In last week’s blog, I recommended “scratching your own itch” as a way to discover your niche. In this week’s blog, I’ll be taking my own advice! As an aspiring creative myself, I’ve decided to help other creatives who are either just starting out or who need encouragement to keep going. If this sounds like you, welcome aboard! We’re in the same boat!! Now let’s get to where we’re going, together.
What does “scratching your own itch” mean?
It simply means “to do something out of motivation to solve a personal problem.” Tim Ferriss scratched his own itch when he wrote The 4-Hour Workweek.* At the time, there were no books that covered the concept of Lifestyle Design, so he wrote it himself. Because my “personal problem” is figuring out how to escape the 9-5 and make money online as a content creator, my blog is now dedicated to “solving” that problem. And because this problem isn’t so “personal” after all, I hope that scratching this itch will help others with the same or similar goals. Using American pronunciation, we can sum it up with a pithy rhyme:
“Scratch Your Itch, Find Your Niche!”
What does “scratching my own itch” have to do with my content?
Again, this is an easy way to discover your niche. Your niche is the main topic that all of your content will focus on, and sometimes it’s hard to pick one. This is particularly true for those of us who don’t know where to start and/or who have too many interests. Take me, for example. I love singing, but I also love writing raps, doing personal development, and discussing the meaning of life. What a spread! While I’ll eventually find a way to incorporate all of these interests into one cohesive, personal brand, in the beginning, it’s very important to stick to one thing and one thing only. And if you choose whatever thing is most “itchy,” you’ll be able to generate niche content just by trying to solve that problem/scratch that itch.
“But it’s impossible to stick to just one thing!”
Trust me, I feel the same way! But by focusing on one interest and one interest only, you will gain “expertise” more quickly than if you had focused on two. And by positioning yourself as an “expert,” you’re better able to attract your initial audience. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to branch out later – after all, most content creators do – but it’s much easier to do so after you’re already established. This is true for two reasons. One: you’ll already have an audience that enjoys your content, so it’s likely some of them will enjoy your new niche as well. And two: the skills you learn from your first niche – researching, creating content, building an audience, etc. – are foundational skills and therefore transferrable.
Note that “expertise” and “expert” are in scare quotes. This is because you don’t actually need to be an expert. All you need is to be a little bit more experienced than your audience or whoever you’re trying to help. I don’t need to play in the NBA to teach someone who has never touched a basketball how to dribble; I only need experience dribbling a basketball with some success.
“Scratching My Own Itch” as an Aspiring Creative
I have every intention of figuring out how to make a living as a content creator. This is my starting point. It’s helping out those of you who have metaphorically never touched a basketball to dribble one. I’m no expert, but I do have experience and I am constantly learning. So if you share the dream of escaping the 9-5, making money doing something you love instead, and helping others along the way, then this blog is for you! I write this blog for you. I’ll be scratching this itch of mine and doing so publicly with the hope that you can learn from my mistakes, experiments, and experience. Perhaps seeing me “go for it” will encourage you to do so as well. Soon enough, we’ll stop “aspiring” and we’ll be “achieving” instead.
(*Tim Ferriss is hands down, one of my biggest role models. He’s part of why I create content in the first place. If you’re serious about living life on your own terms, I highly recommend all of his content, but here’s a short video where Tim discusses the concept of Lifestyle Design himself.)