The “Expertise Expert” himself, David C. Baker, joined me on Ditching Hourly to talk about the five things that happen right after you specialize.
Summary
Here is an AI summary of the key points from the episode:
The episode is a discussion between Jonathan Stark and David C. Baker about positioning and specialization for consultants and professional services firms.
They discuss the importance of niche positioning to stand out, attract ideal clients, see client patterns more clearly, accelerate learning, and always have things to write and talk about.
They outline 5 things that happen after narrowing your business focus:
- You don't instantly become smarter, but your rate of learning accelerates because you start seeing more examples of your niche.
- Impostor syndrome kicks in because you're making expertise-based claims you didn't make before, but this fear is often unfounded because you were willing to work with those clients previously.
- You don't have to turn down unrelated work right away during the transition period, though over time, you'll likely feel unsatisfied with off-target projects.
- You immediately start narrowing your focus even further, fine-tuning your positioning through real-world conversations and testing.
- Counterintuitively, you'll have way more to write and talk about when focused on a niche than as a generalist.
Jonathan and David emphasize that niche positioning is critical before you can effectively differentiate, charge value-based pricing, market yourself, or even decide what content to produce. It brings focus to everything that follows.
About David C. Baker
“The Leading Authority on Positioning, Reinventing, and Selling Firms in the Creative and Digital Space.”
David C. Baker is the author of five books, three of which focus on the central elements of the business of expertise: positioning, financial management, and leadership. David speaks regularly on more than 70 topics relevant to entrepreneurial expertise, from 20 executives to 5,000 live on TV worldwide, and has worked with 900+ firms through his Total Business Review process.
David's Links
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