She Grows with Allyson Scammell
Ep #56: Scale Your Business by Niching Your Brand with Allison Williams
Allyson Scammell: Well, hello there. This is Allyson Scammell and I am just so excited about today’s episode, all about scaling your business by niching your brand. If those terms sound a little too business-like for you, then please stay with me. The info we share today can really help your business grow. And in a way that feels amazing and aligned to the soul guided entrepreneur.
[00:00:29] And to be honest, the main reason why I’m so excited today is because my guest was so incredible and she shared. So much good information today that the entire time she was talking, I was thinking to myself, this is the type of good stuff you normally have to pay for. So I was lucky enough to chat with Allison Williams, all about how to find
[00:00:55] Your right niche and build a brand around it so that you can grow your business in amazing ways. In today’s episode, Allison reveals why we tend to resist niching our business, a powerful way to identify or clarify your niche. And her top tips for building a brand around your niche to grow to the next level, and really start to scale.
[00:01:20] We end on a challenge that we’ll have you clarifying your audience and building a brand around that audience that speaks to them and allows your business to grow and new and exciting ways. So please stay with us until the end. Welcome to She Grows, a podcast for soul guided women entrepreneurs, ready to be seen and get fully booked using their unique genius, intuitive voice and spirit guides each week.
[00:01:49] We’ll explore how to create offerings based on what you do best. So you can have a wait list of ideal clients and bring in continuous income. I’m your host, Allyson Scammell. Let’s get Growing.
[00:02:12] Well, Hey, there she grows nation. That is the name of this sisterhood of soul guided entrepreneurs. If you’re not already a citizen of she grows nation, then I invite you to join our Facebook group of nearly 1000 women running heart-based businesses that are in service to each other. And the planet today, I had the pleasure of speaking to Allison Williams about scaling your business by niching your brand.
[00:02:38] Allison Williams is CEO and founder of law for mentor a business coaching service for solo and small law firm attorneys. Law firm mentor helps lawyers to grow revenues, crush, chaos in business and make more money law for mentor was born out of Allison’s personal experience, creating a law firm and scaling it from $0 into a multi-million dollar enterprise and just three and a half years.
[00:03:06] Blending coaching, training, business retreats, and accountability. Coaching law for a mentor is a one-stop shop for all things business in the world of small law firms. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m thinking Alison is a great niche and I just think her intro. Sets us up so well for the conversation that is about to unfold.
[00:03:30] So may you receive as much wisdom from Allison as I did, please enjoy
[00:03:41] excited to be chatting with Allison Williams on this great topic. Welcome Allison great name. And I’m thrilled that you made the time to chat with us today.
[00:03:52] Allison Williams: Awesome. Thank you so much for having me on your show. I’m really excited and it’s one of my favorite topics of all time. So I just can’t wait to dive in.
[00:04:00] Allyson Scammell: Oh, I think this is a great topic. You are episode number 54, and we’ve never done an episode on either scaling or niching, two super important parts of a business. Now this audience, Allison they’re spiritual entrepreneurs, soul guided entrepreneurs, and they have. I’ve noticed a lot of my clients just have this kind of knee jerk reaction against words, like scale a niche.
[00:04:26] They’re too businessy, even though they’re business owners. I think sometimes, I don’t know, like some business terms just seem, I don’t know, big or scary or out of alignment or not soul guided. So have you noticed in your work that some of the entrepreneurs you work with tend to resist niching and why?
[00:04:44] If you do, why do you think that is.
[00:04:47] Allison Williams: Yeah. So I understand that and we see that a lot and I see that a lot with my target market. I see a lot with entrepreneurs in general. I think that really comes from a lack of money. And the idea that if we limit pool of opportunity, which is what it’s thought to be when you are niching your business, that you’re going to leave money on the table, or you’re going to miss the opportunity to serve some people, or you’re going to perhaps
[00:05:13] Limit your ability to really grow a business. And it really is not the case at all. when you start to really think about what niching is, it’s talking to the people that are designed to hear your message that are going to most resonate with your message. So it actually gives you a far greater reach when you are niching, because you are essentially saying to a person, I am not one of many options that you can choose, like going to a grocery store and picking me off the shelf.
[00:05:39] I am something that’s custom made just for you.
[00:05:42] Allyson Scammell: I like that. So that the reality is it’s going to be the opposite of what we think. We think we’re going to miss opportunities and miss customers and clients, but we’re actually going to. When we niche properly and get in front of the right people increase our sales and our visibility and build our audience bigger.
[00:06:02] Allison Williams: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, the thing of it is that the more guided you are by spirit, the more in alignment with spiritual principles, that niching really is because what you’re saying is. You’re putting out a message to the universe that this is what you desire, that you don’t just have a desire to make more money, but you have a desire to have that even exchange, which is really what business is about.
[00:06:24] It’s giving something of value and receiving something in exchange. And so when you speak to a particular market, you are more easily going to connect with that market. It will be better, and it will be a better connection for that individual. So you’re serving from a place of your highest and best use of value, and you’re also giving to the marketplace something that’s easier for them to digest and make it decision to choose you.
[00:06:49] So it takes less time to convert people. It is, it’s an easier marketing creation because you’re creating just yourself and you’re making yourself available to those who are eligible to work with you. All of those different components of what it is to be in business. Are going to make your business far more successful, far faster.
