Are you desperately trying to define your niche?
I can relate.
In this last episode of Coffee With a Beatboxer, I met with Lina Velsoa and she interviewed me.
How kind of her.
Lina is a magical mirror.
She’s also very Colombian, the accent gives it away.
Anyway…
She reflects back your weak points AND your strengths.
You see…
Eight months ago, I started this blog and podcast project with the aim of finding my niche through writing and taking people I’d never met, out for a coffee and some conscious conversation.
And now, at the end, the biggest piece of advice I can give is this:
Find a need and fill it.
.
Not a new idea and certainly not mine.
But probably the main path to business success.
The other idea is to create something new and convince people they need it.
Like what the television did, but I tried that approach and currently suck at it.
Have you been trying to draw out something of use for the market from your values, gifts, strengths, experience, your ‘Why’ (i.e. Simon Senek) and passions without any luck?
It’s not self-doubt that is holding us back; that wonderful quality of ours we’ve transformed, made peace with, learned how to integrate and realise it has the same highest value as our more preferred side.
We made peace with that a while ago.
Didn’t you?
You’ve got to the point where you’re simply over the search for your niche and something has to grip.
Is this being to hard on yourself?
Whatever your age, however long you’ve been searching for your niche, if you value being of service and self-direction, you’re probably feeling the frustration of not be able to name that all illusive niche.
Here’s the trap to avoid.
I feel foolish for not realising the simplicity of the mistake myself.
What I’ve been doing is trying to work out my passion, my niche and gift AND THEN find somewhere in the market where it would be of real use to people.
I even read about this common error from Timothy Ferris’s book, The 4 Hour Work Week.
Don’t create a niche or product or service AND THEN go try find someone who needs it.
This is bound to fail every time and use a lot of your efforts in the process.
Fortunately, I’m another young player who has fallen for this trap and made it obvious what you should not do.
You ought to do yourself and the world a favour, and go ask people and companies what problems they have had for some time, one that they are already spending money on and offer your unique way of solving it.
Ask for a list of their biggest challenges and offer your solution.
Pick the problem you can solve and will enjoy solving for some time.
Pick the target audience, with this problem, the target audience you most want to work with over time.
Pick the way you solve the problem with you gifts, values and experience.
This is probably a moment away from defining your niche.
Shall we get to work?
I wish someone had grabbed me by the shoulders 5 years ago and started shaking until this point was driven through my thick and probably alien-human hybrid skull.
Don’t fall for this trap people.
And make sure you ask Lina Velosa out for a coffee, she is mysteriously powerful at what she does.
What you should do now is start asking people to tell you their problems, the ones they know they have, want to solve and are already spending money on to fix.
That there folks equals the yellow brick road to a viable business idea.
It’s like the other piece of a two piece puzzle that’s been hiding under the xbox console for about a year.
One piece of the puzzle is what you are passionate about.
The other piece is what people actually need.
Hallelujah.
Now it’s time for a game of mix and match.
Your mix of talents, matched to their problems.
Welcome to Nicheland.
Here ends the blog project, Coffee With a Beatboxer 😉
Coffee With A Beatboxer 