. Even though I niched down, I still attract the right people because of my messaging, because I’m clear. They will sometimes ask, “Do you also work with men?” Now I’ve taken out that I’m only working with women, and it attracts the right person, it attracts the right type of man that I work with, and I enjoy it.

So don’t be afraid, because the right people will find you. Then, once you have more clients than you can deal with, once your profit margin is nice and substantial, you can think about scholarships. You can think about other areas in your business to add. But you need to understand that you first need to have that nice fat profit margin, and you need to have a stable business before you can do that.

I hope Why can’t I help everyone? has helped you understand why niching and having that client avatar or perfect, ideal client image in your head is so important. Also, don’t be afraid about discriminating or rejecting others or getting less money. It’s just not true.

I hope this has been helpful! Don’t forget to check out more business tips on the blog and visit our store for some cool masterclasses! If you have any questions, please reach out. You can always email me.

Originally published at https://www.christinemeansbusiness.com on May 21, 2020.