[00:07:07] If you do niche your business
[00:07:09] Allyson Scammell: nice. I like that a lot. I like the idea of it being even exchange. And when you are showing up in you in your best, offering the very best that you have to give someone else you want the person on the other end of that to be at that same frequency, that same high level frequency.
[00:07:28] So having that niche of people that you get most excited to serve is going to help that alignment as you suggest that even exchange to occur. I think that’s so cool.
[00:07:39] Allison Williams: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And you know, I think a lot of people, when they really think about it, One of the things that I see a lot with business owners, a lot with entrepreneurs is the idea that there’s a drudgery to what we do, right.
[00:07:52] There’s a, I have to, I must, I’m required to, there’s kind of a heaviness that comes with all that’s required to be an entrepreneur because as we know, creating and scaling a business is not just about what you. What the service is, but it’s about all the moving pieces around it, about the marketing, about the selling, about the people, about the resources, about the systems.
[00:08:13] And so if you are not really laser focused on who you’re serving and you’re not serving the people that are designed to work with you, then not only do you have drudgery or malcontent in those other areas, that really should be outsourced to others as you start to scale and grow, but you’re also going to have a level of drudgery in the thing that you love that caused you to create your business in the first place.
[00:08:33] And that of course then drags down the energy in your business. And it also tends to make your business less profitable and less successful because it’s something that you’re avoiding.
[00:08:41]Allyson Scammell: that is so well said. Yes. I love that. So let’s talk about finding your niche. This is something that a lot of my clients that I’ve worked with through the years, and I’ve heard it from very, a lot of different people that either they’re having a hard time landing on a niche, or they feel like they’ve chosen the wrong one, but they’re not sure.
[00:09:02] So what do you tell clients who struggle to find. The right niche.
[00:09:07] Allison Williams: So that’s a great question. And there are lots of different ways to go about this, but this is generally what I tell people to do. It’s kind of like the perfect exercise. So if you’re already in business, the first thing that you should do is look to the most psychologically satisfying, the most financially profitable client that you have ever served, whomever that person is, or that series of people or that business look for where you were in your sweet spot.
[00:09:32] And you only need to have one to have that experience of saying, ah, this is what I want to do. Right. There’s kind of a release of energy, kind of like a, taking an exhalation that happens. And when you have that feeling. Find that person. And I want you to just visualize the relationship with that person.
[00:09:48] How did they come to you? What was the relationship that you’ve had with them? How did you serve them? What was the price point that you charged them? What was their level of comfort with paying that price point? And you start to create an image for yourself, and then you do a brain dump about all of the aspects of that particular relationship.
[00:10:05] So rather than going really big and trying to think about all your clients or all your potential clients are all the different ways you could go. I want you to get really laser focused about one individual, one individual. And once you have that one individual and you have that one relationship really lay out all the particulars of that relationship.
[00:10:25] And what you’ll find there is that there are going to be nuggets of truth in that relationship. When you put it down on paper that are going to show you how best to market, how best to sell, who are the people that were the resources that would most support that person’s work, or the work that you were doing with that person, what types of systems are going to be required in order to scale with that particular type of client?
[00:10:46] So that tells you know, it’s essentially allowing yourself to be guided by spirit, but you’re going to be going in the direction of something that already lights you up inside. Now for people that have not yet started in business, if you’re a new entrepreneur and you haven’t had any clients whatsoever, I want you to really think about what is drawing you into the type of business that you’re pursuing in the first place.
[00:11:05] Because if you think about what leads us into business, it’s rarely. Just the desire to make money, right? We all have to support ourselves. Some of us want to have a really lavish lifestyle. Some of us not so much, we just want to be financially comfortable. We want to have security and savings, whatever your financial desire is, we all have to do something in order to make money.
[00:11:25] So the idea that you’re just doing something purely to make money, doesn’t make sense because you can choose from any number of things. So think about what it is that your heart is being pulled to do. In business. And then once you have that industry, you’ve identified that you want to be a coach or you’ve identified that you wanted to be a spiritual guide, or you’ve decided that you want to be a numerologist or you want to be a tarot reader or whatever it is, right.
[00:11:48] It doesn’t have to be a particular genre, but it can be once you have that, I want you to really think clearly about what it is within that particular niche that you are drawn to. It could be that you’re drawn to the people that you’re going to work with, or maybe it’s that you have a particular skillset in the area that you want to go in.
[00:12:09] So if you own a law firm, for instance, it could be that you really love helping people through crises in their family. So you know that you want to be a family law attorney, or it could be that you have a love of helping people to create their financial future. So. You want to help people do that through real estate?
[00:12:26] Whatever the desire is, allow yourself to get really clear about what the desire is, and then get clear about what it is about that you enjoy so that you can see opportunities to niche that wouldn’t otherwise be available.
[00:12:37] Allyson Scammell: I love that, Allison, and tell me a little bit about, this is really valuable information that I feel like a lot of people pay money for and you’re offering it out of the goodness of your heart.
[00:12:47] So tell me a little bit more about, okay, so you’re new to business. I’m really glad you’ve talked through, like, if you’ve never launched a business before, because a lot of people in this audience are people who are just launching or just about to launch. So that’s very useful and going back to.
[00:13:05] You’re at the start. Maybe you’ve had one or two clients and you’ve tasted that like, yeah, this is the person that I most want to work with. And you said, notice the particulars of the relationship. Can you say a little bit more about that? Because I think that’s really important. What are the particulars that you would look for?
