178: Creating a Niche, Authority and Visibility Strategy for Your Design Firm
Michele 00:00
Hello, my name is Michele, and you're listening to Profit is a Choice. With me today is Rachael Bozsik, an international speaker and the go to elite personal branding coach for high achieving interior designers. Rachael has been featured in Forbes Glamour at Harvard Business School, Oprah's leadership academy, and much more. Our conversation today will focus on building out your niche, your authority and your visibility to attract your ideal client and keep your pipeline full, it's gonna be a great conversation.
Michele 00:35
Every day, empowered entrepreneurs are taking ownership of their company financial health, and enjoying the rewards of reduced stress and more creativity. With my background, as a financial software developer, owner of multiple businesses in the interior design, industry, educator and speaker, I coach women in the interior design industry to increase their profits, regain ownership of their bottom line, and to have fun again in their business. Welcome to Profit is a Choice.
Michele 01:10
Hey, Rachael, welcome to the podcast.
Rachael Bozsik 01:12
Hi, Michele. Thanks for having me.
Michele 01:14
I'm excited to chat with you today.
Rachael Bozsik 01:16
Me too. I've been looking forward to this.
Michele 01:18
I know you and I've chatted off camera, off screen. And now we're going to be able to chat and let everybody listening to our conversation. And I'm so excited because this is one of the first podcasts of 2022. And so I am just thrilled that the conversation we're going to have is going to be able to help people plan out their 2022. So at the end, I'd really like to even think about, you know, helping them think about the things we're going to talk about and maybe what they look at quarter one, quarter two, quarter three and quarter four, kind of give them a little bit of a roadmap. Does that sound good?
Rachael Bozsik 01:53
That sounds great. And I think agree. It's the perfect timing to be thinking about your brand and where you want to go and intentionally strategizing it. I'm really, really big. on working with women to make sure they're being proactive rather than reactive. So stop and pause and think of these are the types of projects you want to take on if these are the types of clients you want to serve. And like where are we moving and going. So this is a good time for that conversation.
Michele 02:17
And I think that's why I loved you, the minute I met you, you use the intentionality. You know, my my signature program is called Aim with Intent. We don't aim without an intentional target of what we're trying to hit. And that is in everything, which I love that you just mentioned it has to do. And being intentional in our hiring, being intentional in our processes being intentional with the vendors that we work with and the clients that we serve. And so just not doing things by accident. That's why at the end of the podcast every time I say, choose to be profitable, because profit doesn't happen by accident. So we really can inform an exact change in our businesses when we are intentional about that.
Rachael Bozsik 03:01
Absolutely. That's why we're on the same page. It's why you and I get along well totally design the life that we want, right. And we work backwards to make it work backwards.
Michele 03:09
Yeah, I'll put a note in the show notes. But I just did a podcast at the end of last year, about build your life into your business, not your business, or build your business into your life, not your life into your business. So plan your life. And then let's make the business when we were building businesses, we might as well make them work with the life that we want.
Rachael Bozsik 03:28
Totally and in my previous business, I made a lot of mistakes. And I figured it out the hard way. So that's why I like sharing that with women.
Michele 03:35
Yeah, I think that's the reason we all like to share. We got it wrong, and then we got it right. So why don't we start then, and let's talk about that just for a couple of minutes. Rachael, give us a little bit of your history in your background. And what brought you to where you are right now?
Rachael Bozsik 03:48
Yeah, so right now, what I'm doing today is I work with female entrepreneurs, and I support them in the luxury lifestyle service arena. So that 60% of my clients are interior designers, then I have clients that are luxury event planners or clients that are VIP celebrity coaches. So those types of clients I serve and what I help them do is I help them through elite personal branding, I help them figure out who are they and then how can we market them correctly, so they can get credible and visible and make the big bucks for their work. So I'm all about helping women figure out who are they and how do we monetize their personal brand. So how I got to that kind of funny story. I'll say it quickly. But I went to school at High Point University in North Carolina. And for many of your listeners, I'm sure they're familiar with High Point market. So I went to school studying luxury interior design and also dual majoring in entrepreneurship. So at a really really young age, I was exposed to internships and networking. I was doing setup of High Point market at 18, 19 years old working market and then closing it all down. I got my real estate license when I was in college as well, I think I was 20, 21 years old, and just always exposed to this idea of professional development. So I'm sure Michele, you can relate to this like with your kids, right? Like when they're good at a sport, they continue to dig in, they get a private coach, they join a traveling club team. But really early on professional development was my sport. And so when I went to High Point University, I was working market I had a my own column with design today, I was the youngest millennial to ever come to ever have a column there. And along the way, my girlfriends who were so brilliant and talented, who were fashion majors, or visual merchandising or interior design majors were saying to me, like, you know, how do you get that job? Or, you know, how do I interview for this. And what I recognized was they were incredibly qualified, right? They had the GPA, they had the leadership skills, they had the design portfolio, but when it came time to land, their first job, or their first internship, they started to settle. And they started to say things like, well, maybe I'll just go home this year, and I'll think about Paris next year. Right, or maybe I'll work with this kind of company, because my dad knows the contact and not really put myself out there for whatever the dream opportunity was. And what I recognized once again, right? They were qualified, but they were not qualified and hired. And the real disconnect was they didn't know how to market themselves. They didn't know what their special factor was, and what their personal brand was. And then most importantly, the art of self promotion to land the dream job. So naturally, you know, right through having my real estate license at a really, really young age, and, you know, having internships with Phillips Collection and Roshambo and Hooker and working market for all these years, I brought my girlfriends to my dorm room. And we would sit and rewrite the resumes, I would you know, do little mock interviews with them. And what was really interesting to me, Michele was