Finding Your True Audience When You Feel Invisible
Solving The Problem of the "You Are The Niche" Advice
The creator economy is alive with energy, personal development insights, and the dream of turning what you love into how you make a living. It's a beautiful shift. But somewhere along the way, a dangerous piece of advice took root, often cloaked in the shiny optimism of self-help: the idea that your intense belief and personal passion are all you need. Your ideal customer is basically a past version of yourself (and it will magically appear). That “you are the niche” is a complete business plan.
It's not.
Positive thinking is great. Innovating business is vital. But the market doesn't care about your affirmations if your idea doesn't connect with actual, paying humans. Many well-intentioned creator projects crash and burn because they skip one crucial, often misunderstood, step: market validation.
There seems to be a trend in the creator economy to neglect market validation. I think this is a huge mistake. It's like jumping out of an airplane without checking if you have a parachute. Why do you want to skip that?
We avoid validation because it feels like annoying work, a drain on our creative flow. We want to preserve that precious mental energy. But what if the “annoying work” isn't the real work of validation at all?
Most people think validation is about asking. They cook up surveys, poll their friends (who are too polite to tell them the truth), or try to get a focus group to nod. This is, mostly, a waste of your precious time and creative energy.
Why? Because it’s hypothetical. It’s asking people to predict their future behavior about something that doesn’t exist yet. Humans are terrible at that.
The validation you need as a creator isn't about getting a green light from the universe. It’s about seeing if your idea resonates. Does it connect? Does it create a change, however small, for someone specific?
So, here’s a different path, the one that works (and an AI prompt that helps):
Step 1: Listening & Hypothesis Generation
Before you write a sentence, design a logo, or even fully flesh out your grand vision, spend a day (just one, to start!) with your ear to the ground. We’re not looking for direct requests for a solution. We want to immerse ourselves into the world of those you believe you can serve.
Use platforms like Reddit or advanced search tools like Perplexity.ai. Observe their language. Identify their self-described difficulties. Note the solutions they currently use. See where frustration or unmet needs surface.
This exploration provides clues. It helps form a smarter initial hypothesis. You will define a specific group, a specific problem, and a potential angle for a distinct solution. This initial listening informs your first real-world test. It makes that test targeted, not a blind shot.
Your Mission: To listen deeply and form an initial, informed hypothesis about:
Who might genuinely need or desire a change.
What specific pains, frictions, or unarticulated desires they have.
How current "solutions" (if any) are falling short for them.
Your Tools: Reddit, Perplexity/Deep Research (or your AI search tool of choice), niche forums, online communities related to your idea's domain.
Prompt Example: "What are the most common frustrations voiced by [potential audience, e.g., freelance graphic designers] regarding [area of your idea, e.g., client feedback processes]?"
Reddit Exploration: Look for relevant Subreddits and sort for the most popular posts. Observe the language, the emotion, the recurring themes.
The Goal of This Day: Not to get your idea "validated," but to collect clues. To build empathy. To find the breadcrumbs that lead you to a smarter starting point.
Outcome: You'll emerge with a hypothesis, something like: "I believe [specific group of people/SVA] are consistently struggling with [specific problem/desire], and the current ways they're addressing it are [inefficient/frustrating/incomplete]."
Step 2: Define Your Smallest Viable Audience (SVA)
Resist the pull to serve everyone. Focus. Based on your focused listening, identify the smallest group that will care most deeply. Define them by their shared worldview, their observed struggles, their aspirations, the common words they use.
Create a clear picture of this group. Seth Godin call them Smallest Viable Audience (SVA). Every decision forward is for the SVA. This concentrates your effort. It ensures your work lands where it can resonate, not dissipate into general indifference.
Action: Write it down. "My SVA isn't just 'course creators,' but 'Elena, a yoga instructor who just launched her first online course on Teachable, feels overwhelmed by tech, and wants her sales page to look professional without hiring a designer or learning code.'"
Step 3: Articulate the Core Promise & Unique Angle
For this precise SVA, what is the singular, compelling change your idea delivers? This is its core promise, the "after" state they will experience. Then, identify what makes your approach distinct for them. Is it uniquely insightful? Surprisingly simple? Unexpectedly useful? Does it grant them something valuable no one else provides in quite the same way?
This is not about being different for difference’s sake. It is about being distinctly valuable to the specific individuals you have chosen to serve first, based on the needs you observed.
Action: "For Elena, I promise a beautiful, professional course sales page in under an hour, no tech stress (Promise), through a plug-and-play template system designed with a creator's aesthetic in mind (Unique Angle)."
A great additional resource to find your Unique Angle is the Niche Wide phase of my 3-phase framework to find your niche.
