Three Layers Deep: All Aboard the Niche Train

Choo choo.. part 2/4 of the multi-passionate personal brand-based founders guide to a business that prints cash, serves well and sets you free.

Feb 20, 2025

This is Part Two in a four part series to help you set up a personal brand for success. You can view Part One here, Part Three here, and Part Four here. If you’re enjoying this content, subscribe to get notified for more.

🎤 Prefer to listen to this one? Click here.

🤳 Follow me on Instagram here.

“But.. Marie Forleo does it!”

I mentally side-eyed, raised my eyebrows and scoffed.. but didn’t ACTUALLY, because I didn’t know this woman that well and of course that would be rude.

Besides, she wasn’t exactly saying something I hadn’t heard before.

I had — millions of times.

And it wasn’t that it didn’t make sense on the surface of it.

It did — to the unaware, it really did.

But ultimately? My student, Jess, was trying to preach to me the virtues of developing a brand new course project with the most vanilla of foundations because it had worked for *insert early-adopter-now-huge-influencer” here — and I wasn’t having it.

“I want to create a business program to help new online founders start a business!” — she’d announced excitedly.

I blinked.

“I’ve been coaching for two years now and I’ve been in business for twenty, plus I’m so burnt out on client work — I know this will work, I’m so good at it!”

Blink. Blink.

I waited. She stared back eagerly.

It’s not enough, I mentioned lightly. Straddling polite and firm is never easy in a consulting relationship, but I’ve been around the online business block enough times now to know when an idea need (a lot of) work.

And of course, it would do the student a disservice not to tell them.

Jess’ mistake is a common one. Probably the most common, actually. It usually rolls out like this:

Stage One: The Idea

Someone has a skill or expertise, and they want to monetise it in a leveraged way. They see other big names in the space doing it successfully, and buoyed by the online business “you can do anything!” spiel, they get.. excited.

Like Jess — “I’ll help people start a business!”

They kick off, and go broad. The thinking goes a little like this:

I want to make sure that I give myself the BEST chance possible to succeed and I don’t want to limit myself so I won’t miche. And anyway, I really CAN help anyone with this!

Stage Two: The Start

They set up shop (usually in a 1:1 business model — whether that’s service work or coaching), and their message is loud and clear — in Jess’ case, “I can help you start a business!”

Things start slow, but finally they start to get a trickle of work.

Because haven’t refined their message, they end up with a whole range of clients. Their Dads best friend. An old female friend from school. Mostly referrals — from mates, acquaintances and other people they kind-of know.

Pretty soon though, they’ve tapped out of their personal network. And when that happens, the cracks begin to appear.

It’s tough. Enquiries are few and far between. When they DO come through, the conversation is always about price and they’re often ghosted.

Meanwhile, they keep slogging away to serve the clients they DO have; reinventing the wheel and customising their approach for each person because their needs are so diverse.

The end result? Usually, whether it’s a year in or five — they burn out on the 1:1 model, and start looking for alternatives.

Stage 3: Business Model Shift

This is usually where they start considering more leveraged avenues. Courses. Maybe a group program. Something where they can still deliver an outcome, but where it isn’t so dependent on it taking up all of their time.

It feels like the perfect solution — a business oasis!

And so they embark on a grand leveraged business adventure; chasing FREEDOM.

And of course.. that’s the dream that’s sold online, isn’t it? Ditch your clients, build something leveraged and enjoy the freedom, time and fulfilment you started your business for in the first place.

Only.. it’s (surprise, surprise) not that simple.

Stage Four: The Flop

Off to the races they go!

They take their same message and start crafting their more leveraged offer.

They release it and.. crickets.

It tanks.

Here’s why:

Because the offer is more leveraged, the price of the offer is usually lower than for the thing they were offering at the start — which means more sales are required, more leads to achieve their sales goal and it ALSO has a less “personal” method of selling so conversion (buy) rates are generally lower.

Unfortunately, this is where the fatal flaw in their foundations all along starts to REALLY bubble to the surface.

Faced with the need for volume, a cold audience and no referrals from a mate.. the chink in their business armour that was there all along becomes glaringly obvious.

