Don't Fence Me In — Niching & Positioning for Multi-Passionate Entrepreneurs
by Cody Davis, Unsplash
Can you be successful as a multi-passionate / “slashie” business offering different things to different people?
A fellow marketing consultant I highly respect says yes.
He says it’s unnecessary pressure to try to weave all your interests together into one concise statement about what you do, for whom, and the outcomes they get (aka your positioning).
Since a person will only relate to whatever part of you they most resonate with, he contends, then be whatever you want to be to that person and you can be something else to another person.
You don’t need to niche down.
You don’t need to figure out your one thing.
You can be multiple things to multiple people.
Maybe this all sounds encouraging.
Maybe it feels like a relief, especially if you've been struggling with how to say what it is you do (because you do many different things) or you want to work with different populations at the same time.
But —
I wholeheartedly disagree with this approach for two big reasons:
Big Reason #1
At worst, the Slashie approach can come off as unfocused and amateurish. It’s as if the person is still exploring all their options and hasn't yet settled down into doing what they're really here to do and really good at. They have one foot in the door here and another foot over there.
At best, they're seen as generalists. The problem is that as a generalist…
…you don't stand out and you're not memorable when you’re talking about too many things to no one in particular. It's all just noise which means…
…your work is more likely to be viewed as a commodity which leads to…
…more often than not competing on price (or way undercharging) because you have no distinction apart from your fee.
Big Reason #2
To clearly articulate a multi-faceted business that has different offers for different audiences requires a degree of sophistication in communication strategy that’s usually beyond the scope of a single individual.
It requires multiple resources (think: a team, many tools) to pull this off successfully, a level that’s out of reach for a lot of people, especially those just getting started in business.
And guess what?
Even in these situations there’s still one focused message per offer per audience.
The difference is you multiply the work necessary to create and deliver that one message by however many offers and audiences are in the mix. Multiple messages = more expense (in time and money).
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If you’re feeling called to bring more than one passion into your business, then here’s what I suggest:
STEP 1. Check your reason for wanting to do different things for more than one type of person.
Is it because you fear niching will exclude you from taking on work that falls outside of it? That in niching down, particularly when you have little experience in your area of specialization, you’ll cut yourself off from lucrative projects?
Know this:
Niching doesn’t mean you WORK only for people who fit your niche. It means you MARKET only to the people who fit your niche.
In other words, you focus your precious (and usually limited) time and money on doing outreach to your one audience or talking about your one offer.
If an opportunity comes your way that falls outside of your niche and it meets your criteria for joy and impact and income, go for it!
STEP 2. Pick the type of person (your target market) that is a priority to you at this point in time.
Drop into your heart and feel whom you’re called to serve right now. Who do you think of first when you think about the kind of clients or customers you want? Who feels closest to being a source of income?
STEP 3. Once you know who you’re for, get clear about what they need and want most as related to the work you do.
Find out what’s standing in the way of them getting there. Understanding their challenges and aspirations will help you shape offers that will sell because they’re solving the real problems your ideal clients have.
STEP 4. Focus on one offer for this one audience.
Figure it out.
Get good at delivery.
Prove it works for your clients and for you.
Then—and only when resources, opportunity, and desire allow—you can add a different kind of service to another type of audience. In which case, rinse and repeat steps 1-3.
This doesn’t have to take years to do, by the way. By zeroing in your efforts on your priority audience and your best offer for them, you’ll move through the whole offer-messaging-selling process more quickly than taking a scattershot approach.
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The thing is, for many multi-passionate people in business there’s no need to create different messages for different offers and audiences because there’s almost always a throughline, a singular theme, a point of connection that ties the different areas of focus together.
For example, as a designer and a copywriter, my throughline is language. I work on both sides of language—the visual and the verbal. The unifying goal is clear, compelling communication.
For someone who does life coaching and photography, their throughline is visibility—helping others be seen and seeing themselves for who they really are.
The throughline for someone who is an artist and a physician is healing through creative expression.
Discover your throughline and you can interweave your passions into tightly-related offers and talk about them in a connected, cohesive way.
When you do this well, your multiple passions serve to heighten the value of what you do because others are able to see how they add dimension to the results they can expect when working with you.
Are your words winning or costing you clients?
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