Niching Case Study: Mary Choo

I help busy mothers avoid burnout and nurture and support themselves with mindfulness and bite-sized breathing breaks.

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Tad’s Rating:

7/10

Contest Rating:

7/10

Average Rating:

7/10

Tad’s Comments:

Ok. I’m going to give this a 7. The “who” is really clear: mothers who are concerned about burn out. Which I’d imagine is rather a lot of them. The result you offer of helping them avoid this thankless fate by nurturing and supporting themselves is fairly clear. Where I find myself leaning away a bit is in the “how” you offer it. “Mindfullness breaks and bite sized breathing breaks.” That sounds too simple. I think you’ve really nailed what they need, but those also seem like things they could do on their own – like, why would they need you? And my guess is that you offer more than this.

To make this a ten, I’d love to hear a bit more about the type of mothers with whom you’d like to work. Could you give two or three more adjectives? Like are they holistically-minded?

And if they nurture and support themselves, then what? What’s the impact of that? Are they craving to nurture and support themselves? Is that what they’re most wanting? Or do they want that for something else (eg being the best parent they can be, not getting into power struggles with their child because they’re exhausted etc.)

I could see a rewording (and this might be remarkably off base) of something like this:

“You know how many mothers are exhausted and on the edge of burn out? I help them develop practices to rejuvenate themselves (even when they think they have no time for it) so they can be the kind of loving mothers they want to be.”

Or something. In 120 characters.

This is such important work. When mama’s happy – everyone’s happy.

Niching Contest Participant Comments:

Great! I wish you luck.

I like this, but would simplify the wording. What about mindful bite sized breathing breaks for example?

10/10: Nice!

I like the concept, wonder how you achieve it, in particular the breaks? Take their kids out? Being greedy, I’d long for more than a bite sized break. . .

8/10: Sounds great. I wonder how you do this? Is it through counselling, coaching, working breathing breaks into routines? Do you give hands on help?

4/10: Love the concept – maybe focus on results instead of the what.

6/10: I’d give this a 6 because of the first part. . . busy mothers avoiding burnout, is so clear, and I can picture people who need it (myself included). The “how” of mindfulness and bite sized breathing breaks, though, kinda throws me off. I don’t know if that’s what I want, and I can’t see how that would help me (though it very well could be part of the program, but initially I’d pass).

How does a mom know she’s headed for burnout? Is this her first time? What are the signs? What do others say when they seek understanding? What physically happens? I heard a quote once along the lines of “the first sign of burnout is the thought that everything depends on you.”

8/10: Would take bite sized out.

Mary Choo‘s Reflections:

Thanks for your feedback. I have decided to drop mindfulness and the bite sized breathing breaks because I don’t have the space to explain what these are. I run a course in school hours 2 hours a week for my clients and am just finishing writing an eBook that covers the course content. I use counselling and kinesiology to clear negative beliefs that block them from making time for themselves and hope to turn it into an online course by the end of the year. Part of the course is how to “steal” ten minute bite sized breaks in their day to sit down and plan a longer activities they can do ideally at least once a week to support themselves.

The Revised Niche:

I teach busy mothers to avoid burn out by stealing time to nurture THEMSELVES so they can lovingly nurture their kids.