Listen on Apple Podcasts Now ↗

Listen on Spotify Now ↗

Listen and follow! Add your voice, tap ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ to rate the podcast on Spotify or Apple.

Imagine you walk into a party. It’s packed. Sweaty. Loud. Some guy is doing card tricks uninvited. The chips are stale, the bathroom line is biblical, and the host forgot your name twice.

You could elbow your way to the hummus, or you could leave.

Not home-leave. Better-leave.

You wander two streets over and find an unlocked roller rink. There’s a disco ball, abandoned skates, and a vending machine that still works. You plug in your phone, hit play on your “Songs That Shouldn’t Slap But Do” playlist, and by the time anyone else figures out where you are, it’s your party.

That is the Nobody’s-Here-Party Method.

By the 1980s, the circus was a dying act. Audiences were shrinking, animal rights protests were growing, and every circus was clawing for the same dwindling audience with the same tired tricks. Margins were thin, costs were high, and the competition was bloodier than the lion trainer’s laundry.

Instead of trying to be the best circus in a crowded field, Cirque du Soleil left the field entirely. They scrapped animals, ditched the traveling carnival vibe, and built something new.

A circus for adults.

They blended acrobatics, theater, live music, and surreal storytelling into a completely different experience that was closer to Broadway than Barnum & Bailey.

Ticket prices went up, costs went down, and the audience completely changed.

Cirque du Soleil became a global phenomenon. They did not just avoid the competition. They made it totally irrelevant. By owning their own “nobody’s-here party,” they attracted a new, more affluent audience and turned an aging, low-margin industry into a high-profit cultural powerhouse.

Researchers call it niche construction. In evolutionary biology, it’s the idea that a species can change its environment to favor its own survival instead of competing in the existing conditions.

Beavers do not fight for the best spot in the river. They build dams and turn the river into a pond that only they know how to thrive in. Hermit crabs switch shells to better fit their needs. Some birds alter forests by planting and tending to specific trees that suit them.

Businesses and creators can do the same thing. Instead of trying to outcompete everyone in the same habitat, you reshape the environment so you are the only one adapted to it. That is how you end up in a space where competition is irrelevant and resources are yours alone.

Pronunciation: LIM-uh-nuhl
Meaning: Occupying a position at, or on both sides of, a boundary or threshold.

Use it in a sentence: “I didn’t mean to start a business in an abandoned bowling alley. It just felt like the most liminal place to sell artisanal grilled cheese.”

Find a crowded room in your world. It could be a product category, a type of event, or a way people are solving a problem. Walk out.

Then write down three “nobody’s-here” spots where you could throw your own weird party. Bonus points if your idea feels slightly ridiculous. Slightly ridiculous is a sign you are onto something.