Choosing your niche: how to stop being the "expert at everything" and start earning

Section 01The cafe metaphor: why the "expert at everything" loses

The cafe in the metaphor isn't made up – places like that really do open and close within six months. The owner thinks: "the more services, the more money." In reality it's the opposite. Nobody walks into a cafe that does "coffee and tacos and massage" – because the human brain can't build a picture of what they truly do well here.

An expert in this situation acts like that owner. "I can run a consultation, write a strategy, audit a funnel, train a team, do diagnostics and provide mentoring." It sounds powerful. On a landing page it's impressive. In the client's head it's a blurry smudge. The client doesn't remember who they came to. And they leave for someone clearer.

What happens in the client's head

When you write "expert in business and personal growth" – the client doesn't understand what you apply to. When you write "I help experts in soft niches package an offer that sells without pushing" – the client either recognizes themselves right away, or they don't. In the first case they keep reading. In the second they leave without wasting your time.

The positioning paradox: the narrower the niche, the wider your reach inside it. A narrow message is easier to remember, easier to pass along, easier to spread by word of mouth. A broad message drowns in the general noise of "just another expert in something."

Step 1Dump everything you can do – no filter

Grab a notebook or open your notes app and write a list of everything you can do for clients. No judgment. No "this is too much." Just a stream.

Consultations, courses, mentoring, audits, strategy, copywriting, diagnostics, reviews, team training, 1-on-1 work, group formats, chatbots, landing pages, ad campaigns, therapy, coaching, family systems work – write down everything that comes to mind.

You usually end up with 10–20 items. That's normal. Don't stop until you've dumped it all. This stage is therapeutic. You'll see for yourself just how broadly you position yourself.

Why this dump matters

Without it you won't see the scale of the problem. While you keep your "do-it-all" range in your head, it feels normal. The moment you write it on paper, it becomes obvious why clients get confused.

I went through this myself back in 2018. I wrote down 23 services I "could offer." 23. After that it was impossible to keep pretending my positioning was "just fine."

Step 2Cross out what drains you

Seriously. If you do something by force, the client feels it. You know that feeling when the phone rings and you think "ugh, this again"? Those services – cross them out without mercy.

Energy isn't woo-woo, it's a readable signal

What the client picks up in the first 5 minutes of talking to you is your state. If it lights you up, you're on fire, you're convincing, you're contagious. If it's forced, you're mediocre.

This isn't an insult, it's honest. Nobody can be equally passionate about all 23 services. Any attempt to fake passion you don't have falls flat, because the client reads it in the tone of your voice.

The "Monday at 9 a.m." test

Picture it: Monday, 9:00, you have 5 meetings on the calendar today. Which of these meetings would you choose to run if you had the choice? Which would you push to "someday later"?

What you want to run – keep. What you want to push off – cross out. Not "might come in handy later," but cross it out now.

Step 3Keep what you've already been paid for

This is the key filter. Not "I think I could." But real money, real results, real clients.

Why payments specifically

The market has already voted with its wallet. You don't have to guess whether people need it – they've already proven they do. If you spent 3 years working with entrepreneurs and they paid you, that's your niche. Even if it feels like you're "not an expert yet."

Money talks louder than impostor syndrome. If people paid for a service 50 times, it's in demand. If they never paid for it, they may want it but won't buy it – no matter how brilliant it seems to you.

Add up your top 5 paid services

Open your payment records for the last 12 months. Write out the top 5 services by total revenue and number of orders. That's your real portrait: not the one you painted in your head, but the one people actually paid you for.

It often turns out that 80% of your income comes from 2–3 services, and the other 20% are random side earnings. The case where Pareto's law works literally: 20% of services bring 80% of the income.

Step 4Describe your best client

Not an abstract "target audience." Not "women 30–45, mid income, have kids." But one specific person you helped the most.

6 questions about a real client

• What's their name? (A real name, not "Jane")
• How old are they?
• What do they do? (Specifically: "practicing therapist in Chicago," not "works with people")
• What did they come with? (The exact request, in the client's own words)
• What did they get out of it? (Numbers, changes, facts)
• How did their life change? (The emotional shift, not just the result)

Why this matters

This isn't an exercise for the sake of an exercise. It's your compass. When you write content, build an offer, run a consultation – you're talking to this person. Not an avatar from a marketing textbook. A living person you actually helped.

I open my notebook and read a client description: "Steve, 38, owns a dental practice in Austin, came in because revenue had been stuck at $11K/month for 2 years; we built an automated funnel through a chatbot, and within 6 months he grew revenue to $32K." When I write a new post about automated funnels, I'm writing for Steve and people like him. Not for "all experts."

Step 5Write one single sentence

Pull it all together into one formula:

Real examples of phrasings

• "I help therapists reach a steady $4K/month through a sales system on Telegram"
• "I help experts in soft niches package their experience into a clear offer that sells without pushing"
• "I help entrepreneurs lower their anxiety so they make decisions faster and calmer"
• "I help dentists automate patient acquisition through chatbots and grow revenue from $11K/month to $27K+"
• "I help freelance designers leave their day job and build a steady client flow at $2.7K monthly revenue"

The main rule

One sentence. No "and I can also...". No "as well as...". One. If you can't fit it into a single phrase, the niche isn't narrowed yet – go back to steps 2–3.

Test: read your phrasing out loud 3 times. If you stumble every time or want to add a qualifier, rewrite it. If it rolls off easily and carries a clear meaning, lock it in. This is your "face."

