Don’t boil the ocean.

So, who did you make this thing for, anyway?

One of the first questions I ask founders is: Who is your ideal customer? Not just in broad strokes, but really—who are your people? What motivates them? It’s a question that shows up in every investor pitch, too, right alongside ✨The Great Sizing of the TAM✨ (total addressable market).

Maybe it’s not just Busy Parents, but Affluent Urban Busy Parents Who Love Retro Video Games—because what you’ve built at this moment is really designed for them. So, how do you know when to double down, when to expand your focus, and how to scale within your unique corner of the consumer ecosystem?

If your ideal customer sounds like Everyone Who Needs Oxygen or Only People Who Stream The Great British Bake Off Religiously But Never Actually Bake IRL, or even better, That’s A Great Question, this one’s for you.

So, how do you find your people, connect with them in a way that truly resonates, and use that insight to scale? We’re diving into exactly that. This month, I’m talking to some brilliant brand and business builders—Britt Akens and Marina Paccione of Akens Group, a boutique PR & Brand Consultancy, and Sahara Rose De Vore, Founder & CEO of  The Travel Coach Network, which trains and certifies a global network of travel coaches with a focus on transformational travel.

Let’s get into it.

Find Your People 

So, how do startups find the slice of humans best suited for what they’ve built?

Britt Akens from Akens Group suggests starting with your relationships. Tap into your network, reach out to people of influence, and talk to the folks you believe are your ideal customers. What you’re looking for isn’t just general feedback—you want to understand what actually drives their decisions to engage, purchase, or convert. That’s how you get beyond surface-level demographics and into the psychographic layer of your customer profile.

Sahara Rose De Vore, founder of The Travel Coach Network, took a different approach. After earning a degree in hospitality and tourism management, she skipped the traditional career path and spent a decade traveling solo to over 84 countries. Through her experiences, she saw firsthand the gaps in the travel industry—unmet needs for both travelers and service providers. Guided by that experience, she dove into industry research to pinpoint where her passion and market opportunity intersected.

✍️ Key takeaways:
✅ Find your niche first—or as soon as possible. If you didn’t define it before launch, you’ll need to before you can scale. If traction has been slow, this might be why.
✅ Start with what (and who) you know. Most founders begin with personal interests or needs, but true focus comes from forming a hypothesis based on your inherent knowledge or conviction and testing it through research and iteration. In other words, build your case studies.
✅ Look beyond demographics—focus on motivations. A broad audience description won’t get you far. Understanding why people take action is what unlocks real connection and growth.

To niche or, TOO NICHE?

How can you make sure your niche isn’t so microscopic that it stops being a real market opportunity?

• Leverage customer feedback. Look at data from past or prospective customers—do they mostly fall within your defined audience parameters, or are they outside them?

• Reality check against your goals and resources. If revenue is lagging, it may be a mismatch between your target customer and your offering—not necessarily that your niche is too small. Also, consider whether you can even service a broader audience at the moment.

• Test your message. Experiment with different types of content and messaging to gauge resonance and relevance—this can help de-risk your niche focus.

Own Your Stories

The beauty of niche audiences and communities? They’re inherently connected through shared stories. Authentic storytelling is the perfect contradiction: both personal and universal. It’s also one of the most powerful ways to scale a brand.

✍️ Try this:

• For The Travel Coach Network – The individual stories of travel coaches are their most powerful marketing tools. Each coach’s story and motivation naturally attract travelers searching for that exact experience. Leveraging these personal stories and the coaches' social presence expands The Travel Coach Network’s reach organically.

• For Akens Group – Instead of focusing purely on influencers with large followings, Akens Group curates content creators who prioritize engagement and depth. Looking beyond your target industry to creators deeply engaged in overlapping topics can open up unexpected audience opportunities.

So, where does this leave us, dear reader? Here are some things you can try right away:

✅ Interview current, past, or prospective customers about their purchasing motivators.
✅ Test a few different messages on your website or organic social based on these conversations—aligning them with key motivators.
✅ Integrate real human stories—they naturally surface unique yet relatable audience attributes.

Parting thoughts:

💡 My favorite niche audience-related meme moment ever.

 🔮Our predictions on niche-ing your audience & creating brand connection:

• Connection is more important than ever—stay close to your people.

• If you believe in something, stand up for it.

• Give your core audience a way to go behind the scenes of your brand.

PS. The Akens Group offers a fantastic service for emerging brands called The Sounding Board – flexible, session-based packages that provide expert communication strategies for brands at any stage.

P.P.S. Looking for a unique, transformational travel experience? Find a travel coach on The Travel Coach Network and start your journey.