[00:13:23] Allison Williams: Yeah. So, first of all, knowing who you want to serve is really first and foremost about knowing yourself because not every person that you have a, an enjoyment of, or, can work well with is somebody that you, based on who you are and how you like to serve people is really the right person for you.
[00:13:41] So I’m a really big fan of assessment. They’re like my favorite thing in the world to do. I think I’ve taken just about every assessment on the market. for instance, with the, with the Myers-Briggs I know that I am an INTJ and I know what that entails for all of the characteristics of my personality and how I like to show up in the world.
[00:14:00] So knowing that tells me the type of people that I’m most likely to connect with. And in terms of business, I know that I’m taking the disc profile, so I’m a D C. And that connects with me on risk aversion and being able to mitigate risks. Right. If I didn’t know that I had those particular attributes, I might have a harder time identifying what type of business I even want to create.
[00:14:21] Right. And the type of business that you’re going to create, whether it is a individual centered business. I E entrepreneur at the center and businesses wrapped around. Or ultimately you want to rise to be a shareholder in the business where you have a name and a brand, but other people are doing the work in the business.
[00:14:37] Then you’re going to ultimately go, you’re going to have to design your business quite differently. But in terms of who you work with, knowing if you’re starting at that place of being the brand new entrepreneur. So it’s going to be guided by. Entrepreneur plus you’re going to be at the center and people and services are going to be wrapped around you.
[00:14:54] You really have to be very focused on the people that will work best with you. Now that doesn’t mean that you can’t go outside of what would be quote unquote ideal for the type of person that you served. But there are personalities that are going to work better with you than others. There are skillsets that are going to naturally be enlightened and advanced by the skill sets that you bring to the table.
[00:15:16] And if you really tap into an awareness of yourself and you start looking at who is going to most benefit from your service, again, you’re going to get a lot greater return on the relationship that you create with a client, because. A person who’s had to have a great experience of you is going to be a raving fan, as opposed to someone who might have a successful path, but might not necessarily resonate with who you are and how you serve them.
[00:15:39] So it helps to, kick off your business with a lot of success. You can, as you grow, start broadening the scope and start serving people in a variety of different ways. And you can even add team members who would be better suited to work with people who are not necessarily your people, but when you first start out, you really have to be very careful about creating the right relationship with the right clients so they can get to success and they can help you to promote that success.
[00:16:04] Allyson Scammell: Yeah, that’s really good. I love the idea of getting to know yourself as a huge part of this. Just quickly. What’s your favorite assessment? Do you have
[00:16:12] Allison Williams: one? You know, my absolute favorite is the Myers-Briggs. I’ll tell you why too. One of the reasons why I love that one so much is that when you look at the 16 different personality types, I think a lot has been said about.
[00:16:26] People try to make things very simple sometimes. And we oversimplify it to the point where we right out of the human experience or evaluating human, the complexities of individuals. So you have to be careful not to put yourself in a box simply because you’re taking an assessment. But with that particular one, I find that the different types of personalities that are evidenced by the Myers-Briggs when I started to really look at my profile, it started to give me, and now of course, I had done a lot of thought work over the years and I’ve.
[00:16:55] I studied a universal law quite a bit. So part of this is just my growth and evolution as a person. But when I saw my profile on the Myers-Briggs, I saw, ah, yes, this makes sense. Why I like certain things and why certain things connect with me more than others. And I think particularly as women, even though this applies to men as well, but particularly for women, I think we have a message in society that tells us that we need to fix ourselves.
[00:17:19] There’s a lot of there’s something wrong with you. There’s something broken about you. If you don’t fit into the societally defined structure of what it is to be a woman and what it is to be a woman in anything, a woman in business, a woman in relationship, a woman in parenting, we have all of these barriers, circumscribed roles.
[00:17:37] And I think that when you start to look at who you are as an individual, If you, as an individual, don’t resonate with the role that society has created for you, that may be perfectly okay. Right. That may just be that you have a different orientation toward the world than what has been defined by others.
[00:17:53] And that’s very freeing. It gives you permission to be your best self without the judgment that comes with looking to external factors in order to do that.
[00:18:02] Allyson Scammell: so good. So good. Love it. So, one last question about choosing your niche. Cause I get this a lot from clients. They’ll say Alison, and I bet you, they say that to you too.
[00:18:14] Alison, I think I’m in the wrong niche and I’ve been down this rabbit hole now for a while and I, I don’t want to look back and see all this as wasted work, wasted time, but I’m not sure. I’m not sure it’s the wrong niche. Sometimes I think it might be the right niche. Any tips to any red flags maybe is the best way to add, ask this question that you are indeed not in the best niche for you.
[00:18:41] Allison Williams: Yeah. So there’s lots of different ways to approach that, and the first thing I would ask the client that raises that concern is: what is telling you that you may be in the wrong niche? Because sometimes people are looking to the wrong factors – they’re not looking to how they feel about a particular niche – or, maybe they have gotten into a place where it has become difficult ,and challenging, so they may not necessarily know how to overcome the challenges where they are in their niche. So they kind of, have that feeling of, let me stop this and do something else that looks easier. So we want to make sure that the person is coming at it from the perspective of, “I’m not sure that this is right for me as a person.”
