Niching Case Study: Mary-Carla MacDonald

Sustainable wellness for caregivers, by learning to give and receive with wholeness, authenticity, and joy.

fillingyourwell.com

#sytycn2014

Tad’s Rating:

6/10

Contest Rating:

6/10

Average Rating:

6/10

Tad’s Comments:

Right now this is a 6 for me. For it to be a 10, I’d want you break down what you meant by “caregivers.” Do you mean parents, people taking care of their aging parents, people taking care of loved ones with disease, professionals taking care of those with handicaps or other situations? People who just tend to be givers in their community? All of them? The vagueness of that term will make it harder for people to identify clearly if they’re in that group or not (or if they know anyone).

Personally, I could see shifting the word “take” to receive as people who are givers might not feel great about the idea of “taking” (could just be me).

Another place I think this could be honed a bit is on the result that’s being offered or the problem they’re experiencing.

What’s wonderful here is that you’ve taken the positive focus on the result you’re offering rather than the problem you’re solving. Both work. Both are valid. But you’ve made a decision to focus on the result.

Now, my guess is that on the unspoken problem side we’ve got people who are burned out, resentful and who have a hard time saying “no.” And so they result you’re offering is around balancing the giving and receiving. And I feel like this could be worded with more clarity and punch.

Here’s a way to think of it. The result we’re offering must be a result they’re craving. Meaning, the thing they’re lying awake at night yearning for. And the more closely we can word it to the way they’d say it, the more likely success will be. And, I’m questioning whether or not they’re secretly confessing to their best friends, “if only I could balance giving and taking with more wholeness, authenticity and joy.” That sounds like what you think they need, but that’s different than what they are craving.

And my guess is that this group of people might identify more with their problems than what they’re craving; that, if you were to start with, “are you a burned out caregiver?” that might grab more attention and establish more relevance than the positive approach.

Regardless of wording, this is such important work. Thank you for doing it.

Niching Contest Participant Comments:

7/10: What challenges do your clients face?

6/10: Not sure if you coach, teach, etc?

7/10: For me it’s a 7. Care-Givers are often in danger to burnout if they don’t set boundaries. Great niche. I can think of some friends who could do with your help. I wouldn’t use the word “wellness”, if you are not a massage therapist. It is a fluffy balloon. I also would explain what you exactly do. Coaching? Counselling? Complementary Therapies. . .

6/10: What if you took out “by learning” and used “teaching” or “coaching” or “counseling” (or whatever it is that you do to help them), instead? That would tell us some important info about you. I like the rest of the text. The photo is sweet. I might be ignorant about this, so please don’t take offense: are you wearing athletic clothing? I only bring it up because that is descriptive. It makes me wonder if what you do has an athletic component/yoga/dance. I’ll give it a 6. Best of luck to you!

4/10: I wondered what form does your service take, and think it would be good to include the words “filling your well” in your niche.

Mary-Carla MacDonald‘s Reflections:

Thank you for the feedback. I just posted a little explanation on my struggle with my title. I am a board-certified music therapist, my training is in expressive arts therapies and mental health counseling. I am not licenced as a psychotherapist but do therapy, teaching and coaching and don’t really know what to call it! The work is deep and powerful and transformative. I incorporate mindfulness and positive psychology as well as neurology and music and imagery in the work I do. I am developing an online component to my work. I also much prefer the word receive! I think the internal work, which is really what I focus on, is about creating internal space, acceptance, awareness, boundaries, and self-compassion. But it is the external symptoms, the burnout, overwhelm, stress in relationships etc that bring them to the work. I struggle for some reason with that language. I will work on it. A lot of people use the term “balance” I don’t believe there is such a thing and striving for it can be unhealthy. That is a blog in itself that I will write soon, as well as my difficulty with the term “self-care” and how it sets us up for a challenge we don’t need. Sometime soon I will split-up and define what I mean by care-giver, but I am not ready to do that until I really see who is responding (sounds counterproductive and it is a little, I am aware of that but I need more feedback from potential clients before I can do it.) Thank you for all your great work. You are providing such great service to your “tribe” and I find your work inspirational.

The Revised Niche:

n/a