The Ultimate Guide to FINALLY Choosing Your Niche (What Dan Koe Left Out)

Choosing a niche is an endless struggle for online creators.

You hear advice like:

“You have to niche down”...

“the riches are in the niches”...

Then people like Dan Koe say “niching down is terrible advice”—and he makes a lot more money than the people who have a niche!

In fact, he’s on track to do 4M this year with “no niche”...

But does he really NOT have a niche?

I’m going to share where I agree with Dan and also share the one critical point that he left out.

The Worst Part About This

The worst part about this niche dilemma?

It keeps you stuck.

If you can’t figure out your niche, it can keep you frozen on the sidelines. I have felt like I couldn’t do anything until I figured out my niche.

My business could be much further along if I understood niche the way I do now.

I have wrestled with the dilemma of niche on a weekly daily basis for all of the 8 years I’ve been creating online.

I’ve watched every video about it.

I’ve gone back 9 years into someone’s Youtube history to try and figure out if they started with a niche and then broadened later. To figure out if they changed their niche.

To try and piece together the path they took to growing a big audience and making a lot of money.

I’ve also switched niches several times myself.

I’ve grown to multiple six figures inside the real estate coaching niche, then pivoted away from it and did the same thing in the coaching and creator niche.

I even wrote a book called ​Nail Your Niche​!

After all of this, I’ve found the best way to think about your niche.

I’m going to share what I feel is a more holistic way to approach this…

It will allow you to put this issue to bed once and for all, start creating content freely, and grow the creator or coaching business you’ve dreamed of.

What Exactly Does “Niche” Mean?

First, let’s define what we mean by the word niche. It commonly refers to who you serve, the topic you create content about, and what you deliver in your coaching programs or courses.

For example, here’s how I talk about myself:

I’m Brian, and I help creators publish books to get more clients.

Recently, I’ve come to see that this is a very surface level way to describe what I do.

It’s been harder to grow a large audience because most of the stuff I post is:

“3 tips to grow your coaching business”

“Get clients with a book”

And, if someone visits my website and is not looking to grow a coaching business or write a book…

They are going to close out and move onto something else.

So I’ve had to find a better way to talk about what I do—to catch people’s attention and get them to stick around.

I figured it out by listening to a call I had with my coach from 2 years ago. On the call he was helping me find my Why.

We looked at 3 defining moments for me and found a pattern. See if you can spot it.

One…

I used to have eczema. I cured it with healthy eating, then started teaching other people how to be healthy. I started a blog and taught classes on making green smoothies.

Two…

I used to have anxiety and depression, then I figured out how to fix it. After that, I handed out Eckhart Tolle’s books to everyone because I wanted to share the message.

Three…

I escaped the 9-5 by purchasing a few dozen rental properties and then I coached hundreds of people on how to do that over 4 years.

The pattern my coach and I saw goes like this:

1. I have a problem
2. I solve the problem after trying a bunch of stuff
3. I teach the solution

My movement is to learn and share wisdom. To spread what has worked for me so that you can solve your problems and live your optimal life.

To have great relationships.

To find more inner peace and joy throughout your day.

To do work you enjoy that makes an impact, a good income, and gives you a great lifestyle

Can you see how much deeper that is than just “grow your coaching business”?

A coaching business is one way to level up one area of your life, but it’s just one of many vessels to get you to where you want to be.

Here’s what I realized:

A lot more people will follow you if—instead of just solving a problem—you start a movement.

This is the reason you are loyal to your favorite brands. You don’t just like their products—you share the same beliefs. You are on board with their movement.

Your movement is much more important than your niche.

Your niche can change. Your movement is forever.

For example, a coaching business and a book are methods that help people optimize their careers.

But, I could add a lot of other products and programs over the years. I could help people eat healthier. I could help Dad’s develop better bonds with their kids.

It’s all part of the broader movement of sharing wisdom to help us live our best lives.

Who To Attract to Your Movement

Now that you understand the importance of identifying your movement (and communicating it)...

Let’s talk about the type of person you want to attract to your movement.

I’m sure you’ve heard that—at the very least—you need to speak to a specific type of person in order to build the right audience and sell your programs.

I used to tell everyone that YES, you do have to get clear on your customer avatar.

But, I want to offer you a different perspective. I want to show you how you can go broader with your customer avatar.

I want to show you why you should attract anyone and everyone who is into personal development.

First of all, everyone will tell you that they want:

• better health
• more wealth
• better relationships
• more inner peace.

But, 95% of them aren’t actively seeking a way to get those things. They either don’t believe that they can, or don’t care enough to try.

Either way, we aren’t concerned with those folks. We are concerned with the other 5%. These are the people who are into personal development. They are actively seeking solutions to their challenges.

They read books, watch TED talks and buy courses.

Those are the only type of people who will ever buy your course or coaching program.

Take me for example…

I’ve been into personal development for ages and still consume a ton of content on it every day.

