Why I am not going to fall into the trap of having a narrow niche and how you don’t have to either.

This is to help you establish success without being pigeon-holed.

Hello you,

Several weeks a go I had found myself sick with a terrible case of writers block. I had not really known what I wanted to post on LinkedIn. I was back and forth with my ideas for Women Who Contract. I stared at a blank screen, which stung my eyes and gave me a headache. And I was worried that I was becoming all a bit too generic.

In all honesty, I felt like I was being all a bit too broad.

But I didn’t want to niche-niche. What I mean by this is, well, I didn’t want to pin-point on an exact area that gave me no room to grow. I didn’t want to feel trapped.

Away from the screen, the writers block led me to reflect on my own career and choices. I also knew I was struggling to come up with ideas for content because I was going through my own shifts: Rebranding and announcing Women Who Contract. Starting with a new client. Deciding on whether I need to do yet another course or not. (I decided to not). Then the universe did its thing which led me back into a war at the Battle of the Niche.

Hmph.

FYI: Niche = Specific. Appealing to only a small, dedicated group of people rather than the general public.

After a few shots and bangs I remembered that we’re pretty damn lucky living in an era where it’s more socially acceptable to be broad:

• We can a Generalist. A person who has a broad range of knowledge, skills, and interests across multiple different subjects or fields, rather than a deep focus on a single area.

• We can have a Portfolio Career. This where you work on several different projects and jobs instead of having one single job.

• We can also be a Multipotentialite. This is a person who has many different interests and creative pursuits instead of just one single calling.

I don't need to fall into that niche trap. And nor do you.

Remembering this, I was own medic on the battle field in my brain and was able to leave this round of war unharmed. Phew. (I recently watched Hacksaw Ridge, hence all this war talk).

For me personally, I lean more towards that multipotentiality. I looked into the term a little more. And for those who are interested, I found that it was popularised by writer and founder of Puttylike - Emilie Wapnick in their popular TED talk. There are similar concepts include the historical terms such as “polymath” or “Renaissance person”. In summary they talked about exactly what I have been pondering on: rather than focusing on one specialised career path, multipotentialites thrive by exploring multiple fields concurrently or sequentially.

And I definitely have a portfolio career!

Hmm… for me that all stacks.

• Change Communications Consultant / Contractor.

• Founder of Women Who Contract.

• Co-Author of Allyship Actually.

• Freelance and Feature Writing Student at the London School of Journalism. (If I am going to be writing to you all weekly, I want to deliver quality).

• Ex. Coach.

• Ex. Podcast Host.

• Ex. Cofounder of a Womens’ led business.

• Public speaker (not as much now-a-days)

• Writer of IIL.

Outside of my “professional” life, I am also:

• Chief Events Officer (CEO) for the Dog Pawrk group.

• General party planner - we have a Halloween Party soon.

• Obsessed with fashion and interior design (strictly a hobby. I don’t want to ruin a passion).

• Into health, fitness and wellbeing as a whole.

• Book worm.

• Dog mum.

• Wife.

• Friend.

• Scorpio.

A quick Pinterest board to add some vision to my list.

This might not be you. You might think of yourself more as generalist. Maybe you are building a portfolio career. Maybe you’ve never even consider this - thus, I just hope that these other ‘labels’ have given you some food for thought?!

Reminder: You don’t have to have a really narrow niche. But are you going to need something to start with. We will get to that.

You have probably always been told to niche.

And I do appreciate that often a niche can help you with establishing an audience.

For example: Women in IT Contracting = Women + who work in tech + are consultants and contractors.

Niche: Women, tech, contractor. It was the tech that made it feel too pigeon-holed. It also turned a lot of an audience away. So by broadening to Women Who Contract is still niche but not as narrow.

= Women + Contract / Freelance / Consult. No specific industry. No Specific Role.

A niche is also great for those who actually specialise. You might be a Creative Director for healthcare drinks. Or a Divorce Coach for Gay Women in their 50’s. Or Comms Consultant for Co-Pilot AI Programmes. This helps you find your audience and them to find you.

But the thing about a niche is that when people pivot from being a ‘something’ to ‘something else’ it can often confuse an already established audience:

“I thought she was Website designer” said someone to me as we looked up that ‘she’ who is now a Virtual PA for busy working mums, actually is she a leadership coach for childfree women? It was all rather unclear.

And that there is a great example that even when you niche, you can confuse.

