Packaging yourself up into a tidy business niche is BS. It’s always felt off and humans know this.
Instead, create something that matters to you that only you can create. Enrol others into that idea. Evolve as a person and allow your work to flex with you.
And for the love of sanity… please ignore your numbers and remind yourself that there’s a human clicking “I fricken love this!” instead of just being a notification of a follower 🫶🏼
"Building something that serves people so generously that compensation becomes the natural consequence rather than the desperate goal."
This 🫶 For my new business I'm taking it even one step further. I'm choosing to help as many animals and people in need as possible with the profit it will make.
I've never felt so much energy and passion. Building something for the greater good sets you on fire 🔥
I love the fire in this article! But I have to defend the "niche" a little bit as a marketer and strategist. There is a huge difference between the niche for performance (what the gurus sell) and the strategic niche which actually pays your bills when running a business. I agree that "find your niche" or "you are the niche" is a bit of a romantic fairytail from the early 2000. However, once the Spaghetti throwing at the wall phase is over, a business requires you to choose a specific path. You cant build a steady house when you keep changing the basement.
This. What's often missing is introspection, market research, experience, and/or knowledge. Say you're passionate about sugar gliders as pets and have the knowledge and experience. Or maybe you've had success improving your golf or tennis game, or you're into model trains, or flipping houses, or you're really good at crochet.
Great, then a little supply and demand research will show you if any of those are potentially viable as a niche business. Then it's a matter of picking the best one for you and goals.
You can skip all that. You can try to be all things to all people. You can try to speak to audiences you know nothing about. But your chances of success are far less.
That's the funny thing about it. The gurus saying "You are the niche" actually do have a niche. I have been in strategy and branding for almost 8 years, so I know exactly what you mean. If you want to pay the bills, you better have a "niche."
The Spaghetti throwing is a great metaphor. That phase is not about finding your niche yet, and it helps to leave business (and money) aside. It's really about getting clarity on your path. From there I like to think of it as using the lens (your worldview) that you developed to look at the market and solve a problem for specific group of people. It is essentially a niche.
Looks like I'm pretty much on the right track-a writer who refuses to do anything but write.
I can tell you anything about the universe I'm secretly building that ties in all my different body of works, or how each can be exploited better than crude oil. But that's boring. I'd rather talk about how marketing is not the work of a writer. That a great marketer could find ways to market any product given to them instead of parroting "Take it or leave it." while handing out a strict, unfair contract where they do minimal work reaping maximum percentage. I know the value of my work and I won't settle for a partner treating me anything other than equal.
The crazy part is, all those gurus slip into our subconscious and infiltrate our “purpose” without us even realizing it. It was an “aha” moment for me to be like… wait… what if my goal isn’t $10k months but to create something meaningful and love my life while doing it? Pursuing $10k months only sucked the joy out of my craft and business. I’ve totally pivoted. And I think I need to read this daily for awhile. Thank you for being so straightforward!
And I do recommend the Archetype Navigator at the end. For anyone new here. It found me at an awkward time, but it's helped reconsider my approach to creating by a long shot. There were sides to me I hadn't realized need to come out. Very interesting all around. Thank you Philipp for sharing. 🙏✨ Cheers!!
I could never, ever fit into a niche. The fact that these platforms reward it, is always a reminder that the people engineering them aren't much different from the niche gurus you so adequately describe here.
I’ll be honest – I saw the button and thought, here we go, another creator selling "truth" as a lead magnet. But I took the test, got The Disruptor, and I’m genuinely unsettled by how accurately it predicted my entire Punk Minimalism identity. Well played, Philipp.
Guess I'll have to camp out in your archive because these are cutting me deep but they are the medicine I needed.
The courses I did buy and started but never finished. The courses I thought I needed but didn't have the cash. The courses I wanted, but waffled back and forth about if I should take the plunge (glad I never did).
The "course" I have developed on my own, not to sell, not to perform, not to become a guru. But because it helped me just START. And it's helping me continue.
This article sounds like me from beginning to end. What happened? Where did we lose the ability to believe in ourselves and believe we could do anything. What happened to the fearless children we were that would get scraped up climbing trees or touching the gas lit burner because we didn't think we would get burned.
How did we succumb to the self doubt that enabled others, well intentioned or not, to earn off our self doubt. The same energy we use to make employers rich can be used for ourselves.
I hate it took so long, but I am glad I arrived eventually, and so glad only God gets the credit for that arrival.
And here I had my hopes up again... 😪😜 I'm waking out of a very sleepy and chaotic season now, I'd gone through my 600+ Medium creations in case I could recycle some, but it all no longer fit. Needing to go from posting notes to publishing actual stories and articles again. See how it goes...
I appreciated this article. Thank you. When I started this build-an-audience-using-social media journey, I knew deep down that when I post it has to be all about me, in the sense that I want to do this to feel more comfortable sharing my voice and making myself visible. It can't be about the follows or the likes. Even though that's what I ultimately want is an audience, I actually need to feel comfortable in my online skin first. But I kept getting sucked into the game of checking for follows/likes, getting sad that no one saw me or getting excited about a couple of likes thinking "this is it, I'm finally going viral" My instincts were spot on but seeing everyone else's huge followings I pushed my instincts aside.
Packaging yourself up into a tidy business niche is BS. It’s always felt off and humans know this.
Instead, create something that matters to you that only you can create. Enrol others into that idea. Evolve as a person and allow your work to flex with you.
And for the love of sanity… please ignore your numbers and remind yourself that there’s a human clicking “I fricken love this!” instead of just being a notification of a follower 🫶🏼
💯💯💯💯💯💯💯
"Building something that serves people so generously that compensation becomes the natural consequence rather than the desperate goal."
