You Don't Know Niche
[00:00:00] Made Remarkable Intro: Welcome back. And thanks for tuning into the made remarkable podcast, hosted by Kellee Winn. Are you struggling to define your niche in a competitive world of creative businesses and entrepreneurship? Do you feel like you're spreading yourself too thin trying to cater to every market and industry? You might not know your niche.
[00:00:17] In this episode. Kellee revamps, one of her favorite business lessons and walks you through the power of finding a niche and leveraging your unique skills and creative passion to build a successful business. This is just a sneak peek. Into what is offered in, Kellee's build a remarkable program. If these conversations are something that spark inspiration for your business. Just go to made remarkable.com. Slash wait. To get on the list and get notified when doors open.
[00:00:44] As always check out the show notes and transcripts for more information about this episode and any special links mentioned. Kellee loves connecting with those centers. So don't be shy, reach out on social media and together let's build a community that celebrates the remarkable. If you want to be notified every time a new episode hits the airwaves, just hit that subscribe button on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you for joining us today and always remember. That you are made remarkable destined to achieve the unimaginable. Now let's get to the good part.
[00:01:13] Introducing Kellee Winn.
[00:01:14] Well, hello. Hello. I'm Kelly Wynn, artist, author, mentor, fiercely independent mother and wife, and the founder of a multiple six figure creative business. And I love my life, but I've been where you're at. I was slogging away at this art business thing for more than a decade. Once I finally connected with my true calling, unlock the magic of marketing and built a system that could scale, while I realize I can make an impact and make a substantial income, I'm finally running a business that I love and it makes all the.
[00:01:48] Difference in the world. My biggest dream is to help you do the same. Let this podcast be the catalyst to your biggest success. You already have it in you because you are made remarkable.
[00:02:01] Kellee Wynne: It's me, and I'm going to be doing this presentation, You Don't Know Niche. And I love this title because for some of you, you don't probably don't even know what a niche is, but a lot of you do. You've heard it. And you're like, ah, not the niche thing again. I don't want a niche.
[00:02:21] I don't even know how to niche or I've already done the niche or maybe you think you've done the niche. And so I really feel like this one critical part of building your business is overlooked And pass by, even for people like me who've been doing this for a very long time, I often pass this by and forget how incredibly important focusing in on your business, who you serve and how you serve them.
[00:02:48] And that's what your niche is basically in a nutshell. And today I wanted to just dive deep into that. But first, I just want to do a quick introduction. I grew up in an artist family.
[00:03:00] My father's a professional artist, my great uncle, even my great grandfather was a professional artist, and he was in vaudeville. I think I left that part out the last time. I mean, I have a real eclectic family. I grew up in And around art, I worked in a foundry, I helped put together big art events in my neighborhood, and it was a pretty big neighborhood, vast neighborhood.
[00:03:25] You would think that it was going to be natural for me to go into art and become successful, easy on from an early age. But this is not the case because the one thing I wasn't taught in all of that was how to run a business. So it was something that maybe instinctly now as an adult, I understand, but in my early years, I was so confused.
[00:03:46] Sure. I wanted to go to art school, but that costs money. And so I did the most opposite thing that an artist could possibly do, and that is I joined the military. So yes, strange choice, but I felt like it was going to give me the kind of, discipline and experience that I really knew I needed. So I joined the military.
[00:04:08] I only spent a couple of years in the military, but I went and I learned Arabic. I was supposed to travel around the world doing military intel, but I met my husband and we had our first son and I chose the path of motherhood. And I'm glad I did because that was the nineties and we all know what happened early two thousands.
[00:04:26] Still very, very much connected to the military because my husband has continued to serve and to serve in the government and provide very well for our family. Me as a mother, of course, I stayed home and thought, Oh, making art's gonna be too hard with small kids, which is a huge mistake. And many of you know, you come back to your creativity oftentimes as your kids start to grow.
[00:04:47] Hopefully, if you're young enough and listening to this, you don't wait. I never want anyone to wait to find this part of them. But for those of you who are coming back to your creativity, congratulations. I did it after my third was born. I said, enough is enough. I need to get back to making art and painting.
[00:05:05] And so I gave myself time to reacquaint, to relearn, to spend time with my father and my great uncle, to take courses. I took some college classes too, but it was really in the doing that I learned the most. And as soon as I felt proficient enough, I started applying to and participating in art exhibits in my area.
[00:05:25] I went as quick as I could from that point to curating, working in galleries, juried shows. I worked with Maine Cottage and did some licensing deals. I did everything I could to get myself out there, get the experience, connect, work with interior designers. I got picked up for a show in New York City with an international co op group.
[00:05:46] It was really exciting. All of this led to pretty much Nowhere. Lots of experience, which is probably the most valuable thing I got out of it, but not a lot of income. And I felt like every year I was spinning my wheels, trying to figure out what would work and what I'd be happy with. And at some point it dawned on me that The people that I was serving the most on the daily basis was within the online community, asking me how I create and what I create.
[00:06:17] And from there, Color Crush Creative was born. And Color Crush Creative started in 2017. And for a whole year, I did nothing but provide service. I created color palettes. I talked about art, making art. And from there, it developed into the online courses that many of you have taken and participated in.
[00:06:36] Over the last couple of years, I've been taking it to the next level because sometimes we have our zone of excellence and other times we're missing out on our zone of genius, which is the thing that we're most passionate about. And for me, what I realized in this process is
[00:06:52] I love to create and I love to teach, but what I love even more than that is to watch other people be able to build incredible businesses. And the more I do it, the more satisfaction I get in the fact that I know I'm helping people fulfill their big audacious dreams. And I've done the work I've put in the time, as I said, one of my messages, I eat this stuff for breakfast.
