Specialization Case Study – ReeJade Richmond

SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, membership, niche, love, specialization, community, episodes, teach, focus, serving, limiting, brand, record, coaches, support, bit, grow, headquarters, genuine excitement, sat

SPEAKERS
Alastair McDermott, Voiceover, ReeJade Richmond

Alastair McDermott 00:00

Hello, and welcome to The Recognized Authority Podcast. Today, I have a special bonus episode for you. This is episode 67 of the podcast. But it’s actually the one year anniversary of the podcast. So we’ve been going for a year. And I’m delighted that we’ve made 67 episodes. So far, I actually have another 10 episodes pre recorded in the various different stages of editing for you. So we have this this super catalogue of episodes. And I’m really looking forward to putting out some of those: Monique Mills, Chris Do and Steve Gordon are some of those more recent interviews that I’ve done, I’m really looking forward to putting those episodes out for you. Today’s episode is a little bit different. This is a call that I had with ReeJade Richmond. And we had a call about five months ago. And I was talking to her about specialization. And we kind of dug into it a little bit on that call. And I could feel that she was a bit reticent about it. But she agreed to take some of the ideas and think about them. Fast forward five months. And she was almost insisting on getting on a call with me to tell me what happened next. And so without further ado, I’ll let regenerate. Explain how things went. Well, before we chatted last time, you were much less niche down. And you were also in that transition period as well. So So what happened to like, what was it that that change that?

ReeJade Richmond 01:31

Yeah, you probably would a lot of questions. And that really challenged me to think about what’s important to me, How am I really showing up in the online space? And how do I really help people and where’s my happy zone. And when I really sat with that and thought about it, it really all composed with memberships, because then I can focus 90 And that was a membership, I can use also infuse my love for organizational development with teaching them how to build up their customer service, in their support team to support that membership. And then outside of that, when I’m ready, I can teach them how to protect their memberships as well. So it was kind of like any of these to figure out and really sit with the focal point of what makes me good and tick. And I even asked like people in my community, you know, you know, in this season of the transition, where do you see me good at my my one on one content, but I love how you package my community, like hands down, you should teach that. And so I was like, Okay, let’s do it. And so I took my one on one information, it really created a program, then I created a beta to test it out. And it did really well. So I’m ready for full scale launch. So I redid the website, and everything. So everything is different. So we have memberships to sell.com. And it’s phenomenal.

Alastair McDermott 02:40

So when we spoke because I I’m pretty sure I remember last last time we chatted you were really resisting the idea of niching down. So yes. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because I’m, this fascinates me.

ReeJade Richmond 02:55

Yeah, I think I was resisting it, because I’ve done it before. But then I also understand in this online space, you have to niche down because there’s so many people doing 50 million things. And the last thing I wanted to do was confused people on what I can help them with. So I was like, Okay, where do I really show up the best? Where’s my happy zone? And where do I get people the most results?

Alastair McDermott 03:19

That’s, that’s a great way to look at it. I love that. Yeah. And did you have any fears about the specialization Park? Like did you like feel this internal resistance?

ReeJade Richmond 03:29

I did, it was more. So I was struggling with what does limit my capabilities and how I show up. So it was more so an internal feeling of limiting my capacity like I was, I felt like I was limiting myself in all the possibilities of who I can be as a business owner and grow and scale as a company. But when I really sat within to say, you know, if I really focus on one niche, one offering it as ironically, that’s my core message now focusing on one offer really do that? Well, it really focus on the strategy, the business can grow and expand because that’s my lane and my focal point. And then really, I really do dive into the idea of membership building. There’s not many really people talking about how to build community successfully, and teaching people how to build out their own framework to teach others with how they do what they do. And so that was just kind of like a lightbulb for me to really step in that and really own it and teach other people how to do the same thing.

Alastair McDermott 04:24

Yeah. And do you? Do you feel like that people respond differently to the more niche down offering compared to the kind of the more generalist offering that you had?

ReeJade Richmond 04:34

Absolutely. Even just changing my background on LinkedIn about memberships and changing those cocreator hashtags. I’ve gotten so many messages, questions on for people who are having a subscription model. We’re really thinking about a membership model people asking me what’s the difference between a course membership and subscription. So it was like I’m getting all this feedback that I thought was common sense to you know, knowledge and it’s just like, oh, people really don’t know Oh, it really understanding memberships is really a new thing, even in for small business owners, you know, they have always been around for the b2b companies because they operate at a larger scale. But when you really think about a lot of businesses start off in a one on one to one model, not a one to many model, because that’s really a growth and skills from area when you are working with multiple people at one time, and most coaches and consultants are just not there yet.

