The perils of niching down
Essentially the most ubiquitous piece of recommendation within the creator economic system is to area of interest down. Immerse your self in a single subculture. Decide a subject. Personal it. Specialize. Change into recognized for one factor.
This recommendation is in all places as a result of in some ways, it really works. Web media is noisy and aggressive, and it is simpler to earn consideration when your work is hyper-specialized. If you’re centered on a single subculture or matter, advertising and marketing and monetization develop into extra controllable and predictable. In case your purpose is to create issues on-line, and earn a residing in a considerably dependable style, niching down is a great wager.
That is why, up till mid 2021, I used to be fucking obsessed with area of interest technique. I would constructed my first enterprise, Filmmaker Freedom, round serving to indie filmmakers break away from business gatekeepers. I did this by going deep into the mechanics of how establish area of interest audiences, then promote movies on to followers, as an alternative of by a community of center males. Though I am not in that world anymore, I am nonetheless immensely pleased with that work.
The early variations of Ungated have been additionally centered round area of interest technique. I figured I might take what I would been doing for filmmakers, and apply it to all varieties of web creatives, from writers to YouTubers to podcasters and past. As such, I began creating a business philosophy called NicheCraft, and wrote the most effective information on the web for discovering a niche you love.
My whole on-line id started congealing round this one idea. I used to be following all of my very own recommendation, and slowly turning into The Area of interest Man™. And I used to be assured that my experience on this space would lead to a profitable enterprise.
After which, I blew all of it up.
The issue with area of interest technique, in a nutshell, is that it is a dependable destroyer of the human spirit. It is constructed on the idea that we are able to section ourselves, and switch one static side of the self into an financial engine that makes the remainder of our life really feel how we want it’d really feel. It is a good concept in principle, and the sort of factor that is perhaps true if people have been machines. However after every part I’ve skilled, I am unable to delude myself into believing it anymore.
Over the previous couple of years, I’ve met a shocking variety of creators who have been outwardly profitable, with thriving companies, however who felt trapped and resentful. They adopted all the most effective practices, niched down, created what they thought their viewers needed, and many others. And whereas it usually “labored” for producing revenue, it not often resulted in them feeling alive, genuine, related, free. In reality, it led to the alternative. A sense of deadness, disconnection from self and others, and a perceived lack of company and freedom.
This should not have stunned me, as a result of I skilled the identical factor. Throughout the 2020 lockdowns, I had an “oh shit” second the place I got here nose to nose with a tough reality. I did not like my enterprise anymore, and if I saved forcing myself to develop it, I would find yourself on my deathbed at some point, stuffed with remorse for the life I might have lived had I been brave sufficient to stroll away.
My ardour for filmmaking peaked in 2014, throughout my final yr of movie college. Then got here a gradual, barely-noticeable downward slide. By 2019, I felt no want to make movies of my very own, or immerse myself in filmmaking tradition anymore. However as a result of my livelihood trusted serving that neighborhood, I felt like I needed to preserve going. The area of interest enterprise I would created, which was beginning to succeed financially, was incentivizing me to carry out an inauthentic model of myself to the world, and to spend my days on work that deadened my spirit.
A part of me might all the time sense I used to be residing out of integrity. However one other, a lot louder half satisfied me I simply needed to work tougher, power myself extra, and that the fervour would return as soon as my enterprise acquired large enough. “You may really feel higher if you’re pulling in six figures,” the interior dictator would say.
So it goes.
The extra I’ve immersed myself within the philosophy of 1,000 true followers, the extra I’ve realized how ass-backwards our greatest practices for reaching it are.
1,000 true followers is, by its nature, an extended sport. An infinite sport. One thing that is not presupposed to occur rapidly or simply. But it surely’s price pursuing, over the course of years, as a result of it results in a life rooted in feeling how we yearn to really feel. It is that combo of emotions I pointed at earlier—alive, genuine, related, free. That is why we pursue 1,000 true followers. Not as a result of we would like an internet enterprise for its personal sake, however as a result of we wish to share our inventive presents freely, join with the individuals who care, and construct flourishing, economically sustaining lives for ourselves.
Area of interest technique, which is commonly introduced as the easiest way to attain 1,000 true followers, is a brief sport. It excels at producing instant, observable outcomes. It is the proper strategy for individuals who crave most management and certainty. Area of interest technique is an efficient anesthetic for these elements of ourselves that squirm and scream when confronted with ambiguity and doubt, these elements which can be too impatient and scared to play lengthy video games. The interior dictator loves niches. They’re one hell of a painkiller for the anxiety-ridden inventive thoughts. And it is a drug I steadily dosed myself with for years, all of the whereas rationalizing it as a panacea.
