Here's a question that trips people up: what do you want to be known for?
Not "what can you do" - you can probably do lots of things. Not "what's your job title" - that's just a label. But specifically: if someone described you to a colleague, what would they say?
"Oh, you should talk to [your name], they're the..."
If you don't know how that sentence ends, neither does anyone else.
Why niche matters:
Think about experts you admire. There's "the sales email guy." "The startup CFO who explains finance simply." "The woman who writes about building remote teams."
They're specific. They're memorable. And here's the paradox: by narrowing down, they actually got MORE opportunities, not fewer (Edelman-LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report, 2024).
The intersection method:
Your niche isn't random. It lives at the intersection of four things:
- What you're genuinely good at - Your skills, experience, expertise
- What you actually enjoy - Topics you could discuss forever
- What people pay for - Market demand and real problems
- What makes you different - Your unique angle, background, or perspective
The sweet spot is where all four overlap.
Questions to find your niche:
- What do people ask you for advice on? (Not what you WISH they'd ask—what they actually ask.)
- What topic could you create 100 pieces of content about?
- What have you done that most people in your field haven't?
- What combination of experiences makes you unique?
- What problems have you solved that others still struggle with?
Niche formula examples:
- [Skill] + [Industry]: "SEO for SaaS companies"
- [Role] + [Stage]: "CFO coaching for Series A startups"
- [Method] + [Audience]: "Visual storytelling for B2B brands"
- [Experience] + [Insight]: "Enterprise sales lessons from 15 years at Oracle"
The narrowing fear:
"But won't I miss opportunities by being too specific?"
No. Specialists command higher prices. They attract better opportunities. They stand out in crowded feeds (LinkedIn Social Selling Index Research, 2024).
Generalist = competing with everyone.
Specialist = standing out to your people.
"Your LinkedIn presence is a compounding asset. Every post, comment, and connection adds to your professional equity." - Justin Welsh, LinkedIn creator with 1M+ followers, founder of The Saturday Solopreneur
A story about evolution:
Gary Vee started talking about wine. Just wine. Built a massive audience around wine. Then gradually expanded into marketing, then life advice, then everything.
Start narrow. Establish authority. Then broaden if you want.
You can always expand later. You can't expand from invisible.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I have more than one niche?
It's possible, but much harder. When you're starting out, focus on one clear niche until you've established authority. Once people know you for "the sales guy," you can start introducing your other interests like "the sales guy who loves ultra-marathons."
What if I'm a generalist by nature?
Many "generalists" are actually specialists in a specific type of problem-solving or a specific intersection of industries. Try to find the common thread that connects all your diverse interests and position that as your unique "generalist" niche (Edelman Trust Barometer, 2025).
How do I know if my niche is too small?
If there are companies making money in that space and people talking about it on LinkedIn, it's probably big enough. It's almost always better to be a "big fish in a small pond" than a "tiny fish in the ocean" when you're building a personal brand (LinkedIn Economic Graph, 2024).