Hey today I wanna talk to you about a new idea I'm exploring when it comes to marketing, branding, and business in general.
This will be especially relevant if you’re interested in the “creator economy” / make money online space.
Start:
In marketing, one of the most important concepts is positioning.
Your positioning is kinda like the “parking space” you take up in someone's head. It's what makes you “different” from other people, products, or ideas.
Let's use the example of cities:
New York’s the capital of finance.
San Fransisco’s the capital of tech.
Miami’s the capital of 27 year olds in Lamborghinis.
Each city evokes a certain feeling for you. They’re positioned differently in your head.
Or for example, job titles.
If I talk to another sales guy in the internet space, I’ll call my job a high ticket closer role, but officially, my position is enrollment advisor.
Because who the hell would want to get on a zoom call with a "high ticket closer?"
Positioning matters. It's kinda like the hook for how people categorize you or your product.
Why this is important right now
Because I'm noticing a trend in the online business / personal branding market place where I spend most of my time.
The market is becoming crowded.
Three to four years ago, people came onto Twitter and LinkedIn with generic writing tips or basic one person business ideas and blew up. Because no one else was doing it at the time. They capitalized on a severe supply and demand imbalance.
But now the scale has tipped:
(Took me about 43 seconds to find bios like these^ there are thousands more.)
People have caught on. And thousands of people from all over the world are trying to get a piece of the gold rush. The shovel sellers are building 7 and 8 figure businesses and the gold rush is full fledged.
That means in 2024 the "writing guy" already exists.
You can't just become the "writing guy" and grow an audience like you could in 2019. David Perell already owns that position:
The New Opportunity (escape competition through combination)
When I look at people who are still winning in this maturing market there’s a common thread.
For example, In 2020, my bosses created a new category by combining two categories:
Writing
Silicon Valley tech style thinking
They don’t just share writing tips. They share digital writing tips.
Seems small but it completely changes everything about the angle.
For example, Silicon Valley wisdom:
Sell before you build, get product market fit before you double down on something
Becomes Digital writing wisdom:
Before you write the book, write the blog, before you write the blog write the Twitter thread, before you write the thread write the Tweet
And now they literally own that category and don’t have any direct competition except copycats and tangential people in the writing space.
But the point is, when anyone on Twitter thinks of “digital writing,” they think of those two people.
They own the position.
Here are some more examples (and then I'll share how you can think about applying this for your self):
Ship30 for30 writing course
This is a combination of two categories:
Digital Writing
Time management / productivity
If you take the course, or consume the free material ,you'll notice a lot of the ideas are inspired by James Clear’s Atomic Habit frameworks (never miss two, start small, build habit cues), but combined with their “digital writing” ethos.
By combing the two categories and they were able to acquire customers from both angles (self improvers and writers).
AI Soloprenuer - 6 Figure Product Launch
Quick back story:
In 2019, Justin welsh used the word "Soloprenuer" (sexy word for Freelancer), to encourage 9-5ers to quit their job and become their own boss.
He built a massive audience and 7 figure business in just a couple years.
But the most impressive thing he did was REPOSITION freelancer/consultant into Solopreneur to create a new category in people's brains which they immediately associate with him.
But now Justin alone owns that word. There's already a Solopreneur guy.
The 4D Chess Move
In 2022, after the release of ChatGPT, my friend Ole did something genius.
He saw the hype around ChatGPT, especially within the solopreneur audience builder space and created a new brand / category under the name AI Solopreneur.
He absolutely blew up on Twitter, and had a 6 figure product launch that ended up with him getting legacy media coverage:
That's the power of combining categories.
You escape completion through combination.
Bonus More examples:
Nomad capitalists YouTube channel
Digital Nomadism + Business owners
They target rich Americans and internationals who wanna move abroad for quality of life and tax purposes by combining digital nomadism and libertarian ideas.
Content + Private equity
He uses high quality biz content to build his credibility and ultimately get deal flow for his private equity.
Philosophy + getting rich
This results in a wildly different audience than simply, “make money.”
Conclusion
The point is eventually markets saturate.
When people see other people making money it’s only a matter of time before more people want to join in on the fun. And when the low hanging fruits have been eaten, the biggest gains come from combining two proven categories to become a market of one.
Thanks for reading.
Curious, what do you think about this?