How to Switch From Consumer to Creator – Find Your Niche6 min read

Today, I will show you how to go from a content consumer to a content creator by finding your Niche.

If you can identify your place on the internet, you can develop a personal brand, draw attention, and start a business—all while enjoying every second.

Unfortunately, most people take a much less enjoyable and less successful approach to an online game that requires 100% commitment.

The right niche does not equal success. The niche for you does.

I’ve watched hundreds of creators fail on the internet by choosing the wrong niche

The most common reasons:

• Information Overload
• Forgetting Themselves and Picking the Most Popular Niche
• Differentiating Themselves
• Being “Locked-In”

They mimic the most popular creators and wonder why they aren’t getting millions of views or clicks like the prominent creators. Then it’s a race to differentiate themselves among the bottom, which is no fun.

Here’s the better way:

Step 1: Do an Info-In Analysis

We need to figure out what we consume intentionally vs unintentionally.

I love the Red Rising Fantasy series as well as Ender’s game. However, I don’t find myself thinking about the story arc, character structure, how to fly in space, or the scientific validity of the books.

I also love health and wellness. Heck, I’ve spent 10+ years studying it, and I am a doctor. The difference here is that I do critically think about the things I research and review. Was that article using sufficient evidence to make those claims? Can I integrate this evidence into my life? Where do I think the future of this science is going?

Importantly, in the second example, I spend my time obsessing and thinking about certain things, like sleep, and I also analyze and assess my thoughts later, like while I sleep. Instead of mindlessly reading or watching content solely for enjoyment. Here’s how to do an info-in analysis:

1. Write down the last ten things you watched, read, listened to, and spoke about.
2. Write down the last ten things you thought about while doing a menial task, like washing the dishes or going for a walk.
3. Find the overlap; which 3-4 ideas do you think you could write an essay on every week for three years?

Step 2: Self-Analysis

Now that we know what interests us, we need to figure out if people care. As a word of encouragement, there are 8 billion people on earth, 6 billion of which have access to the internet. The odds that someone worldwide is similarly interested in an extremely niche topic are high. The content creation from your niche will likely be more successful, however, if your niche fulfills one or more of these criteria:

• A topic that people come to you for advice about or guidance on (my parents always ask me for computer advice, and in medical school, people asked me how to set up Anki all the time); write out five topics
• Something that comes much easier to you than it does to other people (I was a competitive video game player in my teens; I could design study plans and usually get grades higher than most of my peers): write out five topics
• Where you have extended experience or professionalism (I’ve spent 10+ years in higher education, I’ve worked in venture capital as an investor, I am a medical doctor, I have 500k+ subscribers across multiple channels, and now I have and people have viewed my content 30 M+ times), write out five topics.

So my best choices are probably around studying, health and wellness, or content creation.

At this point, you have all you need. From step 1 and step 2, you should have a list of at least 30 niches you could go into. Usually, the one that has the most overlap is the best. However, you simply don’t know yet. You haven’t published anything. Select one that you are simply most excited to talk about. We can iterate later.

But, if you want to make sure you are ahead of the game from the get-go, read the next two steps.

Step 3: Differentiate

There are only two reasons people will watch your content over other people’s content when they have no idea who you are, is two reasons:

The only reason people will care about your content is if they know you, you educate them, or you entertain them. That’s it.

• You educate them better
• You entertain them better

That’s it. Kaput.

Importantly, this isn’t about brute force quantity of education or entertainment. Hopefully, over time, you will begin to develop your style. Then, maybe, if you are as suave and an amazing person like myself, people may read your content just because they like you. This is called loyalty or trust, and it is the most important thing you can cultivate as an individual creator, person, or brand.

Step 4: Iterate

Once we’ve figured out how we are going to beat the competition, and do it in a way that is enjoyable to ourselves, we need to see how the internet, or market, is responding and adapt.

In the beginning, no one cares about you, and no one will be reading your content.

Unfortunately, that’s the way of the world unless you have some reason for the internet to know who you are. You have to be so good they can’t ignore you. You have to earn their eyeballs.

• Which titles are people clicking on more? Which images?
• What are people telling me about my content? What is good? What is bad?
• What do I actually enjoy publishing?

But you don’t get any of this, if you aren’t publishing. You are publishing at this point right? At least once a week?

Overall, just start creating:

1. What topics are constantly swirling around your head?
2. Which of those topics would other people like to hear about from you?
3. Why should people hear from you as opposed to Joe Schmo? I hear Joe Schmo has some really great material…
4. Review what went well and what didn’t. Iterate, iterate, iterate.