Christopher Lochhead Wants Your Practice to Niche Down | PoP 334

entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, growing a private practice, starting a private practice

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How familiar are you with the term ‘niche’? How do you differentiate your business or the way you run it? Do you believe in healthy competition?

In this podcast episode, Joe Sanok speaks with Christopher Lochhead about entrepreneurship, his new book, why you should niche down and how that can set you apart.

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Meet Christopher Lochhead

Christopher is a former three-time, Silicon Valley public company CMO and entrepreneur. The Marketing Journal calls him one of “The Best Minds in Marketing,” Fast Company Magazine calls him a “Human Exclamation Point,” The Economist calls him “off -putting to some,” and Newsweek calls him, “The Howard Stern of Entrepreneurialism.” At 18 he got thrown out of school, and with no other options he started a company. After 30 years in business he retired. Christopher can’t remember his wife’s phone number, but can recite much of The Big Lebowski. He’s a proud advisor to non-profit 1Life Fully Lived, a surf and ski bum who gives the occasional ass-kicking talk. He’s living happily ever after with an amazing woman, a great tribe and six little dinosaurs in Santa Cruz California.

Website: www.legendsandlosers.com/practice

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/privatepracticeworkshop/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christopherlochhead/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/lochhead

Christopher Lochhead’s Story

He was born and raised in Canada. His family is originally from Scotland. Christopher became an entrepreneur by accident when he was 18 and got thrown out of school. He had no money, no experience, and no education, but was faced with either becoming an orderly in a hospital or starting his own business.

In This Podcast

Summary

In this episode Joe speaks with Christopher Locchead about how you can really set yourself apart from other business by carving out a niche and specializing in what you’re great at!

Big ‘E’ And Small ‘E’ Entrepreneurs

The way I think about big ‘E’ entrepreneurs is somebody who is incredibly well financed. A small ‘E’ entrepreneur is somebody who doesn’t necessarily have huge financial backing and isn’t necessarily trying to build the next Google, but they still are trying to build a great business.

Christopher’s first book he wrote was Play Bigger which is focused towards big ‘E’ entrepreneurs, and his latest book, Niche Down, which is focused towards small ‘E’ entrepreneurs.

Follow Your Different

It’s the people who are willing to be different who make the biggest difference.

Christopher shares a wonderful story about a company his dad introduced to him. This company, John’s Crazy Socks was founded by a father and son duo. The son, John who has down syndrome, and his family, created a company as there was no employer who would hire John where he could realize his full potential.

Instead of looking at John’s difference as a negative, they have turned it around and have turned it into a positive successful company by carving out a niche.

Fitting In

In life many of us get taught that the pathway to success is to fit in, is to color inside the lines.

Any business or person who makes a difference in the world are those that are unique, original and that break new ground.

Difference vs Better

Products can’t speak for themselves. The legendary innovators, creators and entrepreneurs, go a step further. They teach the world how to think of a problem and solution in a unique way. In doing that they proactively position themselves in a niche where they can dominate.

If business are competing by being ‘better’, they’re forcing customer’s to choose against a set of criteria that already exist. This drives people to price.

When people compete by being ‘different’, they’re focusing on their strengths and gives customers a choice.

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Meet Joe Sanok

Joe Sanok helps counselors to create thriving practices that are the envy of other counselors. He has helped counselors to grow their businesses by 50-500% and is proud of all the private practice owners that are growing their income, influence, and impact on the world. Click here to explore consulting with Joe.

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