This 🫶 For my new business I'm taking it even one step further. I'm choosing to help as many animals and people in need as possible with the profit it will make.
I've never felt so much energy and passion. Building something for the greater good sets you on fire 🔥
I love the fire in this article! But I have to defend the "niche" a little bit as a marketer and strategist. There is a huge difference between the niche for performance (what the gurus sell) and the strategic niche which actually pays your bills when running a business. I agree that "find your niche" or "you are the niche" is a bit of a romantic fairytail from the early 2000. However, once the Spaghetti throwing at the wall phase is over, a business requires you to choose a specific path. You cant build a steady house when you keep changing the basement.
This. What's often missing is introspection, market research, experience, and/or knowledge. Say you're passionate about sugar gliders as pets and have the knowledge and experience. Or maybe you've had success improving your golf or tennis game, or you're into model trains, or flipping houses, or you're really good at crochet.
Great, then a little supply and demand research will show you if any of those are potentially viable as a niche business. Then it's a matter of picking the best one for you and goals.
You can skip all that. You can try to be all things to all people. You can try to speak to audiences you know nothing about. But your chances of success are far less.
That's the funny thing about it. The gurus saying "You are the niche" actually do have a niche. I have been in strategy and branding for almost 8 years, so I know exactly what you mean. If you want to pay the bills, you better have a "niche."
The Spaghetti throwing is a great metaphor. That phase is not about finding your niche yet, and it helps to leave business (and money) aside. It's really about getting clarity on your path. From there I like to think of it as using the lens (your worldview) that you developed to look at the market and solve a problem for specific group of people. It is essentially a niche.
Another banger
"You cannot monetize “being you” when nobody knows who you are."
Abso-fvcking-lutey!
i was a victim tbh, i had to learn the hard way that the niche is me
Looks like I'm pretty much on the right track-a writer who refuses to do anything but write.
I can tell you anything about the universe I'm secretly building that ties in all my different body of works, or how each can be exploited better than crude oil. But that's boring. I'd rather talk about how marketing is not the work of a writer. That a great marketer could find ways to market any product given to them instead of parroting "Take it or leave it." while handing out a strict, unfair contract where they do minimal work reaping maximum percentage. I know the value of my work and I won't settle for a partner treating me anything other than equal.
So, which bricklayer am I?
I love the vibe of this piece. Feels very David Lynch to me (one of my all-time favourite directors).
And, as always, you’re spot on.
The crazy part is, all those gurus slip into our subconscious and infiltrate our “purpose” without us even realizing it. It was an “aha” moment for me to be like… wait… what if my goal isn’t $10k months but to create something meaningful and love my life while doing it? Pursuing $10k months only sucked the joy out of my craft and business. I’ve totally pivoted. And I think I need to read this daily for awhile. Thank you for being so straightforward!
And I do recommend the Archetype Navigator at the end. For anyone new here. It found me at an awkward time, but it's helped reconsider my approach to creating by a long shot. There were sides to me I hadn't realized need to come out. Very interesting all around. Thank you Philipp for sharing. 🙏✨ Cheers!!
Thanks Gustave, I'm glad it was helpful.
“That’s code for running a literal Ponzi scheme out of a rented Boca Raton strip mall”….. right next door to the pain pill clinic!
Haha, you probably get some off-label painkillers as well.
You’re a dope human. I enjoyed this.
Appreciated Ben.
I could never, ever fit into a niche. The fact that these platforms reward it, is always a reminder that the people engineering them aren't much different from the niche gurus you so adequately describe here.
I’ll be honest – I saw the button and thought, here we go, another creator selling "truth" as a lead magnet. But I took the test, got The Disruptor, and I’m genuinely unsettled by how accurately it predicted my entire Punk Minimalism identity. Well played, Philipp.
Punk Minimalism sounds dope.
💀
Guess I'll have to camp out in your archive because these are cutting me deep but they are the medicine I needed.
The courses I did buy and started but never finished. The courses I thought I needed but didn't have the cash. The courses I wanted, but waffled back and forth about if I should take the plunge (glad I never did).
The "course" I have developed on my own, not to sell, not to perform, not to become a guru. But because it helped me just START. And it's helping me continue.
This article sounds like me from beginning to end. What happened? Where did we lose the ability to believe in ourselves and believe we could do anything. What happened to the fearless children we were that would get scraped up climbing trees or touching the gas lit burner because we didn't think we would get burned.
How did we succumb to the self doubt that enabled others, well intentioned or not, to earn off our self doubt. The same energy we use to make employers rich can be used for ourselves.
I hate it took so long, but I am glad I arrived eventually, and so glad only God gets the credit for that arrival.
A fine wine takes time.
And here I had my hopes up again... 😪😜 I'm waking out of a very sleepy and chaotic season now, I'd gone through my 600+ Medium creations in case I could recycle some, but it all no longer fit. Needing to go from posting notes to publishing actual stories and articles again. See how it goes...
I appreciated this article. Thank you. When I started this build-an-audience-using-social media journey, I knew deep down that when I post it has to be all about me, in the sense that I want to do this to feel more comfortable sharing my voice and making myself visible. It can't be about the follows or the likes. Even though that's what I ultimately want is an audience, I actually need to feel comfortable in my online skin first. But I kept getting sucked into the game of checking for follows/likes, getting sad that no one saw me or getting excited about a couple of likes thinking "this is it, I'm finally going viral" My instincts were spot on but seeing everyone else's huge followings I pushed my instincts aside.