← Ahead of the Curve with Coco Mocoe
Ahead of the Curve with Coco Mocoe
"You want a career, not a year": A Creator's Guide to Successfully Changing Niches
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Kokomoco
Did you know that Matthew McConaughey once turned down a $14.5 million offer to star in another romantic comedy? It wasn't because he suddenly hated the genre. It was because he realized that he had outgrown the version of himself that Hollywood and the public had come to expect. As he recounts in his memoir greenlights, McConaughey knew that if he kept chasing those easy check, he'd be sealing his fate as a one note actor forever stuck in a box that no longer fit, he writes. If I couldn't do what I wanted, I wasn't going to do what I didn't, no matter the price. Pivoting creatively often feels like betrayal to an audience, to a market, even to your past self. But the truth is growth demands risk. In a world obsessed with trends and immediate returns, the boldest move is often walking away from what's working in order to build something that will endure. More recently, Matt Damon revealed that he turned down the lead role in James Cameron's Avatar, a decision that cost him a potential $250 million payday. In an interview with GQ, Damon explained that came offered him 10% of the film's profits if he took the role of Jake Sully. However, Damon declined due to scheduling conflicts with the Bourne Ultimatum. He remarked, I've left more money on the table than any other actor. This choice underscores the importance of staying true to one's commitments and values, even faced with lucrative opportunities. In today's episode of Ahead of the Curve with Kokomoco, we will be talking about the art of the pivot, when to know if it's the right time to do it, how to kind of weigh the risk versus the reward, and how to change your niche as a creator even if you feel like you are leaving money on the table. While most people celebrate the highs, the viral moments, the sponsorships, the industry recognition, few talk about the conscious decision to walk away when those things no longer serve the long term vision. As a creator, it's tempting to stay in the lane that's working, even when you know deep down the shelf life is ticking. Walking away from momentum feels reckless in a culture obsessed with metrics, but history shows that the people who bet on their evolution, even at the cost of short term wins, are the ones who build careers that actually last. Which is what I'm saying in this episode. Not my original quote, but just a saying, which is you want a career, not a year. Changing your niche isn't just a rebrand, it's an act of self Preservation and future proofing. It's understanding that virality is often a sugar high and that real influence, the kind that gets you into rooms no hashtag could, demands depth, not just reach. Whether it's an actor rejecting a typecast role, an artist pivoting styles before the market catches up to them, or a creator choosing to post fewer but better videos, the principle is the same. Real growth requires a little bit of sacrifice, a lot of strategy, and an unshakable trust in that future self of you, that version of you that you know exists and you're just trying to get to. This episode will explore why consciously changing your niche, even when it means stepping away from immediate virality or guaranteed paychecks, isn't always career suicide. It's often a necessary step that most creators are too afraid to make. Hence why most viral influencers are stuck to having a year, not a career. I've been sitting on this video idea for a few weeks, but I saw a great TikTok by fashion creator Wisdom K the other day. He explained how virality and having a big moment is often something you can't control as a creator, but what you can control is consistency and hope that the timing lines up. If you're watching the video version on Substack, he kind of said that you exist like. Or no, he said you exist like this, like you're here, right? And then the industry is like this. It's squiggling all around, do, do, do, do, do. And if you're chasing that squiggle, you're always two steps behind and you're disoriented. But if you stay in your power, you stay here, eventually that squiggle is going to lock right in with you and you guys are going to be lock in step. So your only thing you can control is being consistent and honing your craft, hoping that that squiggle lines up with you eventually. And I know he's controversial and I've talked about him before and my own feelings, but again, one of my favorite examples I love to use is that it took Mr. Beast five years to hit his first 100,000 followers. So it really takes time to build that foundation if you want to be willing to hold the weight of a big audience and not crumble. The founder of Set Active, Lindsey Carter, also described something similar. Again, if you're watching this on the video version on Substack, she said that trends are like a wave like this, right? Doo doo doo. And you're kind of a straight line and you just have to stay in that straight line because eventually the market will move away from you, but then it'll cross you again and then it'll move away and then it'll cross again, then move it away. But if you're just unsure in who you are and you're chasing the wave, you're always gonna be a few steps behind it. But as a creator, when do you know if it's time to pull the anchor out from the ocean and become a newer, evolved version of yourself to go find the new blue ocean? When does where you are no longer feel safe? This is sometimes extra scary when you're riding a wave of virality and success. Cur Currently I'm going to pull a few quotes from books that I've read about creativity that helped me shape this video and give advice about how to know when it's time to switch your niche and ways to do it. Then in the extended episode on my substack for $9 a month, I'm going to talk about concrete examples of creators who pivoted their niche and became even bigger as a result, even if the short term they seem to be falling off. And because you guys really seem to love it on my sub stack when I write about astrology as well, and I'm not an expert, I just enjoy the topic, but I'm going to be talking about the astrology of pivoting. How to know for you if astrologically it's a good time, I'll give you some tools to look at your chart and to know when. Thank you so much Coconuts for watching this episode, for supporting my show ahead of the curve. And as always, share this out with a friend who loves marketing and pop culture and also astrology as much as we do. Let's dive on in. The first quote is from the book that I have mentioned before in an episode. The episode was