The offer is too broad, it’s trying to talk to everyone — and it (plus them) are invisible as a result.

As a result, it doesn’t sell. Or at least, not well, and they have price (‘I can’t afford it’ aka you didn’t properly communicate the value) objections up the wazoo.

Herein lies the problem with the lack of GREAT positioning (which starts with niche).

Usually when someone starts out in a 1:1 model and they’re selling to people they kind of know or to referrals, they can get away with a broad offer that ‘serves everyone’. Yes, they will usually compete on price as a result, but they can usually still scrape together enough work to pay the bills .

The second they want to move into a more leveraged offer, though?

They need MORE attention, more leads and they need to deliver their solution in a MORE streamlined way.

None of which lends itself to big, broad messaging designed to attract ‘everyone’, because it actually has the opposite effect.

Here’s the truth:

(And this isn’t ground-breaking, scroll the Internet for business advice for more than 1.5 seconds and you’ll probably hear this).

To stand out and sell — always, but especially in 2025 — you’ve gotta niche.

Happily (especially if you are a personal brand), that DOESN’T mean putting your sweet little multi-passionate self into a box for twenty years and throwing away the key.

But it DOES mean that you should create individual PROJECTS under your personal brand (I talk about that more in part one of this series here) and niche them sufficiently so as to cut through.

Here’s why:

EVERY landscape is a competitive “red ocean” these days

Gone are the days when you could stand out on the Internet simply by virtue of being there. Just about every main market has exploded online in a post-2020, and that means more competition than ever.
There’s only three ways to stand out, and two of them are hard

You can do it by being cheaper (a race to the bottom, don’t recommend), better (noble, but hard when you’re starting out) or being different. The truth is that competitive marketplaces aren’t BAD — usually, they’re great ones to enter because they’re a sign that there’s demand!

But once you’re in one, the best way to stand out isn’t to copy your competitors, but instead separate yourself by being different.

The first step in doing that is to speak to a subset of the market aka a niche, and that is the focuses of this part two of the series.

Here’s how to do it.

How to Define a Niche: Going Three (or Four!) Layers Deep

The starting point for a great niche to choose a market that has in-built demand, and then to go three or four layers deep to specialise within it.

Here’s how to do it.

Layer One: Choose A Core Market

Layer one is to choose a core desire to focus on from the three market ‘titans’.

These markets are (and will always be) in demand because they reflect the three key human needs — health, wealth and relationships.

And even if you’re scratching your head and wondering how your idea fits into one of these three, I want you to choose an angle for it so that it does.

Example — you teach knitting.

On the surface, you might wonder whether knitting fits into any of these three core markets. The key, though? To make it so that it does because without speaking to a core human desire, the project will be less likely to succeed.

So, you could ANGLE the project under the ‘health’ core market.

How? Well, there is plenty of evidence that social media and time on mobile phones is contributing to anxiety. People are distracted, anxious and always “on”. So, what if you could position knitting as a form of self-care?

An intentional distraction from the fast-paced world and a way to keep your hands busy and focused instead of constantly reaching for your phone?

Or, you could ANGLE the project under the ‘wealth’ core market.

Your knitting course is positioned as a way to make extra income.

Or relationships. A weekly knitting club.

You get the gist.

Choose to focus on a core market — pick either wealth, health or relationships.

And then, you’re ready to go a layer deeper.

Layer Two: Pick a Sub-Category Within That Market

This layer two is usually where people naturally gravitate to when building a new project — and (unfortunately) they stay here.

Layer two is to splinter into a category that sits beneath the core market.

For example, in Jess’ case — she chose wealth as her core market.

Her sub-category is online business.

However, others in the wealth space might focus on investing, personal finance or real estate.

Under health might be weight loss, mental health, diet, exercise, running.

Under relationships might be divorce, marriage, sex, friendships, dating or self-acceptance.

Going at least two layers deep these days is fairly common so I won’t spend too long here — only to say that it’s a complete non-negotiable right now and ALSO not a final destination.

Layer Three: Where the Magic Happens

Layer three is to go one layer deeper again.