[00:19:18] Once we kind of look at some of the external factors, like what’s, you know, what’s motivating you? Are you experiencing challenges that you just haven’t overcome, because coaching can often help with that, or are you, are you resisting something in the business that’s necessary? Like making sales calls or having a sales team? If that type of behavior is prohibiting you, then you’re going to encounter that no matter what your niche is, but if you really have gotten past all the layers of some of the external things that stop us, And we’re looking to the heart of the person and they say, you know, this is just not for me, or I’m not feeling it’s for me, then a lot of things can be informing that as well. So I always like to look to what it is about the service that you provide that is not resonating with you anymore. It could be that you just don’t enjoy the people that are in need of your service. The one perfect example is a psychologist friend of mine.
[00:20:07] She owned her own psychology practice and she decided to go in-house into a state diagnostic treatment center because she wanted to help people who. We’re less economically likely to be able to afford private practice. And that was the group of people that she wanted to serve. And after about a year in that new area, she said, you know, this is just not for me.
[00:20:29] And so I asked her some of these same questions, like, what is it about. This role, that’s not resonating with you anymore. And it was that it was eroding her spirit to be with people who were trauma survivors at the level that they were in this particular location. And she felt a great deal of guilt because she didn’t want to abandon them, but she felt that they needed so much.
[00:20:49] And they drew so much of her resources because she was not able to separate. Myself as professional versus myself as a savior or protector, all of those dysfunctional roles that she had learned in her childhood. So we talked about ways that she can separate herself so that she could still be of service in that area.
[00:21:10] But ultimately she said, you know, Even when she evolved a little bit, she started going through her own power, own coaching journey and she evolved a little bit. She still kind of said, no, I’m just not, I don’t enjoy the work anymore because even though I am helping people, I’m not helping them in a way that makes me feel good.
[00:21:28] At the end of the day. So then we started looking at ways that she could choose another niche. That would be a utilization of her skills, but not necessarily in the same area. So for any person that has that thought of this is not for me. Some very simple questions. You can ask yourself, first of all, is there any financial motivation behind why you feel a Nisha is not for you?
[00:21:50] And if there’s a financial motivation, are you falling into lack mindset? Lack thinking? One of the things that I remember when I was a young attorney and was just kind of starting out, developing a reputation for myself was I started serving people who were accused of child abuse and neglect.
[00:22:05] And in that particular area of the family, part of the court system, 98% of the parties involved are represented by the public defender’s office because they are indigenous. And I decided, this is what the work that I wanted to do. I did not want to do it through the public defenders office because I had financial goals that I wanted to meet.
[00:22:23] So I decided to do it to the public sector and charge my full hourly rate. And then I made a multi-million dollar practice out of that 2%. That was remaining because I followed my heart rather than following by financial concerns. Right. If it was just about the money, then I would have stopped myself.
[00:22:40] The second question, I always tell people if they’re uncertain about what they’re doing with their life and in particular in their business is to ask themselves, what is it again that drew you to the work that you were doing? So, if you started doing the work that you’re doing out of a dysfunctional place, I E I have a pattern of needing to take the approval of others.
[00:23:00] And I got a lot of approval for doing XYZ, even though I didn’t enjoy it, then you have to really ask yourself what it is that you do enjoy in life. And what sorts of areas of business could you pursue that would make use of not just your talent, but your interests. Because if you’re following your heart, it’s a lot easier to be motivated, to stay motivated and to get out there and hustle to build.
[00:23:21] Allyson Scammell: Allison. That’s brilliant. I love the story you told about your niche for your law practice. That just says so much. I think. And one thing that I have come to learn is the assumptions I used to make on discovery calls. For example, for people who wanted to, I normally only do discovery calls for my higher priced programs.
[00:23:41] Right. So whoever I’m talking to, I noticed that I used to make real assumptions about the person on the other end. Like, will they be able to afford this or not? And I, yeah. And I really came to realize it doesn’t matter how much money you have in the bank account. It’s how bad you want it, how bad you see the value, right.
[00:24:02] Allison Williams: 1000% true. And in fact, I tell people this all the time, When I first really stepped into doing the child abuse work. By that time, I had an hourly rate of $400 an hour. And so I had clients that would come into the door and they would want to hire me. And they would say, you know, I live on sec.
[00:24:18] I live in section eight, housing, you know, I have two part-time jobs and I have subsidized childcare and I couldn’t possibly afford. And I asked them what is more important to you? The dollars and cents that you have available to you right now that you want to hold on to you or getting your child out of foster care.
[00:24:35] And just let the questions that in the air, don’t micromanage it. Just let it sit there. and they of course go to, well, of course my child is, but, and I said, no, if your child is the priority, there is no but. There is only how. And when you start to allow people to step into the, how, what you find is that they will find a way.
[00:24:54] So I’ve had clients sell cars to re you know, let me represent them. I’ve had clients sell jewelry. I’ve had clients move out of one location, one home that they were in into another home that was less expensive. There are lots of different ways that people can find money. Money is only a tool. It is a resource.
[00:25:13] And if you go out and seek the resources, there are always ways to find money. But if you don’t allow yourself to believe that it is possible for you to seek it and pursue it and receive it, and you stay in the mindset of the cause and effect of, I must do X. And the only thing that X can represent is working at a job, then you’re always going to be constrained by the limitations that you have imposed upon yourself.
