0:00

So you've niche down, but is it

0:02

the right niche? Is the problem your

0:04

niche? Or is the problem how you're

0:06

applying your niche in social media? Is

0:08

the reason why you're not getting results

0:10

because you've picked the wrong niche? Or

0:12

is it because you're applying the wrong

0:14

strategy to your niche when you're promoting

0:17

it in social media? This episode of

0:19

Build Your Tribe is for you. If

0:21

you already know the importance of niche,

0:23

you don't need to be convinced of

0:25

that. What you're not sure is if

0:27

you've chosen the right niche, if you've

0:29

picked one that's maybe too

0:31

narrow, maybe your niche is

0:34

oversaturated, or maybe the

0:36

problem is your approach to

0:38

social media. Hey, I'm Shaline

0:41

Johnson, co-host of Build Your Tribe,

0:43

and the other half of this

0:45

team is my son, Brock. Brock

0:47

and I do this podcast together.

0:49

We kind of go back and

0:51

forth with content. Try to give

0:53

you a couple different perspectives. The

0:55

other thing that we do together is

0:57

we coach people with their strategy on

0:59

social media, specifically Instagram. So we have

1:01

a coaching membership program. It's called Insta

1:04

Club Hub. And the reason why I

1:06

mention that is because Brock and I

1:08

were recently auditing our members. And we

1:10

discovered something that we do for our

1:12

members when they sign up to become

1:15

an annual member. And I'm going to

1:17

break it all down for you in

1:19

this episode. But what we discovered is

1:21

that for some of almost 50-50, when

1:24

we were auditing our members, we do

1:26

a complete review of their account. And

1:28

this is something that we do for

1:30

our members when they sign up to

1:32

become an annual member. They get a

1:35

review of their account. And recently we

1:37

discovered people fell into three different

1:39

groups. they just hadn't figured

1:41

out their niche yet. That's

1:43

not you. Number two were the

1:45

people who had figured out their

1:47

niche, but had probably

1:50

selected the wrong niche. And the

1:52

third group of people were people

1:54

who had chosen the right niche,

1:56

but their strategy in

1:58

social media would. missing the

2:00

mark. So in this episode, what I

2:02

wanna do is give you a

2:04

really simple way for you to do

2:06

your own audit to the best

2:09

of your ability. Now it's kind of

2:11

hard sometimes to look at your

2:13

own content and realize what mistakes you're

2:15

making. Sometimes we're too close to

2:17

the problem to see the solution. So

2:19

what I wanna do is take

2:21

you through a series of questions. First,

2:23

to determine if in fact you

2:25

have chosen the right niche. So you

2:27

just simply answer yes or no

2:29

to these questions. Number one, are you

2:31

aware of other people who have

2:33

been successful in the same niche? When

2:35

you have free time, do you

2:37

naturally wanna learn more about this topic?

2:40

Do you find yourself excited to

2:42

talk about this in real life, not

2:44

just in social media? Outside of

2:46

social media, do people ask you questions

2:48

about this topic? If there was

2:50

no financial payoff, would you still be

2:52

excited to post about this type

2:54

of content? In the arena, in the

2:56

area that you've niched down, do

2:58

you have kind of a unique perspective

3:00

or a kind of a different

3:02

way of looking at it or maybe

3:04

even your own personal experience? It

3:06

doesn't have to be like groundbreaking, but

3:08

like you've got some kind of

3:10

unique take on this particular topic. Do

3:13

you have a relatively unique take

3:15

or something that's a very personal reason

3:17

why you're interested in this niche?

3:19

When you're creating content or talking about

3:21

this topic, does it get you

3:23

energized or do you feel drained? Do

3:25

you have a never ending list

3:27

of ideas and things you wanna talk

3:29

about as it relates to the

3:31

subject? Are you truly passionate about helping

3:33

people related to the subject, this

3:35

niche? Do you have strong opinions about

3:37

this subject? Are you drawn to

3:39

other types of content, whether it's on

3:41

TV or research or I guess

3:44

it depends on your niche, but are

3:46

you drawn to this type of

3:48

content, this subject outside of social media?

