The 5 Phases of Niche Hopping Ep 621

In this episode, the host and guest speaker discuss the pitfalls of entrepreneurial "niche hopping" and the importance of focus and discipline in business success. The speaker shares a personal story of spreading himself too thin across multiple businesses, which led to financial struggle and lack of progress. They emphasize the five stages of entrepreneurial growth, highlighting the critical 'valley of despair' where many give up, and the necessity to persevere through challenges instead of seeking new ventures. The conversation pivots to the idea that mastery and scaling in one niche are preferable to diversification, with the host urging entrepreneurs to avoid repeating his mistakes by committing to one path and improving continuously within it to achieve significant financial milestones.

• Adversity must be faced head-on to achieve success.
• Running from problems or constantly changing focus (niche hopping) is counterproductive.
• Overcoming challenges builds character and is necessary for growth.

"You have to go through the shit and you have to figure out the stuff that they aren't. Figuring out every problem that you encounter instead of running away from it, which is exactly what niche hopping is, exactly what new opportunity hopping is. You have to confront it."

This quote emphasizes the importance of confronting challenges directly and the pitfalls of avoiding difficulties by frequently changing niches or seeking new opportunities.

• Business is likened to a game by the most successful entrepreneurs.
• The podcast aims to share lessons learned from building a substantial portfolio.
• The goal is to help others grow their businesses and potentially collaborate to reach significant financial milestones.

"The wealthiest people in the world see business as a game. This podcast, the game, is my attempt at document the lessons I've learned on my way to building acquisition.com into a billion dollar portfolio."

The speaker suggests that treating business as a game can be a mindset adopted by successful individuals, and the podcast serves as a medium to share strategic insights from their experiences.

• The speaker shares a personal story to illustrate the importance of focus and discipline.
• Despite having multiple businesses, a lack of focus led to financial struggle.
• Selling businesses and facing setbacks were part of the learning process.
• Developing discipline is as crucial as acquiring skills.

"I made no money. The reason I made no money is because I could not focus on anything."

This quote highlights the speaker's personal experience with the consequences of a lack of focus, which resulted in financial difficulties despite having multiple business ventures.

• Entrepreneurs often start with multiple businesses but lack the focus to manage them effectively.
• The speaker identifies a pattern of stages that new entrepreneurs go through.
• Breaking certain beliefs is necessary to help entrepreneurs succeed.

"As soon as I see an entrepreneur that comes into my world and they say, I have a couple of companies, I immediately know that they are a noop, that they are a noop."

The speaker uses the term "noop" (presumably a colloquial term for 'newbie' or 'novice') to describe entrepreneurs who spread themselves too thin across multiple businesses, indicating a lack of experience or focus.

• Speaker A outlines five stages that new entrepreneurs typically experience.
• The first stage is "uninformed optimism," where there is excitement about new opportunities without a full understanding of the challenges ahead.
• The speaker emphasizes the need to recognize and understand these stages for personal and business growth.

"Here's the five stages. You've got one, you got a little up, you got a down, and then you go up higher at the end, alright? One in the beginning is called uninformed optimism."

This quote introduces the concept of the five stages, with the first being "uninformed optimism," a phase where entrepreneurs feel excited but may not be fully aware of the impending difficulties. The speaker suggests an eventual upward trajectory after initial ups and downs.

• The initial stage of entrepreneurial ventures often begins with uninformed optimism.
• Entrepreneurs calculate potential earnings and become "Excel Rich" in the planning phase.
• Upon entering the market, they reach informed pessimism when facing unexpected challenges.
• Many get stuck in the "valley of despair," unable to solve problems and thus hop to another niche.
• Success requires focusing and pushing through difficulties, known as going "through the shit."
• Specialization in a single niche is emphasized over diversification to achieve high revenue.
• The final stages are informed optimism and achievement, where one realizes the venture's potential.
• The cycle can repeat endlessly if the entrepreneur fails to overcome the challenges.

with your skill set, you imagine how much money you could make, and you start doing this math in your head, and you put it on excel sheet, and you get Excel Rich, and you sell yourself and you talk to your partner and you talk to your parents, you talk to your friends, and all you do is get excited, right? Your dopamine starts sprying.

