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Notice how I didn't say go pick a product first and then figure out who to serve with it? No, start with the customer first, the person first. Business. Capitalism is all about serving human beings. You do that once it works. You do that on repeat. Now you have a business. Do that on repeat, repeat, repeat. You have a very successful business and your life has probably changed forever because the amount of wealth that you've generated is astronomical. Hey there. I'm Cody McGuffey. I'm a husband dad of three and I'm the founder of Everbee. Ever Be. Everbee. Ever Be. Where we serve over a million creators across the globe, helping them grow thriving online businesses. I believe every single human is a creator and I believe every single creator should own a business, a business that gives them the freedom to build the life that they dream of. Built online is where creators, entrepreneurs and leaders get real insights, real stories and the edge to build something that's actually lasts. This is where the next generation builders get built. Welcome again back to the podcast. Today we're going to be talking about picking a niche, picking a market, picking a customer Persona to, to build for your E commerce, E commerce brand, for your online business. Who do you sell to? Who do you want to serve? How do you pick that market? You just go after something you're passionate about. You just go after something that you identify with. You just go after the thing that make seems like it most is the most demand and makes the most amount of money. Um, some of those things, none of those things, mixture of those things. We'll talk about it in today's episode. Just want to say thank you for everyone who's listening today, watching today, wherever you are in the world. I'm just so grateful to have you here. Hopefully it's gonna be worth your time. Um, that's the goal, to make it valuable and it's fun for me. So excited to jump in. You might be hearing some background beeping. Maybe a neighbor is putting in some concretes right now and there's a concrete truck outside of my office window. So apologies if you hear that. Hopefully it's okay. You're gonna still see some, some lighting issues if you're watching this and maybe a little bit of echo that you'll hear just because we're still in the new office and we don't really have anything on the walls yet. So bear with me and let's jump in. So unscripted today we're gonna be talking about how to pick a niche market for your E commerce brands, how to Kind of pick, pick that perfect person for you to go after and to build a brand around unscripted. But I do have a three step framework that I personally walk through with my brands that we've built in the past and we currently still build just because we enjoy doing it. So how do you pick a brand and then what is like an ideal brand? How do you know when you've picked one that kind of works, right? It should be specific, it should be clear. It should be something that you understand. It should be something that you just kind of seem like you have an advantage on, competitive advantage. Like you have all the insider jokes. An example of a, of a high level one is like a golf brand. And then you drill down even deeper. It's like golfing dads. And then you're like drill down any deeper, it's like golfing weekend golfing dads. And then you that even deeper. It's like kind of out of shape golfing dads who kind of like make fun of themselves for being out there, but they're still going out there and twice a week and it seems like they're always on the course and they're actually like hiring private trainers, you know, to like work on their swing. Even though they're not professional golfers at all and they never will be, but somehow they want to personally like beat their friends, you know, and like win some money when like and a hundred bucks on the course. Personally, I don't golf, but I know people like that and I can understand that market. But that's just an example. There's a million of those, literally unlimited amounts of what I just talked about. I specifically just picked a category and then drilled down even deeper. Probably all of you right now are probably shaking your head, oh yeah, I know person, I know someone like that. Same thing for hunting, same thing for fishing, Same thing for auto mechanics. Same thing for race car drivers, NASCAR watchers, baseball watchers, soccer watchers, literally any specific thing, there's always a brand that can be built around it. Now whether it's the right one for you is the next question. But just understand that I want to make things, something really, really clear here is that if you're coming into this, to this episode thinking that oh, the print on demand T shirt market is so saturated or oh, just no more opportunity in E commerce or man, it just seems like all the good ideas have been taken and all those are wrong. All of those are totally limited thinking, scarcity minded and absolutely incorrect. Absolutely incorrect. It's incorrect because it's the wrong way of thinking. You need to be thinking about a customer specifically. And there's always new hobbies coming out. There's always new things, there's trends are always changing. So there's always markets to be capitalized on. You with me as if I could hear you talk back. So three step framework, right? How to make sure that you. You identify a niche that you can one align with you and then dominate. Right. For your e commerce brand. So step one, identify your unfair advantage markets. Okay, we'll come back to details on that. Step two is going to be find pain and