People ask me all the time, what helped me be successful as a consultant and I was really successful. It was financially lucrative, I was making about 25k per month and only 25 hours per week. I was my own boss. I could work whenever I wanted from wherever I wanted and I was the expert for these companies. I added a lot of value which was obviously a lot of fun.

When I tell people what made me successful, one of the most important things was a narrowly defined clear niche. This means packaging all of my experiences into literally one, maybe two sentences of what can I do for a company. This was really challenging for me at the beginning and it took me months to iterate. So if it feels hard for you, that’s okay, you’re in good company.

In my first few months of consulting, I would pitch myself as - I worked in operations at Uber, that was the pitch. That’s what made sense to me. That’s how I always describe myself and that’s how I went forward with clients. The problem was nobody outside of Uber knew what operations at Uber actually meant. Operations means a bunch of different things at different companies. And two, it didn’t separate me from any of my colleagues at Uber. There were thousands of us in operations so I wasn’t differentiating myself at all. But most importantly, it didn’t communicate the value that I can add to a company.

Most people default to a statement like this because it just feels natural and it’s hard to come up with a much more specific ‘value add’ kind of statement. But the problem is, it’s one of the most important things for a new consultant to get right and telling people that you worked in operations at Uber, for example, isn’t going to communicate much.

Creating a niche statement is all about showcasing the value that you add to a company and differentiating yourself from others in the market. With that said, I’ll share how I created a niche that really worked for my consulting business.

As I mentioned, when I first started consulting, I would lead with - I worked in operations at Uber. After a few months of iteration and learning what really landed for clients, I ended up with a niche - I’m expert at launching two and three-sided marketplaces for early stage companies given my experience launching Ubereats in both Miami and Milan. With that niche statement, it’s very clear what the value I add is and who I add that value for. So there’s no ambiguity of what does operations mean. It’s very clear what I do.

What helped me come up with this statement was, first, writing down all the biggest accomplishments in my career. It doesn’t have to be a long list, it could be only three or four things but the most impactful things that you’ve done in your career to date. And then once you have that list of accomplishments, you can write down the skills that you had that enabled you to accomplish those things and you might want to include some of those skills in your niche. 

Once you have the list of accomplishments and the skills, you can start working on drafting that sentence. It can be two sentences but you do want it to be very concise, showcasing the value that you add and how you’re different from other consultants in the area.

Coming up with this niche sentence isn’t an easy thing to do and you’re going to iterate it over time. As you work through this draft that you initially have, share with colleagues, share with friends, maybe share it with a coach and get some feedback to see - is it concise? Does it clearly communicate what value you add? This is going to be the key to get you those high monthly retainers and close way more clients.

Tomorrow’s training will be all about rates and earning the true value that you deserve. See you tomorrow!