Profitable Audiences: Find Your “Shoulder” Topics

Dustin: [00:00:00] I don't know if there's any complimentary audiences, but I want you to be ideating on as I'm going through these examples is there are gonna be numerous opportunities and numerous industries.
Dustin: So then the question becomes, how do I choose one, right? How do I choose one? And the way I would encourage you to choose one is, first and foremost, if it's part of your own journey, it's part of your own story.
Intro: You're listening to the Seven Figure Leap Podcast. We're here to leverage rich relationships and smart strategies to take your business to the next level. Here's your host, Dustin Riechman.
Dustin: How do you find profitable audiences to grow your business? This is one of the key questions whenever you're going to use one of our strategies, which is to borrow other people's audiences to [00:01:00] grow your impact and to grow your income.
Dustin: So podcast guesting is, of course, one of my favorite ways to do this. and there are other forms of partnership marketing, but the thing is, they all depend on teaching to audiences. And what you teach is of course a key part of that, but just as important is who you teach it to. And this is a part where people really get stuck.
Dustin: I was actually just recording a podcast interview this afternoon, and this question came up, and I ultimately ended up coaching the podcast host through this strategy. And I thought, "You know what? I would love to record this for you, for my own podcast. And I've got numerous examples that are going to make this very applicable for you.
Dustin: So as we get into this, I wanna take you back to the '80s and '90s. Yes, the, I'm a child of the 1900s. so I was growing up in the '80s and especially in the '90s as I was a teenager, always on NBC in the afternoon, when I got home from [00:02:00] school was the Oprah Winfrey Show. I think a lot of people now probably realize, yeah, Oprah had, like this daytime show, and now she's got a media empire and magazines and websites and all the things.
Dustin: I think she even has her own cable channel at this point. but the reason I bring that up is because it's actually a really good example of the strategy I'm gonna teach you today and the framework that I'm gonna walk you through so that you can have the Oprah effect for your own business. So what is the Oprah effect?
Dustin: So, I'm gonna tell you a few different celebrity or brand names here and I'm not gonna tell you what they have in common, but you're probably gonna guess based on how I'm, how I'm setting this up. But Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, Rachel Ray, Bob Green, Susie Orman, and it actually, goes into, more, a lot more modern names and celebrities that you would know as well with the current media properties and Oprah's favorite things and some of the, and some of that.
Dustin: But the names I just [00:03:00] rattled off, Dr. Phil, relationship expert, Dr. Oz, heart surgeon, now part of, President Trump's, I don't know, administration, right, in the health and human services, Rachel Ray Chef, like Celebrity Chef and has a whole cookware line. Suzie Orman, personal finance author, big name in that space, Bob Green, one of the world's preeminent personal trainers in the fitness industry.
Dustin: So they're all very different people. but the thing they have in common is they all basically launched their careers through the Oprah effect. They were featured as guest experts on the Oprah Winfrey television show, right? Again, there's many more examples of this if you, wanna talk in more modern times and social media and website properties and, and other things.
Dustin: The Oprah effect continues on even today. But I think what was really interesting about these in particular is these folks came onto Oprah's television show and they were featured experts. And what did they do in those appearances? [00:04:00] They stayed in their lane. They didn't try to be Oprah. They came and spoke about a very specific topic and borrowed Oprah's trust with their audience.
Dustin: And from that, we're able to launch, in many cases, eight, nine, probably 10 figure brands as a result. Like these are household names for many of us. And they all got their start with Oprah's audience first, right? So they borrowed Oprah Winfrey's audience, not the whole audience, but the sliver that really cared about the thing that they're an expert at and they did, the strategy I'm about to teach you.
Dustin: So we're not trying to necessarily find an Oprah, that would be great. We're trying to find like many Oprahs, right? We're trying to find people who have aggregated our audience, who have trust with people, that we would like to access, and we wanna show up and be guest experts on their platforms, right?
Dustin: Like podcasts like, private communities, mastermind groups, physical stages, summits. There, there's lots of ways to do this, right? But the key [00:05:00] question remains, who has my audience or where should I show up and do this? And so what I wanna walk you through is a very simple framework. And the thing I want you to visualize here is a circle and in that circle is the core thing that you do, right?
Dustin: So whatever your core service is for your customer, like that's one circle. And then the other circle next to it is the host and let's just call it a podcast host, but the person who has an audience, this is, that's the thing that they do. That's their core service area. And so we need these things to connect because we don't want to go spend, energy and attention talking to an audience that cares nothing about the thing that we do, but we also don't want them to completely overlap, right?
