How to Identify & Validate the Perfect Niche (For You) | Ep. 23

Do not skip out on validating your niche before you invest time and energy into creating content, building your channel, and attempting to build your business. In this episode, you’ll answer a few important questions to help you identify your perfect niche and validate it!

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Transcript

Meredith  
Have you ever felt conflicted with trying to decide what direction to go, like, which niche to choose for your business, or YouTube, or if you have a niche? Have you been kind of plugging along, not really sure if it's going to really grow into something and be profitable, and you want it to be successful, and you think it's gonna be successful, but you don't really know. And you kinda wanna know before you put all your time and energy into it. Well, if you can relate to any of those, I have some really unfortunate news. There is no way of really knowing for sure, but there are some questions that you can ask yourself, and some specific things that you can research to make a really good educated guess. So let's talk about it here on Video brand infusion, episode number 23 My name is Meredith. I'm here to help you infuse the best video marketing strategies into your business so that you can grow your audience and generate consistent revenue, and pretty much step number one of that is figuring out what is your niche or niche. And I'm gonna go back and forth in the way I say that word in this episode, because they've got into the habit of just kind of like flip flopping back and forth so I don't alienate anybody, and this can be kind of a hot topic, because there are other people out there who say, Don't niche down. You don't have to niche down. You don't have to pick a niche. Just show up and be yourself. And in some cases, I think that might work out for people, but in my experience, in order to build like a real, actual business, you do have to have a niche. And a niche is not, you know, just a list of topics that you stick to religiously. A niche is a space that you create for an audience. Before I started my business, I waited like a whole calendar year for for myself to, like, pick a niche and figure out what I was doing. I knew that I wanted to create content. I set out to be a blogger. I didn't know anything about creating videos, and I had no desire to create videos. I didn't really YouTube was not part of my life at at that time, and I waited a whole year for like an idea to pop into my head for inspiration to strike and and I did. One day, I made a video with a GoPro camera of my kids sledding and making Christmas cookies with my mom, and I put it together into this cute little video. And my kids were amazed at this video I created, and I thought, oh my gosh, why aren't more people doing this? I need to help more people do this. I was thinking, I need to help more moms create these, like, fun family movies. And that initiated, like, getting the ball rolling to decide this is my niche. This is the thing that I'm going to go with here. You might have heard the quote, you don't choose a niche. A niche chooses you. And I think sometimes that can be true. I kind of feel like that was true for me. But I once heard John Lee Dumas say, you don't pick a niche, you create a niche, and over the last 10 years that I have been a content creator, I think the truth of that statement really has become more and more clear to me over time. But what happens if you pick the wrong niche? Isn't it possible that you think you have a great idea and you start creating the content, and you think you're building a business, and then it just never grows into something. Because the thing is, I see people walk away from their businesses all the time. I see people walk away from their channels. I see people who have spent 345, years or more, trying to grow an audience and trying to monetize their audience, and it just never quite clicks in a way that it's clear what they need to do next to, like scale it or make it grow to the point where It's sustainable, and they walk away. And it makes me wonder, is there something they could have done early on to really validate the niche and really determine how to create their niche from the beginning, so that it would be. Be more successful over time. So there are three categories of people that are going to benefit from this episode. Number one, if you don't have a niche at all, you don't really know what you're doing, or you have like, two or three ideas, but you don't know which one to go with. You just know, I want to create content and I want to build an online business. That's category number one. Number two, you have a niche, you have a channel, you have maybe a business, or some kind of a structure for a business, but you're struggling to get it to really go anywhere, like you're not getting views on your videos, you're not really generating revenue. You're not getting like engagement and attention on your content. And number three, you think you have a brilliant idea for a business or a YouTube channel, but before you dive in, you want to be absolutely sure that the time and energy and possibly money that you invest into it is going to pay off, like it's actually going to be profitable and sustainable for you. So first of all, I don't think there's really any such thing as a perfect niche. I think it changes and evolves over time, and I think it's meant to do that, because this, this whole thing of creating content and even building a business, even if it wasn't a content creation business, that's you're still creating something. It's a creative process. And I think the nature of that is just one that things evolve, things change, things shift, and you get to adapt to all of that. And I recently was inspired to create this episode, because I fall into the category of the third category. I have a good idea. I think it's a good idea for a an online business that has to do with that involves creating content, but it has nothing to do with like YouTube or business. It's not, it's not a business or marketing niche at all. It's completely,

