How to pick your niche.

It’s nearly impossible to do anything — start a blog, grow on social media, launch a business, record a podcast, choose a degree, or pick a career — without hearing the advice ‘find your niche’.

The logic is simple: a niche makes your target audience specific, helping you focus your efforts to deliver value to them.

How the Concept of Niches Emerged and Gained Traction

Why This Advice is Hard to Follow

The advice to “find your niche” is elegant and logical, but in an era of incredibly easy access to information, multidisciplinary connections, and celebration of generalists, it’s incredibly hard to follow.

1. Easy access → more options → choice overload → decision fatigue
2. Letting go of one option feels like we’ll lose out on another (FOMO)
3. Every niche feels overcrowded, making you doubt your unique value

I attended a hospitality conference last year, where an entrepreneur shared his experience operating successful restaurants. His initial venture, didn’t work out as expected, which triggered a period of self-reflection for to rethink his niche. Someone advised him to consider, "What do you have to say about something with depth?" or "What are you thinking about more than anyone else?"

“What do you have to say about something with depth?”

“What are you thinking about more than anyone else?”

This led to a revelation: while learning about and experimenting with cuisines from around the world, he always returned to thinking about his mother's Israeli food recipes. He compared different foods with the dishes he had eaten growing up and tried to replicate those. This became his niche and led to the creation of multiple restaurants across the value chain, from quick service to fine dining, making Israeli food the focus.

The key word here is obsession. I’ll be honest — I envy people with a clear obsession. Most of us struggle to find that movie-like passionate calling or experience a divine intervention that shows us our life’s purpose. We often forget that passion or obsession frequently stems from becoming skilled at something. It’s rare for novices to leap out of bed, excited about the grind and failures that come with learning.

So, what can we do if this obsession doesn’t come to us naturally?

Chasing Problem Statements

With niches, I have found chasing problem statements to be more effective. Instead of starting with an industry or something topical like AI, I think broadly about problems people are encountering.

It helps if these problem statements are something you feel strongly about and have some personal drive for. That makes it easier to stay invested, eager to read more, and find out more about this topic. This enthusiasm will help you build and refine your niche over time.

You do need to be mindful of your existing skills, knowledge, and experiences. Your ideal niche should align with areas where you have something valuable to offer. This doesn’t mean you need to be an expert from day one, but having a foundation to build upon can give you a significant advantage.

But let’s dig a bit deeper into this problem statement approach:

1. Identify Friction Points: Look for areas where people are struggling or experiencing frustration. These are gold mines for problem statements. For example, in a business setting, there might be friction between new technology adoption and employee comfort with existing systems.
2. Cross-Pollinate Ideas: Sometimes the most interesting niches emerge when you combine two seemingly unrelated fields. Like combining mindfulness techniques with project management — “Zen and the Art of Meeting Deadlines” anyone?
3. Personal Irks: What bothers you on a daily basis? Chances are, it bothers other people too.
4. Eavesdrop (Politely): Listen to conversations around you — in cafes, on public transport, in online forums. What are people consistently complaining about?

If you’re struggling to identify a niche or problem statement, try this: conduct an audit of your social media accounts. Look at who you’re following and what posts you’re liking. While you’ll need to filter out memes and entertainment content, this can reveal patterns you might not have consciously recognized and provide a starting point

Avoiding FOMO

Remember, you’re not wedded to a niche for life. In today’s economy, most of us will have multiple careers. So you should feel empowered to write about makeup trends, offer financial advice, or start a t-shirt company. In fact, exploring multiple niches can give you transferable skills and unique connections others might not have.

My advice? Give substantial time and effort to one niche first, aiming to achieve some sort of product-market fit before branching out. This approach helps you stay focused and streamlined. You can’t be everything to everyone, but you can provide value to different groups of people across various domains.

Assessing Saturation

If you’re hesitant to pick a niche because it seems like everyone’s already talking about it, think again.

You might be experiencing the frequency illusion — also known as the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. This is when something you’ve just noticed or learned about suddenly seems to appear everywhere.

As you research a niche, you’ll naturally come across more people working in that area, making it seem like the whole world is focused on it.

Here’s a simple reality check: ask a mix of your friends and family if they know anything about your potential niche. Their answers might surprise you. What feels common in your research bubble might still be new to most people. This quick survey can help you gauge how full (or empty) your niche really is, and possibly reignite your excitement about it.

BUT before you dive into that seemingly empty niche of ‘underwater swim goggles for cats,’ pause. Is there a real market/audience for it? Can you actually deliver? Remember, sometimes a niche is empty for a reason. The goal is to find that sweet spot where your interest meets actual demand and your ability to deliver.

Happy niching!