3:50

And not that you need to

3:52

be the person who's the most knowledgeable

3:54

about this particular subject, but do

3:56

you feel very confident when you're discussing

3:58

this subject? And lastly, do you

4:00

feel like there's a solution or a

4:02

way to help? people in this specific area. If you

4:04

answered yes to 80% of those questions, there's a very good chance. You've

4:06

got the right niche. One thing you don't have to

4:08

worry about is your niche oversaturated. I

4:11

promise no matter what your niche is,

4:13

there's enough people in the world for you

4:15

to make a viable living from this, to

4:17

attract the right kind of people in social

4:19

media. I don't care what it is. The

4:22

only thing you might want to consider is

4:24

could you niche down even further? So

4:26

the more competitive your particular niches,

4:28

the more important it is

4:30

for you to niche down even further. Let

4:32

me give you a perfect example. And by

4:34

the way, you can change your niche all

4:37

the time. I will say that right now,

4:39

my niche on Instagram specifically

4:41

is helping menopausal women who want

4:43

to live vibrantly, who need help

4:45

with their hormones. Well, guess

4:48

what? There's a bajillion people in

4:50

this niche. Menopoz is literally having

4:52

a moment. But my specific niche, the

4:54

way I've niche down even further, is

4:56

I specifically help women understand how they

4:59

need to exercise and eat in order

5:01

to help manage the chaos of their

5:03

hormones. That's how I've niche down even

5:05

further. So I'm not just speaking

5:07

generally about hormones or generally about

5:09

menopausal. I'm speaking specifically about adding

5:12

muscle and what type of cardiovascular

5:14

workout you need to do and

5:16

how you need to change your

5:18

approach to nutrition. So that's my

5:20

specific niche. I help people specifically

5:22

by... showing them how to do

5:24

that, helping them through that process

5:27

through my digital platforms.

5:29

So what is your niche? Because

5:31

oftentimes when, again, I'm auditing, Brock

5:33

and I are auditing some of

5:36

our members and we're looking, they've

5:38

selected a niche, if you will,

5:40

but they're still so broad and

5:42

their broad category that

5:45

they're nicheing down in,

5:47

if you will, and that broad

5:49

category is highly saturated. Let me

5:51

give you an analogy. If you're

5:53

a realtor in New York City

5:55

and you simply say, I sell

5:57

condos and apartments and home...

6:00

to people who are looking to purchase.

6:02

You don't have a specific neighborhood and

6:04

you don't have a specific clientele, aka

6:06

an avatar. In order to truly understand

6:09

how to niche down even further, you

6:11

need to be more specific. And we're

6:13

so afraid to be very specific with

6:16

our niches because a lot of times

6:18

we feel like, well if I just

6:20

say I... someone who specializes in the

6:23

upper east side, well then aren't I

6:25

going to miss out on the opportunity

6:27

to represent a buyer or a seller

6:29

on the upper west side? I mean

6:32

New York City is a big city,

6:34

but by selecting one specific area, think

6:36

about it. You're able to farm, as

6:39

I say, that area. You know the

6:41

square footage, you know the person who

6:43

wants to live in that area, you

6:46

know what an incredible prices. you know

6:48

how to help a seller price their

6:50

property, you know how specifically to offer

6:52

so that your clients are best represented

6:55

when you're trying to buy a property,

6:57

like you're able to really identify who

6:59

it is you want to help and

7:02

how it is you're able to help

7:04

them. When we go too broad with

7:06

our niche, we don't really expand our

7:09

market. What we do is we limit

7:11

our ability. to stand out. And if

7:13

you want to stand out, you got

7:15

to niche down even further. Now, if

7:18

you answered no to 20% or more

7:20

of those questions, my friend, you've got

7:22

some work to do in the area

7:25

of niche. Maybe you're bored with it.

