The Generalist’s Dilemma: How Laurie Went from Undefined to Unforgettable

If you’ve ever found yourself spiraling in “I could do anything for anyone!” energy—but still wondering why your dream clients aren’t knocking—this one’s going to hit home.

In today’s episode, I’m joined by my long-time creative partner and fellow strategist, Laurie Peterson—who recently did something that took her over 15 years to do: finally name and clearly position her consulting brand. 

We’re getting real about what makes it so hard to define our own niche (even when we do it for others!), the fears that keep us from choosing, and how to shift from listing your services… to telling a powerful story.

Inside, we talk about:

• Why being multi-passionate can feel like a curse when it comes to positioning
• The fear of boredom, missed opportunities, and “getting it wrong”
• How Laurie reframed her question—and finally landed on The Founder’s Sidekick
• A simple 3-step exercise to uncover your “why” (and make messaging feel so much easier)
• Why creativity is a practice—and how to bring more play into your business decisions

Whether you're a generalist who’s tired of being forgettable, or a solopreneur trying to figure out how to niche down without limiting yourself—this convo is the permission slip and perspective shift you’ve been waiting for.

About Laurie Peterson

Laurie Peterson is an entrepreneur, patented inventor, and silicon-valley trained marketer with a Berkeley/Haas MBA. Laurie has twenty years of experience developing and promoting award-winning digital and physical products. With experience in software, hardware, and consumer products, Laurie assists venture-backed startups as The Founder’s Sidekick.

🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES

• Learn more about how The Founder’s Sidekick support entrepreneurs here
• Connect with Laurie on LinkedIn
• Curious about Toy Inventing? Go here!

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Transcript

Natasha (00:00)

Hello and welcome to the show, Lori.

Laurie Peterson (00:03)

Hey, thanks so much for having me.

Natasha (00:06)

Yes, I'm so excited to get in this conversation today. Lori and I have spent so much time as partners in crime and I know how much wisdom she has to offer. So we're going to jump right into the questions and start with number one. You have helped so many people define and position their brands, but for a long time you've avoided doing it yourself. Why do you think it was hard to position yourself even though it's something you do so well for others?

Laurie Peterson (00:31)

Thank you. ⁓ I think to sum it up, probably suffer from the generalist dilemma, which is that with my background as an entrepreneur, I have an MBA, but I'm also super creative. I feel like I'm capable of doing so many things. And so I fall into that trap of, know, I could do anything for anyone. But when you fall into that trap, it's very difficult for people to understand what it is you can do for them.

And as you say, it's pretty ironic that in my own positioning and my consulting services, I struggle with this because one thing I love to do with my clients is their positioning. And often startups fall into the same issue where they're trying to be everything to everyone. Maybe they haven't quite figured out their product market fit. So they want to leave all their options open. And, you know, a common saying is if you're everything to everyone, you're nothing to nobody.

Or maybe I messed that up. But anyways, basically the sentiment is, you know, if you can't figure out who you're doing this for and what you're doing, you're really not doing much at all. So I think, you know, my stubbornness has probably held myself back because I haven't wanted to put myself in that box.

Natasha (01:47)

Yeah, and this one always makes me laugh because I really do tell people like you're your own worst client. So whether it's designing or positioning, as soon as you sit down and try and do it for yourself, it can be so challenging. And I know a lot of designers, if they're listening to this or even anyone working on like their website or anything will laugh because you know, something you could do and two hours for a client will take you 20 hours and you're never done and you never finish it and put it out. So it's like that. There's another saying like the cobbler whose kids have no

No shoes.

Laurie Peterson (02:18)

Yeah,

or the doctor who never takes their kids to the doctor. Yeah, same.

Natasha (02:22)

Yeah,

so this is definitely a common problem and one of the things I've been talking a lot about on this show is niching down because you need something that people can remember you for and...

So like we all know it, but it's really hard to do it. And so that's why I keep coming back to this and I'm excited to dive more into this. So you shared that avoiding a clear niche actually helped you or actually kept you from being top of mind when you, people needed help. So why was it so scary to like pick that one niche and what benefits do you think come from embracing a niche?

Laurie Peterson (02:49)

Yeah.

