Neurodivergent Networking w/ Cheryl Woodhouse

0:00:02

Hello. Welcome. I am Briar Harvey. This is the Neurodiversity Media Network. We are here, hopefully, with all of our technology intact, today to do episode two of Neurodivergent Networking.

0:00:25

Y'all asked me for this one a lot. And so last time, we talked about how it works how to send the email. There were challenges issued. If you did your homework, we'd really love to hear, drop it in the chat. Let us know.

0:00:49

Today, we're talking about how to stand out in a crowd by not being in the crowd at all. That's that's how this works. Yeah. I mean, for me, I think I think that's actually more next week. I think that's more your point of view that makes you stand out in the crowd. What I wanna talk about today with the category is actually how to matter in the crowd, if that makes sense. How do I have relevance to someone in a moment? They are connected, though. They are very, very closely connected. And you category creation is one of those things that if you do it right, your category of one is your message and your offer and the value that you provide. It is all on those things. Yes. So And those categories are super cool. And There's another type of category that I really wanna bring up today that often gets lost in the shuffle and the desire to be novel and unique.

0:02:02

And we need to talk about it first because being a chief nerd of something is awesome, but no one knows what that means. Okay? So -- So -- are you saying that coaches should call themselves coaches and not I I I don't feel like that truly is a controversial thing to say. But in fact, if you're a coach, call yourself a fucking coach. It's that's your name is not how you stand out. No. No. Your name is not how you stand out. And by calling yourself something other than what you are, what you're doing is you're making a category of one that no one cares about. And so it's irrelevant. The category of one piece comes in the unique combination of skills and experiences that make you a reliable, trustworthy source of information and value. But the category I wanna talk about today is the really generic one that means people understand who you are and what you do. And it's so often overlooked by people.

0:03:08

So, like, I want you to think for a minute. Go into your head and try and think about who do you know in your in your town, in your circle, in your online sphere, who's a content writer? Just like think of a content writer. I bet you've if you've been in the online space for more than five minutes, you can probably think of a content writer. If you look around your town, what are the car dealerships? Right? You know what a car dealership looks like. They call themselves car dealerships.

0:03:42

If you need to buy a car, where are you going to go? You're going to go to a car dealership. You're probably going to go into this little mental folder that you keep in your head of all the car dealerships you've ever seen in your town, and you're gonna try and think of, okay, which one? Do I trust the most based on my interactions with them? Which one had the people around me had the best experiences with? Which one do I have a connection with in some way? Who do I have early relationship with. Right? You maybe go on Google and you'll search up the car that you wanna want to buy and you'll see which dealership carries this car. But you're not gonna go looking for something that's not a car dealership if you wanna buy a car. Okay?

0:04:25

And if you develop a relationship with someone who works at a car dealership and you ask them what they do, and they tell you they sell cars. And then your friend is like, hey, I wanna buy a car. You'd be like, oh, you should go talk to my friend, Jackie, who works at the car dealership. That's what she does. And I this really sounds like an oversimplification, but I want you to think for a minute Now imagine if Jackie called herself a transportation consultant for individuals and families. Are you gonna know what the heck Jacky does? No. Not your fucking chance. Nope. And if your friend is like, hey, I need to buy a car. You're gonna be like, oh, before you buy a car, you really gotta go talk to Jackie because she's a transportation consultant for individuals and families. And she'll be able to tell you, like, I don't know what kind of car you need or something. No. You're gonna be like, hey. Go talk to Jordan. She works at a car dealership because Jordan has established herself as a car salesperson. K? This is a very drawn out metaphor, but I really want you to understand.

0:05:33

Having a category that other people can understand puts you in that mental folder in their head. Okay? And everyone has these folders. Everyone categorizes people. We're all neurodivergent here. We all categorize things and see patterns. It's fun and it's part of how our brain works.

0:05:52

So if you write copy, you are a copywriter. That is your category. Okay? If you are a content writer, you write content that your category. If you're a graphic designer, you design graphics, that is your category. And this becomes the thing that you are known for. This becomes the thing that people look for. This becomes the service that you provide. This becomes the general category of information that you put out there. And it has to come first before all the category of one and niche and point of view and relateability stuff. Because if no one knows what the fuck you do, how are they supposed to hire you and refer you to people?

