Be a Niche Leader
My Sunday post was about making your business a niche business. When I wrote that, I hadn't yet read Seth Godin's post titled, "Leadership is now the strongest marketing strategy". He makes a similar point but takes it to another level, saying:
What works is leading. Leading a (relatively) small group of people.
Taking them somewhere they'd like to go. Connecting them to one another.
I say relatively because there are few products that need everyone
in order to succeed. A tiny sliver of the market is enough. Bill Niman
used to run Niman Ranch, a cooperative raising meat for fancy
restaurants and markets. That was already a sliver of the huge huge
market for meat. He moved on to start BN, a 1000 acre farm raising
goats for a subset of that subset. It's enough.
you lead knows about you and cares about you and wants to follow you.
It's enough if your leadership changes things, galvanizes the audience
and puts the status quo under stress. And it's enough if the leadership
you provide makes a difference.
