Riches are in niches.

You must narrow down and be specific. Talking to everyone is talking to no one.

But at what point does this become a problem?

When the pendulum swings too far, everyone follows the same formula, and when trying to differentiate yourself, you create a niche that serves literally no one.

At the core of entrepreneurship lies a paradox: Riches are in niches, yet too much niching can lead to poverty of opportunity.

When everyone starts doing the same thing, and to differentiate yourself, you end up creating a niche of "no one".

Niching in marketing is an extension of human behavior in general. It's not a concept that's so alien to people that's hard to grasp. But the problem starts when everyone starts following the same niche. Solving the same problem. Serving the same solution.

To stand out? You have two options.

To niche down, or niche up — but either of these decisions powers up not your marketing but your thinking and lifestyle in general.

And this decision has never been more critical than now. Now, more than ever, with the internet in the shape it is, people are giving up on careers, entire industries, or worse, themselves — all because getting clarity on their main focus in life is the hardest challenge they're facing.

Creators, freelancers, and business owners are pivoting to new directions, new audiences, and new things because this period of transition needs one to shift priorities.

Layoffs in Big Tech, Big Pharma, and any industry in general are happening at a rate rivaling the post-pandemic hiring freeze wave. The path you choose determines not just your marketing strategy, but your entire future trajectory.

The Niche of "No One"

The main problem that creators and business owners are finding today isn't that no one's listening. It's that they're not catching the "right" attention.

The core problem isn't obscurity - it's irrelevance.

Catching the right attention was never this big a challenge, and AI produced content with new modes of mass communication giving an open message that "we don't care". It's "just business" is apparently great signal/message to send for big organizations hoping to keep things on-brand, on-message, on-revenue as if communication and marketing or talking to another person should be taken lightly.

But here's where new creators make their fatal mistake: trying to target everyone (too broad), someone somewhere (too niche), and ending up doing nothing with their time.

We see this manifesting in two extremes: you get a social media/creator feed full of 1-2 line motivation boosters (which is fine). But not enough to stop the scroll.

Or 1-2 page posts on social media as if social media works like SEO, and just talking to your "connected" audience is enough. LinkedIn/Threads/X have this problem, where creators/freelancers and business owners think that social media "copy" is aimed at conversion.

Most people think that talking to an apparent connected audience is enough today. That same audience may or may not be scrolling that app, but if you're selling something out in the open, it's a good chance it won't convert. Unless you have social leverage.

As a result, most people thinking they must post on LinkedIn/X/Threads with the back-of-mind train of thought to "just post it", don't bother putting in an effort at getting attention and holding it. They're aiming for the sale, not the attention. But social media is an attention-target game. Ads, social media "copy" don't work unless it catches the right attention from the right people.

And this is where the cruel irony emerges: When you go too narrow with your niching, you're effectively talking to no one. Because the connected audience may or may not be listening/stopping to scroll/or engaging. Because it's nothing new. To buy a product, everything starts with the first step of selling an idea. If you've not solved the concept of selling the "idea of you", or the "idea of stopping to read/listen/engage" with you, you might as well post AI-generated content with a spray and pray approach and hope for the best to stick.

The entire point of social media was to "connect with others". What Zuckerberg started with Facebook was to connect with others at Harvard, and that caught on because it was cool to stay connected with people en masse.

But it evolved to complete disconnection from others, rewarded by the Meta/Facebook as the corporate structure is void of any soul now. And they're choosing to double down on the very same, instead of fix what they stand for! Creating the ultimate example of something that started for someone, and only for "no one" now.

The crisis of hyper-niching

Fast forward to today's landscape - a paradoxical ecosystem of disconnection at scale. Why? Because everyone is doing the same thing, posting the same Twitter/X screenshots on their social media, because "someone" told them it would work. They're told to find their niche, solve their problems with content and voila, you have a client! If only AI made this easy instead of devolving it to disconnection.

The biggest pet peeve I have is not being able to understand what someone is saying clearly and means to say it from their own brain. That means one of two things: what is being said is too niche, or you're being too clever or unclear to say it clearly. The Category of One doesn't mean that you're the only one in the room. And talking to no one. It means forging a path where you find your own self first before you:

→ Guide others there

→ Build an audience there

→ Keep everyone at a distance from your place

But here lies the trap that ensnares so many: the problem with trying to be different for the sake of being hyper niche puts you in a room where you have to try extra hard to find those lurkers that would really listen to you. Enter your world, no matter how big or small it is, and stay there.

It's not a one-person touch and go show that gets the most rewards, its those small underground rooms you want to build where you're heard by the people who take out time to listen to you.

