The 5 Ones

This week we’re starting with a thought exercise.

In this scenario, you’re a brand-new entrepreneur, just getting your business feet wet, and you have a big goal of hitting 7 figures in revenue in your first year.

You’re excited.

You’re inspired.

You’re full of hope.

And you’re also not quite sure where to start… But it doesn’t matter, because you’re so full of fire that you need to “go go GO.”

Let’s start everywhere at once, shall we?

Tackling it all in one fell swoop… because what could possibly go wrong?

So, you’re thinking of your market, the people you want to serve – which you want to be everyone, of course.

You’re trying to figure out how to serve everyone at the same time, because surely what you’re offering can be of some benefit to everyone.

Plus, the bigger the market, the more money you make, right?  

Then, while you’re figuring out the magic of appealing to every person at the same time, you’re also figuring out what the bloody hell you even offer…

Your service needs tweaking, your product needs adjustmenting...

Might as well do that now, too, because doing more = doing better. Obviously.

Then, as you’re simultaneously figuring out who to serve and how to serve them, you’re also thinking about conversion.

You can’t pay the bills without money from actual customers, so you need to find as many ways as possible to give yourself that opportunity…

More funnels = more conversions = more success… simple. 

So, now you start planning your LinkedIn lives and your webinars and events and e-books and lead magnets…

Because it helps to do everything at once, right?

Variety is the spice of life!

And, don’t forget – but how could you forget since you’re so focused? – you need to actually find your audience.

So why not build a website to generate some traffic?

Work on those referrals, generate leads on social media, and dabble in paid ads, too, because why not?

How can you know what works if you don’t try everything, right?

…

Sound familiar?

Whether you’re new to entrepreneurship or you’ve been doing this for 5, 10, or 20 years…

You’ve probably been this person at some point.

Trying to serve everyone… without truly serving anyone.

Offering a hundred solutions…without getting any bites on any of them.

Doing absolutely everything you can, as fast as you can…. without moving the needle.

The problem isn’t in what you’re doing — the hustle, the innovation, the experimentation.

That’s all great stuff.

The problem is how you’re doing it.

Because you’re doing it without a clear sense of focus.

What Happened to “Focus?”

Before we get too deep into today’s newsletter, take a second to think about that exercise.

Why does it feel like you’re focusing even though you’re not?

How did focus get so lost when it’s all you wanted to do?

Why was it so easy to fall by the wayside?

So easy to… well, lose focus on.

The reason “focus” is so easy to undervalue is that we’re not taught to focus in the right way.

According to Merriam-Webster, “focus” means “to concentrate attention or effort.”

Makes sense, right?

It does… until you start to merge the definition of “focus” with the definition of “multitasking.”

“Multitasking” means “the performance of multiple tasks at one time” (thanks again, Merriam).

And, whether you know you’re doing it or not, you’re probably smashing those definitions together.

Instead of “focus” meaning attention on a few, tangible things, it starts to mean splitting your attention in more ways than it’s meant to be split.

Not having a few, manageable priorities, because everything is a priority.

We turn into animals, easily distracted by shiny object after shiny object.

Always “focusing” on more more more more more.

Then, you end up regressing.

You end up even further than what you wanted.

Now I could sit here all day and tell you “It’s okay, misunderstanding ‘focus’ happens to the best of us.”

Which is true.

But it’s just unhelpful validation.

I can do you one better than that.

Actually, I can do you 5 Ones better.

Meet the 5 Ones

So, like I said before: tons of people think focusing means doing a hundred things at once.

Not only is that untrue… but it’s a one-way ticket to burnout.

The best way to focus – and succeed – is actually 5 things.

I know, it seems backward.

But hear me out...

What I’m talking about is the concept of The 5 Ones.

The 5 Ones is a mental model and a mindset shift that helps you grow your business by helping you understand what it means to truly focus.

By spending time in 5 main focus areas – with one overarching goal in each one – you can simplify your “focus” and achieve faster results.

