16: Why Not Coach People Like You? with Casey Onder

In this episode, I'm doing another ON AIR COACHING Session (where I coach the coach) with Casey Onder. We're going to determine her ideal target audience for her coaching business.A Better Definition of SuccessCasey is an industrial organizational pyschologist by training. A year ago she left a job in leadership consulting to pursue a career as a coach. Her life's work from here on has to do with reforming what success and work could look like in the US because she's done a lot of traveling and seen how different it can be in other countries.Too Many Ideas = StucknessWhen choosing a target audience it really helps to eliminate as many choices as possible so there's just one or two left to discuss and then only one to refine.Casey came to our session feeling like she had a bunch of disparate ideas about potential target audiences for her coaching business. She is interested in people who are in a similar state that she was in career-wise —" hating what you're doing and knowing that it is not you." These people have invested so much time and money learning to do one thing, Now they feel stuck there.Another idea Casey has was to work with, what she called thinkers. The technical people. Similarly things haven't fallen into place for those people. They are either overworking or want to make a switch.They have lost themselves in demanding occupations, feeling like they sold out for what they thought success was in the past.Casey had several concerns about this group so it was easy to just take this option off the short list.Casey also is interested in women who are very bright. Again they are following a prescribed notion of success in their career.I suggested that her audience could include this group by simply using the word 'women' in her audience description. And we'll pull in how bright they are another way.Teasing Out the Common ThemesAs Casey spoke, what seemed like a big ball of confusing ideas to her, emerged as a set of strong themes to me.I could see a way that she could pull those themes together into one audience.What really jumped out was the idea of people feeling burdened by their professional career choice. And Casey affirmed that.Casey's Coaching Audience DiscoveredPrior to our session Casey had sent me answers to a few questions. In those answers were clues.I mentioned the phrase "high achievers" to Casey. And also the idea of "people who come from successful families" where there's an assumption they will go into a professional career track. I asked Casey if she comes from a family like that. And she said she did.So when I strung that altogether as a potential audience for Casey — high achieving women from ambitious families — and asked her what she thought of working with that group, she said:Oh yeah, I would love to work with that group!You can see how it would really help to clear the clutter in YOUR mind with my help. Grab a Strategy Session with me as a first step and let's put you onto a success path with confidence.Refining the AudienceIsn't it great that as coaches we can develop a business that serves people like ourselves?Casey said that these people would be in a relatively prestigious role. So we discussed doctors, lawyers and other types of professionals.... Find more about refining your coaching audience here.