very, very quickly, they started landing jobs. So what I recognized was, it's an issue in personal branding, it's an issue and identifying who they are and how to market themselves. So when I graduated college, I started my own private coaching business, and it was called the Brand Girls. And at the Brand Girls, we worked with college women to define their brand and market themselves correctly for opportunities. So over the years, I ran the company for five or six years, we worked with 3000 college women, I was invited to speak at over 75 universities, so anywhere from Harvard Business School to UCLA brought me in to educate this critical skill of self promotion. And we work with Oprah's Leadership Academy, I had girls going through on scholarship, you know, we had over 40, national press outlets, Forbes Teen Vogue featuring our work, and I had an incredible time running that company. And I came to a position you and I think are very similar in this. But I'm an introvert extrovert, right? Like, I was having fun on these stages and having fun connecting. But my girlfriends were, you know, interior designers or women in fashion or event planning. And they were saying to me along the way, like, wait a minute, how did you get that Forbes feature? Or how did you get that partnership with Oprah's Leadership Academy? Like what did that look like? And I organically was coaching my girlfriend's and sharing with them like how to position their brand as a service based female entrepreneur. So um, organically, I was having so much fun with that. And I ended up exiting brand girls. And that's what I do full time. Now I work with really brilliant female entrepreneurs, to teach them how to do what I did. I teach them how to market themselves, how to build brand partnerships, how to get press how to get speaking if they want it so they can land those dream clients. So that's what I do now and have so much fun. I only work with like three women a month and they become my very, very close girlfriends.
Michele 08:59
Alright, so that that is an amazing resume. Honestly, thank you for a woman of any age, certainly one who's young. I mean, you're young, and that that is truly amazing. So here's something I'm curious about. And I've worked with women for probably 25 years now, outside of when I worked in tech, very different tech 35 years ago is a very different thing than it is now. Not as many women there. But I'm curious as to when and how did you develop the self confidence to be able to self promote? And where do you see the disconnect with some of the women that you help and that you serve? Because you made the comment and I've been guilty of this myself. I've already done it. So why will I not see it and say it and on it? And I think sometimes No, mine is probably I think some of its tied into my age. Growing up in the South and the way women are positions in society and in business from 34 years ago, right? Versus what it is to the world that you came into, because you are closer in age to my children. And they see the world very differently with the positioning of men and women within the workforce, right? That's not how it was for me when I started. So I'm just curious how you got the confidence that you got what built it throughout your life? Certainly, you you mentioned, I'm sure your parents must have seen that as your sport and encouraged it and you know, helped you grow in that area. But I share that and then I would love to know how the other women like the women that are listening to this podcast, maybe they can't work with you right now or whatever. How do we help them start to own what they've already done? So that they can move forward for this year? In confidence, right? That's the big thing. I had a friend one time tell me she's from the south and she said, Michele, if you dun dun what you say your Dun dun dun dun dun it. So just share. Yeah, I that's not bragging. It's just you've really done it. And there's a way to share it that is promoting you but promoting your solution without being braggadocious about it.
Rachael Bozsik 11:17
Yeah, yeah. So to answer a few of those questions, you know, through brand girls, I realized that confidence is a muscle that's flexed. Like it's literally a muscle that's flats. And we recognize through our research was it takes about three Yes, you did it moments just start really flexing that muscle. So with with our girls that we're working with back then I mean, my gosh, we are taking them from trailer parks and Kentucky to working at Vogue, we would make sure that they celebrated any of their Yes, they did it moments and to write it down at any time they're stepping into new territory. So for my clients now maybe it is like that seven figure interior design commercial contract, right? Like that's like a scary new moment. We have them write down and remember their previous Yes, you did motor. So it is a muscle that's flexed. I think really early on. Like, as mentioned, like, this was my muscle like, this was my sport, this was something that I worked on training, you know, even when I was in high school, I just was obsessed with real estate, my parents owned fraternity houses. So not luxury real estate by any means. But I was exposed to this idea of like, connecting and networking. And, you know, I had a lot of fun doing and I had internships, you know, when I was 16, 17 years old and shadowed mentors. So that was my sport. And then I think I just continued to lean into the moments and flex that muscle. And to answer your question on like, how do women promote themselves now? And like, what does that look like? And how can they do it in a way that doesn't feel braggy? First of all, I get it like I only work with women like all day everyday, like I get the imposter complex, I get the limiting beliefs of like, Well, who am I to do this? You know, I work with clients that, you know, are making like high six, seven figures and clients that are making 15 million plus, like I have clients that are you know, are doing incredible, and they're public figures and HGTV stars. And it doesn't matter. The level, I guess is what I'm trying to say. But like those limiting beliefs continue to carry with them. So I remind my clients, like my best tip is, when people don't know you, they don't trust you. And rightfully so like they don't know you. So why should they trust you. But guess what they do trust a feature in vogue. They do trust a partnership deal with Syria, they do trust that you worked with blah, blah, blah, builders that's well known in your area. So when you have those incredible I like to call them stamps of approval. Right? So external sources that you've worked with partnered with been featured with won an award with mention them because what it does is it allows people to trust you. So you can start a conversation and really showcase the work that you're really good at. And I always say this, like my clients are so good at their craft. They're incredible interior designers like I want to move into all of their spaces, right? But at the end of the day, like how do we take that and how do we position it in a way so they're known as the go to so we can partner with architects we can partner with luxury builders so they can fill the pipeline for my client. So put it out there because it helps people support you trust you so you can have those conversations you're doing them a disservice if you don't mention it.
