3 Ways to Find Your Niche for The New Year
First thing’s first: having a niche isn’t the end-all-be-all. While there are plenty of benefits that come with developing a signature style or creative product, limiting your work for the sake of creating a niche might result in something that quickly becomes boring or stale.
If, deep down, you know your niche isn’t what you want it to be, or if you’re still finding your creative voice, don’t be tempted to settle. Don’t squeeze yourself into a box that doesn’t quite fit. Rather than chasing down the first idea you think of, shift your focus to following what fulfills you. Then, your niche will come naturally. While a creative person can certainly find success without the limitations of a niche, there is still some gold in following what truly inspires you. You may eventually find the sweet spot where your skills, talents, inspiration, and excitement magically align. And while there might not be one universal secret to figure out just where that magical sweet spot is, I have a few ideas for how to jumpstart this journey, just in time for the new year!
1. Instead of narrowing your focus, expand it!
It might sound counterintuitive at first, but to build a foundation for a truly fulfilling and sustainable creative niche, you shouldn’t arbitrarily restrict yourself. Many creatives already have trouble with finding new things exciting, so this is your permission to try out those exciting new ventures! This is actually going to help, rather than hinder, your niche. I’m not suggesting that you completely abandon the art practice that gives you the warm fuzzy feelings. I obviously want you to continue doing what you love. But by expanding your focus, even temporarily, you will ultimately be building the foundation for your niche.
If you need more of a prompt to get started, the most universal prompt for creators is to try a new medium. Playing in a new medium, and being a beginner again, will create new neural pathways, and you will probably unlock new ideas and inspiration to bring back to your primary medium. Alternatively, if trying a new medium altogether seems like way too much of a leap, look at how you can shift in your creative practice. Some ideas are to use a new color palette, scale up or down, or challenge yourself to make in 20 minutes what would normally take you 5 hours. Any sort of change in your work will allow your creativity to manifest a new perspective.
Allow yourself to recognize new areas of interest, and allow your work to change with you. Your daily practice may change, or exploration may make you realize all the more how much you love your routine.
2. Borrow ideas!
While you should make anything you create your own, there is no harm in gaining inspiration from other creators. If you see something that speaks to you and makes you think “I want a bit of that in my work too!” take a note. Put that note in your workplace, so you can see it and incorporate that idea into your work.
Another way to do this is to make an inspiration board! You might already have a Pinterest account, so go back to it, and make all sorts of Boards that you can peruse. Take a few minutes to understand what draws you in. What criteria do you use for creating inspiration boards? Whether you are pinning ideas that are obviously aspirational to your work, or are in a completely different medium, consider what draws you in from others’ work, and think about how you can apply that to your own practice.
3. Lean into what you’re already doing.
What do you love about your creative work? What do you hate about it? I think most creatives have a pretty good sense as to the answers to these questions, but not all artists will follow their hearts, so to speak. Try leaning into the things that you love, and find ways to take out the things you hate.
Love a particular color? Try using only that color. Hate a particular step of your process? Try finding a way to take that step out. Creative practices can vary, but think about your particular creative practice. Something that seems to be true across many mediums is that you don’t need to stay in a particular box, so take that freedom and really make your medium your own. If that sounds crazy to you, maybe this change will be the key! If the goal is to hone your creative voice, it’s a-okay if no one has used your medium quite like you are about to!
Feeling inspired? Drop a comment below and share how you’re going to try to shake up your creative practice.
