The argument in one line.
Niche selection matters far less than most beginners think and tends to emerge naturally through client work, so the real risk isn't picking the wrong niche — it's picking one too narrow to clear three simple tests: profitable, large enough, and genuinely needed.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- A new coach, consultant, or course creator who hasn't picked a niche yet, or worries the one they picked is wrong.
- Someone whose client interest seems to evaporate for reasons they can't pinpoint, and suspects their positioning is too specific.
- A solopreneur stuck in analysis paralysis over niche selection instead of actually reaching out to prospects.
SKIP IF…
- You already have a validated, working niche and are looking for growth tactics rather than niche selection.
- You sell a physical product with a target market fixed by the product itself, not by chosen positioning.
The full version, fast.
Picking a niche matters far less than most new coaches think — working niches usually emerge from months of client work rather than being solved by upfront deliberation. The real danger is going too narrow: every extra qualifying detail (moms, three kids, a military husband, a golden retriever) filters out real buyers who fit the broad category but not the specific one, so the funnel that reaches payment ends up nearly empty. The fix is to default wide and only narrow when evidence demands it, then pressure-test the niche with three questions: is it profitable (compare the buyer's average income to your price), is it large enough to sustain years of business, and does it solve a real, unmet problem.
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00:00 – 00:29
01 · Cold open: the niche question
States the question every new business owner asks and previews the three-question test that closes the video.
00:29 – 01:45
02 · What a niche actually is
Defines niche as a group of people you focus on, and argues niche matters far less than beginners assume — it tends to emerge naturally through client work rather than get solved upfront.
01:45 – 04:49
03 · Live funnel demo: how over-narrowing loses clients
Draws a funnel on an iPad and stacks qualifying details onto a 'moms' niche (three kids, military husband, golden retriever, Midwest) to show each detail filtering out real buyers before they reach payment.
04:49 – 05:05
04 · The rule: go wide, not narrow
States the lesson of the demo directly and pivots into the three validating questions.
05:05 – 06:06
05 · Question 1: is the niche profitable?
Tests profitability by comparing the buyer's average income to the offer price — a $10,000 offer to a $100,000 earner is a reasonable 10% ask; low-income targets fail this test.
06:06 – 07:22
06 · Question 2: is the niche large enough?
Introduces a rough '1% of 1%' rule for estimating how many people in an entire industry will ever become paying clients, and warns that a niche with only a handful of prospects can't sustain a business.
07:22 – 08:56
07 · Question 3: does the niche need this help?
Cites CB Insights research that the top reason businesses fail is no market need, and gives two ways to validate need: direct market research, or observing whether anyone already earns a living solving the same problem.
08:56 – 09:54
08 · Proof case: the refrigerator-organizing niche
Uses a student who makes a full-time living teaching people to organize their refrigerator as proof that an odd-sounding niche can work if it solves a real, costly problem.
09:54 – 10:28
09 · Workshop pitch + outro
Pivots to a free coaching workshop framed as 'how I tripled my business,' points to a description link and a direct URL, then closes with a standard subscribe call.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- A niche you pick on day one is a hypothesis, not a verdict — most working niches emerge from months of client work, not upfront analysis.
- Every extra qualifying detail bolted onto a niche (age, family status, a specific pet, a region) is a filter that quietly excludes real buyers.
- A funnel built for 'moms with three kids, a military husband, and a golden retriever in the Midwest' converts a fraction of what 'moms' alone would.
- About 80% of niches are too narrow, not too broad — the common fear of sounding 'too general' usually runs backwards.
- To check if a niche is profitable, compare the average income of your target buyer to your offer price: asking a $100,000 earner for a $10,000 package is a 10% ask.
- A rough sizing rule: assume only about 1% of 1% of an entire industry will ever become a paying client over a business's lifetime — if that number is a handful of people, the niche is too small.
- The number one reason startups fail, per CB Insights research, is no market need — not bad marketing, not a bad product.
- You validate real market need two ways: ask directly through market research, or observe whether anyone is already making a full-time living solving that exact problem.
