A few years ago, my friend Marco Brown,
who's a great divorce and custody lawyer

he was talking a lot about niches and
he was advocating for very specific

niches meaning, you know, defining who
you help and, and being really specific

about that and then committing to that.

And it got me thinking, am I
specific enough in my niche?

I generally describe myself as a criminal
defense lawyer, is that specific enough?

So I just gave him a call
and asked him and his advice

was to be much more specific.

And it just got me thinking
about how do you decide what the

perfect sort of size niche is?

Should I be ultra, ultra focused?

Would that have some good benefits
for my business or would it cut off

opportunities by making it so that.

No one, no one refers to me because
they think I don't do anything

that they could refer to me.

Conventional wisdom about niches, it
sounds helpful, it sounds inspiring.

Like, oh, you should be specific.

But how specific?

And how specific is too specific?

And how broad is too broad?

It's a little bit difficult to define.

So, as I've been thinking about it since,
what I've come to feel and understand

is that the goal of your niche size
is to help your referral partners

create a habit of referring to you.

So the goal of niche size isn't to
satisfy somebody's, you know, platonic

ideal of what the ideal niche size is.

It's what is the niche size that
helps my referral partners create

a habit of referring to me?

And the habit's really important
because It's way easier to get

somebody who has referred to you once.

It's way easier to get
them to refer to you.

More times than it is to get
somebody brand new to refer to you.

It just is.

It's been my experience There's
tons of statistics to support that.

And so if our niche size makes that
more difficult or it's an obstacle to

that, then it's the wrong niche size.

And if it's helping us do that and it's
the right niche size So that there's

not like sort of an ideal niche size for
everyone It's what is the niche size that

will help your referral partners create a
habit of referring to you Now, repeatable

behaviors, and you know, you can kind of
look at Charles Duhigg's book The Power of

Habit, James Clear's book, Atomic Habits.

But a habit happens when a
behavior has an obvious cue.

The behavior is attractive.

Easy to do and satisfying.

Those are the four ingredients.

We want to make it obvious.

We want to make it attractive.

We want to make it easy.

We want to make it satisfying.

And the obvious piece is kind of
the first part where niche comes in.

So if you tell somebody, yeah, I'm
doing, I'm doing criminal defense

and I'm doing some bankruptcy and
I'm doing some civil litigation.

And every now and then I'm
doing a divorce here or there.

It's not obvious to your referral
partner when they should refer to you.

So it's harder for them to start
that sort of habit loop that

James Clear talks about.

It's not obvious what's the trigger,
what's the thing that's going to say

if you hear these key words then you
need to think about referring to me.

So a niche is helpful when
it makes that cue obvious.

And then it's attractive.

A lot of times I've thought that
in order to get referral partners,

I need to pay referral fees.

That's what's going to make it attractive.

Why, why else would they refer it to
me and not just do the work themselves?

But as I have grown and learned
in my practice, there's lots of

things that I don't know how to do.

I have no interest in learning how to do.

There's no, there's almost
no fee that would make that.

you know, worthwhile.

So when I'm referring, it's attractive
because I'm solving this client's problem.

The client is happy with me because
I've helped them solve it, even

though I didn't have to learn
the complexities of antitrust law

or whatever I'm referring out.

We need to make it easy.

Clearing the obstacles to doing
something is a lot of times easier

than pushing somebody to do something.

So make it super easy.

If there's a cell phone
number, you can give them.

If there's a Just like,
make it super clear.

Don't give them ten ways to do it.

Give them one simple way to do it.

But then if they suggest a different
way, maybe be okay with that.

So, it's gotta be obvious, it's gotta
be attractive, it's gotta be easy,

and then it's gotta be satisfying.

And satisfying means that the client that
they refer to you has a great experience.

And it enriches the relationship
between the person who sent

the referral and the client.

So they now have a better relationship
because they recommended you and you

can't fulfill that promise of fortifying
their relationship, enriching their

relationship if you're not doing.

Something that you're really good at.

And what's nice about niches is it's
way easier to get good at one specific

thing than to get good at everything.

I mean, it's just way simpler.

It's a much easier problem to solve.

So we want to make it obvious,
attractive, easy, and satisfying.

And all of that is from the perspective
not of the client, not of us, but from

the perspective of the referral partner.

Is it easy for them to refer to us?

So going back to the conversation
that I had with my friend Marco.

I think we disagreed slightly about,
you know, how specific you ought to

be but something that I've learned
since then is that to make the cue

the trigger obvious, it's easiest
to use a, a category that already

exists in my referral partner's head.

So if they don't really know what
criminal defense law is, and then

I've got to educate them first about
the concept of criminal defense law,

and then I explain that's what I do
and tell them when to refer to me.

That's, that's much, much more
difficult than just using a

category that's already there.

And of course, most people know what a
criminal defense lawyer is, but if I was

more specific and I said, I'm a criminal
defense lawyer who does sexual assault

cases that are likely to go to trial for
clients who have immigration issues and

are not citizens of the United States.