Michele 14:39
I love that you know there are a couple of things I've always it's funny that you mentioned the three yes you didn't moments and then using that and I I'm the same way I talk about financial fluency is a muscle that we build marketing as a muscle we build confidence as a muscle we build. I work with my clients to do a an exercise called the gap in the game. And so I don't know if you've heard of that exercise or not before, okay. So if you look at where you are right now, and you look into your past, that's the game. That's what you've done. And quite often, we're so busy looking forward, which is the gap. That's the notyet. And if we focus on the not, yet, it leads to anxiety, because all we can see is we haven't made it, we're not there, it's on the horizon, it's a way. But if we will stop and look backwards, and balance those out, then we can see what we have accomplished that has prepared us to be where we are for what we're going to is the same thing that you mentioned in a different way, about writing down what you've already done. But I also thought it was interesting when you said about three being kind of the number through your study, I've recognized over the years of doing pricing and working with pricing. When I've adjusted my pricing. In my mind, I always say to myself, This is what I believe the value is of this no value is only what somebody is willing to pay for something, right, we can have value all day. But I would always say the one that wants three people had bought or purchased at that amount, I could feel confident that that was good and keep going right, then if I needed to raise it again. So I almost have a rule of threes that if I raise my rates and three people purchase, I know that that's fair and reasonable. And then if I need to go up again, I go up again. So it's funny that that number was three. And then the thing I would make a comment about is I also share that the leveraged trust, we are we are sharing trust when somebody like even when you and I we have introduced some of our joint client or their joint now. But we've introduced our clients to each other. So when I bring you in and share you with my team as an expert in that, we've been talking together and I trust what you're doing. It creates this shared trust this leverage trust and you know, it works with people as well as with media and other things. So love that. Okay, what I want to focus on now that we know where you've come from what you do, and certainly the confidence is a muscle. So I point that out and put an exclamation because some people listening may be going I can't do all that with the answers, you can do it. You may have to do it in bite sized pieces and just have to keep working at it.
Rachael Bozsik 17:22
And also I think Can I just make a quick comment on that? Because I hear that all the time. And like, naturally, I do work with women that are established in their business. Sometimes they're only like a year or two in but they're they're making good cash and good money, right? Like they figured out the systems. But sometimes I'll meet women that are like, Okay, well, I'm not ready to work with you. But I need to get all this press and do this, that and the other you know what I mean right now. So how do I do that, or I don't have that. So I always say that I'm like, sit down, pull out your journal. And I want you to dig about what are like juicy tidbits that you've had in your career that can raise your credibility, I'm going to give you a perfect example. So I had a client recently and her name is Elise and Elise is out in New Orleans. And Elise is a commissioned artist, she does these beautiful abstract pieces. And she's on magazine Street. And for any of your listeners that no New Orleans and no magazine Street, it's kind of like the hip, the hip kind of fun spot. But her pieces are expensive. A few grand for a small piece. Now she was crossing your fingers and toes that tourists that were on magazine Street, we're going to just walk into her gallery want to purchase these beautiful abstract commissioned pieces. Now, right? Like, that's not really how it works. So I said to her, I said at least what we need is we need you to partner with luxury interior designers in the southeast who are obsessed with your work, who know you who can sell you themselves. And they each bring in three, four clients a year. Let's say we have six luxury interior designers that are each bringing you three clients. There's 18 pieces. And guess what you're selling them each at five to 10 grand. There's some serious cash where someone was doing your brand ambassador, your sales for you through a partnership. She says to me sounds brilliant, let's do it. I go whoa, wait a second. We can't just go reach out to these luxury interior designers and say, Hey, I'm an artist, here's what I do. We need to figure out your positioning. Okay, so it's same thing for my interior design clients that want to partner with a luxury builder and architect or a luxury real estate agent to sell their work for them. Instead, we have to figure out what stamp of approval you have. So those luxury interior designers can trust you. She said I don't have anything. Right I said let's do something
Michele 19:44
which is probably the answer that you get quite often people are looking back thinking I don't have
Rachael Bozsik 19:49