0:06:29

So I'm gonna climb off the soapbox a little bit, but this is a very important piece of the puzzle. Don't climb off the soapbox, Cheryl. That's what we're here for. Yes. The the separation between title and niche and category. Has gotten very blurred in people's minds. So let's talk about the differences. What's the difference between my category and my title? Your title can be whatever you want it to be. It's what you've put on your email signature or your business cards to make yourself feel fancy. Although systems It's not just scripted. And storyteller. Yes. Title. That's me. System switch and storyteller. Founder, I was chief nerd. For a little while.

0:07:36

My dog is the VP of Operations. It doesn't -- Oh, that's to be -- that's incredible. It's thank you. He's he's the cutest. He deserves a VP title. But, like, the title that you give yourself in your organization or that is bestowed upon you in your organization. It's really just kind of a vanity thing, and it allows you to have a little bit of fun with saying who you are and what you do.

0:08:02

But you still have to establish a category in people's minds. Right? You still have to make them understand what it is that you do in terms that they can understand. Because systems which make sense to you and it's cute and it's funny and it's and people love it, but it does not describe what I do, which for the record here just so we're getting into the category worry if at all. Mhmm.

0:08:27

I am a content creator, y'all. That is my category. I make podcasts, I make written content, I make video and publish it everywhere. That's what I do. Yep. I am a business educator. That's the category I'm putting myself in. And the reason that I chose business educator was actually much more related to social media than it was to to clients and networking. And this is something I I didn't really care much about category for the longest time. I was like, oh, it doesn't matter. I'm developing one on one relationships. I don't need to worry too much about these sorts of things. I can explain what I do. I can use my elevator pitch. Right? That's what we often think of when we're talking about our category.

0:09:15

But At the end of the day, social media has now gotten so busy. We have so much content that is pushed at us every single day. And these platforms have so much content that is uploaded every day. Right? We're seeing millions and millions of hours of video getting uploaded every single month. Maybe even every single day at this point. I don't know. When you count TikTok and shorts and everything else, like, there's so much data just to sort through.

0:09:43

That especially video based platforms, but all platforms really have started to categorize content creators on their platforms. Right? This is how you end up with, like, the neurodivergent side of TikTok and ASMR YouTube and those sorts of things. It's not that the content looks similar, so it's gonna push it out to people who are watching similar content anymore. It's that that channel, that creator, that person has been put into that category. And so the platform can pretty well understand that everything else that they're putting out is going to be relatable or interesting to people who are watching that category. Of content. That's why watching one YouTube video about science and all of a sudden the Green Brothers completely fill your entire YouTube feed. Right? This is what happens. They dominate that category, but that's the category.

0:10:32

And so by making myself a business educator, I am now going to be in that category, and it's easy for people to understand to a certain extent what I do. I have more specific categories. I have my point of view. I have the things that I talk about, but what I do is I educate people about business. The thing about your category is is that it will lay bare to you, all of your insecurities and impostor complexes around your category.

0:11:01

For me, Sheryl just said it. Content is so proliferous out there. How the hell do I stand out as a content creator in a sea of content creators? These are the questions that you have to answer for yourself when you decide on your category. Yes. Exactly. And you need your category to be broad enough that all of the various different skills and talents and experiences that you bring to the table can fit within that category. Right? If you are a copywriter who also does graphics web design and marketing strategy, you are not a copywriter. If you put yourself in that category, people are not going to be able to refer you based on all of the skills that you have and all of the value you can bring to the table. Right? So your category is not like your niche. It's not like services list. It's not a rate sheet. It's necessarily broad by design, but it's something that people can say when they refer you.

0:12:07

If someone asked me, do you know any content creators? I'd be able to say, oh, yeah. Briar is a content creator. You should connect with her. I'd be able to refer you out people. I'd be able to make connections for you, which is the entire purpose of networking. But if people don't know who you are, nobody's ever come to me asking if I know a systems switch. Badly. Never. Sadly. Now I mean, I wish they would, because I'm writing them immediately and directly to you. Right? But that's that's not a category. Yeah. So one of the comments that just came out.

0:12:41

I really struggled to explain my work in a quick easy way. I said, have a coach for a while, but it doesn't completely translate. So one of the exercises I actually take my clients through is to help define this category. And one of the very first things we do is we just brain dump out every skill that we have. K? And this even takes in, like, I write down that I can crochet. I write down the diamond art stuff. I write down that I ran a half marathon. Look at me go. Like, I write down all of the things that I can do, and then I rate these three these skills on the three things. Okay? I rate them on my proficiency level. So if I'm in the top ten percent of something in the world, that's a ten out of ten scale for me. Right? Varying degrees down from that pretty much anything of five and below it's not a skill we should be doing professional. It's not a skill we should be charging money for. Right? Moving on from there, we wanna talk about what's the desire to use this skill? We wanna rate it based on the desire. K? How much do we actually wanna do this thing day in, day out?

