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Hey Reader,

Last night, I was walking through a cemetery (as you do).

Did I want to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer growing up?

Yes, but that's not why I was at my local cemetary last night, unfortunately...

I actually live near this massive "garden" cemetery. It's designed for the public to treat it like a park where you "pay respect to the deceased and nature alike."

This particular 100-acre cemetary near my house comes alive at night with lantern tours, special events, and plays (the latter of which I attended last night).

Why the hell am I telling you this?

I'll get to that in a minute.

Solve one problem, for one person, in one way

This is the typical niche advice floating around in the creator-sphere.

Doesn't matter if you can do a million things — you need to pick one and go all in on it.

Yeah, gurus spout this, but so do my friends. People I know, like, and trust personally told me it was confusing to try to help people with social writing and blog writing and newsletter writing.

"It's too confusing. You won't be known for something if you're trying to be everything," they said.

So, I gave it a go.

I niched to "social writing" and made LinkedIn my preferred platform.

​Surprise surprise...I hated every second of it.​

Turns out my friends were only half wrong, though.

I needed to niche, but I was trying to niche in the wrong way.

When I was complaining to my friends about my offer (or lack thereof), I waffled on about:

• Should I help individuals, teams, or both?
• Should I help solopreneurs, in-house content leaders, individual contributors, execs, or all of them?
• Should I run workshops, do 1:1 calls, do async edit reviews, or all of it?
• Should I help them with their blogs, their social, their email, or all of them?!

Hot damn I was a mess.

I felt like I had to pick something, anything, so I went with LinkedIn because I'd run a few cohorts on it. It made sense. My target audience was entrepreneurs.

But the second I started working with them, I missed the other forms of writing.

"I don't want to only help people with LinkedIn content for the rest of my life!"

Cue me running backward to reverse a terrible decision.

A few months later, a series of events led me to a Zoom call with a solopreneur keen to "spar" with an experienced editor on social, his newsletter, and a bit of long-form.

It was the most fun I'd ever had in a 1:1 setting.

A light bulb went off.

I didn't need to niche by content type, I needed to niche by audience type.

This solopreneur is experienced AF. I'm talking decades in the game. He knows who he is, what he does, and how he helps. He's thought hard and long about his specialty and has the depth and breadth you'd expect to see from someone who's done the damn thing for years.

His brain is a goldmine but his content felt stale. He wanted to take it up a notch, to feel more excited by it, to see more meaningful results, to co-create with someone who'd challenge him to get better.

I. Freaking. Loved. It.

And thus, an offer was born: Content Sparring 🥊

I marketed it as an offer for experienced solopreneurs looking to ping pong with someone as experienced as them.

(I originally called them experienced writers but that was a mistake since they don't self-identify that way. Talk to your customers!)

It worked. I've since booked 15 clients, and if I can keep that roster strong, I have a $200k+ service line which is f*cking awesome.

Back to the cemetary

This cemetary did something different.

Instead of the typical Churchyard cemeteries, which aren't all that pleasant to visit, the designers opted for a "landscape set aside for public use."

It sparked a movement that gave us the nation’s very first parks.

It was a brilliant, unconventional solution to a problem. Cemeteries were overcrowded, and people didn't want to spend much time in them.

Parks, on the other hand, offered a space where “in the midst of death we are in life.”

What does this have to do with a niche?

Before this big idea, American cemeteries operated in one way.

Why?

Because it was the way it'd been done. But cultural shifts and overcrowing demanded a new way.

I'd argue we're seeing something similar in the service economy right now.

The booming creator economy + massive layoffs pushing experienced people into solopreneurship are causing overcrowding. I dunno about you, but I've seen a million LinkedIn personal brand specialists/agencies pop up in the past few months.

Same with every function in the B2B marketing world: content strategists, writers, email marketers — you name it, I can think of dozens of solos serving the market.

The typical niche is no longer good enough.

It's becoming so much harder to differentiate. There are so many talented professionals with the same skill set attacking the same market.

This is part of why niching to LinkedIn social writing felt icky for me. Everyone and their cat was selling a similar service.

I felt utterly un-unique, so my confidence plummeted.

With Content Sparring 🥊, I'm the only person out there offering live, co-creative 1:1 sessions to experienced solopreneurs & founders on whatever type of writing they need to do to grow their business.

And I can pull it off because I'm actually an expert in more than one type of writing. Not everyone can say that.

I'm differentiating by going broader with my medium, but narrower with my audience.

Meanwhile, if you ask me for something I don't do? No problem; I've got a network of people I can refer you to.

This works for me, but it may not work for you

Just like my friends' advice didn't work for me, this may absolutely shit the bed for you.

I am not preaching that you try this.

I'm preaching that if you feel stuck in a box, think outside of it.

That if you feel like the market is overcrowded, find a creative way to solve that problem.

And that if you're an expert in more than one thing, consider finding a way to serve your clients without muffling your passion.

But honestly? What the hell do I know. I'm not a niche specialist, just a niche experimenter.

This isn't my typical newsletter style. I normally share content writing & editing tips.

But I'm so intrigued by how my 1:1 offer is shaping up that I needed to talk about it today.

People have told me hearing this journey has helped them massively rethink their offer for the better. It's information I would've died to have a few months back when I was struggling, so I hope it helps!

But speaking of writing & editing, Every week, I'm absolutely shocked and pleased when I see unsolicited feedback for my courses in the wild.

Yeah, testimonials are cool, but when people shout about something spontaneously, it feels better.

Earned > requested I suppose.

This week, Michael Ofei, a Lead Editor at Semrush shouted out my Content Editing 101 course on LinkedIn.

I will never tire of this course helping people find the joy in editing.

Cheers,

Erica

Check out my 3 courses that 1600+ people have taken, loved, and gotten meaningful results from:

1. Long to Short: Turn one long-form piece into a month's worth of posts. A step-by-step system to repurpose, remix, and remaster your best ideas.

2. Hooked on Writing Hooks: Turn your ideas into content that actually gets consumed. Learn to write scroll-stopping hooks on social without resorting to clickbait nonsense that feels inauthentic.

3. Content Editing 101. Kill decision fatigue and build confidence as a writer and editor. A look inside a professional editor's workflow & best practices. Packed with lessons, examples, and a roadmap so you can stop second-guessing your writing & editing decisions.

Each course is AI-powered 🪄

You can go through them manually or use AI to play, get it done faster, and test your new skills in real time. My friend & prompt genius Rob Lennon wrote all the prompts and bots for the courses.

What'd you think of today's email? Reply and let me know.

Erica Schneider

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