How to Niche Down Your Business And Stand Out Above the Noise with Jessica Stansberry of Oh Hey Jessica.
Episode 027: Show Notes
Today we have our little country soul sister, Jessica Stansberry, from Hey Jessica on the show. We are super excited for you to dive into this episode. Pre-warning: grab your sweet tea, grab some lemonade, grab a biscuit, and kick your feet up on a porch because her accent is going to want to make you go all Sweet Home Alabama.
Listen on your favorite podcast player
In today’s episode we are talking about niching down and what it can do for your business, how exactly Jessica went about doing this, and how it helped her business to grow. We also dive into some of the things she was able to accomplish because of it, what you might be able to do as a newbie, and what you can do if you’ve already started your business. Finally, we find out how you might build and see success, and whether or not it is possible to niche down too far. We definitely get a little crazy in this episode, so get ready to dive right in!
That Time When Nobody Knew Who Jessica Stansberry Was
Jessica started as a web designer in 2010 when her first baby was born. She first jumped into blog design, which morphed into web design. At that time, there was a crazy number of web designers and they were all writing the same blog posts, sharing the same things on social media, and trying to use the same strategies. It is just really hard to do the same thing that hundreds or thousands of other people are doing, and stand out. Jessica just did not know what made her different or how she was going to stand out until other people started pointing it out. She was always stuck in a rat race of trying to find new clients, and she could never count on a consistent income.
Using Others To Identify What Makes You Unique
After becoming more comfortable in the web design space, Jessica started to notice more and more as others pointed out exactly what made her different. The main thing that she heard over and over again was that she made things easy for others to understand. She would send small instructional videos to people when they were stuck on something techie, and was able to help them out in a jiffy. Another big thing was that people loved to listen to her Southern accent. At first this was somewhat of a deterrent for Jessica, and she absolutely avoided client calls for fear of being thought of as “dumb” or “stupid”. But today, Jessica embraces her accent even more in her brand than she does in real life.
Letting Go of the “Oh No I’m Not Making Any Money” Feelings
After a few bad client experiences and realizing that her heart just was not in it anymore, Jessica knew she had to move on to teaching people what she knew how to do instead of just doing it. She decided to branch off, do a totally different business, and sell courses that way. Her first course was the DIY Your Website course, which sold really well, as did her other courses. However, she quickly realized that she did not have a good strategy to sell these courses consistently post-launch. Although she had niched down and created a new side of her business, she always found herself running back to web design for the fear of not making any money. It is important to embrace that niching down can sometimes mean giving up an old part of yourself and making yourself a little bit uncomfortable.
Implementing the Jessica Method in Your Own Business
Niching down your business can be real tricky at the start. This is often because you are too close to it all. For Jessica, a key part was going to a third party and asking them what she helped them with the most. Going to others is a great way to get an outsider’s perspective on your business and your unique skill set. Next, you have to seriously think about what you want to be doing 5 or 10 years from now. Align your niching down with the goals you have for your business, and make sure that there aren’t still thousands of others competing with you once you’ve niched down. The perfect niche for your business is one where no one else is doing it yet. Filling that gap in the market with your specific skill set will set you up for success.
The Dangers of Niching Down Too Far
The saying “too much of a good thing is a bad thing” definitely applies to this situation. When you niche down too far there is always the possibility that you might chop your audience in half, which will leave you with a smaller marketplace to draw from. For example, when you teach only on DIY’ing your website for WordPress users, you are missing all of those who prefer other platforms like Squarespace. You’re then stuck hanging out in Facebook groups, trying to find new customers to buy your courses. Niching down too far means you’re not reaching as many people as you should be. The key is to niche down, but still remain broad in a sense.
Listen to Your People; Adapt to New Needs
Jessica is a huge believer in listening to your people. Although she does it unintentionally now, in the beginning it was far more intentional. You have to be going into Facebook groups or listening to the conversations at conferences to hear exactly what people, especially your target audience, are struggling with. Then you have to be able to take those problems and break them down for your audience and be really intentional about helping them find the solutions to their biggest problems. Each question or problem is a potential new blog post or even a course. Even the simplest of things can be taught to somebody.
Quote This
You don’t know what makes you different until somebody says it to you.
—Jessica Stansberry
Highlights
Hear about what life was like when nobody knew who Jessica Stansberry was. [0:03:24.1]
Find out what was unique about Jessica that others started to point out about her. [0:07:28.9]
Understand how to let go of the “oh no I’m not making any money” feelings. [0:11:04.8]
Learn how to niche down and implement the Jessica Method in your own business. [0:22:58.6]
Discover the potential problems that arise when you niche down too far. [0:37:50.6]
Jessica shares the importance of listening to your people and adapting to the new needs that arise. [0:41:47.1]
#TalkStrategyToMe [0:49:08.1]
Listen to your people, and go ask them what you are good at.
Pick a niche, and expand.
Make note of what people are asking in Facebook groups.
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Jessica Stansberry
Oh Hey Jessica
Website | Instagram | Facebook
Jessica Stansberry is a web designer turned techie tips teacher and THE Jessica behind Hey Jessica, an online content machine dedicated to providing online entrepreneurs easy-to-follow, step-by-step tutorials for figuring out the techie parts of running their business. Jessica throws down tech knowledge-bombs with weekly free blog content, eCourses, and her free Facebook group, Biz Tech Collective. Jessica is also the 'sassy southern half' of the podcast, All Up in Your Lady Business, where she dives into business strategy and interviews other really amazing entrepreneurs twice a week.
KEY TOPICS
Struggling to stand out from the crowd, Identifying what makes you different, Letting go of the fear of not making money, Niching down your business, Dangers of niching down too far, Listening to your people, and adapting to the market
