The fastest way to succeed in business, is to become known for solving a specific problem.  

 

Let that sink in, because this is SO important.

 

The fastest way to succeed in business, is to become known for solving a specific problem.

 

Becoming known as a specialist is the #1 way to create tremendous momentum in your business, even if you are a complete beginner.

Because when you’re known for solving a specific problem, it becomes very easy for other people to spread the word about what it is you do.

“Oh, you want to grow your YouTube subscribers? You need to talk to James Wedmore.”

“Oh, you’re struggling with managing a business and balancing motherhood? You need to talk to Kate Northrup.”

“Oh, you want to eat a plant based diet? You’ve got to check out Kris Carr.”

The point is, people can’t spread the word about what you do if you try to help people with “everything”.

This is especially important in a large market. Buyers are searching for answers and they are looking for someone who really knows a lot about that particular subject.

So, you (or your company) want to be known for solving a particular problem.  You want to be known as THE go-to expert (or resource) in a particular area.

Let me give you an example:

The goal with my business is to help all entrepreneurs. That’s my big “why?”.

I want to help entrepreneurs build a business that is high profit and low in stress.

Because, I believe when we as entrepreneurs have a business that’s high in profit and low in stress, we’ll be much more open to giving to the people and causes that we’re passionate about.  And when we do that together, we have the power to make this world a better place.

That’s my objective… but that’s a really big objective, right?

So, I’m not starting there.

I started in a particular niche that I’m knowledgeable about.

I serve entrepreneurs by helping them develop a recurring stream of revenue using membership sites.

By being known as the “go-to guy” for membership sites, I’m able to consistently help entrepreneurs gain high profit with low stress by using the recurring revenue model in their business.

So, if you want to become known as a top specialist, here’s what you need to do:

 

STEP #1:  Start with a specific niche you want to serve

 

If you want to gain the maximum amount of momentum, you need to first narrow down WHO you want to serve.

And, I “get it”.  You want to help everyone.  That’s natural.  But it’s VERY hard to build momentum trying to serve “everyone”.

So, narrow it down.

Do you help beginners in your market?  Seasoned pros?

Is there a group of people within your market that you serve?

You narrow down your niche the same way you honed in on your specialty.

For example, last night I had dinner with an entrepreneur that has seen her business grow like gangbusters over the last three years.  And as I began talking to her, I could understand why.

Her website is http://www.workingagainstgravity.ca.  It’s a site that helps create customized nutrition plans for people looking to live a healthy lifestyle.  They then have coaches that work with you to make sure the plan works and you get the results you’re after.

Ok, sounds good, right?

But then I started asking a few questions, and Adee (the founder), mentioned something that immediately grabbed my attention.

I asked, “Who typically signs up for your site?”

She responded, “We have a lot of CrossFit athletes who use our service.  In fact, some of the top CrossFit athletes in the world use our service”.

Stop right there.

Customized nutrition plans for people looking to live a healthy life is broad.

But, customized nutrition plans for CrossFit athletes, much more narrow.

So, what’s happened is that word has spread amongst the CrossFit community that this is the service you need to use if you’re looking to improve your performance and recover faster from your CrossFit workouts.

CrossFit athletes are driven people.  They are always looking to better their performance.  So, if these customized nutrition plans will give them an edge, they’re all ears.

And now, she can’t onboard coaches fast enough to meet the demand that she’s facing.  And, in three years they’ve grown the service to serve thousands and thousands of monthly, recurring members (gotta love that subscription revenue… yeh baby!).

The point is, when you narrow down your market, the word will spread faster.

Next, is to identify one to three major problems that your market is facing. Then, pick one of them where you can offer specific solutions that get results.

 

STEP #2:  Look for pain points

 

One of the strategies that I highly recommend is once you know WHO you want to serve, now start looking for specific pain points. What are the external problems that your market is facing? What are they going to Google and seek a solution for?

People are online everyday searching for answers. They are always looking for a way to solve their problems. One of the best questions you can ask yourself is, “What solution do I have for someone else’s pain?”

One way to do this is to research Facebook groups, forums, or other places where people gather online. What are they struggling with? What kinds of questions are they asking?  What frustrates them?  What do they want to do faster?  Easier?

You want to make note of the struggles and challenges they are reporting to their peers. The more frustrated they are, the more likely it is that they will be willing to connect with someone who can help them.

So identify the specific pain points that stand out.

Here’s the key…

DO THE RESEARCH.