The 5 Ones focus areas are as follows:

1. One Target Market

2. One Product

3. One Conversion Tool

4. One Traffic Source

5. One Year

We’ll get into each of these in more detail later, but the overarching idea is simple:

The 5 Ones are each key pieces of business success.

And they’re also where I encourage new entrepreneurs to start first, to help you organise, simplify, and narrow your focus.

The 5 Ones help you further your business faster and with more ease, so you can ultimately make more money, enjoy more freedom, and have more fun.

Plus then you can ditch the “blindly throwing shit at the wall and hoping something sticks” strategy… which is a win in and of itself, honestly.

Ready to learn how to properly focus your mind, and grow your business?

Let’s get into it.

One Target Market

This focus area is exactly what it sounds like – it’s about figuring out who your target market or ideal audience is.

Now that sounds pretty simple.

“I just pick who I want to work with, right?”

Well, sort of.

But it’s a bit more than that.

The thing with audiences is that entrepreneurs often want to try and help everyone.

They don’t want to say “no” to people – even if they’re an obviously bad fit – because of the fear of missing out, making a mistake, or losing money.

The fear of “What if I say no to the wrong person, and that one mistake ruins my entire business?”

Well, here’s the nice thing about that…

You get to decide who the wrong and right people are.

And, by deciding that, you can actually make sure you never miss the right ones.

Picking one target market to serve is actually a better strategy than trying to serve everyone at once.

Why?

Focus. 

Think of it this way: if you need knee surgery, who are you going to go to?

A dedicated knee surgeon? Or someone who “knows a lot about surgery in general?”

Probably the first one.

Niching down your target market means you get to become the expert for that audience.

It also means you don’t go chasing other markets and noisy ideas, hoping to catch the wave of a trend…

So no, you can’t serve everyone at once, and that may seem hard to accept at first.

But you can serve everyone in your audience better.

In a more meaningful, targeted, and applicable way.

So, the first of the 5 Ones is about really nailing your One Target Market.

Picking one group of people to please (instead of trying to please everyone).

Picking one direction to laser focus your business efforts on.

When you nail this, your message resonates deeper, your customers become more loyal, and you can give it your 110% without feeling lost.

One Product

This One is less about picking the perfect market for your product, and more about picking the perfect product for your market.

You’ll hear from the gurus that diversifying your product is good for business.

That’s true… to a degree.

Having different offerings is a good way to attract different people within your audience who may have slightly different preferences, tastes, or goals.

But, in the same way you can’t target every audience at once, creating 32 products to cater to anyone who is ready to spend money isn’t a smart business move.

You shouldn’t have a million, vague products “just in case” someone wants to buy it.

Your product should be for your Target Market.

Over-diversifying your offerings is actually bad for business because you end up diluting your attention across multiple mediocre offerings, instead of focusing and mastering one great product.

Not only that, too many choices lead to customer confusion.

Your customers don’t even know what they can come to you for, because you have a million things on display that don’t quite match up.

If you want a perfect example of One Product, think about a fruit stand at a farmer’s market.

You want fruit. They sell fruit. You buy their fruit. Everyone wins.

What if, next time you went, they added a Rolex display case beside the mangos?

“I thought this was a fruit stand? What the hell is that doing there?”

What once was an all-powerful, dependable, go-to place for fresh fruit is now a lost, mess of a business… because they didn’t stick to One Product.

Don’t let that be you.

One stellar product. One standout offer. One show of unparalleled value.

Lots of happy customers.

One Conversion Tool

This is your business's “Call to Action.”

The thing you offer your audience to pivot them from window shopper to buyer.

The bridge that leads traffic-generated prospects closer to the finish line.

And, in an increasingly digital world, this conversion tool can look like a ton of different things.

Webinars. Events. LinkedIn Lives. Sales calls. Audits. Proposals…

You think it, and it probably exists.

But the idea generation is the easy part.

It’s less about just picking one conversion tool, and more about:

• Picking one tool

• Refining the tool

• Mastering the tool

• Leveraging the tool

It’s deeper than hopping on the latest conversion trend.