I mean, part of the reason I'm a consultant is because I like every day to be different. I like working on different things all the time. And so it's been this multi-year struggle where I feel like if I define my offering, then my days might get monotonous and my projects might get monotonous. And that's not who I am. I mean, that's why I'm an independent consultant so that I can have the freedom and flexibility to work on a wide range of things. And so I think probably a lot of consultants

face that same dilemma where they feel like if they do a really crisp job of defining themselves, they're actually limiting their opportunities. And again, I would tie this to what I see with my startup clients all the time, where they're really hesitant to say who their client is in their marketing materials, they're really hesitant to say exactly what they deliver to that client because they want to leave their options open. But you know, that versatility definitely comes out of at a price.

people don't know when to think of you. And so you are never top of mind. And so I've suffered from that for years and recently I've needed to attract more clients. I've needed to, you know, bring on new clients. And so it forced me to revisit this. And finally, I'm happy that I have arrived at, you know, consulting brand and positioning that I feel comfortable with. And so I've given people an anchor now and done it in a way that I think does not

hinder me in a way that I was afraid of all those years. So I kind of overcame my own hurdle, ⁓ forcing myself through this process by looking at it in a new way.

Natasha (04:39)

Yeah, and I think you hit on something that's so key, which is that fear of boredom. Like that's, think what it's, there's a fear of, you know, missing out on opportunities, but there's also a fear of boredom. What if I get bored doing the same thing over and over again? Cause a lot of entrepreneurs were really creative. We want to be working on different projects, but at the end of the day, you also want a really steady income. And I think.

Laurie Peterson (04:59)

You want money, I mean,

and we would go through this as our exercise together because for the listeners who don't know, Natasha and I do projects together. And we would say, OK, what are we offering? Are we offering brand guidelines? Are we offering positioning? And we'd start to list out these basically tasks and deliverables that we would offer. And that sort of

service-based listing of what I can provide didn't feel true to what I'm capable of as a generalist, as an entrepreneur, as someone who's both business-minded and creative. It always felt like a little flat just to list like, here are the services I provide. So it, you my own consulting positioning and branding didn't click until I kind of shifted that question from what services do I provide to

What story do I want to tell about how I help people?

Natasha (05:55)

Yeah, yeah, I love that story aspect and that's what really helps people connect and relate. So I know you've actually finally landed on this positioning that feels authentic and specific and I love the name of it. this is the Founder's Sidekick is what you've landed on. So ⁓ how did that shift for you once you landed on the Founder's Sidekick?

Laurie Peterson (06:04)

Yeah.

Yeah, so right. So my consulting services now have a name, which they basically have not for my entire career. So it's now the founder sidekick. ⁓ And, and I really came to that, like I said, from shifting the viewpoint of how I was looking at what my offering is from what services do I provide to what story do I want to tell about how I help people. And so first, it's getting clear about who are the people that I'm helping. And so being really clear about that and ⁓

Of course, in the past, I've been like, I can help anyone do anything, but really thinking about the clients who I've offered the most value to. And those are early stage entrepreneurs with small teams of like one to five people and recognizing that, like those are the scenarios where I can come in and my versatility can make a real big difference. So being in their same shoes in the past, I kind of know a lot of what they're struggling with. I've, you know, launched

startups, I've been more on the operational side, I've been on the marketing side, I've been on the product side, I've been the CEO. So that kind of viewpoint over the full business really helps me kind of be their partner along the way and thinking about, know, how, okay, so now I know who the target is. It's this like early stage entrepreneur. And then thinking about what is their emotional state, especially if they're a solo entrepreneur.

I know from personal experience that sometimes you feel really alone in your challenges. At the end of the day, you feel like it's all on you. And so that was kind of the sentiment I wanted to tap into with this idea of the entrepreneur being the hero and I'm their sidekick. They're never alone. They never have to figure out these challenges on their own because now they have their trusty sidekick who's going to be there. And, you know, the sidekick isn't like, I only help when the challenge is going against a specific bad guy or

I only help when the weapons involve boomerangs. The sidekick is there for the hero, regardless of the challenge. And so it kind of, think that fitting my role onto that familiar narrative ⁓ finally makes it make sense about how a generalist like me can be impactful for that early stage entrepreneur.

Natasha (08:34)

Yeah, and I love too that, I mean, you actually identify your audience even in the name and we can't put everything in a name all the time, but your name tells a whole lot with just three words, which is hard to do. And so, you know, of course you can continue to explain that story with your messaging and your tagline, but it's a powerful name. ⁓ just kind of.

