236: How to Become an Authority within Your Niche w/ Jake Sturgis

Choosing a focus for your business is scary. There's a fear that niching down means you might be missing out on other opportunities. That's why so many of us take a long time to pick a niche or never do. Today's guest explains how he overcame this and how you can too. Key Takeaways Having a niche automatically raises you to the level of an expert in your field. This builds the trust that your clients are looking for. Keep all your paperwork well-organized. If you are ever faced with an audit, this will help everything go so much smoother than otherwise. About Jake Sturgis Jake Sturgis, the founder, and CEO of Captivate Media, started with video in high school, where he had a public access TV show that never quite caught on like Wayne's World. In college, he was a TV news producer in Duluth, Minnesota. From there, he worked as a videographer and Communications Coordinator for two school districts in Minnesota.  For over a decade Jake worked those jobs while shooting and editing weddings and small corporate gigs on the side. In 2014, Jake took the big leap into the video business full-time. Jake's videos have garnered national attention, leading to multiple awards and public speaking engagements on visual storytelling and authentic student engagement. Finding Your Business' Perfect Niche Jake's company has a very narrow niche. He works mostly with schools and educators to produce content that showcases their institutions. Jake explains how he discovered the need this niche has for quality videos and how he fills it. As an expert in creating videos for his niche, Jake can often anticipate his client's needs before they even know them. Despite these advantages that come with having a niche, many of us are hesitant to be in one. Jake addresses these fears and anxieties. He explains how you need to understand who you are as a person as well as a business. When you have faith in yourself and your mission, you'll come to understand that you will find and create the opportunities needed for success. Surviving the Dreaded Audit As Jake grew his business, he soon realized that he couldn't do it all by himself. But taking on employees is not necessarily a straightforward process. In fact, his state ended up auditing his business, looking at how he was employing his team. Jake tells us how he dealt with this stressful time in his business and how he would do it again if he had to. Are you avoiding specializing in a particular niche? What's holding you back? What niche do you feel best qualified to focus on? Leave a comment on the episode page! In This Episode: Why cheaper work isn't always worth the price [3:30] How being an expert in your niche puts you at a special advantage [11:30] Dealing with the fear that comes with niching down [18:15] Finding the faith to grow your business into something bigger [24:55] What Jake learned when his company was audited [33:00] Advice for someone considering starting their own full-time business [42:25] Quotes "When you've got a niche, and when you know when things are happening with your clients, you can start to anticipate and build for and predict those things before your clients even know they need them." [14:57] "The more that you dive into a niche, the more windows of opportunity that will just present themselves."[19:59] "I saw this opportunity and I didn't want to look at somebody else who made that leap and made that decision and was super successful and always be looking in the rearview mirror and be like, that could have been me." [45:08] "When you can pair your passions with what it is that you're doing and making an impact in the lives of others, it's incredibly fulfilling and a lot of days it doesn't even feel like work." [46:25] Links: Check out the FREE Client Budget Workshop! Join the Grow Your Video Business Facebook group Core Find Jake Sturgis Online Follow Jake on Twitter | Facebook | Instagram Additional Links: Check out the full show notes page Do you have something to share on this podcast? Fill out this form here. Be sure to take the Studio Sherpas survey for a chance to win some incredible prizes (if we do say so ourselves!) Stay up to date with everything we're doing at Studio Sherpas Tune in to our weekly Facebook Lives Follow Studio Sherpas on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram If you haven't already, we'd love it if you would take 1 minute to leave us a review on iTunes!