[00:25:35] Allyson Scammell: Oh, my gosh. That’s so, so, so good. Okay. So there’s a listener out there right now. Allison, I can hear her brain kicking into gear and she’s saying, yeah, but I’m in service to this niche, this group of people, and they can’t afford it and they can’t afford me. And I don’t want to charge them a lot. I don’t want them to have to sell a car to work with me.
[00:25:56] So I’m just going to charge really low prices so they can afford me. What do you say to that person? Who’s out there thinking that right now?
[00:26:03] Allison Williams: So for the person who thinks that I hear your heart, I see your heart. I have your heart. So I get it right. I’ve been there. I think we all on some level, those of us that are compassionate and empathetic, we are there, but here’s the thing.
[00:26:16] You’re not doing a service to the client by charging them a lower fee. Because what people perceive, what they will always perceive is that the greater something costs, the more that they have to do to accomplish something, the more that they have to invest to secure something, the greater the value in it.
[00:26:33] So when you charge somebody a premium price, what you are essentially saying to them is that you client have to believe enough in yourself in order to elevate your standard so that you can have this thing over here that’s of high value. And that then requires them to grow into the type of person that can be worthy of whatever the price point is that you are offering them.
[00:26:53] They have to evolve. They have to become more. That is true for no matter what it is that you are selling. And so if you recognize that, then what you do by virtue of charging someone, a higher price is that you inherently give them a greater sense of value and you tap them into the continuation.
[00:27:11] Yeah, of course, assuming that they have to pay this over a period of time, the continuation of remembering that value in every transaction that they have with you throughout whatever duration you’re working with them on the flip side, when you charge someone a low price, right? when you reduce yourself and your standard to where they are, you meet them, where they are part of the problem is that they are going to stay where they are.
[00:27:34] Because they’re now in lack mindset and you are giving into that lack mindset. So you keep people in the rut that caused them to need your service in the first place. And when people are in that, but they are rarely going to go the distance do what’s necessary to evolve themselves. And I tell people this all the time.
[00:27:50] In fact, it’s so ironic that this is coming up now, because just this morning, I spoke with a woman a week and a half ago. She was about 95% of the way there. And I couldn’t get her to make the decision for herself to move forward. So I gave her some information. We decided to have a followup. And I said, the only way I scheduled this follow-up is if you promise that you’re going to show up for it, even if your mind has gotten to know before you arrived and she promised, and then this morning, I got a
[00:28:15] Thanks. But no thanks. Email. And so I responded to the email and I said, so here’s an opportunity for me to shine a light on something. You made a representation, your word is your bond. And essentially what you’ve told me is that you don’t value yourself enough to honor your word, because even if you were at no, you represented, you were going to show up. Now not showing up could be your justification in your mind.
[00:28:39] I’ve decided I don’t want to feel the pressure that comes from having another conversation. I don’t want to be confronted with diff with different ways that I can afford this. I want to stay in my mental frame of my answer is no analytically. I got to that point. However, you made a representation. So what you’re saying to yourself now is.
[00:28:59] I will make a representation, but it’s only as meaningful as the moment of time that I’m in. So it doesn’t hold any weight going forward. And when you put out that inconsistency into the world, energetically, you get back that same in return, right? So the law of subconscious momentum, you put out a falsity, you get back a falsity.
[00:29:19] So you start to live in the plane where you are choosing to be, and ultimately your clients are doing the same thing. So when you start to see clients that are coming in with an energy that says I’m low value, I only have so much, I can only achieve so much. I can only secure so much and you meet them where they are.
[00:29:35] You also are reducing your standard, which lowers your value for yourself and for other people. And that’s not helping anyone. Oh, my
[00:29:43] Allyson Scammell: gosh. I’m really impressed how you called this person out because that’s, I think that’s what a good coach and a teacher will do. And I think that’s something that is not easy for everyone to do, but when you start to do it’s.
[00:29:57] Yeah, it’s exactly, as you say, like you are staying at your higher place and saying, Hey, I’m seeing this and I just want you to know it. I love that. And I want to have lawyers on the podcast more often. I love how you explain things and you’re just really articulate and very good. I could see how you were probably really good in court.
[00:30:21] You got a great, I don’t know the way you. Present something. I love how it resonates with me. And I’m just like, yes. Okay. I want to move on. can you tell us what it means to niche your brand? So if we’re going to take our niche and we’re really going to infuse it into our brand or connect it to our brand and what are your top tips for doing so.
[00:30:43] Allison Williams: Sure. So, so first of all, thank you for the compliment that you gave me earlier. I didn’t want to interject while you were speaking to say that, but that actually, you know, when I get compliments like that really touches me. So thank you. So in terms of branding, you have to decide what it is that you stand for, right?
[00:30:57] So the brand is not what you do. The brand is not who you serve. The brand is about your values. It’s about. What you want to resonate with people when they see sense, engage, hear your message. And so it is a big picture representation, and it can be a brand for a variety of different verticals within a business, right?
[00:31:18]the niche of your business is the focal point. It is the subset. If you will, of the people. And the purpose of your business. So when you think about it, that way you can have a business that has several different categories of what you serve, or you can just have one, but they all need to be consistent with the brand.
[00:31:37] Right? So the niche and the brand are not the same, but they need to be. simpatico. So when you think about it, that way, if you have a niche and you’re serving a particular vertical of people, you are serving, women entrepreneurs who want to grow and scale their businesses, right? If that is your target market, and that is the niche.
