Digital Creator
The show for creators, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders who want simpler, smarter ways to create standout content and grow their online presence.
Each week, Dylan Schmidt shares practical strategies, creative insights, and clear guidance on leveraging social media, podcasts, and AI to simplify your workflow and connect with more people in less time.
Dylan Schmidt is the founder of Content Clips, a done-for-you service that transforms one weekly recording into polished podcasts and social media clips, helping creators consistently share their best ideas effortlessly.
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Digital Creator
The Tension Between Evolving and Staying in Your Niche
Feeling trapped by your content niche? In this thoughtful episode, Dylan explores the tension many creators face between staying consistent and evolving creatively.
You'll discover:
- Why feeling like "a parody of yourself" might be a warning sign
- The myth that creators owe consistency to their topic rather than their perspective
- How to evolve your content without alienating your audience
- A practical approach to exploring new interests without confusing your core brand
- Why your unique lens is more valuable than your specific niche
Whether you're considering a pivot or just feeling creatively restless, this episode offers a refreshing perspective on honoring your growth while maintaining the connection that brought your audience to you in the first place.
Learn how to stretch without snapping and keep your creative spark alive while still delivering the value your audience expects.
I've been wrestling with this tension. Maybe you can relate. There's like a push pull between wanting to evolve, constantly want to improve, be your best. Do you have these big goals, aspirations, dreams, all that stuff, and feeling absolutely trapped by your niche? Let me give you an example. When it comes to creating content, there is this natural, like I wanna create innovative groundbreaking stuff. I wanna do stuff that has never been talked about before. I wanna put out new ideas into the world. I want to synthesize all this information I'm taking in, and I wanna share it with you, and I want you to enjoy it. I wanna share stuff that you're interested in. And part of pushing the boundaries there, I think, is always running against this push and pull this tension of wanting to involve and feeling trapped. There's this myth that creators owe consistency to their topic, not their perspective. Like you're building an audience, but now you feel almost like a parody of yourself. You know what performs, but it feels mechanical. Like you could do it, but it's almost hard to do it because you feel like every idea you come up with is something you've already said or has been said before, and you start craving change. And maybe you've had the thought that, like, pivoting will kill the momentum that you've created, that changing direction is confusing, it's selfish, it's giving into what you want, not what your audience came to you for. So instead of shifting, you silence that part of you that wants to grow. So you choose the safety over creativity, and it starts to show up in your work. And you get the resistance, and the resistance becomes louder and louder. And then you ask yourself, is this burnout or am I just utterly bored with the niche I just chose and I need to just burn it all down? But here's the thing. Good stewardship, which I use stewardship as leader, you in your brand, you as a creator showing up, it doesn't mean staying exactly the same forever. It means evolving in a way your audience can follow. Because a good steward or good leader, good creator, if they're authentic to the reason why they started, the audience never fell in love with just the niche that the creator spoke about. The audience fell in love with the lens the creator was creating from. The way the creator observes, explores, explains. That's the durable asset, the through line through everything. And there's a way to stretch without snapping. There's a way where you can explore new ideas while honoring the thread that you've already weaved for your audience, that they came for. And I think when fear comes up around this topic of pivoting and changing, your niche, the fear is really about losing relevance, destroying everything that you've created, but staying stuck and staying stagnated and not evolving, you can guarantee is gonna be the fastest way to lose your spark and your audience because you might think that they won't notice your sparks coming, but they'll notice. So to tie this into a personal example that I have thought about myself, I have all sorts of interests that I do not talk about for good boundary setting on this podcast or in my content. Because it would be utterly confusing, let me just give you a snapshot. My hobbies include personal development, fitness, the Dodgers, Godzilla, hiking, content creation, entrepreneurship. I can weave in like Dodgers, Godzilla, hiking, like very subtly. But if I was going too heavy on Dodgers or Godzilla or hiking, I'll probably be just as confused as you are about, like, why you would even be showing up in the first place. But I can't deny the fact that hiking, for example, because my friend invited me to hike Mount Whitney with him in July, I can't help but get excited about training for that. So I could talk about it here as an example. But if I wanna go further than that, I'll just create a subpage or a new Instagram page where I'll talk about that, and it's completely separate. Creates a sandbox for that creative energy I feel without blowing up the core brand and the core topics with the goal of serving you and not confusing you. And honestly, not confusing myself because when I show up to sit down to record this podcast, for example, I don't have to go, should I talk about the Dodgers' new rookie pitcher? Which Godzilla movie from the seventies was the best? Or what new hiking gear I brought from my trip to Mount Whitney? That creates decision fatigue in me. That creates cognitive function, I'm sure, in you when you're just trying to follow this episode to get some core idea from it. So to wrap this up and not leave you at the top of Mount Whitney, if you ever find yourself in this position and you want the fix, start by evolving your angle inside your niche before you jump ship. Share what's creatively inside your niche before you jump ship. Share what's creatively alive for you and then frame it through the value your audience already expects. The people in your audience that trust your thinking, they'll come along for the ride as long as you stay clear on the story that you're telling. You don't need to rebrand. You just need to connect with what feels alive and carry your audience with you instead of abandoning them. Staying in your niche, isn't about discipline. It doesn't take willpower. It's just about honoring the original connection while evolving the Look. Here's something I hear from creators all the time. Dylan, I know I need to be putting out content every single day, but I just don't have the time or resources to make it happen. And I get it. You're busy creating amazing podcast episodes, but you know that video and posting every day is absolutely crucial. It's been reported that over 80% of people have been convinced to buy something after watching a video on social media. That's huge. And the thing is, you shouldn't have to choose between creating great content and getting it out to the world. That's exactly why I created content clips. We take your podcast episodes and we transform them into engaging social media content that gets you noticed without you having to do anything extra. No more workflow bottlenecks, no more resource constraints. You just share a link to your content with us and we'll handle everything else. We're talking podcasts, social media videos, the whole package. Our philosophy at ContentClips is simple, be everywhere every day. And we make that possible without you having to spend hours figuring out editing software or hiring a full production team. If you're ready to multiply your content reach without multiplying your workload, let's talk. Just head over to contentclips.com and we can get started. Thanks again for joining me today. Until next time, keep creating.
