You don't have a real niche until you can answer this one question
how to find your people. one conversation at a time.
Why does it feel so hard to find clients… even after you’ve defined your ideal client?
Even after you’ve picked your niche?
You did the worksheets. You described your avatar. You started creating content speaking directly to them.
So why aren’t people magically appearing in front of you?
Did you pick the wrong niche?
Is it too broad?
Is it too specific?
Should you start over?
This part of business can be ridiculously frustrating. I struggled to really nail my niche for the first 18months of my business.
Here’s what I wish someone had told me much earlier: choosing a niche on paper is not the same thing as validating your niche.
Looking back on it now, I don’t think a single business guru I learned from, even talked about the concept of “validating your niche”. Which seems like madness to me. Because until you validate your niche, your business barely even exists.
A business bank account with no transactions.
A fancy website, with no traffic.
A premium zoom account with no client sessions.
Until you validate your niche, there are no “real people” to help. Just made up avatars on a worksheet.
So how do you “validate your niche”
A niche becomes real when you can answer the question:
Where do you find your people?
Where do they actually gather?
If you don’t know where your people hang out, and how you can connect with them- you don’t have a niche yet.
You have a cute idea.
You have an assortment of characteristics.
You have a poetic description of a person.
But a real niche isn’s just a WHO. It’s a WHERE.
There is a place attached to it.
A space where your people gather.
Those spaces are what I call watering holes.
What Is a “Watering Hole”?
A watering hole is any place where your people already gather and communicate with each other. If conversations are happening there, it’s a watering hole.
It could be:
Facebook groups
Subreddit threads
Yoga studios
Co-working spaces
the comments section of a youtube creator
Conferences
Professional organizations
Meetup.com events
whatsapp groups
A watering hole is just really any place (virtual or in person) with existing infrastructure where a specific group gathers and talks to each other.
Ongoing communication is key- you want it to be place where people are engaging with each other. Asking questions. Sharing resources. etc.
Ultimately you may end up creating your own watering hole, but in the beginning, you want to tap into spaces where your people already are.
Because those spaces are your access point to your people. Without watering holes, you’re trying to build your business disconnected from the people you are building it for.
My first 2 niches failed
It took me 18 months and two failed niches to finally figure out- how to properly pick a niche. My hope is that you can learn from my mistakes and shortcut your journey.
the “solo female traveler niche”
My first niche idea was solo female travelers. Or I guess “aspiring solo female travelers.” I had just quit my medical career to become a full time traveler/ digital nomad, maybe I can help other people do that too.
My result at that point was something like “live your dreams.” I’m going to help solo female travelers- live their dreams.
I cringe now at the thought of it. The plotholes are so obvious to me. But to be fair, at that point, I really didn’t understand marketing or online business. So I set off at my first attempt of “validating my niche”. (At least I intuitively understood this part)
I joined solo traveler Facebook groups and started having conversations with people.
On the surface, it seemed promising.
I located them. ✅
They wanted to talk to me. ✅
Check. Check.
But when I started doing market research calls, I realized something important.
They didn’t have a problem that I could help them solve. Most of them just wanted to travel more. They wanted to spend all of their money on traveling, not coaching.
It felt like an uphill battle.
I realized I needed a new direction.
** Looking at it now- it’s probably less that this was a doomed niche, and more that I didn’t understand how to identify the problem they wanted to pay to solve. But either way it would have been a challenging place for me to start.
the burnout- professional- spiritual- traveler niche.
My second attempt was a bit all over the place. It sounded something like:
“Spiritual professional women interested in wellness and travel.”
Which is just a mashup of character traits that had me looking all over the internet to no avail.
Whenever I tried to answer the question:
Where do they gather?
Where can I find them?
How can I connect with this type of person?
I couldn’t answer that question.
Professional women is broad.
Spiritual is vague.
Wellness and travel are interests- so communities may form around them? But I will probably have to do alot of filtering and digging within those communities to really sift and find my people.
So I started trying random things.
I would follow people from accounts like The Holistic Psychologist and connect with them on Instagram. Occasionally it worked—I even signed a couple clients that way.
But it felt like finding a needle in a haystack.
That’s when I started working with a coach who told me something profound.
If you can’t find your people, you don’t have a niche. The purpose of having a niche- is that you know where to locate your people.
Ohhhh…. that changes everything.
your niche must have a watering hole
Your niche is validated when you can find and connect with your people.
You find and connect with your people- at their watering holes.
ipso facto, once you find your watering hole, your niche is valid.
So since they are major players in this “find your niche” conversation” let’s take a moment to understand watering holes a little bit more deeply.
watering hole: any space where a specific group of people already gather and communicate with each other.
In my experience, watering holes tend to form for 3 reasons.
1. Shared Identity
People gather around identities that create belonging.
Examples might include:
digital nomads
physicians
entrepreneurs
ADHDers
working moms
expats in Mexico City
2. Shared Interests or Activities
People also gather around activities or hobbies they enjoy.
Things like:
dance communities
pickleball
run clubs
dungeons and dragons
fencing
Shared interests create a reason to gather together in community.
3. Shared Problems or Desires
Another powerful way communities form is around solving a problem or pursuing a goal.
Examples I’ve seen of this:
financial independence (FIRE communities- also have a bit of an identity component too)
specific health diagnoses
real estate investing
recovery groups
When people share a problem or a goal, they are looking for support, and tend to gather together.
the niche that finally “worked”
Eventually, I decided to niche down to healthcare professionals. I didn’t immediately know where to find them. So I started with the people I already knew.
I reached out to anyone in my network who loosely fit the bill. A healthcare professional interested in a career transition.
I asked them if they’d be willing to hop on a call.
Most conversations didn’t lead anywhere directly. But each conversation gave me a little more information.
I kept asking them questions to identify their watering holes.
Where you go online to find advice on career transition? Are there any communities you hang out in? Podcasts you listen to.
Eventually someone mentioned “the Facebook groups”.
What Facebook groups? I had no clue what she was talking about.
She told me about these huge Facebook groups for physicians exploring career transitions. Gave me a list of names.
That was the thread. I pulled it.
The next day I joined every FB group on the list. Asked the group admins if I could post about doing market research interviews.
Most of them said no. All of them said no.
Except one.
One admin said yes.
And that one yes changed everything.
When I posted in that group, dozens of people commented wanting to talk.
Suddenly I had more conversations than I could handle.
My niche was finally validated.
validating your niche is no joke
Validating your niche is not something you do on a worksheet. It happens through real conversations with real people.
It looks like:
reaching out to people in your network
asking questions
following the leads
hitting dead ends
hearing a lot of no’s
It can be frustrating and discouraging. But if you keep persisting, one conversation at a time you get closer and closer to finding your people.
Have You Validated Your Niche?
The simple way to check.
Ask yourself:
Can I name one to three places where my people already gather?
If the answer is yes, your niche has officially passed the Chelsea validation test. Congratulations. (you are probably not still reading this post)
If the answer is no, that’s great information! It lets you know where you need to focus your energy.
Your main priority at this point is having conversations.
Talk to people you already know who kinda sorta fit the bill of your ideal person.
Ask them where they gather to engage in conversations about your topic.
Ask them what communities they’re part of.
And then follow the threads.
Because that’s how you stop guessing your niche—and start validating it in the real world.
How is your journey with finding your niche going? I’d love to hear from you. Drop a comment below! Let me know where you’re at, and what your struggles are.
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