anything totally and like, like, all my clients always say that and like no matter like how much they're making, I always hear that right. So I said to her we need to brainstorm and we need to think about what is most important to the luxury interior designers. So I want to be really clear here you want to be pulling stamps of approval that are important to your ideal target market. Okay, so the fact that she was on magazine Street, that's credible. That's like a really cool place to be. That's like Rodeo Drive, right? Or like Times Square. Okay, bingo. Now I'm doing some chatting and come to find out she's personally mentored by this artist named Ashley Longshore and Ashley Longshore, for any of your followers who don't know the Ashley Longshore I like to describe as kind of like the Andy Warhol of this generation. And she does you know, Diane Von Furstenberg commissioned pieces and portraits Tommy Hilfiger, his wife. She has a pop up in Bergdorf right. She has a bajillion followers on Instagram. And Elise was mentored by Ashley Longshore first, like really big in the southeast. So I'm like, bingo, there's a stamp of approval that we can use while introducing you to these luxury interior designers. Then we're yapping away some more. And she tells me 10 years ago, she used to do prints. And she was like, I would never do prints anymore, right? It's not her medium. But she sold them to Pottery Barn and she had like six stores that kind of showcased her work, right? And she was like, Rach, I didn't make anything from it. And I would never do prints now. Like it's beneath my brand. I'm putting that in quotes, right? Because that's just commissioned original pieces. And I said, it doesn't matter the fact that you had a licensing deal with Pottery Barn, I don't care. They make money but Pottery Barn trusted you. Then last but not least, where you have to wait some more and come to find out that she is I don't know if I'm screwing this up. It's either she's the godmother or vice versa to Alexa Hampton, right? And also the Hamptons, a major, major, major interior designer, right like Nate Berkus level, and she has the pieces in her house. So I'm like, okay, at least so do you see now how we can question you as this this beautiful abstract artists on magazine Street, personally mentored by Ashley Longshore, you know, early in your career, you had a licensing line with Pottery Barn Alexa Hampton endorses your work? Do you see how those stamps of approval now allow you to support to have conversations with luxury interior designers who will be able to sell you to their clients. My point is Elise came to me saying Rach, I have nothing. You guys all have something. And it might not be exactly what Elise has, but it's probably something different. And so if you want to have partners with luxury builders, architects, realtors that fill the pipeline for you, I do a lot of work with my clients getting their brand ready niching them down. Having them position is the go to expert getting the press so we can create those lucrative partnership deals. Think about it. If you have a luxury builder that brings you five, six gorgeous, gorgeous projects a year, bingo, right? That's big. It fills the pipeline for you. But in order to have that conversation, you've got to niche down, you have to step into the space of self promotion, you have to do it, because it's going to allow people to trust you, Michele, just even like how you introduced me, you brought me into your mastermind recently with your brilliant women. You were just like reached us personal branding. We're excited to have her hair. You said Rachael's a speaker at Harvard Business School. She's coached anyone from Kathy quo to Gwen Iguara. And I'm going to be working with Rachael on my own personal brand as a client. And she supported some of my clients to land these sorts of deals, we're excited to have her big difference in an introduction, a lot of my clients are missing that when on their website, in their bio, how they're introducing themselves to potential clients, right. They're in a position where they feel like they're almost trying to sell themselves in a way of here's my systems, here's my process, here's what I can do, where they're not seen as the expert.
Michele 23:54
So Right. So a couple of things that you said, and I think this is important. I think it's been an underlying theme to what we've been talking about. And I really think I want to bring it up to the surface. And that is we are doing these things we are creating these trusts so that we can have the conversation, you've probably said that three or four times, sales don't always happen. And I use sales as the closing of an opportunity to work together. There's an investment on both sides to get to know each other. What we're talking about is creating the bridge that allows the two entities to even want to have a conversation and to be able to open the conversation. And so what you're talking about is creating this bridge of trust, this leverage trust that says Okay, wait a minute. We know the same people we know the same things. You've done some things that I say that I inspired by, or that intrigued me and I want to know more, learn more, and it's still up to us to sell it. But this is what's opening the door so that we can cross the bridge to have the conversation got it.
Rachael Bozsik 25:02
And it also helps close the conversation to absolutely
Michele 25:05
right. Because we know the old, they have to know you like you and trust you. And as fast as they can get from know to trust, then they'll buy but they're not going to buy from somebody that they don't know that don't like and that they don't trust. The three we talked about, in the pre conversation to the podcast, Rachael, we talked about this idea of this branding and this brand strategy as almost like a three legged stool, right? niching, down, creating authority and then having visibility. And so if we don't have one of those, we have our problem, right? So we have, you know, this awesome we've niched down, we know who we are and what we do and how we serve, and we have an authority that nobody knows about us. And I've been their best kept secret. Oh, that's not good, unless you really want to be a secret. And I'm like you, I'm an introvert extrovert. And so I don't mind being on a stage and talking. But I really like kind of
Rachael Bozsik 26:01
you want to work with your dream clients and work you want to do.
