Recently, I had a Nail Your Niche session with a coach who started our conversation saying she’d been struggling for so long trying to decide whether she wanted to be a Health Coach or a Life Coach.
I said: “You can be both at the same time!” And that freed up her thinking.
Putting a word before ‘Coach’ doesn’t constitute a niche that will help you stand out in the crowd and gain traction fast, which is what a niche is meant to do.
Life coaching is coaching anyone about anything. Do you see how that can’t be a niche?
If you’re a business coach, leadership coach or what have you, you are doing life coaching and that’s because a person’s life is not perfectly segmented out. Everything spills over into all areas.
So, if you want to do life coaching and another track, you can!
Removing mental blocks will help you get out of the box and more specific than a coaching track!
Mental Blocks That Keep Coaches from Smart Niches
So, back to my client who wanted to do both health coaching and life coaching …
Once the mental construct was broken down that was keeping her from, arguably, the most important decision in her coaching business, she could access her zone of genius and we could start brainstorming together.
Realizing that she could include coaching about life issues in her niche, no matter what audience or what specialty she chose, helped her move towards what she really wanted.
Clues from her life story and her work experience helped us to describe an audience she would love to coach and hone in on the BIG problems and BIG goals of that audience that she’d most like to coach around.
We created a truly unique niche for her that no other coach has. And I know that she’ll do the work of building her business now because her niche will motivate her. And that’s a bonus about choosing a smart niche.
8 Typical Misconceptions About Coaching Niches
What about you?
Are there mental blocks in the way of the most important decision for your coaching business?
If so, there’s nothing wrong with you. And it’s worth it to break down those mindsets that are holding you back.
You may not even know that something you’re thinking about niches is in your way of making a strategic decision that’s right for you.
I’m about to share with you 8 typical misconceptions about coaching niches. As I talk about these, listen for what resonates for you. And plan to examine them more closely, either with my help in a Nail Your Niche session or on your own.
The amazing thing is that these mental blocks are about as substantial as a speck of dust. It’s just been magnified in your mind to look like a big boulder that’s in your way.
#1 You think you must be a purist. Not so.
You can blend together many topics into one niche as long as they are all related and highly relevant to your audience.
#2 You think you’re not good enough to coach a certain audience or about certain topics.
If you feel intimidated by a certain audience or topic, there are two possibilities. One, that’s exactly the audience you’re meant to pursue because it’s time for a grand life lesson that you get to learn by serving. Or, there is a similar audience and similar territory that would be better for you and it’s time to get out of the box with your thinking.
#3 You think that you can’t limit the scope of topics you coach around for one audience. Yes, you can!
You get to choose what you do in your business and who you serve. Period. This is your choice. If you want to be a leadership coach and only work with a subset of leaders around a subset of topics, perfect! You can become known for those specialties.
#4 You think you need more certifications, degrees or training to specialize as a coach.
Occasionally, more training would be helpful or necessary but most often, that’s a procrastination technique to put off taking the leap you need to take to be successful as a coach. 😉
#5 You think that the more specific you get about the goals you help clients achieve means you’re promising results.
Listen to Episode #280 called Coach, Are You Worried About Promising Results? You don’t need to worry about this. There are ways to language your offers so you cover specific Big Problems and Desired Outcomes while still making it clear you don’t guarantee results. If your offers are vague or bland, you won’t enroll clients.
#6 You think that the broader your audience and niche, the better off you’ll be.
There is not a marketing expert in the world who would agree with that statement! Limiting the scope of your business is exactly how you’ll be financially successful. The current marketplace is too full of generalists.
#7 You think people know they want coaching. Most don’t.
If you are selling a certain type of coaching and thinking that is a niche, it is not. People seek solutions to BIG problems and are attracted to service providers who speak their language and offer something relevant. Check out Episode #288 called What Inspires People to Invest in Your Coaching?
#8 You think that narrowing your audience will exclude people and that’s a bad thing.
Earning money in any business comes down to making strategic decisions – THIS not that. It is only by narrowing and being specific that you can be smart about your business. Will that leave some people out? Yes. And that’s a good thing because if you are all things to all people, not only will you earn less but you’ll exhaust yourself trying to attract enough clients. You’ll be spread too thin and only able to charge low fees because a lack of specialty doesn’t inspire confidence in prospects.
Please know that having a mental block doesn’t mean anything is wrong with you. You’re human! It just means you need help to perceive those blocks and remove them so you can move forward powerfully.
Let’s get on a Nail Your Niche call so you can remove mental blocks and make a strategic niche decision.