Thread by @MarcKoenig_

Miss class today?

Session notes from @AliAbdaal PT Youtube Academy: Fundamentals

How to Find a Niche that Will Succeed (singular niches are overrated, micro-niches are underrated, creator-market fit)

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Finding your niche is a bit of a misnomer, at it implies you can "find" it in one fell swoop.

Your niche is an ongoing process, not a destination. You don't have to hit the target in one shot.

ht @visualizevalue

The most important part of YT success: putting in the work (doing the homework, posting 2x per week)

The 2nd most important part of YT success: finding your niche.

Take action, but make sure you aim.

In fact, @timschmoyer recommends to his YT consulting clients to make 12+ videos before you even note what videos are successful or not.

Until then, it could just be noise!

(Ali recommends Tim's podcasts and courses: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vid…)

So how do we find our niche? Good questions to ask

- What am I good at?
- What do OTHERS say I'm good at?
- What do I enjoy?
- What industries, audiences, etc. am I a part of or know well?
- What do I wish I knew 3-10 yr ago that could help folks now?

All these question are ways to triangulate an answer to the real question:

What are your unfair advantages? 🎯

Ali references @naval's quote:

"Find work that feels like play to you, but looks like work to others."

@david_perell calls this building your personal monopoly.

Read his mini essay on the topic:

Another way to think of this: Creator-Market fit.

This is an analogy to startup world's Product-Market fit, where you interview your early customers and "pivot" to them.

This is a way to find the overlap between your customer's pain points and your product's benefits.

@AliAbdaal 's unfair advantages:

- Brand value (Cambridge medical school student)
- Great production value (successful business = he can get great gear as biz expense)
- Coding (and other existing skills to talk about)

He has plenty more. Can you think of them?

If you have only an iPhone to start... film on that! If you can afford high-end stuff, do it without hesitation!

If you have advantages, exploit them.

(Don't worry about other people's advantages. Focus on what you have access to now!)

Having an explicit niche is overrated.

Ali doesn't have a true "niche" - he talks about his interests. Over time, that's averaged out t "productivity, tech, books"...

Instead of a niche, image a matrix of your interests, then expand on them over time.

Once you figure out what you're interested in, do it for a year & you'll become the de facto expert on that niche (regardless of your starting point).

"You can talk about the same thing FOREVER. No one else has seen all your videos. Re-do them. I should do this more."

How to Niche Well:

1st, start as small as you can.

@CharlotCrowther, on Ali's team, told Ali her specialties were "productivity" and "wellness." Too vague!

Now, she's picked "I'm specializing in how to make online courses more effective."

2nd, try to end up in a space that ages well (even if you don't start there)

Being a medical student wasn't a great long-term niche for Ali. You want to age into niches.

e.g. @MKBHD has been making videos on tech for 13 years. That's longevity!

3rd, Don't position yourself as a guru.

"Are you a guru or are you a guide?" Pick being a guide.

A guide is on the same journey, but one step ahead.

Only do guru if you're #1. Otherwise, you're asking to fall victim to imposter syndrome.

4th, Expand when people ask you to do so.

People will come to YOU with ideas. They'll ask you questions:

"How do you manage your time? What app are you using on your iPad? What's the worst thing about being a youngest child?"

Wait for people to ask you to expand your niche.

5th, 1+2=3

1. Who am I and what do I want?
+
2. Who's my audience and what do they want?
=
3. What value am I giving to my audience?

6th, Once you have that, create an explicit value proposition, and share it!

Ali states his every time he starts a video. Today: being a doctor, productivity, happiness. But remember, start more specific than this!

(Note: Ali mentions he's slowly expanding into health...)

Enjoy this summary? Read the rest of my notes from Ali's course here!

Bonus: More on cultivating an "Unfair Advantage" here.

(@StartupHasan + @Ash_Ali's book, summarized by Ali.)

P.S. Want me to feel intense, but-wholesome-and-helpful anxiety?

Follow my YouTube (no videos at this time of posting).

That way I'll be forced to post videos as I complete this course. 😩

youtube.com/c/MarcKoenig/f…

Bonus: James Clear in finding your niche later:

Pick a mix of topics then zoom in on the most successful.

He took 2 years to niche down. Ali’s advice is 2 vids a week for 2 years... 🤔

@JamesClear