- An oddly specific-sounding offer can still be huge: one example earns a full-time income teaching people to organize their refrigerator, because it saves buyers real money on wasted food.
- Niche selection is a small fraction of what actually gets a business clients — obsessing over it before ever contacting a prospect delays the parts of the business that move revenue.
Widen the niche, then run three checks
NICHE VALIDATION
A niche only needs to clear three simple tests, profitable, big enough, and genuinely needed, and most people fail by picking one too narrow, not too broad.
- Treat your first niche as a hypothesis that gets refined through actual client work, not a decision you have to nail before you start.
- Every extra qualifying trait added to a target customer (age, family status, a specific pet, a region) filters out buyers who would have said yes to a broader version.
- Default to a wider niche than feels comfortable; narrowing later, once real client patterns emerge, is far cheaper than losing buyers to an overspecified filter up front.
- Test profitability by comparing your offer price to your target buyer's average income; a $10,000 offer to someone earning $100,000 a year is a reasonable 10% ask.
- Sanity-check market size with a rough 1%-of-1% rule: if that fraction of the entire industry is only a handful of people, the niche can't sustain a business.
- Before building an offer, confirm the problem is real by asking buyers directly through market research, or by observing whether anyone already earns a full-time living solving it.
Things they pointed at.
07:57productGet Clients Now Program
08:21linkCB Insights research on why startups fail
Lines you could clip.
02:32
“I've literally coached thousands of students and most of your niches are too narrow. I can guarantee you that 80% of you watching this video, you have way too narrow of a niche.”
05:05
“If the answer to all three of these questions is yes, you're good to go. Your niche works.”
08:01
“Most offers don't solve a real problem. They just sort of hope that people will want it when they hear about it, but I don't like to run a business on hope.”
08:56
“One of my students, she makes a full time living teaching people how to organize the refrigerator.”
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metaphor
00:00Niche. I think one of the most common questions that I get is, how do I pick a niche or how do I narrow down my niche? I hear all the time.
00:08And it makes sense. Right? You can't have really have a business if you don't know who you're marketing to, if you don't know who you're talking to, if you don't know who's buying from you.
00:14So in today's video, I'm gonna show you how to narrow down your niche so that . Be sure to stay to the end because at the very end, I'm gonna give you three questions that you need to answer if you wanna make sure your niche is actually going to be profitable. So what is a niche?
00:31Some people say niche. I say niche. It doesn't really matter.
00:34But a niche is like a group of people. It's a category. It's like a market.
00:38It's a collection of people that become your people. And you focus solely on marketing to those people, that group of people, to the exclusion of everybody else. Here's the funny thing about niches that will probably surprise you.
00:51Your niche is actually not that important, especially when you're getting started. Most people massively overthink their niche, and it becomes a huge pain point for them where they're agonizing over this indecision. Am I picking the right niche?
01:03Am I talking to the right people? Am I too narrow? Am I too wide?
01:06And it actually halts all their progress. So my goal in this video is that by the end of this video, you know exactly what your niche is, and you feel confident in it so you don't have to change it.
01:16What I did, and what a lot of people do, if you wanna avoid the pain of overthinking your niche, is you just start working with people. And gradually, over time, you stumble into your niche. I really like working with these kinds of people, and I don't really like working with people who are in this industry.
01:32So over time, your niche emerges. It evolves, and it's a natural process rather than this painful, agonizing, I've gotta decide, it's set in stone, and it can never change, and oh my gosh, can't make any progress in my business until that happens.
01:47That's painful. But if the first thing you need to know is niche is not even that important, the second thing you need to know is don't make your niche too narrow. I'm gonna show you what I mean by that.
01:56I got my iPad here. Alright. So you're gonna go wide, not narrow.
02:00What do I mean by that? When it comes to your niche, what do I mean by going wide, not narrow? I'm gonna use an iPad to show you what I mean.
02:05K? And I'm gonna first show you what a lot of people do. We're gonna be a little bit exaggerative so you get my point.
02:10We're just gonna pretend that it's like this. Most people when they go to pick a niche, they do this. They say, okay.
02:14I wanna work with moms who have three kids or more.
