Niche philosophy and slash career

January 12, 2008 by Mary Wynne-Wynter 

I had lunch with an old friend last week who for decades has been both a successful therapist and abstract painter. He’s one of my few lifelong entrepreneurial friends with “little to none” technical or new media experience or interest, although he does have a web site for each business. In fact, I’ve often joked with my brilliant and talented friend that he’s the only Neo-Luddite I know who always gives me great insight and ideas about building a professional practice; advice that has nothing to do with the Web or technology.

So I was surprised when he told me that he knew he had a problem because in the last month he’s received no new calls from people who found him on the Web. He told me that until recently, he not only has consistently gotten inquiries but has had a number of people travel from the west for his services. When the calls recently stopped, he checked Google for his name and certain keywords, and saw that he did not come up at all until the second page. He previously came up on the top of page one. It was a big “aha” for him. It was a bucket of cold water for me, seeing how ahead of me he was, however unwittingly, in terms of getting business from SEO. More on that in my next post.

Later, my conversation with my friend made me think again about niche marketing principles, generalists and the recent buzz about “slash careers”, which I think is a cool idea, but interpreted so widely that it adds to the confusion about “to niche or not to niche”. But I do feel strongly that the convergences and intersections in our increasingly multi-dimensional lives, are big factors in how we design our service models and how we design and develop our personal/professional brands. Unlike some of the bloggers and authors on the this subject, I don’t think any model is more right, wrong, better or worse than any other. They’re just different, and a good starting point to think about what an integral, unique solo practice looks like.

generalist.pngI see myself as a generalist with a number of programs that share some core elements, for a number of different markets. My work draws upon my personal activities (like rowing, and being around kids as much as possible) but I don’t make money from my outside interests.

slashcareer.pngI see my therapist/artist friend as an example of a true slash career (and potential global microbrand). Both careers are businesses with separate markets. They draw upon and benefit each other, through him.

One of the authors, using herself as an example, describes her slash career as author/journalist/speaker/blogger/columinist. I see that differently from my friend – its words, largely the same topic and for the same large audience. I don’t have a name for it but it looks more like this to me – concentric.

quasislash.png

Other career-coach bloggers, when posting about the dangers of slash careers, lump in, for example, plumber/fisherman. But that feels more like career/hobby. But its a fine line, and like most career advice in the conceptual economy, there’s no one clear-cut answer. So I suggest play with it and bring in the right brain by drawing it. You may be planting the seeds for your global microbrand.

Technorati Tags:
, ,

Filed under: Consciousness, career, differentiation, encore career, generalist, going solo, multi-dimensional, slash career
Tagged:
Comments: None