How to Find Your Niche

A lot of times we make the mistake of just designing products or services in our own mind for either ourselves or some hypothetical customer that doesn't ever exist. So at some point you're going to have to connect that with a real audience, and that's challenging, but also when you actually are able to do that, it's incredibly rewarding. 

The key is to study what their problems are, what their emotional triggers are. You learn about your audience, and then you can appeal to them even better with your work.

And what's going to happen is going to be the synergy between your original passion and between what your audience wants, and when those two things intersect, you're going to get even more creative. Your passion is really going to gain traction with a real group of individuals in the marketplace or in the world, rather than just in your own mind. 

Next, Godin says "the core thing would be just to do something awesome. Try not to get caught up in the echo chamber. That is probably the toughest thing when you are trying to break out and do something original."

He also says, "optimism is the most important human trait because it allows us to evolve our ideas, to improve our situation, and to hope for a better tomorrow. And all artists have optimism because artists can honestly say that they are working to make things better."

And... "passion is caring enough about your art that you will do almost anything to give it away, to make it a gift, to change people. Passion for your art also means having a passion for spreading your art. This means being willing to surrender elements that you are in love with in order to help other parts thrive and spread. And at the same time, passion means having enough connection to your art that you're not willing to surrender some parts that truly matter. "

This is brilliant right here. An acquaintance of mine told me this same thing when they started running virtual meditation classes. They love doing it so much that they're willing to persist through the tough times and break through obstacles that once seemed insurmountable.

And I've really felt this with my new business because the whole reason why I started it and the reason why I do so much work is simply because I enjoy giving away my art.