This quote describes the initial excitement and optimism entrepreneurs feel when they envision the success of their business idea, often leading to overestimation of potential profits.

You now know that it's not as good as you thought because now you have more information.

Upon gaining more knowledge about the market, entrepreneurs realize the complexity and challenges, leading to informed pessimism.

This is called the valley of despair. This is where you're in the thick of it. You can't figure it out.

The "valley of despair" is the stage where entrepreneurs feel overwhelmed by the challenges and may consider giving up or switching to another venture.

The only way to get through the shit is to focus.

This emphasizes the importance of perseverance and focus on overcoming the obstacles in the chosen niche.

There's a reason that we chose not to do that. Because you can have a 100 million dollar dental agency, you can have 100 million dollar cairo agency, you can have 100 million dollar PT agency. What you probably can't have is three of them.

The speaker highlights the benefits of specialization over diversification, suggesting that focusing on one niche can lead to significant success.

What that means is at this point you've gone through the shit and you've figured out the solution, right?

Informed optimism is the stage where the entrepreneur has overcome the challenges and starts to see the results of their efforts.

And that is where you realize the potential of this new opportunity.

Achievement is the stage where the entrepreneur finally achieves the potential of their business, often after enduring and overcoming significant challenges.

You have to confront, you have to face it head on, and you have to figure it out.

The quote reinforces the idea that facing challenges directly and finding solutions is crucial for entrepreneurial success.

• Entrepreneurs often repeat a cycle of excitement and disappointment without reaching success.
• This cycle is compared to dating patterns where individuals fail to realize the potential of relationships.
• Achieving significant business milestones, like reaching eight figures, requires overcoming mental barriers.
• Entrepreneurs must confront each problem, such as sales issues, and find comprehensive solutions.
• The process of problem-solving involves creating better strategies, training, and continuous improvement.

They cannot figure it out. It's like the guy that, you know, who continues to date the same girl, identical, different chick every time, but it's the same chick, right?

The analogy draws a parallel between entrepreneurs who hop from one venture to another and individuals who repeat the same patterns in relationships without achieving a deeper connection or success.

You will never get to eight figures. I'm telling you this right now, it has everything to do what's going on in your head.

The speaker suggests that the mental approach and mindset of the entrepreneur are critical factors in achieving high levels of success in business.

You have to make a better script. You have to make a better training. You have to do daily calls with them. You have to have your team train their team.

This quote outlines the various strategies an entrepreneur might employ to overcome challenges, emphasizing the importance of continuous improvement and proactive problem-solving.

• The speaker implies that it is the individual's responsibility to ensure that their business or venture provides enough value for others to extract from.
• Emphasizes the importance of self-accountability in business success.

And whose fault is that? It's yours. Right?

The quote highlights the theme of personal responsibility in the context of business, suggesting that the individual is accountable for the success or failure in providing value.

• Encourages listeners to connect on LinkedIn and engage with the show's community.
• Suggests tagging others who might benefit from the connection.

Just to let you know that we've been starting to post on LinkedIn and want to connect with you, all right?

This quote is about building a professional network and community on LinkedIn, encouraging listeners to connect with the show's hosts.

• Introduces the niche duplication framework as a strategy to replicate success across multiple niches.
• Challenges the belief that one should diversify into multiple niches rather than focusing and excelling in one.

The third framework that I introduced was the niche duplication framework, which is how you can repeat this in as many niches as possible.

The speaker introduces a strategic framework aimed at replicating business success across different niches, which is a key idea for entrepreneurs looking to expand.

• Stresses the importance of believing in the potential to make significant revenue within a single niche.
• Questions the benefit of diversifying into multiple niches due to increased operational complexity.

You can make $10 million a month in a niche, right? You just have to have that belief.

This quote emphasizes the importance of belief in the scalability of a business within a single niche, which is critical for focused growth.

• Acknowledges that all markets are saturated and the key to success is to outperform competitors.
• Advocates for perseverance and improvement rather than seeking new opportunities.

It's all saturated. 100% of it saturated, right? And the only way to win is to be better.

The quote acknowledges market saturation and suggests that the only way to succeed is to be better than the competition, highlighting perseverance as a winning strategy.

• Shares a personal anecdote about reducing business commitments to focus on one area, which led to success.
• Suggests that focus is crucial, and spreading oneself too thin can be detrimental.