Meredith  
it's it's more of like a consumer niche. And I have this idea, because I think there's a need for it, but I want to know, before I invest my time and energy, I want to know is it actually going to be profitable? Because obviously I know how to start a channel. I know how to grow a channel. I know how to generate revenue with content. The question is not, can I do it like is it? Is it possible for me to do it? The question is, is there enough outside audience and enough of a demand out there for this idea and that question, I think, is one that I think a lot of people skip over that, you know, like, if, if I build it, they will come kind of, kind of a mentality. Just because you build something and create the content doesn't mean people are, you know, going to be interested in it? So let me back up to number one. If you're in the the first category of people like you don't really have a niche, but you know, you want to find one and get going, or you have a couple of different ideas and you're not sure which one to go with. The first question I would ask, and I ask this to my one on one clients all the time, who come to me with like they have all these things figured out. I'm going to create this, and I'm going to create that, and then this is the business, and that's the this, and they're talking about it like it's this, like external thing that that they're they're choosing, rather than an internal desire to create a business around something that they're really interested in and really like passionate about. And so the first question is, if you could be successful in any niche, what would it be? It doesn't mean that you choose that niche, because maybe you determine it's not going to be profitable, but that's where you have to start, so that you can know how to weave that niche in with something that is going to be profitable. Because I think John Lee Dumas is right. You don't pick a niche. You create one, which means you can create a niche out of whatever ingredients you want. Number two, what do you want to be talking about five years from now? This is important, because I think there are some topics that we are. We maybe naturally gravitate towards them because we're knowledgeable in them, and they come easy to us, but we're not necessarily that deeply interested in them. And the truth of it is like if you start creating content around whatever topic right now. If I started creating content about post, it notes right now, and I did that for the next five years, I'm going to be I mean, assuming that, assuming that the content gets views and engagement things like that, I'm going to have views and engagement and questions and comments and emails and messages around post. It notes, right? So five years from now, is that really what I envision for the business that I'm creating, or am I going to be kind of annoyed with with the post? It notes number three, this is something that I have my students do inside of 30 days to a thriving YouTube channel, and that is to come up with a list of 100 topics, whatever you think your niche is, whatever you think you want to start on YouTube or online, sit down and create a list of 100 video topic ideas like you don't have to come up with the titles and the thumbnails. You're not really planning them all out. But if you struggle to get to 100 if you struggle to get past like 25 then you really have to ask yourself, How much do I know about this? For one thing, how interested am I in this? And is there even enough topics out there to make a full channel here? I think it's a great litmus test to see how interested and knowledgeable and passionate you really are about the topic that you chose, or about the niche that you are choosing. Because if you can't get to 100 like, relatively easily, then you might want to look at something else. You might decide, I don't really want to do this, but if you are interested and knowledgeable and passionate about it, you're probably going to get to, like, 10 ideas, and that's going to spawn 10 more ideas, which spawns 10 more ideas, and now you're like into these pockets of topics, and it was easy for you to create a list of 100 because it's interesting and you're passionate about it and you're already knowledgeable about it, so it should be relatively easy to create a list of 100 topics. So if you can answer those three questions, if you could be successful in any niche, what would it be start there? What do you want to be talking about five years from now and not get annoyed with small questions? And can you make a list of 100 topics in a relatively short period of time, I think those are three really good places to start now, in terms of like profitability and generating revenue and things like that, there's an old trick that a really good way to validate a niche or a business idea is to go to Amazon and see if there are books that exist on that topic. Because if there are books that exist on the exact topic that you're thinking of, creating a channel, creating a business, creating a course or a program about, then you know someone's already validated it for you. Now you can't necessarily know whether that book has made any sales, but you can see like reviews and star ratings and things like that, and get a pretty good idea whether this product, this book, has been a valuable resource to people or or not. And if there isn't a book that exists on the topic, unless it's a really brand new, brand brand new topic, then you might want to ask yourself, Why am I like the literally, the first person on the planet to think of this idea, to think of this, this topic, or this niche, or have other people thought of it and tried it and realized no one's really interested in this. And if you're thinking, my niche isn't really something that people buy books about, you would be very surprised, because this, this niche idea that I have. I've been going through some of these steps myself to to validate the idea, because I want to validate the whole business idea, not just like, would this work on YouTube? Yeah. And I didn't think that there would be books on this topic, because it's not something you can read a book about and grasp. It's more of a doing thing. So I was surprised when I went to Amazon and looked it up, and sure enough, I found, I think, two or three books on the exact topic, the exact topic, and then there were several handfuls that were related, like closely related, but not the exact topic. So I was actually really, really surprised that they existed. So don't skip over this one, especially if you want to look at a niche that is going to be profitable. And just because books already exist on the topic doesn't mean there's no room for you in that niche. It just means that somebody else has gone ahead and validated it ahead of you, and that's what you want to see. That's a good sign. Now I mentioned John Lee Dumas said, you don't pick a niche, you create one, and this is where you get to look at what are other people doing with this niche, or in this niche, and see the patterns of how, how, how are the other people that are already doing it related? And how can I do it differently? What is going to be different about me? And if you're I want to say, if you're lucky, if you're lucky, there isn't something extra you have to do or change. It's just something that's naturally different about you. And it doesn't even really have to be that unique. It just has to be different. And to give you a really good example of this, when I first started my channel and my business, my topics were all around how to use a GoPro camera and how to