[00:07:17] I literally spend time listening to podcasts about business while I create not podcasts about art, because to me, there is such an art and a creativity to building a business. And when it's done right from your heart and in service of others, it is incredibly joyful. And in 2022, I'm trying to think of the months, the years now as they go by, I started my first mastermind with people that, you know, drew Steinbrecher, Kat Rains, and a couple of other people and watched and learned and grew with them and then started the Remarkable League and open up Build It Remarkable, a program that is an accelerated version, does not require. Of big commitment financially or time wise for anyone who wants to dive in, and that's what build it remarkables about is taking everything that I've been teaching the remarkable league and. Putting it into a program that's going to be able to help you. All right, let's see if I can change your mind about niching and how to niche. I'm going to help you. Maybe flip the script and do a little myth busting on niching and on multi passionate artists and wanting to do it all, especially in business.
[00:08:35] And then your reasons for niching, all of the great reasons why we want a niche, how to niche. And then some examples of niching and, how you're going to begin your own niche journey, and then the next steps that you need to take.
[00:08:52] And in this process, what you're going to find, the part that I promised you is how to find your hidden audience and get more customers. And it's specifically because the more we get focused, laser focused on our niche. On our ideal customer and the offer that we're making for them, the easier it is to find them and the easier it is to make the sale.
[00:09:16] So let's start with, part 1, The myth of the multi passionate. Here's the thing. I know this from experience and from most of the people that I've worked with and most of the artists I've ever talked to.
[00:09:31] I'm multi passionate and I don't want to have to let go of any part of who I am. And I know you all feel that you're like, but I don't really want to have to not do that thing. I've been told I need seven streams of income and I don't want to give up any one of the things that I'm doing. And I'm going to tell you, if you're not getting anywhere, it's probably because you are exhausted, spinning your wheels, trying to keep all the plates spinning.
[00:09:55] Do you know, like that cat in the hat part where he's like, I've got the cake and the rake and the toy boat or whatever. And it's like, you're trying to keep it all going. And you only have so much energy. And so much ability to communicate what it is that you're doing. So instead of going wide and giving yourself a chance to do all the things that you've ever dreamed of doing, let's package who you are as a beautiful, amazing multidimensional human being into one laser focused offer.
[00:10:25] One laser focus person that you can serve and solve their problem because when you go deep, you're going to have much, a much bigger impact and an ability to grow your business. Then those questions that you have things like, why is nobody buying from me? Or I don't even know how to find my customer. Who am I even talking to?
[00:10:46] And I have these questions over and over again how to even get started and this is how you get started. This is literally the most important thing you can do. Even if you've been in business for 20 years, I want you to realize that coming back to this And making this decision on how you're going to laser focus your business is going to make all the difference in the world.
[00:11:07] So when you're multi passionate and you're trying to do all the things, you're trying to talk to too many people. You're trying to find too many different types of customers. You're trying to solve too many problems. You have too many systems you have to build. So, for example, if I'm trying to sell my art, do a print on demand product, some courses, some in person workshops, and dog walking at the same time, you know, you're going to be exhausted trying to message all the things that you're trying to do.
[00:11:35] Yes, I threw in that last one because oftentimes artists are trying to do all the things, including the non art things in order to make money. And here's the thing. If you go all in on one thing and give up the now money, the thing that's right in front of you, the opportunity that's right in front of you to give you the next 25 or 250, and you push yourself to look at the long picture, the long game, maybe, and go all in on your laser focused business model.
[00:12:06] Then what's going to happen is you're going to have more energy and more ability to make all the paths go to this. Once I heard, it's like having an island and your business is the island. And the goal is to make as many finished bridgeways to the island and not start new businesses. Because what happens when you start a new business or a new part of your business that's not connected to this part of your business, this island.
[00:12:33] Is we finished the bridge halfway and our customers can't quite make it. And so we have all these half finished projects, all of these confusing messages, all of these ways in which we want to serve, but we don't have enough energy. We become completely tapped out and we are no longer able to really maximize our primary objective.
[00:12:53] So the goal should be 1 singular main focus. Signature offer way that you design your business and everything leads to that every path takes you to that Specific things so if you are trying to do weaving and pottery and painting You're gonna have a hard time finding the customer unless you find a way to bring it in to one Beautiful offer design and that's where we get into niching and the most important part about our niche I'm going to go into part two reasons for niching before I go into how to niche, but I hope this makes sense to you that when we're multi passionate, we're trying to build our business with seven streams of income.
[00:13:35] What we're actually doing is dividing ourself in seven ways, you know, be obsessed with one thing. That is the most. Important thing that you can do if you want to be successful in your business. If you're just doing this to have fun and hang out, then do whatever you want.
[00:13:51] But I think you're here because you really want a successful business. And I'm going to tell you from personal experience, this is an absolute must. So when I pulled back and stopped focusing on my energy on the virtual art summit and art courses and selling my art and a workshop and coaching, guess what?
[00:14:09] The coaching is taking off, because that's where I'm putting my energy. And that's the same thing I want for you as well. It's really going to make a huge difference. Of course, I know most of you are like, but where do I even start? What do I even do? I have so many ideas. Don't worry, we're going to get to that.
[00:14:25] I have some absolutely fantastic ways for you to kind of start uncovering those things about yourself. I want to go in next to. Reasons for niching. Okay, so with niching, when you get very specific on we're going to come back to this list over and over again, because these are the four questions that I want everyone to be able to answer for themselves as they start their business.
[00:14:51] What you're known for, okay? Who you serve, what problem you solve, and how you stand out. Once you can get down to that, those four questions, and get very laser focused, No, I can't say the word. We're gonna laugh over this one one day. Specificity. That word. is the key to niching, getting very specific.
[00:15:14] And I'm going to give you examples. Don't worry about that. But first I want to tell you a few of the other reasons why getting that specific is going to make a difference. When you are laser focused and you know exactly who you're going to serve, it's going to be easier for your customer to keyword search, whether you're searching on, Google or an Instagram or on any other search platform because they're all forms of search platforms.
