How to Decide on Your Niche: Locating Your Genius
Niche is found at the intersection of your origin, your mission, and your vision. Below, I explain. - Dominique Paloma Bible, Off Da Beaten Path Learning LLC
I recently offered a masterclass on identifying niche. Watch the whole hour here! At the end, I actually workshop participant’s possible niches in real time. The audience? Freelancers and entrepreneurs from the Laptop Lifestyle Master Program. Niche is a person’s most suitable profession. I see a niche as an expression of genius.
Tragically, many people don’t know their genius. They don’t have access to it or they can’t name it.
This post will describe a process of locating your genius through a series of four questions.
What’s your origin story?
“Anything we keep coming back to as a recurring theme is what we’re meant to be doing.” – Daniel Priestley
Reflecting on your origin story means thinking back to childhood and seeing what brought you joy early on. When you were innocent and still forming in fundamental ways, what did you most enjoy doing? Name facts you remember and do so without judgment. This could be when you were a child or a teenager. What did you spend the most time thinking about? What were your repeated curiosities? What concerned you the most? By piecing together your origin story, you are connecting initial dots that will signal what you’re best suited for based on your natural genius.
What’s your mission?
Asking yourself about your mission means drilling down on your contribution as a human being. What is the big impact you want to have on the world? And, importantly, why does that matter to you?
My mission is to empower through choice. It matters to me because my story of mental illness and dropping out of school taught me the danger of not understanding my capacity for choice. It was crippling. After much hard work, I was finally able to see how I could help myself and make an impact, which seems so obvious now thank God. Now it’s my mission to spread this idea, that everyone has the ability to choose for themselves what is best for them.
What is your vision?
Vision includes your objectives you want to accomplish in the future and how. To answer this question regarding vision, you’ll need to decipher your values and principles. These will relate to you deeply and personally.
A simple definition of a value is a core belief that dictates action, thought, and experience. My values are: honesty, humility, and courage. These values direct everything I do and how I do it. When you are faced with a difficult decision entangled with nuance, you’ll want to have these values closeby to help you move according to what you care about. When we move according to others’ values, when we fail to name and know our own values, we end up creating and living in chaos. Instead, plant value flags.
A simple definition of a principle is a core statement that dictates action, thought, and experience. My current principles were posted on my Instagram. Think of these as guidelines or declarations. These declarative statements should be small and easy to memorize, but big in their potency.
Once you’ve gathered your preferred approach, you can clarify your objectives. What are your goals? What do you want to create?
What is the need?
This is where you crosscheck your passion with what is needed. Identifying your niche or genius is a profound journey, but its ultimate validation lies in meeting a genuine need in the world. To ensure that your expertise aligns with what's needed, thorough market research is essential. Investigate the current landscape within your field of interest. What problems are prevalent? One tool that is useful for this includes checking key terms in Google Trends. Then, drill down to specifics. What challenges are individuals or organizations facing? Understand problems and what is missing in the market, so you can customize your genius to offer solutions that resonate immediately.
You’ll want to follow this process of questioning with continued questioning and testing. Stay adaptable and receptive to feedback.