Laurie Peterson (08:53)

Thank you.

know, you know, it's funny, Natasha, so it took me like, I don't know, 15 years to decide I was actually going to do this. But then once I had clarity over like, okay, my target is an entrepreneur. And I know they're feeling really alone. I think it took me like, maybe 15 minutes to come up with the founder sidekick as the name. And then once I came up with that, it was like, boom, boom, boom, like, three days later, here's the positioning, here's the website, you know, but it took like 15 years.

to get to that point and then like a couple minutes once I was there.

Natasha (09:25)

It's so interesting and I think people on the call or on the show will relate that, you know, we think that we'll just set these goals and we'll end up somewhere, but there's all sorts of things we're overcoming, whether they're mental blocks or skills gaps or all of these things. And then suddenly it's almost like divine and like intervention sometimes. And it just kind of all slides into place. ⁓ of course. It's so simple, but it took all that work to get there.

Laurie Peterson (09:48)

Right. It's so simple.

And guess what? You didn't limit yourself. And now people have clarity over how you can help them and they can refer you. So part of what kind of forced me is I have this like amazing and talented and very successful friend who's involved with the most well-respected startup accelerator. So she is the, I'm trying not to name drops, I won't say, but she is like the person.

to try to recommend me to get some flow in introducing new clients. And she kept being like, so where's your website that I can refer and what's your consulting practice called? And I was finally like, God, yeah. And she wasn't straight out like, you've got to do this. But she kept being like, well, what do you want me to say to these people? So thank you to my friend Gail for kind of forcing the issue. Appreciate you.

Natasha (10:46)

Yeah, yeah, I love it. I love the story though, because I think people can relate. You we think we're the only one kind of struggling through this, taking 15 years or not having a website or having your offer together. But the truth is a lot of people are in that same boat and you can get there. So my next question then is for someone who's maybe going through something similar, do you have any tips if they're struggling to figure out their position and define themselves in a way that feels true?

Laurie Peterson (11:12)

Yeah, I mean, I think what clicked for me was asking the question of myself in a different way. So I would think about how you can reframe the question. If you're struggling with defining your services or your company or your product, ⁓ try to flip the question. So for me, it was switching from like, what services do I offer to how do I help people? For you, it might be, what problem am I solving? Why does it matter?

And then an exercise that can be really helpful is once you come up with that answer. So I might say, how ⁓ do I help people? I do marketing and product design for them. And then say, why? And ask yourself why three times. So OK, why do you do that? because they're an early entrepreneur, and so they don't have the internal team.

OK, so why? Why? Like, just keep asking why, and then you might actually get to the nugget of what's really important. And so again, I think for me, that was the insight of these entrepreneurs feel alone. They don't always know what to do. And it's really helpful to have someone assisting them who's been in their shoes before. And so helping them in whatever way they need is how I can really push things along for them. So yeah, I would reframe it.

not just like the what, but the why and the who. And then three, do the exercise where three times you ask yourself why. Okay, it's this. Okay, but why? It's this. Okay, but why? And then maybe that third time you'll actually land on, you know, what's really important in what you're doing.

Natasha (12:56)

Yeah, peeling back those layers is so important and I like the story aspect that we talked about before. So, you know, finding out what that why is and then just writing a story about it that you can tell people. And I have another question for you. It's not on our questions list, but one of the things that I really appreciate about you is your background in toys and just this whole idea of bringing play to work.

And that's not just for people in the toy industry, but just the sense of play really is tied inherently to creativity. And I think sometimes, especially in a corporate setting, or even if we're working for ourselves, it's easy to skip and not make time for that play. And I would just love to hear kind of why you think that's so important in your work.

