The Niche Formula: How to Quickly Find Your Niche
(Interests/Expertise) x Intersection
I’ve spent my life as a generalist.
There are advantages to this for sure.
I’m never bored.
Easily entertained.
Interests abound.
The downside is probably bigger than the upside.
Like — iceberg-below-the surface-of-the-sea bigger.
Distraction.
Lack of focus.
Confusion.
Incompletion.
Wondering like a Took, from here to there and back again.
It’s a problem.
There’s always pressure to “niche down”. It’s what the marketers and the content creators are always telling us.
Narrow your focus.
Specificity is power.
And, as someone with knowledge and an interest in marketing, I must concede to this truth.
I read Range by David Epstein a couple of years ago.
It helped me come to terms with my own free-range tendencies.
Here’s a line from for the introduction:
“We learn who we are in practice, not in theory.”
Christopher Lee, the actor who played Counts Dracula and Dooku, as well as Saruman, was also a singer in a beautifully weird gothic metal band.
Steve Martin is a funny guy, an actor, and an amazing banjo player.
Dorie Clark is a business consultant and author who writes musical performance art.
It is possible to be more than one thing at a time.
Here’s the catch:
It is very difficult (I argue, impossible) to do more than one thing at a time.
The key to niches is understanding where your interests intersect with your expertise.
Interests vs. expertise.
I am interested in quantum physics.
(I’m not lying. The little I understand about it is absolutely fascinating. I recommend reading the 4% Universe and The Fabric of Reality, if you want to get your feet wet on the subject. Range, man. Range.)
However, I have absolutely no expertise in quantum physics.
I have a lot of expertise in public speaking and rhetoric.
But I don’t necessarily have an interest in making that “my thing”.
Interest is innate. You either are or you’re not.
Expertise is gained.
Currently, I may not be an expert in quantum physics. I could take some classes, go to school, and write some papers on the subject, and became an expert in quantum physics.
This is true for any subject you are interested in.
This leaves us with three questions for determining a niche:
What are your interests?
Where are you an expert?
Where are they intersections?
Interests
If you are free range like me, this can be a long annoying list.
Quantum Physics
Books
Writing
Fantasy Fiction
Story Structure
Technology
Web design
Productivity
Leadership (Particularly the development of leaders)
Guitars
Songwriting
Travel
Culture
Organizational health
Foreign languages
Film editing
Photography
Celtic Spirituality
Videography
Gardening
Sound engineering and recording
Podcasting
Vinyl
Theology
Apple products
I made this list in less than two minutes.
I’m also not finished yet.
But let’s stop here. You get the idea.
Some of you have a much narrower focus of interests, which means you are probably a much saner person. Kudos for that.
But no matter how long or short your list may be, remember this.
You can’t do it all.
Culture tells us the lie that we can do everything we set our minds to.
It’s a lie. We can’t.
Oliver Burkeman calculates that we all have about 4000 weeks to live. Total.
That’s not a lot in the grand scheme of things.
He argues in his book of the same title that real freedom and productivity happen when we embrace the reality of our mortality.
“The average human lifespan is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short. But that isn’t a reason for unremitting despair, or for living in an anxiety-fueled panic about making the most of your limited time. It’s a cause for relief. You get to give up on something that was always impossible—the quest to become the optimized, infinitely capable, emotionally invincible, fully independent person you’re officially supposed to be. Then you get to roll up your sleeves and start work on what’s gloriously possible instead.”
As someone who’s well over their halfway point (2875 weeks old, at this writing), I comply – and resonate.
Be interested in as much as you want to be.
But remember, it’s not possible to act on all your interests.
Now you go:
Inventory your interests!
Make an exhaustive list of all your things. Have fun with it!
Look at your list, remembering, no matter your age, it won’t be possible to do it all. That’s okay!
Now move to the next question.
Expertise
Choose your expertise from the items on your interest list.
Where are you a pro based on your experience and education?
FeetNote:
It’s possible to have expertise in an area you don’t have interest in.
I’m an absolute expert at untangling Christmas lights.
It’s not something I want to call a niche.
You get the idea.
Right-now expertise: experience
Circle all the things on your interests list that you’ve spent a lot of time doing in your professional life.
This will be a much shorter list:
● Leadership (Leadership development has been my entire career)
● Culture (I used to live and work cross-culturally, and continue to have a lot of cross-cultural interactions)
● Productivity (I have an entire story here, but this is a huge part of the training I do)
● Organizational Development (not as long of a history here, but is much of what I do with Growability®)
● Christian Spirituality (This is my educational, as well as vocational, background.)
Everything else on my list remain interests. They might be potential hobbies or research areas. They are most likely not where I will gain professional expertise.
With an exception.
One-day expertise: education
Do you have any interests so compelling that you’d like to invest the time and money necessary to gain expertise?
I love music (a lot!)
I can play some guitar and really wanted to be in a band when I was younger. However, at this point in my life, it’s not something I feel good about devoting the time and money needed to move beyond a hobbyist level.
The same is not true for writing.
I take the time to write this newsletter every week because I want to be a better writer. I spend time punching ideas into a word processing document because I’m doing what it takes to gain opportunities to write at higher levels. To do so will take a sizable time investment. Get in your reps.
That doesn’t happen over a weekend.
Which of your interests (if any) would you like to invest in at a professional level?
Circle those, too
Now comes the fun part.
Intersections – The Multiplier
Pick three areas of both interest and expertise.
Connect them.
Here’s mine:
I work at the intersection of leadership, spirituality, and organizational development.
This is where I spend my time and energy:
Aiming my career and my content at helping leaders and potential leaders know their purpose, build community, and experience God through the process.
Your interests divided by your expertise, multiplied by their intersection equals your niche!
Your niche is your idea machine.
This is the power of the multiplier.
When you multiply your interests that have been divided by your expertise, you have more than a niche. Every intersection is another area for you to solve problems and provide value!
Productivity is the intersection of leadership and organization.
Community is the intersection of organization and spirituality.
The rhythm of Celtic spirituality is at the intersection of leadership and spirituality.
See how that works?
Intersections can multiply a niche into a hundred interesting directions.
Here’s why niche matters:
Your niche is your market.
That’s the thing about niches.
It’s where you are most uniquely you.
And it’s where you find an audience (or customers, readers, donors, etc.)
Niche-finding is a worthwhile process.
It’s also worth noting that things can change. This is not the same place I would have landed 10 years ago. It may or may not be where I land 10 years from now. But here I stand at the end 2022.
Find your niche!
● List your interests
● Circle your expertise
● Create your unique intersections
That’s your corner.
Your neck of the woods.
Your unique piece of real estate in Internet (or wherever!)
It’s the place where you can be most generous for the common good.
Let me know in the comments where your interests and expertise intersect!