I know.  It’s not sexy.  It’s not fun.  But this is the stuff that makes your marketing efforts 10X more effective.

So do the research.  Find the problems!

 

STEP #3 – Become a specialist at solving a specific problem

 

This is where it all comes together.

It’s very valuable to you and your business when you can become the go-to guy or gal for solving a specific problem. You want to be top of mind when somebody has that problem or when they have a friend who has that problem so that they immediately think of you.

So, for me, when anybody brings up the topic of membership sites or recurring revenue, it’s common that my name is mentioned.  

 

In fact, recently someone (Michael Lovitch) who hosts really high events for entrepreneurs, made a Facebook post and asked the following:

Do you see what happened?

Within minutes, I had LOTS of people referring my name.

Sure there were a couple other people that were mentioned.  But for a lot of people, my name was the first one that popped into their head.

I am the person that comes to mind and that’s where I’ve been building my positioning and my particular platform. As a result, I get requests every single day for coaching, consulting and all that kind of stuff based on people who have referred me, and the reason is because I’m known for something specific.

 

To sum it all up . . .

 

The fastest way to become THE go-to guy or gal in your industry is to become a specialist.

Select a particular niche that you want to work in. Then, search out and find the specific problems people in that niche are experiencing.  Then, make it your mission to become a specialist at solving a particular problem. That’s how you become the go-to expert and that’s how you gain the most momentum.

 

 

There is a question that you and I absolutely need to know the answer to.

If we don’t, our business and everything that we’re doing is in serious trouble.

More on that in a second…


I recently met with a client to map out her membership site strategy. She is a doctor who serves women over 40 dealing with menopause.

This is a market that I have never dealt with. It was fresh for me. It was all new.

…boy, did I learn a lot (LOL).

The key thing is that this particular client really wants to help women in this age bracket live a healthy and happy life. That is her ultimate goal.

But… that’s a really big goal for a really big market! It’s really hard to crack through and separate yourself from everybody else when you aim so broad.

I encouraged her, “Look, one of the things that we absolutely want to do is to get specific. Because if we’re trying to be everything to everyone, we’re not going to be anything to anyone. It’s going to be a lot harder to get people’s attention that way.”

Here’s what I mean. Back when I was beginning to rebuild my personal brand, I knew I had to get specific.

I asked myself, “What are you known for?”

If you don’t know how to answer that question, chances are people have no idea how to share with others what it is you do.

I asked this client the same thing. “What do you want to be known for? What could you become known for now that would help you build a ton of momentum down the road?”

Building my brand, I realized that I want to help ALL entrepreneurs. I want to help them make a lot more money and I want to inspire them to give a ton of that money away to the causes and people they’re passionate about.

…but I couldn’t start there.

The thing that ended up bringing focus and clarity for me was deciding, “I want to be known for helping entrepreneurs produce recurring revenue.”

That made sense because it was built on my expertise and experience.

Having built a software company that powered tens of thousands of online membership communities, building multiple seven-figure membership sites, and working with some of the world’s top membership site owners, I know what works.

Because of this, it’s easy for me to focus on membership sites. It makes sense for me to be known as the membership site guy.

Even though I want to help all entrepreneurs in all kinds of different ways, to begin with I had to narrow my approach.

Being specific about what I’m known for helped me create a lot more momentum a lot faster than if I started with the broad approach.

The same goes for you.

Imagine your friends or colleagues chatting with somebody else who has a problem that you can help solve. They’re talking to your ideal customer.

Will they know that you are the person who solves that problem? If someone were to tell others about you, would they mention that very thing?

Your area of expertise should come across in your messaging so that when people have a problem that’s related to the very thing that you are known for, you are the one they think about.

That’s really where you’ve got to put your energy – especially in the beginning.

Later, you can branch out and go more broad. But, in the beginning, you are going to create way more momentum if you are focused on one specific thing.

Then, when people have those kinds of problems, boom … you are top of mind.

If you’re not known for anything specific, it’s really hard for people to spread the message.

You’re fighting an uphill battle trying to get attention in this world of nonstop noise, and you’re not standing out in any one particular way.

People want problems solved. They’re seeking solutions. If you become known for a certain solution, you’re going to gain a lot more traction.

Get specific. Ask yourself, “What do I want to be known for?”

You’ve got to be known for something and that’s got to come across in all of your messaging.

Focus on that and I guarantee you’ll gain a lot more momentum, and you’ll start to see better results from your marketing.