Michele 26:04
I want to work with my clients, I used to always say, I don't have to be that well known. I just need to be well known by the people that I can help. And then what I really want to do is roll up my sleeves, and I just want to serve them. And so I used to always say why can't they just find me? Why can't they stability, peace, and then conversely, so I'm just going to talk about them for a second and then I want you to really dig in because you're here, but let's say we've niched down, but we've not created that authority, we not tied those things together, similar to what you were expressing with the, you know, the Alexa Hampton and the stamps for approval. We don't have those, maybe we have them, but we don't have them listed. We don't own them. We're not putting them out there. So we have we've niched down, we know what we do. And now we're trying to be visible. Well, the problem is, nobody's going to trust us because we've missed that. And then if we have the niching, and we have the authority, or I've already said that one, but let's say that we have the authority and the visibility, but we didn't niche down so we don't have that clarity on who we're serving. And this is where I said, you then we and I've been I've done this to where I had some authority, and they came to work with me, but I wasn't niched down and what I was awesome at. And so I constantly forced Well, for a short time there, I was constantly trying to adjust what I did to serve them, realizing at the end of the day, that I actually was dis serving them by not being more clear and more focused and more honestly, offering less but deeper. Like I didn't want to be all things to all people and I just just too much to keep up with. Right. And so that three legged stool is important. So share with us a little bit on what you believe about that. niching and then the authority and the visibility.
Rachael Bozsik 27:53
I'm like, excited about this is my favorite thing.
Michele 27:55
I know, I know. Okay.
Rachael Bozsik 27:58
Well, in short, clients come to me when they feel like they want to make more money in their business and they want to work with less clients. Okay, so the first thing that I tell them is we have to niche down. So for your listeners, like write this down, like people do not pay top dollar for general experts, I'm gonna say that again, they don't pay top dollar for general experts. Now you may be thinking and listening being like, Well, I'm not a general expert, I do bla bla bla design, it's curated. Right? It's transitional, it's contemporary, it's this that the other. Ah, there's a lot of other interior designers that do very similar work. So I'm going to give you a client example, just because I think that that's really helpful to kind of land the plane here. And I shared this with your mastermind group, but I had a client recently named Dan and his fabulous aunts in DC she came to me saying, Rach, I love doing family spaces. I'm a mom myself. I love doing family rooms, nurseries, outdoor spaces, bedrooms, and I said awesome. Same with every other interior designer, right? And I said, Okay, we got to niche down. So niche down means like, we don't want to position you as a general expert, because that's what's happening right now. Right? You're saying this is what I can do. I can work with family, same with everyone else. So together, we decided to niche down and say that she's an in demand play room designer, okay. And through our digging and niching her down, we decided she wants to work with really high high profile attorneys, lobbyists, C suite execs in DC that have issues with their kids addicted to the tablet, and because of that they're not developing leadership skills. They're not learning to socialize in a way that's going to support them long term critical thinking it's missing. Right? So we decided to go that's who we want to serve people that are doing six figure playrooms. Okay, so that's the niche. Then we're like, okay, let's build the authority around it. What do you have and what what do we need to build from our work together? We uncover that she's has a huge ackground and early education and she helped co create this this curriculum about intentional and holistic play that's now taught in 45 school districts. Through our work together Parents Magazine, Family, fun Wall Street Journal, the Washingtonian, right all credible sources once again, that are ideal to her dream target market. Let's be clear here. Parents and family fun magazine does not make sense for me as an elite personal branding coach to have on my roster, but for a designer who wants to target high profile C-suite execs for their kids. Those are great coupled with Wall Street Journal Washingtonian, right. Okay, so now we're able to introduce her as an in demand play room designer that works with high profile families. And she has this big background and intentional play taught in 45 school districts. she observes the kids play, she doesn't toy audit, and she develops a space that's really intentional by partnering with the family. Do you see the difference, right? of her being like, I love kids, I family rooms like outdoor spaces, too. I'm an expert. Now I've niched down, I have the authority around my brand. And now what's really interesting, and this is what I'm obsessed with doing is I help my clients create a velvet rope. So what I mean by a velvet rope is like a velvet rope, like literally think about putting it in front of you, where you're in a position now, because we niche down and have the authority where you're not going after projects trying to convince the client that you're the right fit. You're not saying oh, I have so many ideas, we can do this timeline, I would bring in these resources. Here's my system, you're in a position where it's like, here's what I do, here's who I serve. So you better believe that no one's flinching that she's doubled the price for a playroom than every other interior designer, because we niche down because
Michele 31:54
I love the toy on it. I mean, that just is amazing.
Rachael Bozsik 31:57
Oh, yeah, that's something. But here's what's interesting, and was already doing a toy audit, and was already observing them play. She wasn't marketing it. And that's why she hired me to come in and say like, what do I already have? And then how can we market it correctly? Right, yeah.
Michele 32:15
Yep. And you know, what's interesting, Rachael, is I do the same kind of thing on the financial side for my clients. My comment is, how do we make more and work less? Not? How do I have you work more to make more and so where are we not capturing the value of valuable products and services that you're offering or doing. So it's usually a disconnect between understanding the value and quality of what you're already putting out there and being able to capitalize on that, and the velvet rope policy. I've been teaching that for 10 years, and I tell them all the time, there's got to be something that allows their name to be on the list to allow that rope to be unhooked on one side and moved for you to go through. Again, that's why you me and and our listeners, we can't be all things to all people.