7:27

Maybe it's just not interesting to you

7:29

anymore. Maybe what you think you've done

7:32

is selected a opportunity, something to sell,

7:34

and you're thinking about the industry as

7:36

opposed to defining your... niche. Who it

7:38

is you want to help, how it

7:41

is you want to help them, how

7:43

the type of content you want to

7:45

niche down with. So if you're confident

7:48

you've chosen the right niche and you're

7:50

pretty sure you've niche down enough, know

7:52

this. You will benefit from tightening your

7:55

niche even more. You want to be

7:57

the go-to person. You want to be

7:59

the standout person in a very broad

8:01

market. And the only way that's going

8:04

to happen is if you're the first

8:06

person that comes to mind when people

8:08

think about this topic. If someone were

8:11

putting on a big event and they're

8:13

looking for an expert in your niche,

8:15

what specifically would they say, like, oh,

8:18

you got to call Shelene Johnson? You

8:20

got to call so-and-so. You want to

8:22

be that person who you're like the

8:24

go-to, you are the expert for this

8:27

very specific exact thing. You can't speak

8:29

on a whole bunch of things, you

8:31

are the go-to on this very teeny

8:34

tiny microcosm of your niche. The more

8:36

your niche down, the more impact you're

8:38

going to make, the more you're going

8:41

to stand out. All right, having said

8:43

that, let's just assume moving forward that

8:45

you're like, that you're like, no, okay,

8:47

I'm so niche down. So tight. And

8:50

I'm excited about it. I answered yes

8:52

to most of those questions. So Shaline,

8:54

why isn't this working? Why aren't I

8:57

making money? You probably fall into that

8:59

third category that we talked about. That

9:01

person who's got the right niche, they've

9:04

niche down far enough, but the problem

9:06

is their social media strategy isn't landing.

9:08

How do you know if that's what's

9:10

going on with you? Now I'm going

9:13

to take you through a series of

9:15

questions to help you figure out you

9:17

figure out. If in fact it's your

9:20

strategy, it's your application, frankly, it's your

9:22

social media skills that are killing your

9:24

business. Frankly, it's your social media strategy,

9:27

it's your social media skills or lack

9:29

thereof that's killing your business, it's killing

9:31

your growth. All right, let me take

9:33

you through some questions. And the first

9:36

one is really simple. Do you suck

9:38

at social media? I mean, because I

9:40

feel like a lot of people know.

9:43

They're like, I'm horrible. I can't get

9:45

any engagement. I'm not getting any likes.

9:47

Nobody's sharing my content. And I know

9:50

my content. I wouldn't even watch my

9:52

content. If that's your answer, you don't

9:54

even have to go through the rest

9:56

of questions. now know that's the problem.

9:59

Okay, but let's continue through this, because

10:01

maybe you're just being hard on yourself.

10:03

When you look at your last 10

10:06

to 20 posts on Instagram, let's use

10:08

Instagram specifically, how often are people sharing

10:10

your content? Now you've got to look

10:13

at your insights, and of course, in

10:15

order to see these insights, you need

10:17

to either be a business or a

10:19

creator account. So take a look at

10:22

your insights. How often are people sharing

10:24

your content? If it's not happening on

10:26

a regular basis, then my friend, you

10:29

are not creating share-worthy content. You're not

10:31

creating the type of content that's attracting

10:33

that specific niche person who's looking for

10:36

the solution that you have. This could

10:38

mean that your content isn't specific enough.

10:40

Maybe you've decided how specifically you can

10:42

help people but your contents too broad.

10:45

If you're not creating content, then people

10:47

are like, oh, I need to save

10:49

this. Now I want you to look

10:52

at the insights related to your saves.

10:54

If you're not creating content that's like,

10:56

okay, this is super interesting, I want

10:59

to remember this later, I want to

11:01

revisit this later. If people aren't saving

11:03

your content, that means it's just not

11:05

interesting enough to revisit, which is a

11:08

strong indicator. The problem is your niche,

11:10

the problem is your social media. Next,

11:12

when you look at comments and engagement

11:15

and engagement. How often are those comments

11:17

and engagement from relatively new people or

11:19

people who specifically have this problem? How

11:22

often is that happening? Or is it

11:24

more likely that you're going to get

11:26

comments from people who already know you,

11:28

friends and family, people who've been following

11:31

you for a long time, or worse,

11:33

you're getting comments from bots? If the

11:35

case is the later, meaning you're getting

11:38

comments from people who already know you,

11:40

friends, family, and bots, that means we're

11:42

not attracting. We're not speaking to, we're

11:45

not creating content that your avatar is

11:47

specifically looking for, or you're not creating

11:49

content that's engaging. So either way, the

11:52

problem isn't your niche, the problem is

11:54

your social media. I mean, I know

11:56

this is some tough love. And for

11:58

some of you, like I said, you

12:01

already know the problem is your social

12:03

media. So I guess the question I

12:05

have for you, which you need to

12:08

answer this, are you willing, are you

12:10

able, are you excited enough about your

12:12

nation, about your business, to put in

12:15

the work, to get good at it,

12:17

because I'm telling you, it's just a

12:19

skill. It's a skill which means anybody

12:21

can get better at it. Anyone can.

