The #1 Magical Thing That Niching Brings!

This week in my Coaching Rocks Bootcamp programme we’re talking about niching.  Now it’s one of those things that people often talk about in terms of marketing but for me it wasn’t just about that.  I’d spent loads of time considering my niche while on my coaching course and I really knew from day one that I wanted to coach Coaches, however I was determined (and I mean really determined) that I was going to go against what everyone else said and not niche.  Part of that was because I wanted to figure it all out along the way but another part of it was that I wanted to go against the norm and run my business my way.  There’s nothing wrong with that but if so many people say it’s a good thing then there must have been something in it, right?

So I looked into it.  It made sense but it wasn’t for me at that point in time!  Fast forward a few months and I signed up to one of Claire Mitchell’s marketing programmes and one of her biggest things is about niching and knowing your ideal client so that you can talk to them directly, so mission started – I explored it yet again.  I spent time, money, effort and energy trying to figure out what my niche was and who my ideal clients were – was it small businesses?  Well maybe, I came from a corporate HR background so yes, that might work but oh I so loved life coaching – what if I just niched as a Life Coach?  What about a Creativity Coach – I like all things creative, or what about a Confidence Coach?  So many ideas, nothing clear.  There are people out there that don’t niche, I reasoned, and they make a success of it too.  The more research I did around niching the more I understood it to help you create a clearer marketing message which is great, but it wasn’t that for me.

So after 20-30 sessions of coaching (yes really) and probably the same in mentoring (yes really) I decided I wouldn’t niche.  And how did that work out for me?  Well it was ok, I attracted enough clients to stay in business but I didn’t know what to write about, to who or any of that jazz.  I had no clarity – and if there’s one thing I absolutely HATE (with screaming capital letters) it’s lack of clarity.  With clarity I’m a whirlwind; nothing stops me.  I’m full of passion and excitement and energy.  I achieve whatever I put my mind to.  But this fog, it was so overwhelming – to niche or not to niche?  Literally day in, day out in my mind, in my conversations, in my sleep!  Until this year.  I made the decision that this year would be different, that I would own what I really wanted to do and coach Coaches.  I was attracting mostly Coaches anyway so surely that made more sense?!  I would pursue my dream of what I really wanted and that was when it happened.  So here it is –

The Number One Magical Thing That Niching Brings is CLARITY!

Woohoo – I got C-L-A-R-I-T-Y

Mahoosive, sparkly, fabulous and oozing amounts of CLARITY – it was one of those TA-DA moments as big as it could possibly be.

But do you  know what happened next?  I started to REALLY love what I do, I started to know what to say at networking meetings, to know how to write to people in my blog posts and newsletters.  I started to support people in ways I just hadn’t been able to do before and my business started to grow. I started to be approached by people to coach them rather than the constant ‘almost begging’ for work.  Yes, it’s helped my marketing message, yes it’s helped me to get in front of my ideal clients and for them to know where to find me, but what I love the most about it is the clarity.  I have my passion, my fire in my belly and excitement each and every day that I have a conversation with a Coach and know I can make a teeny weeny bit of difference to their own journeys!

So niche if you want to, or be stubborn like me and don’t. It’s your business, you have to do what’s right for you, but hey ‘they’ are right – it does make running your business easier.

I just know that if I’d known back then the clarity I would have now, and how much more fabulous each day running my business would be, I’d have niched from day one in a heartbeat!!  So what about you?  Will you niche or not?  I’d love to hear all about it – leave me a comment in the post below.  If you liked the post please share using the share buttons below.

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