The Micro-Niche Strategy That Lets You Charge More

In this episode, Tim rejoins the show to share more tips, his journey from marketing to show business, emphasizing the importance of niching down, branding, and strategic scaling for entrepreneurs. Discover practical tips on building a personal brand, leveraging micro niches, and creating a unique customer experience.

"Branding colors are everything."

Chapters
0:00 — Branding Colors and Consistency
0:44 — Introducing Tim and His Journey
1:45 — How Tim Got into Marketing
4:58 — Leaving the Old Career Behind
6:48 — The Importance of Delegation
8:31 — Niching Down and Knowing Your Audience
9:30 — Building a Strong Brand
11:47 — Combining Magic and Music
12:55 — What’s Next for Tim
14:13 — Tim’s Generalist Approach Based on Geographic Area
16:19 — Where to Find Tim Online

Other Key Takeaways
*Tim's transition from marketing to show business
*How he scaled his businesses
*Creating a unique customer experience
*Using Google Business Profile for local marketing

"Live your bliss and have fun."

After the show, enjoy more tips and insight from his first episode with us on July 20, 2025 here!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

So what colors do you have?

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Do you have a logo? I have a logo and usually an image, a picture of yourself, a headshot. Absolutely love that. And the branding colors is everything. Mine's yellow. My grandma's favorite color was yellow. So in all eight books, all the podcasts, all the logos, there's some kind of yellowish R that area just to make it consistent where as I continue to grow and make a difference in more areas, the yellow will be recognizable, right? Where that entrepreneur show, there's yellow letters. A mental health break, there's a yellow background, right? Pot o'clock, yellow subtext. So it's everywhere. I'm excited today because we're talking about many areas, but how today's guest, he's a returning guest. You'll recognize him when from marketing to show business. Now, there's a lot of entrepreneurial similarities, but there's a whole lot of differences in those two fields. So, Tim, fellow Tampa area guy, welcome back to that entrepreneur show. So good to be here, Vincent.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

You're one of my favorite people. I love your upbeat mentality. You're always up. And for a guy that's a former motivational speaker, I love talking to people like you because you talk in terms of the possibility. That's what we talk about. Oh, I love it.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

I appreciate the kind words, everyone. The value is endless today. As he just said, speaking professional, he was in many different fields. He had a niche that you're going to learn all about if you didn't catch the first show. But if you missed it, scroll down in the episode description. You can catch his first show with us. And as I said, Tim, you went from marketing to show business to now mentorship and leadership and everything in between. Let's start with why you first got into marketing as an entrepreneur to help out some of our marketers listening on. You know what's funny about that?

SPEAKER_00 1:53

If you're a marketer, I fell into it. Here's what I found. When I started out in show business, I was 15 years old. That was my first professional show. I did a birthday party, it was at the YMCA for like 100 kids, and I was paid the enormous sum of $10. And if you would have taught my act, you would have thought they grossly overpaid me. But I knew marketing. I lived in a small town, and the only way to get the word out over this very vast miles and miles of rural area was through direct mail. And that was pre-internet. I mean, we're talking back in the 70s, a long time ago, half a century ago. So I used a lot, I just love marketing. I fell in love with the art of marketing. It's not a science, it's an art. There's no getting around it because most stuff we try doesn't work. It's test, monitor, adjust. You know how that goes. The formula hasn't changed. But I just took an interest in it, and that's why I always had an edge. And I started a talent agency in 1987 because I knew I was going to go into show business full-time. And everybody in this rural area said, this isn't New York, this isn't LA or Las Vegas. You can't do this. I said, no, the power of marketing can do this. So I built a talent agency. I bought it from my old agent. He had one client. He was on his deathbed. He was in his 80s. One client left. He had this cabinet full of all these old acts. And nobody I could use. Most of them were dead. So I built this talent agency for over 13 years because I wanted to go into show, and I knew we were talking about it prior to the call, multiple streams of income. I needed more income. So I was booking other acts. And I built this for 13 years before I sold it. And I was a professional magician and talent agent, working my butt off, but it's all marketing. That was it. And a lot of hard work, risk taking, because as an entrepreneur, that's what you do, particularly if you're a marketer. Yeah, that's basically my story. Now I've been doing show business for 50 years. I'm just doing it full time, and now I'm embracing the music end. I have this thing called the Slight and Sound Experience. And it's a really cool thing. You can go to Slight and Sound and not Slight, as in it's S-L-E-I-G-H-T, Slight of Hand, right? And it combines magic and music. I'm a vocalist and it's working.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

But not just a magician. You have a very specific niche. And with that niche, you found tremendous success over the span of decades. And everyone here, we always try to encourage you to niche down. Like we talk about this show is for all entrepreneurs, right? And young and new, aspiring and old. But you could niche down if you were to go in a field like me of podcasting. I niched down to pod o'clock, right? Where Tim is an expert podcast guest, as you've seen here on these shows today. But as you made that pivot, what happened to go to the next level, right? You had this business, you started building it up, but you didn't just get tremendous success overnight. Walk us through that transition when you went all into that next chapter.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

