this is how you find your niche (don't)

here’s the youtube version if you prefer video (or continue reading below):

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niche. is it important? how big of a deal is it? do you even really need to find one?

as we all know, this is a huge topic in branding & online business. since starting back in 2024, the way i see it has changed. i’ve read different resources & learned from different people & my perspective has evolved over time.

when i started personal branding, i came across the “find your niche” advocates. they told me to narrow down on one thing & one thing only: something you’ll hone, get known for & talk about for the rest of your career. it wasn’t that hard for me back then because i wanted to write. i thought, “well, that’s easy: writing.”

but when i started creating content on social media, i realized you have to know what to write about. at some point, i started feeling the pressure. i loved writing in the moment (about my experiences, my day, or things i really believe in). it was very emotional & dependent on what i felt like writing. when i started putting constraints on myself, i came up with the art of soulful writing & soulful sundays (trying to narrow down what i was going to be known for) but somehow, that felt limiting.

i have so many interests. i have my own style & specific genres i can write. while talking about one thing in many ways is a beneficial skill, i just found it confining.

this obsession with finding a “box” to fit into is a roadblock

everyone who tries to start personal branding eventually starts obsessing over finding their niche. they tell you to pick one thing, obsess over it, & become known for it. but it’s a huge block when you’re just starting out. as you’ll find out, this niche is a journey. it doesn’t come to you even if you sit down every night for six months thinking hard about it. it doesn’t work that way.

i’ve realized that the most interesting people & the most compelling brands aren’t built from one interest. they’re built from the intersection of many.

the unfair advantage of having too many interests

to give you a concrete example from my own life: growing up, i trained in karate. i started when i was 9 & did it for many years through university. i also cook, i love to bake, i play the guitar, i write & my career background is in teaching.

now that i’m running yōso studio, people tend to think: “what does karate or teaching in japan have to do with branding?”

in my head, i’m thinking: everything.

so today, i want to talk to you about why you should stop looking for your niche & instead start connecting the dots between everything you have been curious about.

there’s a side of the branding ecosystem that tells you to niche down because “you can’t be everything to everyone.” i’ve said that before regarding marketing: you need a clear offer & you need to know who you help. that is still true.

but the difference is this:

your offer is not the same as your “self.”

your offer is what you sell.

your “self” is what makes your offer unique.

this is where people get it wrong. they think niching down means erasing everything else about themselves. they think, “i run a business now, so karate isn’t relevant anymore.” but these things matter more than you think. your interests & hobbies aren’t just irrelevant pieces floating around - they are there for depth. when you try to hide them away just to fit into a niche, you become generic.

let’s look at how that depth is actually formed, starting with discipline

i trained in karate for a long time. when i finally stopped, i was just one step away from gaining my black belt.

it wasn’t like a motivational movie. it was the real thing, which is actually boring because it’s repetitive. how do you perfect an art without repetition? in real life, mastering an art takes a really long time.

it wasn’t glamorous. it was every tuesday, thursday & saturday. my brothers & i would go to the dojo (the place where you practice) even when we didn’t feel like it. i practiced every kata (form) thousands of times until my body just knew them without thinking. everything became instinct.

that discipline stuck with me until i went on to teach & now, as i’m building brands. it’s the habit of showing up consistently without anybody pushing me. i don’t chase shortcuts.

in karate, you start from white & go through green, blue, purple, & three levels of brown before black. it spans years. it’s up to them to tell you when you’re ready for the next level. it’s not fast.

i think that’s why i’m used to waiting for things to materialize. i can be patient because i was trained to do that as a kid.

i’m not going to erase that just to niche down.

i’m not going to optimize my life just to follow trends.

that sense of discipline is often tied to how we handle imperfection (i found this through wabi-sabi)

i stopped before i got my black belt because i went to university. life happened. i had my rebel phase & i let that part of me go. but i don’t regret any of it.

there’s a japanese philosophy called wabi-sabi. through that lens, that imperfection is part of my story. the fact that i almost got my black belt but didn’t is actually a more relatable story. many people relate to starting something, getting good at it & then having to let it go.

sometimes i say i’m a “frustrated athlete.” that was a dream - to be a professional karate player in the olympics. that dream didn’t come true, but it brings extra depth to my story. even if i’m achieving goals now, there are other goals i didn’t achieve & that’s okay.

it’s very human to not accomplish everything.

