150: All Coaches in Every Niche Do Life Coaching

This episode is about a mindset shift that could free up mental blocks you might have about choosing or sticking with a specific niche. Find the full transcript for this episode at prosperouscoach.com/150The two concerns I hear most from coaches about choosing a narrow audience and developing a unique niche to serve them are:1.     “But I don't want to exclude anyone.”2.     "But if I limit myself to a particular track — such as career coaching, business coaching or relationship coaching — I won’t get to do life coaching."I’ll talk in another podcast soon about the exclusion worry. Let’s tackle this life coaching concern.Coaching is CoachingFirst, repeat after me … coaching is coaching. The skills of coaching are the same no matter what topic you coach around or target audience you serve.Listening on many levels, asking powerful questions, mirroring what your client said back to them — all those excellent skills and more are the same no matter who you’re coaching or what you’re coaching about.But also, it’s really critical to realize that all coaching IS life coaching.Whether you are a business coach, relationship coach, health coach, career coach or some other fill-in-the-blank coach, you are essentially a life coach.If you’ve chosen a track it’s to help you focus and create a sustainable business. And you might have expertise or experience to apply to that particular territory of life — business, career, relationships or health.All Coaches Should SpecializeBut calling yourself a life coach or specializing in life coaching might not serve you well because it’s non-specific. Life includes everything. Helping everyone about everything might seem wonderful or a relief to you but if you don’t specialize you might seem like a hobbyist rather than a business owner. You might lose credibility.Also, it can affect your income. A few years ago statistics showed that coaches who specialize earn at least 40% more than those that do not.I always encourage coaches towards specificity in everything. The more specific you are in your target audience, niche, messaging and offers the better it will be for you. When you specify everything you’ll find it easier to attract and enroll a client.Why?Because broad language that tries to be all encompassing doesn’t grab attention. Let me illustrate the value of specificity.Which of these messages attracts you more?I help people succeed and be happy.orI help coaches earn more and market less by choosing a highly profitable niche they’ll love.I don’t know any coach who would respond more positively to the first message over the second. That’s because, as a coach, you want certain things, you have certain challenges. And when I speak of those certain things it piques your interest.You want to earn more and market less. And choosing a niche might be the biggest challenge you face at the beginning of your business.The same is true with all messaging and whenever marketing a service like coaching.To read why Life Coaching is the least distinctive and lucrative niche read more here.