Learn how Emily transitioned to a profitable niche in tech industry through personal experiences. Topics include positioning in business, leveraging skills for success, embracing career changes, and navigating niche markets. Recommendations include taking improv classes and reading 'Thinking in Bets' by Annie Duke.
Identifying a profitable niche involves leveraging personal skills and experiences for career evolution.
Positioning in business requires CEO involvement for successful perception alignment across departments.
Inclusive collaboration with key team members ensures effective positioning, especially in open source industry growth.
Deep dives
Positioning as Part of Company Identity
Positioning is not just a marketing exercise but an integral part of a company's identity. CEOs must actively participate in positioning as it defines how the company is perceived, aligning teams from marketing to product services.
Challenges of Changing Positioning
Changing positioning can be complex, involving alignment across all departments. Illustrated with an example from Hodger, where the CEO's limited involvement caused struggles in repositioning, emphasizing the necessity of CEO ownership for successful positioning.
Inclusive Positioning Process
Involving representatives from various departments, especially customer-facing ones like sales and customer service, in the positioning process is crucial. This collaborative approach ensures insights from across the company are considered for effective positioning.
Managing Influential Team Members
Identifying and involving key team members, especially founders or VPs leading major departments, in the positioning process is essential to prevent potential sabotage. This inclusive approach ensures the alignment of key stakeholders in shaping and implementing the new positioning.
Explosion of Open Source Startups
The open source industry is experiencing significant growth, attracting interest and investment. Specializing in open source positioning presents valuable opportunities due to the expanding market and potential strategic benefits of open source approaches in business.
Balancing Community and Capitalism
Working with open source founders involves navigating the tension between community building and commercial success. This dual dynamic mirrors internal struggles, making it an attractive challenge for those who align with both creative and business-driven mindsets.
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Emily is a former journalist and content writer. Through a tragic event, she understood and used her professional and personal experiences and skills to reposition herself, identifying a niche in the tech industry, leading to significant success in her newly chosen field.
Emily's story is nothing short of inspiring. This episode is a blend of heartfelt storytelling and hardcore business strategy.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
The essence of positioning in business
How to transition from offering everything to everyone to finding an undiscovered, yet profitable, niche
How to identify your skills and leverage them to make money
Resources and Recommendations:
Suggestion: Taking an improv class to build confidence and adaptability in business and public speaking.
"Improvisation and the Theatre" by Keith Johnstone
"Thinking in Bets" by Annie Duke
Topics Covered:
(00:00) - Intro
(02:37) - The importance of positioning in business
(07:33) - Who can ruin your positioning?
(12:10) - Why 99% of business is b*lls
(14:14) - Leveraging experience and skills for career evolution