obsession and then step three is match the products to that market. Notice how I didn't say go pick a product first and then figure out who to serve with it. No, start with the customer first, the person first. Business capitalism is all about serving human beings. You do that once, it works. You do that on repeat. Now you have a business. Do that on repeat, repeat, repeat. You have a very successful business and your life has probably changed forever because the amount of wealth that you've generated is astronomical at that point. Right. So very much well worth it. A lot of mistakes before we dive into those three steps. A lot of mistakes that I see as people do not choose any market. They kind of just choose shirts and they sell a bunch of shirts to everybody. And that can work. Typically does not. I've seen it work. One out of a hundred, maybe one out of a thousand. Actually it's probably way less. If you serve everybody, you serve nobody. Right? We've heard that before. Very much true. You want to serve a specific type of Persona customers. If you think about it, you'll you can drill down to your email marketing could be on in line. Your copy your all your text on your website can be the same. Your mind personally is always thinking about that person. So you're always thinking about new niche ideas. A new inside joke that just came out somehow that you saw something on the news and it's related to your customer. You can't do that if you're serving everybody. So pick a niche, pick a market. Let's talk about how. So step one was identify your unfair advantage markets. So do this with me. Pause the podcast after you. After you get the instructions, build a list of five to 10 potential markets that you personally understand. Don't think about like if there's an opportunity there, if it's too competitive, don't think about any of that stuff yet. If it's just like I golf, write it down. Golf. What are you okay? I'm also A dad. Oh, I'm also a dog owner. I'm not, I'm just thinking out loud. I, I specifically, I, I own a Australian shepherd. Okay. I, I am also a real estate agent. I am also a nurse. I'm also, I go to the gym. I used to play college football. I used to play lacrosse. Like, I am obsessed with the NFL. I'm obsessed with the NBA. I'm obsessed with ballet. I'm obsessed with salsa dancing. These are all things that could be potential markets. Okay. We're just brainstorming here. So right now, make a list. 5 to 10 you can easily come up with. I probably just named a couple that you already identify with. I'm a mom, I'm a mom of three. I'm a single mom. I'm a, I'm a married mom, I'm a military mom. I'm a. You know, whatever, it doesn't really matter. But the point is write em down before we move on to the next exercise. Okay? And so with that being said is you really don't need a passion. You just need to kind of have a, you know, you don't need to be overly passionate about any one of those things. You just need to kind of. We're trying to exercise that part of the brain where you kind of just understand the inside jokes to each one of those things. Okay. And if you don't, can't think of the inside jokes right now. Don't worry about that yet. You can always use AI you always use ChatGPT to do all that stuff later on, but you'll pull that stuff out of you. The question while I'm doing this is I'm asking myself, where do I already have context? Where do I already know those inside jokes that others just don't have? For example, I live in Texas, right. Somebody in New York can't really get all the inside jokes that they, that somebody in Texas would have. And so I have an advantage, right? E commerce layer in to sell products to serve Texans. People live in Texas, love, love Texas and they're obsessed with Texas and they identify with the culture. Like only I can understand that pretty much. Right. And, and the other people that live in Texas, of course, but they're not building E commerce brands. So that's an example. Maybe you go to church and maybe you don't just go to church on Sundays, but you are like dedicated to your church and you're there four days a week contributing, involved, you're hosting dinners for your church folks. Maybe you're involved with like the Young ministry. And you're doing all that stuff, like, you have inside jokes, you have insider knowledge, you have inside context that no one else can have. Right? The chair, setup, crew, right? I'm here four hours. Picture, like a shirt or like some sort of hat that says, like 4am Crew. I don't know, whatever. The point is, is something that you only can kind of have that insider knowledge with. So step one was identify your unfair advantage markets, okay? Write those down. Step two, find pain, find obsession with these. Not all niches are equal. Okay? This is what separates, like, the. The hobbyist, the entre, the. The hobbyist, entrepreneurs, amateurs, right? From, like, real operators, real, like, business owners. They. They understand their market. They understand it, and they clearly just like. And they just serve that market so well. Okay? So the questions that I'd be asking myself now is some constraints and some filters on this is like, do. Does this market spend money? Do they spend money? Do people that love golf spend money? Yeah, typically they spend pretty. They spend a lot of money. Like golfers spend money. For sure. They're buying most expensive clubs. They're buying the most. They're buying T shirts, they're buying hats, they're buying socks, they're buying the best glove. People in Texas that identify with Texas culture spend money. 