You Don’t Need a Niche—You Need a North Star

We’ve all heard it a thousand times: “The riches are in the niches.” Whether it’s first-time buyers, military relocations, or luxury lake homes for left-handed Capricorns, the advice is the same — pick a niche or you’ll never make it in real estate.

I call BS.

In this episode, I’m sharing why you don’t actually need a niche — you need something bigger, more flexible, and way more sustainable: your North Star. This is your clear, magnetic vision for your business that guides every decision you make, attracts the right people, and gives you permission to evolve.

You’ll learn:

• Why rigid niches can box you in (and burn you out)
• How your North Star acts like a compass for your brand and business
• The 3 key questions to help you uncover your own North Star
• How to align your marketing, content, and client relationships with it

If you’ve been feeling pulled in a million directions, stuck on the personal branding hamster wheel, or guilty for not picking a niche, this episode will set you free.

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Chapters

• 1:08 Challenging the "Niche" Requirement
• 2:14 Why Niches Are Limiting
• 4:44 North Star vs. Niche Explained
• 6:14 Finding Your North Star: Key Questions
• 8:54 Personal North Star Examples
• 12:14 Benefits of North Star Guidance
• 13:04 Final Thoughts and Call to Action

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:34

Hey friends, today we are going to be attacking one of those commonly held beliefs in real estate that you need a niche or a niche. I'm gonna say niche, I think, though so sorry if that annoys you I am Lindsay Dreyer. For those of you who do not know me, I am a real estate coach, a mom of three, I'm brokerage owner and I have been in real estate for 21 years. Yes, it has been a long and storied career. Let me be honest. If you have not found me on Instagram, please do, lindsaydryer. I love it when you follow me and also just say hi, like, dm me. I'm all about these messages.

Speaker 1: 1:13

Let's dive into the episode. So let me guess you have been told a thousand times that the only way to succeed in real estate is to pick a niche. The riches are in the niches, right, whether that's first-time buyers, military relocations, luxury lake homes for left-handed Capricorns, whatever it is. If you can't pick one, you are doomed, you're not going to be successful, and I am here to tell you that that's absolute nonsense. Today, I'm going to show you why you don't need a niche. You need something better. You need a North Star. So what am I talking about? It is a clear, magnetic vision for your business that keeps you grounded and guides your next move. So if you've been feeling pulled in too many directions which don't we all burned out by all the personal branding pressure like everyone has to be a brand or worried you're doing it wrong because you haven't niched down yet. This episode is hopefully going to set you free. So why do I think the niche advice is kind of BS? All right, here's the thing the internet loves to tell you that you need to niche down in order to stand out. But when you try to do it, it kind of feels like you're picking a Halloween costume that you're stuck wearing forever. And here's the thing with real estate it's evolving and you are allowed to change your mind. So let's break this down.

Speaker 1: 2:37

A niche is often defined by external factors like price point, location, life stage, et cetera. I don't like them because they are rigid and if you're human with evolving interests, it kind of boxes you in and it also makes you feel like that, if you're not obsessed with serving one hyper-specific group that you're somehow broken. Like I know, in my real estate career I didn't really have a niche. It was kind of all over the place and that was okay, and I'm going to get into having a North Star and why that was more effective or more like guiding for me than niche niche. This is probably a good example, but when I started coaching real estate agents, everyone was asking me who's your niche? And I didn't really have one.

Speaker 1: 3:33

But I did have a mission and I had a vision and I had a clear energy behind everything I was building, which was I want to help real estate agents build a business that fits into their life. But I wasn't going to just limit myself to moms or just new agents or just people who hate cold calling but love houseplants, and I think that that was like I know what I want to do and my North Star is I want to help people create a real estate business that is not going to take over their life and that really fits into their life. So what do you actually need? Instead of a niche, you need a North Star. So what exactly am I talking about let's get into that further which is it is a clear vision for what you want to build. It's a set of values instead of demographics, of what you're actually leading with, and it's a feeling that you want your business to embody, and it can be a who you love working with absolutely, but it's defined more by energy and values than by those demographics. So I like to think of your North Star like a compass it helps you make decisions, it helps you show up consistently, it helps the right people find you, even if they're not all exactly the same, because what you're really building isn't like a category of people, it's your movement, like it's you building your brand with who you are, and not necessarily like a filing cabinet of stats and I think that's a really good point and just really rigid criteria.

Speaker 1: 5:11

So you're probably like Lindsay, how do I find my North Star? So let's dig into that. Because you're like all right, lindsay, I got it. That's cool. I don't need a niche, I need a North Star. But what does that mean for me? And you're not alone. So your North Star is not a tagline, it is not a fancy marketing phrase. It's honestly a gut check, it's a filter, it's a through line for your whole business. It's your big why behind your business model, your message, your marketing and your momentum.

Speaker 1: 5:42

So I have some thought exercises for you to start thinking about what your North Star is. So I'm going to ask you some questions and we're going to dive into them. So the first thing is this first question you need to ask yourself what do I care deeply about helping people do? This isn't just you help people buy and sell homes, it's what do you really want for your clients? What do you really want for them? What lights you up when it works? Is it helping people build generational wealth? Is it helping women make confident financial decisions? Is it helping families feel safe and grounded in a neighborhood that they love? That's your clue, that's your emotional driver. The next question is who do I feel most like myself around? Who do you feel like you can be yourself around?

