The most irritating thing when it comes to "niching down"
and the truth about why most don't do it
“Jack of all trades, Master of none…but oftentimes better than master of one.”
Being a polymath is one of the greatest aspirations of life.
Nobody is a one-trick pony, but making snap judgments is a survival mechanism. It’s just the way that we’re wired. When we were living on the plains and open grasslands, we had only seconds to identify friend from foe, flora from fauna, fact from fiction.
We’re at the top of the food chain today, but you still have to offer one thing in order to attract your ideal customer.
When it comes to your life, though, you can’t simply be a product for others to consume. Not every single aspect should be seen through this lens. People like to shoehorn you into a neat little package, label you from first impressions, swipe right or swipe left in their minds, and be done with it.
Life’s too short to stand and stare for too long at anything, especially with the deluge of information that seems to pour into our feeds every single hours now.
I’ve been swinging from one extreme to another when it comes to being a niche-less creator, and there are enough takes out there to cover the entire spectrum. It feels like we’re all on this pendulum, and it’s irritating and frustrating when it feels like we’re not hitting our stride no matter what we do.
Here are some of my thoughts about writing out here.
Trying to be all things to all people at all times is a rat race where nobody gets cheese.
If you want to use writing to make money, you need to treat it like a business.
You offer a solution, a method, a framework to address a problem that either you’ve solved for yourself in life or are in the process of figuring out. You have a unique angle because of your background and life experience to provide context. It doesn’t matter if you’re the first or the millionth person to jump into the arena. Your take matters, but if you don’t communicate with conviction, you’ll be drowned out in the sea of cheap imitators.
Accept the fact that you’re not for everyone.
Your voice matters if you are trying to help others.
It’s ok if you’re not sure about what you want to write about on the internet.
You can write about anything so long as you aren’t hoping to build a huge following from it yet. But if that’s the case, then why write in public at all? If you’re doing it for your mental health and your sanity, then a diary is just fine. The longer you write out here, the more clues you will discover as to what about you is of interest to others.
If you have a message to share, it’ll emerge from your effort.
Picking a niche is a long-term process, not a snap decision.
You’re not obligated to write about one thing for the rest of your life.
That’s the beauty of setting up different newsletters for different aspects of you. The only thing you need to do is to make sure that you have a consistent publishing schedule and an endless amount of content to write about.
I don’t have all the answers, but I’ve been writing on the internet long enough to share my perspectives.
My evolution from discovering the foundations of my personality, my beliefs and values, and articulating my motivations for writing beyond the potential for monetization have taken years to develop. It hasn’t been easy to write every single day for nearly 800 days. I know I’m not even at the starting line yet, and I’ve seen plenty of people come and go across different writing platforms. There are days when you’ll want to throw in the towel and run from the relentless pursuit of clarity.
Being bathed in sunlight feels very different from using a magnifying lens.
You don’t find your voice. You find your breath.
Show up every day, every night, or whenever it is that you carve out space to do this.
You won’t reach that level unless you’re willing to put in the work. If you don’t build the habit of writing like you breathe, then you won’t have the habit, the framework, or the discipline to explore, refine, and define what you want to be. Your digital footprint has to be visible and prolific on some level to reach critical mass.
With AI flooding the space, that becomes harder with each passing day.
The only choice to make is the one you don’t want to take.
It took me a long time to realize this.
Who you are and what you want to be known for need to have some overlap, but you don’t want them to be one and the same upfront. Nobody wants to read what you have to say if they can’t articulate why they should want to read it in the first place. For them to want to read it simply because of your sparkling personality is the end goal for you, not the first step unless you’re a celebrity who already has an audience.
For the rest of us normie nobodies, we start at absolute zero.
If you’re not willing to answer the hard questions about why you’re here and whether or not you’re willing to stick to it long-term, then you’ll continue to spin your wheels on the hamster wheel to nowhere. The truth is that we all stand for something, but most aspiring writers don’t go far enough to discover that core. It’s not easy. It’s messy. It’s painful.
Share in a way that allows you to tie all aspects of yourself to one idea.
Read that quote at the top again.
Live a life of versatility.