So many businesses tend to believe that they can serve anyone and everyone. However, if you listen to many episodes here at Leaders in the Trenches, you know that is a huge mistake.

John Cote knew he wanted to focus his services and become a market leader in building websites, creating powerful marketing campaigns and getting amazing results for one target market. This journey has taken John to a place where he is no longer only trading time for money.

In fact, he has 3 different revenue streams for this target market in only a few months of work. He is using his podcast “Healthcare Anywhere” to attract his ideal clients, but there is a twist to this approach that is really paying off for this digital agency.

In this episode, here’s what we’ll cover:

• Why you need to specialize.
• The discovery of your niche and how it will propel your business.
• Indirect marketing: what is it and how should you use it?
• How to choose the best sponsors for your audience.
• The 3-legged stool explained and how it’ll work for your business.
• The importance of focus in moving forward.

John’s Target Audience: John’s target market is people who have sought medical help elsewhere and those who are seeking medical help elsewhere.  

John is a former military officer who later went to work for the airline industry. After 9/11 he realized that he had a family to support and his industry was tenuous at best; he saw much more security in the world of digital marketing. As his expertise grew, he wrote a book and began speaking.

Soon everyone was becoming an expert in the digital marketplace; and he knew he needed to specialize if he was to flourish. So he opted to serve people with Medical Tourism podcasts. There was a need in this area, he had found a niche that no one else was serving. Now instead of making hundreds of dollars with hundreds of clients, he could focus on making thousands of dollars with only 10 clients.

With us today, John discusses how he found his niche and the importance of specializing in your chosen business. John says it’s okay to do multiple things for your business but you need to identify a market that you could serve and “specialize in a niche”.

He is using his medical tourism expertise to serve both business-to-business and business-to-clients. He has been using an indirect marketing approach with his podcasts in medical tourism; he places his focus on educating clients rather than selling to them.

He did not want his podcasts to turn into a big commercial for companies so he vets each of them to be sure that they remain patient-centered. He also provides a foundation for his clients by having overseas medical facilities come onto the show to talk about what they offer patients.

John took a two-tier approach with the launch of his podcasts:  he did a bit of social media and ran contests for reviews. He discovered his best-monetizing success came from putting together a “three-legged stool”: focus, provide and get service, sponsorship/membership.

Practical & Actionable:

John says the most practical and actionable thing you can do is to look into getting a Virtual Assistant (VA). Being an entrepreneur takes a lot of work. You may not be an expert at everything you need to do as a successful entrepreneur. Getting a VA can make a tremendous difference for you and your businesses.