Because you can’t choose a tool without considering the consumer psychology behind it.

What would your target audience actually want from you?

What do they want without knowing they want it yet?

How can you do that with the fewest barriers possible?

What would add value to their lives whilst also move them closer towards becoming a buyer?

Being able to answer those questions is impossible if you’re trying to do too many things at once.

How can you craft something so influential with a divided sense of focus?

You can’t.

Trying every single conversion strategy under the sun isn’t a recipe for success.

You know that saying, “Jack of all trades?”

Well, the often-forgotten full saying is “Jack of all trades… master of none.”

You don’t want to be a Jack of all trades when it comes to conversion tools.

You want to be a master of one. 

One Traffic Source

The “jack of all trades, master of none” phrase applies to sources of marketing traffic, too.

You can get customers from all sorts of places.

LinkedIn, referrals, paid ads, email marketing… the list is endless.

It’s important to keep a nice range of traffic sources incoming, but it’s even more important not to spread yourself too thin across a million places.

Say social media is your jam.

You’re posting on LinkedIn, going live on Instagram, starting conversations on X, all in the name of increasing inbound leads and amping up your traffic.

A few days here, a few days there… but no bites.

Why?

Well, you think you’re giving 110% to each platform… but you’re not.

The solution here is actually to simplify, not diversify.

Pick one traffic source.

Find where your audience is, and go there.

Nurture the traffic source that’s actually showing results, and then scale the shit out of it.

Quality over quantity, here.

Every.

Single.

Time.

One Year

This One is a culmination of everything we’ve talked about so far:

• Finding your market

• Diversifying less

• Mastering more

… and now, add patience.

Each of the 5 Ones offers an incredible way to refocus your energy to grow your business.

But it doesn’t happen overnight. 

And if you can persist with the focus on the previous four ones, for one whole year, you can almost certainly build a $1m business.

Which, I guess, is kind of the 6th One. One Million Dollars.

If you ask me, patience and persistence are two of the most important ingredients of a successful business.

Without them, you’ll never last.

You won’t see how things turn out...

You won’t see if you “make it”...

You won’t see success.

So, dedicate One Year to the 5 Ones.

Hone the elements, refine the strategies, build the robust foundation your business needs (And deserves).

With time, focus, and a little (or a lot) of patience, you can make it through the 5 Ones.

And you can watch your efforts compound into 7-Figure Success.

Action time

Now, equipped with your new knowledge about simplicity, focus, and patience, I’d encourage you to try our thought exercise one more time on your own.

But this time, you’re a passionate, highly skilled, business-minded entrepreneur.

You’re you.

Based on what you now know about the 5 Ones, take some time this weekend to sit down and reflect on your current business.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• What are your current strategies?

• Are they working? Why or why not?

• Are you “focusing” or “multi-tasking”?

• What’s one thing you can do today to simplify?

• Where can I cut back and bring focus in each of the 5 Ones?

Once you have the answers to each of these questions – and yes, they’re meant to challenge you – go through the 5 Ones again.

Get the ball rolling on how you can start embodying them in your business.

And then get started on #1.

That’s all for this week.

Stay awesome, stay powerful,

P.S: Whenever you’re ready, here are a few things you might be interested in:

1. Advice On Starting Your Business: A powerful Youtube video where I answered a reader’s question on how to start a successful business.

2. 'How I Quit Alcohol' Podcast: One of my favourite interviews I’ve ever done. If you’re interested in learning how I came from rock bottom to create a life I’m proud of, you’ll want to listen.

3. Follow me on IG: Get bite-sized video content and behind-the-scenes of my nomad entrepreneur life

4. Join The Waitlist: We’re creating an exclusive online community of 6, 7 and 8-figure entrepreneurs seeking to become citizens of the world and achieve self-actualisation through business, lifestyle design, and personal evolution. I think you’ll love it: The Nomad Entrepreneur Network

And, of course, if you know other people who might enjoy content like this, please share this with them.

Your help in building this community will be forever appreciated.