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- i’m a niche f*ckboi
Make money with your mind, not your time.
I’ve been a niche f*ckboi for 2 years.
Playing the field to find that one, special niche I have electric chemistry with.
Mindset → Dating advice → Stoicism → Mindset → Ghostwriting → Writing → Life advice → Personal Branding + Life Advice
Why am I telling you this?
Choosing a niche is anxiety inducing (too many options)
It’s okay if you don’t know what niche to pick
It took going to bed with all of these niches over 2 years before I found the one.
But you don’t need 2 years to find yours…
… You just need to read this (5 minute read):
3 Approaches to Finding Your Niche
❖ Dan Koe - You are the niche
❖ Dakota Robertson - A hard skill is your niche (writing)
❖ JK Molina - A micro niche that makes you money is your niche (likes ain’t cash)
Which of these is right?
Well…
… That’s the wrong question.
The right one is, which of these is right for you?
Competing Schools of Thought
Before Christianity became the world’s dominant ideology…
… There were multiple schools of thought that competed for attention.
Each with their own unique approach to achieving the good life.
To name a few:
Stoicism - Sees personal virtue and wisdom as the path to the good life
Epicureanism - Sees the pursuit of happiness and avoidance of pain as the path to the good life
Skepticism - Sees questioning knowledge and assumptions as the path to the good life
Sssssoooooooooooooo…
Why does this matter?
Well, because we’ve come full circle…
… In today’s digital economy, personal brands are replacing traditional education.
Authoritarian regimes such as governments, religious doctrines, and family traditions no longer dictate your path to the good life.
You get to choose which creators to follow and which school of thought to attend.
There is no one path; Only your chosen path.
How does this relate to niching?
Each of the creators I mentioned above have their own approach to niching.
This approach is their path to the good life.
And their content is the marketing machine designed to persuade you into adopting it.
With that in mind, I tested each of their approaches, and…
… none of them were right for me.
So I created my own approach instead…
The New Rich vs. The New Poor
Nassim Taleb’s ideas have the power to change your life.
In his book series, Incerto, he brilliantly showcases how the internet further divides the wealth gap between the rich and the poor:
The New Rich (People from Extremistan): A small group of people who use the power of the internet to amass large amounts of wealth. This is because the internet causes success to compound in an exponential way.
The New Poor (People from Mediocristan): A large group of people who use traditional career paths to amass small amounts of wealth. This is because without the internet, success does not compound in an exponential way.
For example, when I was a college teacher, I could never make more than $42,000 per year.
And I had no marketing machine attracting new lucrative career opportunities, or compounding my wealth year over year.
As a digital entrepreneur, the opposite is true.
Everything I lacked as a teacher, I gained with a Digital Identity (personal brand).
This caused me to jump from $42,000 per year to $500,000 per year in 18 months.
But.
Again.
How does this relate to niching?
Well, I realized the new rich have defined the new niche.
Obsession.
They use it to obliterate their competitors, amass influence, and obtain godly amounts of wealth.
The new rich are focused and obsessed.
The new poor are distracted and aimless.
Turn Obsession into a Lucrative Career
Obsession is your path to a profitable personal brand - Digital Identity.
Why?
Because a personal brand is the digital version of who you are.
❖ What you believe
❖ What you repeatedly do
❖ Who you decide to become
This unique combination makes up your identity.
When shared online, it creates a Digital Identity with the power to attract new, lucrative career opportunities.
How does this work?
James Clear’s mega best selling book, Atomic Habits, outlines the 3 layers of behavior change:
Identity (Obsessions) → Process (Habits) → Outcome (Wealth)
To turn your obsessions into a lucrative career, they must define your identity.
What do I mean by this?
Interests you obsess over become a part of your psychological identity, changing your habits, thus, changing your possible future outcomes.
Obsess over writing, a writing habit comes easy to you, and you become a writer.
Obsess over digital entrepreneurship, building comes easy to you, and you become an entrepreneur.
In order to amass influence in a niche, you must be more obsessed than your competitors.
For example, I despise SEO.
This made ghostwriting for SEO clients my kryptonite.
I never cared to understand it and always hated writing about it.
But my friend, Jake Ward, is obsessed with SEO.
He amassed 117,000+ followers on LinkedIn with just SEO content.
Obsession, when pursued, and shared online, becomes profitable influence.
Making obsession the new niche.
Turn Your Obsession into a Digital Identity
Identifying what you’re obsessed with is step 1.
Aligning your obsessions with problems people have, is step 2.