called Stop following creators in your niche, which also became a keynote speech at Adweek. So thank you guys for supporting my show and letting me have opportunities like that because of it. But the book is a business marketing book called Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Maborg. This book is a marketing book and it is very intelligent. So if you read it like I did and some of it goes over your head, that's okay. Don't feel like you're dumb because I also kind of struggled. But it's very valuable. And their whole philosophy and they come up at it from a business lens is that what happens is a lot of brands and companies will find a niche they'll find a product and then it becomes popular and all of these other brands will. It's like red water because they realize that there's a herd of fish there that, that they can then go fishing and get all of these resources, right? So it's. You're in red water when you're in something that's popular because all of these ships are coming into that area, they see blood, they're like, we want to catch some fish. And Blue Ocean Strategy is a business book about how to know when to move away from that red water. Like, you know that there's guaranteed fish there. But now everyone's getting a smaller piece of the pie because everyone's there. So how do you know when to take the risk to then sail out into unchartered territories, into blue water, looking for a new herd of fish, not knowing if you're going to find it, but if you do, you'll get the whole pie instead of having to share it with everyone because you're the only one there. So that's what the term Blue Ocean strategy refers to. One of the quotes from Blue Ocean Strategy is the only way to beat the competition is to stop trying to beat the competition. And then they continue in the book by saying value innovation is about making the competition irrelevant by creating a leap in value for buyers in your company, thereby opening up new and uncontested market space. If the niche that you are in makes you feel like you are in quicksand, slowly sinking, no matter how viral you go, because there are so many of you in this space and you're all racing to make the same types of videos over and over, then that could be a good sign that you are operating from the mercy of the algorithm and not from a place of genuine innovation, that you are so fixated on the competition. And I've mentioned this one before, too, but like, one of my favorite this such the Aquarius in me. But like, one of my favorite things that Oprah Winfrey says is that if you're running a track meet, the winner, like, the person who wins is not constantly looking over their shoulder at the people next to them or behind them. Because one, if they do, they slow down and two, if they do, they fall. They risk falling instead. The winner literally just hones in. Like, what do they put on the horses? The. The blinders or whatever it's called? And they just make tunnel vision at the finish line. So if you are a creator and you have a goal, you shouldn't even be looking over your shoulder at your competition in your niche at all, you are going to slow down, you're going to trip and fall. Even if you think that you're just watching their videos because you enjoy it, you are going to subconsciously take in their content and then regurgitate it and make carbon copies. And that's not what you want to do. You want to focus on what your goal is and it should be bigger than just being competitive in your niche. Don't beat yourself up if you are kind of competing with your niche and at the mercy of the algorithm for a little bit. Because again, we do all have to pay our bills and play the game sometimes. But the best thing that you can do as a step towards a new niche and a direction is again, completely stop consuming the content from creators in your niche. You can still support them and root them on I always tell myself that it's a good sign when people in my niche, like the pop culture niche, get amazing opportunities, even if I miss out because it means that there's still a demand for my niche and that I should be more worried when people in my niche stop getting opportunities because it means the type of content that we're creating isn't desired anymore. But it's still natural to feel claustrophobic and sometimes resentful in your niche, especially when it becomes oversaturated, as all niches do when they go viral. It's natural when you're chasing trends and immediate gratification to obsess over what the people in your niche and direct line of sight are doing. But if you want to be the best, stop looking at the others. As Beyonce said in her 2013 documentary, which I'm going to Cowboy Carter opening night. I'm so excited. It's on Monday. Watch my stories and my talks is I'll be posting about it. But she said, I'm not competing with anyone, I'm competing with myself. And if you begin to create in your own lane, you might notice that creators in your prior niche or other niches start making content eerily similar to you. Take that as a sign that you're on the right track and you're moving the needle of culture instead of chasing it. One example of this from a creator that I absolutely adore and am lucky enough to call a friend and I guess he's kind of the pop culture realm is Harry Daniels. He's the one who sings at celebrities. No one has done anything like that before. It happened as a fun bit. I think he did it originally at a Sabrina Carpenter meetup a few years ago, but it's evolved into such an iconic format that he became an SNL sketch and he's sung at the President to wo Vicky. He created his own lane that had not existed. And if he'd been chasing what was popular in the pop culture niche to go viral, he would have been making green screen videos like the rest of us. Instead, he moved the needle of culture closer to him versus chasing it. And if you're terrified of betraying your current audience or finding an audience to match, just know that not everyone is meant to be in your audience forever. I love the metaphor. That influencer brand Flake said in a podcast once that some people are like boosters on a rocket. You're not. You're not meant to stay attached together forever, but you help boost each other up to new heights. And then, you know, boosters on a rocket, they have to fall back so the rocket can go further. If you stay attached, you might weigh each other down at times when you must be nimble, flexible and light to evolve. This goes for audience members too. Not everyone who finds your content at one period is going to like every evolution. And that is okay. Austin Kleon, who is the author of Steal like an Artist, which I've talked about, but he also has another book called show