TWP 002 - Shining Under The Sun - How to Stand Out When Starting Out

With the Pilot episode of The Wandering Pro podcast I want to cover a really important aspect that you need to understand. When you start out to level up in your career or business, standing out is the hardest challenge you will face. As a first, in likely a series of episodes based around this factor - I want to cover how you can niche down and add more value to what you do as a Career Professional.
Hosted by Saqib Tahir

Read companion summary article: https://sknexus.com/twp002/

Chapters
0:00 - TWP 002 - Shining Under The Sun - How to Stand Out When Starting Out
1:42 - Chris Do talks to a Pakistani
2:01 - Pakistani mentality about getting rich faster
3:00 - How to not answer 'What do you do'?
4:21 - The rules about providing value
5:34 - Example: How to niche down as a developer
8:35 - Example: How to niche down as a marketer
10:05 - Red Ocean vs Blue Ocean Strategy
11:22 - Elevator Pitch Framework
12:37 - I don't want to focus so narrowly in my Career
14:45 - This is not a one time process - keep repeating

Further learning and references
https://sknexus.com/adding-more-value-to-your-services/
https://thefutur.com/people/chris-do
https://www.cascade.app/blog/blue-ocean-vs-red-ocean-strategy
https://medium.com/@kasimaslam/niching-down-the-fastest-path-to-success-6a4d3959d3e1

Chapters

• 0:00 TWP 002 - Shining Under The Sun - How to Stand Out When Starting Out
• 1:42 Chris Do talks to a Pakistani
• 2:01 Pakistani mentality about getting rich faster
• 3:00 How to not answer 'What do you do'?
• 4:21 The rules about providing value
• 5:34 Example: How to niche down as a developer
• 8:35 Example: How to niche down as a marketer
• 10:05 Red Ocean vs Blue Ocean Strategy
• 11:22 Elevator Pitch Framework
• 12:37 I don't want to focus so narrowly in my Career
• 14:45 This is not a one time process - keep repeating

