Searching in a backpack of skills

I had a conversation this morning with a creative director who’s facing challenges in refining his business focus and workflow.

Seth has a wealth of experience and skills but lacks direction on where to apply them effectively. He’s been working as a consultant and freelancers for over 10 years.

The challenge is he’s a marketer….

So he’s stuck in his head about how to pick and focus. He thinks he needs a funnel, but can’t figure out how to narrow it down so it actually will work.

This makes him feel like a fraud because he doesn’t practice what he preaches to large corporations that hire him.

Plus, he’s stuffed in his backpack of skillz with all sorts of design, branding, and creative direction experience.

His backpack of skillz is ripping at the seams.

But despite his extensive background, Seth is been stuck with the same homepage and status quo message for over 4 years.

He’s got notebooks full of ideas and scribbled launch plans.

Like many solo experts, he struggles with focusing his business direction. His marketing is all based on referrals and relationships, so in many areas he’s feeling like a Swiss army knife with lots of dull blades. He can do the work, but he doesn’t know what to tools to ditch and what blades to sharpen.

We talked through the right next steps.

Seth knows he wants to “productize” his business and create a consistent incoming flow of clients. But picking a niche is downright terrifying for him.

That’s why Seth was reaching out.

Over the next 3 months, I’ll be walking alongside him to help him identify his core strengths and align them with the right market.

We’ll revamp his core WHY and focus on creating a clear brand direction. Then he can take his huge menu of custom services and start to systematize and create products for his services.

By the end of the call Seth was already seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. Soon he’ll have a roadmap to:

• Productized business offerings
• Have a clear brand direction
• Systematize his creative workflow
• Use a simple, consistent client acquisition process
But most of all - bring his backpack of skills together for more strategic and focused work.

Niching isn’t the only way to get clear on who you help. There’s a simple path that isn’t obvious until you see it. Now the real work begins of clearly define his brand and testing and systematize his workflow.

I’ll let you know how it goes and share more of what Seth learns along the way.