[00:15:39] They're going to be able to find you because they have a problem that they want solved and they're searching for somebody to solve that problem. Believe me, all of you are sitting here going, I just make art. What problem do I solve? I promise you there has got to be some sort of problem that you're solved or deep desire that you're resolving for somebody for you to be able to have a business.
[00:16:00] So maybe the problem you simply solve is interior designers need art for their customers, and they need the best art that they can find, and you have that art. Maybe the problem you solve is that somebody who's always wanted to be creative, never even knew where to begin, and you're going to teach them basics in and outs of watercolor.
[00:16:17] Right? So whatever it is, is that problem that you're solving, they're searching for the person to solve that problem, and you are so specific that they'll be able to find you. Honestly, the world is crowded out there with all kinds of options, all kinds of offers, all kinds of coaches and artists and people doing stuff.
[00:16:37] And that's actually a good thing because then you know that it's a viable offer. You know, if nobody else is doing it, maybe it's because nobody else wants it, but we all know that there's a million different kinds of. Trainers out there to get fit and help you lose weight. But the more clear they are about who they're serving, middle aged women in menopause that are working so hard at building their business.
[00:17:00] They don't have time for themselves. Hello. I would be able to recognize myself in that and say, okay, so there's an industry for that, and I know that that's me, right? So it doesn't matter that there's. A million other people doing what you're doing when you get specific enough, you're going to have less competition and a higher profit margin because you are a specialty.
[00:17:21] Here's a good example. A doctor, a general practitioner makes a certain kind of income. They're good for just about anyone. It's great. But the more they specialize, when they become the brain surgeon, yes, it takes a little more expertise and a lot more training and a lot more getting your name and whatnot out there.
[00:17:38] A brain surgeon makes a lot more money than a general practitioner. And I know we're not doctors, but I think you understand the relationship that the more specific you get, the actual more income that you can get. Make a higher profit margin. You can make off of what you're doing. It lowers your advertising cost.
[00:17:56] When you are specific, it's easier to find your customer and target them with advertising. So when you get to that point that you've built your business, you have the systems in place. The customer journey is clear and you know that it works and you're ready to put it out there. Fuel on the fire, which is advertisement, whether it's Facebook ads or Google ad works, or there's a bunch of other places that you can run ads to even in Pinterest.
[00:18:18] But once you know that, and you're able to get that specific, you're able to figure out who your client is and where to target them. And I will actually give you some examples of that in just a minute. You also have a dedicated audience that's already passionate about the thing that you're teaching, right?
[00:18:33] It's easier to create content. This is probably the most important part because so many artists are like, I don't even know what to say today. But when you know your customer, you know their pain points, you know what it is that they're struggling with, you know how to talk to them and make content especially for them.
[00:18:51] And then your offer becomes a much easier yes because it's what they were searching for in the first place. And you'll have better clients because when you're specific about who you want to work with, you're going to end up with the clients that are your dream clients.
[00:19:05] And believe me, I know that because I have 18 in the Remarkable League and I adore them. They were all perfectly, perfect matched because I had it. Very clear who I wanted to work with. And I set my intentions out for that.
[00:19:18] All right, so these are some reasons why, but now you're asking me like, how in the world do I niche? By the way, you can say niche or niche, but I like niche cause it sounds French and it's probably the original way to say it, but I'm not the expert in that. I just know that people say niche or niche and it's fine.
[00:19:38] So here are the four things that you need to know to pick your niche. I'm going to tell you these things, but this isn't how you discover your niche. This is just the four things that you must keep in mind that these four elements are important for you to pick a niche that's viable, that will help you actually make your business grow.
[00:20:01] First, it needs to be a growing market, meaning the people who are interested, it's something that's growing and not declining right now. If you were to create a program in NFTs, you'd fail miserably because nobody's interested in NFTs right now. It's not a growing market. If you were building a business off of newspaper sales.
[00:20:20] It's a dying market. You know that there's not going to be any growth in that. However, if you tried to grow a business on how to use AI art, or ChatGPT, I don't know if any of you guys use ChatGPT. It's artificial intelligence to actually do writing for you. But if you were to teach people how to do that as artists and use it in their business, guess what?
[00:20:40] That's a growing industry and it's only going to keep growing. So picking a growing market or industry, something that we know is always increasing, not decreasing in the availability of people who are going to be interested in it. There must be, we already talked about this, so growing market, there must be a problem to solve.
[00:21:02] If there's not enough of a pain point, a deep desire, a problem to solve, then it's going to be one of those things that people can take it or leave it. Yeah. And sometimes we can, I don't want to say manufacture or make a false sense of need, but we can hone into, as we, and I'm going to go over these kinds of like picking your ideal client avatar, which is another thing that is used oftentimes in business lingo, ICA, ideal client avatar, just the person that you want to work with.
[00:21:31] Right. Okay. Going into like what's going to really light them up and turn them on and make them happy, or if there's a problem that they're trying to solve, it could be something quite, I, I see advertisement all the time for this is Artify. Artify has a lot of abstract lessons, and I love it because they're breaking it down in their messaging saying.
[00:21:55] You're looking at abstract art and wondering how in the world did they do that? We're going to demystify the process of making art through these steps and we're going to show you how to accomplish your goals. And so that right there is a problem solved. For you, you're like, it's not a problem, like, how do I pay my mortgage next month?
[00:22:14] Sure, but it's still something that people, artists, who are craving to take their art to the next level, need that problem solved. So there must be a problem that you're solving, and it must be something people are willing to pay for. So it can't be, a little problem, otherwise people will be like, eh, really?
[00:22:33] Not that important to me right now. So, how can I explain a willingness to pay for, it's like the house projects that are sitting around undone that are really not that important. So, like, the light bulb underneath my microwave has gone out. That's the light that goes over my stove and I'm not frustrated enough with it to fix it yet.