Rachael Bozsik 33:02
If you want to be solid, you cannot be positioning yourself as general expert. And do not tell me I'm not a general expert. Because if you don't have a specific market you're serving where you have a specific service that you offer, you are positioning as general expert, right? So really thinking about that. And I want to do the last leg of the chair, right? So we have the knees down with and we know who she serves, we know what she does, we have the authority with the press her background and doing the curriculum development. And now the next stage here is visibility. So these are the three steps that I do with all of my clients, the visibility is now how do we make sure you're known for this work? So you can fill your pipeline, right? Like, where's the money coming from? You can have a great niche and have the authority but if you're not in the right room, how are you converting? Okay, so for and we always get creative here, I'm always thinking about partnerships. If you have a velvet rope correctly positioned in front of your brand, you should not be hustling trying to get the clients, you should be in a position where people fill the pipeline for you because you are the go to expert. So for and we decided together guess what concierge pediatrician is you know, when I'm talking about big, big bucks, or schools, like we're the nursery school, and I'm sure your listeners know, it's like $80,000 a year it's like crazy, crazy. Those are ideal partners. So we need to be visible to them. Because if we're in the right room with them, those people those two institutions are going to fill the pipeline for her. So watch this, right. So if we get and and we're working on this right now, we just we just finished our coaching, but getting and in a room of let's say nursery school parents at these $70,000 preschools, we have, you know, let's call them 10 families in the room. They're paying 70 grand a year and goes in and she says I'm an in demand play room designer, I support intentional play. Here's my background with the curriculum, blah blah, blah, blah, blah. Here's what I do, if you need a resource on your person, guess what, she closes two or three of them, right? So big, big cash and visibility done in a really strategic way now and couldn't have gotten in that room of that preschool, and you know, convinced the principal to let her in unless she was niche down, right, if she went in was like, like she was before I can do play rooms, I could do this, that and the other, it wouldn't work. It wouldn't work. Now, you don't need to be as niche down as and I'm just using her because I think it's a pretty self explanatory example that we get it. A lot of my clients come to me being like, I want to work with families that are professional, right? And they want to and I want to be known as someone that does new builds, like that's what I want to be known for. And I'm like, Great, okay, let's figure out like, what's important to those people? How do we shoot down? How do we get you in the right rooms. So you don't have to be niched down as much as and I think that's a really good example.
Michele 35:55
You know, I think there's another point to be made here, before we jump in to kind of have this a focus for Q1, Q2, right and for, and that is, and you and I talked about it as well, not all visibility, and I've had a couple of other conversations about visibility on the podcast, not all visibility has to be national or international, it can very much be local, just in your city or in your county or in your state. And, you know, I hear sometimes, designers saying, I want to be in XYZ national magazine, well, there's some of that, that's awesome, if that's something that you just really have a desire to do. But quite often, those aren't the ones that fill the pipeline, the ones that filled the pipeline are when they are in the local paper, or when they're in a local magazine, sent to the target market and the zip codes that they want to work in that level of press, while not national and international, actually feeds their pipeline more than some of the others. And so I say that because niching down it actually all three of these items, niching authority and disability, their continuance, right, there's not just one way to do it, is what is niching, that's right for you for the authority that you need to build for the area that you want to serve, and then finding the visibility finding that room. And so that room, like you said, could be a local school, the local PTA, heck, I know my whole first business, it got kicked off, because I had, from my subdivision there at eight homes, one person found out what I did, we started talking about what I did, and I went from home to home to home to home, brand new subdivision and did other window treatments and help them design their spaces, right? That is the idea of the visibility in a room. And then rooms can expand and can change to be you know, all those things. So I don't want the listeners to think, oh my gosh, I've got to go big or go home. No, no. And not everybody wants it. Everybody's idea of a full pipeline is different. Everybody's idea of money is different. This is more about the strategy, of not having to work so darn hard, and hustle and fight to get the next job. This is about having other people connect to you properly, because they know who you are and what you do. It reminds me a little bit of the podcast I did with Stacy brown Randall where she's talking about referrals that stick and her comment was, you know, the difference between a true referral and word of mouth buzz, word of mouth buzzes Oh, yeah, I've heard of Rachael versus this is Rachael, I know her that transfer of trust that leverage trust. That's the same thing that we're trying to help all of those that are listening, create within their own environment and spheres of influence, if you will. And then to be that for somebody else. I think that's also important. It's not just about what can I do all of these people in the room do for me, but what can I do for all of them, and then that creates just this beautiful relationship? That's not so hard.
