Every heading below is a phrase taken directly from its own paragraph, so no words were added. I only capitalized the headings, and the article text is unchanged.The One Area Where You Should Narrow Your Focus Is Your Offer, Not Your Content
The Only Place You Should Niche Down Is Your Offer Not Your Content
The only place you should niche down is your offer, not your content. I’m going to share with you how I turn all of my passions and interests into products that I sell without niching down. The biggest stumbling block that people our age have in starting anything online, whether it’s a YouTube channel, writing on Substack, or heck, even writing books, is that we have so much lived experience, so many interests and topics that are bouncing around in our heads like a pinball machine, and it’s hard to settle on just one.
I Help People Over 40 Turn Their Lived Experience into Income
If you’re new here, I’m Solo Shannon, and I help people over 40 turn their lived experience into income with digital products, books, and coaching programs. It’s actually quite simple and easy to understand, but the hardest part for most people is choosing just one direction. The moment we’re told to narrow our focus and stick to a single topic, we start to feel anxious. We worry that we’ll be restricted or trapped in one specific area.
Very Specific, Hyper-Niched Products Instead of You Being the Niche
I don’t want to just talk about making money, and neither do you. You want to share your interests and your experience with people who can benefit from it, and the way that you do that is through having very specific, hyper-niched products instead of you being the niche. Right here on Solo Shannon is my hub.
I Also Have Spokes Coming Off of This Wheel
This is where everything started, and it’s where I’ve learned to do this work, but I also have spokes coming off of this wheel, and those folks are my different interests, different digital products, and books that I have in different categories. Come on, let’s go over to my Substack. Let’s take a look at my Substack and how I have divided it into sections.
Substack Allows You to Create Publication Sections
Substack allows you to create publication sections, so for instance, I have the Midlife Writers Club and Second Act Studio, both within my Solo Shannon publication, and what this allows me to do is have different lists with different interests. Let’s go over and take a look at my, my catalog. This is my course catalog that I have for Solo Shannon, and you can see that I have different interests and categories on here.
The Algorithm Is So Sophisticated Now
I’ve got a Substack Master Class, I have a Midlife Writers Toolkit, and I have the Faith Formula Workshop. These are all completely different topics, um, but I talk about them all right here from this channel and from my Substack, and they’re completely different audiences. You see, the algorithm is so sophisticated now that it understands how to match your content with the right viewer, and that’s exactly what you’re looking for.
Your Content Aligns to the Right Buyer for Your Product
You’re not looking to build a viral audience on YouTube or Substack; you’re looking for your content to align to the right buyer for your product, and Substack and YouTube make that so easy to do together. Anytime I write a post or make a video on those topics, it goes out to the right people. So look at my video content.
So Many Different Topics Just on This Top Row
You can see right off the bat what I’m talking about here. I have got so many different topics just on this top row. These first two videos right here, they relate to my Substack Master Class, and then “Get Paid to Lead” and “Get Paid to Guide” and “The Faith Boom,” well, they lead to my Faith Workshop, and “Sell What You Know” leads to my Midlife Writers Toolkit.
You Do Not Have to Niche Down
Each of my videos, each of my Substack posts, lead to different categories of products, and that doesn’t even count the other spokes on my hub. Creating a business that works for you has never, ever been easier. You don’t have to hustle all over the place either. You simply need a little patience and self-discipline to focus on completing one task at a time, but there’s no need to narrow down your niche.
My Very First Post on Substack
You don’t have to box yourself in, and you can grow and expand as, as you go along. I like to tell people this all the time: if you come over to my Substack and you look at my oldest post, I wasn’t talking about anything that I’m talking about now. My very first post on Substack was about getting Google text reviews from physical customers at a local business.
How Much I Have Evolved and Changed
It doesn’t have anything to do with what I talk about now, and you can go through my entire list and see how much I have evolved and changed over the course of the last year, but it wasn’t until I started writing and making videos on a regular basis that I was able to figure this out. You never just go right into this and have it down pat.
One Thing That Substack Is Really Great at Is Giving You Data
You can sit there and study other people and make lists and brainstorm with Claude and ChatGPT all you want to, but until you actually start writing or posting videos, you’re not going to have the data that you need to evolve your business, and one thing that Substack is really great at is giving you data. Now, you can see that my very first post got 147 views, and my next one only got 83, but then you start moving forward and my views start going up.
