Niching Case Study: Roselie Rasmussen

I help conscientious people transform pain into an opportunity to learn more about their bodies while regaining their vitality.

onehealthmassage.com

#sytycn2015

Tad’s Rating:

4/10

Contest Rating:

6/10

Average Rating:

5/10

Tad’s Comments:

4. Roselie, what a gift this must be to people, to find the path to healing in their pain itself. As a theme it’s wonderful, and as a niche – the articulation could use some polishing. Right now it’s a 4 out of ten for me. The first stumbling block is “conscientious people”. This sort of becomes code for everyone because it’s so vague as to who this could mean. The second stumbling block is that “pain” is very broad. Emotional pain? Physical? Chronic? Acute? Is vague discomfort in that arena? And so it becomes, for me, “I work with humans to deal with life”, you know? AND I love the point of view woven into this that our symptoms are the doorways not the roadblocks – or that’s how I read it anyway. When you say, “while regaining their vitality” it has me imagine that their vitality is currently low so there’s some sort of exhaustion and depletion going on too? Another angle to look at this through is to wonder about ‘how do they feel about their pain?” Is it discouraged? Hopeless? Confused? Angry? Frustrated? Some combo – sometimes that can help define the niche. Another good question that can help here is to ask yourself, “What’s the right moment for me to enter people’s lives?” Because there’s a moment where it’s too soon for you and a moment where it’s too late. But there’s a sweet spot. What is that?

Niching Contest Participant Comments:

5/10: I love that you talk about transforming pain into an opportunity, but what what kind of opportunity is it? Do you help them be free of that pain? Or manage it? And what do you mean by “conscientious people”? Regaining vitality is a keeper.

7/10: I love your description of what you do, but who it’s for is unclear. Why are they conscientious and why is that important for your work? I would add “physical” before pain.

4/10: This was super fuzzy for me until I saw that you were a massage therapist and then it became a more clear that you are working with physical pain. I’m not sure who conscientious people are. I’m also not sure if your target market/people in general are looking to transform their pain into a learning opportunity. My guess is that they probably just want to get rid of it and that the learning is a nice side-effect. Right now, it doesn’t feel to me like this is speaking to anyone in particular.

4/10: I don’t know who you mean by conscientious people, or what kind of pain? is it just physical?

I think your photo is quite good. Just answer who you serve very specifically and the result they get. To me a marketing message is about attracting those people you love to serve and who need your service. You weed them out in your consultation, which you can do over the phone before you ever get face to face with them.

5/10: I think you are narrowing it down, but it is not quite there yet. I think if you could get more specific with the “who”(audience) and the “what”(pain), that would help.

7/10: I love your image and message. Could be tightened up a little. I’m with Tad on the “conscientious’ . Just needs you to played with it a little.

9/10: but not sure about the word “conscientious”. Would the people you are trying to reach think of themselves in that way?

Roselie Rasmussen’s Reflections:

Hi Tad, At the risk of sounding brown nosey I’ll say that you seem to have a gift for extracting what I intended out of a rather vague statement. That the pain is the gift we can utilize for greater understanding and as a path to a more in depth relationship with our bodies, is exactly what I want to say. I would like to show people how to see there physical pain as a message and marker from their own bodies as feedback on how they are living and where they could make transitions toward something more optimal. I think this point of view change is a huge step up from fear. Fear gets us stuck in past or worrying about our future, whereas intrigue with sensation brings us into the present. Change (healing) is always in the present. Stepping down from my soapbox now. I want to try and answer your specific questions, for my own benefit and maybe the benefit of others with similar challenges. “Pain” seems to be incorrect because I’m happy to help people explore the source of mild limitations, but it is very fulfilling to help someone find understanding and mastery over something that has limited their life considerably. There are generally signals before extreme pain is reached and I like working with people who don’t let themselves get to that point. Now if I remove “pain” from my statement, what do I have left? Next; vitality is life energy to me. I like it over the word “health” which means the same thing to me, but isn’t recognized as a verb, or a process, or a dynamic state quite so much. I think a lot of people have a memory of what it was like to have more vitality than they have now. How depleted the vitality is would depend on how much there physical concern is affecting their life, or maybe how long it’s been going on. They would be confused and frustrated, but I’d like to get them before they reach hopeless, before they except that whatever their situation is is permanent and incurable, before they decide that they have to give up painting/running/the violin/climbing mountains/gardening etc., the prospect of which would be depressing, to have to give up what is part of your joy in life because of some betrayal by a treacherous body. But the body doesn’t betray us. It’s working the best it can with what we’re giving it. It’s the most amazing steadfast friend that tries to give everything we ask of it, often without receiving any care in return. The sweet spot; probably for some it would be when they are facing the prospect of giving up an activity that gives them joy, but before they actually do. That sweet spot changes with age. The goals of the 20, 40 or 80 something would all be different. But they can have this piece of indomitable flint inside them at any age. I guess this is plenty long enough now. Cheers.

The Revised Niche:

n/a