[00:22:54] Right. But when the light in my studio goes out, that's an important problem I need to solve. So it really is when you put in perspective, things that people can continue to ignore and push down the way versus something that somebody is, willing to pay for now, they have the money for it, whatever level that is, because sometimes we can create 27 offers, and it can take us a long way, or we can create 270 offers, 1, 000 offers.
[00:23:22] It's really about how you're building out your niche. All right. So willing to pay for it. And it's got to be something they already want. So if you are in an industry where you need to convince people it's what they need, you're going to do a lot of work. And I heard this analogy, cause I listened to a lot of business podcasts where The speaker on the podcast said, my customer came to me and she's a big hula hoop fanatic.
[00:23:51] Now go figure, but there's a business for everything. A big hula hoop fanatic. And she's like, I just don't know how to convince people that hula hoop is what they want. And he goes, you don't convince people that hula hoop is what they want. You go and find people who already want to hula hoop. I know that's so weird.
[00:24:08] But for example, roller skating is starting to become a growing industry again. Instead of telling everybody that they need to learn how to roller skate, or that they really want to learn how to do watercolor, find the people who are already interested. Sometimes people don't know they're interested, but you've marketed it just to that sweet spot enough that they're like, yeah, that's what I've always wanted.
[00:24:31] And as soon as they see their message, it triggers something. And that's why niching down helps you with your communication and your marketing and makes it easier for you. So those are the four things that you must have. When you're picking your market or your niche. All right. Now, how do we decide that niche?
[00:24:51] So we're going to go in a little deeper now. So those are the things that are must like we have to keep in mind as we're deciding on our niche. So these are some of the things that will help you determine your niche and help you become specific
[00:25:04] so the first thing is your price actually helps decide who is your niche. Who's your ideal client avatar? Your price point will now, sometimes we don't know what that price point is going to be until we dig deeper and we start creating our offer. And that's understandable, but it's something that you can decide in a little bit and sway yourself in advance.
[00:25:26] I know that there are business Memberships that you can join for as little as like 39 a month. Great. That's a different market than what I'm doing, which is going deeper into a different realm with how I'm building my business and moving forward. Just like, you know, there are art courses out there. Tons of them.
[00:25:46] We can go to, there's Domestika. I don't know if any of you guys get ads for Domestika, where it's like 12 for courses, right? And they look amazing. They're from famous, well known, famous, instructors. So there's a price point for everything because then you can turn around and know that Nicholas Wilton or Louise Fletcher are charging between 1, 000 for a program.
[00:26:11] So it's all how you design your offer and how you're going to position it, but your price has a lot to do with your niche. Right, and who you're talking to and how you're marketing yourself. The quality of what you're creating is also going to make a difference, and let me explain quality because we always want to put out our very best offer, but a quality can be something as simple as a mass produced t shirt with your art on it versus a handmade product that you made yourself.
[00:26:42] Quality can be the difference of a video on demand that somebody watches. And can do it at any time and has no interaction with you versus a workshop that they get to do with you in France for a whole week and be immersed. Right. The quality of it is as a person and in person with with feedback. Right.
[00:27:05] So quality it can be a subjective thing, but it's really about how you're putting your offer together and to what level you're you're serving or providing the product. Right. So a print, obviously, you're looking for a completely different demographic than you would be looking for a fine art painting that's hanging over your couch.
[00:27:29] And a one on one coaching session is completely different than a one off, workshop, you know, so it's really like, what is the quality and how are you putting it together?
[00:27:40] How, what's your offer going to look like? So then we go into the thing that most people think of niches, which is the demographics. Most people will tell you, I want you to describe her, give her a name. How old is she? What race, religion? What country does she live in? What's her home like? How many kids is she married? What's her job? Where does she shop? I don't know if any of you have ever done a niche down project or your ICA, your ideal client avatar, and gone into those kinds of demographics.
[00:28:10] And if you have, fine, maybe it can help, maybe it won't, I don't know, but I don't think that it's relevant as much as the other elements that we're putting together. Some of the demographics that might matter would be socioeconomic, That's probably important. Where they are in their life's journey. So when someone says she's in her 20s and she has small kids, well, guess what?
[00:28:36] Women in their 40s have small kids now too. So it might be where she is in her life journey. Some women. Never have kids. Some women have 10 kids. We don't know, like, where is she in her life's journey. Is she now independent and free or is she tied down and bogged in the middle of serving her family? So these are the kinds of things that are actually psychographics.
[00:28:58] Where is she in her mental journey with life? What is it that she's feeling that's driving her to want to take an art course? Is it because she's never done anything for herself and she finally wants to break free and do something to express herself? Is it because her dream when she was in high school, was to leave and go off to some fine art college and become an artist and have a loft in Soho and she never got to do that and now you're going to give her a little taste of what she missed out over the last 30 years.
[00:29:31] Like, and I'm speaking over things that might have been me, right? You're probably relating to like, that's what I thought I was going to do, but it took me till I'm like, in my 40s and now almost 50 to finally come back and experience that full part of me. And so that's the same thing that you're doing is, is what is that emotional journey?
[00:29:51] Your customers gone on? What is it that they're frustrated with? How about this one? For me, I look at this. I'm like, okay, so great. You started making art courses in 2020 when the whole world was shut down. Guess what? Tens of thousands of people did that too. And now you're stuck. You've made an art course and you've made like 400 off of it.
[00:30:09] And you're going now, what do I do? How come I made this thing and they didn't just buy it. It's so it's not as easy as build it. And they will come. Nope, it's not as easy as build it and they will come there are steps that need to be taken. And so that's where I come in and say, I understand your pain because you've been doing this for a while, and you're not making any progress.
