 I've noticed that one of the things that gets people stuck when they're trying to build their business are the big questions like what's my niche? Who's my ideal client? What should I be offering? What's my marketing message? What's my calling in life? These big questions have a finality to them that overwhelm us and it is not helpful to be overwhelmed and to be afraid that if you don't answer the question correctly you will go in the wrong direction. Have you ever experienced that? Oh if I if I pick the wrong niche my god I'm going to be wasting years of my life. If I don't define my ideal client correctly I'm going to be spending hours or thousands of dollars marketing to the wrong people. Well of course you're going to delay if you're going to be scared by these big questions and have the sense of oh I gotta do all the research I can possibly do and I gotta you know spend months trying to figure this out before I can do the next thing. So the finality of these questions is what is getting us stuck some of us and is also an illusion. So let me explain. When it comes to building an authentic business what does it mean? It means that you are authentic and true aligned with your evolution and your passions at this time. To build an authentic business doesn't mean I'm going to build a business for my authentic self 10 years from now. Who knows who you're going to be 10 years from now you don't know and that's maybe one of the things that we forget is that we change in ways that we cannot predict. Okay number one number two society changes in ways that we can't predict. Okay number three is an interesting thought that a wise mentor of mine said to me years ago and he said we can't understand our calling except looking backward. Think about this the calling of your life your life mission can only be understood looking backwards not forwards. To think you're going to know your life mission for the rest of your life you are preventing yourself from learning more because you have a certainty that you know what you're what you're supposed to do for the rest of your life. Really does that mean you're not going to learn anything else about yourself? I'm sorry that's kind of boring life. I mean no you are you are an infinitely adapting evolving spirit being who has potentials beyond your imagination right now. So how can you tell me that you're going to define the rest of your life at this current time? I can't even define what you know five years from now I wouldn't be doing. I am open-minded and I recommend that you stay open-minded too. Now I just did a video you know my last video is about being you know perceivers versus judges and I said that I'm a I'm a J. I'm a judge so I like to make decisions and you know kind of no certainty and predictability but this is the one thing that I'm a perceiver about. I'm a perceiver when it comes to what's my niche going to be in five years? Who's my ideal client going to be? And I think I don't know what's my next offering what's uh what's my offering going to be in in 12 months? I haven't defined and I'm actually not going to define my course calendar for the next year because things can and will change based on what I understand of you my audience and what I understand is important for me to be teaching okay. So and I think I am a I am open-minded about these kinds of business questions because of my experience in business. My experience in business has taught me over 10 years that things change faster human beings you know the kind of business I do is very human human centric it's about uh human beings transmitting their wisdom and experience and support to one another and human beings change faster than than anything else and society therefore of course changes fast too. So instead of being anxious and overwhelmed at figuring out what your niche is or what your offering is supposed to be or what your calling is supposed to be or who your ideal client is or what your marketing message is let it go let it go and instead take this stance take the stance of experiment playful experimentation not definitions there's a there's a wonderful old uh Yiddish proverb that says we plan god laughs we make plans and god says oh really you think that's what's going to happen you have no idea what's going to happen you have no idea what you want to do even 12 months from now you don't I don't honestly you think oh george you have a very stable business you know exactly your business coach no I 12 months from now I could be that I just decide you know I'm going to go full time into doing productivity coaching it depends on the response of my market I'm always always testing always and that's I think that's why I'm I'm I've been successful for so many years always testing and same thing I mean Jeff Bezos love love him or hate him you know the founder of amazon amazon Jeff they're always testing did you know this amazon.com you think well they have a very stable business model every you know they sell this or the stuff they're always they have a okay I don't know I don't want to uh get get this example wrong because they actually it's already out there but what I heard is they have um they give you time to like play and test google same thing they give google employees time to test out new ideas try new they're always testing things out before they commit lots of money and time to something they'll want to test it out first and so what about you are you saying you have to define your niche no no so so so instead of and I'm looking at my notes here make sure I'm sharing everything I need to with you oh yeah there's a quote here I want to say from Ralph Waldo Emerson you know the wise the rise Emerson says