0:13:49

You love creating content. It's easy for you to show up live and do these interviews. Right? If I asked you tomorrow to start designing websites for a living, What's your desire? Exactly. And you may have that skill Oh, and I totally have that skill. A fairly well developed skill. At least, I think I do it well enough. I do my own website, but I'm not and fuck you. Uh-uh. Not doing yours ever. Sorry. Yeah. Not today. Not ever. Yeah. Exactly. So if we only looked at your proficiency level, you would end up with a laundry list of skills that you may not actually wanna provide to people. Now, if you look at your proficiency level and you look at your desire level, you may come up with a laundry list of skills, and a whole bunch of them may have absolutely no value. To other people or to businesses or to the people that you're trying to get to pay for things.

0:14:43

My crochet, I'm not top ten percent in the world, but I have a mean hooker when it comes to the crochet. Right? That's a kind of colloquialism that we use in all the Facebook groups. It's fun. And, you know, I'm good at it. I love doing it. I can sit there and do it all day. And I mean, I'm not gonna make a ten thousand dollar sale of one of my crochet pieces. It's just never gonna happen unless I become like bank c level artist famous. Right? And that's a that's a different discussion, I think, especially when it comes to art and evaluation. Exactly. Art.

0:15:22

But even so, your greatest insecurities will show up in your ranking of this list because I say again, even if someone who does it well, who's gonna pay me for my writing, Right? Right? And so when I'm ranking based on value, I try not to look at who's gonna pay me for my writing. Right? Because that is very charge what your worth is a phrase that I absolutely loathe because you are immeasurably priceless -- Mhmm. -- and you could never charge what you're worth. Elon Musk can't afford to. Like, this is not a thing. K? Right.

0:16:07

When we're looking at the value of a skill, especially if we're looking b to b, which a lot of us are if we're worrying about networking because that's that's really where networking shines. If we're looking b to b, the value is how close is this activity to generating revenue. How close is this activity to money changing hands for these clients. Right? If you're a salesperson, the value is gonna be it. Ten out of ten if you're good at it and you like doing it because it's very, very close to that money changing hands. Right?

0:16:41

And this is a lot of this is client perception as well. You might have to do some research. You might have to ask some people. You might have to have some of those scary conversations with humans in the outside. But getting the information from them to understand how they perceive how close your services to them actually getting value from it is really important. Because I've seen people really, really misjudge this. I've seen copywriters think that their stuff isn't necessarily that valuable because their, you know, their writing may not be in the top ten percent of the world or they're worried who's gonna pay me for this. But if they're writing direct response copy for e commerce and that e commerce site is doing two million dollars a year, I'm sorry about your copy can really impact the value no matter how much time you spend creating it. Right? And this is where talking to people about what you value and what they value comes into play. So Let's I've done it on other shows, but let's talk about the value here of a research call. Yes. Okay.

0:17:56

So research calls are one of my favorite ways to network in the first place. Unfortunately, I'm noticing a lot of people less willing to jump on them lately, which really sucks because some people have used them as basically sales calls. They they have lied. They've said, I wanna do research and then you jump on the research call and you're getting sold something and it's terrible. But like all things, some bro sold a course on it. It sold a bunch of copies. People are doing it. It's working right now. It's slowing down on the working it's gonna fade into obscurity, and then doing genuine research will be easier for those of us doing it again.

0:18:32

Research calls are really, really valuable for getting this kind of information. As long as you're not asking, hey, how much are you willing to pay for this? That is the worst research question as someone who has professionally done market research repeatedly as an agency owner for clients, that is the worst question you could ever conceivably ask. If you're trying to figure out the value and you're trying to figure out how that relates to your pricing even, questions you wanna ask are things like, what are their struggles? What are their challenges? What are their goals? What are the things that are stopping them from achieving their goals? And start getting numbers from people. Like, how much do you want to earn in the next twelve months? How much of an increase in revenue is that for you? Right?