Dustin: We're not trying to replace the host, we're trying to be a compliment to the host and we're trying to, address like a shoulder topic and a shoulder industry. And so we want our [00:06:00] circles to overlap some. We want to create a Venn diagram, right? That's the big idea here. And so where do we find the overlap?
Dustin: we find it by answering two questions, and we want to think about our core service, and we want to think upstream and downstream, right? So if your head is the core service, think of the two shoulders. So on one shoulder, we want to answer the question, what causes people to have the problem I solve?
Dustin: What are the triggers? On the other shoulder, we want to be able to answer what, results when people have this problem that I solve. Those are the symptoms. So I like to think of triggers and symptoms. And if we can go to audiences where part of the people in that audience are suffering from a trigger or suffering from an, a symptom of the core thing that we solve, that is gonna be the perfect place for us to show up.
Dustin: That's where we're gonna find our profitable audiences. So I've got five examples here, actually I've got five industries and I've got a couple examples for each [00:07:00] industry, so that you can find one of these that feels resonant to you. So I want you to do after you listen to today's episode is go take action on this and actually write down in real terms, these audiences.
Dustin: I really want you to take action because this is extremely powerful. So once you know where you can go share your expertise in a way that people are gonna be receptive, trust, trusting and ready to take action, it unlocks so much growth for your business, right? So, the classic example I've probably used on this podcast is marriage coaching.
Dustin: I like using this example because it's not, as common and I like to make people think outside the box a little bit. It's also part of my own, online business history, as you might know. So I'm a marriage coach, I'm a relationship coach, upstream, downstream, okay? So what I don't wanna do is go be on shows that are hosted by marriage coaches and the two circles are [00:08:00] overlapping too much.
Dustin: You're trying to be Oprah, right? The podcast host already does that. They already talk about those things. they probably have a coaching business that would be competitive or redundant with you. What we wanna find is an adjacent audience where our marriage or relationship expertise is going to fill a content gap for that host, and it's gonna be very complimentary.
Dustin: So it's creating the sweet spot, the Venn diagram. So upstream, what causes people to have marriage problems? What are the triggers? again, lots and lots of examples, but one I always like to talk about because most people can relate, is parenting. And I'm gonna give you two parenting examples, first time parents and empty nesters.
Dustin: These are two points in life where, they are major triggers for people to need relationship help, right? Because they change so much, about the dynamic of the relationship. And so if you're a marriage coach and you can go be on parenting podcasts and talk [00:09:00] to first time parents about how to navigate that phase in life, it's gonna be really well received by the host, you're not gonna be competitive to them, and there's gonna be a portion of that audience who would love your help.
Dustin: same thing is true if you're talking to empty nesters. other things could be unresolved trauma, right? Like that causes things,to go sideways a lot of times in relationships, it affects communication, how we deal with stress. And if that is an area that you have a lot of interest, then like that would be a really good shoulder topic.
Dustin: On the other side, downstream, like what are some things that will happen in people's lives when they have unresolved relationship issues, right? and one of those as a downstream effect, like a symptom, could be seeking personal financial advice, right? So if you have a couple and they're fighting about money and they're not talking about money, it's likely that one of them at some point is going to go seek help, with their finances, [00:10:00] right?
Dustin: either because they wanna lead in that area and they wanna go figure it out, they wanna find, get a budget and invest for retirement, or maybe they're further down the,the road here and maybe they're like preparing to leave, they're preparing for divorce. Regardless, there are lots and lots of personal finance podcasts where you as a marriage expert would come and serve and fill in a content gap that would be really useful to that host because that host is probably like, a financial advisor or CPA.
Dustin: They're not dealing with the relationship dynamics. So you can come in there and talk and say, "Hey, for some of your listeners,the core issue that's causing them to, to seek financial advice is they're not communicating with their partner or their spouse, right? And so I would like to come on and talk about how do you set goals together?
Dustin: How do you dream together? How do you do a budget together? how do you manage money when you're with another human trying to do it, right? And that is gonna be filling a gap. So there's a couple examples in sort of the [00:11:00] relationship coaching space, that hopefully drives home. But the framework is go borrow other people's audiences by filling a content gap and the best place to find gaps to fill are in audiences that either,are there because it's a trigger to the thing that you saw or they're there because they've been suffering with it for a while and now there's a symptom that's arise and they're seeking help in those areas.
Dustin: So what are some complimentary audiences where you can go be a guest expert? I have three other industries I'm gonna go through. I'm gonna give you three examples each. So lots of examples in this episode. and as I do that, what I imagine you're gonna be thinking is there's actually a lot of options, right?
