I’m trying something different this week. Instead of writing “What do I need to hear most right now?” I’m writing this article for 1 person in the Frolic 100. This is for Shannon. Shannon in an email to me had shared about the challenge of being on social media while creating a coaching business. This is what i was inspired to write.
There’s a business metaphor that I love called “blue ocean strategy”. My simplest distillation of it is this:
In business, you have a choice to operate in a bloody “red ocean”, filled with your competitors, everyone fighting for the same customers. This is where most businesses (and coaches) operate from. It’s a struggle here to be noticed, and often you are competing on price, because you are immediately compared to a hundred other offers.
The alternative is pristine “blue oceans”, where competition doesn’t exist.
A lot of coaches I know struggle with how to be noticed on social media. They use it because they don’t know how else to reach people. They follow in the footsteps of others, established strategies, whether or not they work it seems everyone copies from one another (I have a lot to say about who is actually “successful” out there).
Well, my challenge would be: What if you didn’t need to?
What if social media is the bloodiest red ocean of all? Where can you find the safety of a blue ocean? One where competition is irrelevant?
There is no single solution here, because if there was, it would then become a red ocean. My intention here is to inspire new thinking within you. Only you can find your own blue ocean.
Enough with speaking in the abstract, I’ll give you a couple of real-world examples of what I’ve done in my past.
When I was a hypnotist, I found many different blue oceans.
My uncle at the time was a frequent patron of singles’ social meetup organizations. There were companies that would plan social activities for single people in a local market (for me they were located in Toronto, where I live). Not anything like a dance or speed dating, but an activity. It could be anything like sushi making, indoor rock climbing, a mixology class, or some kind of personal interest. The main thing was you were in a room with single people, doing this thing, and conversations could spark up, and no pressure for anything more.
I began to see an opportunity. These singles organizations needed fun activities on their calendar (there was usually multiple options per week for people to select from). They had a problem – and I came up with a solution:
The Singles’ Comedy Hypnosis Show!
It was a special show, specifically aimed at a singles audience. I focused on the benefits of boosting your confidence, and creating connection within the room, that it was a safe show (no fear of humiliation), AND it was a fun night out!
I offered my show for a fee per head of each person. They would market it, sell tickets (with a profit for them built in). They did ALL the hard work for me. They had built up their customer base. They had the marketing channels. All I had to do was “show up” and do the fun part, my actual show.
I did multiple shows for multiple organizations. I sold merchandise after each show, and I promoted myself to the audience that I also worked corporate events. I would get additional bookings like corporate Christmas parties simply because someone in the audience just saw me do my thing (and they saw for themselves how “safe” I was).
Essentially I was just paid to “audition” for an even better paying gig.
This wasn’t “glamorous” work, most performers want to see themselves on the big stage somewhere, but this was easy work. And profitable for me.
And I had it all to myself. There was no hypnotist that ever thought to do anything like this, and work in this way with these organizations.
It was my own blue ocean. Later, I packaged all of my wisdom of working these types of shows into a course FOR hypnotists, and made even more money.
As I tell this story, I’m imagining myself floating on my back in my pristine blue ocean, sun radiating down, calm waters. What a gorgeous day.
Another blue ocean I created during my hypnosis days was I created a “Nation-wide” tour. Not of any town or city you’ve heard of. Of the smallest back water towns imaginable. Places like Iroquois Falls and Atikokan in Northern Canada. I never heard of them before I grabbed a map and started plotting a route.
See, the thing is, these small towns were STARVED for entertainment. And I got to bring my hypnosis show to town, performing in the school auditorium or a bar, and the whole town knew I was coming! I’d get stopped in the streets.
Sometimes I would work with the high school for a fundraiser for Prom (they always were looking for money). Other times I’d work with a bar or restaurant.
As I passed through these areas, I’d stop by bars and restaurants and ask them if they’d like for me to contact them the next time I’m coming through. I offered a “win win” proposition – I collect the money for each person at the door and they sell food and beverage. You can guess their response.
No social media required.
When I was working bar shows in my home of Toronto, it was a major hustle to fill 20 seats at a bar, in a city of millions. But come to a town of 1000, and I’d get a full auditorium!
I was doing this while all of my competition was spending time building fancy web sites and “waiting for the phone to ring”.
Later, as my career and reputation grew, I focused on the best paying gigs for the least work. Most of that came from repeat bookings.
Those are just two examples, however, almost everything I’ve ever done my entire adult life has been within a “blue ocean”.
As I reflect, I can see that these are all factors:
- No one woke up saying “today I need to hire a hypnotist”. They were never going to discover me on their own. I discovered a problem that I could solve first, and then offered my unique solution.
- I worked with the tools, skills, and resources that I had available. This would be true today. I use different tools today to solve problems, but they’re all pulled from my tool belt.
- My hypnosis show was a tool, it wasn’t “the thing”. The thing was their actual problem. I just happened to solve it using a hypnosis show. I give the same advice to coaches. Coaching isn’t “the thing”, simply a tool to use to solve what the actual thing is. For example, lately, I use telling my story as a tool. It isn’t “the thing”, but people listen to my stories because it helps them solve the problem they are facing.
- I playfully use the word “lazy” to describe my strategies these days, and I can see the “lazy” in action even then. I was leveraging other people and situations to do the hard work of actually promoting me.
- I created “win wins”.
- No one hired me because I was “cheap” or because of my price. It was a simple equation for them. They had a problem, and I had a solution, and was it worth it to them to solve? And if the answer was no, I talked to the next person until I achieved my goals.
As I write this, I can see the value I bring in sharing these stories, of connecting past experiences of mine to different challenges. There are plenty of places that will teach you how to market on social media, but only 1 person in the world that will use stories of his hypnosis career when answering a coaching business challenge and talk about blue oceans :-).
I invite you to let the idea wash over you, and prime your mind to pay attention to these types of opportunities going forward.
My key advice would be to put your entrepreneurial hat on, and ask what is a problem you can identify, that you best know how to solve with the skills, tools, and resources that you have? Something that no one knows about.
A blue ocean, by definition, is something new and pristine. No one else does it. So my stories are for inspiration only and this will take some testing to see what actually pans out.
What sparks in your own mind about potential blue ocean markets that only you know about?
Would you like more of *this*? I’m hosting an Ask Me Anything exclusively for Frolic 100 members on January 3, 2022.
