What if you didn’t need a niche?
We’re told that if you want to build a personal brand or a business, you need to pick a thing. Get specific. Stay in your lane. Become known for that.
But what if the stuff that lights you up doesn’t fit neatly under one heading?
And what if, instead of forcing it to, you just followed it?
What if you are the niche?
What if you just followed what you love, what pulls you in, what feels alive, and trusted that the thread running through all of it is you?
I’m spending 180 days finding out!
I’m building a personal brand based solely on the premise of making things I want to make and seeing if any of it pays off.
No niche. No perfectly mapped-out plan. Just following what feels alive and seeing where it leads.
Hi, I’m Dannelle
About 18 months ago, we sold pretty much everything and started travelling with our kids. These days we’re based in Bali, with plenty of detours along the way.
I’ve spent most of my adult life teaching, creating, building businesses and following ideas. Some have become big parts of my life, some have disappeared almost as quickly as they arrived.
Right now, I’m much more interested in building a life and body of work that fits all the different parts of me than squeezing myself back into one neat little box.
I’ve spent a lot of time trying to follow the rules of building a business: pick a niche, choose your thing, stay in your lane.
The result? I boxed myself in and got bored.
So I have given myself 180 days to do the opposite: stop trying to pick a lane and start following the things that genuinely pull me in.
I’m doing it in public because apparently that makes it more fun.
The 180 Day Experiment
The experiment is simple: every idea gets measured in three currencies:
Joy
Does it make life richer, more interesting or more alive?
Income
Does it make money, or have a believable path to it?
Value
Does it give something worthwhile to someone else?
It doesn’t have to hit all three every time. But over 180 days, I want to see what happens when I build from there instead of from a niche.
That’s it.
What I’m making right now…
Once Upon a Fern
We read stories, chat about the things she’s curious about, make up tales together and share stories from our own adventures along the way.It’s sweet, curious, a little unpredictable, and very much hers.
A little podcast with my four-year-old daughter, Fern. 
NOMADS: The grounded guide to full time family travel
A practical, honest guide for families curious about taking life on the road. It covers the real-world stuff behind long-term travel with kids, from planning and logistics to creating a life that feels a little less conventional and a lot more your own.
Online Course
Where the travel stories liveOur Travels on YouTube
We share the places we visit, the things we discover along the way, what we learn from travelling full-time as a family, and the little things we wish we’d known before we got there.Part travel diary, part useful stuff, part figuring it out as we go.
Want to see where this goes?
Same.
I don’t know exactly what this becomes yet, which is kind of the point.
Follow along, watch the experiment unfold, and see what makes it through the 180 days.