0:19:17

People by and large aren't just guarded about numbers as you think they are. Right? Some people aren't super public on a one on one call for research purposes they'll share with you. They'll tell you their numbers because if you can create something that will make a radical difference to their bottom line, then they're happy to tell you everything you need to know to build that. That doesn't mean that they're gonna buy it from you. And there should be some clear guidelines and boundaries around the difference between a research call and a sales call. I agree. But research in general is how you figure out what it is you're good at and then match that up with what it is that people need. Yep. Exactly.

0:20:13

And if I a lot of people ask me quite frequently, like, how how I apply my ten percent rule. K? So this is getting in a little more into pricing than networking specifically. But since we're talking about research calls, they're like, you say that I should be charging around ten percent of the anticipated ROI. For a client. Because then even if I screw up and we only get ten percent of the way there, they've still covered their investment Right? And they're able to make progress. Everything above that is just gravy. It's a really easy way to sell your stuff. It's a really easy way to picture because as long as the client has that ten percent, there's no reason they wouldn't take that risk. That's a really low risk proposition for them. Now, like, how do you get that number? And you guys, you ask them. How much is it worth to you to solve this problem? How much more are you gonna make? How much are you gonna save? How many more sales are you gonna get of each product if we increase your conversion by this percent? What are you hoping to earn as a result of doing these things. People will tell you, it's You just ask them People are so scared to ask money questions and numbers questions a lot of the time, but that's a lot of that comes from, like, personal social conventions, one on one social conventions with friends and things like that.

0:21:32

We've all had to mask in those awkward conversations where someone starts talking about salary I'm also going to argue that some of this is systemic and cultural for reasons of oppression. That not talking about the math is what keeps the one percent from keeping you aware of how little your worth relative to your peer group. They absolutely do not want you talking about the money. So the more you do that, the more you're actually really breaking the rules and flattening the convention, and figuring things out on an appropriate level. Like, I wanna know that what I'm charging is going to provide a greater value to you than what you're paying for it. The only way we're ever gonna get clear on that is if I ask you how much it's gonna cost not how much it's gonna cost, how much it's gonna be worth, and you tell me what that looks like, and then we work it back from there. Yep.

0:22:42

It this it's very systemic. It's very cultural. It is part of that system of oppression, especially when it comes to salaries. Like, you you have to see what happens in companies where they have, you know, open conversations about what everyone's salary is, what everyone's pay band is versus closed conversations about those things. And by the way, just while we're on it, I hate the pay band thing. There's no opportunity to increase your earnings based on Meredith in a pay van system. It's the absolute worst. But not being open about your salaries only benefits the people paying them. Right? But it's still a systemic issue. It's an oppression issue and it's something we're culturally trained not to do in personal And so if you're newer in business or you don't have a lot of exposure to business people talking about those numbers can be scary.

0:23:30

Talking about money can be scary. This is why the money part of the sales conversation is a trip up for a lot of people. Right? Or when people are asking for budget, whether the budget conversation comes up in a research call or a sales call. Right? Are there any financial constraints I should be aware of before creating this offer? Are there any financial constraints I should be aware of before submitting a proposal? Those questions are important questions. And there are a way of asking essentially how much can I charge on how much will I charge, but how much can I charge and stay within what's available to you? Not because you can, not because you're gonna take advantage, but because sometimes knowing that someone is on a budget that kind of caps what you can do for them is a little bit important to what you're going to propose. Right? So asking these financial questions when we're doing research is really important to understanding the value of our work because we have to know how close this value is to what they're actually receiving in terms of ROI.

0:24:31

The things that are further from ROI or perceived as further from ROI require a lot more education and they're typically seen as a cost center rather than an investment by the client. Think about services like bookkeeping. Right? In a lot of places, bookkeeping is a race to the bottom. People will pay as little forward as possible because they see it as a cost. Because it's very, very far removed from them making money. It's costing them money actively. Is literally the process of taking money out of their bank account to pay bills and contractors and taxes and all of the yucky things they don't wanna think about. So there's so much negative association with it. Right? But if you then turn that into if you're qualified, you turn that into financial strategy, you turn those into CFO services, those sorts of things. Now we're talking about massive cost savings. Now we're talking about strategically shifting the financial structure of the business to save tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars over the next few years. That is very close to the value It's very close to the increase of money for the client. So that's gonna be perceived as more valuable. Right?