[00:31:56] And you’re trying to get very laser clear on people within that subset that you want to serve. Because female entrepreneurs who want to grow that could be millions. And I would wager that it is millions of people, right. So you have to think about like, who is it within that subsection? So it could be.
[00:32:13] Women entrepreneurs who want to grow businesses in the spiritual realm or women entrepreneurs who want to grow businesses in law or women, entrepreneurs who want to grow businesses that serve underfunded communities. Right? So you have to think of that, who that is, and then your brand needs to resonate with that.
[00:32:31] It needs to reflect that. So all that goes into a brand includes, of course, the coloring, the logo, the lettering, the font, the imagery, and you need to have that. Pastored everywhere. So if somebody is asking the question about how do I niche my brand, what you’re really saying is you want your brand to be not just.
[00:32:49] Limited in scope to who you serve, but you also want your brand to be reflective of only that, which you serve, meaning your brand. Isn’t going to be used for something outside of the niche of people that you’re serving. It’s going to be limited to this imagery, this coloring, this patterning, this logo.
[00:33:09] Only reflects the people that I serve in this particular market. Now there’s some concerns with that because that, to some degree limits you, right. We’ve talked about, we’ve talked about niching as a way of being the big fish in the small pond. So there definitely is a value to that, but it’s when you start thinking about your brand.
[00:33:27] Your brand also, can’t go outside that pond, right? So you can’t be the big fish in the small pond in one area, and then take that same big fish and put it somewhere else because the brand is going to be synonymous with the location and the size of the company that you have. So you have to be very cautious there, but.
[00:33:46] If you’ve decided that, you know, this is all that I want to do, and I want to keep whatever growth we have, whatever growth trajectory, all centered on the particular mission that I’ve created, then it’s really important that you do certain things. So first you have to identify who it is that you want to serve.
[00:34:01] And you have to be crystal clear that you’re not going to take people outside of that because you don’t want to go off brand. And it’s very easy when you’re a newer entrepreneur to say. Hey dollars and cents coming from John DOE are just as valuable as coming from Jane Smith. So therefore I will help John DOE in this moment, but if you are creating a brand, any, and everything that you do in your business needs to be reflective of that brand.
[00:34:26] So you can’t. Kind of dabble in a corner somewhere without giving some level of dilution, because if that person is successful or even if they’re not, they are reflective of the people that you serve, which is inconsistent with your brand. The second thing that you have to always remember is. Your brand needs to be communicated across every vertical where you appear from a marketing perspective.
[00:34:47] So it needs to appear on your social media platforms on your website. It needs to appear on print media, logos, business cards. If you still have the virtual or physical. So you have to be thinking about where your messages are going to go. And when you were putting your brand out there, your niche needs to be reflected in that.
[00:35:07] So some of that can be, if the two are going to be tied very closely, some of that can just be the languaging that you use, right? You can always have a tagline. We serve these people with this purpose to accomplish the following. And you kind of use that magic statement. To be reflective of your brand at the same time that it’s reflective of your niche.
[00:35:29] You need to be very consistent though across the various different verticals. And then finally, whatever your niche is, you have to make sure that it has scalability. So while you do want to get super narrow, when you start, you want to have an ability to expand outward. With your niche so that you can frankly, serve more people, have a bigger business, make a bigger impact.
[00:35:52] So the way that I like to use this, you know, Shannon demonstrate this by example is in my own law firm. So when I started my law firm, again, it was based in child abuse and neglect representation, but I’m also very credentialed if you will, in the area of matrimonial law. So I knew that I wanted to have matrimonial law as a division within my law firm, but I didn’t necessarily know that the two of them were going to be.
[00:36:14] Coexisting together and an overlap. I thought they were going to be just separate them. So I wanted to create a message that would convey what I do in both of those different areas. And I decided to create a brand around how we show up. So way we show up for the world is we offer aggressive advocacy and compassionate service.
[00:36:34] Those two things always go hand in hand. So sometimes when I’m litigating a child abuse case, I am an aggressive advocate. You know, I show up in a very. Masculine energy. I show up very commanding. I fight every issue. I never backed down. That is the stance that we take. But when that same client comes into my office and I am preparing them for court, I’m very compassionate.
[00:36:55] So people come into my office and they cry for the first time. They get the opportunity to tell me some of their deepest, darkest secrets. They have the opportunity to feel their statements come out without judgment. I’m using what they’re telling me to create a story for them, but it is not about.
[00:37:11] Trying to cover up for them. And it’s really about trying to mold their story into something that they can believe in that’s the highest and best use of the spirit that they are. So both of those sides, right? Aggressive advocacy and compassionate service reflect the brand. And when I decided to go into a different part of the family part for practice matrimonial law, those same values that comprise my brand could also carry over.
[00:37:36] So that allowed me to serve more people because people going through divorce also needed aggressive advocacy and compassionate service. They also needed a place where they could cry or scream or speak without judgment. And they also needed a place where someone would go fight for them, whatever their issues were.
[00:37:53] So you have to really think about what it is that you stand for at a global level, as a part of the brand. And then when the niche is created, the niche has to be reflective of that value system. Even though the two are not necessarily synonymous.
[00:38:06] Allyson Scammell: That is so good. That is so important. I am going to give you a great example right now of how this can look wrong and like what wrong looks like.