all life is an experiment the more experiments you make the better and in fact the the the sentence before this was do not be too timid or squeamish about your actions all of life is an experiment the more experiments you make the better so how many experiments are you making or are you needing to figure it out and decide and then go out there with your offer and then finally publish your website and finally you know start your Facebook page it's all it's all up in the air and with my new side business I changed the business name three months into the start it's okay and now I've got the the new business name has been going on for three months and who knows I might still change it that's how I succeed not just me but that's how most successful entrepreneurs succeed they are open to change all the time niche change ideal audience ideal client change depends on how the response is you see so don't define be open to change okay so let me give you a couple of reframings about these things so instead of what's my niche okay don't if what's my niche isn't helpful for I mean for some of you you'd like asking the bigger questions sometimes sometimes it's inspiring to ask the bigger questions that what's my niche what's my calling what's my who's my ideal client what's my marketing message these are big questions sometimes if it helps you great do it but if anytime you notice ooh it might be making me procrastinate on finally making a decision on what the next thing I'm going to promote is okay then don't ask what's my niche ask this what's the next niche that I want to explore through experimentation maybe I explore for one month who cares what my aunt Sally says what what my old classmate John says oh you change your niche again I don't give a f about what my old classmate John says or aunt Sally neither of which I actually have but but you know what I mean is are that I really should really address this it may be that you're being stopped because you're afraid of some some family member or some old classmate or some friend saying well you changed again you thought you were doing this now you're doing that okay first of all you know have compassion they are not entrepreneurs that's why they're saying that an entrepreneur and a successful entrepreneur particularly would be like oh that's great you changed it is awesome so did you get some market response that oh okay yeah so great well I hope you'll keep changing until you find the market response that's right that that is the Venn diagram the intersection between your deep gladness and the world's deep wants or the world's hunger okay that takes continual experimentation says the successful entrepreneur okay not your aunt Sally or your classmate John or your you know your your your mom or your dad or your brother your sister or your fill in the blank your cousin their opinion unless they're a successful entrepreneur unless several successful entrepreneurs have said why are you now now you don't want to change niches every like week that's a little weird but change niches every every month every single month try a new niche I challenge you to do that who cares what your you know wife and mother and brother and dad and classmate and who cares what they say that you need to first that's the that's actually the foundation you need to stop caring what they say you need to have compassion on them and you go laugh and go yeah you know that's what entrepreneurs do show them this video tell them George says not to listen to your non-business experience you don't have business experience and they have business experience it's in the corporate world which is very like a titanic right except for the most successful corporations keep changing right amazon keep change news they're trying new stuff they're always trying new stuff you know uh tesla all trying new stuff hey what if we dig a hole under la they've now dug a hole under la let's give it a try says elon musk let the elon musk and the jeff bezos says be your advisor not your your your aunt sally or your cousin bob who's criticizing you you know when you go see them for family for family gathering in a couple weeks you know we're recording this during the holidays right just say oh you know that's actually what entrepreneurs do if you knew the if you understood the definition of entrepreneurship right then you know that george says to change niches every month now i'm being facetious a little bit i mean i'm not literally saying you should change niches every month but if you haven't figured it out if you're not yet making money probably you should change niches every month try it out i want you to try 12 different niches before you have a clue you know before you get a sense of okay it looks like the world wants me to do this looks like i really like doing this try 12 different things don't just try one thing don't just try two or three things okay don't i mean that's why that's and you know what the easiest way to try niches is content so instead of like george are you saying create 12 different websites that would be the most inefficient way of trying a niche the easiest way of trying a niche is today i'm going to write about relationships tomorrow i'm going to write about career the following day i'm going to write about money the following day i'm going to write about energy energy healing the following day i'm going to write about knitting the following day i'm going to make a video about dog training because i'm just trying all these things out and i'm going to see which one i really enjoy and which one now maybe you don't do one a day Maybe you try knitting for a week or like I said, a month. You're really passionate about