I wish all your interests could make you rich.
But unfortunately, for both of us, this isn’t the case.
(Otherwise I’d get rich playing Zelda).
Obsess over business, you’re likely to become rich.
Obsess over video games, you’re much less likely to become rich.
The first solves burning problems for others, the second creates burning problems for you.
That’s because it doesn’t help others.
You have no way of exchanging value for money.
6 Steps to Build Your Digital Identity
1) Identify an Obsession with Market Pull
Use obsession to obtain domain competence.
Use competence to offer market solutions in exchange for money.
The following obsessions are guaranteed to make you money:
(with solid execution)
❖ Sales
❖ Code
❖ Marketing
❖ Copywriting
❖ Content writing
Solve burning problems; Make big money.
2) Define success for yourself or someone else will define it for you.
For me, success is:
❖ $3M per year
❖ Providing for my future family
❖ The freedom to travel whenever, where ever I want
I’m obsessed with reaching this promise land.
And bringing my audience with me.
3) Power Your Marketing Machine with a Personal Dictionary
“Until we agree on terms, we cannot debate.”
Define the subjective experiences related to your personal definition of success.
This gives your ideas impact, uniqueness, and memorability.
It makes them mind viruses.
Naval’s definition of happiness:
“Happiness is the space between your thoughts.”
Profound.
A few personal definitions from me:
❖ Purpose - A big goal with a strong why
❖ Discipline - Detaching actions from emotions
❖ Execution - Consistent effective decision making
Terms you could define for yourself:
⇢ Focus
⇢ Impact
⇢ Writing
⇢ Success
⇢ Creativity
Each of these personal definitions is a unique piece of content 😉
4) Beliefs, Habits, and Skills
Success = the right combination of beliefs, habits, and skills.
❖ What you need to believe
❖ What you need to do
❖ Where you need to develop competence
Acquire all three in the domain you’re obsessed with to achieve success.
To build a $3,000,000 business and top 1% Digital Identity:
Believe - It’s possible for you.
Habits - Write for 4 hours a day, exercise to maintain mental clarity, and consciously consume to expand your mind.
Skills - Learn content marketing, persuasion, and sales (to start).
These become your content, offers, and brand messaging.
Have a clear goal (strategy) and a process for achieving it (execution).
5) Create Persuasive Content
Persuasion shifts perspectives.
It causes people to see the world the same way you do.
Giving them the chance to achieve your version of success for themselves.
Thoughts → Identity → Actions → Habits → Outcomes
Create content that dismantles and replaces your audience’s useless beliefs with useful ideas.
A framework for achieving this:
⇢ What do they believe?
⇢ Why do they believe it?
⇢ Why is this belief wrong?
⇢ What belief is better?
⇢ Why is it better?
6) Become David; Destroy Goliath
People are more likely to rally against a societal injustice, than towards a common enemy or goal.
⇢ An enemy is a surface level threat - Voldemort.
⇢ An injustice is a deep societal threat - oppression of the Wizarding world.
This injustice must be so big it makes you look like an underdog.
To use a video game analogy, you can’t down a world boss solo.
Rally your audience against a societal injustice to amass an uncommon level of influence.
Obsession is the new niche because it’s what allows you to compete, amass insane levels of wealth, and aligns with your psychological identity.
Become obsessed with achieving your definition of success, solving problems at scale, and joining the new rich.
Obsession → Digital Identity → Lucrative Career Opportunities
Now it’s time for me to hit the gym.
Until next time,
-Taylin John Simmonds
PS. At the end of March, the doors for Digital Identity V2 will open.
My 6 week program designed to help you turn your obsessions into highly profitable career opportunities.
We’ve overhauled the entire program from the ground up, added 2x more bonuses, and are bringing on 20 top creators for guest masterclasses.
We’re only taking 50 people so keep up with my weekly newsletter so you don’t miss out.
This Week In The School of Thought Community
Our community got mentioned in Forbes magazine 🤯
This hurt my soul…
… An editor from Forbes reached out to feature me in one of their articles.
A dream I’ve had since I started writing online.
Unfortunately, the article was about AI which I’m no expert in.
So I said no, and gave the feature to an AI expert from The School of Thought - Brandon Frederick.
You can read the article HERE.
BTW, This won’t be the first time I do this.
(Only 19 spots left).
-Taylin John Simmonds
Oh. Are you still hungry?
If your mouth is salivating for more goodies, check out these free courses and cheat sheets (more coming soon):