Section 02Case study: Anna the therapist, from 0 sales to $3.7K per launch

This isn't a made-up story or an example from a book. Anna is a real therapist who went through a positioning review with me in early 2026.

Point A: a blurry blog for 3 years

Anna ran a blog for 3 years. She wrote about everything within her competence: anxiety, relationships, self-esteem, childhood trauma, burnout. That kind of "blur" is well exposed by analyzing your channel through Claude with 5 prompts – it spots the blind spots and the scattered focus faster than the author can. The content was good. Expert. Sharp.

What was actually going on:

• Reach dropped every month – not because of the algorithm, but because of unclear positioning
• Subscribers didn't buy – they didn't understand what exactly to sign up for
• The only DMs were "hey, can I get a free consultation?" – the ones who come for "free" are the ones who don't see value in paid
• Over a year – 6 paying clients, $3.2K total revenue. Less than $400/month

Working through the 5 steps

We sat down for the review. We went through the 5 steps above. On step 3 (what you've already been paid for) it turned out:

• Of the 6 paying clients, 5 were entrepreneurs
• The main request from all 5 was anxiety that got in the way of making business decisions
• All 5 actually grew their revenue after working with Anna – not as a side effect, but as a direct result

On step 5 the phrasing came out: "I help entrepreneurs lower their anxiety so they make decisions faster and scale without burning out".

Point B, two months later

What happened after she sharpened her positioning:

• The content got pointed – every post hit one pain ("Why an entrepreneur can't make a decision in a crisis") – following the framework in "The Meaning Pyramid" with 6 levels of a selling post
• 400 new subscribers came in, who knew exactly why they subscribed
• Her first group program closed at $3,700 in 3 weeks
• The DMs started reading: "It's like you described my exact situation"

Section 033 positioning mistakes that kill your results

Before you run off to change your profile bio – read this.

Mistake 1. Choosing a niche "with your head," not your experience

"I heard there's a lot of money in finance – I'll go there." "AI is booming right now – I'll position myself around AI." This is a road to nowhere.

A niche isn't a market opportunity on a chart. It's the intersection of three things: your experience + your energy + real demand. If there's only demand (but no experience and no joy), you'll burn out in 3 months and decide the "niche didn't work." When the problem wasn't the niche, but the fact that you climbed into someone else's garden.

Mistake 2. Switching niches every 3 months

"It didn't take off – I'll try something else." It sounds like flexibility, but really it's an inability to wait for a result.

3 months is far too little to know whether the positioning works. You need at least 3–6 months of consistent work in one direction. In that time you manage to:

• Publish 30–50 posts in the new niche
• Gain your first 200–500 targeted subscribers
• Run 5–10 sales calls and learn the real objections
• Polish the offer and the packaging around the result

Jumping between niches sooner is like planting a tree, digging it up a week later, and saying "it's not growing, I'll plant another one."

Mistake 3. Confusing narrowing with limiting

Narrowing isn't a cage. It's a flashlight. You can still do everything. But you shine on one spot – and people see you.

Then, once they come in and get to know you better, you can help them with any request. First become visible. Then broaden out.

Section 04Checklist "is your niche right" – 5 questions

Run through this checklist. Honestly, no "well, kind of." Each item is a specific test.

Section 0510 micro-niches for different fields

To catch the rhythm of narrow positioning, here are examples of micro-niches in different fields. Don't copy them, but use them as a reference for the level of specificity.

Therapists

• Anxiety in entrepreneurs that gets in the way of scaling
• Recovery after divorce for women 35+
• Teen aggression in families with two children

Marketers

• Sales funnels for online schools with 50+ clients
• Social media for local beauty salons in smaller towns
• B2B paid search for IT companies

Trainers and coaches

• Strength training for women 40+ without injuries
• Career coaching for IT specialists before a job change
• Public speaking prep for startup founders

The narrowing principle

Each micro-niche is an intersection of three axes: who (demographic/role) + what (a specific request) + context (the situation they're in). The more axes that intersect, the narrower the niche and the easier it is to land clients in it.

"Therapist" – no axes. "Anxiety therapist" – 1 axis. "Anxiety therapist for entrepreneurs" – 2 axes. "Anxiety therapist for entrepreneurs whose anxiety gets in the way of scaling decisions" – 3 axes. The third version is the champion.

Section 06When to broaden back out: the rule of 3 launches

Narrowing is a tool, not a life sentence. The question "when do I broaden out" usually comes up after 6–12 months of work in a narrow niche.

The rule of 3 launches

Broaden out when you've had at least 3 successful launches of a program in the narrow niche, with $4K+ revenue from each, and a steady flow of leads without your active promotion effort.

Before 3 launches – keep narrowing. Narrow positioning isn't for a month. In the starting phase, broadening kills your results, because you:

• Blur the marketing message that just started working
• Knock the audience off the path – "oh, now he writes about that too"
• Try to compete in broad fields where you haven't built authority yet

How to broaden out the right way

Not "now I also do X." But "launched a new product for those who've already solved the main problem." You logically extend the client's path: first anxiety – then scaling – then building a team – then reaching a new level.

Every expansion is the next step in the client's logic, not a "different niche." It's packaged as a "second program," not as "now I do this too."

Section 07What to do right now in 30 minutes

If you've read this far, the topic struck a nerve. It means you feel that something's off in your positioning. And that's already half the solution. Here's what we do next.