[00:38:17] I got invited. I did to this soul summit, to be a guest speaker and this very nice email from two women who are a part of a company it’s got soul in the title. And, you know, I would be interviewed on their podcast and then featured as a guest speaker and I was really touched and I’m like, Oh, they found me like, wow, they complimented me on my work.
[00:38:38]and the purpose of the summit is really to help soul guided spiritual entrepreneurs to grow prosperous businesses and alignment to their, you know, their heart and they’re, you know, using spiritual tools and all that stuff. So that well. I wanted to just say, yeah, I’ll do this is great. But I thought, no, let me do some research.
[00:38:57] So I found them on Facebook and it looked interesting and they were doing Facebook lives and they’ve got a pretty decent following. And I was like, okay, this is good. I like their topics. I like how they look like all those branding elements I looked at, I was like, okay, that feels aligned. Then I went to their website and on the home page of their website, Is this old stodgy looking man in a very conservative business suit talking about.
[00:39:22]earn income business, very masculine, very earn this. It was some guy’s name. And I was like, eh, like I got like ick, I’m just looking at this guy. No offense to the dude. It just was so off my brand. That I was just like, I just am going to politely decline because I just don’t even know. I just don’t even understand it.
[00:39:47] So that I think is a good example what I mean, maybe that’s an extreme example, but I was just like, Oh no no.
[00:39:51] Allison Williams: no. I think we all have seen it. Like the website is kind of like the perfect examples. I love that you’re using, but like, we all have gone to like, we meet a person and they’re like the coolest person in the world.
[00:40:02] Like they may have like, Funky cool hair and like really bright colored makeup and like a really nice, eclectic style of dress. And then you go to their website and it’s like vanilla. And like all the words are like gray and there’s like skyscrapers. And you’re like, who is this?
[00:40:19] Allyson Scammell: Yeah. Yeah. Yes. And so this is such an important topic and it should be fun.
[00:40:25] I mean, you know, I think this can be like, you know, your brand is that fun, especially if you’re in the services industry and you’re sort of selling yourself, it can be a really fun part of your business and how you can express yourself and express how you want to look and how you want to, how you want people to see you.
[00:40:42]so
[00:40:42] Allison Williams: well, and I think that’s why people have such a hard time with it. Yeah, I, and this is like, this is going to like, you know, poke a little bit at some people, but we all have gone through a self-esteem journey in some way in our lifetime. And some people have parents that really infuse them with positive self-esteem and others.
[00:40:59] Not so much whether it was intentional because you had. you know, an abusive or neglectful parent, or you have simply had a parent that had their own stories about their self-worth and they just didn’t know how to convey to you your true value. So a lot of people struggle with self-esteem issues. And so the idea of selling becomes about I am offering a service.
[00:41:18] So if I can just talk about how I help people, I don’t really have to put myself out there. I don’t have to show up. I don’t have to market myself. And unfortunately that is not the, that is not the case. That’s not the case. Whether you are marketing a multinational corporation or you’re marketing a team of one, you know, chief, cook and bottle washer, people are buying a person, a service, a product that they know like, and trust.
[00:41:44] And they’re buying that whether you are putting yourself out there or you’re putting plain vanilla out there, they’re going to consume some form of representation of you. And if the real you doesn’t show up and then they come and buy the thing that you are selling, the thing that you were marketing there is going to be a disconnect, and you’re not going to reach people in the way that you really want to reach people.
[00:42:04] Allyson Scammell: Yes. Yes. Yes. So let’s go to niching your brand to create scalability. I’d love to hear how we can do that,
[00:42:14] Allison Williams: how that works. Okay. So we talked earlier about this idea of starting small, right? You don’t want to start so small that you have no one to serve. Obviously you want to make sure that there is a market for what you are limiting yourself to, but once you do that, you want to start peeling off the layers.
[00:42:29] So the way that I described this really is the onion. At the center of the onion, you have the core. That is where it is going to cause the most tears to come. If someone were to come into close contact with that part of the onion, but. If you start from the outside and you start peeling away to get to that core, you’re going to have lots of pieces that are going to be available to you that were previously unavailable if you had niched down.
[00:42:53] So again, I use myself as the example. It’s the one example that I know I can use without having any issues with it. With consent. So I consent to use myself. And one of the examples that I talk about is the child abuse practice. So when I first decided that I wanted to help people that were involved in the child welfare system, it was, I want to help parents accused of child abuse.
[00:43:13] Right. And that’s a very limited pool. As I said before, it’s 2% of my state’s population and it’s comparable in States across the United States. So very few people are without a public defender representation in that pool. So I started off just helping people in the court system, accused of child abuse.
[00:43:31] Then I realized, ah, wait, these people also have needs in the agency when the agency makes, an investigation and concludes it without going to court. So then I started to expand to, we help people in courts and agencies. Then I wanted to grow even more. So I said, well, what happens when someone believes their child has been abused and the agency did not make a finding.
[00:43:54] So I don’t just help people who are accused, but I help people that should have a perpetrator found culpable of child abuse. So now I represent people who have been accused falsely, and I also represent people who have not had a real perpetrator brought to justice. Then we wanted to expand further. So it became well in the court system and then the agency system, and through investigations, I help people involved with the issue, but what about people that are going through a divorce?
[00:44:20] What happens when two parties are by law equally entitled to have a relationship with a child when one of them has abused the child. So then we can also help people who have concerns for child abuse, neglect in their divorce matters. So each part of these, like the core was always, I help people.