your work. He said you don't really find an audience for your work. They find you when changing niches. This is why I don't always love the advice that some marketers give of figuring out a prototype of what your desired audience is and then creating content that targets them. Like if you're saying, all right, I want to, I want to make content for women aged 18 to 25, maybe they're out of high school or they're in college or they're, you know, getting their first full time job. They live in America. This is their. They like watching the Bachelor. If you're coming up with a prototype and then you're making content that you think they want, you are going to be inauthentic and chasing a variable that, number one, you cannot control because you don't actually know what their taste is going to be all the time. And it can shift. They can like something one day and not like, swing the other, but also it's ever changing. Instead, keep your mind open to who your future audience could be. Make the content that you wish existed in the world, build, roam, and they will come. You might not even know who that core audience is going to be at first. I love saying the affirmation. I give people permission to find my work and to love it and to appreciate it. I say that like whenever I'm posting a video before I go to bed, I go, I give others permission to find my work and to love it and appreciate it because I'm giving permission to others and I don't know who those people might always be. When I started my trend prediction videos, I thought that my core audience I was targeting was actually tarot and astrology consumers. I had no idea that marketers around the world and even a list celebrities would become fascinating wit fascinated with the type of content I was making. I'm so grateful that they did. If I made content chasing those people, I would have chased inauthentic formats or I would have only gone on like LinkedIn. If I was like, I want like, you know, the CMOs of the world to know who Coco Moco is, I would have just been on LinkedIn. I didn't think they were going to find me on TikTok making prediction videos, but they did. I that was something I didn't know, but I am glad that it happened. I really just made the content that I wish existed. And I found out millions of people desired this content as well, but they couldn't put their finger on it. Exactly. And Rick Rubin, who wrote the Creative act that I've talked about, he also stated that the audience comes last. So if you create art with the audience in mind, you are failing to move the needle. Instead, create the art that they didn't even know that they wanted. Create art that you want to see but can't find anywhere else and the right people will be attracted to it like a moth to a flame. And in Adam Grant's book How Non Conformists Move the World, he said the greatest shapers don't stop at introducing originality into the world. They create cultures that unleash originality in others. Be so fiercely brazen in your creative pursuits that it gives silent permission to others to do the same. The best creatives aren't the ones that become the best in a certain niche or trend that already exists, but instead they are the ones that create the niches or the trends that don't yet exist. The art of the pivot isn't necessarily about identifying the niche you currently are in and then a way to get to the niche that you want to be a part of, but rather it's about making a completely new niche that no one else thought to create before. And when you change your niche, it doesn't mean that you are changing your essence or your identity. It's all a part of the journey. I think one big mistake creators make when they pivot is that they will refuse to acknowledge what got them there or outright deny it, and this betrays your core audience. Instead, what the creators with longevity do is pivot but still acknowledge what got them there. Addison Rae, in a recent interview, said that she doesn't feel shame about the version of herself who posted tons of dancing videos a day because that girl was going to do whatever it takes to get to where she wants to be. A lot of OG youTubers made this mistake when they would branch into music or other lanes. They would often try to erase their digital footprint or downplay their YouTube roots, but that would cause their core audience to feel ultimately betrayed. Think about it like this. Your life is a road trip. Sometimes you're driving an old beaten up car and sometimes you have the opportunity to hop on a plane and make it a bit quicker. Changing the means of your transportation doesn't mean that you're changing the destination. And just because an opportunity comes to get maybe a fancier car or hop on a helicopter or an airplane, it doesn't mean that you don't still honor the beaten up car that was there for you when nothing else was, or the version of you that was willing to walk barefoot. Both can exist at the same time and serve different purposes to get you to the right place. And when you change your niche, it is best that you are clear with your audience that it is happening and why so that they can manage their expectations of you. As Brene Brown said in Dare to Lead, clear is kinds unclear is unkind. Staying silent about your evolving needs is ultimately a disservice to yourself and to others. While this wasn't in the context of creating content, of course, I think it holds true in the lesson that not being honest with your audience when you feel that you've outgrown a certain niche can be a disservice to them because they're going to sense from your videos that you're a little removed and then that can build resentment from both ends. You can still make those videos if you're making money, but you can also be clear with them that hey, I feel an itch to change and I don't know what that is, but it's coming and I am grateful for you guys and I hope you stick around to see it. The audience is smart and consumers are brilliant. They watch hundreds of videos a day and they know how to sniff out inauthenticity even if you aren't sure where you are headed next. Again, it's best to be clear with them that you feel a change coming. Now for the extended episode, exclusively@kokomoco.substack.com for $9 a month. Th I'm going to talk about examples of creators who have pivoted successfully out of their original niche, and some astrological transits to look for in your chart to know if it's a good time to evolve. I'm a huge believer in timing and things happening that are bigger than us that we can subconsciously sense. And sometimes, in my belief, astrology is one way to understand the world and the timing of what we're picking up on. So, paying coconuts, I will see you on the other side.