Why I Don't Have a Niche

Being able to explain what your brand does is very important. It’s Marketing 101. And having a personal blog, an Instagram, or Twitter is having a brand.

But how do you market that brand when your brand is just simply…you?

Ever since I changed my Insta name to Sassy Confetti I’ve had a hard time figuring out what my “niche” is. For a while, it was food. And then I added in stuff I did around Chicago. And then when Instagram Stories came into the picture and people started asking me about my clothes, I thought why not also talk about fashion? Why not talk about travel? Why not include my family, friends, relationships? Why not just show everyone everything? Instagram is basically a scrapbook of my life anyway…why not just show it all? So, I did.

A lot of people along the way encouraged me to find a niche. “You can’t be everything to everyone,” someone once said to me. When I posted more fashion, food accounts would unfollow and when I posted food fashion accounts would unfollow. And I thought they were right, but I kept growing even though I was sharing whatever I wanted.

Somewhere along the way I stopped caring about having a niche and eventually, people in the blogging world started calling me Sassy instead of Alex because Sassy isn’t just an adjective. Sassy is Alex aka me. And somewhere along the way, I didn’t have a niche anymore because my niche was just being me. That’s what made me stand out. That I was just purely ME…Sassy.

People ask me a lot how I’ve been able to grow my Instagram because lifestyle and fashion accounts are a dime a dozen. It’s hard to grow them because there are just so many. The market is over saturated with people trying to sell you their niche, their brand, their style. So what was my secret sauce? How did I keep growing even though I didn’t have a niche?

A lot of growth is luck – let’s be honest – because not everyone started out on day one when Instagram just began. Some of us started just two or three years ago (or just months ago!) so they didn’t get a leg up. I was lucky enough to start doing this before the saturation had begun, but not when it was at its peak either. When the algorithms weren’t impossible to predict. The other half is hard work. Commenting, responding to DMs, cultivating TRUE relationships is how you really grow.

And then a tiny sliver of growth and success in the blogging world is being real. Being your true self. Showing everyone the good, the bad, and the ugly. Sure, you don’t see everything. I don’t always talk about all the bad things in my life, but I do let you in to see enough that you all know a good amount about me and the hardships I’ve dealt with. You also see me without makeup, without a bra, and you see my insecurities. I think growth is a lot about that. And it’s why brands want to work with people now because their audiences trust them when they are honest with them.

So when people ask me to describe my blog or explain what my niche is, I say simply, “My niche is me. It’s about fun and color and food and Chicago and travel and fashion and movies and books and podcasts and friends and family.” Because I am all those things. I’m not just one thing and I don’t want to talk about just one thing either.

And that’s ultimately the most important thing, right? What do you want to talk about? Is it just food? Is it just fashion? Awesome! Go for it! Is it fashion and food? Cool! Is it about all of the above and then some? That’s cool too.

Just be you whether that is having a niche or not.