knitting. Great, make a video a day about knitting for a month. See how that goes, see if you really like it. See what the markets, you do Facebook ads if you can. Try it out, the next month you're gonna try dog training because you have a passion for that too. Try it out, if you don't try, how will you know? It might be that the eighth thing you try is like, your life, your business takes off. I mean, you just, that is gonna be the thing you do for the next 10 years, but you never got to the eighth thing. You never tried it, you never tried it. So try through content and Facebook ads. Okay, content posts on your Facebook business page, start a Facebook business page, start posting content there, run Facebook ads, see if the odd, even the cold, people don't know you yet. They like your writings or they like your videos or whatever, try writings first, but try videos too. Try it through content. You can start 12 secret Facebook pages. Your Aunt Sally and Uncle Bob don't need to know that you have these Facebook pages. Just like I have my secret test, my secret spiritual business right now, I'm trying it out. I have two hours a week to try things out and so I'm probably gonna, I should probably be trying more things, to be honest, but I'm only trying one thing right now actually. Maybe I should follow my own advice and show you what it's like to try 12 different things, but I'm trying one thing because I have enough business experience where I feel like, okay, I think I can build a business from there, but spiritual, personal development is so broad that I could offer 12 different things next year, very different things within that spiritual, personal growth space. There's a lot of experimentation available there from for me to try, but that's the idea. Instead of what's my niche, right? You could say what's my overall topic. My overall topic is relationships, great relationships. All right, there could be 12 different things you try. It could be marriage coaching, divorce coaching, dating coaching, could be relationships at work, could be lots of different things. So instead of what's my niche, say what's the next little thing that I want to explore through experimentation, content or through offers. Okay, and okay, who's my ideal audience? That's the next thing I want to myth bust here. Stop saying who's my ideal audience. I mean, you can't if it's helpful, great, but for a lot of people that I work with, like they're so stuck on who's my ideal client. No, instead I like to ask, okay, who has recently been responding to my authentic content? Who has recently been responding to my authentic content? Then you're not guessing who's my ideal audience, who's my ideal client, like fantasy, who knows, I'm just guessing, is it me from 10 years ago, is it my best friend, is it my mom, is it my nephew, who's my ideal client? Who's going to answer that for you, right? The market will answer that for you. The market answers that question for you, not your own journaling, not your own, well, I think it might be this. No, the market answers, well, how does the market answer? Well, you're putting content out there and then you're seeing, well, who's responding to my content, to my authentic content? Me being myself, who is going to like me for who I am? Plenty of people, plenty of people, millions of people will like you for who you are. Remember this, remember that just advertising on Facebook, advertising to United States and Canada is something like 300 million people, 300 million people that you could reach through Facebook ads in just US and Canada. I'm not even talking United Kingdom and Australia and Singapore and Ireland, South Africa, whatever, fill in the blank. Europe, Asia, Antarctica, just US and Canada, which is I'm focused on right now. India, China, I mean, just focus US and Canada and 300 million people you can reach on Facebook ads, there are, US and Canada, there are probably 10,000, 100,000 people who are literally, would love you just for who you are, even without the makeup, even when you stumble. 100,000 people out of 300 million. I mean, that's, what is it? 1% of 300 million is 3 million, okay? 1% of that, okay, 300,000, 30,000. Okay, let's say 30,000 people. 1% of 1% of the US and Canada population love you for who you are. That's not unlikely actually, right? 30,000, there are 30,000 people out there, just in US and Canada, who love you for who you are. Like you don't have to try to be anything, you can be crazy, you can be funny, you can be boring, doesn't matter what you do, they love you for who you are, just showing up as you, just love you. So, who is it that's been responding to my authentic content? Ask that question, don't ask who's my ideal audience. Also ask who has been buying my services and products if you've got any buyers, if you don't have it, who's been responding? And if you don't have any responses yet, you haven't gotten your thing in front of enough people. Remember 1% of 1%, right? So that's like, help me do the math here, it's 100, one out of 10,000 people love you for who you are, who are on Facebook, thank you, reach through ads. One out of 10, so have you even reached 10,000 people yet? In your Facebook ads, maybe you've reached, you could reach about 1,000 people for under $20. So for $200, for $200, you'll probably find that one person who loves you for who you are and they'll keep following your content, just keep, and I'm being, that's kind of conservative for 200 bucks, you'll probably find 10, 20 people who just are gonna keep following you ongoingly, who knows? I don't know what the numbers are, for you are gonna be, you're probably more attractive than me. I say it a lot of times, I'm