0:25:40

And so let's bring it back to category now. Yep. Because that's exactly what this is. Mhmm. The difference between me being a fractional CFO and a bookkeeper. Right? So we're defining our category with as clear a lens as possible. In order to be able to make it so that people can tell other people about us in one or two words. Like Yes. And so they can recognize the need in them else as well. And this is in no way to shame bookkeepers. Like, that's a very specific skill that I do not have because data entry is not my details. I I wanna say how much I love my bookkeeper and enjoy paying my bookkeeper because I don't do math. I believe I've mentioned this before, and we'll continue to mention this. Bless all bookkeepers.

0:26:49

This is not about that. This isn't about the categorization required because somebody has to ask me specifically who's your bookkeeper, and then I'm gonna tell that. But that's a different question than who do you know that offers fractional financial assist stins in at an operational or c suite capacity. Yeah. It's a it's a completely different question. And that's also a completely different thing from if you hear someone just talking randomly about, like, hey, you know, my money is all over the place and I really hated paying my tax bill this year. Right? I had to do weeks and weeks of data entry just to get my taxes done. Oh, you should hire my bookkeeper. She's great. You're not gonna say, oh, I think there's this, there's this, like, person who talks a lot about business and money on LinkedIn. You should go talk to them. Maybe they know something you can do about that. That person in their little category of one is not the category of pops to mind when you think that someone that you know needs a bookkeeper, nor are they the person that comes to mind when you realize you need a bookkeeper. Or a fractional CFO or a fractional CMO or a graphic designer or a content writer.

0:28:07

So understanding all of your skills bring dumping them out and then rating them. Like, do I like doing this? Am I good at doing this? And how closely related is this skill to the value for the client? Look at the things that come out on top and say, what is a title? What is a category that encompasses all of these things? Going broad enough that we can really bring all our value to the tape And a lot of the time this will be something like virtual assistant, online business manager, marketing strategist, content strategist, right, conversion expert.

0:28:42

I've seen all sorts of different things. Sometimes it's just coach. Right? Life coach. Business coach, business consultant, marketing consultant. Those are okay titles for you to have in terms of your category. Right? There's nothing wrong with being called a marketing consultant, and I don't know when that shift happened. But if someone's asking me for marketing help and I'm like, oh, well, you should talk to a marketing consultant. You should talk to a strategist. Who do I know that does that? Not very many pop to mind right now because nobody calls themselves out anymore. Okay. Right?

0:29:18

And your category is also let's be very clear here. Your SEO when it comes to who you are and what you're rating and ranking for. So I just did tune up, still working on a website tune up. I am listed on my home page. In big letters, hi. I'm prior. I'm an accessibility consultant because that's what people go to my website four. That's it. Accessibility Consultant.

0:29:58

This is what I talk about. This is where I talk about it. This is how you can find out more. This is how you can pay me money. That's my category. Yep. And you know what? They also go on LinkedIn looking for that, and they go on Facebook looking for that. Search through social media platforms is super underrated. But people people still Google. Like, I don't know if if anyone realizes that, but people still Google things. And they're not googling systems which. Sorry, Briar. I don't mean to pick on you, but they're not No. No. No. No. Like, again, I love it in terms of branding. It's fantastic for branding. It is not my category. And you have to be really clear about the differences and the nuances between them.

0:30:47

So one more that we haven't covered yet, Elevator pitch. What's that compared to a category? Well, for one thing, a category is much shorter. Right? The category is how you tell people in plain English in a way that they can understand what you do. Right? An elevator pitch allows you to be a little bit more creative with it. You still want to include your category, but now you're talking about who you serve or you bring your point of view or your specific lens or experience into this. If you have a niche, this is where you bring your niche into it. Right? So your category might be life coach, but you might be a life coach for women over forty who are empty nesters for the first time. Right? And so your elevator pitch becomes your way of saying that in the time span of an elevator. That's where the term came from. You're supposed to be able to tell someone what you do and why it matters in the time it takes to ride an elevator because that's people used to do, those kinds of things, and see if we're And we're assuming it's not New York City, and we're not going up forty. The floor is here. You've got two or three floors to get out your pitch here folks. Yes. Yes. Exactly.

0:32:01

Like, I'm Cheryl. I'm a business educator. I mentor neurodivergence, agencies, creatives, and consultants. And now you have enough information about me to decide whether you should give a shit or not. And it's important to have these really fine tuned because you truly never know. When you will have the opportunity to deliver your elevator pitch and category to someone out in the wild, And you don't wanna be making it up every single time because it's especially if you are a neurodivergent, that's brain power you don't wanna have to waste every time you're in a new situation with a new person. That's exhausting.

