✨the SPARK 207 ~ An Untapped and Exploding Market

There's Enough for Everyone

I don’t have a lot of young kids in my life right now (the youngest in our family is my 16-year-old nephew).

So I’m always surprised when I hear from people with younger kids that the kids want to watch YouTube as much as they want to watch TV.

I’m grateful my kids were a little older when they got into YouTube. There was also much less content on YouTube back then (12+ years ago). I have a lot of empathy for parents of younger kids today. There’s so much to monitor because of tech, but I digress.

That’s not the market I’m referring to that’s untapped and exploding.

It’s the complete opposite.

This is fascinating since Western culture clings to youth at all costs.

The market I’m referring to is older generations.

Maybe I should have paid attention when I realized my 80-year-old Dad was watching YouTube on his TV (old westerns, biographies, history stuff, and news about the 49ers).

But let’s get a little more specific than just “older generations.”

It’s midlifers. 😉

I’d say 50+, but I’ve noticed videos talking specifically to 40, 50, and 60-year-olds (I don’t think of 40 as quite midlife but close-ish).

Here’s the fun part…

Their “niche” is their age & demographic and how they’re navigating life!

Here are a handful of titles I grabbed from four channels. I should have grabbed the view counts, but most had thousands of views.

• My Side Hustles at 55

• Another Side Hustle for the over-50 Crowd… Get Thyself on YouTube

• Advice to My Younger Self

• The Death of Personal Branding (& The Future for People Over 40)

• StartLiife From Scratch in Mid-50s

• 5 Life-changing Struggles I’m Thankful For

• 9 Hard Truths You Only Learn With Age

• 9 Social Norms I’ve Ditched; Why I’m Done Playing Along

• Start Doing These 4 Things and Thrive at Living Alone

You can search the titles to see the creators—but they’re everyday people (well, one is from a veteran marketer with 25 years in the marketing space).

I haven’t watched these videos, but I’ve watched the creators, and most of them are talking head videos (one creator is living in Portugal, and she includes some b-roll of Portugal).

AND… there aren’t any crazy antics, nor do they have over-the-top personalities.

I felt things were heading in this direction simply because of what I was seeing (an older friend had told me about one of these channels, so naturally, as soon as I watched something, the algorithm started serving me more) - but then I was validated when I came across another video podcast.

The podcast was the “My First Million” podcast with Sam Parr, where he had Steph Smith on. They talked about the ‘silver tsunami’ happening and how entrepreneurs overlook this space.

Here’s a crazy statistic for you:

According to the Society for Women's Health Research in a report dated August 29, 2023, there are 6000 women in the US entering menopause every day.

By 2025, the world population of postmenopausal women is projected to reach 1.1 billion.

In addition, we’re living longer (Steph Smith also shares data on this at the beginning of the episode). It only makes sense that there is a “silver tsunami” happening.

I love a handful of things about this, but one of my favorite (and maybe encouraging) things is that it supports my love of being ‘anti-niche.’ 😉

Not that I recommend people be all over the place, but what if there was a way to have a personal brand or a business encompassing more than one aspect of who you are?

What if you could talk about:

• Your life experiences

• Your skills

• Your passions

• Your career

And it created a cohesive feeling that attracted the right people?

That’s what I see happening here.

And I’ll put on my fortune teller hat for a moment and say I think we’re going to see more of this happening.

Not because it’s an “opportunity” (but hallelujah that it is), but because it’s what people have wanted to do all along.

This doesn’t mean you give up your niche. This just means you start thinking of ways to expand what you’re already doing (especially if you’re feeling a little burned out).

If this remotely interests you - and especially if you fit the 40+ demographic, although I’d say 50+ feels a little more on par with what I’m seeing - I’d start doing a little digging around YouTube yourself (or TikTok - because there are a lot of GenX and older there as well).

Another friend was telling me that his friend switched his channel from a lot of ‘how to’ videos to more life advice and his channel has blown up.

All of this speaks to my thoughts on how the digital marketing space is changing and we’re entering a “digital marketing renaissance” if you will.

Buckle up my friends, I think we’re in for some exciting changes.

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SPARK Spotlight 🔥

This AI tool was surprisingly better than I expected! In all fairness, I haven’t played much with video AI tools, but the quick video I created (text to video), was super clean. Introducting Haiper.ai.

You can create a video for free but you will have to create an account - but it’s worth it.

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A Little Brainpower 🧠

This is piggybacking off of what I talked about for YouTube. “3 Top Monetizing Strategies for 50+ and over.”

I’ve only tried this a couple of times but was blown away too “I Tried Google’s New AI Tool, NotebookLM — And It Totally Blew My Mind!”

I’m definitely doing video for my upcoming podcast. “A Podcast Without Video- Why?”

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Tool Time 🛠

• Substack: This is an incredible resource to discover Substack newsletters and writers. Use Sidestack free for your own discovery.

• AI Images: I haven’t had a lot of time to try many AI image tools, but a community I’m in recommends this. Try Flux.1 ai free here.

• WordPress: Just when you thought we had all the form plugins for WordPress that was necessary, here’s another. Check out SureForms here.

• AI Voice: Generate a custom voice with only a text prompt. Describe age, accent, tone or character. Try VoiceDesign from ElevenLabs free here.

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Haha… touché 😂

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Well, in other news… the “Visual Guide to Substack” is FINISHED! WOOHOO!

I’m doing one final edit today and will be emailing you a link tomorrow where you can get it.

I’ve been joking that I think I have “screenshot PTSD”… 😂

All jokes aside, I wish I had this when I was setting up my publications. There’s a lot more to Substack that meets the eye. It’s a bit of a treasure hunt, but the beauty is that once you’ve figured it out you can use it in whatever works best for YOU!

Have a fantastic day my friends and Happy Halloween! 🎃

Kim