Dustin: And that's what I want you to be thinking because that's the truth. so you may be initially stuck, like, I don't know if there's any compliment ... Who's my Oprah? I don't know if there's any complimentary audiences, but I want you to be ideating on as I'm going through these examples is there are gonna be numerous [00:12:00] opportunities and numerous industries.
Dustin: So then the question becomes, how do I choose one, right? How do I choose one? And the way I would encourage you to choose one is, first and foremost, if it's part of your own journey, it's part of your own story. So if you got into marriage coaching because you struggled when you guys had kids and it messed up the dynamic and you didn't want that for anyone else, that would be great, right?
Dustin: Or maybe you're, the other thing would just be a personal interest. So maybe you're a marriage coach who happens to really geek out on investing and money and like you already like personal finance. So it makes a ton of sense for you to go be in those rooms, those virtual rooms and go to those podcasts and be the featured expert because you actually like get it and you actually like those people, right?
Dustin: so there's a few different ways, but your personal experience and your personal interest are typically gonna be the way to filter out and choose one of these. so let's go through some other examples. Let's say you are the finance consultant, right? You're the ... We're gonna flip the [00:13:00] script here.
Dustin: So you do financial consulting. The obvious place to go would be on finance podcasts, right? But again, that's, there may be some opportunity there, but that's not gonna be where you really wanna spend your time. Where else could a finance consultant be featured as an expert that would be much more receptive?
Dustin: Well, one would be marriage podcast right? Like, so flipping the example that I just gave, if you're a money expert, a financial expert, and you go talk to podcasts hosted by marriage experts, that's gonna be great because finance issues are the number one cause of divorce. Like that is gonna be a very rich topic where you can be, a guest expert.
Dustin: Another place a finance consultant could go speak is like young adult podcasts. 20 somethings need a lot of financial education. I have one of those they really need it. so if you're a financial consultant, please go help, the 20-somethings. But there's a lot of things you're navigating in that season of life, right?
Dustin: There's a lot of triggers, that make you, interested in learning [00:14:00] about and seeking help from a financial consultant. And then there's a B2B application here, right? If you're a financial consultant, well, there's lots and lots of podcasts, that cater to business owners and entrepreneurs and every business owner needs some, improved financial literacy, right?
Dustin: And so if you love to work with entrepreneurs and you, speak that language and those are like your people, well, just go do a tour of podcasts where you're on entrepreneurial podcast and you're talking about personal finance. It's actually gonna be a really juicy topic. All right, so that's ... We talked about relationship coaching, we talked about financial consulting, now let's move into leadership coaching, right?
Dustin: This is another area I end up working with a lot of folks. They're leadership coaches in different ways. Many times they come out of corporate, and they just love helping people be better leaders. So if you're in the leadership coaching space, you're naturally gonna be drawn to business podcasts.
Dustin: Again, that's not bad. actually that's better than some of the previous [00:15:00] examples because business podcasts are pretty, they run a broader spectrum, but you don't wanna be a leadership coach on leadership podcasts right, because of what we've described. but let's think outside the box a little bit.
Dustin: So one great place to do leadership coaching is on parenting podcasts. I'm purposefully kind of mixing these up as a metric, or as a matrix, because I want you to see, all the different applications and how you can mix and match some of these ideas. But leadership coaching on a parenting podcast actually makes a lot of sense because parents need to be leaders in their home, and that's a, that could be a great market for you, right?
Dustin: what I really like is nonprofit podcasts. So we have this entire large sector of nonprofits, and there's a lot of great platforms, and there's people that cater to nonprofits, and they're very underserved when it comes to leadership. Like, I serve on some nonprofits, my wife does as well. And so if you're a leadership coach and you specialize in serving nonprofits, that can be a [00:16:00] really rich niche and, a great place to be an expert and share your wisdom, because nonprofit, by the way, doesn't mean they don't have money.
Dustin: they just don't show up profit, but that doesn't mean that they don't have a budget for things like leadership training. the other example I wanna give for leadership coaching is healthcare practice owners. So this is more that B2B application. So, and, I'm saying healthcare, but imagine engineering, accounting,all kinds of industries where people become business owners because they're really good at the technical work.
Dustin: Like, I'm a really good doctor, so I'm gonna start my own practice, like a dentist, a CPA, again, an engineer, architect. They are not trained in leadership. Like, they don't really usually get soft skill training. And so if you're a leadership coach who specializes in doctors, you're really, really, really lucrative, right?
Dustin: And it's a very specific audience. And there's lots of podcasts that cater to healthcare, practice owners, right, and healthcare [00:17:00] business development. So a leadership coach on healthcare podcasts would be a really, lucrative niche. and then the final, example for t- for today's episode is a nutritionist, right?
