In this interactive YouTube talk, Nicolas Cole explains how to make outcomes tangible and objective by moving along a spectrum of tangibility rather than treating industries as either tangible or intangible. He demonstrates the concept with a concrete offer: a 15‑minute bedtime meditation that leads to 8 hours of sleep, breaking it down into measurable components (time, heart‑rate, sleep duration). Cole shows how this specificity can be leveraged to create multiple products—a book, a digital course, and a conference—while still allowing the creator to discuss related topics, provided they stay within a clear, narrowly defined container. He stresses that true niching isn’t about limiting content, but about choosing a single, concrete focus that grants permission to explore peripheral subjects. The talk also touches on the psychological barrier many creators face when trying to encompass everything in their niche, and offers practical guidance for positioning oneself effectively.
Chapters
How do you make outcomes tangible? Making things tangible and objective is a way of thinking. Okay, so let me explain what I mean. When I present that framework to people, I tend to notice that, that what they say back is they're thinking about it through this lens of there are tangible things in some industries and other industries cannot be tangible. It's— they're thinking about it through the lens of industry or niche. There are tangible, objective industries or niches, and there are intangible, subjective industries and niches. And that is not true. Okay. It's not zero or one. It's not binary. It's that tangibility and objectivity exist on a spectrum. It's not that something is or isn't, it's the degree to which it is objective or the degree to which it is tangible. Okay. And so the game is finding ways in every industry and every niche to make things visceral, measurable, quantifiable. Okay. So let's, let's go back to our, to our example. Version A might be, I help people become the best version of themselves. I think we can all agree that is extremely intangible and extremely subjective, right? We would all give different definitions, okay? So let's go version B. We go, I help people, improve their psychology. Okay, slightly more specific, right? If we're on a spectrum, we just went from like a 0 to a 1. Okay, slightly more specific, but still on a spectrum, very subjective, very intangible. Okay, so let's keep going. I help people improve their psychology and Quiet their inner critic. Slightly more subjective, better, but now we're at like a 2, right? So you see us, we're slowly notching on the spectrum. Like, we're improving, but we haven't yet gotten into the territory of like 7, 8, 9, or 10, right? And yeah, Candice, visceral, measurable, quantifiable. So I'll show you. So let's jump to the other side of the spectrum. Okay? I help people—
I give people 15-minute meditation routines before bed to quiet their thoughts, bring their resting heart rate down and enter and prime their nervous system so they can finally get 8 hours of sleep per night. What's tangible about this? There's actually two things that are tangible.
Anyone want to drop in the chat what is tangible and objective about this?
15 minutes, 8 hours.
Cool. Now let me, let me point out the advanced thing here. The reason this is so powerful when I see stuff like this and when I land on stuff like this I've decided here's my next book.
I'm gonna write a book. It's called 15 Minutes, 8 Hours: How to Quiet Your Thoughts and Finally Fall Asleep on Time. And I'm gonna create a digital product. It's called 15 Minutes, 8 Hours: an in-depth course on how to fall asleep on time and get rid of your Netflix before bed addiction. And I'm going to create a conference. It's called 15 Minutes, 8 Hours. Come join us for 3 days to talk about sleep psychology and calming your nervous system. Like, all we're accomplishing here, right, all we're accomplishing is we're going—
I'm not gonna tell you I solve everything, right? I'm not gonna— I don't solve everything. I focus on solving this one specific thing in this one specific way. And the thing that you don't really realize about this until you commit to it for a prolonged period of time is when you position yourself like this, does that mean you're not allowed to talk about other things? Of course not. It actually makes it easier for you to do that. So, for example, You put on this whole conference. At this conference, can you talk about sleep? Yes. That's why everyone's here, right? Could you also maybe have a keynote talking about morning routines and affirmations in the morning? Absolutely.
Could you have someone also talk about journaling and the importance of clearing your mind bank of faulty beliefs and negative thoughts?
Yes, of course you can. This is what people don't understand about niching down is like you can talk about other things, but they all have to be wrapped inside of a very clear container, right? I can't say my niche is I talk about sleep, morning routines, affirmations, psychology, journaling, and happiness in life. Because that's not a niche, right? Plus crypto.
Exactly, Mitch.
And follow my other YouTube channel for day trading strategies, right? That, like, that doesn't do anything for me. But if I say all I do is talk about pre-bedtime meditation routines to bring your resting heart rate down so that you get a good 8 hours of sleep, I give myself permission, the allowance, to talk about other topics as well.
But you have to lead with something, right?
Like, I tweet about all sorts of random stuff, things I find interesting, little things I'm thinking about in business. Every once in a while I'm like, hey, I traveled somewhere and I did this cool thing, here's a picture, right? But ultimately, all of my positioning though is like, yeah, yeah, but don't forget, The thing I specialize in is writing in the digital age. And this— it's, it's one of those, like, you have to be able to hold two truths in your head at the same time, which is specificity limits— in a good way— limits what you are talking about, but in doing so makes it easy and makes it significantly easier for people to understand what you specialize in, which is what gives you permission to write about all the other things you want to write about as well. So you have to— like, those are two opposing truths that you have to be able to hold in your brain at the same time. And most people don't do that. And instead what they do is they go, I'm going to try and make my niche encompass everything. And that's the fundamental mistake. Your niche, your positioning is not intended to encompass everything. You pick one thing and that's what gives you permission to write about all the other things. Yeah, Candice, it's just picking one thing limits what you talk about, and in limiting what you talk about, it gives you permission to talk about whatever you want.
That's it. It's like, it's such a simple idea.
We could talk about niches all day long. It is, it is by a mile the most popular question people ask.
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