“Niche down” is one of the worst pieces of advice you’ll hear on your journey to freedom.
Unfortunately, it’s also one of the first things you hear in Business 101—making it that much harder to unlearn or call out as a source of pain.
When something dominates a space for so long, people tend to worship it as an infallible law. Any sign of questioning and you’ll immediately be met with the mob mentality of “that’s just how it’s always been done, bro.”
When I finally realized I didn’t want to work for somebody else for the rest of my life, I decided to opt out of the routinised 9-5 and into the scary lands of freelancing.
As with most people, it seemed like the most “beginner-friendly” option—learn a skill, find people who need your skill, and market yourself as the solution.
My skill of choice? copywriting.
I always had a knack for writing but I knew I had to learn within the context of business.
Persuasion, marketing, sales, and getting direct exposure to the infrastructure that impacts revenue (ads, funnels, promotions, etc.).
Now, learning the skill and finding businesses that needed the skill was actually pretty straightforward.
My biggest problem always came down to choosing a niche.
Am I a fitness guy? Am I a finance guy? Am I a lifestyle guy?
I struggle to pick a meal when the menu has more than 10 items and you’re telling me I’ve got to choose a niche within eternal markets, and put all my eggs in one basket?
In the end I went with the ‘throw everything at the wall and see what sticks’ approach.
- I ran countless searches on “top 10 most profitable niches of [insert year].”
- I downloaded massive spreadsheets that listed every niche under the sun.
- I “niched down” like an absolute maniac and discovered markets I had no idea even existed.
Everything from men’s retreats, tiny homes, tabletop games, smart pens, Japanese sweets delivery services, LARP craftsmanship, DIY terrariums, NFTs, the list goes on for an embarrassing length that I can’t help but laugh out loud.
I even got to the point of sending 100s of “free value” by writing landing pages, Facebook ads, email sequences, product descriptions, any f—king thing that would land me a gig and save me from the absolute torture of finding a niche.
The big Problem with a capital P?
- I don’t care about these people, their problems, or their products.
- I have no experience with these people, their problems, or their products.
- Even when I landed clients, it was only a matter of time before I’d be back on the spreadsheet in search of a “better” market.
It’s no wonder people give up and go back to their day job.
What’s the point of working with people you feel no connection with? Is that not just a 9-5 version 2.0, minus the security of a monthly pay check?
As with all excruciating experiences, the lightbulb moment is always just around the corner — and turn the corner I did.
The meaningful solution to the soulless practice of ‘niching down’ is today’s deep dive.
Niching down: Money without the Meaning.
First, let’s back up a second and understand the rationale behind “just niche down bro.”
If it’s one of the first things you learn when stepping into the world of business, then surely there’s a strong reason why so many swear by it.
So why are you told to niche down to begin with?
Simple.
To get in the mind of your customer, the same way an author gets in the mind of their reader.
You’re instructed to create a ‘customer avatar,’ identify a burning problem, and position a solution towards them in the form of a product or service.
The more specific, detailed, and narrow you are in describing your avatar, the more likely you’ll be perceived as an ‘authority’ and the more likely they’ll choose you over someone else.
Okay, solid argument.
But again, there’s a big fat elephant in the room we’re all ignoring…
How much do you really, and I mean really give a toss about the problem you are solving?
How much of the meaning behind why you’re doing it is purely because of the money you can extract from a ‘starving market?’
How much are you willing to compromise your own beliefs, to satisfy 60-year-old Sarah’s demands for self-paced online yoga, because she has a hard time managing her schedule as senior executive with two children?
And if you’re a personal brand that relies on social media for inbounds, how are you going to be perceived when all your content is targeted toward the 0.1% of people who may never even see your stuff to begin with?
No, you’re not building “authority.”
No, you ain’t gaining anyone’s trust.
At best, you’ll be seen as the dude who specializes in that one specific thing nobody cares about.
At worst, you end up talking past people and building a perception in their mind that you’re not for them.
Once someone has made up their mind about you, it is incredibly difficult to change.
So then what are we to do?
The Niche is You
Riddle me this:
If your job is to target a specific customer, and you are a specific customer, why on Earth would you target people you have nothing in common with?
If your job is to get in the mind of your reader — AND YOU ARE A READER — doesn’t it make sense to get to know who you are, what your goals are, what your problems are, the pain you feel, the desires you have — every single thing we use to gather market research — on ourselves?
That way:
- You have first-hand experience with the things you talk about.
- You empathize and care about the people you’re helping.
- You are attracting like-minded people by improving yourself.
Picking a niche purely for the sake of money is like picking a dish before being hungry: it puts the horse before the cart.
A niche isn’t something you choose from a buffet; it is a symptom of the problem you are trying to solve.
It is impossible to put you in a box because you’re a unique individual with multiple interests (& have the ability to acquire new ones).
When you see yourself as the niche, you are putting the problem first.
When you have a problem, you naturally have a goal (the other side of the problem).
When you have a goal, you naturally have pathways or ‘areas of interest’ to explore.
It’s the exploration and conquest of these ‘areas’ that defines your expertise, which becomes your niche.
Here’s a quick analogy to solidify this idea:
Let’s look at an essay.
Have you ever tried writing one without a problem or question?
I mean, you could try but it would no longer be an essay. You’d just end up with a bunch of words that lead to nowhere.
Now this is going to sound harsh but it’s the best way I can put it.
Failed personal brands are like essays without a problem.
They write a bunch of words that lead nowhere, get upset about a lack of results, and ultimately quit. They’re more concerned with satisfying the ‘word count’ and never build anything long-term because they never defined a problem to begin with.
On the contrary.
How much easier is it to write when you are led by a burning question?
- Your question informs your research.
- Your research informs your argument.
- Your argument informs your essay.
And your essay informs your growing expertise which becomes your niche.
I want you to think of your “niche” as a never-ending journey or series of essays (fun fact: essay means to ‘attempt’ or to ‘try’).
A bottom-up rather than a top-down.
How to Monopolize Your Niche of One
I’m going to make this simple.
If you want to create and monopolize a niche of one, you need only follow the essay writing philosophy.
This is because your niche isn’t static nor should it be.
It is a journey. A journey that grows as you grow as an individual. And you only grow as an individual by solving your problems and expanding your consciousness as a result.
The essay writing process follows a clear logic:
- You ask a question
- You do your research
- You form an argument
- You share your argument.
In the context of the one-person business, you carve out your own unique brand by following the same logic but with slight nuance.
- Identify a burning problem
→ this would be the heart of your business, your core offer. - Pursue an area of interest
→ this would be the authority you build in a certain domain. - Find a specific solution
→ this would be the value you create in the form of a product/service. - Teach someone else
→ this would be the content that raises your audience’s awareness.
I’m painting with extremely broad strokes, so if you want to understand more on the fundamentals I highly recommend checking out my previous letter on the one-person business canvas.
I’ll be diving deeper on the ‘how’ in much greater detail in a future letter so I’ll end it here.
This is the 3rd entry of the Solopreneur Series, the foundational building blocks to help you start, sustain, and scale your one-person business in the digital age. If you’d like to check out my previous letters in the series feel free to check them out here.
Once again, thank you for reading.
— Mat