12:24

You just have to put in the

12:26

effort, right? There's a lot of things

12:28

like, even technology, there's so many things

12:31

that the first time you do, you're

12:33

like, oh, this is really hard, I

12:35

don't know if I'm good at this.

12:38

But if you do it enough, and

12:40

you have a why that's strong enough,

12:42

you're going to get good at it.

12:44

And if you believe in your message,

12:47

if you believe in the solution that

12:49

you have, Not just believe in it,

12:51

but you know that it can help

12:54

other people and you need it to.

12:56

Like, this is your mission, this is

12:58

your passion, this is your purpose, this

13:01

is why you are posting on social

13:03

media, then you gotta get good at

13:05

it. Like, why waste time creating sub-par

13:07

content? Are you following content creators in

13:10

your niche who are killing it? Specifically

13:12

the type of content creators where you're

13:14

like, okay, I could do something like

13:17

that. It's pointless to follow people where

13:19

you're like... For example, if I'm following

13:21

Dr. Mary Claire Haver, who is the

13:24

author of the new menopause, and she's

13:26

obviously in the same niche, but she's

13:28

a doctor, and she specifically is looking

13:30

at research and breaking it down and

13:33

talking about her clinical applications, she's talking

13:35

about treating women with hormone replacement therapy

13:37

in real life. And if I'm just

13:40

watching her content and I'm like, oh,

13:42

she's killing it, man, she's got millions

13:44

of followers, I gotta do something like,

13:47

it's pointless for me to even watch

13:49

her content for that inspo because that's

13:51

not my specific niche inside of our

13:53

bigger. niche of menopause. So I need

13:56

to be following people who are killing

13:58

it in my very unique type space

14:00

and I promise you this you will

14:03

find them you need to look harder.

14:05

If this is important to you success

14:07

leaves clues and this doesn't mean you

14:10

copy their content exactly but if you're

14:12

watching people in your niche that are

14:14

doing something that you can't do you

14:16

can't replicate like let's say the person

14:19

who you most admire and they're killing

14:21

on social and they do a talking

14:23

head video every single day and they're

14:26

a phenomenal storyteller and you're like I

14:28

am terrible on camera well unless you're

14:30

playing on getting really good at that

14:33

you better start watching somebody else who's

14:35

creating the type of content that you

14:37

can reproduce. Maybe it's B-roll content where

14:39

we're just hearing your voiceover right so

14:42

you're teaching something very remarkable, something that

14:44

people want to say, that something that

14:46

people want to share, it's interesting, it's

14:49

entertaining, it's valuable for people, and so

14:51

they're like, oh, this is the solution

14:53

I was looking for. You can do

14:56

that by creating a voiceover and just

14:58

putting B-roll on top of it. There's

15:00

other ways for you to kill it

15:02

in your niche, but you've got to

15:05

get better at creating reals, at understanding,

15:07

like what is entertaining, what grabs people,

15:09

get good at creating hooks, when people

15:12

see a post from you. If you

15:14

don't grab and hold their attention in

15:16

the first two seconds, you're done. I'm

15:19

sorry. It's just the way, I don't

15:21

make the rules, that's social media friends.

15:23

It is literally the first second, maybe

15:25

even two seconds. So you've got to

15:28

do that with your verbal hook or

15:30

your visual hook or something that's on

15:32

the screen that people are like, I

15:35

can't scroll, this is for me, or

15:37

I want to know what this is,

15:39

I'm entertained, I'm curious, what is this?

15:42

You've got to grab them, and that's

15:44

a skill. How are you filming and

15:46

editing your content? Frankly, today, if you're

15:48

not great at editing, if you haven't

15:51

mastered a few of the apps that

15:53

we talk about here all the time,

15:55

like video leap and cap cut, you

15:58

need to. It's kind of like learning

16:00

us. second language and they're all available

16:02

on your phones. There's tons of videos

16:05

on YouTube. Some things you want to

16:07

look at. Is your engagement climbing? Don't worry

16:09

about like so much, but are

16:11

you getting new followers? If your

16:13

content's great, you would be getting

16:15

new followers. If your content is

16:18

good, you'd be getting shares and

16:20

saves. You'd be getting engagement that's

16:22

not irrelevant. It's engagement where

16:24

people are asking you questions.