0:32:52

If I have a script that I have prewritten with my elevator pitch on it and I have it memorized and y'all, I do. Then it's easy enough for me to meet people and be like, hi. I'm Briar. I'm the founder of the NeuroDiversity Media Network. I do work as an accessibility call consultant that is focused on neurodivergent people. That's ADHD, autism, dyslexia, all of the fun stuff. All of that fun stuff, by the way, literally, that's written down in, like, brackets in the pitch. Truly don't make it hard for yourself here. Figure out ways to talk about who you are without anxiety. Because if you can do that, it's gonna be easier to actually make those connections that we want you to make. Yeah. Exactly. And, like, your elevator pitch should be able to fit in your LinkedIn headline. Like, sorry, it it should not be your about section on LinkedIn. It should be the little headline that goes under your name. Your entire elevator pitch should be able to fit in that because you mean to be able to say it quickly and succinctly enough.

0:34:07

And everyone has different versions of these things as well, and it's okay to have a couple different versions of these Like, we all have the version of what we do that we tell other people in our industry who know a little bit about what we do. And then we have the version that we tell our weird uncle at Thanksgiving when he forgets what we do. Yeah. Yeah. I'm I I do marketing stuff. I work on the computer. Right? I think we talked about that before. Like, you end up fixing everyone's computer when they notice that you work on a computer. Right? We all have those different versions of the categories, and it's okay to have a few different versions of the category based on who you're talking to, and it's okay to have a few different versions of your elevator pitch. Based on who you're talking to.

0:34:50

What's really important is that you establish at least one so that people don't immediately forget who you are because they have nowhere to put you in those file folders in their head. And, really, that's all we're looking for for you here. Is a way to be I I I think it's counterintuitive, but we want you to be easily classifiable. Yes. Easily sortable in to a little vertical file folder in someone's brain where they immediately pull you up when someone says, hey, do you know someone who does this? Yeah. Otherwise, what are you what is networking for you? Like, networking is going to be so much more of a heavy lift to drive business for you if you have to educate every single one of your specs and every single one of your connections on what you do. And no one can easily refer you to anyone because they don't know how to explain it.

0:35:57

And, truly, the goal for us with this series is for you to learn how to make networking not painful. That's it. Exactly. You you've all said that this is a thing that feels very hard and it's because you're making it too hard, truly. Yeah. Yeah. We just spent basically thirty five minutes -- Mhmm. -- saying, have a plain English word version way of explaining what you do. Like, that was the worst plain English way of explaining what we just explained. But It's it's true. Wow. Thirty five minutes doing that. Right? You want a word, and then you want a sentence, And then once you have those things, you can get creative about your branding around it.

0:36:50

But have those things foundationally first for everybody. Have them for people in your industry. Have them for people outside of your industry. Tree, like, I don't assume that people know what accessibility means or that they know what neurodivergence means. And we're all here, and that's something I take for granted within my audience and within my crowd. But I also network regularly in places where I'm coming across people who just don't have any fucking clue what those things mean. Yep. None. And I have to explain them. So you think that you have clearly delineated your expertise with this q t phrase that you've cobbled together But in fact, no one knows what those words mean together because they don't no. They're not in your industry. Yeah. And sometimes it's not even the QT phrase people.

0:37:54

Like, I still want to poke at the people who call themselves a copywriter, but they also design websites but they also do social media, but they also do marketing strategy, but they also build funnels like, honey, you're not a copywriter. Stop calling yourself that. Right? We need to have categories that fit the breadth of our experience that make us easy to refer out to people. I've told multiple people since I started mentoring to start calling themselves a marketing agency because they can do so many different things within the space of marketing, the only way that someone could refer someone to this person is by considering them a marketing agency.

0:38:30

That's the agency of one model. You're eighty, eighty something. I wish you to verify her out. Exactly. Thing that I know and can understand even if you're just an agency of one, it's it's an agency. It's a full service. You do all of these things. I know the difference and then can tell people about you. Yes. Exactly.

0:38:53

So the the key to really understanding and knowing that you've hit on your category is, does this allow me to do everything that I wanna do with clients? Okay. That's a big one. Does this bring up mass passive impostor syndrome and make me feel like I can't repeat this to anyone. That's a big no no sign. Right? We don't wanna call ourselves things or put ourselves in categories where we don't feel ready. That's too much, too big. But we also wanna wanna be able to say, if I tell someone that this is what I do, not who I am, but this is what I do, If they don't have a need for me right now, are there going to be any follow-up questions?