100%. Yes, of course. If. Do people that go to church spend money? Yes, they do. Okay, cool. Now, does somebody that is. Let's say I chose gamers, right? Do. Do gamers, specifically PS4, teenage gamers, do they spend money? Not online. Not really. Right. Like, they'll spend money on their games, but they're not buying other products like, surrounding that. Or maybe they do. I don't know. I'm not a gamer. Ask yourself that question. Do they spend money? Do they have identity? Do they identify as that thing? For example, am I a Texan? I am a Texan, right? Like, I am proud to live in Texas. I identify with Texas culture. I believe Texas, the Texas way is the best way. That is an identity. I am a golfer. Notice that I am a golfer. I am a hunter. I am a fisherman. I play chess. I'm a chess player. Right? Obsession, kind of like they own it. They have the identity. There you. You want this? Do they complain about stuff? Do they complain about it? Do they complain about stuff? I mean, like for Texas, for example, people are always complaining about the heat. People are always complaining about too many Californians probably moving in and change, trying to change the culture. That is all recipes for insider context, inside jokes, humor. Do they complain about Other states, yes. They complain about government. Yes. Right. Like, these are. These are things golfers. They complain about stuff. Yeah. They complain about their slicing it. When they slice the. Sliced the ball the wrong way and they're, you know, they didn't. Didn't do well. They complain about losing money to their friends. They complain about their golf club, you know, being the reason why they lost all these things. Right? These are opportunities right there. Okay, step three, now, you match the products to that market. Now, let's say that you chose to go after a golf brand, okay, the golf niche. And you're specifically targeting weekend dad golfers who are like hobbyists, but they act like they're professional, okay? So they're getting the professional training. They get in professional clubs, they're getting the professional gear. But they kind of make fun of themselves, too, because they know they're doing all these things, but they still kind of make fun of themselves. Right. And so now what do those people. How do you want to serve those people? Okay, you can serve them with all kinds of things, right? Hats, T shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, shoes, probably new golf accessories, new things, right? You could. There's literally unlimited amount of things that they. They would actually purchase if you just specifically speak to them. Now, if you chose T shirts, very easy, right? Then you make funny T shirts, basically insider jokes, making fun of themselves or making fun of their friends, very easy to do. Happens all the time. Same thing for, for. For Texans. Same thing for people that go to church. You just create products that appeal to them. You'd find these things. You could do these in print, on demand, or if you have an invention of some sort, then you can obviously serve that type of person with that invention. Typically less nowadays, but totally, totally possible. Cool. So again, recapp. Step one, identify your unfair advantage markets. Step two, find pain. Find the obsession in those markets. Find the things that they're talking about, the things they're complaining about, the things they're passionate about, the things that they just like. Things people will be like, dude, you are obsessed with golf. You are obsessed with essential oils. You are obsessed with Texas. Right? Step three, match those products to that markets. Just serve them. They're human beings that want to exchange value. They want to solidify and go deeper into that identity. And so they buy products to help them do that, to help them to fit in with that specific type of group. So tying it all together, you need to know who. You need to know who you are targeting. Then you figure out the product to solve, to help to serve that. Who and then of course you create those products and then you need a place to sell it. You would use Everbee store for this. And then if you sell on Etsy, then you sell on Etsy. If you sell on Amazon, you sell on Amazon, all kinds of stuff. And then putting it all together, you attract those people to your store. They come into your store, they buy your products, they love your brand, they refer their friends to your brand also. And that's how you build a brand. So obviously that's overly simplified, but really, that's really what it's about, guys. It is actually about getting clear on who you're serving, having a product to actually solve those person's problems or serve them some in some way and then a place to sell it on repeat. And that's how you build a life changing E commerce brand. So that actually makes a big impact. You're serving people that you care about, that you understand deeply and you are making your difference in the world by building a business that serves people. So, short one for today, but I hope it clarified some things for you. You could absolutely do it. Okay, so if you're right now listening to this and you're just like, ah, I'm gonna be a little bit overwhelmed, maybe you're like, there's not enough opportunity or maybe there's too many options. Just know that like there is a million ways to do E commerce. It'll never be. The wrong thing to do is to like just choose a market, go deep on serving them with specific products. Repeat that, keep going with that. Don't give up on this for I would say multiple months, minimum six months, and you will have some sign of success. Now that being said, that's the end of the podcast. See y' all soon. Sam.