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to the Wandering Pro's episode number 2 or the first one, if we don't count the previous one. So basically in this episode, because we are starting a new podcast, I want to cover a very very very very important topic which a lot of people struggle with whenever they say, okay, I'll do a job for 4-5 years I want to do some business or do freelancing or go for a job I want to improve my approach, make a good portfolio So basically that happens, how to compete? Now the scene is like this, because of this whole digital revolution my topic being relevant to people who are in tech or delivery services or anything digital, okay? They will go, if there is a developer, a marketer, a writer they will see, brother, 10,000-20,000 people are doing this work how will I be successful? So usually what happens is, most people who succeed very quickly, their network is very strong or their experience is so solid that they know how to be successful But if these two things are not true for you then the third thing which I want to recommend is to figure out your niche, okay? If you go to LinkedIn, if you go to any like business-y, sense-y thing, there everyone will say that figure out your niche, figure out your niche you need to niche down, you need to niche down But why are people saying this? It's very important to understand this So I'll tell you a story It's about 1.5-2 years ago I was sitting in a LinkedIn live podcast or live call and basically Chris Doe had come on it Chris Doe is a very famous designer who teaches people freelancing, negotiation, business and sales skills and there was an open room in it in which he was calling people one by one through the chat and answering their questions So on that, a Pakistani girl got the opportunity to come on the call and talk to Chris Doe which is like, brother, it's an amazing opportunity that guy takes $5,000 for a call so he is making you sit on a free call and giving you time and I got so frustrated because every Pakistani's problem is that the mindset of get rich quick is in everyone even the people who are seemingly successful who have opened agencies, their mind is stuck there how to earn more money Brother, you are sitting in front of one of the most well-known designers in the world you ask him about his skill set, you ask him about his business ask him about competition, ask him about strategy and that girl is saying to him I am in Pakistan, so I can't earn more money I am in Pakistan, so I can't earn more So now that Chris Doe, a white American he said, look brother, do you buy an iPhone? He said yes How much is it in Pakistan? It's expensive, in fact, it's more expensive than in America He said, does Apple work for Pakistan at its rate? It doesn't, do people buy it? Yes, they do So he gave a very simple answer, because he is a branding guy He basically wanted to say, look there are two principles in the world if you are providing services then there are only two ways to work either you make your rate dirty and provide services or you do branding and provide services basically become a product while providing services I learned a very interesting lesson from this The second thing that I found very interesting was that he then asked that girl what do you do? Look, Chris Doe again legendary designer 10-15 years of experience his high portfolio Emmy Award winner in front of her, the girl is saying I do branding and Chris Doe immediately didn't even think about it What's in branding? Branding could mean a lot of things There are different verticals in branding You work on brand strategy You work on visual identity You work on brand guidelines You work with a new company She She was like She was shocked that she is from my field and she gave me such a broad answer From then on, it stopped No, no, I do everything a little bit of this, a little bit of that and then she basically said in simple words Son, go first, learn your work and then worry about making money and like it frustrated me as a listener a lot that again, it's Pakistan Now Chris Doe is there so this impression will be that okay, this is the mentality of the Pakistani people I'm sure he won't think much about it because I'm sure this mindset is not only in Pakistan and a lot around all the regions India, Pakistan, Flanders, Karnataka all have such mindsets but I'm just saying that was such a learning experience for me as a viewer on two things One, you should know how to provide value and the other, you should niche down especially if you want to make more money that should always be your first step so if you're starting out you should always niche down to provide a better service or more branded or more focused service Okay, that being said I just want to communicate a simple principle which I'm pretty sure will come up again and again in a lot of episodes but when it comes to providing value there are two universal truths which is like you can either provide the same value for a lower price or more value for the same price these are like two ways to out-compete your competition in any field, okay? If a person is selling a razor for 100 rupees you sell two razors for 100 rupees or you sell a razor for 100 rupees which will run twice as fast it will have a longer lifetime or better quality or whatever it is you get the idea so just want to set that foundation after that I want to get into an example of like how you can start niching down Okay? So I'll cover two examples let's take one of the developer which is on the technical side let's take one of the marketer which is on the business or strategy side now let's, you're the developer first Okay? so the goal is whatever your role is first of all you have to figure out where do you want to focus in your role, in your skill set Okay? and then you have to figure out which industry or which kind of client you want to target generally speaking these are two steps Okay? If you are in a role and you don't know how much segregation how much variety there is go to a website like like go to Fiverr go to Fiverr and if you're like a designer hover on their design menu and you'll see all kinds of design work Okay? So for the applicable roles Fiverr is a very easy way to understand how much variety there is in this role Okay? But let's take an example of developer and a marketer Let's take the example of a developer Let's say I'm a developer What kind of a developer am I? Websites are also developed Web apps are also developed Mobile apps are also developed Embedded is also developed So first of all I have to pick what kind of development do I do So I'll be like okay I'm a web developer Now if you're in a web developer then as I said in web development there are web apps there are websites there are platforms there is a lot of variety I say that I make web apps of platform style Okay? In which you have usually login there is also a user name different multi-platform connected web apps are there Like your let's say Daraaz or Foodpanda will be a very extreme example Okay? Next up In web apps a lot of technologies are used but you have to specialize in a few Given your experience how many years you have worked You can't say that I know all the web app technologies Yes, at a certain point as a developer you will have a good understanding of basic all the common coding languages out there But let's just say for this purpose you have the experience of React I'm not a developer so if I say something wrong then sorry But let's say you make web apps you make on React So your skill will be defined that you are a web app developer React is your speciality Okay? And obviously the associated technologies The next step