Rachael Bozsik 39:02
Right? And to two points on what you're saying. A good note for your listeners you want to write down is what is important to your ideal client. So remember, let's use an Family Fun Parents Magazine that's important to her ideal client. Okay. Jenny Slingerland. Right. Jenny is one of my clients and then she's also one of Michele's clients and Jenny introduced us, thank goodness! I love her and Jenny came to me saying I really want to work with athletes. Right. And I read that one turnkey they just relocated to Arizona for the Cardinals team. And they want a turnkey beautiful home guess what they don't really know what you know, Elle Decor is or arc digest these 23 year old players, but they know Men's Health and GQ. So number one, ask yourself what is important to your ideal client? Okay, and if you're a b2b, it's probably a trade publication. If you are wanting to serve like a very small local market, it's probably either Have a client in Philadelphia and she really just wants to serve old historic Philly townhomes. Then it's the Philadelphia Inquirer, right? It's the historical National Trust, that puts out a publication like, that's her ideal market. And then the next note I want to make is, most of the clients I work with don't want to work with a bajillion clients here, they want to work with like Max 15, 16, 17 clients here. And because that's the case, we want to make sure that you're partnering with individuals, where not only are they filling your pipeline, Michele, you mentioned this, but you're serving them as well, where it's a natural trust, right? You help them they help you it's a natural fit. So just being really intentional on that, it's not something that you have to really go big and partner with 15 people, you have to three people that are totally right fit. And that's where you really want to be.
Michele 40:49
In my Aim with Intent methodology, we talked about the, the Align your team, that's part of the a four aim. And a team is any two people. And so when we think of team, we're thinking of an internal team, you know, like me with my lawyer, or me with my brand expert, or me with my employees, but then you're also looking at me with my referral partners me with my vendors. So aligning your team allows you to work with fewer people of a higher caliber that more aligned with values and understanding what you do. You know, when people ask me all the time, Michele, you know, tell me who your ideal client is, and your target market and case I know somebody, my trust level just for them goes up because they asked that question, right, versus not asking it and being willing to just send me anything because I'm a coach, you know, instead saying, Who is your ideal? And how do you serve them? And so I want to encourage the listeners ask that question of people that you meet, like, who is your ideal? And who do you love so that if I run across that person, I send them not just the generic public again?
Rachael Bozsik 41:55
Totally, yep. Okay. So
Michele 41:58
This is so good, you know, we could sit here and talk all day. But as we think about the year, if we were to break up some of these things, for those that are going to try to attempt to do some of this on their own, what should maybe let's break it down and say what a focus could be for first quarter of the year.
Rachael Bozsik 42:13
Niche down, and then niche down again. And I meet a lot of women that are like, Yeah, and also a side note, when you're niching down, you want to make sure that you're niching down your group of who you want to serve and how you want to serve them. Yes, I'm going to be really clear on that. And niching down for an aesthetic, it's fine, but it's going to be really, really hard for you to find the right partners, because you're serving like a wide range of people. So niche down for who you want to serve literally, are they like, professional individuals? Are they people that just move into a forever home and they have a huge gut right now? Are these historical properties, like, Who do you want to serve? And then how do you want to serve them? Meaning I have some clients that come to me and they're like, I want to do a minimum of one floor for full furnishings. And like, that is how they want to serve them. And full home. Like that's the offer and like I want to do play rooms, okay? So figuring out who you want to serve and how you want to serve them and then start telling people that right start telling people when you have meetings when you're asking a client for a referral, say you know, I'm further niching down and stepping into you know, this Nick this next season in my business, here's who I'm looking to work with now. Do you have any friends that might be a good fit? Start talking that'd be a good Q1 Awesome.
Michele 43:31
Okay, okay.
Rachael Bozsik 43:32
Yeah, cue to build that authority. So either a well not either it's both so step a sit down and look back and ask your friends and family to what have I done that's been interesting or cool in my career. I want you to think back remember that Elise example? Who have you worked with what awards Do you have? What press Do you have? What big name clients have you served that maybe in their name raises your credibility, right. And then if you feel like you need to bridge the gap and gain some more, then that's the time to start thinking about next steps with authority building. We could have a whole nother conversation on like press and you know, different brand partnership deals but that's your time to authority belts. I also want to promote your listeners to make sure they're being really clear that making sure the stamp of approval match their ideal client so once again, a lead artist she's going to tell the general public if that's her ideal market trying to sell to that she is mentored by Alexa ham den or mentored by Ashley long short and the godmother of Alexa Hamptons kids. That doesn't make sense right let that you know people walking down the street in New Orleans are gonna know those names like so for me whenever I talk in the design industry I always say you know, speaker like two times over I design influencers conference High Point market authority have a column and design today you know, I coach Luanne negara and Kathy quo and all Sandra Fung and all these other credible interior designers, by me associating with things that are reputable in the design industry, it supports the Trust for other interior designers, when I'm working with luxury event planners or VIP like celebrity nutrition coaches, you guys, they don't know it design influencers conferences, they don't. So I pulled different resources and different things that I've done in different industries. So be really, really clear. Is this important to my ideal target market? A lot of times I have designers that want incredible industry awards, but if you're not b2b, you know, they don't really know what that is exactly. Alright, q3, get those partnerships, baby, that's time to fill the pipeline, you want to be really, and I spent so much time with my clients figuring out who we want to hyper target as a partner, what's the conversation? What do we send them ahead of time? What's the partnership deal, but literally, like, who do you know, that's your ideal partner? They hang out with your client all day, every day? And how can you build some sort of strategic partnership where the pipeline is filled for you, they are doing the work for you. Because you have the velvet rope, you niche down, you have the authority, then it's time to start reaching out for the partnerships. Okay, thank you for dig in. Continue those partnerships. And once you niche down and have authority, you're pretty much I'm going to put in quotes, good to go. So what I mean by that is like once you have one, let's call it like GQ for Jenny, right? That wants to work with athletes, when she has one GQ, she doesn't need another GQ. Alright, like putting GQ times two on her bio, or her website or partnership package. It doesn't help her further getting more clients or building more trust. So once you have the nation authority, and that's where I do a lot of heavy lifting, like helping my clients do it, then it's time to continue the partnerships and making sure that like you're nailing it, and you're having the right conversations, you're giving them the resources so they can correctly introduce you. And then also really thinking about partnering with your past clients and having them do referrals for you. So whether I mean, I have clients where we plan together doing a really beautiful reveal and housewarming party, right where they invite six couples and you know, they're able to close to because they have an incredible niche and authority and they have the right client they partnered with. And so really just like further honing in on partnerships, your money's hanging out in partnerships, big time, if you want larger projects, less clients, it's a partnership for you.
