Almost every successful entrepreneur thought leader, and brand has one thing in common: they each have their own niche. When you think of your favorite brand or thought leader, you automatically know who they are, what they do, and how they help others. Still, many entrepreneurs today struggle to find their niche or accept the significance of having one – and this entrepreneur was no different.
Brooke Write, 30, from Toronto, Ontario, also had a challenge with accepting the power of niching down until she realized that it was blocking her business from growing as she expected. After choosing to niche down, two years later, Brooke made her first six figures as an entrepreneur and has been on a mission to help other entrepreneurs “find their niche and get rich,” as well.
Why is niching down so important?
It’s funny because if you asked me this a few years ago, my answer would have been, “It’s not important.” But after years of not listening to my mentors and making the same mistake of not choosing to niche down, I realized that I was making things harder than they needed to be and blocking my own business blessings.
Niching down is important because clarity is key. When building your brand and your business, people need to understand exactly what you do, what you speak about, what you can teach them, what value you give, etc.
They also need to understand the problems you can solve and the solutions you can provide. Have you ever checked out someone’s website or social media platforms and literally scratched your head because you were so confused about what they did? I have and I know others had the same reaction to my platforms years ago – and that’s how people lose business, lose sales, and lose connections. But niching down fixes that.
How did niching down help your business?
I’ve been a full-time entrepreneur since 2016 making approximately $25-40k each year until I got clear on my niche. After I closed my first business in 2019 (which was a social media management boutique) to focus on my public speaking business, I embarked on the journey thinking that it was going to be a breeze because I had already been public speaking occasionally since 2013.
But little did I know that I was going to be hitting wall after wall when I made the transition. Between 2019 and early 2020, I kept getting rejected and constantly hearing no from people I would pitch myself to or events I would apply to speak at.
However, being me, I would always ask for feedback even when people rejected my services – and one of the common pieces of advice I would receive was how unclear my niche was to them. That’s when the lightbulb went on and I knew I had to make a change – so I did.
I focused on niching down and finding my flow all throughout 2020 until I finally hit the mark and landed my first 4-figure speaking opportunity working for one of the biggest marketing agencies in Ontario, Canada.
I knew that was it and so I doubled down on the niche, kept creating, kept learning, kept building, and then when 2021 came, I was receiving 4-figure speaking opportunities back-to-back and even landed a one-year contract with a charity to host workshops. Since then, I haven’t had many challenges (if any) landing speaking opportunities and in fact, I get even more inbound leads now. So niching down definitely saved my business, helped my brand, and improved my sales.
What helped you find your niche and make six figures?
A few things! As I mentioned previously, asking for feedback and advice was extremely helpful. But it was also the willingness to change and be open to receiving feedback because when I first started entrepreneurship, I had about three mentors constantly tell me to niche down but I was being too stubborn to listen.
I was so caught up in proving the point of, the “multi-passionate people can be successful, too” debate that again, I kept blocking my blessings by not listening. So taking advice and deciphering it to apply it to my business helped. But I will also say that reading business books helped as well, especially the $100M Offers from Alex Hormazi.
I was already clear on my niche at that point but once I read his book, everything literally clicked for me business-wise. It helped me to get even clearer on my niche and what I could offer and create through it. Also, being a spiritual person, I have to mention the power of inner work, tapping in, and doing spiritual activities which also helped me to get clear on my path in business, how I can best service others, and how I can build a brand and business that I love.
Lastly, to reach six figures specifically, what really helped me achieve this goal was taking all of that information, applying it, and staying focused on solving problems under my niche that people were willing to pay for.
What was your biggest challenge at the beginning of building your business?
For my public speaking business, again, the biggest challenge was not having a clear niche where people understood what I do and how I can *specifically* help others. Looking back at it now, I WAS all over the place. My favorite things to talk about are mindset, business, and branding but I didn’t know how to articulate that in a way that showed my target market and my audience that they needed what I offered.
So really, it just went back to my overall experience in social media and marketing which I’ve been doing since 2011, and mindset development which I’ve been part of since 2012. So once I got clear on how to incorporate all of the things I love into a clear niche and the products/services I create, that’s when the challenges blocking me from growing started to fade.
What are some tips you’d give to entrepreneurs building a brand and business?
Don’t be afraid to niche down! It may feel like you’re closing yourself off to opportunities or potential sales but you’re not. In fact, you allow yourself to attract more opportunities and sales that align with your brand once you niche down because remember, if people aren’t clear about who you are, what you do, and how you can help them, then they’re going to lose interest and you’re going to lose that potential income. If you want to get rich, it’s time to find your niche!