Dustin: So you're a, maybe a registered dietician, you're really smart when it comes to food and wellness and meal planning. most of the time a nutritionist would say, "I wanna go be on a bunch of wellness podcasts, right? I wanna talk to audiences who are tuned into wellness." Again, that's not bad on the surface, but much better would be a shoulder industry like entrepreneurs, right?
Dustin: So entrepreneurs are typically pretty obsessed with optimization, biohacking, energy, performance. And so if you're a nutritionist who loves the entrepreneurial audience, entrepreneurial community, entrepreneurial lifestyle, like that would be a really good place to go be a featured expert and find clients in that mix, right?
Dustin: Another place for nutritionists would be parenting. [00:18:00] Like I like to, again, I like to mix these up, but, there's definitely a market there. So if you're a nutritionist and you love to work with the dynamic environment of families where you got like parents and different schedules and like kids with a bunch of different food allergies and gluten intolerances and all that stuff, like that could actually be a really juicy market for you.
Dustin: And if you became the resident nutrition expert for a parenting podcast, again, really rich content gap that you're filling. And the final one there would be a more of that B2B, a nutritionist who specializes and gets featured in corporate podcasts, right? So maybe like HR podcast as an example, where they typically talk about things like employee benefits and packages and retention and recruitment, and you come on and you talk about the, nutrition as a benefit, as an example, right?
Dustin: one of my, our biggest clients at Fire Creek Snacks was a subscription box company and they catered toward big [00:19:00] tech companies, specifically like Apple, Facebook, Google. and so they had better for you snacks that were a subscription for the corporation and they would ship them into the break rooms.
Dustin: And then when COVID happened, they shipped them into employees houses. and that is, that was a non-podcast example, but like they said, "Hey, we have healthy snacks. who already aggregated a bunch of people,younger, upper, mobile kind of, affluent people? " It's like, well, these big tech companies have lots of those people and why don't we sell to them and then the end consumer is on that platform, right?
Dustin: It's kind of the same idea for podcasting here. So all of these examples are your expertise filling a gap in a category that is not your core category, right? and I hope that through the example, I think we gave like 12 examples here, that you get some really good ideas. And again, I would sit down and journal and write down your core [00:20:00] concept or your core business offer in the middle and I would answer two questions.
Dustin: What causes people to have this triggers and what symptoms arise when people have this, right? Those symptoms. And just make a list and, a- and also think of your own experience, right? Like, have you experienced the problem that you solve? The answer is very likely yes. And so what were triggers for you?
Dustin: What were symptoms for you? And then think of the clients that you work with now and the clients you've worked with in the past year. What made them realize they needed the help? What wa- what were they suffering from at the time that you f- that they discovered you? These are all gonna be great places to find ideas, and you're gonna end up with a list.
Dustin: I would say you should end up with six to 12 shoulder industries and topics, where you can now go be on those as a feature guest expert. There'll be the Oprah, you'll be the Dr. Phil, right, or Rachel Ray or Susie Orman, whatever, whatever analogy you feel most comfortable with. They all have their quirks.
Dustin: but the point [00:21:00] is you can be the guest expert on platforms in that adjacent shoulder industry. So I hope this has been really helpful. it's one of my favorite topics is really getting you unstuck out of the mindset, the very limited mindset that there's not, there's no podcast that wanna hear from me, right?
Dustin: Or I'm just ... I don't know why anyone would wanna listen to me. The reason I wanna listen to you has nothing to do with your following, has very little due, to do with your past or your credentials or your income. It has everything to do with how you can fill a gap in the content that their audience desires.
Dustin: And this framework that we've talked about does that, right? that is precisely how you do it. So I hope today's been super helpful to help you identify a profitable audience that you can go teach and coach and ultimately profit by serving. that's what it's all about, going and serving and having a bigger impact, which will result in much better income for you and your business.
Dustin: So [00:22:00] I'm Dustin Reichman. Thank you so much for tuning in today. If this is something you're excited about, you wanna go deeper, this is literally step two of our five step framework that we work with people on. We call it the Podcast Profits Accelerator. the way that we help people is we do one-on-one calls with them for free, and we serve the heck out of them, give them a lot of value, and some of those people then say, "You know what?
Dustin: I could really use your help, your support, the community that you've created, and, I want you to help me build this over 90 days so, and guarantee my success." But you don't have to do any of that. The key is you have a conversation with us and we help you strategize, help you identify the right market, the right opportunities, put together a plan that you can go execute yourself, or if you wanna, you want us to help you, of course, that's what we do as, as a business here at Seven Figure Leap.
Dustin: So just go to sevenfigureleap.com/call. It's all you gotta do. It's a free conversation and, we'll be on the other side to help you profit through your expertise.
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