0:39:28

Right? If they are they just going to be able to under stand it without having to ask me more details to figure it out. Because if they have to ask follow-up questions, it's not really that clear. Right? That is correct. Even if they don't need it, don't understand it, don't want it. You have to be able to explain it with enough clarity that they know that they don't understand it and don't want it. Exactly. Exactly. And if they have a need for it or they know someone who might there might be follow-up questions like, oh, what sorts of services do you provide? Or what sorts of people do you do this for. But those are questions that immediately show you that they understand what you do because they're asking relevant follow-up questions, not oh, what does that mean kind of questions? Right? So much harder than you're making it out to be. It's where it is. So much easier. So much easier, Freudian slip.

0:40:39

We're making it hard truly because socialization and networking is something that we have placed too many social standards around and view in too many ways as we did when we were children on the playground. Yep. Yeah. And it's, like, a lot of the over complication around the category thing ends up being an avoidance tactic. Yeah. Until I get it exactly right, I don't I can't put myself out there. I'm gonna narrow myself to this one area and then just try and upsell people sideways on the other stuff when I notice opportunities, than you never do and you never have to and they never ask you because you didn't put it out there to begin with. Right? So many of these things are just avoidance strategies. But if we just get super honest and we say, okay.

0:41:40

I am I am a marketing agency owner. Right? Even if you're just the one person and I run a social media company. I am a content creator. I am a business educator. I am a graphic designer. I'm a branding consultant. I'm a whatever I am. Right? And this is the thing that we do. Okay? It's not our title. It's not our elevator pitch. It's not our niche. Is not our business name. It's just the thing that we do present it in a way that regular people can understand it, repeat it, and refer to others. If we have that tool, then it becomes infinitely easier to go out and introduce ourselves to people. Hi, I'm Cheryl. I run a marketing agency. I'm a business educator. Depends on who I'm talking to when I say. Right?

0:42:27

One last point of distinction. What's the difference between a category and a niche? Mhmm. What you do? Who you do it for? Mhmm. And a niche you don't have to have a niche by the way. I really I hate that. We're gonna talk about that.

0:42:47

The niche thing has gotten way overblown in terms of importance, and it's usually done way too soon. For most businesses. Your niche if you're a service provider, especially your niche is usually something you stumble into. It's not something you proactively go out and create. Right? Pretty much everyone, I have interviewed dozens and dozens and dozens of successful service based business owners and content creators A lot of them, and they had these two things in common. They stumbled into their niche, and they built primarily based on word-of-mouth and referrals because they had clearly identifiable category. Those two things were the things that made them successful. Right? And so you can have multiple niches, you can have multiple groups of people, you do things for, I like to work across multiple industries simultaneously because I think of my business kind of like the stock portfolio.

0:43:40

Right? If you went and talked to an investment adviser and they told you only invest in this one industry, put all of your money into this one industry, put all of your money into oil and gas, put all of your money into real estate, whatever it was. Don't invest in anything else. It's a waste of time. How bad would things go when something happened to that industry or that sector or that segment of the marketplace for your stock portfolio? Right? I saw this happen for businesses who were serving tourism in, like, March of twenty twenty -- Oh, yeah. -- sample? Yeah. Right? That was that was us. Like, I was trying to get clients in that space in January, February, March of twenty twenty, and then all of a sudden, we were serving e commerce very quickly. Right? Because there was a need there and that helped us grow very quickly.

0:44:30

But Having multiple niches that you work within, it's really just diversifying your exposure and reducing your exposure to the volatility in different marketplace. Uses. There are things far beyond your control that could wipe out a potential niche tomorrow. There's government regulation that could come in and completely changed the dynamics of an entire industry. Right? I worked with craft spirits four years. Trust me, I know a thing or two about government regulation. And how it can change what you can and can't do in a market. Right? And that's nothing to say of actual sales trends. Right? Shifts in demographics, shifts in what people are buying. We're seeing different luxury segments now doing well than what did well before. Automakers are starting to see backlash now. They're finally being able to put out some inventory and nobody's buying because everyone's just kind of settled on their used car after that fiasco not being able to get a new one as things shift all the time.

