“What niche should I pick?”

This is a question I’ve been asked about a million times.

And when people ask me this question, I think they expect me to give them a step-by-step formula. A blueprint. A “just follow this and you’ll find your niche in 30 minutes” guide!

But that isn’t how I found my niche.

And, based on the dozens of successful creators and business owners I’ve worked with, it isn’t how they found theirs either.

So I’m going to take a slightly different approach with this email…

I’m going to show you the full journey I went through to find my own niche.

Because I think this will give you a much more realistic insight into “finding your niche” than any bollocks, step-by-step formula ever could.

(I am, of course, going to give you some principles at the end of this email to make the process a bit “easier” for you).

But here it is.

Here’s the exact journey I went on to find my niche as “The Common Sense Creator” who does a mix of copywriting and coaching services for (personal) brands.

Let’s rewind to day one…

Stage 1: What the fuck am I doing?

When I first came to X, I didn’t have a fucking clue what to write about.

Other than listening to Dan Koe tell me to “follow my curiosities”, I honestly felt completely lost.

So I took the scattergun approach.

I picked 3 things I was actually interested in:

1. Writing
2. Mindset shit
3. Powerlifting and training

And I just started spamming out content about those 3 topics.

How to lose bodyfat.
How to tell better stories.
How to become more confident.

I wrote about anything and everything related to those topics.

Whenever a thought popped into my mind about any of this shit, it went straight onto the ol’ interwebs.

I spent about 2-3 weeks in this phase (from memory).

And then I started listening for signals…

Stage 2: Tuning my “content antennae”

I’m a data-driven guy.

I’ve spent my life studying maths, doing data science and writing computer code.

And so I took the same “data-driven” approach with my content.

I paid attention to 3 things:

1. Which content was I enjoying writing about?
2. Which content of mine was my audience enjoying reading?
3. Which content was I enjoying reading about from other creators?

And as I did this, it became immediately apparent to me that although I enjoy fitness, reading and writing about it was boring AF (there’s only so many “here’s the 7 best foods to eat for a healthy body” posts you can read before you want to blow your brains out…)

Writing about… writing, however?

That was fun AF.

And I think the reason why is pretty simple:

I was writing about how to get better at writing.

And then because I was doing this all day, I noticed myself getting better at writing.

And because I could see myself getting better at writing, I began to enjoy it even more.

And this fuelled more learning.

Which fuelled more growth.

And thus, my not-so-vicious cycle of obsessive writing began.

Which was awesome.

But then I stumbled upon something even better…

Stage 3: Lasering in

Before long, I realised it wasn’t necessarily the writing I was enjoying.

Don’t get me wrong - I did and still do love writing for the sake of writing.

But what I really enjoyed was using words to trigger human psychology and get the response I wanted.

How to capture attention with my hooks.

How to hold people’s attention by opening curiosity loops.

How to get people to do stuff (like join you lovely lot in my newsletter…)

And as I researched, read tweets and Googled around like a fucking maniac, I learned about something that combined both writing and this “human psychology” aspect that I found so damn interesting…

I found copywriting.

And the more I read about this, the more I wanted to get good at it.

And it struck me that there was one simple way to do this:

Start doing it, lol.

So I made myself a little “test project”…

Stage 4: Becoming my own science experiment

What do copywriters actually do?

That’s the question I asked myself.

And after some pretty intense Google searches (most of which I did while at my 9-5, constantly looking over my shoulder to confirm the absolute spud who managed our team wasn’t snooping), I found out what copywriters do:

They write sales letters.

They design landing pages.

They send marketing emails.

So that’s exactly what I decided to do too.

I created a “test project” for myself which would require me to do all this stuff so that I could figure out two things:

1. Did I enjoy copywriting?
2. Was I any good at it?

What project did I pick?

A pretty simple one really:

I wrote my first (free) E-Book.

And I built it around something I’d already proven I could do: write viral hooks.

Then I started writing all the copy for it:

1. I designed the cover.
2. I created the landing page.
3. I wrote some “launch” emails.

I went above and beyond, meticulously figuring out how to market this FREE E-book so that people would actually want to download it.

And I’m so glad I went balls-to-the-wall on this.

Because even though I look back now and cringe at the landing page copy, book design and launch emails I sent to my list, this experience was absolutely pivotal in my “find my niche” journey.

Why?

Because it gave me a taste of what my life as a copywriter would look like.

And you know what?

I fucking loved it.

Which was awesome - I’d found my skill.

But I didn’t want to be just any ol’ brand or copywriter.

I wanted to be unique.

And so I started looking for a way to stand out from the crowd…

Stage 5: Finding common sense

The common advice to find your USP is to “look within”.