So what happened when I decided, I'd known I wanted to be a professional magician literally since I was 13 years old, but I didn't finally make the jump for another 20 years. I was 33 years old. I walked away. I was, by the time I was 29, I was the executive director of a disability organization. And I was in this career and I was becoming a mover and shaker in the disability scene in Pennsylvania. But it's not what I where my heart was. My heart is on stage. That's where I belong. Either as a magician and comedian, speaker, or whatever I'm doing, a vocalist. That's where I'm most comfortable. So to do that, it's like you talk about niching. Where I lived, I couldn't niche. And that was a blessing. I had to be able to do a children's birthday party at 11 o'clock in the morning, a nursing home at 3 p.m., and then a comedy club at night. Three very diverse audiences. But today, yeah, with the online world being so cluttered, it's smart. You've got to niche down. And we're past that, actually. I really believe we're in the age of the micro niche. So it's not good enough to say, I'm going to sell to dentists. Nah, you're I'm going to sell to periodontis. And I've always said that. We talked about that. You have a marketing program teaching dentists how to get more clients, sell it for $300. Sell it to Orthodonis, that product goes up to $600 because there's less sort of very specialist. Periodontis, gum guys, oral surgeons, even more. That's $1,000, right?

SPEAKER_01 6:22

So yeah. And I hope he's getting you all to think outside the box in your respective areas, right? How he just turned the same product and service into a new price tag, into more bills paid, into savings, right? Into scaling and growing your company. And then as you now started scaling this, right, what were some of the bigger challenges you faced with scaling a company to maybe help our audience avoid similar hurdles?

SPEAKER_00 6:48

What I didn't do at the time, because I know nothing about business. I still don't. I mean, I do, but I don't. I was not a natural. What I found the key is to delegate and to hire people. See, I was doing it all myself. And that was a mistake. You're never going to scale doing that. Otherwise, you're trading your time for dollars. You got to just hire staff and bite the bullet. I know people, I have a friend that just hired a part-time assistant, but she'd get so much done for him that it allows him to expand his reach and expand his business in general. That might be only a part-time person, depending on what you want to do. But I found more than anything, yeah, get help.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

Don't try to do everything yourself. And that's something I picked up in a book, Fanatical Prospecting, where it talks about how much time your hour is worth something else. For example, the toilet goes, I could spend seven hours on YouTube, go to Home Depot, get the tools. Okay, I lost seven hours of my day. Where if I spent seven hours networking or doing how much more would I have gotten than zero, right? Where if I hired the plumber and paid him a hundred bucks, I would have made more than $100 and seven hours of dedicated work. So definitely bringing up a good point there, everyone. This is that entrepreneur show. Please remember to subscribe to stay current. And as you've listened so far, please do share with a friend or colleague who you know could use the value you've heard so far. And now that we've talked about scaling the business, right? What advice would you have for someone today? You mentioned we're in this cluttered internet era, right? Where it that's why we're so grateful for bringing experts like yourself on the show to cut through the noise. If someone wanted to get into your space today, what advice would you give them?

SPEAKER_00 8:30

First thing, we'll say the magic space. Okay. Who are you want to perform for? What type of magic? You want to do the close-up, right? The knuckle busting sleight of hand, close-up magic, or do you want to do stage stuff? Or do you want to do a combination? What do you want to do? Once you do that, once you decide what you want to do, who do you want to do it to? Who do you want to perform for? What's your target audience? For me, I didn't have a chance to think about that up in where I lived. There was 38,000 people in my county. That was it. Now I live in Pinellas County. There's a million people just in this county. Right? So I had to be very creative. I couldn't focus on, I had to learn kids' magic, family shows, and adult magic. And it's a lot different doing an adult show for corporate as it was for a comedy club, right? You got to know your audience, number one. That's number one, knowing your audience. So then you got to set up a brand. Everybody, if you're in business of any kind and you're a solo entrepreneur or anything, you need a brand. You need a brand, personal brand, and actually, companies, you see something like Gary Vaynerchuk. He's got Vayner Media, but he set up a personal brand for Gary V, right? I think everybody should do that. Particularly if you're a solo entrepreneur. Now, what's the brand entail? Well, what are your branding colors? Mine are red and black, right? For the corporate and my adult stuff, red and black. I have different ones for kids. I have two different sides and two different websites. And there's a reason for that because I don't want to muddy the waters. Corporate magician, these guys see on the same website that he does children's birthday parties, that automatically brings my credibility way down. And I have a meeting plan, a corporate meeting planner, right? So I got to be careful about that. You want to be very aware and astute with your branding. So what colors do you have? Do you have a logo? I have a logo and usually an image, a picture of yourself, a headshot. Stay consistent with that across every social media platform you do. Don't spread yourself too thin on social media platforms. Pick two or three that you can go deep with and build that. Where are your prospects at? Where are the majority of them? Probably on a couple of different things. But that's what you have to do. That branding, because we're in such a hyper competitive business environment online, that branding is crucial. And to stay true to it across email, any platform you're on, so they recognize boom, that's Tim when they see you.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

That's the best advice I can give. I absolutely love that. And the branding colors is everything. Mine's yellow. My grandma's favorite color was yellow. So in all eight books, all the podcasts, all the logos, there's some kind of yellowish area just to make it consistent where as I continue to grow and make a difference in more areas, the yellow will be recognizable, right? Where that entrepreneur show, there's yellow letters. A mental health break, there's a yellow background, right? Pot o'clock, yellow subtext. So it's everywhere, everyone. This advice has been great throughout the show. Remember to go to the episode in the description because you are going to want to see his progress and extra tips that he didn't share today as we try to space them out. I mean, we've talked about so much here, but now at this stage of life, what excites you? What are you working on? You teased that website in the beginning that brings the magic and music together. Why don't we dive into that a little more?