0:45:32

And if you're only working in one industry, You're susceptible to whatever happens in that industry. You are at risk. You are vulnerable to it. Working in multiple industries. I like to work with, like, two, three, four industries at a time. I've worked with up to six simultaneously. There are so many benefits to doing that, aside from just insulating from risk, and you're also allowing for cross pollination between industries. You can take an idea that's working for one client over here and apply it our client over there. So much less copycatism happens when you're a marketing agency or a company or an individual that works with people across multiple Right? You can create things that don't look like everyone else in that space because you're pulling from other spaces.

0:46:20

And so your niche, you don't really have a niche. I always have multiple niches. That's part of the ADHD probably, but also I just I like having the diversification. It feels good. It feels secure. It feels supportive. And so your niche is basically who you're serving. In your categories and what you're doing for them.

0:46:41

And in either case, y'all, it's important to know that you can diverse apply your income without having to have eighty five separate businesses. Yeah. You have one category. And you can diversify that category in a multitude of ways, whether it's a multitude of products or services or niches, It does not matter. If you know what your category is, it allows you to absolutely create as many different income streams if you as you want. Yep. Like, I did not have six different businesses when I was working with six different industries simultaneously. I had one, and they were all working with me because I talked about my category and I talked about my point of view, which is what we're gonna talk about two weeks from now. We're gonna talk about our point of view and our experiences and the lens which we do and see our work and how that informs a lot of our work. So it should inform a lot of the content that we put out there. I put that out there with my category and the niche itself, the industry, the demographic of the people who were working with me was pretty much irrelevant. At that point. Alright.

0:48:04

Last final thoughts on category. It's really important, but it's not something you should let stop you. Don't let it stop you from networking, but do try and figure out a way to explain what you do in the simplest, most generic possible terms. So people can explain it to each other. If you have to call yourself a marketing agency, do so. I still do in certain audiences. Right? If you wanna call yourself a content creator because you do so many different things, call yourself up and creator. Nobody can stop you. There's no gatekeeping on these categories. But unless you're working in a legally regulated profession. Don't go, you know, putting yourself in the lawyer category if you don't have a law degree and you haven't passed the bar and you're not licensed and everything else. But Aside from the legally regulated categories, there's no gatekeeping here. Just come up with a label for what you do that you can repeat to everyone's that they can tell other people what you do because otherwise networking's gonna be a lot harder for you. Alright.

0:49:13

Tomorrow in a totally different show with the operator. We are going to be talking about where you go and network, which isn't actually covered in this series at all. So Despite the fact that we're talking about networking here, we're talking about how to make it work for you, not where you go and do So as an ancillary homework assignment, go watch tomorrow's episode. If you are stuck on where to go to meet the people that you need to meet to further your network. And then we will be back here two weeks talking about tell them again, Cheryl. We are going to be talking about your point of view. We're gonna be talking about the lens through which you see and do your work and how it informs your work because it's critically important to put that stuff out there. And y'all I'm gonna be talking about politics, and I'm gonna be talking about when and how you can and should get political on your social media. All of the social security network. All of the scariest. We're gonna talk about why you should stop avoiding the scariest because, yeah, there's reasons. Just come. It's gonna be great.

0:50:31

And finally, if they want to actually dive into this more with you, where do they go to do that? I mean, you find me on the Facebook. I'm slide into my DMs. Do some networking. Let's have coffee. C. We're making you do all of this work, children. I'm so sorry. It's terrible. It's after Two people didn't last week.

0:50:56

Two people slid into my DMs after our show and said, I'm doing this scary thing and I'm messaging you and I I got I got a couple of those myself. I I'm really proud very proud of y'all for doing this work, for putting yourself out there, this is hard. And we're never gonna tell you that it's gonna get easier. But we want you to do these things and build yourself these systems so that you can make it easier. And actually benefit you because again, nobody knows how to explain what you do. Networking is not gonna help you very much. That's correct. Alright.

0:51:34

This is what we're doing here at the neurodiversity media network. And if you have some thing that you teach people, that you have not quite figured out a way to explain or articulate or put boundaries around, then you should slide into my d m's, and I'm gonna help you create a master class where we do all of this talky stuff. And create physical assets for you to run off and go and promote yourself with. Obviously, It's working for Sheryl. People are sliding into the DMs and telling her about the hard things, and that's the goal here. So if you need help getting your message out, shoot me a message. If you need help, figuring out how to talk about what you do, shoot Cheryl a message, and we will both be here for you to help you be who you wanna be out in the world. This is this is the thing now, and this is what we're all building towards. So We appreciate you. Thank you for watching today, and we will see you again in two weeks. Y'all have an amazing day. Accord Zoom waves.

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