02:19Their husband is in the military. They have a golden retriever, and they live in the Midwest. Obviously, I'm exaggerating for the sake of example, but the point is this is way too narrow.
02:32And I've literally coached thousands of students and most of your niches are too narrow. I can guarantee you that 80% of you watching this video, you have way too narrow of a niche. And what happens is when your niche is too narrow, you lose clients, they drop off here, so you have all these people who leave your funnel here.
02:50They say, oh, well I'm a mom and I have kids, but I'm not sure that Sarah is gonna be a good coach for me because Sarah says she only works with people who are golden, you know, who have golden retrievers and my dog is a pit bull. Therefore, I don't really think I'm a good fit.
03:03Therefore, I'm gonna exit the funnel here. So let's show you how this works again. Let's say that you work with moms, with kids, and a husband in the military.
03:12Everybody here who's just a mom with kids is gonna leave your funnel at this point because they don't have a husband in the military. So by the time you get to here, is your payday, right, all the way here, because you have too narrow of a niche.
03:30Right? So your niche should be so wide, it's attracting a very large clump of people.
03:37A lot of people think their niche is too broad. It's not it's it's not it's it's A lot of people think their niche is not specific enough.
03:45I'm here to tell you, you actually have the opposite problem. You are way over complicating your niche.
03:50Let me give you an actual real example. We'll do this in real life. Okay?
03:53And we'll use my business as an example. I work with female entrepreneurs. That's pretty broad.
03:59That's a good one. Here's an example of one who is too specific. Female entrepreneurs who who are moms.
04:05Everybody here who liked me and would have worked with me and I could have helped and I would have been able to solve their problems for, now they're all leaving my funnel because they don't have kids. Let's go even more specific.
04:19Female entrepreneurs with kids in nine to five jobs.
04:26Now, everybody maybe you'll say, there's a bunch of female entrepreneurs, their moms, but they're currently staying home with their kids. Well, now they're gonna leave and not work with me because I said, okay. I have female entrepreneurs who have kids, and they're working in their nine to five.
04:39So I, for no good reason, just excluded a huge chunk of my market because somebody told me once upon a time I need to have a really specific niche. In general, you want your niche to be wider rather than narrow.
04:52Alright. So here's three questions you need to answer. This will help finalize any final questions you have about your niche.
04:58You answer these three questions, you'll have total clarity on if you've picked the right niche or not. You ready? If the answer to all three of these questions is yes, you're good to go.
05:06Your niche works. One, is my desired niche profitable?
05:11Am I going to make money from it? Is there money in this industry? Is there money in this niche?
05:15There's two ways you can answer that question. If the answer is yes, you can proceed to the next question. You can understand this number one, by googling the average salary of the person you're wanting to target.
05:26So let's say that you want to target plumbers. I'm just making this up for example.
05:30You wanna target plumbers, and you know that the average salary of a plumber is about a $100,000. That's a profitable industry. Right?
05:37Versus, um, if you want to target high school kids, high school kids really don't have much money. So might not be the best target.
05:45You might wanna target their parents. So really simply, if I sold a coaching package for $10,000 and my plumber dude makes a $100,000, I'm asking you for 10% of his annual revenue.
05:58You wanna do the math on that and then sit and see with how it feels. Second question is, is my desired niche large enough? So here's a little formula that I pull literally, like, out of my butt, which is, okay, how many people in are in this industry?
06:11So for example, I'll just use moms because it's an easy example. Let's say that there's I have no idea, but let's just say that there's 6,000,000 moms out there. Know I there's way more than that, but just bear with me.
06:20Right? I say 1% of 1%.
06:23So that's how many people I'm pretending will convert into my offer over the lifetime of my business. It is so just a fun little rule of thumb formula. It is not like anything scientific by any means, 600.
06:37So if I had again, it's not perfect. Right? It's it's it's not a scientific formula.
06:42But over the let's just say over the next five years, I landed 600 mom clients. And Let's say that my coaching package is $2,500.
06:49That would be $1,500,000 over the next couple of years.
06:53So say over the next five years, so the next five years, I would make 1,500,000. Is this scientific by any means? No.
