Transcription
Pick a niche. It's the first piece of advice you get. Every course, every guru, every how-to-grow video says the same thing. Pick a niche. Focus. Stay in your lane. And it makes sense.
So, you do it. You pick your niche. You start creating. But then this happens. Your content starts looking like everyone else's. Same topics, same hooks, same thumbnails, same ideas over and over again.
I followed this advice for years. I've built multiple brands, grown to over 200,000 subscribers, and spent over a decade in content. And I'm telling you, this advice is holding you back more than anything else. And by the end of this video, I'm going to give you a framework that replaces it and use every time you create content or open an AI.
But first, let me show you what "pick a niche" actually does. These creators all followed their advice. They all picked a niche and now they're invisible. And this isn't because their content is bad. It's because it looks like everyone else. No one remembers them. No one would notice if they stopped posting tomorrow. Because there are a million people saying the same thing the same way. And that's the part that hurts. They didn't fail. They did exactly what they were told to do. And this is where it leads.
So why does everyone say this? Where did "pick a niche" come from? So it came from a different era where platforms were built on search. So YouTube SEO, blog, keywords, hashtags. If you wanted to be found, you had to fit inside a category. The algorithm looked at your content and put it in a box and showed it to people searching for that box. So, niching down made sense. It helped you get found.
But that's not how platforms work anymore. Discovery has changed. The algorithm doesn't put your content into a category and wait for someone to search it. It looks for content and matches it to a person who might like it. It doesn't care about your niche. It cares about the match. Getting found was the old game. Being chosen is the new one.
And now it's worse because of AI. Think about what happens when someone picks a niche today. They go onto ChatGPT and type, "My niche is finance. What are my audience's pain points? Give me 10 content ideas." And they get an answer, a clear list of topics. But here's the problem. A million other people type the same thing and they got the same answer, the same topics, the same idea, the same content. The niche model didn't just limit your creativity. It turned it into a photocopier. Everyone is copying from the same source now and that source is giving everyone the same thing.
But there's an even deeper problem that nobody talks about. The niche model tells you focus on your audience's pain points. What problems do they have? Create content that solves these problems. So you do "how to fix your posture," "how to budget in your 20s," "five ways to get more views." Content that answers a question. But your audience has AI too. They can open ChatGPT and type, "How do I fix my posture?" and get a better, faster, more personal answer than your video gives them in 3 seconds without watching 12 minutes of content. Damn.
If your whole strategy is answering questions your audience is already asking, you're not just competing with other creators. You're competing with AI. And AI is faster, cheaper, and available all day. So, what can't they get from AI? You. Your experience, your perspective, your story, the specific way you see the world. Because of everything you've lived. That's the only content that's safe. And the niche model doesn't build that. It builds the opposite.
I know this because I lived it. At the beginning of my journey, I built a brand around faceless content. And that was my niche. And for a while, it worked. The videos did well. The audience grew. It made money. But honestly, I felt trapped. I was creating the same type of content over and over. And I ran out of ideas. Not because I didn't have ideas, but because most of my ideas didn't fit the box I had put myself in. And the worst part of all of this is I chose the box. No one forced me. I followed the same advice everyone follows. Pick a niche. Stay focused. Don't confuse your audience. So, I stayed in this box and the box got smaller and the content got harder, as you might have noticed. And I started to hate creating. And it took me a long time to realize that this wasn't a strategy. This was a prison, a mental prison that every guru keeps reinforcing because "pick a niche" is easy advice to give. It's simple. It sounds smart and it stops you from thinking for yourself.
Now, I'm not telling you this from theory. I'm telling you this because I built this prison. I sat in it and I had to break out of it. And what I found on the other side is what I'm about to show you now.
So, if niching down is the problem, what replaces it? Not posting randomly, not creating whatever you feel like with no direction. That's the other extreme. And it doesn't work either. The answer is layers. The problem with "pick a niche" is that it reduces you to one thing. So your topic, finance, fitness, content, marketing, one layer. And when you're one layer deep, you look like everyone else at that layer. And that's why the explore page looks the way it does. Everyone is operating on one layer or nearly everyone.
But you are not one layer. And even if you're faceless, no one is. Because with your experiences, beliefs, interests, skills, story, you have depth. And everyone has layers of depth to make it harder to copy. This is what I call the identity stack. Five layers. And most creators are stuck at layer one because that's where the niche advice stops. Pick a niche. Okay? So this is what people call your niche. And on its own, it's the least valuable layer you have. So essentially, this is your topic. So this could be finance, fitness, content strategy, cooking, whatever you want to talk about. "I help people manage their money." "I help people get fit." "I post motivational content to inspire people." Is that you? Everyone has this. Everyone starts here. And on its own, it means nothing because a million people share this layer with you. And let me show you what I mean. Look at these accounts. All these fitness accounts. They basically have the same name. All the covers look the same, you know, same everything. They all picked a niche and they all stopped at layer one. And the same thing happened exactly here with the study education niche. All looks virtually the same apart from maybe a few colors. And this is why niche advice is probably some of the worst advice. And people wonder why they're invisible. The domain is the starting point, not the answer. And this is so important if you actually want to make money with your content.