blessed with below average looks, because that allows me to be able to share this message with everybody. So, you're more attractive than me. You're, it's gonna be more than one out of 10,000, it's gonna be one out of 1,000 for you or maybe even one out of 100, okay? So, don't worry about your ideal audience. Just put your stuff out there, see who responds to you naturally. Okay, the next one is, what should my offering be? What should my offering be? That is such an intimidating question. Instead of asking, what should my offering, what should my product or my service be? Ask this, what have I already been helping people with? Okay, that's a good question to ask. You look at, remember, our calling can only be understood looking backward, right, looking backward. Let me just take a moment to thank those of you who are joining me here. You, Alayna, Mona, Sharon, Alejandra, Jayce, Linda. Thanks so much for joining me, Wendy, Jen. So, our calling can only be understood looking backward. Looking forward, it's all guesses and you should be guessing the next thing, not guessing what you should be for the rest of your life. Okay, so instead of watching my product be too big of a question, too intimidating, what have I already been helping people with? So, that's some clues. Oh, I've already been helping people with this. I love reading about that. I love talking to people about that, helping them with that. Great, what will I try helping people with next? What's the next thing I'm gonna try helping people with? Give it, let's give it a try. Dog training, let's try helping people with that. Cat training, let's try. Turtle training, let's help people with that. Knitting, I'm just thinking of random examples. I don't know. Designing furniture, let's try it. Let's try it. If I've been passionate about it, if I'm reading about it, I've been watching video, let me try becoming a furniture design expert. I could create a secret Facebook page. Uncle Bob, Uncle Sally and Bob, I'm being progressive here. We'll never have to know about it, okay? Never have to know. They don't have to criticize you. It's a secret page. You're using Facebook ads. Try out new people who've never heard of you. Now you're a furniture expert in this Facebook page and you are a meditation teacher on this Facebook page and you are a painter on that third Facebook page and you are a dog bed designer on this fourth page. You know what I mean? If you try things out, give yourself the best chance of success. So anyway, I guess I'll finish up this video by just thanking those of you. So the last thing I'll say actually because I'm looking at my notes here is instead of trying to make a decision, try things until the decision becomes obvious. Let me say that again. Instead of trying to answer that big question, try lots of little questions, try lots of little things until the answer to the big question becomes obvious. It will become obvious to you at some point. You will not have to wonder what's my calling at some point. You'll be like, well, obviously my calling has been to be a furniture designer because that's what I've been doing now for the last 10 years. Successful, you've been appreciating me for it. It will become obvious to you who your ideal audience is. So if it's not obvious to you, you're not ready to define it. It will become obvious to you what your niche is. If it's not obvious yet, you're not ready yet to define it. You need to try more things. It will become blazingly obvious to you. You could be like, well, look, lots of people keep asking me about this. It's obviously my niche, right? Okay. And one other thought is that your information becomes more updated as you live into the future, right? You in 2030 is gonna understand the 2030 society and 2030 you better than you in 2019. You in 2019 can barely guess what you in 2030 is gonna be or what society it's gonna be like. So why are you making your decision for 2030? You should be making your decision for the second quarter of 2019, maybe. You see what I mean? So, all right. Thanks for being here. I hope this has been helpful. Let me just take a look at some of the comments here. Mona says, how do you create a secret Facebook page? Go to facebook.com slash pages, I think. Facebook.com slash pages. Let me see if that's the, yeah. Yeah, facebook.com slash pages. Click on create page, okay? And don't like the page. That's how you create a secret page. You just create the page, but you don't like, you Mona don't like the page because if you start liking the page your friends and family know that you like that page. So just don't like that page and don't like any of your posts. Then it's secret. Nobody else, nobody will know because there is a, what millions at least if not hundreds of millions of Facebook pages out there. So how does anyone not know that one's been created? One's probably created every hour or every 10 minutes probably a new Facebook page is created. So I hope that helps. All right, so let's see here. Great. All right, thanks Elena for your comment. Thanks Yule and Sharon, Alejandra, Jace. Well, I hope this is helpful and any questions comment below and I will see you in the next video. Remember, keep experimenting secretly if you're shy about your friends and family thinking that you're a flake. I don't care that my friends and family think I'm a flake but maybe you do, then create secret pages and use Facebook ads to try different audiences. Okay, or if you don't mind then just try different content on your own page and you don't have to promote that to your friends and family, right? Just let your audience test out what they like from you. All right, be well. I will see you again soon.