Pharrell Williams, Maggie Rogers, and Niching Down

Dec 8

Written By Andrew Woodbury

Fusion, the arts, and niching down - watch the video below

Read time: 4 minutes

Here’s our TTT for this week on how to grow your online teaching business.

What is TTT? A Tip, Takeaway, and Task. On Thursday.

Enjoy!

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Tip: Music can teach us a lot about niching down

How to niche down is the most common question we get. And the answer is complex - mostly because there isn’t one answer.

But we know the result we want is to do one specific thing in a way that no one else has. That is what a niche of one is.

This is commonplace in the arts - music, film, painting - but for some reason less common in our teaching businesses. And it doesn’t need to be this way.

And this week we’d like to introduce you to Maggie Rogers.

Maggie’s Story

Folk & electronic dance music fusion?

Sounds bizarre, right?

But that's what Maggie Rogers created when she wrote her now super-famous song "Alaska."

In 2016, Pharrell Williams visited a New York University music production class to give feedback to the music students had created.

The story of Maggie is one of legends. Watch the video to see the entire sequence, Pharell's comments, and Maggie's backstory.

Here's what Pharell said after listening:

"I have zero notes for that. And you know why? You're doing your own thing - it's singular. It's like when the Wu-tang clan came out. No one could really judge it; you either liked it or you didn't, but you couldn't compare it to anything else.

And that is such a special quality, and all of us possess that ability."

How Maggie came to blend banjo folk music and electronic music is incredibly interesting.

And in doing so, she created her own niche of one.

And she stood out from the crowd.

Takeaway: Watch this video

Watch the full interaction at NYU with Pharrell and Maggie - and listen to Maggie's song.

I'm sure you'll be as blown away as we were

Task: Apply it to your niche

At the end of the video, Pharrell says “I’ve never heard anyone like you before.”

And thus, Maggie’s niche of one was born.

We believe that we all have this inside of us. Your task for this week is to reflect on Maggie’s story and how you can apply some of it to your own story.

And thus continuing to create your own niche of one with your teaching business.

And reply here with any thoughts you have - we’d love to hear them.

Hope this helps.