On Having a Niche

One of the biggest conflicts in my creative life has been whether to niche down or not. Every playbook on how to grow an audience says that you need to focus on a niche to grow. My beef with this idea is that having a niche feels unnatural. We’re complex, multifaceted beings with a variety of interests. Why limit yourself to a niche?

I’ve seen it happen time and time again. A creator niching down and feeling stuck because they pigeonholed themselves. They become a victim of their own success.

But now I understand that I needed a mental reframing. I wrote a post the other day on newness vs nuance that has been living in my head rent-free. Beginners find novelty in newness, while masters find novelty in nuance. Writers like Matt Levine, Ryan Holiday, and Arnold Schwarzenegger have daily newsletters they’ve been writing for years about one topic. Matt Levine writes about finance, Ryan Holiday about stoicism, and Arnold Schwarzenegger about health and fitness. Especially if you’re genuinely curious about the topic, you can go infinitely deep into it and not run out of ideas to discuss. That’s how you focus on a niche in an authentic way.