Like, that's a lot of stuff to
remember for someone who maybe

doesn't know that area super well.

So if I'm talking to my aunt's
cousin at some family party and

she says, Oh, what do you do?

And I, I give that detailed and niche,
you know, super, super specific niche

that that's going to be difficult
for her to remember, difficult

for it to be a trigger for her.

It's just, I've just made it hard.

I haven't made it easy.

I haven't made it obvious.

At the same time though, if I'm talking
to my friend who's a DUI lawyer, and I

say, I help people who are charged with
sexual assault, whose cases are likely

to go to trial, and they are not U.

S.

citizens, that might be a category that
already exists in his brain, and he

might go, oh, thank you so much, and
remember that and refer those to me.

So, your niche needs to be Often
a category that already exists

in the other person's head.

It's way easier to be good at one
thing than to be good at everything.

So the other thing that I've learned
is that you don't need to express the

niche the same way to everyone or even
have the same niche with everyone.

So I could imagine an attorney or a
law firm that did criminal defense

and personal injury and divorce.

And my recommendation to that
person would be if you're talking

to someone, pick the one of those.

That you think is going to be
most relevant to this person.

So if they're a divorce lawyer
and you like to co counsel

divorce cases, talk about how your
practice is focused on divorce.

If you don't want to do co counsel
on divorce cases, but you do want

divorce lawyers to refer you to
criminal cases, talk about that.

So, you don't have to say the same
thing to everyone, but again, the

challenge there is then you got to
get good at those three things, or

your firm or your company has to
become good at all those three things.

The other thing to think about is that
you don't have to express this same niche

the same way to everyone you talk to.

So someone who has more
exposure to your practice area.

You might be more specific because
that's a category that already

exists in their head while being a
little bit broader to someone else.

And you might say, well, then they're
going to refer me, you know, the

DUI, and I don't do DUIs, well.

You can re refer that person.

You can tell the person, look, you
know, I'm really busy on this trial,

but here's somebody who does DUIs really
well, and it hasn't cost you that much

more time, and you, you fulfilled your
commitment to the referral partner

because you took care of that person,
but you got them to the right person.

So, in that sense, I think sometimes an
overbroad, niche can be okay if it's,

if it's the best niche category that
exists in your referral partner's mind.

That's okay, and we can always re refer.

We're not being dishonest if we're not
as specific with some people as others.

Again, we're just trying to use the
category and the terminology that

they already know and are familiar
with instead of having to spend 20

minutes explaining the difference
between a criminal defense attorney

and a prosecutor to your cousin's aunt.

It's too much work.

We're gonna use whatever
category is already there.

So having talked about that,
then the question becomes,

okay, what is the ideal size?

For me, here are a few
factors that I think about.

The first factor I think about is,
is this a niche that's small enough

that I can become great at it?

I want to be, I want to keep redefining
the niche until it's so specific that

I can really dominate that thing.

And again, I may not tell everyone
how specific I'm trying to be, but if

I don't know how to do anything, In
criminal defense, and I decide, look,

I'm just going to start with DUIs.

That could be great.

And then if you get a felony case that you
don't feel comfortable with, you refer it

out, you do a co counsel deal or whatever,
but you're really focused at getting

good at this one relatively narrow thing.

And then once you get competent and
then maybe even So if you're not an

expert at that, then you can expand
if you want to or shift it slightly

or be more specific or less specific,
but it's the first question is

sort of, is this a game I can win?

Is this a battle I can win?

Is it small enough that I
can be great at this thing?

So that's number one.

Number two, again, we talked about
is this category that already

exists in my referral partners mind?

If it's not, then I've got to
find a way to put it into their

language because again, the goal
is to have them start a habit loop.

They can't start a habit loop if
the cue is clear to me, but not

clear to them, so I have to put it
in that the niche into their terms.

So it's got to be something that already
exists in their mind and is close enough.

Third, you have to think about whether
the niche is big enough to support you.

And I used to think, well,
it's always big enough.

It's always big enough.

But with the way lawyer licensing works,
if you're only licensed in Wyoming and

the one town close to you has 40,000
people in it and then it's a three hour

drive to the next town, then it might be
difficult to find a niche that you can

win at that has enough work in it, right?

And I, so I had a lawyer who
reached out to me and asked, you

know, is this niche too narrow?

And I think he lived in Wyoming or Montana
or a relatively small state like that.

So I gave him just like a quick exercise.

I just said, you know, look up the court
calendar for, you know, the main court

that you'd be working in and try to get
a couple of weeks of it and just kind of

count the cases from the busiest lawyer
in that, on that, on those calendars.

Non public defender, obviously, like
private counsel that had retained

clients and whatever number of cases it
is, you know, write that down and then

make kind of an educated guess about
what the fees might be in those cases.

And then that's sort of
your best- case scenario.

That person might be 10 or
15 or 20 years ahead of you.

That's your best case scenario.

And if that's a number that you feel great
about or it's ten times greater than what

you think, then yes, it's plenty big.