16:26

and wanting to go further in the

16:29

conversation with direct messages. If these

16:31

things aren't happening, then I need

16:33

to give you some tough love, and

16:35

it's something you probably already know. You've

16:37

got to get good at social media,

16:40

and you have to stop telling yourself

16:42

the story that you just don't

16:44

have what it takes. Yes, you do. You

16:46

just haven't learned the right strategies. You have

16:48

to stop saying to yourself, well, I

16:50

don't look this way, or I don't

16:52

have this. You know, whatever fill in the

16:54

blank belief you have in your head, it's

16:57

all false. And I can disprove every

16:59

single one of those with somebody who's

17:01

killing it, who has the same thing

17:04

you have that you're considering a limitation.

17:06

The thing that's holding you back right

17:08

now is your mindset around social

17:10

media. It is something you can get much,

17:12

much, much better at. And in doing so,

17:14

you can grow your business. You've got

17:17

two alternatives. You can get a lot

17:19

better at social media or you can

17:21

pay for paid advertising. And frankly,

17:23

it's really hard to get good at

17:25

paid advertising unless you're going to pay

17:28

an agency, because paid advertising is dependent

17:30

upon you creating content that you can

17:32

run ads to that people will actually

17:34

want to watch. So even if you're just

17:36

paying for advertising, even if you don't

17:39

have a following, if you don't have to

17:41

create great social media content, then your

17:43

ads are going to suck. Frankly,

17:45

so you'd have to hire an agency

17:47

which is even more expensive and you

17:49

can do that I don't want to

17:52

dissuade you I know people I have

17:54

a friend who's built a multi-million dollar

17:56

coaching business and she's horrible

17:59

horrible at social media and she's

18:01

like I don't care I don't have to

18:03

be good at social media I'm paying an

18:05

agency they create the ads I'm just reading

18:08

the scripts I'm giving them the content that

18:10

they need but like I don't want to

18:12

get good at social media but the tradeoff

18:15

is she's got to pay for the advertising

18:17

and I'm just giving you some tough love

18:19

and telling you that is an option the

18:21

other option as I said is you getting

18:24

a lot better at social media at social

18:26

media now obviously You know that Brock and

18:28

I love helping people to grow their Instagram.

18:30

I would love for you to try Insta

18:33

Club Hub. You can do a trial for

18:35

$7. And if it's not right for you

18:37

can just cancel. But what I think you'll

18:40

find while you're doing that trial is you

18:42

can binge tons of content and figure out

18:44

what it is you're doing wrong. Like when

18:46

you become an Insta Club member, even if

18:49

you're doing the trial, you're going to take

18:51

a quick assessment so you can figure out

18:53

like where are you missing the mark? What

18:55

level are you at? How much more growth?

18:58

What do you need to learn in 2025

19:00

so that you can kill it? So that

19:02

people find you and the solution that you

19:05

have as it relates to your niche as

19:07

it relates to your niche? Listen, I believe

19:09

in you. I know you can do this.

19:11

It's fun. I mean, it's why you chose

19:14

entrepreneurship. You love the challenge of this. I

19:16

know you do. So think of it as

19:18

a competition against yourself. Promise yourself that you're

19:20

going to get better at social media. Pick

19:23

one thing at a time. Like maybe this

19:25

week, the only thing you're going to work

19:27

on is hooks. And maybe next week you're

19:30

going to work on your call to action

19:32

and all of these things, including editing. your

19:34

engagement, all these things, we break them down

19:36

step by step by step inside Insta Club

19:39

hub. And of course, I would, Brock and

19:41

I would love to have you as a

19:43

part of our community. You can check out

19:45

the link below this episode or just go

19:48

to Insta Club hub.com. Insta Club hub.com. Hey,

19:50

thank you so much for joining me today

19:52

on this edition of Build Your Tribe. It

19:55

is my goal to be brief, to be

19:57

bright, to be fun, and then done. And

19:59

now we're done. Bye. see

20:01

you next time!

20:03

next time.