The Secret Way to Reveal Your Niche

With Atomic Ideas

Read time: 5 mins

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Hey friends 👋

Our first newsletter was about controlling what you read. If you become who you consume, why not curate your social media feeds with heroes, experts, and masters of their craft?

Thanks for all the encouragement and feedback you gave me about that newsletter, I really appreciate it. And I’m looking forward to hearing how it’s helping you.

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In this second newsletter, I want to talk to you about the battle I’m having trying to “niche-down” as a Creator. I’ve always struggled to niche-down. I’m terrified of defining and confining myself. Can you relate?

I know that there are “riches in niches.” I know that, once you define what it is you’re doing, there’s an enormous amount of scope and momentum within it. Freedom within constraints.

Constraints make it easier to get started too. My old painting tutor, George, used to throw paint on his canvases before applying any brush strokes. He'd bark at us, “NEVER… start with a blank canvas!”

Choosing a niche is scary because I don’t want to feel trapped, I don’t want to alienate people, and I don’t want to get halfway through and lose focus.

But I also know that I can’t be a Jack of all trades and master of none if I’m going to make it as a Creator. This is hands down the biggest challenge I’m facing right now and I’ll have more to share with you soon.

In the meantime, I’ve happened upon something intriguing, and I want to give it to you (and get your feedback on it…)

How adding tags to your ideas can reveal your niche

As you may know, I’m using Notion to organise my research and writing.

One of the things you can do in Notion (you can also do it in other productivity apps) is add tags to things. What I’ve been doing is: whenever I have an idea or come across an idea that lights me up (a thought, a tweet, a piece of art, whatever), I add it to a list in Notion. I’ve called the list “Atomic Ideas.” That’s a fancy name but it’s just a list.

Now, I don’t unpack the idea or do anything else with it at that stage; I just stick it in the list as it is.

And then, crucially, I add between three and five tags to it.

Here is a screenshot of my list of Atomic Ideas in Notion

My hope is that, in the future, if I’m writing about something that relates to one of those tags, I can filter the list to show me more. Suddenly, bang, I’ve got all these related ideas. They are there and I can pull them into the essay or whatever I’m doing. Cool, right?

🤔 So, what’s all this got to do with niches?

By tagging ideas, I’ve found a subtle way of revealing my niche, or at least the topics and themes I’m most interested in, which is a clue to my niche.

Here’s how it works: I’ve been collecting atomic ideas for a few months now. This morning I looked at the list, which I haven’t looked at for a while, and what struck me was that many of the tags overlap.

The commonest tags are showing me, organically, where my deepest interests lie!

Common tags are clues to my niche

The lesson is: don't go looking for your niche, don’t sit there trying to pull it out of your head, that’s too hard.

Instead, start a list. Every time something resonates with you, add it and stick some tags on it – tags that feel right to you at that moment.

Then leave the list alone and let time do its thing, let marination happen.

Keep adding and keep adding and keep adding.

Over time, the tags start to group together into a collection of similar ideas, values and mental models that matter most to you.

For me, a tag that keeps coming up is “actualisation,” as in self-actualisation. Another one that’s in there a lot is “awareness.” Another is “projects.” I look at them now and I think to myself, “Yeah, that’s my bag!”

And if you said to me, ”Hey Harrison, do you wanna come to a class? This class is about self-actualisation, awareness and building projects,” I’d be like, ”F**k yeah! Sign me up now! I’m there!” because I’m on it with those things. I can’t get enough of them.

Get started with this Notion template and reveal your niche

Is niching down on your mind at the moment? If so, how are you going about it?

Or maybe you’re trying to go the other way? Trying to expand your expertise, interests or style. Hit me up and let me know what you’re doing.

If you’re niching, give Atomic Ideas a go. I promise you’ll have moments where you feel you understand yourself on a deeper-than-ever-before level.

Finding your niche is like searching for a lost treasure - except the treasure is yourself. And let's be honest, who doesn't want to find themselves?

Remember, the journey is as important as the destination. What kind of riches will you find along the way? Perhaps you'll discover a hidden talent for making balloon animals, or a passion for writing about the history of dentistry. The possibilities are endless!

That’s it for this edition of the newsletter. I hope you found this useful, and I can't wait to hear about your own results. If you try it, feel free to share your tags and niches with me. Who knows, maybe we can create a support group for those of us trying to niche-down!

– Harrison

Here’s a Notion template you can use to try the Atomic Ideas niching process yourself.

PS If you're finding value in these newsletters, please spread the word and share it with anyone you know who is on their own niche-finding journey. Not only will you be helping someone discover new perspectives, but you'll also be supporting me in continuing to write and create content that can assist others in their path to self-discovery.

Dall•E prompt: A man painting a canvas about his struggle to choose a creative niche, oil paint style

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