Speaker 1: 6:34

So think about the clients that you've loved, the ones who've made your job feel easy or fun. Who were they? What did they value? It's not just demographics, it's energy. Were they collaborative? Were they thoughtful? Were they type A planners or were they type B, creative spirits? Were they buying their first home after a divorce? Were they thoughtful? Were they type A planners or were they type B, creative spirits? Were they buying their first home after a divorce? Were they starting over? Were they growing their family? So like that's how you start to define who your people are. We're not segmenting them into neat marketing boxes, but you're identifying the ones who bring out your best work, who feed your soul honestly, who like, make your job fun, who you absolutely love. These are your clients that you absolutely enjoy, and then we're going to start defining who they were and what did they value.

Speaker 1: 7:22

The next question is what kind of business do I want to build? Not just financially, but energetically, because you can hit your revenue goals and hate your business, but energetically, because you can hit your revenue goals and hate your business. I have seen so many real estate agents who are making bank but they hate their life. They're making six figures, seven figures and they feel completely drained. They have no time for themselves, no time for their family, no time for their significant other, no time for their dog even they're hiring that dog walker. So do you want a high volume team? Do you want a boutique, referral based solo business? Do you want a life first model that lets you pick up your kids every day at 3 pm and then, kind of like, shut off at 5? So it's what do you want your business to feel like? And that's your alignment, because your North Star is never going to ask you to sacrifice that.

Speaker 1: 8:14

I'm going to dive into these three questions for me personally. So who do I care deeply about helping people do? What do I care about? I really care about helping them make smart real estate decisions. I want them to feel so confident, so supported, and I want them to have fun Like I want it to be as least stressful as possible. And who do I feel most like myself around? It's people who are comfortable with who they are. It's people who listen to my advice.

Speaker 1: 8:45

They're collaborative. They're really looking for an expert to guide them through a transaction. So it's people who don't think they know it all. They are really relying on me to guide them through a real estate transaction. So it really does come down to like a collaborative energy where they're bringing me in to be on their team. So I not only want to help them make smart decisions while having some fun, but I also want them to be on my team. So I not only want to help them make smart decisions while having some fun, but I also want them to be on my team. That's who I feel like most myself around.

Speaker 1: 9:18

Are people who are authentic and really want me there for my expertise, and what kind of business do I want to build? I want to build a real estate brokerage that is filled with collaborative, like-minded, fun, enjoyable people and not only that like. I want my clients to be like that too. And I also have a life first model where I want to shut off at 7 pm. I want to not be available from 4 to 6 while I have dinner with my family. So being clear on that is really helping me not necessarily define a niche, but it is defining what my North Star is, and that's really the heart of what we're getting at. So, in one word, my North Star is collaboration. I really think that that's it. It's like I like to be a collaborator and it could even be teamwork, but my North Star is collaboration or teamwork.

Speaker 1: 10:13

Another example is a coaching client I worked with thought that her niche was first-time buyers, but when we really dug into it, what she actually cared about was helping women feel powerful during big transitions. So it's like after divorce or after the loss of a husband, or maybe it was even after feeling overlooked or underestimated by a previous agent. So her North Star was empowerment and her brand energy was protective and confident and steady. So I want you to think about that. Like what is one word that would describe your North Star? And then your brand energy. Like what are three or four words that describe the energy that you bring to every interaction? So I hope you can see the difference.

Speaker 1: 11:00

Your North Star gives you clarity. It gives you confidence without necessarily boxing you into a demographic. It also makes your content easier to write because you're not trying to be everything to everyone. It makes your marketing more magnetic because you're honestly speaking straight to someone's heart, not necessarily like the life phase that they're in. And it also gives you permission to evolve because your North Star probably isn't going to change all that much. Like mine's pretty much been the same my entire 21-year career. It's about who you are, not just what you're selling. So whether you're writing a bio or creating a reel or planning a workshop or rethinking, like your marketing and like how you're putting your message out into the world, your North Star is really going to keep you anchored because it's that version of your business that feels like home. It's comfortable and you don't need anyone's permission to build from that place.

Speaker 1: 11:55

Now, if you have a niche and it's working for you, rock on, girlfriend. That's awesome. But I do think having a North Star, even if you have a niche, can help you focus and filter everything you put out into the world in a way that feels authentic and empowering. So let's recap you do not need to squeeze yourself into a niche that doesn't fit you. You don't need to water yourself down so that people get you faster. I also don't think you need to over brand yourself into a cardboard cutout of a real estate agent like you just need your north star, and the really awesome part is you already have it in you. You just need to find it. So if this episode gave you a life bulb moment, I want you to go ahead and write down your answers to the three North Star questions or, better yet, dm me what your North Star is, because I love hearing this stuff. It totally lights me up. Find me on Instagram, lindsaydryer, or on Facebook, lindsaydryer. I love hearing from you guys, and until next time, stay happy.