Your Niche is NOT Oversaturated
Have you ever heard someone say that your niche is oversaturated?
This is a phrase I hear A LOT. And if it's not your niche, it's your industry, or your marketing platform. It seems to be really popular to claim that there's just no more room for new businesses to thrive anywhere.
I think this story is a BIG FAT LIE.
In my latest youtube video, I share why I don't believe in oversaturated markets. More often than not, this story is just a sneaky way for your brain to justify inaction or “failure”.*
No point chasing your dreams if the industry is already oversaturated, right?
It's not your fault if you can't find customers, the market is just too crowded.
It might sound harsh, but as I say in the video, our brains are often unreliable narrators. I think it's important to recognize these stories so that we can shift them (and get that much closer to realizing our goals).
*Speaking of "failure", I like to put it in quotes because that's another thing I don't really believe in. What others call “failure”, I see as experimentation. But more on that another time!
Note: This was written as a transcript for the video. Please excuse any grammatical errors.
Today I’m making this video to talk about this phrase that I see all the time, pretty much everywhere:
The industry/market/niche is oversaturated.
Insert whatever you want into that blank. That’s the thing that I find so interesting about this statement, is that I’ve seen people say it about pretty much every industry, every niche. I’ve seen people say this about the coaching industry, about content creators, about commentary youtube, about livestreaming, about handmade jewelry, pretty much whatever it is you’re trying to do, there is probably a popular sentiment that it’s already too late for you. It’s already oversaturated. You missed the boat. Sorry.
And I just want to say that’s actually, just simply not true. It’s a popular thought, because of the way that our human brains work, but that doesn’t make it an objective fact. And it’s also not even relevant. And it’s also stupid. And here’s why.
Ok, so I’ll use myself as an example, but like I said I’ve seen so many examples of this across vastly different categories.
If you aren’t familiar with me or my work, I am a brand designer. I help people craft beautiful and compelling brand identities, which is a really fancy way of saying that I design logos, packaging, and websites. There’s a bit more to it than that, but we’re keeping it simple, ok. This isn’t a sales pitch.
Now if you are not a designer, if you’re not in the design world, let me tell you that it is very popular to talk about how oversaturated the design industry is.
You do not have to look very hard to find a lot of “evidence” that the design industry is completely full.
You can look at statistics from schools showing how few design students actually end up in design-related careers.
There’s millions and millions of designers on instagram and Pinterest and Twitter, and like, I don’t know…Dribble, does anyone actually use Dribble?
There’s also websites like Fiverr where hundreds of thousands of people offer to “do business logo” for less than $30.
And if the human competition wasn’t bad enough, there’s also lots of online generators that claim to completely eliminate the need for designers altogether by automatically creating designs using technology. Just google “free online logo maker” and you’ll get millions of results.
But just setting aside for a moment, the fact that having an abundance of low-quality options does not and will never outweigh the need for high-quality options.
Still, it is very easy to get overwhelmed by all these things and feel like there’s just absolutely no way for you to stand out because the market is just way too crowded already.
Why is this such a common belief?
Here’s the thing… This is actually just an example of one of the ways that our human brains just aren’t really suited for the modern world. If you take nothing else away from my content, I want you to understand that your brain is an unreliable narrator.
The truth is this: the mechanisms that determine the way we think and feel, they evolved in a time where our average daily interactions with people were on a much much much smaller scale. We didn’t have the internet or TV, there was no concept of people existing outside of our daily social interactions. For all intents and purposes, the only people that existed in our brains, were the people that we personally knew, within a pretty limited area.
And this is really important to recognize because it helps to explain why this idea that “___ is oversaturated” is such a popular thought, no matter what industry or niche you’re looking at. You can find people saying this everywhere.
It’s because our brains don’t really have the natural capacity to comprehend the scale of the large numbers of people that we’re interacting with now.
So when we’re scrolling through instagram for “inspiration” / our daily dose of comparison, if we see like, 20 people doing the thing we wanna do, it feels like there’s SO MANY people already doing that thing. It just feels oversaturated. It feels like “everyone” is already doing it.
“Everyone” is trying to become a content creator these days. “everyone” is doing short-form video content. “everyone” is launching an online course. Everyone…whatever. insert whatever thing you feel like you’re too late for. Our brain’s concept of “everyone” is like, 20 people, that’s all it takes for us to feel like it’s an overwhelming majority. And with social media the way it is, it’s really not hard to find lots people already doing the thing you wanna do, and a lot of them are better than you too! But the thing that’s important to remember is that those 20 people, or 200 people, or even those 2000 people that you follow and constantly compare yourself too, that is such an insignificantly small number of people in the big picture. It’s practically no one, even though our brain interprets it as everyone.
And you might think I’m looking into this too deeply or overanalyzing it, because obviously when we say “everyone’s” already doing something, we know logically that not literally EVERYONE is doing it, but like, I think sometimes people don’t realize how illogical our subconscious brains actually are. This isn’t about logic, this is about all the weird little things that our brains do for the sake of efficiency and self-preservation. And unfortunately those things aren’t always great for helping us grow and reach our goals in the modern world.
It doesn’t even matter if the market actually IS saturated.
Ok so sometimes our brains make us believe untrue things but actually what I think is more interesting is that it’s not even relevant to think about whether or not the market is saturated. You can always find lots of proof to confirm whatever it is you believe. That’s part of how our brains work. If you believe that the market is oversaturated, then your brain will find evidence to support that. You can find lots of proof that you’re too late to do something. Or you’re not the right “type of person.” Or you’re not smart enough. You’re always going to be able to find lots of confirmation for those kinds of thoughts because that’s just how your brain works.
But it doesn’t actually even matter. Even if there are way too many people already in your niche, already doing the thing that you wanna do, it doesn’t change the fact that none of those people are you.
We kinda act like there’s a limit to how many people are allowed to be successful, but there’s really not a limit. It’s not like once someone in your industry reaches a goal, that means it’s over and no one else can do that thing.
In fact, it’s actually the opposite. If someone you admire has accomplished a goal that you want to accomplish, that’s just proof that it’s possible for you too.
A lot of the time we look at the most popular people in our niche and we use them as proof that it’s already too late, someone else is already doing the thing. I see this happen a lot with content creators actually, they go, “what’s the point of starting another podcast about ___?” There’s already like 10 other super popular podcasts about ____.
As if there’s only allowed to be like 10 podcasts about a topic. As if those 10 popular podcasts are enough to satisfy all of the different people interested in that topic.
You don’t have to appeal to everyone to find success.
Let me tell you, just speaking from my personal preference, some of my favourite podcasts are not the most popular podcasts in their category. But they’re my favourite because of the specific individual people who created them. Because I like their vibe. And that’s the thing that people often miss when they talk about this niche is already overcrowded, why even bother trying. When you say something like that you’re completely discrediting the inherent value of your unique energy.
At least that’s what I think about it.
I hope you found this little chat helpful and that it inspired you to start doing that thing, whatever it is, that thing that you wanna do. It’s a really good idea. I think you should go for it.
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