So we're going to start building our layers of domain. Okay? And this is super important. Trust me. If you want to make money, you need to watch this and understand this. So, a finance creator with ADHD. Now, I already know that some people won't even go this deep in terms of adding "with ADHD," but let's say their domain is "I help people manage their money and build wealth." Okay. A fitness creator. Who knows who this is? Domain. "I help people get fit and live a healthier lifestyle." Okay. And then faceless motivational. I know a lot of you are this. "I post motivational content to inspire people." If I ask your niche or who you serve, this is the most you will tell me. "I post motivational content to inspire people." If you want to make money and build something big like social media, you need to understand what I'm about to tell you. Okay? This is not enough. You just become like, you know, boom boom boom boom boom. You just become like the 50 million others that exist like you. Do you not want to be any of these, do you? No. So, let's keep working. Okay.
So layer two. Two people can talk about the same topic and feel completely different. This layer is why your perspective is the lens you see your domain through. It's shaped by everything you've lived, your background, your beliefs, your experience, the things you've struggled with. Two people can both create finance content. One grew up wealthy. Money was never a problem. One grew up with nothing. Every lesson about money came from pain. They talk about the same topic. But the thing is they feel completely different because this perspective layer changes everything. The normal niche concept tells you basically that this doesn't matter. You know, you make finance content about this and that's it. But this layer is, you know, where we're living right now in 2026. Authenticity, real life. This is what's going to make people watch your content. Okay?
So, perspective. Finance creator with ADHD. Perspective: Grew up broke. Has ADHD. Thinks budgeting culture is built for neurotypical brains. Believes most finance advice ignores the emotional side of money. Okay, so this is their perspective, how they see the world. For a fitness creator, former people pleaser who used the gym to build confidence, not just muscle, believes fitness culture is toxic and obsessed with aesthetics over mental health. That's their perspective. That's their view. Then we have faceless motivational. Came from an immigrant family, watched their parents sacrifice everything and get no recognition. Believes motivation culture is fake. All quotes, no reality. Thinks real motivation comes from anger and responsibility, not positivity. That's their perspective.
Let's go deeper. Your audience is a real person. They care about more than the label you've just put on them. A finance audience also cares about career, mental health, productivity, decision-making, relationships with money. A fitness audience also cares about sleep, stress, confidence, energy. Yes, they are real people. Those are topics that make someone choose you over the person who only talks about budgeting tips or workout plans. And here's the thing. This is the content that people can't get from AI because AI doesn't know what specific audience cares about beyond their label. You do because you are one of them. There's a reason you want to create a motivational page. There's a reason you want to do that. Pain point content answers questions your audience is already asking. Parallel interest content shows them things they didn't know they needed. That's the difference between being searched for and being chosen.
So now it's parallel interests. Okay. So this is where your connection with your audience starts to build. So parallel interest for my friend right here, finance creator: mental health, career and anxiety, decision-making under stress, productivity systems, relationships with money, class and identity. Parallel interests. This is where your content also starts to reshape itself because now you have topics. But let's go deeper again on the fitness creator. Parallel interest: sleep, stress management, confidence, body image, energy, nutrition as self-care not restriction, discipline versus motivation. If you're just living here, you will never get to understand this. You'll never get to connect to your audience. Faceless motivational: immigrant identity, generational pressure, loneliness, discipline when no one's watching, the gap between social media and real life, grief and loss as fuel. You're building that relatability with your audience.
Let's go deeper. This is why people recognize your content before they see your name. Your method is how you create and how you communicate. Your format, your energy, your creative identity. Do you use storytelling? Do you use data? Do you use humor? Are you calm throughout or thoughtful or you speak fast and confrontational? All of this matters. So, most people don't really think about this because all of the advice out there is "copy what format's working." But this puts you right back at layer one and in a loop and you look like everyone else. Okay?
So, method is more about the content like the way you present your page. So method, you know, for this guy, for example, if this was a personal brand: raw, conversational, no suits and laptop aesthetic, talks fast, draws things out, feels like a friend, not a financial advisor. Okay. Method for this one. Fitness creator: calm, thoughtful, no shouting, no transformation photos, cinematic B-roll, journaling-style voiceovers, feels like a documentary, not a gym bro. There is the method again. More layering again for this one. Faceless: dark cinematic footage, cities at night, rain, empty streets, no stock motivational clips, custom AI visuals, deep male voiceover, feels like a short film, not a quote page. Boom, it's getting deeper.
Let's go deeper. Your story is the reason people follow the journey, not just watch the video. This is the layer that ties everything together. It gives people a reason to care about you beyond the information you share, which is extremely important and something even I'm working on myself. The story isn't "I'm a finance creator." Your story is "I grew up from nothing and figured out money the hard way. Built something from zero and now I teach what I learned." That's a story. Yes. That no one else can tell. And it turns every piece of content into a chapter of something bigger. Not just a standalone post. When people know your story, they're invested. They come back not for tips, for the next chapter. Okay?