My Sixth Post Got 11,000 Views
My sixth post got 11,000 views, and the reason why is because I figured out how to do something that Substack doesn’t natively allow us to do, and that’s to sell products directly from our newsletter. I solved the problem for myself, and then I shared it with my audience, and that is how I started getting my first clients and my first digital product sale. It’s all about solving a problem, a very specific problem, not something generic.
You Can Start for Free on Substack
The reason that these products sell so well, my Substack Master Class, it walks people through how to set up an entire business on Substack. It solves the biggest problem people have, and that’s “I don’t have money to start anything.” Well, guess what? You can start for free on Substack, and in the Master Class, I solved the problem of not having any money to invest in a business.
They Feel Awkward Selling Things
In the Faith Formula Workshop, I solved the most common stumbling block for people who are trying to begin spiritual coaching or, uh, being a faith-based teacher, and that’s that they feel awkward selling things. They don’t know how to ethically monetize, um, their work so that they can support themselves doing it and still see it as a service or a ministry to other people. So I help them solve that problem by showing them how to ethically become a spiritual or faith-based coach or writer, and none of this happened from day one, but it did happen from day 17.
Day 17 Was When I Made My First Sale
Day 17 was when I made my first sale, and I got my first client from writing this one post, solving a problem. I didn’t even make a YouTube video about it. When I started this a year ago, I never in a million years dreamed that I would be number 28 rising on the Substack bestseller list. The only way I got there was just to start, and that is probably where you’re stuck today.
I Just Want You to Start Writing
If you are, here’s what I want you to do: I just want you to start writing. It is the only way that you’re going to figure out what works for you and what your audience really wants from you, and what they want is for you to solve their problem. They’re not really interested in your story or anything else. They don’t care.
Taking Their Own Journey to the Next Level
What they care about is taking their own journey to the next level, and if you can help them do that, that is when they begin to care. Writing on Substack has 100% changed my life. It’s changed the way that I view being able to run a business on my own, one that doesn’t burn me out and that I’m happy to do every single day.
I Come in This Little Office and I Do My Work
Every day, I come in this little office and I do my work just like when I had a job. The difference is I can get up and take breaks whenever I want to. I can work at any time of day or night or not at all, and the responsibility is completely on me. When I tell people that Substack has changed my life, I don’t say that lightly.
I Was Just Out There Spinning My Wheel
Until I started writing on Substack, I was just out there spinning my wheel. I had no idea where I was going, what I was doing, or how to really build anything. I had already tried all of the advice from the social media gurus, and “Oh, just post on Instagram and TikTok and riches will blow your way.” That isn’t true. I had to find that out the hard way, but you probably already know that the only way to make a sustainable income on your own terms is to start.
If You Never Want to Step Foot in Front of a Camera
If you’re not a writer and you want to make videos, then you can do it here on YouTube. If you’re not comfortable appearing on camera, that’s completely fine. You can build this entirely through written content; it may simply take a little more time to see results.
Substack and YouTube Together in a Loop to Feed Each Other
The reason that I’ve been able to get to this point in one year’s time is because I use Substack and YouTube together in a loop to feed each other. I make a YouTube video, I embed it in my Substack post, I write a Substack post, I drop that into the description box and the pinned comment of my video, and it’s as easy as that. I do use Pinterest, not as consistently as I, as I probably should, and I’m not running any apps yet.
I Was Flat Broke, and I Was at the End of My Rope
Writing on Substack allowed me to get started completely for free when I didn’t have any more money to invest. I was flat broke, and I was at the end of my rope, but 17 days into that journey, things started to move. If you’ve been struggling to find your way online, to find your voice, hit that like and subscribe, because that’s what this channel is all about: is helping you on your journey.
Two Very Simple Paid Products and One Free Product
I don’t have any high-ticket coaching programs or thousand courses I’m going to try to sell you. You saw exactly what I offer: two very simple paid products and one free product that have replaced my corporate income, and I’ve done it in one year’s time, and you can too. I’m Solo Shannon, and we’ll talk again soon. Bye, y’all!
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