If you're like, oh my goodness, the
most busy person in my market is

only doing $40,000 a year in revenue,
then we need to probably expand the

geography we serve or we need to
expand the types of cases we work on.

Because again, it's not about, is
this the platonic idea of a niche.

The question is, is it a niche that
is going to support your business?

And is it a niche that's going to make
it easy for people to refer to you?

So that's a rough way to
kind of gauge market size.

It's possible that you're going to,
you know, get 30 percent market share.

I don't know anyone in my area that
has 30 percent market share, but it's

possible that you'll be an outlier.

And if that's kind of exciting to you
and you want to try that, that's fine.

But that, that might be a way to
kind of get an upper bound, you know?

So is the category big enough that it
already, that it can support my business?

That's a really important question.

Again, if it's slightly too large, that's
okay, because you can always refer out.

If it's way too small, then you're going
to spend all this energy mastering a

way to serve a market that's just too
small to support your business, so

we've got to be careful about that.

But most people I see do too big of
a niche, not too small of a niche

but it's, it's worth being aware that
there is a niche that's too small.

The next question that I would have
is, are at least some people highly

motivated to solve this problem?

So, if I'm doing DUIs and the
penalties in my area for DUIs

are so small and insignificant
that nobody is really motivated.

Then I might be the best
in the world at DUIs.

It's just not motivating enough that, that
there's people that are willing to pay me

what I would need to operate my business.

Like sometimes the price of a commodity
or of a good becomes so low that it's

not profitable to keep making it.

And when that happens, we, you know,
we're not entitled to a niche, we're not

entitled to be successful in some area.

We might need to ex expand or broaden,
or pivot or shift to something else.

One of the biggest questions I ask early
in my potential client consultations

is, help me understand what it
would mean to solve this problem.

If, if they're like, yeah,
it's not that big of a deal.

I wanna get off the phone
as quickly as possible.

Like, no offense to them,
I don't, I'm not offended.

It's just not that important to
them, and I'm not gonna try to

convince them that it's important.

It doesn't mean that
every single person who.

gets charged with a crime or this type
of crime has to think it's life or death.

But at least some people.

So like I've done some pretty
lucrative traffic cases but I don't

like advertise for speeding tickets
because there's not really a good way

for me to make money off of those.

So for me, it's usually I do speeding
tickets for commercial drivers whose

livelihood, you know, $200,000 a
year trucking business depends on

them not having this on their record.

You know, so for that person, it's
very motivating, but for a lot of other

people, they just pay the 80 fine or
whatever and go along with their life.

The last one that I would add
is whether the size of the

niche best serves the client.

So if me focusing on criminal makes it
so that I can be way better at criminal

than if I also did civil litigation,
that serves the client and that's

a good thing and we should do it.

If being more specific hurts the
client and makes it more complicated

and more difficult to use my services,
then I should probably broaden the

niche or make the niche more narrow
so that it can best serve the client.

So like an example is something that I've
done more in the past and do less now is.

Criminal immigration, quote unquote,
so criminal and immigration.

For some of my clients, the solution
to the criminal case has huge

impact on their immigration status.

And if I can solve the criminal
case, but not the immigration

case, then they don't care.

And so it doesn't always mean that both
of those things need to be provided in

the same firm and in the same way, like
it's possible that you could just say,

Hey, you know, for whenever there's an
immigration issue, we co counsel with this

firm, you know, we have a deal with them
where we pay them a portion of our fee.

And, and so you can provide the
same service without necessarily

trying to personally build
the expertise for both things.

But, if I'm offering criminal and
immigration to the same client, and

they have both problems, it might be
better for them to come to one person

who can manage the whole problem than
to try to find two separate people

and get them to coordinate and pay
separate fees and things like that.

So solving the whole
problem can be helpful.

So if it's a category that exists in
their mind, in the client's mind and

and it would be of more service to the
client to broaden it, then that might be

a great case for broadening the niche.

It doesn't necessarily mean
that it needs to be small.

So, you know, I started out by saying
a lot of the advice around niches.

It's not very helpful.

It sounds helpful.

Yeah, we should be a specialist.

Doctors who are specialists
make more money.

You know, that's all nice, but it makes it
hard to decide what size actually works.

And what I would love to do is
to be able to say, this is the

size that works for everyone.

Everyone should niche in this way.

Well, everybody's situation is a
little bit different, but hopefully

by understanding the goal.

It's easier to understand whether a
niche experiment is worth trying and

has a chance of succeeding or whether
it's just a bad idea from the beginning.

And again, the goal of a niche is to have
a niche that's specific enough that it

helps and makes it easier for our clients
to refer to us and for us to give them

a great experience and a great result.

So when we can do that,
that's a successful niche.

The niche size we have makes it so
that we're bad at it because we're

trying to do too many things or it's
confusing to referral partners when

they should refer to us and when they
shouldn't, then that's, those are times

when it's time to adjust the niche
and see if we can make it cleaner.

So I hope that helps and and good luck
in choosing what kinds of problems

you're going to solve for your clients.

And I hope you do a great job
at it and that you can take

great care of your clients.