How I Lost Clients By Refusing to Niche Down
Avoiding niching down is costing you the very clients you want. I know from bitter experience.
Trying to niche down feels like being on a gameshow.
You’ve got $5k winnings, hardly life changing, but in the next round, it’s all or nothing.
Stick - Keep the $5k and end the game.
Gamble - Risk the $5k, by picking one of 20 doors and there is $1,000,000 behind one door.
How do you pick which door?
What if I pick the wrong door?
That’s why so many of us resist it.
It feels like a gamble.
It feels safer to take the $5k and run.
But is it the safer move to leave the $1,000,000?
This is the exact struggle I had and many others have too.
I’ll share with you my journey on this niching dilemma.
I Was Afraid To Niche Down
I was scared to niche down.
The idea of being known as “the LinkedIn guy” felt limiting.
I didn’t want to be boxed in or lose out on opportunities.
My marketing was messy, my message blurred. People engaged with my content, but they didn’t buy, they bought from others instead.
By avoiding focus, I was actually losing LinkedIn opportunities.
I remember a coach, who I’d need connected with for years. I’d had a few calls with him, He’d bought some of my mini-courses. Yet, he never made the leap to by more main program.
Then I found out he’d bought from my competitor:
“Thanks Dean for your offer. I’m not doing anymore training right now, I’ve just invested in LTs course. She has a load of experience working with coaches. Perhaps when I complete this, I’ll look again”
F*CK!
Someone who liked my stuff. Someone who had bought from me before.
He went somewhere else because he thought someone else was a better fit for his business.
He didn’t realise I could help him.
He didn’t see I have experience with his market
I was unclear.
This was my fault.
People don’t buy from someone who might be for them, they buy from someone they know is for them.
The Shift For Me
I’d love to say I learned my lesson quickly. I didn’t.
After 18 months of frustration, I reached a point where I didn’t give a f*ck.
I’d been kicked in the teeth too many times and I’d got the point where my blood was boiling.
“Why are they doing so well?”
“I’m better than them”
“I know I can help X better”
I was angry.
This is the issue with wrapping up your identity with your business. I could not focus on a niche for my business because my identity was entangled with it.
If you look at any Hollywood celebrity, entrepreneur, or public figure, they all have a break through doing one thing really really well.
Liam Neeson - Taken / Action Genre Movies
Bill Gates - Windows Operating System
Coca-Cola - Medical tonic for joint pain.
They nailed one thing, then broadened out. They decided to do one thing well. They got success there and then, they expanded their scope or offering.
Over the next 90 days, I decided to own my niche.
My content more gained traction.
My message started to resonate and get feedback
I started focusing on getting leads for my niche.
It was a wobble at first, that first month I was always fighting my instinct to go broad.
But it worked.
In that 90-day period, I went from struggling to sell to closing $150k of new business, three times more than the past quarter.
$1,000,000 behind one door
My analogy was wrong earlier.
But it highlights how we think about niching down.
Our human need for binary right or wrong answers is what trips us up.
“There is no single correct answer to a problem. There are often several possible answers, some of them contradictory, which can all be right. The danger is to assume there is only one.”
— Rory Sutherland, Alchemy
We think there is $1,000,000 behind one door.
That makes us worry about choosing the right door.
It makes us wonder what happens to us if we pick the wrong door. Is there a cataclysmic disaster waiting for us?
We also worry about someone else getting the right door.
That’s all a distraction from the truth… There is a $1,000,000 behind every door.
It’s about our willingness to pursue it.
Our willingness to walk through and accept it, not worrying about was the other doors easier.
But it starts not by finding a niche, but choosing it and owning it.
Choosing Your Niche
Here’s a 3-part framework I recommend for choosing a niche:
Niche = (Skills you have) + (Pain they pay to solve) + (People you like & can reach)
1. Skills & Credibility
What do you already know how to do that gets results?
Where do you have real experience (work, life, or both)?
👉 This makes sure you can deliver confidently and not feel like an imposter.
2. Market Pain & Demand
Who actually hurts enough to pay for help?
Is the pain costing them time, money, or stress?
👉 If there’s no urgent pain, it’s a hobby audience — not a business niche.
3. Access & Fit
Can you reach these people easily (LinkedIn, groups, referrals)?
Do you actually like talking to them?
👉 If you hate the people, you’ll never market consistently.
I learned the hard way that niching isn’t about my identity.
It isn’t about shrinking yourself into a box.
It’s business decision.
It’s a tool to be profitable.
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