Meredith  
edit GoPro videos. And I think I was the only woman that was doing that, or at the very least, I was, I think, the only mom who was really focusing on that, that niche, like that topic, or those topics, or if there were women and moms, they were like, you know, GoPros and action camera. So they were like, action type people, outdoorsy people. I'm not even an outdoorsy person. That doesn't mean that I was somehow better. It was just different. It was just a way of differentiating. And so I would, at the time, make sure that my content was geared towards like a parent, you know, capturing your kids on camera, making family videos with your GoPro, not like skydiving, right? I tried to lean into the things that made me different as I created my content. And I didn't have to do anything extra or special to, you know, be unique. So I just leaned into it, I guess you could say. And so I would start looking at ways that you can be unique and differentiate yourself without overdoing it, without overthinking it like what are the ways that you already are naturally unique and different in that niche? And number six, this question is really difficult. It's not difficult to ask, but it's difficult to answer. For a lot of people, the question is, do you have a super clear understanding of the tangible, real life desired results or outcomes of your audience and the real life problems that your ideal audience is facing at getting that that's kind of a long question. Let me read it again. Do you have a super clear understanding of the tangible, real life desired results or outcomes of your ideal audience and the real life problems that your ideal audience is facing at getting that and what I mean by that question is, do you know exactly why somebody is going to want to watch Your videos or want to buy your course or program or work with you. Do you know what the clear outcome is, the why of what they're really getting at, what they're really wanting to get at, and the real problems that they are facing at trying to get that it's. Sounds kind of wordy to talk about it like so abstractly. This is a topic that comes up in video brand Academy sometimes where you know, if you're creating content around a specific tool or a specific piece of software, you have to be specific specificities, one of my favorite concepts when it comes to content creation, you have to be really specific about who it is you're creating that content for, so that you know exactly why they need the content you're creating, and so you know exactly what problems they're running into to try and get that because all of that becomes your content strategy. I can't just create a whole channel about post it notes and successfully build a business around that without identifying or really deciding who it is that I'm trying to talk to about post it notes, what it is that they're trying to achieve with post it notes, and what the problems are that they're running into as they're trying to achieve that. Because there's a really big difference between a kindergarten teacher setting up her classroom with a wall of post it notes, I don't know where that came from. And a software developer who is setting up a, what do you call it? A Kanban board with post it notes, I'm looking at my whiteboard right now because I have a bunch of post it notes on it that are disorganized. Lee in some kind of a kanban structure. That's two completely different people, two audiences. That's two niches, same tool, same topic, same software, same hardware, but two completely different people, and you have to have a super clear understanding of what their desired outcomes are and what the problems are that they're running into in order to create the kind of content that is really going to take off and grow and reach those people with the algorithm now inside Video brand Academy, I am going to look for this right now as I'm talking but I created a YouTube roadmap, and one of the very first things like page one or two is these four questions. It's a page with four blocks on it, and those questions are, like foundational to your success on YouTube, like, you need to know the answer to these questions. And if you're in video brand Academy and you come to me for help, or you come to a meetup and you ask for help, these are things that I'm going to be asking you so that I have a good understanding of what what we're working with here, like, what exactly is your niche? So these four questions are, who are you helping What are you helping them do? Why do they need that? And why are you the best person to help them? So I talked about some of those a little bit here in this episode, but that is what it all sort of boils down to when it comes down to figuring out what exactly is your niche, who exactly is your niche? And the shocking truth of all of this is you don't actually have to figure that all out before you start creating content. You don't have to have all of the answers. You don't have to wait for all of the answers to come to you. You can find those answers by creating content so that you are essentially validating yourself. So that's why I put those four questions as one of the first assignments inside Video brand Academy so that you can identify some things, make some decisions, and then move on and actually create more clarity as you create more content, nothing you do is set in stone. As far as figuring out your niche or validating your niche, I do think it's a good idea to ask yourself, Is this going to be profitable? Is it going to pay off and look outside of just your own desire to create content in a niche, or look outside of just your own brilliant idea and see what's happening on there with the you know, what is it now, like 8 billion people that are on the planet, are any of those people interested in this thing, in this brilliant idea that I have? Because that's how that's that's how profitable businesses are made. And if you're looking to build. Profitable business online as a content creator, creating a set it and forget it. YouTube funnel is the simplest way to generate consistent revenue with the content that you're creating. So if you start off with a niche that is validated with outside information and inside you what you want to create, and what you feel excited and passionate about creating, if you do like to have a plan of how it all looks once it's put together. I went through all of that in episode number one of the video brand infusion podcast, the five steps of a YouTube funnel, how it looks, how it operates, so that you can start thinking about how to plug your niche ideas into a YouTube funnel and have like, a clear picture of of of what you're building, like a paint by numbers, right? So you have a clear picture of what exactly is the system that I could build here with the niche that I'm choosing or the niche that I'm creating?