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Do you have a specialty that you want to grow beyond your everyday practice? How can you get from six figures up to seven? What is the best advice from a fellow successful business owner to achieve your professional goals while working from your niche?
In this podcast episode, Joe Sanok discusses starting an online business using your clinical skills with Olly Richards.
Podcast Sponsor: Level Up Week
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Meet Olly Richards
Olly Richards had a series of random careers, from jazz musician to English teacher, before eventually starting a blog on his passion – language learning – and growing it into a $10 million business. Today, he writes a newsletter teaching other online entrepreneurs how to scale their businesses to 7+ figures, using StoryLearning as a “living case study”.
Olly is involved in multiple successful education companies as an investor, mentor, and advisor, but his passion is still teaching and working with others.
Visit Ollie’s website and connect on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
- Taking your specialty further
- Removing the lid on your knowledge deficit
- Going from low six figures to low seven figures
- Olly’s advice to private practitioners
Taking your specialty further
Olly recommends business owners who want to grow their specialties beyond their everyday business to;
- Find a niche
- Do more of what works
I was following the signals that cropped up … I noticed that people really liked these short stories that we were putting out … When I saw that everytime I [did] anything with stories, it would strike a nerve with people, I just lent into it and did a lot more of it. So, it was a combination of what I knew to be effective from my experience plus watching what worked out in the real world. (Olly Richards)
It took Olly several years to find his niche, and he did so partly also by keeping tabs on what was working well with his clients.
In his business, he kept noticing where he had success and ended up using those data points to structure his business successfully so that now it’s booming and flourishing.
The more specific you get, the easier it is to find traction in the early stage of a business, and the reason is [because] … You can find so much information out there that, by trying to appeal to everybody, you end up getting lost … Generally, the best way to think [about it] is to lean into a speciality of some kind, and to not be afraid of talking about something specific, because that’s the thing that will ultimately get you noticed. (Olly Richards)
Removing the lid on your knowledge deficit
Even though you are in your specialty and you feel confident and comfortable with it, it will become a new angle to market yourself with it – and to extend it as a new branch of your business.
So, you need to now focus on closing that knowledge gap after you have your niche. Look into:
- Taking training
- Certifications
- Speaking to your audience
- Going to conferences
- Connecting with new professionals in this niche
- Get started with your best guess
- Take (imperfect) but consistent action
All of these will help you to further flesh out your niche while learning more about what you can do with this specialty, all the while helping you to take continual action toward your goal.
The people who tend to do well over the long term are people who take action, who have a bias towards taking action, trying things out, getting started even with imperfect information … This is what I did … Even though it took time, it ended up being a very powerful way of doing it because I was in contact with reality the whole time. (Olly Richards)
Going from low six figures to low seven figures
1 – Low six figures: this is the toughest part: getting started in a working business niche and earning some revenue. This is a success, but it is not yet stable.
What they try to do is make up for the fact that they feel [to be] in a precarious position [by making] up more stuff. The trouble with that is that it doesn’t scale. (Olly Richards)
2 – High six figures: this is when these business owners have added a revenue stream or three, so that they are managing a successful business made up of many parts at a higher six-figure range, but they cannot move up into the next level.
This is because they have too much on their plate, and they cannot scale everything at once.
Behind the scenes … Things are completely chaotic because they’re trying to do all of these different things and hold them together. So, what happens normally then is the way for someone to [in] that high six figure range … is to actually strip back loads of stuff. (Olly Richards)
3 – Low seven figures: niching down even more so that they are left with only one or two high-earning revenue streams and cutting everything else. Once you hit seven figures for a while, then you can bring back some diversity.
After you get to seven figures, that’s the time when it becomes important to diversify because at that point you’ve got traction, you’ve got a really good ongoing [audience], and you’ve got something to protect. (Olly Richards)
Olly’s advice to private practitioners
Your most valuable commodity and your most valuable asset is what you have spent years learning: your counseling. Use it, and learn how to use it well!
Sponsors Mentioned in this episode:
Useful links mentioned in this episode:
- Visit Ollie’s website and connect on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube.
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Email Joe at [email protected] to suggest guests for the show
Check out these additional resources:
How to be a Better Leader with Dr. Benjamin Ritter | POP 960
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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 who are growing their income, influence, and impact on the world. Click here to explore consulting with Joe.
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