What's the difference between niche and generalist?

What I don't want to do in these emails is tell you what to do. 

The internet is full of people who claim to have all the answers, especially when it comes to building a personal brand.

Scrolling through Instagram this morning I saw back-to-back posts that were completely conflicting. 

• You need to pick a niche or you won't grow an audience.
• You need to be a generalist or you'll be stuck forever in one niche.

What do you do with this information?

Do you pick a niche or become a generalist? 

I'm not going to tell you what to do because I honestly have the same questions myself.

So I'm going to work through this problem with you and share a few things that I'm learning. 

I love this topic and spend countless hours a day studying it and learning about it so my plan with these emails is to condense some of the things I'm learning into some snackable, actionable content for you to walk away with and try on your own. 

I'll start with a quote.

"There is only two things you can do in life, you can decide to do your own thing and stand out or do like everyone else and fit in." - Casey Neistat

Let's break down the conversation between niche and generalist. 

The ones that say that you must niche down to grow have a valid point. 

Most big creators that talk about everything in their lives didn't start that way. 

A large number of them started with a single niche topic, built a following, and then began sharing the rest of the other aspects of their life because they had some level of fame. 

Now people are invested in who they are and care about what the rest of their life looks like. 

This isn't the case in the beginning. 

Nobody cares about you.

It's harsh but true. 

This is why only family and friends follow you. 

Ok, let's talk about the ones that tell you to be a generalist.

A generalist indicates multiple topics and interests. 

This sounds more like a human right.

As a human, you have a personality that consists of depth not a single niche topic. 

This is the claim of the generalists and it makes sense. 

If my area of expertise is fitness coaching and I only make content about fitness coaching I become like everyone else in that niche and there is nothing that sets me apart. 

This is boring and though I'm thankful for tutorials and the people that make them, we also don't need more boring how-to videos.  

We want depth and character. 

Now what if there is a way to combine the two? Have a niche and still be somewhat of a generalist. 

I think this is where the magic lies. 

I believe that if you master this you can have a niche but also have some depth to your character. 

This will allow you to switch niches at any point because the people who follow you will understand that it's not out of character for you. 

You don't necessarily need to switch niches. 

This method will allow you to talk about the wide range of things that make you who you are. 

I'm not the best person at naming things so let's just call this the Niche Generalist. 

Actionable exercise: 

I'm going to explore this topic in the next few newsletters but I want to leave you with an actionable exercise that you can use to start defining the things that make you who you are.

These will be the things that you can start to use to create content around. 

Here is a simple illustration from Dan Koe. 

Dan is a huge proponent of being a generalist and you can see this in the illustration above. 

But also you can see how if your niche is fitness coaching this gives you plenty of room to talk about your niche as well as gives you depth and character. 

What I want you to take away from this illustration and practice for yourself is breaking down your interests and areas of expertise. 

This is a great exercise to do regardless if you're going to create content around it or not. 

It helps you understand more about yourself and what you like/know things about. 

Ok take 20 minutes, pick three topics, break them down into three sub-topics, and then break those down further into 6 more topics.

Now you have 18 topics that you will generate endless content ideas. 

That's all for now.

Thanks as always for reading and I'll see you in the next one.

If you’d like more free value follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and X.

Keep an eye open for my personal brand and content strategy course. 

I'm still developing it and I know it's going to be great. 

So stay tuned. 

Ryan