31: The Coaching Niche of Least Resistance - On Air Coaching with Ellen Fowler

This episode (show notes here) is an ON AIR Coaching Session where I coach a coach to help them click on the certainty button for a unique target audience and then we formulate their coaching niche.It's clear from reviews that you really like these coach the coach sessions, so it's my goal to do one every month.Ellen Fowler has worked in the field of training, organizational and leadership development for over 25 years. Her experience includes work in the public and private sectors as well as academia.She lived and worked in Ireland for 12 years, so she has firsthand understanding of the challenges of cultural diversity and radical life change. She is also an ordained Christian minister. Ellen's career has always involved working with individuals whether as a counselor, teacher, consultant or coach.When I help coaches choose a profitable coaching niche, I always start by asking about their background so I can guide them to pull in experience, expertise, interests, gifts and passions into their niche.Ellen's background includes:·     Itinerant minister·     Training and organizational & leadership development·     Change & diversity management·     Teaching adults returning to the workplace on how to make their companies more efficientWant to Be An Entrepreneurial Coach?Then, I asked Ellen if she was interested in being an entrepreneur because it's a certain type of person who does.Ellen wants to run her own business because she wants it to be portable so she can travel. However, she feels a bit intimidated by the marketing side of things.I get that. In my own business, I was intimidated by marketing at first but when I learned to put the spotlight on exactly what my target audience wants, it became fun.Two Potential Audiences That Seem EqualEllen had 2 main ideas for her target audience:·     Mid-career professional women·     Church leadersI asked Ellen if it was okay with her if we focused on Church Leaders as a possible target audience first.  I made this choice for 4 reasons:·     Ellen is an ordained minister and much of her career has been as a church leader. I felt that gave her credibility and gravitas with this audience.·     Her faith is very important to her.·     She's currently coaching 10 clergy and staff from a church group in Pennsylvania and getting more referrals from that group. So she already has a toehold there.·     She loves the work she's doing with this audience.Ellen shared that the work she's doing with the Church Leaders is based on an instrument called Human Synergistics that she's certified to use. It helps people identify effective and not so effective behaviors in the workplace and to develop action plans for changing those.Is The Target Audience Viable for You? I also felt that the audience — Mid-career professional women — is not the most viable audience for Ellen because:Learn more about how to succeed with a narrow target audience and niche here.