Find Your Voice, Not Your Niche

There are many people who would disagree with me here and that’s cool. They’re finding their voice too.

Anything that becomes predictable, especially in the creative process, usually dries up because fans have seen it all before or the creator is done flogging a dead horse.

The only restrictions we face when creating in life are those that we place on ourselves. Writing is no different. We’re not bound to one profession anymore just like we’re not bound to write about one subject or topic.

Many people nowadays have multiple careers throughout their lives. Some people even have multiple careers running simultaneously! Things are changing and so is the writing world.

Don’t forget: writing is an extension of the human experience. And the human experience is full of emotions, feelings, desires, cravings, stories, trauma, pain, wisdom, fear, courage, and compassion.

You have beautiful taste buds that enjoy certain foods while despising others. You have ears that make you want to dance to certain sounds while others make you cower in the corner. You enjoy specific sports, music, food, drinks, movies, countries, animals, cars, mindfulness practices, books, and people and through it all is you. You are the common dominator in all of your life’s experiences. And your opinion matters.

With all these subtle and unique differences — how could you ever be defined as one thing?

Finding your voice as a writer is embracing all of the weird and wonderful parts of your life and packaging it in a way that is you. After all, it’s your humour, your way of looking at the world, your way of storytelling, your opinions, thoughts, and experiences. Your story is your story.

It took me many months to realize that people just want realness. They don’t want to hear some third-party story that’s already been told. They want authenticity, vulnerability, and connection. It took me many more months to be brave enough to actually follow through on this. But as soon as I invited people into my weird little world my audience grew ten-fold. I never looked back after that really.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s scary. I still hesitate when it’s time to publish a vulnerable piece. But as Brene Brown once said:

“If you are not in the arena getting your ass kicked on occasion, I am not interested in your feedback. There are a million cheap seats in the world today filled with people who will never be brave with their own lives, but will spend every ounce of energy they have hurling advice and judgement at those of us trying to dare greatly. Their only contributions are criticism, cynicism, and fear-mongering. If you’re criticizing from a place where you’re not also putting yourself on the line, I’m not interested in your feedback.”

It’s harsh, maybe even too harsh, but it’s true.

And here’s another harsh truth — niches are safe.

They’re familiar, safe, and comfortable. Your place is known. You belong to a category alongside other known entities. However, when it’s just You out there in your own category it’s a helluva lot scarier. However, it’s also a helluva lot more freeing, liberating, and playful too. You set the rules. You choose the direction. And you set the boundaries.

I don’t know about you but I’d risk being free, liberated, and playful over being safe every single time. So, step into the arena. Get your ass kicked and then tell your story. People want to hear what you have to say.

The thing about niches

Niches are excellent for anyone wanting to be known in a specific field and for those reasons they are extremely effective. I write about breathwork all the time so I get it. I also want to be known as the breathwork guy but I don’t want breathwork to define me. That’s a big difference.

As humans, we like to put things into boxes. We like to label things and categorize things. We’re almost obsessed with it. Whether it’s by genre, colour, race, gender, state, nationality, food group, blood type, car model, sports team, sexuality, and so on. You name it, we’ll find a way to categorize it. However, when something doesn’t fit it messes with our little brains. Neurons misfire and we become confused.

Writers fall under the same curse, or at least they did, anyway. That was until about 5 years ago when writers could become authors overnight through self-publishing platforms, bloggers suddenly became some of the most influential voices out there, affiliate marketing became a lucrative business model, and anyone could legitimately call themselves a writer and build an audience whenever they wanted to. Tim Denning famously went from working in a bank to growing a massive online following.

He’s proof that the game has changed. There are no restrictions anymore.

Where niches work well

If you’re an affiliate marketer, you naturally belong to whatever niche your product or service falls under. So, by association, you also fall under that niche. But that’s not a bad thing. When we’re talking about affiliate marketing, it’s extremely helpful. That’s because:

1. They direct traffic towards your product/service.
2. It makes it easy to write within a framework.
3. You can add keywords into your work for the SEO robots to gobble up.
4. Search engines love association and recognition so the more you connect yourself to your affiliated products, the better chance you have at climbing to page 1.

For these four reasons and for the massive potential that affiliate marketing offers, I love niches. The commissions I’ve earned over the last 18 months through my affiliate links have literally saved my ass month after month.

However, for everything else, especially creative writing, I steer away from niches whenever possible.

To learn more about affiliate marketing, check out a blog that I wrote below that goes into a lot more detail on all the ins and outs.

Why Affiliate Marketing Is A Great Way To Make Money Online

Closing thoughts

In the beginning, writing within a niche can be very helpful. I used breathwork as my niche because I loved it (and still do), I had many stories and skills to share so writing came naturally, and it was what I knew. I could be authentic and real so I was.

Having a niche in the beginning also helped me to learn all about the different platforms that I could write on. I discovered what worked, what didn’t, how I like to write, what my writing style is, and it even helped me to believe that one day I could call myself a writer.

So, do whatever it takes to get your writing juices flowing and then invite people into your world. The world is ready for you — are you for the world?