Marketing Journeys · The Tradewinds Method
Session 1.2
Find Your
North
Why does everyone act like what I do is free?
Marketing Journeys1.2The quiet part, out loud
People act like
what you do is free.
It has a cause. It has a fix. Both are the same word: niche.
Marketing Journeys1.2 · Find Your NorthGet the fear out of the way
Known for,
not limited to.
A niche is what you're known for. It is not the only thing you're allowed to book. Pick a lane and your cousin can still call you for Vegas. You're not closing doors — you're finally giving people a reason to remember you.
Marketing Journeys1.2 · Find Your NorthBe honest with each other
You can't be the expert
on everywhere.
Africa, and Asia, and Italy, and Disney, and your local Super 8. Nobody can.
The generalist isn't serving everyone. They're serving everyone shallowly.
Marketing Journeys1.2 · Find Your NorthThe whole session in one choice
Walmart, or the
specialty store?
Walmart
Competes on price. Everything under one roof, nothing special. Interchangeable, so people treat you as free.
The specialty store
Charges more, offers more, sought out by name. You drive across town for it. This is the niche.
Marketing Journeys1.2 · Find Your NorthCallback to 1.1
A balloon with no heading
goes up, and straight back down.
Same shape as the income rollercoaster. We're not after a great week. We're after a career.
Marketing Journeys1.2 · Find Your NorthThe headwind, live
Every shiny object is a
gust off your heading.
The cruise promo. The hotel deal. The one crushing it with weddings. With Disney. The next Instagram.
None of them feel like distraction. They feel like the next big thing. Name them to stop obeying them.
Marketing Journeys1.2 · Find Your NorthA real one · Jillian
Jillian is the accessible-travel
advisor. She sources wheelchair
rentals across Italy.
Expedia can't do that. AI can't do that. That's the advisor. That's why the client comes back.
Marketing Journeys1.2 · Find Your NorthIt's not just one kind of lane
Three niches,
one method.
Accessible
Jillian
Handles it when a trip goes sideways.
Racing
Robert
Forty years in the sport. Crew, fan, media, advisor.
Literary
Stacy
A lifelong reader who builds book trips.
Three different lanes. The exact same test got us there.
Marketing Journeys1.2 · Find Your NorthA real niche clears all four
The four filters.
Passion that lasts · Expertise · Demand · Commission value.
Some cruises pay you $22.55. Same planning effort as a trip that pays $2,000.
Fewer trips at a higher price, or run on volume. Both are real. Pick on purpose.
Marketing Journeys1.2 · Find Your NorthThe takeaway
A niche is a magnet,
not a cage.
It doesn't lock you in. It pulls the right people toward you and gives them words to refer you.
Marketing Journeys1.2 · Find Your NorthYour first brick
Find your north.
1
Dump the lanes
Name three to five lanes you could be known for. No filtering. Break the blank page.
2
Score the four
High, medium, low on Passion, Expertise, Demand, Commission. The one that clears all four is your north.
3
The proof line
Write it: I help ___ do what nobody else can. Can't fill it? Still Walmart.
Marketing Journeys1.2 · Find Your North
Built with you, not taught at you
A heading you keep,
not a gust you chase.
You can name a candidate niche now. A rough lane on paper is not a sharpened, tested message-market fit. Sanding it down alone is a year of second-guessing, and knowing is not doing. You don't have to. We build it with you →
Next → 1.3 · Your Peace Number — put a real number on the life you want.
Post your first brick in the community. Questions? Bring them to this week's Professor Hours.
Marketing Journeys1.2