06:59But let's say your number comes up and there's like three people in your industry. Right? Let's say your industry is so small that there's like three people in it.
07:05Okay. Well, you definitely need to broaden it then. Right?
07:08It's more like, alright. If it's good enough numbers, you can proceed, but you need to be working in an industry that's large enough to support your business over the next at least five years. Third question that you're allowed to proceed to if the first two questions answered yes is, do they actually need my help?
07:25Do they actually have a real problem that needs to be solved? It's a big problem that I see where people have the idea for a program or a product, and the marketplace just doesn't need it or doesn't want it.
07:38And if ever watch The US show Shark Tank, you'll see the way people get overly attached to their products, and they don't like any criticism of them at all. They get defensive. But a lot of people are trying to sell things and trying to market things that just simply isn't solving a problem, which is why in our Get Clients Now program, we help our students create offers that will actually sell, that people, like, want to buy as soon as they hear about them.
08:04It takes a lot of that pain out of the equation. Most offers don't solve a real problem. They just sort of hope that people will want it when they hear about it, but I don't like to .
08:14So according to and what's interesting is I actually did a little research on this. I'm just gonna read it. According to the research done by CB Insights, the number one reasons why businesses fail is because there's no market need.
08:27If you say, well, how do I know if people really need it or not? Two things you can do. One, ask.
08:32You can do market research. So I help my students in the Clients Now program conduct market research, and that tells them, okay, here's what the marketplace actually thinks of their offer.
08:42Second thing, observe. Do other people seem to be making a full time living doing what you do? Just because your offer is unique or sort of out there, doesn't mean it won't sell.
08:54I'm gonna give you an example. One of my students, she makes a full time living teaching people how to organize the refrigerator.
09:01That's an offer that solves the real problem. Americans waste a couple thousand dollars every year by all the food they throw out because it goes bad. So if she shows you how to sort of set up these tools and organize your refrigerator so you don't waste food, she's saving you thousands of dollars a year.
09:17That's an offer that solves the real problem. So what you need to do after you've asked and you've done your market research, is you need to just observe. Do other people seem to be making a full time living doing what I do?
09:27Now, we just scratched the surface. Like I said a little earlier, picking a niche, narrowing down your niche is such a tiny bit of the whole picture. It's one little piece of a very large puzzle that all needs to work together in order for you to be getting clients.
09:40So if you want, I'm actually running a free coaching session soon that I think you'd really like to come to. In this free coaching session, I'm actually gonna show you how I tripled my business and I went from signing zero clients. Right?
09:51At one point, I literally made $350 in my whole year of business to running a $1,500,000 company.
09:58I'd absolutely love to see you there. You can save your free seat by either clicking the link in the description below or you can go to mariawent.com/workshop and snag your spot there.
10:07I'd love to see you there. I think it'll be super super helpful. If you like this video, give it a thumbs up.
10:12Let me know that it was helpful. Be sure to hit that subscribe button so you don't any of my videos on making more money, getting clients, growing your online business. I'll see you in the next one.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
She draws a funnel by hand and keeps stacking qualifiers onto it, moms, then moms with a military husband, then moms with a military husband and a golden retriever in the Midwest, until almost nobody is left inside it.
Named ideas worth stealing.
05:05list
Three-Question Niche Validator
- Is my niche profitable?
- Is my niche large enough?
- Does my niche need my help?
A three-question checklist to pressure-test any niche after it's chosen: profitability compares buyer income to offer price, size estimates the addressable pool, and need confirms a real problem exists.
Steal forvalidating any target market before building an offer or landing page
06:16concept
1% of 1% Market Sizing Rule
A back-of-envelope estimate that only about 1% of 1% of an entire industry will ever become a paying client over a business's lifetime, used to sanity-check whether a market is large enough.
Steal forquickly rejecting niches that are obviously too small before doing real market sizing
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
09:54link
“you can save your free seat by either clicking the link in the description below or you can go to mariawendt.com/workshop”
Soft-sells a free coaching workshop only after delivering the full lesson, framed around 'how I tripled my business,' and points to both a description link and a direct spoken URL.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
Visual structure at a glance.