[00:30:27] But I want to be the 1 to help you take the next step in your journey. So this is the. More the psychographics, the emotional part of the customer's journey, their problems that they want solved, their desire of where they see their future. And this is actually the most important part of what you put together out of everything that you do.
[00:30:46] And then you can also look at geographics. So geographics would be, sometimes it can be literally to a location, but sometimes it's also geographics like, let's say, People who go to the national parks all the time. That's a geographic, a habit, a something that you can pinpoint geographically as well as a demographic of something that they do.
[00:31:12] Right? Somebody who spends all their free time in yoga classes. That's an activity, but then we can also say that's kind of a geographic because then I know that there's these yoga conventions that everybody goes to in certain places at certain times. So sometimes our geographics can be actually tied to our interests.
[00:31:32] And then once you know that, then that's more specific, that helps you niche down more, and that helps you find your customer much more easily. All right, so those are the two different parts of how to niche that are really important. I gave you already, our reasons why. And now I think that it's time for some examples.
[00:31:56] I have loved this analogy so much because it's the quickest way for people to go.
[00:32:02] Oh, I see it So we're gonna go with the procreate business model. So does everyone know what Procreate is? It's a digital drawing program that you use on your iPad. So if I'm out there, I only have like, say I only have like 300 people on my Instagram. I don't have a big following. I'm not really known for anything yet, but I want to start a business.
[00:32:23] And you can absolutely do it. I've helped people with less than a thousand followers and zero on their email list, grow their business, and have great results. And the reason why is because they got very specific about their niche. All right, but if I'm going to show up and say, I'm an artist, I do digital art. I use Procreate. Who would like to learn? Most of you would be like, glazed over. We wouldn't even stop at that, right? It's so general, you're talking into the void, but, when we get a little more focused, and this is where taking all of this is, these still hit the same exact Points that I gave you already, which were, a growing market, a problem to solve, willing to pay and something they already want.
[00:33:08] However, sometimes I think in this field might be something they don't realize they want, but they do want the creativity in their life. So this is how we niche down let's just say we're going to switch from I want to teach Procreate. Who are you going to teach it to? And this is where we got down to a laser focus. Now imagine if I said, I teach Procreate to retirees who are on the road, RVing all the time, and they want to stay creative, but they think that digital art is too hard. And I'm going to show them how easy it is so they don't have to bring their entire art studio with them on the road as they're traveling.
[00:33:48] Right? So specific. We know what their problem is, we know how we're going to solve it, and we even know where to find them. And this is where you find your hidden audience because when you got that specific, I can tell you this, all of AARP is now your audience. Now we can get even more niched than that.
[00:34:08] We know that people who are RVing, so RV conventions, we know that anyone who's like massively in love with national parks or traveling across, I'm like, the crossroads of who your hidden audience is becomes ultra clear because now I can say for, let's say, I wanted to run a Facebook ad that says, hey, I'm going to show you the 10 things that To get you started with your procreate journey and you're going to target very specifically to those who are a certain age group.
[00:34:41] And let's just say female as well. We know that they love RVing and that they've always loved creativity and they want something to tap into and they're probably a little tired of coloring books or Sudoku, right? And they want something else. They've read all the books, but they want to stay creative and they think that digital art is so hard, but I've got the message down because I already know that psychographic.
[00:35:04] I already understand that, that they think this is something that's too challenging to learn as they've gotten older and they're not that tech savvy, I can't tell you how many times I've used this example and people are like, I think that's a great business model. That would work. But you know, what's great I'm gonna I'm gonna say this even if someone was to take the same idea and do it.
[00:35:24] No one is like you No one is like you and the more people who are doing actually can increase your odds of being successful but the thing about it is, is that it becomes a very clear, clear market.
[00:35:39] To be able to market to, and that's why niching is so specific because it will actually help you uncover where to find the people. And this is exactly what we've been talking about your hidden audience. So I had this idea once. Now, if you've downloaded 100 ways to make money as an artist without selling your art, that is a free offer. Some of those ideas were pretty general on the 100 ways.
[00:36:05] They weren't very specific niches. They were enough to get someone started with an idea and they'd still need to go deeper. But a couple of the things that I put on that 100 ways were specific niches. And those, there were a couple of them that were ideas that I literally had and wanted to execute and then had to hold myself back because island.
[00:36:25] My business is an island. I need to keep building the bridges. If I have too many islands and not enough resources, we're not going to get the bridges all the way to the island. So I had to say, okay, good idea. Pin it for later. But one of them that I had was this idea of putting together creativity kits that get sent to baby showers.
[00:36:46] Sweet 16 birthdays bridal showers. So the kit arrives with all the supplies that you need and the videos been made for this and you can host your own paint your own party at home, but it's very specific because what you're doing is is maybe creating a project that's tailored to the party. So for example in the kit might be a watercolor printout on watercolor paper with light blue lines of the design they're going to paint and the watercolor supplies and some brushes and then the video would show them exactly how to fill it out and in the end maybe it's the bridal bouquet.
[00:37:22] I don't know. I'm like kind of pushing the idea. Now I had a bunch of ideas for it, but it's so specific that, you know, exactly who you're going to be able to target. You know, that you can go to any bridal magazine, any bridal show, any bridal, like bridal showers and baby showers, every kind of like baby, anything.
[00:37:41] And so you've got such a specific niche market that You're able to get the idea out there and talk directly to them and someone will come across it and be like, oh my goodness, this is perfect. Just what I wanted to do.
[00:37:54] Like, do you see what I'm saying? It's like, you could really. Get in and hone in on that message and know exactly what the trouble is that they're facing Which might be like we don't want a loud party drinking at all the bars We want to do something fun, and get together with all of the women and create together So it's something more specific and then you can build your business off of that And it's a growing industry.
[00:38:19] Believe me, the wedding industry, they spend so much money. And when I, because I used to work with some people in the wedding industry, and when I found out a budget wedding is 40, 000, I was like, what are these people doing 40, 000 for a budget wedding? Okay. So it's a growing industry. They have the money.
