To niche or not to niche, that is [NOT] the question

AKA ikigai thinking unearths value in your quirks

🌸 ikigai 生き甲斐 is a reason for being, your purpose in life - from the Japanese iki 生き meaning life and gai 甲斐 meaning worth 🌸

I’ve read SO many articles and watched so many videos addressing the question of whether to niche or not.

People trying to decide on a Substack name, YouTube channel topic, how to present themselves on LinkedIn or what to focus their creative or entrepreneurial drive on. "To niche or not to niche?" has become a cliché, and mostly causes procrastination.

I don’t think it’s a helpful question, implying a binary choice, a fork in the road leading to either success or obscurity. Whatever you decide, it helps to understand the power of your unique perspective and how leveraging it can allow you to carve out a corner you can own and shine in, online.

Before we get there though, let’s be clear on what we mean by niching.

What Does Niching Mean?

The definition of niche in British English from Collins dictionary;

• a recess in a wall, esp one that contains a statue

• a position particularly suitable for the person occupying it - I found my niche in politics

• (modifier) relating to or aimed at a small specialised group or market

• Ecology the role of a plant or animal within its community and habitat, which determines its activities, relationships with other organisms, etc

We’re not talking about the wall recess as I’m sure you guessed hehe. Although there is a sense of being nestled in a comfortable place you fit well in, much like a native plant. We are talking personal specialism, an area of expertise that you become an authority on over time. It does often also imply focussing on serving a specific audience.

Niching, is a popular concept among online entrepreneurs;

• David Perell talks about developing a personal monopoly which is the unique intersection of your interests and skills that no one else can replicate.
  

• Ali Abdaal has some really helpful advice and ideas for finding your own niche, but I do love that he starts out by saying; “it’s totally okay for our niche to emerge over time and to enjoy the creative freedom of having a ‘nicheless’ channel”
  

• Dan Koe emphasises the power of the one-person business, where your unique combination of skills, experiences, and personality traits become your brand.

Jerry Garcia; “You want to be the only person who does what you do”

How does it work in practice?

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert is my favourite example of niche creation. How really owning your unique intersection of 3 or more skill labels, gives you an actual superpower. For him those are; drawing, humour and understanding the ridiculousness of organisational norms *grin* I love this career advice he gave;

“Everyone has at least a few areas in which they could be in the top 25% with some effort. In my case, I can draw better than most people, but I’m hardly an artist. And I’m not any funnier than the average standup comedian who never makes it big, but I’m funnier than most people. The magic is that few people can draw well and write jokes. It’s the combination of the two that makes what I do so rare. And when you add in my business background, suddenly I had a topic that few cartoonists could hope to understand without living it.”

He, sensibly in my opinion, advocates for not even trying to be in the top 25% of a singular skill, like becoming an Olympic athlete. It is relatively easy for me to become the world’s most renowned redheaded, spectacle wearing, Manx ikigai writer.

The Filter of You; How To Embrace Your Weird

The most powerful niche you can have is you, you are inherently a niche. Your unique combination of traits, experiences, and interests form a lens through which you view and interpret the world. This individuality is your filter, and embracing it can lead to authentic and engaging content and products. 

Forget labels like "woman," "Gen X," or "mother", these are mere surface-level descriptors. The true value lies in the intersection of combining these with other labels. Are you also a Doctor Who loving INFJ who uses a bullet journal to make sense of her world?

You can play around with how embracing your own combination of "weird" feels. I’ve been brainstorming these on and off, and also not shying away from the ones that may be painful to hear (like ginger speccy 4 eyes) as they taught me lessons that others won’t have experienced. Chris Do advocates for this in his 2 word branding concept, he calls them shadow words. I toyed with calling myself the “Ginger Joy-engineer” hehe

This perspective isn't at odds with personal branding on platforms like LinkedIn. Instead, it reframes it. You are more than your job title. Highlighting your passions and quirky interests alongside your professional expertise gives your personal brand depth and authenticity. It allows you to connect with like-minded individuals who resonate with your unique viewpoint. People do business with people.

The Power of Constraints

Here's where the concept of niching gets really interesting for me. Choosing a specific niche (even if you change it later) can be a powerful tool for creativity and motivation. Constraints, it turns out, can be liberating. Having a clear topic in mind allows you to go really deep, hopefully over time and with research and writing practice, connecting dots no-one has done before you. 

Also by focusing your energy on a well defined audience, you can tailor your content and develop products to their specific needs and desires. Think beyond rainbow-coloured TARDIS pins, though those are clearly all the awesome. Imagine crafting in-depth guides to bullet journaling for fellow INFJ sci-fi fans, or creating productivity workshops that cater to working mothers who also happen to be "geeks."

Questions to ask instead;

• How can I cultivate my unique perspective and translate it into a valuable offering? Shifts focus from fitting into a niche to leveraging your own distinct qualities.

• What communities exist that resonate with my unique blend of interests? Explore finding your audience organically rather than forcing yourself into a pre-defined niche.

• How can I use my passions and quirks to build a personal brand that attracts the right kind of attention? Building an authentic brand based on who you are, rather than fitting yourself into a mould.

• Instead of searching for a niche, what problems can I uniquely solve with my skills and experiences? Identifying a gap in the market that aligns with your strengths.

• How can I create content that is both valuable and reflects my unique perspective? Explore the intersection of content creation and personal branding.)

• What creative constraints can I impose on myself to fuel innovation and cater to a specific audience? Reframing niching as a tool for content creation system.

If in doubt, cheat!

Not something I tell people to do usually hehe. I was already hugely motivated last September, just before I hit the ground running all in with my niche of ikigai. The reason I was so confident, aside from it being a topic I am genuinely fascinated by, was that I quickly realised it was a label that had a LOT of different associated meanings that I was also interested in. This label would let me write about a huge swathe of topics because I can relate them back to ikigai as a framework for a more purposeful life.

If I hadn’t found ikigai as my topic, then I would have picked something else in the realm of self improvement/positive psychology as that was the overriding instinctive field I keep coming back to. If you are at the very beginning of the cheesy but very real skill of knowing yourself, then I’d recommend a few exercises to start your brain turning over this problem, especially identifying your values and journaling.

And if there was no topic at all I could think of, then I would just have called it Sarah’s Substack and started anyway.

That is the key learning that I can’t stress highly enough to you. If you want to get better at being in control of your life, if you want to try online writing on for size, then just start. If it’s too cringey for you to share with people you know, then start a substack under a fake name and remove the pressure from yourself while you hopefully get to the otherside of the cringe factor.

Weirdly, even though I’ve always suffered from caring FAR too much about what people think about me, it never stopped me sharing my innermost thoughts and fears online. I might have got in trouble a couple of times, but it’s mostly brought me joy, self knowledge through accountability, friends and even a successful marriage (online dating tip; write out a hugely long and thoughtful profile of your likes and dislikes and make sure you only agree to date those who do the same hehe).

So yeah, pick one or not, YOU are a niche

The next time you grapple with the "niche or not to niche" question, remember that you are already a niche.

Embrace your unique blend of interests, skills, and experiences.

Let it be your filter, your superpower.

By having a specific audience in mind but holding true to your authentic self, you have the best chance of building a powerful personal brand.

The question isn't about niching or not, it's about harnessing the power of your unique perspective to build something truly remarkable.

I’m Sarah, seeking ikigai and I’d love to hear from you what your most unique labels are, can you come up with a 2 word brand for yourself?

PS - being uniquely yourself makes me think of one song in particular;