How To Find (And Grow) Your Niche
'Take risks and be your unique self, because the same thing that makes you stand out is what people will notice and appreciate about you.'
Welcome to the Collective World Careers Newsletter. Collective World is a one-of-a-kind creative network powered by the minds and voices behind The Thought & Expression Company. We’re so glad you’re here.
Today, we’re talking to Chrissy Stockton about finding, establishing, and nurturing your niche in the creative industry.
Why do you think it’s important for writers to establish their niche?
I think it’s important to follow your curiosity. It’s really tempting to want to write like your favorite writers or keep writing in a certain style that may have gotten you published somewhere or gotten you the most likes on Instagram, but I think ultimately for any artist what is going to bring them to their best work is building a relationship with themselves where they are learning to listen to their intuition and follow their curiosity. Take risks and be your unique self, because the same thing that makes you stand out is what people will notice and appreciate about you. You are the only person who can bring your one-of-a-kind story to the table, don’t water it down.
How did you know horror would be your niche? Did you always know or was it something that came to you along your career journey?
It can be frustrating because I have all sorts of interests. I love poetry and I love learning about myself through self-development books and learning about healing generational curses and all that. I’m also interested in astrology and I actually take classes in things like tarot and reiki. I want everything to fit together perfectly into a neat little product I can package for people and make a living from, but if you can do that, it takes years and years most of the time. Or maybe you just have an entirely different personality, which is also okay, but that’s not me.
I’ve tried to just be true to myself and what I was feeling and create based on that. I have a poetry book and an astrology book and I’m coming out with a deck of affirmation cards, but Creepy Catalog was born in 2015 and thankfully in the last few years it’s gotten to a place where I can work full time on it.
I’m also just a person who enjoys the work of studying, writing, and creating so I can cycle through topics a bit and still enjoy the process. I’ve learned to practice having patience while building, knowing that things make sense and look more aspirational in hindsight. I find a balance that works for me and works for the people I work with and we adjust as we need to.
I’ve been into horror and reading and writing scary stories since elementary school, but I’m a multifaceted person. I was also keeping a diary and writing poems about anxiety and my parents. I will probably write a memoir for sensitive kids who grew up in families where no one talked about their feelings one day. And maybe a children’s book to go with it! I try to treat myself like I’m in middle school art class and the point is just to go nuts and have fun.
Speaking of your career journey, do you mind telling us a bit about the history of Creepy Catalog and how it was founded?
Yes, I love telling this story. I was in New York and Brandon Gorrell, the former editorial director, and Michael Koh, a former producer for the site, were with me and we were at a happy hour just hanging out and the idea for a website just about creepy stuff came up. I think Koh named it Creepy Catalog and we went to the office the next day on a Saturday to make a Facebook page for it so no one would steal our totally awesome name.
Is there anything you wish you did differently when establishing your niche?
Two of my all-time favorite movies are Sofia Coppola’s ‘The Virgin Suicides’ and Wes Anderson’s ‘The Royal Tennenbaums’, and no matter how I try I can’t think of a way to cover these movies on Creepy Catalog, which is really frustrating. I would like to please do a paid deep dive into these amazing films! I’m sure I’ll figure out how to sneak these in one day…
When you were establishing your niche, did you always have the same vision for it? Or did you experiment with your voice while breaking into the horror space?
We didn’t have any vision for it at all other than, let's start a Facebook page where we just post our creepy articles and see what happens. That’s def one thing I love about working at Thought Catalog—we are open to experimentation. We were able to try something and see how our readers responded to it. Since they were into the articles, we were able to spend more time and money on it.
It grew very slowly over seven years to what it is now.
What are your tips for standing out within a saturated niche? How do you become a unique voice?
I think you have to say things the way you think them even if it feels embarrassing because that is what will stand out to people. When you edit yourself to be less risky, you make yourself more boring. I don’t think that means you have to use a lot of swear words or be vulgar, just that people look to art to capture emotions they haven’t been able to express. They are looking for some kind of catharsis and if the artist isn’t willing to be honest about what *they* are feeling, it’s just not going to work.
You came up with the concept for Creepy Catalog a few years ago. Since then, it has grown exponentially. Did you know it would take off the way it did?
I am so happy to be able to say that I think the answer is that we’ve just had some amazing content over the years. Our first piece that really took off was by our first Creepy Catalog freelancer, Cliff Barlow. At a time when most people in media were publishing short listicles it was this long story about a guy who is creeped out by the basement in his new house, people were spending seven minutes reading it as opposed to the industry average being something like 45 seconds. We brought on another freelancer, MJ Pack, who was on staff for a while, and she did the same thing. She had horror stories go viral that was unlike what any other media sites were doing and it was so gratifying to be able to get pageviews with really high-quality short stories.
What advice do you have for writers just starting out who are unsure what they want their focus to be?
Write a bunch until you find something that you want to keep doing. I also think other art forms like painting and crafting or even creating TikToks can be really helpful too. Just play around and be patient with yourself until you start to figure out what you like to do.
While finding your niche can be important to your brand, it also somewhat limits what your content is about. How do you continue coming up with new content ideas for the same general theme?
For Creepy Catalog, we’re only limited to “what scares us” which is a pretty big category. From “campfire stories” of people’s personal ghost stories to horror movies (a huge category) to true crime (another huge category) to conspiracy theories, morbid history, cryptozoology, the occult – creepy encompasses multitudes!
One way I keep myself full of content ideas is that I have a list of ideas in a google doc that I am always adding to. When I’m on TikTok and I see something that might make a good article, I send it to myself and add it to the list, same with reading the news and coming across an interesting true crime case. At this point, the doc is 70 pages long. If I’m having a dry idea day I can scroll through the list and start and stop work on ideas or just pick one to run with. I try not to say “I’ll remember it” because I never do. I write down every single thing and keep it in one place.
How do you grow your niche? Is there a formula you followed?
I think you have to be a fan yourself so you know what your fans want. Never treat your readers or followers like they’re dumb. Respect your audience and respect the people you’re talking about.
Is there anything else you’d like people to know about finding and growing your niche?
Finding your home as an artist can be frustrating and it can take a long time, but it is worth the patience because creating the art you are truly meant to create will be your best work, and I think the journey to figure that out and the journey to find your audience go hand in hand.
For more from Chrissy, check out her work on Instagram and Creepy Catalog. You can also find her books here.
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This is such a great interview! Thank you for your wisdom, Chrissy!