Do You Find Your Niche or Does Your Niche Find You?
Figuring out a niche is perhaps one of the most perplexing and nerve-wracking things for a new coach. Some marketing experts will say you choose a niche. Others say to decide on a niche. And still others say you must find your niche.
I’d like to take another perspective here. I’d like to request that you let your niche find you, or that you receive your niche. Unless you are very clear about who you want to coach, it can be premature to decide on a niche as a new coach.
A niche consists of a group of people who have a specific challenge. Having a niche makes marketing your coaching business much easier, so there is great value in having one. Yet many new coaches feel that by having a niche, they will be excluding people who might need their services. In reality, this is not what happens.
When I began coaching, I didn’t know much about niches or ideal clients. I didn’t really make a conscious decision about who I would be coaching. My niche actually found me, and it was a perfect fit.
I began with coaching entrepreneurs. I had been very successful in the Estate Planning field, and had credibility among my peers. So, I contacted the accountants, lawyers and financial planners I knew, and coached them. In my first nine months as a coach, I logged in the required paid hours to apply for my ACC, with entrepreneurs as my informal niche.
There were other coaches around me who had spent those same nine months designing their websites, getting their business plans together, ordering their business cards. And in the meantime, I had a full practice of entrepreneurs.
I attended my first ICF conference in Atlanta that year. One of my colleagues asked me, “If I get a group of new coaches together, would you coach us to do what you’ve done?” Before we left the conference, she had single-handedly enrolled seven other new coaches in my new coaching group!
The group made lots of progress. I realized that I loved coaching the coaches in their practice development. I understood their challenges. I knew how they could overcome them. Yet I was still so new to coaching myself, I was reluctant to claim this niche.
Then, one day I was on a free teleclass with a branding coach who lived in Paris. He offered a free coaching session, and I took him up on the session. I told him of my experiences. He told me that he had never heard anyone so excited about new coaches and encouraged me to pursue this niche.
He requested that I immediately put the title “The Coach for New Coaches” on my signature line of all of my emails. I felt very excited; and also scared at the same time. Who was I to declare this? Yet I did, and it got easier for me to embrace. That was in 2003, and to this day, I am still coaching coaches.
There are so many lessons I learned through this process of receiving my niche. First of all, it is easiest to start with a niche that you know and that you have credibility with. Begin there. Next, once you are coaching, you will receive your niche. Trust your niche to find you. Notice who shows up to be coached. Notice what topics that they are bringing to their sessions. Allow this to happen naturally.
When you do receive your niche; one way to tell that it is truly yours, is that you really love and admire your clients. You feel a bit humbled by being of service to this group. And you know you can help them.
Yours may be a two-step process, like mine. Or you may know your niche right away. Either way, your niche will be helping a specific group of people with a specific challenge. When you get out there and coach and allow this process to happen naturally, you will receive your perfect niche.
Karen Cappello
Karen Cappello, PCC, BCC, is a mentor coach who works with both new and seasoned coaches to support them in growing their businesses. To find out more about Karen, go to http://karencappello.com/. To receive a free mini-course on how to allow your niche to find you, go to www.receiveyourniche.com.
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Karen,
I absolutely love this post. You have identified and fully explained a feeling that has lingered after advisors tell me to find or choose a niche. In the last few weeks, I have taken note of what my clients are asking to be coached on. Your article is a major piece of the puzzle. Thanks for posting.
Thomas Anderson, II
Great post! I’m a new coach, just finished mentor coaching hours. I’m also having a baby any day now so I’m taking things a bit slowly but overall this solidified what I’m feeling about my practice. It needs to have deliverables for the clients but also be aligned with my natural gifts, talents and abilities. Sometimes I try too hard to focus on a niche but this one just sort of saddled up next to me and was waiting for me to take the reins! So I am refocusing energy and think I’m finally narrowing down where I need to go with my coaching once baby comes and I can put some time into it again, in a month or two.
@Thomas, GREAT! I am so happy that you are taking note of your clients and receiving your niche!
@Beth, it’s so important that your niche align with your gifts and talents, and thanks for noticing the one that has saddled up beside you and taking the reins!
Hi Karen. Your words and experience are very resonant for me. So many ‘experts’, in branding, marketing, strategizing,etc. recommend knowing your target audience/niche from the word go. This approach never resonated with me. I felt pressure to be more ‘ready’ than I was because of all the recommendations, but then I stepped back and trusted the process (and myself). I stayed true to the core work I do and that core work helped define my beginning niche. I realize my niche may morph. And probably will. However I know the core work I do will not. Or not much. Everything in life is subject to change, however when you are true to self, the externals align in a way that is fulfilling.
I love this: “When you do receive your niche; one way to tell that it is truly yours, is that you really love and admire your clients. You feel a bit humbled by being of service to this group. And you know you can help them.” Yes!
Thanks again for saying what needs to be heard by those of us who have felt the dissonance with professional others who say that everything needs to be spelled out clearly from the get go if you want success.
Lori
@Lori, YES! Trusting the process is the way to go. I appreciate our resonance! 🙂
Karen
That’s a great post, I am a new coach and I am identifying with all that you are saying. However I am still in the place of really struggling to narrow down or find my target niche. Every time I think about it I go through the fears of missing out on clients by narrowing down. But at the same time I realize the importance of having a target niche market.
@Ghada, I do understand where you’re coming from. The fear sounds like a gremlin that may be keeping you stuck. If it were me, I would talk it over with my coach and see if I could get some movement on it. Maybe that would work for you. Thanks for your courage in sharing this!
Hi Karen, I love this blog. You have, absolutely, answered all my concerns, as I sit (today) attempting to scope my business offering! Thank you!
@Janine, thanks so much for your acknowledgment! Happy scoping!
Carl Jung once wrote ” where you stumble is where you find your gold” which I believe applies to coaching others to survive and thrive during challenges you’ve personally faced. For example, my niche is coaching leaders leading or preparing to lead others during mergers and acquisitions, I’ve experienced the good, bad, and ugly of this specific challenge as a corporate leader, executive coach, and merger & acquisition integration consultant.
So did I find my niche or did it find me? I think I was prepared through personal experience to recognize where I could contribute to others the most effectively, creatively, and authentically with others. And mergers and acquisitions are “high stakes” events to the client (individual or company) so they are willing to investment in getting a better result than going it alone.
Dear Karen,
Thank you very much for your post. I recently became a member of ICF and I am slowly finding my way through all the resources offered by the organization. I would like to thank you for your fantastic post. You explained a lot of the feelings I experienced but could not completely place in my coaching niche. Thank you for this important driver, it certainly allows me to move/jump forward in the coaching world.
I love that Karen. I work with clients a lot on niching and often say that your niche finds you if you step out in faith. This really resonates and helps coaches both new and more established to get through that fear of ‘picking the perfect niche!.’
OK, but what do you do when you know you can coach, have received the feedback and pursued the education, even passed the BCC exam, but those you have successfully worked with don’t have the disposable income to make it happen? I coach in the nonprofit arena and am not an experienced executive, but that’s the only real market around me as I pursue my own business.
Also think it’s kind of different when you are younger and getting into this…not like you have a successful career behind you
Great piece, though. Thoughtful and real
[…] I’d like to share a bit about my coaching journey here. I will tell you a little about iPEC, the certified coaching program I am in (and about to finish!), and I will share what niche(s) I am considering. […]