[00:38:36] They have the desire. Perfect. That could really work. So here's another one that I had thought of. What if, like, say I'm a flower painter, right? And maybe I could, be more specific and let's go back to watercolor, sketchbooks, learning and studying botanicals. Nature, but it's really hard to say I'm going to create an art journaling course on flowers.
[00:39:02] Okay, that's simple. You can say that you can put it out there. Some people might be interested. Some people might not be. You might get a few people because that is a popular subject art journals and florals, right? But what if you became far more hyper focused? And this is where the specificity came in.
[00:39:20] By the end of this. I'm going to be able to say that word without a problem, right? What if instead you were focusing on all of the botanical gardens, you pinpoint them across the nation, you find out the people who love to go to them all the time. Maybe there's 1 near you and you can actually host a botanical garden tour finished with, teaching them how to sketch. and watercolor out all of their favorite florals. I actually saw someone teaching this once when I went to, in Baltimore we have a botanical gardens, and I saw them, a small little group, I think there was maybe six women, and then the guide who's showing them, you know, how to sit there and sketch the roses and paint them.
[00:40:03] It's so specific enough that you can find your hidden audience. It's anyone who is, it's an artist, it's an art love, but it's also a love and an obsession with botanicals, with botanical gardens, with touring the florals, maybe even someone who's never made art, who loves the florals enough that that taking it to that next level would just spark such a great interest to them, it's something that they spend their free time doing. So, so this is why in my mind being so specific that you can pinpoint where your customer is, what they're struggling with, what's going to delight them, what's going to make them go, wow, I never even thought of that possibility is something like.
[00:40:45] Maybe a deep desire they don't even realize that they have and you're going to be able to help uncover that. Now, I've given you a couple of ideas that are about a little more geared towards teaching. art, but teaching art isn't the only option. There's a lot of ways that you can be an artist, sell your art, or sell something related to your art without actually having to teach.
[00:41:07] And I want to give you a couple of examples of artists, and you can do a search on Instagram, you'll find them right away. The first one I wanted to talk about was Emma Shipley, and I've been following her. She makes these gorgeous illustrations, and she has all of her own home products made from them.
[00:41:26] I love her design. I think the reason why it caught me was she's infused some kind of old English mixed with wild jungle. I don't know what it is, but Emma Shipley has gorgeous stuff and she has Turned it into her own wholesale company. Now, it's not for everyone because you do require having a place to store it and ship it and working with wholesale businesses and whatnot, but she's done amazingly well for herself.
[00:41:54] Everything from wallpaper to textiles to dishes. She, she's got her prints and patterns on everything. Of course, you could go a different route and go Lisa Congdon, who licenses out most of her ideas to someone else to print it for her. So there's 2 ways in which an artist is making money without literally selling their artwork.
[00:42:15] They're using their artwork to create products or have other people create products and they're doing really well. And if you look at it, you can see they have a very clear point of view in their art style, and they know exactly who their customer is. So in Emma Shipley's case, it's high end homes.
[00:42:34] And in Lisa Condon, it's activists and passionate women and, and, and doers and beers and other artists. So they have very clear points of view, not only in their art style, but who they're serving. Another person that I love is, do you guys know who Morgan Harper Nichols is? If you know who she, she's, she's blown up her account over the years, she's a poet and an artist and she puts that all together in beautiful ways.
[00:43:03] She's built her business on it. She has published books. She has an app now with like daily motivational quotes and it's all mixed in her writing with, artwork, you know, and a lot of it's abstract, but it's beautiful work. But she's touching people every day with these kind of very. Thoughtful , motivational in the sense of allowing you to be who you are, you know, and getting in touch with your own, heart and soul.
[00:43:31] And so she's really, amazing at getting that out there and she's built a bit. She's now she speaks. She does all kinds of stuff, but, you know, she built it up from a very humble beginning. And I wanted to see if I could give you, a couple more. Do you know, Tiff Manuel? So she's probably not as well known, but I've been following her for probably a decade and found her on Pinterest.
[00:43:55] Now here's a fun idea for an artist. Who creates on huge pieces of canvas to create patterns and designs and abstracts, and then her studio. So other people who she's hired takes those cuts them down and turn some into purses, the actual. Canvas that she painted on and it's one of those things where it's like, oh my goodness.
[00:44:18] So she's become a designer, but actually creating the art. So it's not even creating the art, having it printed on something, but creating the art and having it sewn and transformed into something else. She's done other things now, I think clothing and and whatnot, but she's from Australia. I've just been following her forever and I'm like, I love that idea.
[00:44:38] To take your art and transform it into a new way, a new modality of using it. and then the last one I was going to mention, which many of you know as well, is Justine Blake, Blake and Lee. I'm not sure if I'm saying her right, but she's the one who started Jungalo. She started off as an artist and an interior designer, and she turned an entire industry, and now she licensed, she has an online store, and she licenses out, with Target and other big names and brands, but she's turned into this powerhouse.
[00:45:11] She has books written and whatnot. But she started as an artist and she grew from there. So these are different ways in which you can take your art and your creativity and grow the business. So not everything ends up being just an art course to teach, but of course, there's a hundred ways to make money as an artist without selling your art.
[00:45:29] PDF guidebook that I hope that you guys have downloaded. Now I wanted to go into one of the most important parts of this is how you find your niche. . It's, it's exciting for me to be able to go, I geek out and nerd out. And so it's, I'm really thrilled to have people here hearing me talk about the things that I love the most. So where do you start making a decision? And this is the part that everyone, especially if you're new, gets stuck.
[00:45:53] Kellee Wynne: In fact, Many people who have been running a business for a really long time still come to me. Like, I don't know what to do. I do this. And that's why I've hired coaches because I get stuck in my own thinking. I get stuck in the, I don't know where the next step is to take of how to build my business.