[00:44:36] Involved with child abuse and neglect, right? that’s the golden nugget. That’s the value system. that’s the help that I want to bring to the world. And then I found different ways of offering that help that were compatible with the original premise. The original premise is I wanted to help the parents who were involved with the system, and then we found different ways of doing that.
[00:44:54] So my suggestion kind of playing this out and applying this to any business across any vertical, known to a business is starting really small. Right? What is the thing that you love to do that you would do all day? Every day? It’s if money was no object, you would never going to have to be compensated for it.
[00:45:13] You would just do it for the love of doing it because it fills your soul. That would be where you’d start. And then you start looking for little offshoots and the little offshoots can be super small. So you can start with a segment and maybe you want to diversify it based on the age of the person, or perhaps you want to diversify based on the region of the country, where they are, or perhaps you want to diversify based on a belief system that they had.
[00:45:35] So it could be people start with you when they already are bought into a system. And your initial when you first niche, but then when you want to expand out, you also want to include people who have done that are compatible with the beliefs of the core group of people that you started with. Then maybe you want to niche out, you know, expand out even further from your niche and add people who are unsure about what their beliefs are.
[00:46:00] So these are the people that. Are not sold on or adverse to your belief system. They just don’t have a defined path yet. So they’re looking for exploration purposes, right? So everything kind of gives you more ways to touch more people, but from the same value system, from the same core belief system, that’s at the heart of it.
[00:46:20] And then as you start to do that, you can start building out. Customized systems, processes, procedures, marketing, and sales verticals for each of those different niches within one business, even though they all started from the same place.
[00:46:34] Allyson Scammell: That is so cool. I love that. And I, you know, as I listened to you speak, I’m like, Ooh, I did that in my own business and I didn’t even realize I was doing it.
[00:46:43] So I’m kind of feeling a little proud of myself. I think what it shows is that I’m in alignment to my business. I feel like, tell me if you agree with this, like, if you find that right niche and you find that alignment, you’ll be able to scale it just the way you did, which is a brilliant example of scaling.
[00:47:00] Allison Williams: Yeah, exactly. It becomes easier. You know, I think what becomes challenging for people is I’ve talked to any number of business owners over the years. Who’ve said when I first sat down with a business coach, they asked me, where do I want to be in 10 years? And the only thing that I can answer is I just want to be out of debt.
[00:47:14] Or I just want to like, you know, have enough incomes and pay my bills, or I just want to have a little bit more in savings, or I want to be able to put my kid through college. Right. So they can’t get to that 10 year vision because they haven’t been able to see more for themselves because they haven’t taken that first step.
[00:47:29] So sometimes it is about taking the first step. And if you start with the niche and the first step is all about the passion, that thing that lights you up, it will keep you going. And what tends to happen then is as you expand, you see more opportunities because it becomes easier for you to envision something beyond where you are.
[00:47:46] Allyson Scammell: Nice. Yes. Alison, my friend, this has been just amazing. You are really gifted at, you know, talking about nuts and bolts, sales topics and conversations in a way that I think really is going to resonate with my audience, who is that soul guided, spiritual entrepreneur, running heart-based businesses.
[00:48:07] It’s I find it rare to find someone who like you who’s really, I feel as strikes. This great balance. I want to thank you so much for sharing your wisdom today on the show. Please tell our listeners. So I know that are going to be very interested in connecting with you more, how they can find you.
[00:48:24] Allison Williams: Yeah, absolutely. So, Allyson, thank you so much for having me on the show. It has been a treat. I have had such a great time talking about this topic and I serve solo and small law firm attorneys who are looking to grow. Their revenues, crush chaos in business and make more money. And we do that through my company, law firm mentor.
[00:48:41] So to find us, you find us at law firm mentor that net and we’re on all the social media platforms. So for the most part, Facebook is just facebook.com forward slash law for a mentor. All of the rest. There is an underscore between law and between, between law and from and mentor. So it’s law underscore from underscore mentor.
[00:49:03] That’s the case on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube. We’re in love with the place.
[00:49:07] Allyson Scammell: Fantastic. And I happen to know there’s lawyers in my audience. So that is perfect. And again, thank you so much for being here.
[00:49:15] Allison Williams: Thanks again.
[00:49:16] Allyson Scammell: Wasn’t that episode? Just so full of useful information. The challenge I want to leave you with this week is to check in, ask yourself how aligned do I feel to my niche, the focus, target audience of my business.
[00:49:38] Ask yourself, do I need to get even more specific? Is there an aspect about it? That’s calling me to go one layer, more narrow, or has something shifted with my audience. So something that was working isn’t anymore, and I need to change an aspect about it. Just spend a little time today or tomorrow tuning into your niche and audience to see what feels most aligned and what is ready to shift, if anything.
[00:50:13] And I also want to thank you so much for listening, and if you’re loving this episode, go ahead and hit subscribe wherever it is you listen. And as always, I’d be so grateful for a rating and review. So more people can find us. And if you’d like help calling an ideal clients, Into your business right now, then download my free checklist to removing the five visibility blocks that are preventing your ideal clients from finding you your offerings are way too important to remain invisible.
[00:50:43] So this checklist will help you be seen and get. Fully booked. You can find a link to download on my website, AllysonScammell.com as well as in the show notes.