About the personal development niche

Ready for some more “real talk” about niches? (Note, if you missed yesterday’s real talk about niche selection, go back and read it.)

Good. 🙂

Cuz, I want to talk to those of you who are in the “personal development” niche, or are thinking about it.

And here’s some really real talk…

In more cases than not, when I see people who have pretty much no aim at all on how to move forward, they end up in the personal development niche. I think it is similar to how, when I was back in college, when I found people who didn’t know what they wanted to do for a career, they’d major in psychology. 🙂

Even though it might sound as if I’m making fun of you, I’m not. Because the intentions behind it are VERY noble. You want to help people. You probably also want to figure some things out about yourself. You naturally gravitate to the personal development area. It is COMMENDED that you want to help make the world a better place and there isn’t even an ounce of me that would make you feel bad about that.

But, we also do need to be real here about the niche… and specifically business goals behind it.

Remember what I said yesterday. A niche isn’t really a topic. Bloggers need topics. Businesses need customers.

Your niche should be defined by what you will DO for other people in exchange for money. Not what you intend to talk about.

Is “personal development” something you will do for others? Something specific? Are you going to actively use certain techniques to…. develop them? to what end?

No. It isn’t specific at all. It would be like trying to say that I am in the “blogging niche”. It is just… way too vague. And, it’s a topic, not an outcome.

I got an email the other day from a reader. This person had “studied the market of personal development” and was thoroughly confused. They asked “Should I narrow my market down, for example, building self confidence? Or just keep it as is?”

Nope and nope.

This person was thoroughly still on the topic bandwagon. Not an outcome.

Besides, what is one possibly going to put into a blog post to raise somebody’s self-confidence? I mean… let’s just be real about it here. This is why so many personal development blogs end up being cheerleading without aim. It isn’t a market at all because it has no goal to it. Nothing specific. No outcome. How does one even measure being self-confident? You can’t.

So, here’s my personal thoughts on this “niche”…

Unless you have some specific outcome in mind for people… and a specific technique or doingness to get them there that you can offer… then you shouldn’t be in the “personal development” niche. Because, without that, you’re aiming straight for a generic cheerleading blog to try to make unmotivated people feel good about themselves. And it just goes nowhere. Unmotivated people make a bad market anyway. They’re not motivated to do anything, and that includes buying your stuff.

Instead, look to where you CAN do something specific, toward a specific outcome that others value. Hell, it could be a service. You might even find it boring. But, that’s where businesses come from. Don’t try to be a “personal development” guru when you’re really just trying to figure yourself out.

A lot of people want to be Tony Robbins. I get it.

But, Tony can be more vague now with his offers because he’s earned it. He is a marketing powerhouse and a powerful personality. He didn’t just launch into this thing that way. He got started promoting seminars for Jim Rohn. His specific outcome was “butts in the seats”, not telling everybody how great they were.

Even as time went on and he created his own stuff, he had specific ways of getting outcomes with people.

In other words, Tony has created a large business in the “personal development” space, but he did it through an evolution and driven by a very strong personality. He’s developed a major brand and that has earned him the ability to have more vague offers like his book “Awaken The Giant Within”. But, before he was the Tony you know today, he was doing specific stuff (seminar promotion) for somebody else.

It is easy to get motivated by Tony Robbins, feel good about it, then want to help others feel that way, too. It is easy, than, to want to start a blog in the personal development space and have visions of having that effect on others.

But, it is out of sequence. One doesn’t just BE that without first DOING.

So, get specific. Determine a specific outcome. A measurable outcome. An outcome that people can see. And what you DO is enable them to get there, through specific actions you take with them. Define your niche not by the topic you discuss, but by what you will DO for them.

And if it doesn’t have anything to do with personal development, so be it.

– David