[00:46:12] I've done all these things. I have all this experience. I've been making art. What do I want to do next? And if you're going to follow my advice, which is to go with the power of one and focus. really deep and become obsessed with one thing. That means that we're a little, we usually get afraid that we're leaving something out, right?
[00:46:32] We're not sure. And here's the amazing thing. Any idea that you choose can be the right idea. If you're following those principles of picking your niche and anyone can be successful. But if you divide your time amongst a bunch of things, you know, it's going to be harder to find your success. So It's oftentimes, and this was one of my coaches said this, she's like, I know you're having a hard time, Kellee, because anything that you end up choosing, you know, that you can take all the way and become a success with it.
[00:47:00] Cause I had already gotten that mindset part. And that's the part that I want you to. So it's coming to that point of like, what am I meant to do? And a lot of that comes down to soul searching. Really, honestly, soul searching is going to be one of the most important things that you can do. But here are some questions that you can ask yourself so you can start making the decision.
[00:47:20] And I want you to write these down because when we are done here today, I want you to take time in your journal, in a notebook, on a scrap piece of paper you're going to throw away, on your iPad, on your computer, however you feel like writing this out. I want you to, do this for yourself and ask these questions.
[00:47:37] What do your friends and followers ask you about all the time? This is a good clue that you're doing something that interests people. And maybe nobody's asking you anything, and that's okay. But that's a good place to start. So here's the next question for you. What could you passionately talk about for a whole hour TED Talk style?
[00:48:01] I know some of you don't want to get in front of a, in front of an audience. But if you're building a business. You're going to have to learn how to communicate, but put the fear aside of talking in front of an audience. What could you passionately talk about? Maybe it's just to your best friend. Maybe it's just to your unwitting partner that is like so tired of hearing it for the millionth time, which would be my husband.
[00:48:22] If they let you, and you could talk for a whole hour, if you could get on a Zoom call and hold your customers. Captive for a whole hour or maybe hour and a half. What would you talk about non stop without, without, you're so passionate about you can't stop. When do you feel most alive? And this is important because there's a, I think it's Albert Campus or Camus. Yes, quote. It was like, what the world needs now is those who, have come alive. And it's like, that's a paraphrase, and I'm sorry that I can't remember it off the top of my head, but I mean, this is the truth. We don't need anyone who's half hearted in what they're doing, because it's not going to transpire into a thriving business.
[00:49:09] But what makes you feel alive? People that you love to serve, people you love to be around, people, things that you love to talk, the moments that you feel most yourself, passionate, lit up about life, whole, that's an important question to ask yourself. Here's another one. What did you need five to ten years ago?
[00:49:32] Oftentimes, our customer, our niche, is who we were five or ten years ago. Without a doubt. And now that might not be the ideal business model for you because maybe 10 years ago you weren't. A bride looking for her perfect, bridal shower activity, but still oftentimes if we go back and we want to serve people that are most like us who have gone through the struggles that we've gone through, they're a really good customer.
[00:50:03] Because we know them, we were them. So for me, I've created the remarkable programs because five, 10 years ago, I felt all alone. I didn't have anyone to talk to about these things. I had to figure out how to build a business for creatives. By going to all these businesses for other businesses and gurus and coaches and, and someone who was like starting a, I don't know, a Pinterest management program or whatever, like I was in these groups of other entrepreneurs and none of them were doing what I was doing.
[00:50:36] So I'm like, okay, as I've built this, I know, I know what me to five or 10 years ago really needed. And then of course. What are your unique skills, the things that you can bring, bring together to make you stand out, who do you know, who have you had experience with? Maybe you were, a psychologist and you've just retired, but you understand the psychology and the, the need to put art and creativity together with healing.
[00:51:03] What other expertise do you have that you love so much? Maybe you are the one who says, I am multi passionate, I can't give up my crochet, and my knitting, and my sewing, and my pottery, and my making, and my everything. I've been a homesteader, and a homemaker, and all the things. So what if you created something beautiful that people can come in and be nurtured in a membership where all creativity thrives and lives?
[00:51:30] Maybe it's for a specific religious group. Maybe it's for, I said the word homesteaders. So maybe it is for homesteaders or homeschool moms or whatever. So you're taking those things that you are, you know, taking all of your creativity and packaging it up into a solo focused program. So there are ways to still be multi passionate, but still laser focused, by taking it all in with a very clear who it's for and how you're packaging it into one thing.
[00:52:00] Here's an example, from a non art point of view. When my husband was, first got out of the military, he got into government work. And he's been in federal law enforcement this whole time. And a lot of times it was pretty general. And as he added in new specialties, say, understanding computers or other new techniques, he was able to take that And get more specialized in hyper focus.
[00:52:28] So he's taking all the things he knew and I'm like, so what's going on here? He'd explain along the way. He's like, okay, so the more I niche into a category, the more indispensable I am at work and the more I can, like, get into the fields and do the things that I'm really interested because I have skills that are combined that nobody else is putting together.
[00:52:50] This and this and this makes something that nobody else really has and then I see that from our point of view to take the things that don't seem like they're part of art, whether it's I'm really good at homemaking. I'm really good at teaching. I'm really good at. At whatever these things along with my creativity, I can put it together in a new way in a new package.
[00:53:12] So where are your unique skills and your expertise? And how can you put those things together? If you don't have people already asking you questions all the time, there's still 4 other things that can help you, come up with some ideas, right? And eventually as you start progressing. You're going to be able to put that out there into the world and have people give you more reactions to it, more feedback.
[00:53:36] So this is what we do next. We go back to those 4 questions again. These are things that are really important. What are you known for? So that would have been that last question. What are you known for?
