You are not the niche

The #1 worst piece of content advice to follow in 2026 is “you are the niche.”

• “You are the niche” = making content about whatever interests you and expecting people to engage because they like you

• “You are not the niche” = making content about whatever your viewer wants and expecting them to engage because they like the topic

If you’re trying to monetize, and are operating under the “you are the niche” philosophy, this is almost certainly why your content is underperforming.

Here’s the nuance that’s hard to see…

“You are the niche” WAS the winning strategy until ~2021.

Gary Vee made it super popular with the “document your life” movement and he was totally right.

The reason it worked so well was because social algorithms used to only push your content to existing followers.

When social media was more social than media, people followed for personality and stayed for topic relevance.

Now that social media is more media than social, people follow topics and stay for personality.

The cake and the icing have inverted.

Personality is no longer the lead. Topic insight/value is the lead.

Because of this, when you’re starting out, “just being yourself” is not a viable content strategy.

Instead, I recommend picking a high-value topic category where you have relevant experience/expertise, aiming for one of these core personal brand attributes to add differentiation and then infusing your personality on top.

This is how I think about personal branding and content strategy in this era…

• Topic Consistency (cake) - pick a handful of topics you know are valuable for your core viewer where you have unique expertise

• Core Differentiation Factor (icing) - pick one of the below to aim for

• Personality (sprinkles) - add your own unique personality whereever you can

Picking topics and infusing your own personality is fairly straightforward, but the hard part is figuring out how to differentiate.

You have 5 core options…I call this the Diamond of Premium Personal Branding (and it’s how personal brands will survive in the AI-era).

The goal is to become known for making high value density content, in your niche, specializing in one of these 5 areas of differentiation.

Path 1 — Visual Packaging

This is the visual experience layer of your content including the edits, visuals, and world-building. If you're not naturally good with visuals, this probably isn't your track. Example here is some like @rpn in the tech space

Path 2 — Originality

This is one that most people can actually spend time developing. It's about coming up with original, non-obvious ideas. You can build a practice around this to get really good at ideas in your specific niche that nobody else is doing. @naval is a good example of someone that wins in the startup space in this category.

Path 3 — Tactical Usefulness

This is probably the easiest one to focus on. When you say something, people can actually take it and use it to achieve a result on their own. If you can distill your concepts down in a way that people can apply immediately after reading or watching, you can work towards this. @hormozi is the king of this in the business space.

Path 4 — Rare

This is being a one-of-one combination of skills and experience that's just very hard to find. This one is tough to get better at because it's more about who you already are and the unique experiences you’ve already had. @donaldglover is a good example of this.

Path 5 — Aura

This is pure likability and it needs to be off the charts. But it’s also tough to get intentionally better at. @caseyneistat is someone that fits into this bucket.

Here's my thesis on where content is going and why all of this matters…

In the not-so-distant future, it's going to be very hard to own a category because of how much AI content will flooding every platform. 

There will be a handful of people in every niche that are the best in each of these 5 categories of differentiation: visual packing, originality, tactical usefulness, rare, and aura.

3-5 people per category x 5 categories = 15-25 top people per niche

If you want to survive in the AI era, and you want your personal brand to continue cutting through, “just being the niche” isn’t enough.

You want to strive to be in the top 3-5 in your category in one of these 5 buckets.

Pick your track, lead with value and be one of those 5 names.

Keep going 🫡

PS – I talk about the Future of Personal Brands in extreme detail in this video. This shares more tactics at how to become one of those 3 names in your niche.

PSS – If you want my help scaling your personal brand, we’ve quietly opened a couple spots in SFA for June. Reserve your spot here.