Finding My Niche: A 3-Day Journey

byBusyGirl

1.9K followers

10 years ago

Hello Everyone,

I am getting more involved with the community and letting go of the feelings that hold me back from participating. When I first decided to become my own boss and do my own thing, I did not know I could do it with the help and support of such a wonderful group of people. I feel very humbled to be meeting all of you and since I want to make a bigger connection and be involved, it’s time for me to write my first blog here at WA.

I came from a background with many years experience as a graphic artist. I love designing ads and flyers and things for people, and I have developed a knack for creating graphics and making up copy for my clients. I design for newspapers, magazines and full-color phone books, anything for PRINT. When my company was sold last year and I became one of the unemployed, I knew I had to take my skills to the next level and design for the internet. I knew I needed to learn to make websites, too.

I have researched many work-at-home opportunities over the last 10 years, and found them all to be scams. I did not want to get involved in some delusional scheme that would never produce results. I wanted a real product or service that I could be proud of and promote, not some program where I have to consistently find people and do some kind of hard sell to get sales! That wasn’t me!

Lucky for me, I found WA. The perfect training platform to learn how to build websites and also learn about affiliate marketing. Wow! Instead of creating websites for other businesses and help them succeed, I am even more excited to create my own websites and market them for me! And I have the background and talent for making up graphics and making up copy - this is going to be easy! Ha! Ha! Ha! So I thought!

Just need to find my niche! In the lesson plan, we’re told it may take 15-30 minutes, don’t take too long, just do it. I had so many thoughts in my head - mostly of what I did NOT want to write about! I do not want to write about graphic design, for instance, the magic just appears on the screen when I get my pieces together, I can’t really explain it. Or I don’t want to explain it. An hour goes by and I am under too much pressure - from myself!

I reached out for help and was pointed to some articles to read about finding a niche. I read and read for hours and hours. I tried some of the exercises about writing down hobbies and interests and frustrations. I looked deep within myself to find the knowledge I could share with the world... and I found a lot of stuff I knew about - but I didn’t want to write about it!

Yes, I am over 50. And with all those years comes a lot of experience. I was a single parent of 3 kids, working 2 jobs for many years. I waded through the court system dealing with a bad divorce and know a thing or two about custody and visitation, and how the judges and lawyers and counselors all have their roles and how that effects the parents - and what can be done to simplify the process. I know there is a lot here I could write about, but it is really all too negative and not something I want to jump out of bed to write about. I need to find MY PASSION.

I have learned to overcome and believe in myself, and acquired a bit of knowledge about the law of attraction and how our thoughts bring about things in our life. Oh, the true stories I could tell you! But I also found how much deeper it goes... mindfulness or oneness or awareness are some of the other terms, but I don’t want to have to write about being positive all the time. And with my two daughters I learned how controversial this subject can be! One is supportive (most of the time), but the other one and I have deep conversations about this and she is so quick to look at it from her perspective... how can I write about beliefs and spirituality if I can’t even be taken seriously in my own home? Oh, the joy of parenting... who said you could have an opinion? No, keep searching.

This should be the easy part! Find something you love! Why do I keep finding things that I do not want to write about instead of something I love? All my hobbies and interests kind of slid away when I had kids... I was interested in showing them things to do, finding ways for them to lead a fulfilling life and find their place... I know mine is graphic arts, I know I can present THIS in a pretty way once I find out what THIS is!

I spent as many hours as I could reading, searching for ideas. I read many things from the WA website and the comments from others. Somewhere I stumbled on a suggestion to sign up at Quora and set up a free account. It is a question & answer forum with the answers provided by the vast audience of the internet and the answers are rated up and down. You have to choose at least 10 categories to get started, and the more you choose the more that keep popping up. I started reading some of the questions and really didn’t want to be on that site. I didn’t want to read all about these other problems. I am trying to find MY NICHE.

I went back to the WA site and read some more. I checked emails and avoided my main task to find a niche! Sometime around midnight, I had a new email from Quora prompting me to go back to that site. A question caught my eye and I felt COMPELLED to answer it. Yes, I wrote out my little comment and clicked the submit button. I did it, I actually left my mark out there on some website! I don’t even participate on Facebook - I have an account just to see what my girls are up to - I learn so much that way. They tease me about being a stalker since I don’t post or comment or “like” things, but we don’t have secrets and they don’t mind that I look at the pictures of them & their friends. I only accidentally shared a video of my 1-year-old grandbaby smiling and giggling and batting her pretty little eyes because I tried to email a link to my mom! Well all that is about to change with a little help from my friends at WA. I will be posting and commenting and “liking.” :)

I was so very tired when I stumbled up the stairs to bed about 2 a.m. Too much reading and I still haven’t figured out what I could possible write about. I began thinking about my response to that question on Quora. I was so proud of my answer, it is the right answer I know! As I pulled back the covers on my bed, it hit me... this was my niche! This was something I could write about! This is what I have been doing at the office, with my friends, with my mother and my daughters and their friends, too! This is what I love to talk about!

So I am posting this blog today on WA - my first blog! Convincing myself if I can post here, then I can start posting on my own site. Brave & Happy! I am excited to share my website with the community and get their feedback! (It's coming!). I have been looking at their websites, too, and marvel at all the wonderful stuff we are doing! Thank you all who are here and paying it forward, I am right here with you! Learning & sharing & caring. And for any newbies reading this post, I want you to know you can find your niche, too. Just don’t give up! Never give up!