Six months later, I cut everything out and just said, I'm going all in on gyms.

This quote demonstrates the speaker's personal decision to focus on a single business aspect (gyms) for better results, underlining the theme of focus.

• Compares business challenges to a video game where one must learn to overcome the "boss" to progress.
• Emphasizes doing more of what works and getting better at it rather than constantly seeking new ventures.

And you will not beat the level until you learn how to unlock the boss, right? And to put him on his ass.

The quote uses the metaphor of a video game boss to describe business challenges, suggesting that overcoming these challenges is key to progress.

• Discusses the necessity of continuous improvement through testing new strategies in business.
• Highlights the process of testing, learning, and implementing based on results as a path to growth.

You have to put in the work. You have to run beta tests, right?

This quote underlines the importance of putting in the effort to test new strategies and make improvements based on empirical evidence, which is crucial for business development.

• Emphasizes the importance of sticking with one business model and improving it rather than switching between different ones.
• Highlights the failure of gyms and the shift to chiropractors as an example of what not to do.
• Stresses the need for entrepreneurs to endure the challenging phase of starting a business and resist the temptation to diversify too early.

"We just stick through the shit."

This quote underscores the speaker's belief in perseverance and the importance of commitment to a single business model despite challenges.

"You got to pick one. You can win at any of them, but you can't win at all of them."

The speaker asserts that success comes from focusing on one area rather than spreading oneself too thin across multiple ventures.

• Recognizes the talent among entrepreneurs in promotion, sales, and marketing.
• Advises channeling these skills into a singular focus to prevent being overextended.
• Suggests that a lack of focus leads to a sense of constant busyness without progress.

"You guys are so good at promoting. You're so good at selling, right? Some of you guys are great marketers. You just have to use that and channel it into one channel."

The speaker acknowledges the strengths of the audience but stresses the need to direct these abilities into a singular, concentrated effort for maximum effectiveness.

• Discusses the concept of duplicating a successful model to scale a business.
• Encourages focusing on making one person successful, then replicating that success systematically.

"Imagine right now if all you had to do is get one person to be successful, and then all you do is duplicate that one person and just quote them and do it again. And do it again and do it again."

The speaker suggests a strategy of replicating a successful case as a way to scale and grow a business effectively.

• Clarifies that the platform "Alan" is a tool to support a specific business model, not a means to profit independently.
• Emphasizes that following the recommended business model is crucial for making money, and the platform is secondary.

"Alan is a platform that supports the business model that I'm telling you right. It's more. Switch to my model and you will make more."

The speaker clarifies that the platform is designed to support a particular business model, which is the primary driver of profitability, rather than the platform itself.

• Criticizes those who do not fully commit to the prescribed strategy.
• Compares inconsistent business strategies to ineffective dieting, where mixing methods leads to failure.
• States that the most successful individuals are those who strictly follow the plan.

"Some of you are not following instructions. You're half in, you're half out."

This quote emphasizes the importance of full commitment to a chosen strategy for success.

"You can't mix. Shit doesn't work. That way, right. Got to follow the sequence."

The speaker compares a lack of consistency in business to a flawed diet plan, illustrating the need for a disciplined approach.

• Addresses the issue of ego in entrepreneurship and the importance of humility.
• Encourages the audience to recognize their limitations and focus on improving in a disciplined manner.

"Some of you guys got to follow your fucking egos, right? You're not hot shit, myself included."

The speaker calls for humility among the audience, including themselves, recognizing that ego can be an obstacle to success.

• Highlights the necessity of discipline in focusing on a single niche to level up in business.
• Distinguishes between the skills that got entrepreneurs started and the traits needed to move to the next level.
• Encourages perseverance and dedication to a single niche as the path to excellence and success.

"And the way to level up is not by doing more things, it's by doing the same thing better and it's not sexy."

The speaker emphasizes the importance of improving within a single focus area rather than expanding into new areas for business growth.

"Because what it took to get you to here, which is learning how to sell and promote, is not the thing that's going to get you to there, which is learning to be disciplined with your focus, with your attention."

This quote differentiates between the initial skills needed to start a business and the discipline required to focus and excel in one area for long-term success.