I was reading “The Art & Business Of Ghostwriting” by Nicolas Cole last night and was reminded of the rule of ones.

The chapter was on the topic of “How To Niche Down As A Ghostwriter” and he describes a framework for niching down that involves 1 problem, 1 person, and 1 way.

Here’s the quote:

  • 1 Specific Problem: You can’t solve all problems for all people. Instead, you are much better off picking 1 Specific Problem and saying, “This is the only thing I do.” Why? Because when you specialize in solving 1 Specific Problem, you get to know how to solve that problem better than anyone else—which allows you to charge more (you’re the best, so you have the pricing power), and which allows you to create efficiencies for yourself (meaning you can do more work in less time). You get to be so good at solving this 1 Specific Problem that you can do it in your sleep.
  • 1 Specific Person: When you get ultra-specific about who you help, and in what industry, three things happen. First, it’s exponentially easier for clients to find you (you aren’t a “window repair specialist,” you’re a “stained-glass window repair specialist”). Second, they immediately trust you (because you are saying, “I specialize in helping people exactly like YOU”). And third, because you only work with 1 Type Of Person, in 1 Specific Industry, you are going to know way more about the problems these people face, and the outcomes they value most—far more than all the other “I can write anything for anyone!” generalists.
  • 1 Specific Way: Saying you specialize in solving 1 Specific Problem for 1 Specific Person is 90% of the game. But what pushes your offer as a ghostwriter over the edge (and makes people want to throw money at you) is by solving that 1 Specific Problem for that 1 Specific Person in a new, unique, and different way. I wrote about this in my book, Snow Leopard, explaining how the key to differentiating yourself is to solve Obvious problems in Non-Obvious ways, or to solve Non-Obvious problems in Obvious ways.

It’s a good chapter, although could probably be condensed to one page (but shouldn’t).

Also, I don’t want to be a ghostwriter per se. The book really reads as an how to manual for “building a business as a solo writer”.

Here’s the tweet version:

Ghostwriting niching down formula:

  • Solve 1 specific problem
  • For 1 specific type of person
  • In 1 specific way

You can easily hit $10k+/month using this simple framework.

Anyway, I’ve about versions of this framework many times over the years.

For example, from Justin Welsh:

The solopreneur’s starting playbook:

  • One niche
  • One avatar
  • One problem
  • One lead magnet
  • One sequence
  • One solution
  • One offer
  • One upsell

If you have these 8 things, you can grow a legit one-person business.

Here’s the original tweet:

This is very clear.

Although, his framework assumes a 9’th “one” which is “one distribution channel”, in this case, writing online.

It’s an old framework in sales and marketing, I suspect.

The first time I tripped over it was in the mid 2010s on a podcast:

  • One person/problem
  • One product
  • One conversion tool
  • One traffic source
  • One year
  • One million dollars

It seems you can include anything related to business, sales, and marketing in the list, as long as there is only “one”.

It’s a simple reminder to narrow down and to choose. To be specific.