However, this is really where the magic happens because it’s where you add a big twist that PRACTICALLY GUARANTEES that your project demands attention and stands out.

In this layer, you don’t simply go a layer deeper randomly.

Instead, this layer is where you intentionally choose the vehicle you will choose to deliver a result or defined outcome for someone.

Your vehicle the WAY you are taking someone from A to B.

For example, maybe you are helping someone to improve their health (layer one: core market) by losing weight (layer two: sub-category) by counting macros (layer three: vehicle).

But! There’s two big nuances to think about when choosing your vehicle if you want to make sure your project really starts to sing and stand out.

Firstly, you aren’t (YET!) choosing a specific market.

Yes, this is important — but you’re not doing it yet. Actually, picking a market in layer three will actually set you back.

So, don’t make your layer three “X for mums”, or “X for creatives” or anything like that just yet.

Picking a market is something you will do a little later on, and it will FURTHER crystallise your message — but you need the vehicle first.

Secondly, your vehicle needs to be unique and stand out in and of itself.

This is really the key.

You want to focus on a vehicle — being a means of delivering a result or outcome — that doesn’t feel tired, or something that you’ve heard a million times before.

Let’s use an example to illustrate.

Wealth > Online Business.

Example A: Business Coaching.

Example B: Installing AI-driven one-person businesses.

Which one stands out?

The latter, right? It’s maybe something new, that you haven’t heard about before. The vehicle feels different and unique, and it’s not something everyone is doing.

And that’s kind of the point.

When coming up with your layer three — use the dinner party test, and imagine you’ve just asked someone what they do for a living.

Example:

“Oh, I’m a personal trainer”.

Likely, you’d be polite if someone told you that, but likely you’d have mentally checked out because it didn’t make you FEEL something.

Your vehicle CAN’T FEEL LIKE THAT.

To stand out, it needs to feel like something you can’t wait to ask more about.

Imagine instead that your dinner party guest said this:

“I develop 20-minute fitness habits to help you (nb: you’ll define a market later) to live 20-years longer without high-intensity cardio”.

(So, the three layers here are Health > Personal Training > Longevity to increase lifespan by 20 years).

Or..

“I spark new relationships without dating apps with Saturday morning run clubs!”

(Health > Companionship > Dating without apps — or it could also be Relationships > Dating > Alcohol free dates!)

You’d want to know more, right? You’d not just feign interest, but ask follow up questions. It would feel interesting, and different — and INTERESTING TO TALK ABOUT!

That’s where you want to get to when you’re choosing your layers.

The Gift of Niching

Going three layers deep is the secret to standing out in competitive markets right now.

Far from limiting your potential, it gives you the ability to get laser focused with your message, and the way you craft your offers.

And far from limiting yourself, this will attract the right people to you and establish you as a bona fide expert in a defined space.

With global borders and the ability to do business with anyone anywhere these days, your total addressable market is usually vast, and there’s no need to go ‘broad’ to get enough business. In fact, going niche will be the thing that draws that business to you and propels you forward. And especially with global borders, those ponds are vast.

I should also mention (whilst we’re here) that broad negatively affects more than just your marketing.

When you try to speak to everyone, you’ll end up working with everyone too. You’ll inevitably need to customise your offerings as a result, tacking on more and over time to try to cater to a million different needs and turning your offers into frankensteins as a result.

Not a vibe.

But, that’s not all folks!

If you’ve gotten to this point, you’ve made a fine start.

Niching ‘three layers deep’ perfect way to start to differentiate yourself, stand out and command attention.

But, building STAND OUT projects that command attention and sell, sell, sell requires more.

There are two other key ingredients in the ‘recipe’:

The first — positioning. This is all about selecting a specific market, and positioning your vehicle to solve a problem they already have.

And the second — a talkaboutable edge. This is all about crafting a message so compelling that every persons its for stands up and pays attention immediately.

(I’ll be covering these two in the next two editions in the series, so subscribe to stay tuned).

Get all three firing, and you’ll have more business and attention than you can poke a stick at.

Click here for Part three.

Prefer to watch? Subscribe to Youtube here:

And leave me a comment, I’d love to know — was this helpful? Do you have questions?