What if your niche isn’t just one thing?

Kim Ellis, Founder of Free Spirits, explores why freelancers don’t need to squeeze into a single box to be successful.

Your niche can be how you think, how you solve problems, or the way you bring things together.

You’ve probably heard the full phrase: “Jack of all trades, master of none.” It’s been thrown around since Shakespeare’s time. Somewhere along the way it became a polite insult. A way of saying someone is a bit… scattered or unfocused. Not quite good enough at any one thing so has to dabble in lots.

But I want to push back on that and challenge the implications.

Because if you’re a freelancer or thinking about going freelance, you’ve probably spent a lot of time worrying about your niche. What to focus on. What clients will pay for.

But here’s the question nobody asks often enough: what do you actually want to do a lot of? Just because you can facilitate leadership sessions – is that all you want to do?? FOREVER???

Where did this idea come from, anyway?

The “Jack of all trades” phrase has an interesting history. The full original quote is often cited as: “A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.” That second half tends to get dropped… probably because it goes against how people use the phrase now.

At some point, we started treating expertise as the only path to credibility. Pick a lane. Go deep. Become the person for one specific thing. Be known as the best person in the industry.

And for some people, that’s fine, it’s the right path. But for others, like me – the curious ones, the connectors, the people who’ve collected skills the way like Pokémon – it can feel like you’re trapped in Groundhog Day.

The myth: If you can do many things, clients won’t take you seriously. You need to pick one skill and stick to it.

The reality: Many freelancers are valued precisely because they bring cross-disciplinary thinking that specialists can’t offer.

Why breadth can actually be a competitive advantage

Think about the problems businesses actually face. They’re rarely tidy. A company that needs a training programme might also need someone who understands their comms strategy. A startup needing a brand identity might need someone who can think about customer experience too. Real-world problems don’t respect the boundaries of a single job title.

That’s where you come in.

When you’ve worked across different fields, disciplines, or industries, you carry something specialists often don’t: pattern recognition across contexts. You can spot a solution in one area that applies perfectly to a problem in another. You can speak the language of different stakeholders. You can hold the big picture and get into the detail.

That’s not being scattered. That’s being strategically versatile.

Let this sink in: your niche doesn’t have to be a specific skill. It can be how you think, how you solve problems, or the way you bring things together. That’s a legitimate, powerful niche – and it’s all yours.

Nobody has the experience you have, the skills, the way your brain works. You are unique in the way you approach projects.

The challenge (let’s be honest – cause there is a challenge)

Being multi-skilled doesn’t mean there are no challenges. There are real ones – and if we’re going to champion this path, we should be upfront about them.

• Clients often default to searching for one specific thing. If you don’t lead with clarity, they may not immediately understand your value.
• Pricing can get murky. When you do a range of things, knowing what to charge for each – and how to bundle them – takes thought and maybe a little bit of guesswork.
• It’s tempting to say yes to everything. Without some intentionality, “I can do loads” can slide into overcommitment and burnout.
• Imposter syndrome can creep in. You might feel like you’re not quite expert enough at any individual thing to charge confidently for it.

These are real. But none of them make working this way impossible – and none of them mean you should shoehorn yourself into a narrow specialism that doesn’t fit who you are.

Rethinking what “niche” actually means

Here at Free Spirits, we talk about niching – we even have a workbook to help you find your passion and profit niches. But we want to be clear about what we mean, because “find your niche” can feel like the same old advice dressed up differently.

A niche isn’t a cage. It’s not a single service, a single industry, or a single job title.

A niche is the intersection of what you’re good at, what you love doing, and what people will pay for. For multi-skilled freelancers, that intersection might be an approach, a perspective, or a way of working – not a specific deliverable. And that’s completely valid.

The goal isn’t to strip yourself back to one thing. The goal is to be able to communicate your value clearly – so the right clients find you, understand you, and feel confident hiring you.

So what does this look like in practice?

The practical bit is where most freelancers get stuck. Knowing it’s okay to be multi-skilled is one thing. Actually knowing how to talk about yourself, how to structure your offers, and how to win work without confusing potential clients – that’s harder (and why we have a monthly Pitchathon so we can practice).

A few things that tend to help:

• Lead with outcomes, not inputs. Instead of listing your skills, describe what changes for a client when they work with you. Skills are your toolkit; outcomes are what clients are actually buying.
• Create coherence through a point of view. Even if you offer five different services, a clear perspective – a way you see the world or approach problems – acts as the thread that ties everything together.
• Think in packages, not menus. A long list of services can overwhelm. Grouping your work into a smaller number of clear offers helps clients self-select without you having to explain everything from scratch every time.
• Be selective about who you’re talking to. You don’t have to serve everyone. Knowing your ideal client’s world – their pressures, language, and goals – lets you speak directly to them, even if your skills are broad.

If you’re a square peg, stop trying to fit a round hole

The freelance world has of people telling you what you should do to build a successful business. Specialise. Niche down. Do this. Don’t do that. Pick one thing. Pick one industry.

Some of that advice is useful. But it’s not universal – and treating it as the only path shuts out a whole group of people who could thrive in self-employment if they were given a different framework.

If you’re curious by nature. If you like juggling multiple things (I’d go insane if I was doing the same thing every single day). If you’ve had a squiggly career path and you’re not sure how to package it. If you feel like a square peg trying to fit into a round hole – maybe your future isn’t to sand down your edges. Maybe it’s to become more like Jack.

The world needs generalists. It needs people who can bridge gaps, translate between teams, and see the big picture. It needs people who don’t just solve the problem they were hired for, but spot the one no one had noticed yet.

We need more people to embrace their generalist superpower.