Step 4: Ship the Minimum Viable "Thing" (MVT)
Translate your promise and unique angle into the leanest possible tangible experience. The MVT is not your final product. It is the simplest version that allows your SVA to genuinely experience the core promise. It might be a basic prototype, a single module, a brief workshop, or a manually delivered service. The MVT must be real enough for interaction. It allows you to observe how your core idea performs in reality, with minimal upfront investment.
Action (Examples for the template idea):
Create one really good template, not ten. Offer it as a simple download.
A detailed Loom video walkthrough showing how to customize that one template.
Offer to personally set up that one template for 3-5 "Elenas" for a nominal fee or for free in exchange for deep feedback.
For a newsletter idea: The first 3-4 issues, sent to a tiny, curated list.
For a community idea: A small, invite-only Slack/Discord with a very clear purpose for the first 10-20 members.
Step 5: Engage, Observe, and Listen
Once your MVT is in the hands of your handpicked SVA (even just a few of them), your primary role shifts from creator to observer and empathetic listener. Pay less attention to what they say they like (politeness is common) and more to what they do. Do they actually use it? How do they try to use it? Does it align with your intentions? Do they complete the core action you designed it for? Do they ask clarifying questions, express moments of "aha!" or frustration, or try to adapt it to other uses? These behaviors are raw, unfiltered data about the true resonance (or lack thereof) of your idea.
Action: Share your MVDE with your handpicked Elenas.
Do they download/access/use it? (Analytics, if any)
Do they complete the intended action? (e.g., customize the template)
What questions do they ask in your DMs or support channel?
Do they offer unsolicited praise or constructive criticism specific to the promise?
Step 6: Iterate or Pivot
The actions (or inactions) of your SVA in Phase 4 are your most valuable feedback. If they engaged deeply and experienced the promise, identify what delighted them and how you can enhance that or offer it to a slightly larger SVA circle. If they were confused, struggled, or disengaged, dive into why: was your SVA definition slightly off? Was the MVT too clunky to deliver the promise effectively? Was the problem you aimed to solve not as pressing for them as your initial research suggested?
There are no failures here. It’s critical, high-speed learning that guides your next move. Maybe you need a small tweak, a significant pivot in your approach, or even a brave decision to pivot this particular hypothesis and pursue a more resonant one.
Action:
High engagement & success: Great! What's the next small feature or template they're asking for? Can you serve 10 more Elenas?
Low engagement: Was the template still too complex? Was the aesthetic not what they valued most? Did they not even open the email with the download link (problem with your initial outreach/SVA match)?
Crucially: Do they share screenshots of their customized page in other creator groups? Do they mention your template to peers? What digital story are they telling?
Step 7: Do They Tell Others?
If your iterations lead to positive engagement and a clear delivery of your promise for your SVA, the next signal to look for is early traction and organic spread. Do these initial users come back? Do they, unprompted, mention it to others who fit the SVA profile? What specific words or stories do they use when they share it? This peer-to-peer sharing, driven by genuine value and remarkability for them, is the most powerful form of validation. It signifies that your idea isn't just something you think is good, but something that a specific group of people finds valuable enough to integrate into their lives and conversations.
Action: Maybe that one template gets rave reviews. Those reviews, shared by the Elenas, become the social proof that attracts the next wave of users. Perhaps you offer an affiliate link to the first happy users.
A Prompt That Helps
It has never been easier to build a business. AI can be an incredible useful tool in this process. I developed a sophisticated prompt that help you to put this framework in action. It is quite lengthy that’s why I didn’t include it into the article. You can copy it by hitting the button below:
I recommend Gemini 2.5 Pro for best results.
Validation doesn’t mean you it once and you’re done. It requires an ongoing conversation between you and your SVA.
You validate your hypothesis by shipping them, not by weeks of research that lead you to analysis paralysis.
By front-loading with that focused "listening" day, you make your initial hypotheses much stronger. You're not guessing wildly. You're making an educated guess based on real-world (albeit indirect) signals. This makes your first "ship" far less likely to be "something nobody wants" and far more likely to be "something these specific people might want."
The real validation comes when your SVA acts in a way that says, "Yes, this. This is for me."
This whole process can also be applied to you writing (and finding your niche). Instead of a product you ship your articles written with your unique angle.
Here are some great resources for further exploration:
This is so on point. Passion is powerful—but it’s not a strategy. The idea that “you are the niche” sounds empowering until you realize it can leave you shouting into the void. Turning what you love into a living still requires clarity, structure, and real-world testing—not just vibes and vision boards.
You are not the niche.
Your product, your voice, your value — those are ephemeral reflections of a much larger human chaos.
The idea of ‘niche’ is a cage, dressed up as clarity.