I’ve been hearing a lot about ChatGPT, the AI that’s supposed to change the world. But here’s the thing. It’s just not that good for the luminary market.
Sure, it’s got its uses – for instance, it wrote a kickass promo for my Astral Projection episode on my Spirit Sherpa podcast.
But when it comes down to things like market research and data analytics for our industry, there just isn’t much data for it to pull from. Almost no one is publicly traded in our market and therefore, their inner data isn’t readily available for market research purposes.
And even on the gross overview concepts, it doesn’t do a great job. See the example below:
So here’s the problem with these responses.
1) The aging population that will be interested in this work is already in the industry. Very few people step into this work for the first time after the age of 60. So while there may in fact be a niche in working with the aging population, it is a shrinking market over the next 10 years as Boomers die off and are replaced by the GenX generation which is a much smaller part of the population.
2) Men’s wellness – Yes, men need someplace to go that is just theirs. Women dominate the wellness, spirituality, and personal growth markets. But there is a reason for this. In my almost 50 years being in and around these markets, my experience tells me that men only come to this work after some major life shakeup – divorce, death of a parent (usually the father), job loss, etc. Otherwise, they don’t look up from the grindstone of their lives. So targeting them is difficult unless you pair it with one of these situations.
3) Rural Areas – this is fine, but it’s no different from the rest of the market. Everyone is doing things online these days. I usually recommend that my clients not open brick-and-mortar places both because working online has much less overhead and because you can’t be a prophet in your own town. You will earn much more from people who don’t know you than from those who do.
4) Mental Health – I agree that the mental health industry is an opportunity, but there are also people out there trying to use AI to replace therapists online – a dangerous trend at best – who are charging little to nothing for services. Add to this that Facebook won’t let you run ads associated with mental health (forbidden words include anxiety, depression, and most other diagnosis-based language), and you have a really challenging target market to serve.
So how do we do OUR market research?
1) Network with others in your industry – You can learn so much just by talking to your teachers and asking them what they have learned that worked and didn’t work. Note – be careful about generalizing this advice, however. Things that didn’t work for me 10 years ago (like selling people on the idea of attaining Inner Peace) are working amazingly now and vice versa.
2) Talk to your existing clients – perhaps the best source of market research comes from talking with your clients. They are the ones who paid for your services, therefore they are the ones who will know the most about your market. For instance, on a recent coaching call my students got off on a tangent about how much they LOVE books. They all said they should own stock in Barnes and Noble and Amazon for how many books they buy each year. While they talked, I quietly added “avid readers” to my Client Avatar.
3) Connect into the archetype of your ideal client – I know you’ve probably been thinking this whole article “Where’s the woo?” Well, here it is. Your clients are all part of a morphic field that creates an archetype. If you will sit down in meditation and then ask to speak to the archetype of your ideal client, you can get all kinds of answers. (This was one of several great ideas I got from Eugenia Oganova who will be my guest on the April 2nd Spirit Sherpa podcast. Her interview was AWESOME. Make sure to subscribe to hear it when it comes out.)
4) Connect into yourself – make sure that whatever answers you get from your client archetype fit with what you want to be doing and how you want to live your life. Don’t buy into a model that will make you miserable. It’s always hard to sell something you don’t enjoy. If you want to be sure, try this exercise: feel into having the business up and running at the level you desire and see how your energy responds. Do you feel expansive, open, energized, excited, neutral, exhausted, depressed, angry, trapped, etc.? Unless you’re in the first part of the sentence responses, then that model isn’t right for you.
This is a unique market. In many ways, it doesn’t operate like other markets do. It’s important to work with people who are familiar with your market. This is true whether we are using AI for market research or hiring marketing coaches, or working with mentors.
I work with luminaries to help them uplevel their skills in all areas of their work – energetics, healing, transformation facilitation, coaching, speaking, ritual design, retreat design/facilitation, etc. If you want to knock your clients’ socks off with your skills, then let’s talk.
Not sure I’m the real deal yet? I get it. Check out my podcast. There are almost 300 episodes to choose from and most are just me teaching you stuff. I recommend starting at the beginning so you get the foundational work before moving into the more advanced subjects later on.