YOU ARE MOST LIKELY A GRASSLAND

• Challenges: Perfectionism, exploring too widely, switching between major focuses, getting things done to deadline
• Motivations: Intensity, focus, going deep, persistence in an industry

Every healthy business needs a way to produce new offers, a way to grow an audience, and a way to bring in sales. Here’s what might work best for those identifying as a grassland:

What Would Likely Work Best For Your Production

• Market research and trends

Grasslands are incredibly good at feeling out trends and matching a trend to their interests. They don’t commit easily to any one thing, because in their minds, their commitments are often long-term—sometimes even lifelong—and they want to be sure the one thing is worth committing to.

Because they are willing to go deeper and explore longer in one area than any of the other types, they are often considered the top of the class or among the greats in their chosen specialty. Grasslands do best when they can spot new trends coming and incorporate them into their chosen area. They are good at creating at the edge of their niche as a result and like to weave trends into their quickly mounting body of work.

First-mover advantage does not apply to grasslands. They can come into any niche and dominate the niche, sometimes very quickly. They are adept at not only sizing up their competition (and usually creating something better than what is already available), but also positioning themselves in a market place with a unique perspective and the best of the best content and products that align to that perspective. This is because they research and study the niche with intensity and from every angle.

If they happen to be the first-mover, they rarely see much competition because no one can catch up to them or outpace them. The best way to enter a market where there are grasslands is to find an opposing viewpoint—however, be prepared for them to persuasively explain why they do or teach the opposite!

• Creating content and products

Grasslands go deep into one thing. They are vertical business builders, and even when they have multiple interests, they operate these interests in silos, usually starting multiple companies rather than uniting everything under one brand.

Because of this, grasslands tend to focus on one specialty at a time and spend an intense several years getting it off the ground, before they might move on to something else. It can be difficult for them to keep two plates spinning in the air at once! One of the challenges grasslands face is how to slow pace on one area of specialty to explore a second area of specialty.

One commonality between grasslands is that they are typically “right” or “spot on” in their chosen specialty. Even when writing fiction, their research is so thorough and accurate, and their storylines are so persuasive, that it becomes a big part of why readers gravitate toward their stories.

Because of this, they can sometimes become revered or respected and above reproach, even by their opponents. An example of this might be in Queen Elizabeth II—whether you like or loathe the monarchy, it is hard to ignore her 70 years of service. We frequently see grasslands that can “do no wrong” in their audiences’ eyes, simply because they keep going with excellent quality.

• Pacing and scheduling production

Grasslands are obsessive about their chosen area and are able to break through in that area very quickly, producing a large amount of content and merchandise. Their sustained interest in an area also sustains their rapid production in it, but it can lead to burnout if it goes unchecked. Grasslands tend to think big and see all the tendrils they can hook into, but they have to remember that it takes time to produce things. They may also have a notion of “going deep and moving on” after a few years, though that rarely materializes for them in the way they expect.

Grasslands can get into trouble when they keep producing in an area that is not likely to be profitable for them. They do best when they have chosen a reasonably big niche with a hungry and evergreen audience.

One area where grasslands may struggle is setting expectations that they can meet. They are unable to release something mediocre in order to hit a deadline, and their penchant for going down rabbit holes makes it hard for them to predict production times and stay on track. They also struggle to close a project in their minds. For example, you might see a grassland who has already written 100 books say that it’ll take 100 more to finish the larger story they are telling! This type is easily spotted in the author world because they have at least a few long, interconnected, and unending series.

Grasslands will do best by breaking up their projects into smaller pieces, not setting deadlines until they are nearly complete with a project, or by partnering with someone who can help them deliver on all their promises.

What Would Likely Work Best For Audience Growth

• Finding AN audience

Grasslands tend to be content machines, whether that means posting regularly to social media or creating more long-form content like a podcast, Youtube channel, blog, book series, or serialization. They are the type of people who can produce endless content on the same topic.

The biggest challenge for them is making sure that each piece of content is optimized to actively attract and capture an audience. Unhealthy grasslands could keep writing on a blog, for example, and never see a unified audience subscribe to or form around that blog. They may even have a few viral hits—but are people joining the community and sticking around? Grasslands must be cautious of, “If you build it, they will come” mentality.

Grasslands also might believe that the content is enough, but it’s important for them to remember that this is a business. They must also ask for the conversion to an email list capture, and then a conversion to a sale.

As long as this type chooses a specialty with a large audience, and as long as they have a clear plan to capture and convert leads, they can best build their audience through content marketing because they have a knack for creating the very best content in a genre or niche. Content marketing can become a zero sum game where the best creators receive the lion’s share of the attention and audience.

For this type and this type alone, the content is the marketing, and this is the most comfortable way forward for them.

• Nurturing AN audience

Audiences are loyal to grasslands once they understand what they are doing. Grasslands tend to get people invested in their niche over time, by putting pennies in the bank. In nonfiction, this may be a new and insightful blog post, while in fiction this may be new releases or interconnected series and characters. Often, a grasslands’ own unique and quirky interest in something is just as entertaining as the content itself! In that sense, grasslands are paid to be interested.

Grasslands require their audiences to do a little work to become “in-the-know.” This investment from readers and fans is the very thing that nurtures them and keeps them around. In some ways, this can be intimidating and overwhelming for readers—”wow, I’m committing to a 20 book series!”—so it can be important for grasslands to give readers at least a few noncommittal ways into their body of work. That could mean a standalone or a short story—anything that gives readers a sense of completion. When grassland readers leave, it’s usually due to the commitment rather than the quality.

• Scaling AN audience

There are several steps a grassland can take to scale their audience.

First, it’s critical for grasslands to get their marketing/sales funnel working as well as possible. This tends to look like content → email list → sales. Grasslands do very well with strong back matter in their books, calls-to-action everywhere from their social media to their website, and persuasive reasons to subscribe to an email list. Once someone is on the email list, the drip, drip, drip of content works very well for grasslands.

Next, grasslands need to know two things—their best entry points into their work, which serves as their first freebie offer, and their best bundles of content, which serves as their first paid offer. This may be their best free first-in-series and a popular series bundle in their catalog. Since this flows to everything else, it really doesn’t matter what a grassland picks as long as it converts well.

Finally, once a grassland has an established body of work, it helps for them to stay alert to trends and weave them into their content marketing on a regular basis. This type is particularly good at being a prominent voice in a conversation that’s already happening because they have garnered so much trust from their audience and have spent dozens of pieces of content on persuading their readers to a viewpoint. These bursts of visibility, virality, and promotion help to build a much larger audience—and once the audience is there, it’s easy to bring them into a well-converting content marketing system.

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