I have no doubt that she can do all those things and do all those things well. Her websites were top-notch. Hence why we were looking her up. (Again an example of why a niche can be good for something specific) But, this also waves a flag of caution: We also don’t want to be too broad. You don’t want to come across as a know-it-all. You don’t want to confuse your audience. And we literally cannot do it all, even if we think we can. #sorrynotsorry

Side note: for me personally I like to think of myself with my multipotentiality and a solid portfolio career, well, it all has a direction of travel. Each business and project I work on does have an element for a target audience. E.g. As a Change Communications Director I work on Change Initiatives. I focus on project management, change analysis and communication, people first aka: Direction, hype, and change that sticks. Target clients: Transformation Leads/Directors. Not overly specific as in whether it is org or tech change, but specific enough that is it is not confusing to what my service offering is.

I’m not looking to contradict myself. I do believe that you need something to tie it all all together…

So, what you need is a theme.

If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know that I talk about having a theme. If, like me, you have lots of moving parts to your career, I have found it beneficial to think about what to do with an overarching theme.

You might already have an idea of what this could be. Yet, I also appreciate that you might not. So, here’s three action to take:

1. Ask your friends, colleagues or clients: ‘What are the regular topics you come to me for advice on?’

2. Map out all the things you do. I mean everything. I already shared at the start of this letter a list of all the things I get up to. Do the same. Then list out those activities e.g. as the founder of Women Who Contract - activities include - event planning, writing a newsletter, strategy, community builder, coach, advisor, friend, cheerleader, communicator… (Etc).

3. List all your values and what you think your purpose is. E.g. My own values are around independence (hence why I contract), people, togetherness and respect. My purpose is help people understand all the things they need to know to succeed (as a short summary, I promise you it is a bit more transformational than that).

Please do share your answers and support each other in building this out. This isn’t going to happen over night and could take several days for you to establish a clear theme.

And once you’ve done this you’ll be able to decipher a theme. I suggest pulling all the key words etc together and whacking into ChatGPT with this prompt: “From this list of information about me, tell me what my theme is. Give me a header and a short summary. This is to underpin everything I do. Do not use any of my previous history to answer this. Make it purposeful and transformational. Make sure it is human centred.” Attach list. Enter. The fine tune.

I do also suggest BEFORE you do that - For goodness sakes - get a pen and paper - go outside/to a coffee shop and let your subconscious flow… Don’t just rely on a bot to tell you who the f*ck you are.

How it works in practice

I like to think of myself as a creative connector. Creativity + Connection = the key across everything I do as the founder of this community. As a Change Comms Director. As multiple business owner. As an Author. As CEO of the Dog Park… It all links.

This again stacks. Across the work I have done throughout my career, when I have made changes and pivots - it all has that thread of creative energy and the ability to connect: Coaching, Branding, IT Service Management, Leadership and Public Speaking.

In practice I do ‘try’ to always come back to this when I am introducing myself. And when I am even writing content for LinkedIn. Even if I don’t explicitly say it.

When I do, however and for example say, when people ask me what I do for a living? I don’t merely list off all the things I do or did. I am just going to lose that person or that will switch off - I won’t be remembered.

So instead, I say something like this: ‘I describe myself as a professional creative connector. I help businesses communicate change and I lead a community for female contractors. It is much the same in my personal life - I’m the person planning the next big event, bringing dog lovers together, and I am just curation-obsessed.’

At first you are going to feel hella awkward saying all that. But practice. Define it. Redesign it. You won’t get it on your first attempt… no body cares if you get it muddled up… practice, practice, practice.

I don’t say that word for word every time. Sometimes I just bluntly say I am a Director and a Founder. Other times, I might just list three things: Change Comms Consultant, Founder of Women Who Contract and co-author of AA… Just got to know your audience.

But that theme will be your guiding light for when you are building out your part in the world.

Perhaps it’s not about labels?!

As I come to the end of this weeks letter to you. Other than I hope you found interesting and useful. Largely, I hope that if you been flip-flopping with a niche or two, you will give yourself permission to explore being more than one thang!

At the end of the day, us human creatures are not born to wear one hat. We are ever changing, growing, shifting beings. Some people like to be specific. Some like to stick to one lane. But look closely enough, you’re see that beyond that headline topic there are different colour threads of hobbies, interests and dynamics shaping that person.

I’d be curious to hear from you whether this struck a cord. Or something you’ve explored. Or even share some advice or wisdom on your own journey of self-discovery.

Keep being you. Until next week,

Lucy xo