Story. Grew up with nothing. Made every money mistake. Figured out the hard way with a brain that fights conventional systems. Now teaches finance through that lens. Okay. Story: Used to hate their body. Used fitness to fix how they felt, not how they looked. Learned that the mental shift matters more than the physical one. The way their perspective makes a big, big difference. And it all builds to the story. Faceless motivational. Yes, you can build a story even if you're faceless. And I'm about to show you some real-life examples. Built by someone whose parents never got their moment. Every video is a letter to the version of themselves that almost gave up. Tell me if you do all of this, will you be the same as everyone else? Answer that question.
Okay, so now we have two real examples. And something I want to say is to do all of this like niche and like layering and stuff, it's actually much harder to do it on a faceless account. So I'm going to use two examples which are both faceless. So here we have Calisthenics Dopamine. We have 330,000 followers. And if we scroll all the way down, their page has evolved over time. Okay, so originally and if you compare it with the other fitness pages, etc., they are way more specific. You know, you can see that this is fitness through education, not just about aesthetics. You know, they're not just selling a body, they're selling a movement that works. You know, this is an evolution of fitness. You know, once you get deeper into the layers, you can build a brand identity. And if you want me to make a video about branding, go deeper into branding because I do think niche and branding, you know, they once they like overlap, that's when things kind of go to a whole new level. And I'm happy to do a branding video. But you can see right here, you know, their method is clear. They post this style. Their story is clear. They're not posting workout tips. They're building an educational manga that is a universe. You know, it's able to sell ebooks. They could easily do an app, characters. You know, this is smart. Yeah.
Here is another one which is Faceless. Okay. So, 138 posts, 165K followers, and you can see that they get pretty good engagement like, you know, 25,000, whatever, whatever. But they're building something again deeper, you know, and all of the other ones in this niche are very kind of similar. But a difference here is that the perspective, you know, school teachers content. "I teach your brain how to learn instantly." You know what it is. Then the parallel interest here we have gifted student burnout, procrastination, psychology. Like there is a lot here. You know, you can see "Recovered Procrastinator." The name is a storytelling mechanism. Okay. And, you know, "Founder of the Notecraft Method." So they're already kind of showing their perspective that they have a perspective. These accounts go deeper which gives them the possibilities to sell, to do things, to build a brand. I need you to understand this and, you know, I'm happy to help you guys. I will be sharing some stuff in my vault.
Layer one on its own, a million people are doing the same thing. Add layer two, maybe a few thousand. Add layer three, maybe a few hundred. Stack all five and there's one you. That's what uncopyable looks like. And I'll be honest, I'm still on the journey of trying to reach that layer five. But breaking free from layer one and two, trust me, it's refreshing. Watch what happens.
So here's what most people give AI. And here's what happens when you give AI your identity stack. Your domain, your perspective, your parallel interests, your method, your story. Same tool, completely different result because the input changed. Fill in all five layers. Write it down, print it, and use it as a reference document. Every AI chat you have from today, every content idea, even script, every strategy filter through your layers, not a niche label. Your content will never look generic again. I've built an identity stack worksheet that walks you through all five layers. You can grab it free right here.
Okay, so now I'm going to show you something super interesting. I'm going to show you how normally people will kind of get ideas for videos or their content or pain points. So, let's do two examples here on ChatGPT. So, let me go to my first ChatGPT chat and I'm going to put my niche is finance. What are my audience's pain points? Give me 10 content ideas. Boom. Let's see what it comes up with. And now I'm going to grab another one which is based using my niches or using my, kind of, layer method, etc. You can see it's a lot more extensive. Um, and let's, let's see the difference. Instantly, it gives me a lot more like specific ideas. It tells me the angle, why it lands, possible openers. Like the difference is far different because for this I still have to do a lot of work and I'm kind of just posting this, hitting and hoping. Okay? Whereas if you have this information, you have the layers, you can target very specifically with your audience and you just enjoy making the content because you relate to it much more. And it doesn't matter if you're faceless, personal, business, whatever. Having an in-depth understanding of who you are, your brand makes a big difference when you're creating your content. And you can see the difference. You know, I've got some solid 10 ideas here where this is kind of all very abstract.
Be sure to check out my Circle, basically hub where I give all my freebies that I share in videos. I've put it all into one place here on Circle. All you need to do is sign up with your email, create an account, and it will, trust me, be worth it. Freebie that I give in this particular video, which is going to help you break down your niche, and I really recommend printing it, doing whatever is going to be hit, and I'll be adding that. And, you know, there'll be other stuff being added, etc.
For years, the advice has been the same. Pick a niche. Stay focused. And what did it get us? A world where everyone's content looks the same. Where explore pages, as we saw, are full of copies. Where no one remembers anyone. But that era is over. We're living in the age of trust, authority, authenticity. The people who win from here are not the ones who picked the tightest niche. They're the ones who stacked enough layers that they've become the only version of what they do. Your knowledge, everyone has access to that now. Your topic, a million people share it. But your layers, your perspective, your interests, your method, your story, nobody has that. Nobody can copy them. Nobody can prompt them. Stop asking, "What's my niche?" Start asking, "What are my layers?" My name's Alex. Let's create smarter.