Niche Strategy – Jordan Reasoner
SUMMARY
Health engineer and author, Jordan Reasoner, says that the more you try to help everybody, the more you help nobody.
On this episode, Jordan shares how finding a narrow niche is crucial because it allows people who need your help to find you. Otherwise, you will just be lost in a sea of practitioners and coaches.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The more you narrow your niche, the bigger the impact you’ll make in the world and the more money you’ll make.People have fundamentally shifted how they seek solutions to their problems, so we, as healers, have to change how we serve those communities.
The more you try to help everyone, the more you help no one.
If you don’t narrow your niche, you’re going to help no one.
Not being able to narrow your niche is like firing a bunch of bullets in the dark and hoping that one of them is going to hit something.
The best place to start a niche is where you’ve had personal struggles.
TRANSCRIPTION: NICHE STRATEGY – JORDAN REASONER
Kamala Chambers
On this episode, we’re going to be talking about using a niche strategy to reach more people.
Today, we are here with health engineer and author, Jordan Reasoner. This guy has sold over 9 million dollars’ worth of health products online, and he’s going to be talking with us about a little bit about his story but mostly about using a niche strategy.
Luis Congdon
Hey there, Thriving Launchers. We are here with Jordan Reasoner.
We want to talk about using a niche strategy and niching down. I don’t know if you’ve heard this saying before, but if you have, then it’s time I share it with you, and it is to niche down until it hurts. Niche, niche, niche, and niche down further.
The reason why a niche strategy is important especially for coaches working in the health and wellness space is we’re going to dive into that today, particularly important to all of you who are health coaches, working in the health and wellness space. Niching down using a niche strategy is incredibly important.
So that’s what excites me about welcoming Jordan to the show.
Jordan, are you ready to launch?
Jordan Reasoner
Let’s get it, brother.
Luis Congdon
All right.
One of the first things you were saying before we hit record is it’s important people niche down especially in the health niche.
In any niche, it’s important for people to use a niche strategy. If you Google “weight loss” or “Get healthy” or “Unhealthy gut” or “Gut problems,” you’re going to get millions of results. That means it’s super hard for people to find you, and I want to start with that.
Is that why you think that using a niche strategy especially in the health niche is important for people? It’s such a big sea. Health is just super convoluted vast ocean, and if you’re not niched down, is it hard to find?
Without A Niche Strategy, People Can’t Find You
Jordan Reasoner
I think it comes down to the fact that we have many people across the world coming online. There are billions of people coming online who have not been online before.
We have many individuals who are struggling with chronic illness in the world right now. It’s staggering the statistics of how many people are dealing with chronic health issues, and yet, all these people that need help, on the other side of the table we have all these skill healers. These are wonderful individuals who can change a lot of people’s lives, who can’t get cancer patients.
And so, we have this problem of all these people who are coming online, who need help with their chronic conditions, and we have all these skilled healers, and they can’t find each other. We call it the invisible lab coat.
It’s like people who wear invisible lab coats go to school. They don’t learn any business marketing like using a niche strategy. They became skilled healers, and they put on an invisible lab coat, and the people who need their help can’t find them.
Why Using A Niche Strategy Is Crucial
Jordan Reasoner
I think the fundamental thing here that has shifted in the last ten years is we as humans, have shifted how we seek solutions to our problem. This is essential for anybody listening, whether you’re a health coach, a personal trainer, or you’re in another niche like business, whether it’s making money, relationships.
How we seek solutions to our problems has shifted fundamentally..
This is very easy to explain when it comes to specifically health. For years, the way that process happens is, if I’m having diarrhea all the time. I used just to open a phone book or stop by my local general practitioner’s office right here in town, which is five minutes from my house. I will call them up, make an appointment, and I’d have to rely on whatever skills my general practitioner had available.
If the practitioner couldn’t help me, they would refer me out to a more niche in practitioner, a gastroenterologist who has probably trained 20 years ago. And so, we’re being helped by somebody who has trained in let’s say the 80’s or the 70’s.
However, we fundamentally changed how we seek solutions to our problems, and I’m going to say that over and over again because of it critical.
Serving Communities Through The Use Of A Niche Strategy
Jordan Reasoner
Nowadays, if I have chronic diarrhea, I typically don’t even know what a phone book is anymore. I usually open Google. A lot of times, people will open Google on their iPhones while they’re in the middle of a diarrhea session. That’s not a joke. That’s real life.