This principle breaks down when applied carelessly online: when you place the same concept to the internet, you narrow yourself too much before even mastering the absolute basics of retaining, attracting and even more important — repelling the people you need to keep in and out of your world.

The fundamental truth remains: If you have no room, you have no audience, or the mic to say anything.

So, "find your niche" can be a big fat lie if you've not mastered the basics of finding yourself first.

What's happening as a result?

• Niche fatigue
• Creative claustrophobia
• Echo chambers
• Engagement pods

You're building a world/product/niche/space destined to fail: Its a game you build thats a lose lose or a race to the bottom. You niche so hard, so narrow, that talking to anyone up the stream becomes a chore that you can't solve. This is called the niche of No one.

→ Creators and freelancers are building content silos so tiny not even they want to stay inside.

→ Business owners are solving carbon-copy problems in carbon-copy ways because “that’s what works.”

→ Audiences are seeing the same hooks, same templates, same recycled advice — tuning out what used to grab them.

The very tactics meant to connect us end up building walls.

It's called installing cynicism in your audience. The best form of self sabotage. Destroy your world before you even begin to create the same!

The path to differentiation shouldn't lead to isolation.

The Niche of No One: The Cost of Wrong Attention

Imagine niching down so hard, you can't explain it to your own audience. Your own self is making you doubt why you even started it. It started because you got one signal, job, and gig that made you go down that road?

But what if that was the only shop on the long road to nowhere? And you've gone too far to even consider the cost of coming back, so gargantuan, it paralyzes you. Because then, switching or creating your own Category of One, you would need to do a ton of work to attract people to dwell on that path and talk to you.

Here's what most creators/freelancers going down this dangerous territory end up doing:

• You lose momentum: Constantly pivoting for new micro-niches drains you, leaving you with whiplash and zero progress. Constant survival state, no growth or thinking long-term, survival. You're creating a world where you want a system that's as good as hand-to-mouth living.
• You abandon your real identity: Trying to fit the template, you end up sounding just like everyone else — your message flat, your personality hidden, your brand undifferentiated. No offer/positioning/messaging can rescue you if there's no one to listen to you.
• Real lives are on hold: Talented people pause projects, question their careers, or quit altogether — all because they can’t “pick the right thing.” Their survival state won't let them wake up thinking of a new day. The same problem is on their mind, clouding the judgment to focus on something they can build.

Your "Niche of One": Creating your best life

When you're in a niche of no one, you're bound to be in your survival state.

That means no signal, financial stability and resistance beyond your physical and mental psyche can take. Ideally pain and resistance is a good sign that you're on to something. But at one point, the best way to create a life for yourself when in absolute survival is to do what others are doing, master the walk and create your path from the point where walking the same road means getting trampled.

You may not need a new road altogether, maybe an intersection that leads you down a path that's not as frequented. Instead of no one there, you get your people from the road of many to the road of you. The Niche of You.

If you've solved a problem, it is a problem that' general and something you can help others with. It's not an artificial mission you pick up on the road that no one is watching or interested in going down.

You solve a big problem with your unique lens in a way that's better or different from others.

You don't need to innovate from the get-go. Start with some imitation without letting the sheep mentality take over your mind.

Because the best way to stay in survival state forever as an entrepreneur is to solve problems for a Niche of No One, and hope it becomes the Niche of "Someone".

You need to be seen by the people you want to help, but not at the cost of your own survival. You can only help them if you have your own cup full.

Most creators/freelancers fail to understand this, and end up creating products, choosing paths, and niching down in ways that are incomprehensible to the general audience first.

The best life you can begin creating for yourself - the riches in the niches begins with the right targeting. But to focus and target someone, you must have the energy to fire away and see if it hits and try again if it fails.

If you're starving yourself, costing your health and sanity as an entrepreneur trying to create from a place that no one has ever done before to "stand out", that's a cost too great for self-sacrifice.

Yes, we don't need too many cookie-cutter creators, curators, consultants, or anyone else offering the same thing. But you have to ask yourself, are you willing to go down the path that leads you to trekking unexplored territory that's arid without researching it?

Or

Finding a land that you can go to and fertilize or guide people to?

Exploration, growth and risk taking are awesome skills and mindset traits to have, but it shouldn't be at your cost.

The rich niche isn't found in following trends or copying what's working for others pixel to pixel/word to word. It's found in the intersection of what you love, what you're good at, and what the world needs. It's found in the courage to be specific when everyone else is general, and to be human when everyone else is hiding behind automation.

The richest niche of all is the one that only you can fill.