is figuring out an industry or client type you want to target Okay? I say I make web apps I make them very well for telehealth businesses Now what are the main challenges in telehealth businesses? Scheduling is required Okay? You have to get an appointment from the doctor You have to make a whole scheduling flow It is very complicated It has issues of time zone It has issues of slot It has issues of schedule management Then there is a very big complicated scene Because telehealth is a kind of marketplace Doctor needs a certain amount Platform needs a certain amount It is very difficult And then at the end of the day SEO Any marketplace has a big challenge SEO is very difficult So let's say I am a web developer I make web apps I have experience in telehealth I want to solve these three pain points So you see you have a very niche and focused messaging For your website For your portfolio For your LinkedIn So on so forth Okay? And the purpose of making all this messaging is not that you won't do any other work I will explain this later Now let's come to the marketer I am a marketer Okay? Again There are 10,000 things in marketing Okay? What kind of a marketer am I? Let's say One level down I am a writer I love writing I am a marketer of written content Okay? Now when you go to written content You will see that there are many things in written content They write white papers They write case studies They write blog posts They write social media There are also copywriters I say I am a copywriter Okay? I am a marketing copywriter Now when you see Okay? There are many use cases Landing page copy There is email direct response copy There is copy of ads There are many sub-divisions So I say I make a copy of website landing pages I make a copy of So just like we listed down the web developer we did the same in marketing I am a copywriter who specializes in landing page copy Okay? Now we have to find our target customer So target customer I caught in this example The SaaS landing page Software as a service companies I do copywriting on their landing pages And I specialize in making good value propositions in promising high conversion and in making branding focused landing page Okay? These are typically three challenges for early stage startups to convey their brand to convey their value proposition on landing page and then obviously they need conversion Like I caught 2-3 pain points in telehealth I caught 2-3 pain points in this too and now my whole messaging is done my whole outlook Right? Now you have made all of this and you say what was its purpose Its purpose was there is a theory called red ocean vs blue ocean theory which is slightly applied here I will add links in the references you can read more But basically the red ocean is that there is heavy competition going on there is bloodshed marketers are fighting with each other developers are hitting each other and you have made a small blue ocean where yes, there are a lot of developers but the developers who work on web apps are less the developers who work on react web apps are less the developers who work on telehealth react web apps are less and the developers who are solving certain pain points of telehealth through web apps are less you have made a funnel you have limited my audience size I have caught this hyper targeted audience now all my same thing with the marketer there are a lot of copywriters and so on so forth but how many copywriters are writing a copy of the landing page of sas landing page google it you will not find that many you will find 5-6 on LinkedIn the point is you are in a red ocean and you want to be in the blue ocean when you are starting out when you grow up that's a different game now we are only talking about starting out now as I told you in the first example first you refine your skill then you refine your target audience so on so forth so for this there is an easy to understand framework it is called the elevator pitch framework I will place an article in the description you can read it it will be better I don't need to get into it but basically it will help you figure out those steps for yourself which we have used for the developer and marketer so in the end I just want to say that to niche down is an excellent way of growing very fastly so even if you are in a job or in a career and you say that I want a job in a specific industry you can apply the same advice to yourself also you are starting freelancing same advice you are making an agency same advice thing to remember here is that don't do everything under the sun it's simple I did a poem that if you do everything under the sun you will sell them outside the competition okay? you don't want to be under the sun you want to be known for one thing and that is good don't take it in a negative way like I said earlier when I give advice to people the biggest problem is that I can do these things also so why shouldn't I market that so if I am a web app developer I don't just work on telehealth I can work on other things also and I understand that struggle I have struggled with that a lot that how can I narrow my focus when I have other tasks also but understand the purpose of this exercise is that your messaging and content on your website and portfolio is targeting a niche audience once you get a couple of clients you get a couple of opportunities so on and so forth you get them then on referral or word of mouth you can still get more work okay? a client came to me for telehealth I worked on that so he said that I need help my friend is making this web app so I said yes I know how to make that the goal is your entry point you have just made it a focus it doesn't mean that you won't do any other work it just means that getting new work will become much easier for you compared to if you claim that you know everything because then like as one person no one will believe you and you will have a really hard time showing what you know okay? think for yourself let's say I am a developer I have 5-6 years experience and I say that I know how to make health tech apps ad tech, telehealth I know complex WS devops and I know 4-5 things in my portfolio okay? 2-3 projects here I say that I have worked on 5-6 telehealth projects think for yourself what is more likely to stand out right? and that's just what it is especially when you are starting out it's easier to stand out with consistent and reliable and repeat effort which you are showing the results then like you are doing 4-5 things and lastly I want to leave you with this you hear this and say that I want to do this but my previous work is scattered how do I focus now? so for that my biggest advice to everyone is get into project based learning or get into gig based learning I won't cover that in this episode but eventually we will cover that part as well but basically it's just like you do that exercise first figure out what to do then start doing projects or make personal projects or go to fiverr and make a gig and practice messaging at the end of the day when you go through this process 3-4 times it will help you figure out personally for my website it took me 3 years to figure out and I am still in the main process I haven't reached that point reduce the filter when I started I would do product management project management marketing consultancy everything then I cut and cut now if you go to my website it's just like I want to work with early stage startup founders and no one should talk to me now it doesn't mean that I don't talk to anyone but at least those who go to my website will know that I support early stage as always any feedback is welcome and hopefully this helped you I will see you in the next episode thank you