Episode 71: Niching Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up To Be

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DISCLAIMER

Some links included in this description may be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission, however there is no additional charge to you. Thank you for supporting Mountain Practice Journeys so I can continue to provide you with free content!

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INTRO

You’re listening to the Mountain Practice Journeys podcast: a comfy, cozy place for private practice introverts, highly sensitive therapists, and solopreneurs who help and heal.

This is the place for practical, nature-based, magickal support for your business and life.

MAIN

Hello there, and welcome back to the Mountain Practice Journeys podcast! I’m your host, Cindy. Here in Episode 71 I’m going to talk a bit about niching and why it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

I talk about niching in Episode 13 titled “How To Niche Your Therapy Practice, With Or Without An Ideal Client”, but I want to go a bit further here. So, go check out that episode before listening in here to get the full picture.

After working with therapists and other solo business owners for many years around this topic I’ve found that I tend to help my clients show more of who THEY are versus pushing them to come up with an ideal client avatar.

In my opinion, niching by your ideal client should be secondary to niching by who you are.

And before we get too deep into this, if this isn’t resonating with you, that’s okay. Niching by ideal client is proven to be super helpful. But I just want to provide a different perspective from that of the almighty niche to those of you who are panicking because you don’t have an avatar named Becky, who is married with two children, and shops at Whole Foods, and subscribes to an Architecture magazine.

I am poking fun at this exercise because it didn’t work well for me, I was very resistant to it, and it just didn’t feel right, yet it is something that is forced upon us as the most important thing in starting our businesses.

I don’t really care where my clients shop, what magazines they subscribe to, where they hang out on social media, or if they have a pet rat (but it would be really cute if they did). Anyway, the only thing that I care about is that I can support them, and how I best do that is by being myself and attracting aligned clients as a result.

So, to take some of the pressure off of the word niche, I want you to imagine that niching can mean something else. You can be your niche. Who you are is a niche.

The niching advice that I can get on board with is that of letting people know who you are and how you can help. That’s it.

What I mean by this is that you have something very beautiful to offer. You have a unique perspective that no one else has.

There may be a million other people talking about the same thing that you are, but no one can talk about it like you – if you only allow yourself to be seen, and are brave enough to share your own perspective.

I understand that it can be hard and scary to go against the grain in your profession, or to begin doing things differently than they have always been done. And especially when you believe that the success of your business hangs on the thread of having the most ideal client avatar. I’m here to tell you, it doesn’t.

And I want to remind you all that I’m not bashing the traditional way of niching. Really. I think it works very well for those who are aligned with this marketing technique. But if you’re one of those who really struggle with this, I wanted to share another way. There’s always another way.

Don’t get me wrong, niching can be great for your business, BUT I want to ensure that you are not hiding behind your niche. That you are not putting yourself last. That you are not diminishing your beautiful light.

There are many reasons that we keep ourselves small. By obsessively focusing on our ideal client avatar, we don’t have to look at ourselves. We don’t have to take up space. We don’t have to share our voice. We don’t have to be true to ourselves.

I hope this episode has been helpful to those of you who are struggling with the traditional niching exercises and marketing advice. If you find that you are struggling with something in your business, just relax and find another way that feels good to you.

I also want to briefly mention the witch wound, as this is one of the reasons that we may be keeping ourselves small. It’s why we are terrified of speaking our truth, and sharing our beautiful gifts with the world.

I’ll have to do a whole other episode on the witch wound, but in a nutshell it is a form of collective trauma that lives in our very DNA. It comes from the time when women and men were burned, hanged, tortured, and drowned for being healers and sharing their gifts.

So when you go to publish that blog post, or record that facebook live, or put yourself out there in any way, and you feel – not just nervous – but an intense fear, it could be the witch wound at play.

This wounding is so pervasive in our current society and I want to help. That’s why my next tiny retreat, coming up in early 2023, is called Healing the Witch Wound: A Tiny Cozy, Retreat to Step into Your Magick & Embrace Your Soul’s Calling. Be sure to get on the Retreat Interest List to be notified of future retreats. I’ll share the link in the show notes.

ACORN (Tarot Card Pull)

Welcome to the acorn segment. With each solo episode I’ll be drawing a tarot card to help provide some magickal inspiration and insight.

The card for this episode is the Page of Wands.

I’ll describe the card for those of you who may not be familiar. The card includes a young man standing in a desert, holding a large wooden staff in his hands. He is looking at the green leaves that are emerging from the top of the wand.

The Page of Wands card has many words associated with it, such as inspiration, potential, aspiration, ideas, free spirit, and discovery.

The Page of Wands is very optimistic and has many great ideas and creative sparks. Yet in the card he is standing still. Because he is just beginning his journey, he may need to take some time to come up with a game plan for all his aspirations. He may also need to experiment and try out some of his ideas to see what is going to be best for him. And seeking out a mentor may be helpful for him – not so that he emulates or copies the mentor – but so that he is able to see his own gifts that reside within.

This card relates to this episode, as you may be exploring the best way to go about using niching in your own business. You may have many mentors in your sphere, and this is a reminder that there is no one right way. Discover for yourself what is best for you.

A little side note here: I’ll talk more about the topic of finding a coach or mentor that works for you as I wrap up this season in Episode 80.

I’ll post a picture of the card along with the message today on my instagram @mountainpracticejourneys so head on over and let me know if this message resonates with you at this time.

THANKS

Thank you so much for joining me today. For episode 72 I chat with Shawny Sena of Weirdo Therapist Coaching on how to reconnect with your creativity.

OUTRO

I’m truly grateful that you choose to join me here for practical, nature-based, magickal support for your business and life. For more inspiration and to see what I’m up to, join me over on instagram @mountainpracticejourneys If you’re enjoying yourself here, please head over to Apple Podcasts and hit those 5 stars and I’ll be over the moon. And if you’d like to work with me, join me in Forestmind, my cozy, small-group mastermind for private practice introverts, highly sensitive therapists, and solopreneurs who help and heal. May the forest be with you.