People will type things into Google like, “How do I stop chronic diarrhea?” “Chronic diarrhea causes” “Diarrhea causes.” We can look at Google keyword tool and see what people are typing in on their toilets and their iPhones. Well, they’re seeking a solution to stopping their diarrhea.
Without A Niche Strategy, You Will Not Have Clients
Jordan Reasoner
One of the jokes I always make when I talk to practitioners as part of our Practitioner Liberation Project is I tell people like, “Look, if you’re not utilizing a niche strategy in three to five years, you will not be able to have clients or patients.” I based that off statistics.
Some statistics say 60% of naturopaths never see a client or patient. Around 50% of acupuncturists end up going back to their previous career because they can’t make enough money as a practitioner doing acupuncture. Those statistics come from a place of not using a niche strategy.
The joke I always say is there’s going to be websites like rightpinkyfingerpain.com. If I have right pinky finger pain, I’m going to search for Google solutions for my right pinky finger pain. I’m going to see Dr. Joe who specializes in right pinky finger pain. He’s going to have that website. We go to it and download something like ten exercises to reduce my right pinky finger pain by 50% in the next three days. I’m going to be able to find solutions like that because that’s how we’re trying to solve our problems now.
That’s a significant shift in how things have been in healthcare specifically but also in all other types of spaces. Wouldn’t you agree?
Kamala Chambers
Absolutely.
I see this a lot when we work with clients that are especially in the health and relationship fields. I used to do it too because my background was in health coaching.
Not Using A Niche Strategy Is Like Firing Bullets In The Dark
Kamala Chambers
I did not want to utilize a niche strategy, and I hear the same thing over and over. Well, I just want to help everybody. I want to be able to help all the people. It’s like firing a bunch of bullets in the dark, and just hoping that one of them is going to land someone and it’s way too general.
What are some clear, practical tips on how to start using a niche strategy and discovering what your niche is? I know we talked about this a lot on the show, but I want to hear your perspective on it.
Jordan Reasoner
Yeah, and I agree with what you said.
Jordan Reasoner
Nobody wants to go to a general practitioner anymore. This is not how we’re seeking solutions to our problems.
Discover What Niche Strategy To Use Through The Hero’s Journey
Jordan Reasoner
The most important place that we have people start is your personal hero’s journey. Joseph Campbell has this idea of The Hero’s Journey, and I’m sure many of the phenomenal people you’ve had in here have spoken of his work before.
It’s Joseph Campbell’s idea that we can go through struggle in our lives, overcome that struggle and then, help other people in that space who are struggling with the same thing we did. That’s what my business partner, Steve, and I did.
I had horrible diarrhea. I’d Celiac disease. I was very sick, and he had IBS, Irritable Bowel Syndrome. We came together after we overcame those issues and started our healthygut.com business to be able to help people who have digestive problems like us.
Many times people become a practitioner like health coaches, personal trainers, even MDs in some cases because they had some hero’s journey of their own. They either had their chronic illnesses they’ve struggled with, or watched their mom’s battle with cancer so they wanted to become a doctor who’d focus on cancer.
Personal Struggles As The Best Place To Start A Niche Strategy
Jordan Reasoner
It’s because you can connect on this emotional level. You know what it’s like to have been through that experience and to have had that pain.
Like rheumatoid arthritis for example. It’s a very painful condition, severe pain in the joints. I don’t know what that’s like, but I have practitioners who helped women specifically in rheumatoid arthritis niche because they were a woman who has overcome with the pain of rheumatoid arthritis. They know what it’s like to just suffer from pain, lay in bed, have tears, and all those types of situations.
First and foremost, what’s your personal hero’s journey? Then, secondarily is to ask the question “Who can you help the most right now?”
Identify Your Target Audience To Know What Niche Strategy To Use
Jordan Reasoner
With practitioners in health for example, sometimes, if you’re a brand new health coach, it’s not a good idea to help somebody who’s dealing with Lyme disease. It’s an incredibly complex condition. It might be easier to help new moms’ lose their first ten pounds after having the baby. It might be simpler to help somebody who’s got indigestion versus somebody having chronic diarrhea.
It’s just a question of “Who can you help the most right now and get the fastest results for?”
Those are two quick questions that you can look at and examine in your life to start to think about who is the person you can help right now in your business and know what niche strategy to use.
Luis Congdon
I like your points that you mentioned earlier, and it’s something I want to loop back around. Somewhat, you’ve made it fairly explicit, but I want to make it even more clear for everyone listening because I know maybe you’re thinking of posting yourself as a health coach or a health coach who helps women.