Alastair McDermott 05:26

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I mean, I love what you’ve done. I’m looking at your new site here, I have it up. I mean, it’s definitely very, very clear that it’s all about memberships, and talking about, you know, repackaging expertise and in a membership model. And I also I think your niche down a little bit more than just memberships, because you’re saying memberships that sell. So you’re talking about the sales part specifically? Yeah. And does that allow you then when you’re creating content, does that allow you to kind of focus on that? How do you do that? Yeah,

ReeJade Richmond 05:58

so we have a framework. So I focus on relationship marketing. So we do not teach any ads in my company. So we really focus on building relationships through community building. And so that’s the difference that relationship because that’s what a membership is, is a community. That’s the difference between a subscription. And of course, a subscription that focuses on a particular product, of course, focuses on content, but in there’s no support. There’s no community, there’s no ongoing, it’s just like going to school after you go to schools, like do you remember what you learned? No, because no one’s challenging. There’s no accountability versus a membership, there’s accountability, there’s challenging, there’s growth. And so even though I have my framework is always growing. Because the you know, the different niches that come in, it’s always forever expanding. And so that’s what I love about it is not keeping me pigeonhole is like a growth process. And everybody goes now even just me, that community grows to

Alastair McDermott 06:54

one big change, I think, in you is just the passion that you’re speaking about. This is really clear the energy, like your energy is totally different than we talked last time. You’re like, you feel like yourself.

ReeJade Richmond 07:10

I do. I do think there’s a difference, I think now is more of a excitement. And I could see, I guess I could see the light, if you will, because I am happy and passionate about it. And it’s not me trying to force things to work, right? This just works. And I have to understand it’s not about what I want this what the audience want, what do they need, what are their problems, is not what I think their problems are. And so I think there’s really sitting with that, and really doing research and polling and all of those things. It helped me figure out where people are right now. They’re tired or working one on one models, they’re tired of people canceling on them, they’re tired of, you know, if they get sick, they can’t the business doesn’t survive, you know, they’re at plateaus, because they are the business. And so really understanding that a lot of people are in that space right now. And then we’re still in this sense of a global pandemic. And people are craving connection and community right now. And so a lot of people are online typing, trying to figure out what communities can they be a part of, and what can they learn?

Alastair McDermott 08:10

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Um, the reason I asked you clay hit record, because I just wanted to capture some of this change, because I can, like, see the change in you. It’s amazing.

ReeJade Richmond 08:23

Thank you. No, thank you for challenging me on that. You know, I have friends that challenged me in my circle in their life, and they challenged me good, just like you. So I definitely wanted to thank you for challenging me and forcing me to focus in on where I’m really strong that

Alastair McDermott 08:39

because you only only started this, like a couple of months ago. Like what?

ReeJade Richmond 08:45

Yeah, cuz I didn’t we taught back in what January, right? Yeah, it was around them. Yeah. Yeah, it was January. And then yeah. And now we’re in May. Yeah, it was very easy. I launched a program in the end of February, the beta group. And so with that being said, I was able to, you know, take my independent contractor assistant to full time. And I also have a full time now content editor. And so now we’re looking to add three more positions like website graphic designer for vectors, because our brand is very fun and exciting with our vector illustrations. Then I need to bring on somebody to maintain the website and program success like because I’m very, because we do relationship marketing. So building that community, those touch points and making sure people are okay. For example, a couple of the people in our program, they were sick, like they had health problems, we were able to write a check for them. And to be able to do that is very important to me, because now you have coaches who really don’t care about people. They’re like, Oh, you’re in my program and that’s it. And I’m not that coach. I love my clients and I want to support them in their families, you know, especially because they invested in me and I want to invest in them. Because they’re growing in the you know, the crazy thing about it. They are forever ambassadors now they tell everybody Get on the waitlist get on the waitlist to this training go contact RG aid in their free VIPs now, because they they they see the lob SEO Tiffany in more importantly, they see the results.

Alastair McDermott 10:14

And I mean, that’s so incredibly generous of you. And, you know, it speaks to your mindset as well your kind of abundance mindset and just wanting to help people. So yeah, that’s fantastic. But also the like that level that that growth, having bring on to to people full time and now looking to bring on more like,

ReeJade Richmond 10:36

oh, we gotta we gotta headquarters now.

Alastair McDermott 10:40

Oh, wow, really? Yeah,

ReeJade Richmond 10:42

I don’t have the key right by me. But I have a mickey mouse key. Yeah, so we have a whole headquarters now. So I’m excited about that. So that’s literally how fast we grew that I’m able to. I was able to get actually because because so here. I don’t know if you could see it. That’s the key to the office. Now.

