The Power of Niching Down

You can learn a lot from Tommy Lee Jones.

He went to Harvard.

He played college football.

And he’s known to drop gruff Texan wisdom, like this gem from Men in Black:

“A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.”
-Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones), Men in Black

That’s some hardcore truth… and it’s especially relevant these days.

Surreal, Scary Times

If you want evidence, go your nearest grocery store and survey what you see.

I went to HEB (Texas supermarket) yesterday and witnessed herd-mentality on full display:

People rushing around like wall-eyed gazelles, darting in and out of aisles, speed-pushing their carts to grab the last few packs of toilet paper.

One guy in a trucker hat and flannel shirt piled his cart so high with paper goods, water, cases of beer, steaks, chips, and snacks it was about to topple over.

But I’m not here to judge anybody… Covid-19 is dangerous.

But the real danger is the mental contagion of herd behavior.

People see other people freak out, and start freaking out themselves… the panic multiplies, and that’s when things get serious.

When that happens, the more you need to mentally quarantine your brain and think for yourself.

Never imitate what other people are doing, just because you *think* they know something you don’t. (Which happens during panic buying).

That’s a lesson for life in general… and it applies to online business just as much.

When you’re in the early stages especially, there’s a strong temptation to look at people ‘killing it’ online and think “I should do what they’re doing!”

…Even if it means changing your business model midstream and throwing away months (or years) of hard work.

Resist the urge. It’s deadly.

First off, you don’t actually know they’re having success… it could be smoke and mirrors. (The more experienced you become, the easier it is tell tell the real from BS).

Second, and more importantly, for people who actually are killing it, you don’t see all the time and effort that went into getting their business dialed-in.

There’s nothing magical about their particular niche. They did WORK.

They put in the hours to figure things out and build their core competencies.

If you’re bouncing around from idea to idea, inspiration to inspiration, I guarantee you’re not putting in the focused time required to be successful.

My Path

When I started off as a copywriter, all I wanted to do was write long-form sales copy.

Then, after a couple years at Golden Hippo Media (where I lived and breathed direct response copy every day), I wanted a change.

I saw what people like Peep Laja were doing and thought, “Conversion Optimization! That seems a lot cooler than this lame, hyped-up sales copy stuff.”

So I dipped my toe into the CRO world… but pretty soon, realized it’s too tech-heavy for my tastes (I’m allergic to code).

Around that time’s when I had my come-to-Jesus moment and decided to go all-in on my “one thing” (which is email marketing.)

When I did, I finally started to gain traction.

Prospecting became easier, because I knew who I wanted to target…

Client calls became easier, because I had 100% clarity around my service offerings…

Closing deals became easier, because I knew the effect my work could have on their bottom line.

Now, there’s nothing magical about email… the only “secret sauce” was in the decision to go all-in on one thing.

So if you’re agonizing over picking a niche, my advice is… just pick one.

There’s a bunch of different ways to do it:

*By specialty: (Conversion copy, old-school direct response, UX copy, web copy)
*By deliverable (Landing pages, sales pages, emails, white papers, chat bots)
*By vertical (Service businesses, coaches/consultants, ecommerce, SaaS, tech)

And on and on, with various combinations of the above.

Once you’ve picked your “thing,” my hard-won advice is to go all in on it.

Do it. Study it. Talk about it.

Avoid the herd mentality — stay focused, put in the work, and the results will happen.