Laurie Peterson (13:39)

Yeah, so in addition to doing my consulting work through the Founders Sidekick, I also do toy and game inventing. So I have an amazing collaborator and we have a toy invention studio called Rebel Play. so basically we come up with new ideas for toys and games and then we pitch them into companies and try to license the products. And so we get to stay in this like really fun ideation stage all the time because we never have to worry about the exocational.

executional realities that come with actually bringing a product to market because that is what our partners do with our concepts. And so I think having that going in a way, it's like I've really learned that and I already knew this, doing the toy inventing work on a regular basis has reminded me that creativity, it is a muscle, it is a learned skill. And, and so

if you get in a rhythm with it and if you kind of have a process for it, the ideas flow much easier. So maybe the first time you do it, it's really a struggle. But then you kind of learn how to tap into those ideas and just let them flow. ⁓ And so it doesn't feel daunting to like come up with new things to be a creative problem solver. And so I think just having that confidence and creativity and imagination does flow into all the other work because I'm

I'm never fearful of like, we're not going to come up with the idea that we need. It's always like, OK, we can get in a creative flow here that will eventually result in something cool. So I think just like sort of having that process to invite in the creativity helps in pretty much every business conversation because whether you're writing copy or you're doing the positioning or you're figuring out your go to market strategy, inviting in imagination is always.

is always useful. I'm not sure that directly answered your question, but.

Natasha (15:39)

Well,

no, I think it's helpful for people to hear about the process behind creativity because it's easy to say that we're not creative and get stuck in that rut. But no matter what kind of entrepreneur you are these days, a big piece of like marketing and standing out on social media and these other avenues or branding is really

having some sense of creativity, right? The content a lot of times that's going viral has some kind of creative element and that that is accessible to everyone. And if you're starting with a blank page, use this process. Okay, you don't have to get the creative thing right away. You just need to sit down and brainstorm. Well, anyone can sit down and brainstorm, right? It the pressure off. So.

Laurie Peterson (16:07)

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And the more

you do it, the more you'll be comfortable with it. And the more you'll, like, I like to say it as like inviting in imagination because it really is something you have to invite in. And everyone is capable of inviting in imagination, but they have to, they have to invite it and believe it, you know? So yeah, it's one of those things where if you say, I'm not creative, you're right. And if you say, I am creative, you're also right, you know? So, yeah.

Natasha (16:44)

Yeah, yeah,

and I love that moment of discovery, like when you're working on something and it feels really hard, but then all of a sudden, like I think probably with like your founder's sidekick where you suddenly come to something, you're like, my gosh, this is it. And all of the hard that came up to that just all of sudden kind of dissipates and there's just like eureka moment of excitement. So I always love that.

Laurie Peterson (17:06)

Yeah, and it's something I think people are intimidated by because it's not easy to teach. I think you just have, it's like a practice you have to do. And the more you engage in creative exercises, the easier it'll be to flow and the easier it'd be to bring those creative ideas to your business decisions.

Natasha (17:26)

Awesome. So I'd love for people to be able to connect with you if they would like. Where can they find you online?

Laurie Peterson (17:32)

Well, I would love for you to go to the Founderssidekick.com ⁓ or connect with me on LinkedIn. ⁓ I'm nearing 10,000 followers on LinkedIn, which is like a ridiculous goal, but hopefully it'll happen soon. So yeah, I'm Laurie Peterson on LinkedIn or yeah, come to the Founderssidekick.com or if you're curious about toy inventing, go to rebelplaystudio.com.

Natasha (17:42)

Woohoo!

Awesome. And then I love to wrap my episodes up with this final question, is what's one piece of advice you would give your younger self?

Laurie Peterson (18:08)

⁓ Well, I mean, hopefully my younger self would not take 15 years to brand their consulting services. So I might give a little nudge about that. ⁓ instead, I think I want to highlight ⁓ another toy and game inventor and also this like amazing writer and kids media space. ⁓ Her name is Sarah Farber. And I was, you know, seeking counsel from her and she gave me a quote.

that I think is her own quote that I found really meaningful. ⁓ And she said, if you do something, something will happen. ⁓ And that just meant a lot to me because there's so much uncertainty as an inventor, as an entrepreneur, as a consultant. So I like the idea of if I do something, something will happen. What that something is, I can't always shape. But if I take action, something will happen. So I keep coming back to that as a little motivator.

So yeah, I will end with that. Do something and something will happen.

Natasha (19:11)

Perfect, the spirit of adventure. We just need to leave our front door. All right, well, it's been a pleasure having you today. I'm so appreciative of your expertise and wisdom. ⁓

Laurie Peterson (19:14)

The spirit of adventure.

Yeah, and I appreciate you and I look forward to our next project together.

Natasha (19:28)

All right, bye everyone.

Laurie Peterson (19:29)

Bye, thank you.