Forget about finding your niche. Do this instead to realize your true passion.

by Janice Allen
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“A jack of all trades is a master of nothing.”

This quote is often used to support the belief that online entrepreneurs need to establish themselves in order to be taken seriously and make money. But did you know that there is more to the offer?

“A jack of all trades is a master of nothing, but often better than a master of one.”

Instead of saying that specializing is the best choice, it praises people who are good at multiple things. Being versatile is a good thing, so why are we taught to pick only one thing we’re good at?

If you’re multi-passionate and/or multi-talented, it sounds like an impossible task to say you need to niche down. Instead of making your life easier, this advice may lead you to:

  • Constantly change your offers.
  • Be confused about who your ideal customer is.
  • Make money doing something you hate.

It turns out that squeezing a nicely labeled box isn’t so much fun. Of course, if all you care about is making money, you can pick a profitable niche and go all in. It doesn’t matter which one.

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But if you want a full life – not just a full bank account – you need more. You need a purpose. Finding that purpose is what will lead you to the deep, all-encompassing joy we all crave. That to me is what it means to find your ‘one thing’.

This is not sliding down. It’s about you – who you are, what you value, what you would enjoy doing – no matter how much money, power or prestige is attached to it.

And to find out what your “one thing” is, you have to learn to listen to and trust yourself. I know this because I had to do that when I was stuck. I had it made on the outside. I had a thriving dance career in the dance world – dancer, choreographer, owner of a dance company – I lived the dream.

But dance was not my only love. I also liked theater class, qigong, tai chi, yoga and entrepreneurship. Then life happened, and it was a wake-up call. My relationship ended. Performance subsidies were cut. I have lost my dream apartment.

Lost and in need of a break, I went on holiday to Bali and ended up staying for 3 years.

I longed for something different for my life. That was when I met digital nomads running amazing businesses around the world from their laptops. This location-independent business hassle seemed like the ultimate freedom, so I ditched my dance company and went for it.

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Like many of you, I was told to back off. The problem? There was no niche that encompassed everything I cared about. I wanted to serve people, but I wanted to do it as my full self – a dancer, teacher and energy worker.

I wanted to find a way to fully embody myself in my company. Instead of trying to be known as just one thing. If I had to use an analogy, it was like deciding to stop trying to lose weight to squeeze into an outfit and focus on finding an outfit that fits me perfectly.

One day I decided to stop looking for answers out there and start looking for them within myself. I asked myself one question: what drives everything I do?

The more I listened to my inner self, the more the pieces came together. One day, during a deep meditation session in a Bali jungle, the words came to me with such clarity. Words that may not make sense to others, but that was exactly what I was looking for.

My “one thing”. Not a niche, but a lifeline.

Armed with this knowledge, my doubts, fears, confusion, guilt, and limiting beliefs fell away. I no longer worried about whether closing my dance company was a smart move, because I knew I was still pursuing the same goal I had with everything I’d ever been passionate about. Suddenly I was able to see the golden thread flowing through my life and trusted where it was leading me.

Your “one thing” is a soul-deep purpose that brings clarity, confidence, and peace of mind that whatever comes of your actions, the actions themselves are completely aligned with where and who you want to be.

That feeling is so empowering and liberating; you don’t even have to tell people what it is to work its sacred magic. It becomes such an intrinsic part of you, guiding you, your decisions and your mindset.

In business, it guides your strategy and messages. It is the energy that attracts your target customers. You just have to want to see it as your source – an eternal source of inspiration and confidence from which you draw.

Staying connected and true to your “one thing” allows you to be creative, experiment and let go of the things that don’t serve your greatest good.

So here’s up to you to find your “one thing” and use your business as a vehicle to spread your magic. To get there, you just need to answer five questions:

  • What breaks my heart?
  • What is the one great lesson I have learned in this life?
  • What do people come to me for?
  • What turns me on that I could talk about all day?
  • If I could only help people with one thing, what would it be?

Then finish this sentence.

“I am certified, qualified and/or experienced in _____, but I really only do/teach/coach in ______.”

This is your “one thing”. Once you know it, you can package it, market it and finally build that joyful business and life you crave.

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