Alastair McDermott 11:02

There’s your mic making rescue? That’s cool. Yeah, so

ReeJade Richmond 11:05

we just got it on May 1, actually. So we have our headquarters because I am serious about adding more team members. Because we are like I said, we’re going to move into to support those who can’t have one on one support. We want to do subscriptions in the box. So we need in house staff to manage those subscription boxes, put them together, and I’m gonna be signing every single one no digital signature, custom notes. Like I’m very intentional about those things.

Alastair McDermott 11:32

Yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s brilliant. And so like, the turnaround time on this, from you being in this generalist position, and deciding to niche down I mean, you you made that decision, and then implemented it very quickly. It seems like like a lot of people it takes time for it took time for me to do that. What What was it that made it so quick for you to make that decision?

ReeJade Richmond 12:01

I think just really getting over myself about inviting me and honest and figuring out if people need me to show up. And I think it took two consultations, I had one on one. And they were and they kept saying they kept hinting around memberships. And I was like, You know what, I just need to stop playing around with my own personal feelings and create what people want. And it’s not that I don’t love it. I absolutely love it. And so it was more so getting over myself and really seeing what my community needed, and how best I can serve them versus what I thought was the best way to serve them. And I think that was the biggest change really taking the focal point off myself, and really focusing on what does my audience need? And I think that’s where a lot of people drop the ball with serving people. They’re always focused on oh, I want to just offer this product. Well, does your audience want that? You know, is that something that they value? Is that something that can even get them results? And I think that’s what was the biggest switch for me because I’m My motto is always on serving people. And I think that’s what helped me switch quickly. Because it’s like, oh, if I do it like this, I’m not serving. And I’m not showing that there’s my best self.

Alastair McDermott 13:07

Yeah, I love Liston. Witheral is brand. It’s served on sell. That’s his brand name. And I just think that as a as a concept, that’s just the right way to approach things. Because if like if you put service of other people service to other people first, everything else kind of falls in line.

ReeJade Richmond 13:25

It does, it really does. When you put the people first literally like it does really focus on loving people, and having a genuine heart for really just wanting to help people. I think it makes a difference in even how your team shows up. Like for example, I had my executive assistant go to sleep, like she was out working, like two days ago, she was just so excited about the, you know, the journey, we’re only like, she was just literally excited that she’s working at all hours of the night. And I left it at her cuz I’m like, No, don’t work at night. Like I don’t work at night. She’s the genuine excitement for the brand and the mission of what we’re doing. And when you have people excited about what you’re doing, it says a lot about the trajectory of where your company is going. And that’s all I ever won. And I think now, I’m finally in a place where my employees love the company. They’re in alignment with the vision of it. And, you know, not only that the consumers have the vision, you know, they love it, they invite their friends and family. And so all those things are important to me.

Alastair McDermott 14:28

And just because I want to get this in as a soundbite how much of this success is down to specialization? niching down.

ReeJade Richmond 14:38

Oh, is definitely specialization like I yeah, definitely everything, everything. I don’t think if I was General I wouldn’t even be having this type of conversation where my employees I don’t think they will just be so excited because now they know what was going on and they could tell other people was going on and they’re excited about telling people to come work for us, you know, and it’s I couldn’t have done it if I wasn’t specialist because now they are able to articulate clearly what it is that we do. We teach all my coaches and consultants how to repackage their expertise into a membership that Oh, before, I don’t think they could say that, because we were doing too much like, oh, we do a little bit this, we do this, we do that. But now it’s so very clear. If you’re not focusing on, you know, repackaging, or re shifting your focus to create a membership, then you’re not our person right now. And so it makes it very clear, it saves us time. It saves other people’s time. So if you’re looking for our membership is very clear. You come to us.

Alastair McDermott 15:34

Now, you know, you’re the membership, salesperson, you know, that’s, like, you’re the number one in the world at being memberships that sell. Yeah, right. Yeah, that’s cool. I love it. Okay, um, thank you so much for allowing me to record this as well, I really appreciate it. So no problem. So you can see why I think that ReeJade is amazing, and why I wanted to share her story with you! It’s I think it’s an inspiration for people who are fearful about the process of specializing, and also it’s, it’s a good indicator that you know, you can specialize quickly if you’re already set up for it. And I know that she had a lot of other things going for her. I’d love to actually get her on to the full interview show and do it do a full interview with her to talk about that in more detail. I just want to let you know that I am opening a group program. So if you’re interested in having kind of peer support on your journey to authority, with specialization and just getting feedback from a diverse group of peers, then get in touch, you can go to therecognizedauthority.com/group to sign up for the interest list and to learn some more. Thanks for listening. See you next time.

Voiceover 16:52

Thanks for listening to The Recognized Authority with Alastair McDermott. Subscribe today and don’t miss an episode. Find out more at TheRecognizedAuthority.com