this acceptance of the “long game” doesn’t just apply to sports - it’s in the kitchen, too

then there’s cooking. in high school, i realized i wanted to be a chef. i loved watching my dad cook. although i didn’t pursue it as a career, the act of cooking stayed with me. it taught me a lot about patience & process. i honed my cooking by experimenting on my own. i wanted to do things my way, trying my own twists.

just this weekend, i made pizza from scratch, even the dough. and you can’t rush dough. you have to let it rest & let it rise. you have to trust the timing. you cannot “optimize” that.

that is the same mindset i bring to client work. you can’t force a brand to launch perfectly in two weeks. you have to let it develop & honor the process.

that need to “figure it out” in the kitchen led to another realization: i love the challenge of learning hard things alone

i taught myself how to play the electric guitar when i moved to japan. i realized that i love teaching myself hard things alone. i was more comfortable learning on my own (hello youtube).

like karate or cooking, the guitar is honed through practice. i fumbled through it every night after work until i taught myself how to play.

that’s the same approach i take to new skills in business: video production, web design, or gaining a deeper understanding of ai. i don’t wait for permission or a course. i just start & figure it out.

this self-reliance was forced into overdrive when i moved overseas. that’s where i learned about real survival

when i moved to rural japan, i didn’t speak japanese. i had to learn to survive. i lived there for 3 years, but i’m still not fluent, i’m at maybe a third-grade level. but i survived.

my partner & i were talking the other night, “you didn’t understand the language, but you understood them, right?” yes, because of context clues.

i don’t focus on every word. i catch one word & build the context around it: the tone, the body language & the situation.

i brought my background as a teacher to that experience. i understood the “context” of the classroom even when i didn’t understand the words my co-teachers were saying. i understood being a teacher. it’s the same thing, just in a different language.

i grew up bilingual & absorbed a 3rd dialect just by listening & interacting. i never formally studied it. this also comes from teaching kids. kids don’t always have the words to explain how they feel & what they mean. you have to read them. you have to watch their body language & infer.

this is a huge thing in branding.

when clients tell me what they want, you aren’t just hearing the words. you notice the hesitation. you pick up on assumptions. you see the gaps between what they think they need & what will actually move their business forward.

that skill (extracting meaning from incomplete information) didn’t come from a branding workshop. it came from growing up with different languages, from teaching kids & from surviving in a country where i wasn’t fluent.

all these pieces (the context, the patience, the discipline) eventually lead back to the essence

writing taught me how to communicate thoughts clearly: from amateur fiction to lesson plans, newsletters & now brand messaging. it’s the same skill, just different applications.

writing is strategy. i believe that if you can’t explain a complex idea to a child, you don’t know it well enough.

teaching kids taught me how to simplify complexity. you can’t just dump information on a six-year-old. you have to break it down & make it digestible.

and that’s still what i do: we take messy, overwhelming brand ideas & strip them down to the essentials.

conclusion

none of these interests are my “niche,” but they all inform how i work. they are the exact essential elements that make me different from every other strategist out there.

i don’t look at myself just as a strategist. i think like a martial artist. i think like a cook. i think like a musician. i’m a multilingual communicator, a writer & a teacher.

that is depth & you can’t find that in a book. you can’t fake it. it comes from lived experience.

so, let me be the one to tell you: if you’re trying to find your niche & it feels forced, stop hiding your past from your present. stop erasing it.

all the interests you think are irrelevant to your business? they are not. they are the texture. they are the reason people will connect with you instead of someone else who does the same thing.

don’t hide them. weave them in.

let your curiosities compound.

every skill you’ve ever learned is a seed you’ve been planting. you just can’t see the result yet. one day you’ll look back & realize why you were drawn to those things.

real change takes time. i didn’t know that growing up with different languages would teach me how to read clients. i didn’t know that teaching kids would give me an edge in brand strategy. i didn’t know that karate would give me the discipline to push through adult difficulties.

we are not one thing. & that’s your advantage.

this space doesn’t need another perfectly curated expert who took the same three courses as everyone else.

we need more people who have lived, who have been there & who have stories to weave into their brands.

we want people who have been curious enough to pursue interests that didn’t make sense at the time.

that’s where depth comes from.

stop trying to erase yourself to fit into a niche. start connecting the dots. see how everything you’ve been curious about is the foundation of what you’re building now.

at yōso, we don’t believe in “more, more, more.” we believe in focusing on what’s essential. but “essential” doesn’t mean one thing: it means the things that make you, you.

strip away the noise, keep the essence & build something that only you could build.

thanks for being here & stay soulful!

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stay soulful,

jo from 要素 yōso studio