I’ve spent over $300,000 on coaching, courses, and masterminds.

I am the type of person who will buy your program—if it solves a problem I have.

And I have the same problems you do:

• I want to get healthier
• I want to make more money
• I want to be a better parent
• I want to be more productive
• I want to find more inner peace
• I want better relationships

I don’t fit a certain demographic. I’m a lot of things. Entrepreneur, dad, creator. Just a dude who’s into personal growth.

So, your niche doesn’t have to include an exact customer avatar. I’ve tried that, and it has only limited my audience. You can speak to anyone and everyone with a growth mindset.

The way you do that is by making the bulk of your content around personal development.

This will attract the right audience and repel the people you don’t want.

Another benefit of creating a lot of personal development content?

It shows the depth of your thinking. People will see that you think like them.

That’s actually how I make most of my closest friends, I connect with them on a deeper level, a shared way of thinking.

It all happened that one night we stayed up until 4am drinking and talking on the patio.

I was missing out on the opportunity to connect with my audience on a deeper level by limiting my content to my niche—and not posting about all the things that matter to me.

But Don’t You Need a Niche at Some Point?

So far we’ve talked about:

1. How your brand is more of a movement than a niche..
2. The type of person you want to attract to your movement—those into personal growth.

Now, let’s talk about the one place where you DO need a niche.

Remember how we discussed Dan Koe at the beginning?

He’s the guy with millions of followers on social media who does 4M/year. He’s the one who makes videos about how “Niching Down is Terrible Advice”.

Well, I just finished a live cohort he taught. In the cohort, he told us that most of our content can be about whatever we want, as long as we mix in some content around our niche

That’s right…our niche.

Even though he says niching down is terrible advice, he told us to have a niche, and has a niche himself.

He helps people become writers and build personal brands and make money online.

So, has he been lying the whole time?

The answer is no. Dan is absolutely right. He just left out one critical detail.

You—as the brand—don’t have to niche down. You can position your brand around your movement and make 80% of your content tied to that. Anything you care about can be in your content.

However, what Dan doesn’t explicitly say in his videos is that the product that you sell should have a niche. This is where the misunderstanding lies.

Ali Abdaal makes content on a variety of topics but his paid program is about how to grow on Youtube.

Look at the influencers you follow and you will see the same pattern. They make a lot of personal development content, and occasionally talk about the niche thing they offer.

They make mostly broad content and sell niche products.

How to Find the Niche for Your Product

OK, so now we’ve finally revealed the area of your business that does need a niche. Let’s talk about how to pick it.

When picking the right niche for your product, start with the big 3 markets:

• Health
• Wealth
• Relationships

In order to pick, ask yourself…

Which of those 3 matter the most to you personally?

In which have you gotten the best results?

If one sticks out, consider offering a paid product within that market.

Then from there, niche down further. The smaller your audience, the more important this is.

Since my audience is a fraction of what Dan Koe’s is, I wouldn’t choose the niche of helping people grow a creator business like him. I’ve got to refine it more in order to compete.

Since I’ve published two books that have both generated multiple six figures for my coaching business, I decided to help people publish books to grow their creator businesses.

With that one extra step of niching down my offer, I went from a thousand competitors to practically none.

Think about how you can niche down your offer to something that:

1. Is true to your track record, and
2. Is unique to the market

If you can find something that does both, you’ve got a winner.

With this niche decision, we’re only talking about your product (and a small amount of your content).

The decision doesn’t have to last forever.

But What Do I Actually Post in My Content?

OK, once you’ve defined your movement and figured out the niche for your product, let’s talk about what to actually post.

Here’s what Dan Koe recommends:

• Make 80% of your content on any topic related to personal growth, so you can:
  • Reach a wider audience
  • Talk about your broader movement
  • Filter out those who aren’t into personal growth
  • Show the depth of your thinking and connect on a deeper level
• Make 20% of your content about your specific niche, so you can:
  • Educate them on the specific method you have used to solve a problem for yourself and/or your clients
  • Warm them up for your paid programs

Your audience will grow a deeper connection with you. They will see what you’re really all about.

They will also be made aware that you have an area of focus. This will warm them up to buy your stuff.

Here are the big 4 takeaways to remember:

1. You aren’t really picking a niche, you are starting a movement
2. Within your movement you are attracting personal development people
3. Choose a niche for your product only, and niche down enough in order to be competitive
4. Follow the 80/20 rule (80% of content about personal development, 20% about your niche)

When you position everything around you and your movement, and make most of your content broad, then you don’t have to worry about “pivoting” anymore because your movement, and most of your content, will stay the same no matter what.

You can change or add to what you sell and it won’t disrupt your creator business.

If you’re struggling to nail down the details of your niche, ​booking a 1:1 call​ with me can help.

In fact, I've done dozens of these calls where the client got complete clarity on their niche by the end of just a 75 minute call.

Now, go and create freely, like the beautifully complex and diverse individual that you are.

Brian