To introspect.

To think about yourself.

To figure out what makes you tick.

But that’s not what I did.

Instead, I took the opposite approach.

I looked at what all the other copywriters, marketers and creators were doing.

And when I read through their content, one thing stuck me more than any other:

This shit is way too complicated.

It’s all marketing jargon, overcomplicated bullshit and funnel this, funnel that.

Which, (to me at least), presented a gaping hole in the market.

Because what if someone could make things simple?

What if someone could cut all the BS jargon?

What if someone could present all this stuff in a way which was actually simple and easy to understand?

So what did I do?

I sat down and I wrote a list of all the things that characterised the type of creator I wanted to be:

1. Blunt
2. Direct
3. Simple
4. Pragmatic
5. To-the-point
6. Etc. etc. etc.

I Googled synonyms and absolutely pillaged the Thesaurus.

And within a few hours, the list was fucking enormous (I’m talking like 3-4 full sides of A4 paper).

And although “common sense” wasn’t on this list, this exercise was CRUCIAL.

Because it allowed me to set my frame.

It gave me a lens through which to focus my attention.

It gave me something to “look for”.

And then one day, while listening to a podcast by a fitness influencer called Greg O’Gallagher (you might know him as “Kinobody”), it clicked.

Because on this podcast, Greg explained how he’d built a 7-figure fitness business with no marketing background.

And as he explained his own journey, he said a phrase which I’ll never forget:

“I’ve learned a lot about marketing and copywriting in the past 5 years. But you know what? Pretty much everything I’ve learned has just been common sense.”

And that was it.

That was my lightbulb moment.

That was the phrase I’d been looking for.

That was what would characterise my entire journey as a creator.

And that, my friends, is how I found my niche as “The Common Sense Creator”.

Now, I’ve just spent a long time explaining how I found my niche.

But I want to make this email about helping you find YOUR niche.

So let’s extract a few of the key “niche-finding” principles you can apply to your own journey.

Principle 1: Finding your niche is organic

I hate to tell you this because I know you want me to “give you the answers”.

But you may not find your niche immediately.

Look at my journey - I didn’t!

I found my niche through trial-and-error.

I tested things out.

I tried different things.

I figured out what I did and didn’t like.

And, in all honesty, you’re probably going to go through the same thing.

In 6 months time I can almost guarantee your “niche” will look completely different to how it does today.

And that’s OK.

Because all you need to do right now is pay attention to 3 things:

1. What you enjoy writing about
2. What you enjoy reading about
3. What your audience enjoys reading about

And then double down on what’s working.

Principle 2: If in doubt, default to “writing”

Already have a high-value skill (copywriting, web design etc.) OR already know what high-value skill you want to focus on? 

Great.

Start posting content about that.

But if you don’t, then don’t stress - I didn’t either.

For now, just lean into writing. Get better at that. 

Figure out how to tell better stories. 
Figure out how to capture attention.
Figure out how to trigger human psychology.

The more content you put out, the more signal you’ll generate.

And the more signal you have, the quicker you’ll be able to figure out what you do and don’t want to do.

Principle 3: Extrospect before you introspect

Look at how I found my “common sense” positioning.

I didn’t start by looking at myself.

I started by looking at others.

Because that’s what allowed me to see the contrast between the content other people were creating and the content I wanted to create.

And if I’d skipped this step and only looked at myself, I’d never have spotted this gap in the market.

It’s very analogous to that Dan Koe quote:

“You need to figure out what you don’t like in order to figure out what you do like.”

Principle 4: Become your own science project

Remember how launching my first E-Book confirmed my interest in copywriting?

That’s what I suggest you do too.

Think of a project you can launch yourself.

If you’re considering web design, try building your own site.

If you’re considering email marketing, start your own newsletter.

If you’re considering copywriting, launch an E-Book or course of your own.

Not because any of this stuff will make you money directly (although it might).

But because it will:

1. Confirm you genuinely enjoy this type of work
2. Give you a (hopefully) successful project you can reference when talking to potential clients in the future

Trust me - you’ll learn more about your niche by doing your first self-generated project than any book or email (including this one) could ever teach you.

And that’s pretty much that.

I’m sorry I can’t give you a “formula” for finding your niche, guys.

Unfortunately, it just doesn’t work like that.

But I do hope this insight into how I found my niche has given you at least some clarity around how to find yours.

And if not…

Well, then I’m a bit fucked - because it’s the only advice I’ve got hahahahaha.

Talk soon,

Harry

PS. I built a $10k/month personal brand in under 4 months.

Want to do the same?

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