YOUR NICHE CAN BE ANYTHING, EVEN EGG FRIEDRICE!

 I love, love, love, love, Uncle Roger.

If you have never heard of Uncle Roger, stop everything you are doing and watch this video and some of his other videos on YouTube. They are great, and you won’t be disappointed.

So as you may have guessed, his niche is mainly people who like what he talks about in his videos (mostly egg fried rice made with MSG.) Before Uncle Roger, he made other great comedy videos, but they weren’t as successful as his Uncle Roger videos.

Being the Socrates that I am, I decided to turn this into a life lesson. The first thing is, don’t stop producing because you haven’t hit yet. Imagine he didn’t continue making his initial videos. He probably would have an audience to watch his Uncle Roger videos and share them. The second is that you should be ready for success. Have something to show the people who find you when you blow. Finally, find your niche.

Finding your niche can be very difficult. If you are wondering what it is, it’s like finding your people.

 So, if you write quirky short articles like me, your niche will be a group of people who love quirky short articles.

 If you sell makeup, who are you selling to? Is it that shy girl in Volta hall who likes to use just eyeliner and lip gloss when she goes for lectures or is it for that bank manager who walks confidently into her branch and all eyes follow her?

You can’t be everyone’s cup of tea, so finding your niche is like finding your clique. Once in a while, people will wander from others and stumble into yours, and if you are lucky, your niche will become mainstream. We don’t know why or how it happens, but we have all seen it happen.

I have tried and failed at many, many, many things (sigh), but when I realized that what I do doesn’t have to be everything for everyone, it was like some pressure was off me. I am having more fun now exploring.

I didn’t even know that there was something called quirky writing. An awesome lady who runs Munyo Leisure told me.  (check them out on LinkedIn and Twitter if you want to progress in your career journey) When I heard that, three things happened: I went to find out what this quirky writing she was talking about was, I learnt that some people like it, and I wasn’t shy to put my articles out there anymore. I also finally understood why I found some other articles hard to read.

Before you find your niche, you will experiment with a lot of things. I am not exaggerating. I have done my fair share, and I still haven’t found it yet. You should also be ready to fail and pick yourself up and fail and pick yourself up and probably fail again until you succeed. I wish that I could sugarcoat it.

If it is any consolation, it gets less scary to try new things because you are not as afraid of failing.

You should also be ready to adapt your plan, idea, or product. I took a course on product development, and one thing that stuck out to me is the fact that whatever you are putting out there doesn’t have to be perfect before you release it. Develop an MVP (I know what you are thinking, I thought the same thing too).

 An MVP is a minimum viable product, which in everyday English means the version of your product/service that people can use to meet their needs without all decoration (a.k.a the functional skeleton). Then as more people use your product/service and give you feedback, you can build it to meet their needs.

 That way, you don’t waste money on things that your customers may hate or not even notice because the painful truth is that it is about them and not you.

I feel like I have gone off-topic, hmm, but remember two things from today’s TED write, find your people (niche) and don’t do the most at the beginning so that you don’t waste your money (MVP).

Yes, I sometimes crack dry jokes. Let’s move on and enjoy our day.