All of this is able to be high quality if area of interest technique resulted in creatives feeling nice about their lives. But it surely does not. As a rule, it results in a downward spiral of choices that really feel inauthentic and compelled. These choices pile up, one after the other, till we have constructed a machine that meets our financial wants, however on the expense of our spirit. Rolling off the bed within the morning, we really feel no spark of aliveness or reference to this work. However we persist, as a result of the interior dictator spins up catastrophic tales of what is going to occur if we alter course. So we preserve footslogging away, propping up this shoddy, lifeless construction with each ounce of power we’ve. Even when we’ve 1000 paying clients, and everybody within the exterior world thinks we’re residing the dream, this factor we have constructed is not 1,000 true followers. It is hell.
I want I might level to a single second the place I knew I wasn’t The Area of interest Man™ anymore. That certain would make for a tidy ending to this story, would not it?
However honestly, it has been a messy and irritating journey. Simply as my id as a filmmaker dissolved over 5 lengthy years, so too did this reality emerge slowly, effervescent up from some deeper interior realizing. And very similar to the years I spent greedy onto movie, making an attempt to make it really feel alive once more, I spent most of 2021 making an attempt to disregard the voice inside saying “this ain’t it, chief” at any time when I would speak about niches.
Practising the artwork of NicheCraft did not really feel good anymore. I knew this, but I used to be terrified to let it go. It felt silly to stroll away from the mental capital I would accrued throughout my years of area of interest obsession. It lastly felt like I had actual management over my future. If I caught on this path, I might be recognized for one thing, and my checking account could be full. I used to be sure of it. However no quantity of “head realizing” might drown out the “coronary heart realizing” that NicheCraft was not main me in direction of an satisfying, worthwhile life.
There’s one different piece to this story that feels vital. Someplace in 2021, I stumbled right into a nook of twitter colloquially generally known as TPOT, or This A part of Twitter. Along with being a subculture outlined by friendliness and openness to expertise, TPOT’s acquired a big contingent of individuals doing deep emotional and religious work. As is the customized, I made pals with a lot of them, and so started 18 months of unfucking my worldview and enlivening my spirit.
Western modernity situations us by our upbringing, schooling system, and work tradition, to view ourselves as rational, financial machines. Homo Economicus is the water we swim in, and is the default set of directions for find out how to navigate the world. We’re additionally conditioned to not belief ourselves, particularly these pesky interior voices, however as an alternative to defer to Consultants and Exterior Authority. After I was mired in that worldview, NicheCraft made good sense, and was the apparent alternative for find out how to strategy Ungated.
However by 18 months of emotional and religious work, that worldview fell aside. My buddy Michael Ashcroft introduced me to the frame of non-coercion, and created house for me to start out trusting myself extra deeply. In brief order, I began listening to the interior voice, and heading its name. I gave up on NicheCraft, and as an alternative began being extra of myself on-line. As a substitute of Including Worth on twitter, as I believed I ought to, I turned a foolish lowercase shitposter. I began having enjoyable, following the aliveness, and making pals. And the strangest factor occurred. My enterprise did not collapse. As a substitute, I began making a small handful of true followers who did not see me as The Area of interest Man™, however as Rob.
Seems, there is a stark distinction between creating true followers round one slim, inflexible side of your self, and creating true followers of a dynamic, evolving human. Area of interest technique is nice on the former, however the latter requires one thing else completely.
I can not deny that I’m a fluid, evolving, self-renewing human. My life is richer and extra vibrant after I’m not locking myself in a field. That is why I’m not striving to construct a rigorously calculated private model designed to Add Worth or create the utmost quantity of shoppers. I might go down that street and make a fuck ton of cash, however the expense to my spirit could be far too nice. As a substitute, I wish to be totally myself, totally alive, and preserve connecting with individuals who worth the complete expression of my vitality, and who who wish to partake within the journey with me. These are true followers. And that is why Ungated exists.
The primary model of this essay had a very completely different ending, however I ended up re-writing it from scratch. For those who’d just like the learn the primary model, together with why I selected to re-write it, check out this post.
Each time I speak about 1,000 true followers, I am in all probability going to level you in direction of The Frontier. That is my annual membership for fellow inventive homies who want to break free from area of interest technique and are available alive of their work. It additionally occurs to be the easiest way to develop into a real fan of me, and assist the work I am doing.