Be Specific To Know Your Niche Strategy
Luis Congdon
One of the things Jordan was talking about is making it super clear to know what niche strategy you will be utilizing. The example he was giving about pinky finger pain. That is extremely precise and something that we deal with when we help people.
An example is we have a client who is struggling with the idea of using a niche strategy too much or be known as the expert on this one particular thing. I’m curious how you work with clients with that.
Let’s say you’re working with someone who is a doctor or a nutritionist or a graduate of health and wellness school, and they have this broad education. I love your example of taking your story, and then specializing in the thing that’s unique to your story, instead of being a health coach or a nutritionist or a health and wellness coach because it’s so broad.
Nowadays, how we tend to think of things has changed. If I’m trying to lose weight and looking for the solutions online, I probably don’t type in “Lose weight.” I might type in “Lose weight around my midsection “or, “Lose weight in my calves” or, “Lose weight in my face.”
We tend to get specific in a way that we’re looking for information nowadays. Because if I type in “Lose weight,” I’m going to find “Lose weight for women who have menopause” or “Lose weight for busy men” or “Loss weight for men in their 50’s.” That’s not unique to me. So we’re very specific orientated.
People Who Are Resistant To Using A Niche Strategy
Luis Congdon
I think the examples you gave, Jordan are all great. That being said, how do you overcome that hurdle when you’re working with a health practitioner where they’re resistant to you or resistant to the idea of being labeled under such a particular thing?
Someone comes to you, and say, “Jordan, the thing I’ve struggled with is being an older woman, losing weight, and this has been my main struggle. I went and got certified. Now, I can help people, and I’m a health and fitness coach.” Then Jordan, you might say something like, “Let’s make you a health and fitness coach for women in their 50’s” or “Let’s niche you down a little bit more.”
How do you work with that kind of client that’s resistant to that?
Jordan Reasoner
Good question.
There are two things I want to share.
You Can’t Start With More Than One Niche Strategy
Jordan Reasoner
You almost can’t start two niches.
I have an extreme example of that, which is the successful gut health company that Steve and I started. I think we’ve done almost 9 million in sales at this point since 2009. But, when we started our website, it was called scdlifestyle.com.
Our niche was specifically, people who had read the book Breaking The Vicious Cycle by Elaine Gottschall, which is a niche book in of itself about a diet called SCD, the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. It’s a very extreme version of Paleo for people of ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s, and severe diarrhea. That’s the diet that helps Steve and me.
So, we read this book by this woman who founded the diet, and she had since passed away. The book was fantastic but left everybody thinking, “Well, how the heck do I start this diet?”
Our niche was people who had read this obscure book and still needed help starting the diet. There was like 3,000 searches a month for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, and the book was making a few thousand sales a month.
Using An Extremely Niche Strategy
Jordan Reasoner
That’s extremely niched in, and we provided a free report, an eBook, meal plans, and all those types of standard information products of company like checkboxes, two people in that very tiny niche. It grew, and it grew, and it grew.
Now, we have over 300,000 people in our email list. 99% of which has no idea what SCD is. We’ve resurveyed our list like, “Who are you, people?” They are people with diarrhea, constipation, gas cramping, and autoimmune disease. So we have new buckets of individuals.
That’s why we’re currently in the process of rebranding to The Healthy Gut project, and we bought the domain the healthygut.com. We’re rebranding to embrace our new niche.
You can think of it like a bull’s eye. We started with this little bull’s eye, and then it grew out another ring and another ring, and now it’s this huge community. And so, we’re rebranding around that. That’s what a niche strategy looks like.
Don’t Be Afraid To Implement A Niche Strategy
Jordan Reasoner
Now, if you’re afraid to niche in, look at our example, which is extremely niched, and how well it just grew and grew to the point now where we apparently quit our job years ago. We did this full time. We’re doing well, and it started from that super tiny niche.
Now, if you start a website that’s all about you, the practitioner, I call it hanging your sign.
Kamala Chambers
Set the resume.
Jordan Reasoner
Right.
If you hang your sign on the internet and start Dr.Joe.com or healthcoachgil.com, whatever your thing is, it’s like hanging your sign in town. That doesn’t work on the web. It’s like hanging your sign in an empty parking lot.
There are a sea of practitioners out there who are “Hanging their sign” online. It’s all about them, the certifications and how they can help anyone of everything. It’s like “Who can I help?” and then has a bullet point list of like 52 conditions, and you’re like, “Wow. That’s incredible.” I don’t doubt that.
