The smartest strategies are often defined by the things you decide not to do. For anyone looking to build a successful content platform or side hustle business, the first step isn’t about chasing every trend. It’s about finding your unique sweet spot.

Every creator who has made a real impact has one. Let’s figure out how you can find yours.

The Foundation: Combining What You Know with What You Love

Matthew Patrick’s story is a perfect example of this in action. Growing up near Cleveland, Ohio, he was a kid with two distinct passions: gaming and performance. His bedroom was Mario-themed, he spent late nights playing Dungeons & Dragons, and he was a fixture in his high school’s show choir and theater productions.

But Matthew was also brilliant, scoring a perfect 1600 on his SATs on his way to a degree in neuroscience. Instead of hitting the usual college parties, he was hosting “Friday Fondue” nights playing Zelda. After graduating, he moved to New York to pursue acting, but after two years of struggling, he hit a wall. His confidence was shot, and his resume, filled with acting and directing gigs, wasn’t landing him a "real" job.

Feeling stuck, Matthew decided to build a project that would prove his value. He knew he could create an audience and understood new media. That’s when the idea for Game Theory was born—a YouTube series where he could merge his passion for video games with his deep knowledge of math and analytics. He started breaking down the science and numbers behind popular games. After a year and 56 episodes, he had 500,000 subscribers. Today, his brand has millions of followers, and he consults for the biggest names in the industry, including YouTube itself. His success came from a side hustle turned full time that leveraged his unique combination of skills.

Defining Your Unique Sweet Spot

At its core, a sweet spot is the intersection of a knowledge or skill area and a genuine passion point. It’s where your expertise meets your enthusiasm. This is the starting point for anyone looking to start a side hustle.

Let’s look at a few other creators who found their own niche side hustles:

• Claus Pilgaard (Chili Klaus): A classically trained musician from Denmark, Claus had a career in music. But his world changed when he combined his performance skills with an unexpected passion: chili peppers. He created viral videos of himself and others, including orchestras, eating intensely hot peppers. This blend of high culture and high heat turned him into a Danish phenomenon, a perfect example of how uncommon side hustles can capture an audience.
• Michelle Phan: Michelle was a natural artist who loved to draw. Growing up in a turbulent environment, she used makeup as a form of escape and self-expression, a way to become a superhero. In 2005, she started a blog combining her artistic skill with her passion for makeup. Today, her tutorials have over a billion views, and she has her own cosmetic line with L'Oreal. Her journey shows how creative side hustles can scale into massive enterprises.
• Andy Schneider (The Chicken Whisperer): When Andy started raising chickens in his Atlanta backyard, friends and neighbors began asking questions. He had a deep knowledge of backyard poultry and a passion for teaching. He started by organizing local meetups to educate people, a classic offline side hustle. That small community grew into a media platform with a book, a magazine with 60,000 subscribers, and a sponsored radio show. He became the go-to expert by serving a specific need.

How to Find Your Own Expertise and Passion

To find your sweet spot, start by brainstorming. Make two lists.

First, list your knowledge areas—subjects you know more about than the average person. This could be anything from the Pittsburgh Steelers to Star Wars action figures or industrial soldering equipment, like the experts at Indium Corporation. Indium realized their employees possessed world-class knowledge in soldering and built a platform of over 70 blogs to share that expertise, generating more leads at a fraction of their previous marketing cost. This shows how a side business with job expertise can be a powerful asset.

Second, list your skills—things you know how to do well. This might be graphic design, coding, teaching, or public speaking.

You’ll likely have more knowledge areas than skills, but that’s okay. The goal is to see where your expertise lies. Now, look at that list and ask yourself another question: which of these topics gives you unlimited enthusiasm?

Why Passion Is the Engine

Steve Jobs famously advised graduates to "find what you love," because "the only way to do great work is to love what you do." While some argue he didn't follow his own advice, his biographer Walter Isaacson points out that Jobs's real passion was for simplicity, a principle that fueled every aspect of Apple.

That passion is the energy that drives a successful content model. It’s the reason creators keep going for months, or even years, before seeing a real payoff. This is especially true when you're starting a side hustle while working full time—without genuine passion, burnout is almost guaranteed. You have to love the topic enough to want to wake up and work on it every day. Matthew Patrick loves video games. Andy Schneider loves to teach. Michelle Phan loves makeup. That passion is the fuel.

The Final Ingredient: Defining Your Audience

Finding the intersection of your skill and passion isn't enough. Many ventures fail because they stop there, creating content that’s all about them. To make your side hustle business work, you have to ask one more question: Who is this for?

I once met a blog manager for a billion-dollar tech company who was struggling with stagnant traffic despite publishing more content. When I asked who her audience was, she said, “We target 18 different audiences.” I told her, “I found your problem.”

You can’t be everything to everyone. The more audiences you target, the more likely you are to fail. To complete the sweet spot formula, you need to add a specific audience. Who are you trying to help? Get as specific as possible. Visualize this person and understand their informational needs and pain points.

This is what turns a personal project into a valuable resource and a viable freelance business.

How a Niche Audience Saved a Business

Marcus Sheridan’s company, River Pools & Spas, was on the brink of collapse during the 2009 recession. To survive, he decided to answer every single question a potential customer might have about fiberglass pools on his company blog. He wasn’t targeting manufacturers or other builders; he was targeting homeowners in his area interested in buying a pool.

Two years later, his company sold more fiberglass pools than any other installer in North America. His marketing spend dropped from $250,000 to $40,000, and his sales grew. He became the leading information provider in the world on his topic. The content was so successful that it created demand far beyond his service area, prompting him to start manufacturing his own pools. This is the ultimate example of a strategy that almost functions as a side hustle turned full time success, transforming an entire business model.

Putting It All Together for Your Venture

Your true sweet spot exists at the intersection of three things: your knowledge or skill, your passion, and a specific audience’s needs.

Think back to Andy Schneider, the Chicken Whisperer.

• Knowledge: Backyard poultry.
• Passion: Teaching.
• Audience: Suburban homeowners who want to raise chickens.

This clarity allows you to create a mission. Andy’s could be: “Helping suburban homeowners answer all their questions about raising chickens at home.” This is the kind of focus that builds service based side hustles with real authority.

Before you start a side hustle, take the time to define your own mission. Whether you're building a small side business or a large-scale freelance business, your goal is the same: become so indispensable to your audience that they can’t imagine solving their problems without you. Find your sweet spot, serve your audience relentlessly, and build something that lasts.