Mar '25 • General discussion
Don't Make Me Niche-Slap You!
I was out of podcast guests. I’d already tapped my rapper friends, musicians, DJs, and hippies, so I took a shot and hit up an old college buddy—now a researcher at a big-name lab—to see if he’d slide on my podcast. After hours of catching up, he agreed. Boom. For a week, I was a science podcast.
The next week? A guest referred a rapper, so I was back to being a hip-hop podcast. Then I got invited to a rooftop party with a bunch of doctors, and suddenly I was all about health and medicine. Every week, I was switching it up, chasing whatever was in front of me. A total serial-nicher.
And, as expected, my results were chaos. Every episode felt like I was starting from scratch, scrambling to become an expert overnight just to keep up. I thought being a jack-of-all-trades was the move—Joe Rogan does it, right? But in reality, I was spinning my wheels. So I stepped back and did some research. That’s when I discovered the game-changing concepts of niching down, competition, blue oceans vs. red oceans.
Excited, I rebranded into a mental health podcast. And it worked—until it didn’t. I realized after six months that I hated talking about the same thing every week, and the lack of audience growth made it worse. That’s when I asked myself: What do I actually love talking about? What could I do for free and never get bored?
That switch changed everything. I dug deep and realized my true passion was self-improvement—fitness, health, mindset, and personal growth. I wasn’t the most knowledgeable, but I cared enough to put in the work. And once I committed to that niche, my podcast finally started growing.
Here’s what I learned:🔹 Niching down saves you time.🔹 But don’t niche into something just because it’s trendy—pick what excites you.🔹 If you love it, you’ll outwork everyone else, even in a saturated space.
Think of niching like the blue ocean vs. red ocean strategy:
- Red oceans = oversaturated, hyper-competitive spaces where everyone’s fighting for attention.
- Blue oceans = untapped, specific niches where you can dominate without competition.
So instead of just “relationships,” niche down to “short-term dating,” then “short-term dating with exchange students,” then “short-term dating with Spanish-speaking exchange students.” The more specific you get, the more you stand out—and the more valuable your content becomes.
Bottom line? Find what you love, get specific, and own your space. That’s how you build an audience that actually sticks around.
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Don't Make Me Niche-Slap You!
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