I meet most skilled healers, and I’m like, “Yeah if I walked into work with you, and want to lose weight, or had an autoimmune disease, acne, hormone issues, you could probably help me.
If you don’t niche in, you’re going to help no one.
Formula To Start The Process Of Your Niche Strategy
Jordan Reasoner
And so, that’ an important thing. When you ask your question, how I would answer is I want to give everybody who’s listening to the show our formula to start the process of brain transforming your niche strategy. It’s just the first sentence of who your niche is, and how you’re starting to define your ideal client, which is a whole different conversation.
You talked about women in their 50’s who want to lose weight. If we start there, typically, the equation is going to be the primary demographics. We start with women in their 50’s. And then, we want to give a defining characteristic of their health conditions.
Have they’ve been diagnosed with anything? Do they have an overriding desire to have a symptom fixed? Then, we follow that up with the top three things they’re seeking a solution for. It’s like women in their 50’s who want to lose weight, who are suffering from X, Y, and Z. The reason we say “who are suffering from X, Y, and Z” is we want to figure out what the three things that they’re Googling. What are they seeking a solution for?
Niche Strategy – Formulate What Content To Create
Jordan Reasoner
If we imagine that it’s midnight, I’m a woman in my 50’s, struggling with hormone issues, and I have menopause, and my husband wanted to make love. I rolled away from him again for the 15th time this month, and I feel a lot of shame, guilt, and embarrassment about it. So I got out of the bed and went downstairs. I picked up my iPad, and I can’t sleep, and I’m tired of watching infomercials. I pull up google.com. What am I searching for? If I’m embodying that woman, what am I searching for? And that’s what the X, Y, and Z are going to be.
So in her case, it might be women in their 50’s who want to lose weight, who are struggling with hot flashes, low libido, and feeling tired all the time? What those X, Y, and Z things do like the hot flashes, low libido, and feeling tired all the time, they allow us to figure out what content we’re going to create for our website. What articles are we going to write? That’s another niche strategy.
It might be like ten reasons why your hot flashes are causing you to hold on to extra weight. So if I’m that woman and Googling, and I’m able to see that my low libido or my hot flashes are connected to my weight, that’s when I’ve started to build a relationship with the author. I’ve begun to connect with that person who can help me. That’s how you formulate that sentence as a niche strategy.
Get In Front Of Your Audience Through A Niche Strategy
Jordan Reasoner
You can start to formulate what content you create, and how you can get in front of a person who’s seeking a solution rather than being washed out in a sea of practitioners who just hang their sign up on their website.
Kamala Chambers
This is such great and important stuff.
One thing I hear resistance from people with this is, “Well, I do many things, and there’s much more to me than just this one thing.” I think the real trick here is to look at the thing you are most passionate about helping people overcome and the problem that you want to help people to solve. Then, it can grow from there. You could still use all your gifts.
Niche Strategy – Focus On The Benefits, Not The Features
Kamala Chambers
I think the problem I see a lot of people having is they look at the features of what they offer and not the benefits. They say, “I do health coaching.” They talk about all the different things they can do for someone but not the result they’re going to give someone. It seems like this stuff should apparently be separated, but we find that people have a hard time separating those.
Before we close, what is the one last tip you want the Thriving Launchers to walk away with about using a niche strategy that they can start applying?
With A Niche Strategy, You Can Make A Bigger Impact
Jordan Reasoner
If you niche in, you’ll help a lot more people. It’d be fascinating if we could do a thriving study where we had like ten people in a study for ten years, and we look at five individuals who niched in, and five people who just kept saying they could help everybody and had healthcoachgil.com.
Then, at the end of ten years, we see how many patients or clients they worked with, and how many lives impacted. I would imagine it’d be ten times more, 50 times more maybe if they niched in.
And then, if we could also look at their revenues and their tax returns every year.
I’m sure that the people who niched in would have made a lot more money as well.
If you want to make a good living and impact a lot of people’s lives especially in health space, you have to niche in especially in the next three years or you’ll be washed away in the sea of practitioners that are out there. That’s just the cold hard truth.
Luis Congdon
There you have it, Thriving Launchers. You have to niche, niche, and then niche down some more so you can make an impact. Niche down until it hurts so that you can serve more and make a deeper and bigger impact.
Thank you so much for joining us today, Jordan. It’s a real pleasure to have you on the show.
Jordan Reasoner
Thanks for having me. I’m very grateful to be able to be of contribution to you.