Michele 47:28
I love it. I love it. This has been so fun. And I really think that I mean, I know even for me this way, here's here's the thing, let me say this, this work isn't once and done. This is continual work. Because I have found that as I may shut down, I sometimes am niching down more and more and more, or my business is shifting a little bit or pivoting. We've talked about that. And so it's keeping a constant flux to that muscle and to the authority in the in the visibility, because these may change over time. Know who we're targeting, and how we're targeting them and who our ideal clients are and who our authority partnerships are with and all of that. And so I just don't want anybody to think oh, gosh, I Yeah, did this work seven years ago? Well, yeah, it still worked for you, but it might not. And so just keeping our eye on the fact that this is evolving as we evolve.
Rachael Bozsik 48:23
Totally. And once you do it once, right, so like once you know how to niche down correctly once and build authority once and do the partnerships once, then it makes it a whole lot easier to do it again. So what I mean is maybe you're in a position in your business right now where you really want to do kitchen baths, right? And we like Nishu down for that we get the press around that we partner with all these incredible GCS. And then five years later, you're like, I want to do Kitchen Bath and full remodels. Guess what you already know how to do it. And so now it's just taking the next step. And I and, and also, you know, I just want to point out, like, if you're struggling with this right now, first of all, I get it, it's really, really, really hard to view yourself as a consumer, it's really hard. Like, even myself, like I did my own personal brand audit, I do it every six months. I went to the coffee shop last week, and I was taking down all my notes rewriting different, you know, referral introduction statements, and I was second guessing myself. And I do this all day, every day, like I've helped 1000s of women with their brand. So just really making sure that you know, you're stepping away and like asking friends and family for support or thinking about who's your favorite client, and what's important to them is going to be really important in the process. It's not about what you want, but it's about what the clients want. And how do you position yourself for the ideal client?
Michele 49:38
Exactly, exactly. So Rachael, everybody where they can find you if they're interested in learning more about you and about what you do and perhaps how to work with you.
Rachael Bozsik 49:48
Yeah, so Well, first of all, my website so it's RachaelBozsik.com RACHAELBOZSIK.com. I have a free download on my website, which I just think is really supportive to this conversation, it breaks down what there's 15 different opportunities that I talked about whether it is, you know, a trade publication or a podcast, like, what are the options? And who is it right for. So I think that's a really good resource to download. And then if you are intrigued by this conversation today and had a few, you know, aha moments and curious about learning more of working with me one on one, then visit my website, and I have applications for different coaching packages. If I feel like it's a right fit based off of your application, I'll reach out and we'll set up a call and kind of take it from there.
Michele 50:34
That sounds awesome. Rachael, thank you so much for sharing. I love the conversation. And I'm looking forward. Maybe we'll just bring you back this year. And we can talk more about that authority and partnerships. I think that would be a really interesting conversation to dig more into.
Rachael Bozsik 50:48
I love it. Thanks for having me. This was fun.
Michele 50:50
Have a good day.
Rachael Bozsik 50:51
Thanks so much.
Michele 50:53
Goodness in that conversation with Rachael. I'm currently working with her to find to my own strategy and hope you'll consider it too. Rachael's work is a fantastic adjunct to what I offer in my coaching using the Aim With Intent Methodology. Knowing how to make money serving our ideal client and then managing that money will bring stress relief. If you're ready to understand the money, the finances and how they fit into the business and lifestyle that you want. Check out my work with me page at ScarletThreadConsulting.com, you can sign up for a discovery call and we can see if we're a good fit. Remember, choose to be profitable in all aspects of your company. Because profit doesn't happen by accident. Profit is a Choice is proud to be part of the designnetwork.org where you can discover more design media reaching creative listeners. Thanks for listening, and stay creative and business minded.