SPEAKER_00 11:47

I've been trying to marry magic and music for years, decades, and I couldn't find a way to do it. So what happened was I worked this hotel, Cambria Hotel, on Madeira Beach, and they have this beautiful rooftop, six stories up. And they hired me. This guy got me from another resort. He worked there, saw me. I had a two and a half year contract with a resort on St. Pete Beach. And he saw me, he wanted to bring me to the rooftop, and he said, I want my guests to experience you, which this guy got it. Josh is amazing. He's a young dude, like your age, and he just gets it's all about the customer experience. So you're an entrepreneur, remember the customer experience. It's not just customer service. That is just one little thing within the customer experience is every touch point that they have with you from the time they find you until the time they leave, every touch point, any contact with that's where you shine. That's where you can stand out. I go out of my way. I'm so sugary sweet. You're gonna need a dentist after I leave a gig because I'm so sweet to people. You just gotta do that. Customer experience is everything. What's next chapter of life? So for me, it's kind of funny. I've been singing since I was three years old. Yeah. And I started doing karaoke really seriously about 20 years ago. And I started moving into paid gigs about five, six years ago. And I still do magic shows because I love it and they're easy and I make very good money. I don't know why you make so much money as a variety performer as opposed to a musician. That's another story. But I love it, and I'm having a ball, and I make less on a four-hour gig than I do doing a 45-minute magic show. But I'm having a time in my life. Right, yeah. That's what it's about in retirement. I'm living my bliss. Life is short, I recognize that, so I'm having fun. So I'm moving ahead with that. Today I'll be changing my LinkedIn profile over the next few days. It'll be toward the slight and sound where I combine these things. And I just had a call from a club. So it's working. Slight and sound, it combines sleight of hand magic and singing.

SPEAKER_01 13:54

And that's as I said in the beginning, he's got his own niche with what he's doing, right? Any advice as we're getting ready to sign off here for someone we talked about niching down a lot, someone who maybe isn't singing it still, right? Like explain your niche in the magic space.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

I don't have a niche. I'm a generalist. Now, what do I do the most? Probably a lot of children's birthday parties because there are just so many of them. But I also love how private house parties. That's my favorite thing to do. But there's no easy way to reach people like that. So that is through my Google Business profile. If you're a local business, set up your Google Business profile. That's free. Most definitely do that.

SPEAKER_01 14:37

Recently with the Google Business Profile, as we're recording this, all my reviews were taken down, and I got an email about it. That so why are they going to go back?

SPEAKER_00 14:46

Or is it Google does something like 2,400 changes a year. They don't tell anybody. Sometimes you'll see major changes. They don't tell you. And I've had clients that their Google business was lost.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

It just got crazy. I had people that left reviews on the business page of Google. I was like, oh, I'm slacking on the Google business page. I need to, I'm like, oh, instead of reviewing me on LinkedIn, would you mind doing it on Google? And now they're all gone from the threat of AI and fake reviews that people have used. I don't know why they would do it. To me, it's a credibility thing. You don't want to go. To me, I would think you want to keep people on Google, right? So I don't know why it's pushing them away. But as I type in mine now, yeah, it's just way different.

SPEAKER_00 15:30

Well, here's the thing that's the one service I hold on to. I still have clients. We manage Google Business Profiles. And there's certain things. If you want to go to my page, I could send it to you, but I manage Google Business Profile and it's very cheap. It's a monthly management. We treat it like a social media profile. It's basically based on geotagging and keywords. And if you do that, I don't do anything and I get calls all the time for my magic shows. Probably more than the lead generation sites.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

So Yeah, well, everyone, you heard this guy is filled with knowledge in so many areas. I want to thank you so much to Tim for coming on today. Everyone, remember to subscribe and of course stay current by sharing this with someone who could use the value and inspiration. Maybe they're in the magic space, the music, or just an entrepreneur ready to grow. This is the episode for you. Tim, where can we find you online? Say hello.

SPEAKER_00 16:19

Go to laugh andamaze.com. Triple W laughandamaze.com. All one word. And that's my corporate site and adult parties. But if you want to check out my kid and family, that's triple w at timothypitch.com. Timothy P-I-T-C-H.com.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

All right, everyone. You know what to do. Go ahead and reach out to Tim. Keep him in mind for any birthday parties, events, everything in between. My name is Vincent A. Lancey, and this is that entrepreneur show. We are on all podcasts and social media platforms. So please show us love there. Share us with a friend. And with that, we're signing off today. Pinellas County interview. Thank you, Tim. Thank you, Vincent.