[00:53:47] What is your unique expertise? How do you want people to know you for, if you aren't already known for something, or if you want to change, like I was known for color, I want to be known for helping creative businesses become profitable and change the world. And be the builders of the new future. It's ambitious, it's crazy, but that is what I want to be known for.
[00:54:10] I also want to be the one that's known for crushing all your dreams and telling you you can't be multi passionate anymore. But there's a reason, and you can be multi passionate. We're just gonna have to make some of them hobbies, right? So what are you known for? Who do you serve? Who do you serve?
[00:54:27] Because we're not in this to just simply build a business to make money. We're here to serve. We're actually here to help other people with their dreams, with their hopes, solve their problems, fix the things that they are missing in their life. Whatever it is, bring more beauty into their world. Who do you serve?
[00:54:44] Because running a business is service, and if you're not in it to serve, Your business is going to fail. You're in it for you. People won't relate to it and they will feel that. Now I say that laughing all the way watching Amazon and Bezos make a billion dollars every day that I blink my eyes. However, we're not Jeff Bezos.
[00:55:05] And may we all be in those shoes because if we had that kind of money, we would change the world and I know it. And that's why I want you to be successful because all those bankers and tech people aren't the only ones who deserve to have money. Dang it. So who do you serve? Because I really want service to be at the heart of what you're doing.
[00:55:25] What problem do you solve? We've come back to that a million times. And how do you stand out? So those were the four questions that I said earlier, and now I'm saying them again because they really are important. How do you stand out is an important factor, which is different than what you're known for.
[00:55:42] How do you stand out is maybe the thought reversal, the way that you're different, the things that you're willing to say and do. That other people aren't saying and doing. It doesn't mean to be, it doesn't have to be controversial, doesn't have to be political or religious or anything like that, but it can just be something that people go, wow, I never thought of it that way.
[00:56:02] Or I see a whole new picture in front of me that I, that like, I didn't even know it was there, right? So you're standing out and making a difference, whether it's how you make your art, it's how you communicate, it's how you put your programs together, that is not like everything else out there that you see, that you're willing to be different because otherwise, if you're the same as everybody else, how do you stand out and we go deep into this and build it remarkable so that You can actually answer these questions and build a business off of all of this, and that will help you with your marketing. It's going to help you with your program design. It's going to help you build the future of where you want to go. Then finally, I'm going to come back to what do we do now? After you start figuring out who your niche is, how you want to build, and these are the things that, that you're like, still in that gray area of trying to make a decision. What I want you to do is this, I want you to start testing your idea.
[00:57:01] Putting small micro offers out there, putting out ideas and having conversations with people. Find your ideal customer, somebody that you think would be a perfect fit, and ask them to spend some time with you. Do an interview host a small free offer and say, I'm going to have this at my house. Everyone that I know in my neighborhood.
[00:57:21] Maybe this is for you. I don't know. Think of it as an experiment. This is where it gets a little bit, you know, when you're scared of taking that next step. It's the, if you start coming from it from like, I, I don't want to say scientists because the scientist kind of has a hypothesis and they're going to continue to work from a very scientific, maybe we're alchemists because we don't know what magic we're about to create, but we have an idea.
[00:57:48] And so we're going to keep putting it out there, and we're going to keep putting our magic into the world, and we're going to test it, and we're going to get feedback, and we're going to adjust along the way. So it's really important as you start to develop where you want to go, what your niche is, and how you're going to run your business, to take action.
[00:58:06] Because action creates clarity more than all the sitting around and wondering does. All the asking your bestie for feedback on your bestie isn't even your ideal customer. Or asking your husband, what do you think about this? Until they're so tired of you that they're like, I don't know! Stop asking me!
[00:58:25] I've been there. Many, many times. What do you think of this font? Kellee, I don't think that the font is gonna make you a million dollars. That's not where the money is. Doesn't matter what the font is. My husband literally said that and I was like, ooh. Eat! My own words right there and he was right because he's been in leadership for so long.
[00:58:45] There are things that you can catch. Maybe he doesn't understand marketing. Maybe he doesn't understand art, but he definitely understands procrastination and perfectionism getting in the way of our next step. So you have to put it out there and take a risk, which means you need courage, which is probably the hardest thing.
[00:59:03] But my hope is to get to the point where you start having so much confidence that you're willing to fail.
[00:59:09] And the reason I say this is because when you fail, you will learn more than you will ever learn from winning. When you are willing to take the risk and put something out there and say I only had six people sign up, great, that's six people, you're going to learn from those six people, you're going to learn what you did right, and you're going to figure out how to fix it and do it better next time, great, six people, six people is no problem.
[00:59:28] You had zero, also, okay, let's look again. Why is it zero? Did we not hit those four important things about a niche? Right, growing market willing to pay a problem that they have that you can solve those things from earlier in our conversation. Let's go back and and be a little alchemist and figure out where the magic is missing.
[00:59:47] So we test, we survey, we interview, we test again. And that's the importance of building your businesses is not an immediate solution. It's a long game. And if you're in it for the long game, and the long game may be six months, and it may be six years, I can't make you any promises. But I know people who've turned around and within just a very short amount of time, Been able to make progress.
[01:00:11] So, I hope that there's some clarity around why I find niching, One of the most important things that you can do for your business and why so many people skip it is because they think that it's just about Creating an avatar giving her a name and dressing her up. It's not Barbie. I'm sorry you guys It's got to be far more specific.
[01:00:33] Kellee Wynne: It's like picking weird Barbie and knowing what her trouble is. Okay? That's how specific we want to be when we're creating our business and defining our niche. And when you do that, that's when you'll be able to find your hidden audience because they will know you're speaking to them. They will know that that what you have solves their problem because you are so clear about it.
[01:00:56] And this is how we build our business.
[01:00:58] And I just wanted to say thank you.
[01:01:00] I love you. It's been such an exciting time to be able to bring a podcast to you. I love doing this. I love being your host and your coach. Right. Thanks, everyone.