Should You Wish For a Niche as a Coach?

When I just got started as a coach, the first thing my mentors taught me was to find myself a niche. It's the first step to take if you ask guys like Alex Hormozi , Myles Downey or Christian Mickelsen . However, people like Rich Litvin , Bert Jansen or Steve Chandler will tell you that as a coach you can be there for everyone and niching down would be like putting a limitation on your capabilities and impact on the world.

In the world of coaching, there are two camps and there are valid arguments for both. In this article, I am diving deep into both of these opposite views on coaching through examples of all of the coaches above, as well as share my personal experience in order to inspire other coaches to gain more clarity on their preferred way of working their business.

Alex Hormozi was the first person to teach me about the value of a good offer. In his book 'The $100M+ Offer', Hormozi explains that creating an offer people can not refuse is the number 1 way to sign up more clients for your business. To create a good, irrefutable offer and make more money with it, you need to speak to people's interest directly. In his book, he even goes as far as saying that "riches are in the niches". He gives the example that when creating a general time management course, you could probably sell it for around $19. However, that same time management course, focussed on sales professionals will be able to sell around $99 because it is made for a more specific audience. If you would niche down even further, you could create a time management course for outbound B2B sales reps. You know these people have a bigger budget and value something that is specific to them. This means that same course can now be sold for, let's say, $499. But Hormozi takes it even a step further: a time management course for outbound B2B power tools and gardening sales reps. Now that's specific! If you're a power tools outbound sales rep you would think "wow, this is exactly made for me!". This specific audience would easily pay $4999 for their personal time management course. And so, there is great power in the niche according to Hormozi.

A few months ago I sat down with Myles Downey and recorded an extraordinary podcast episode. During the conversation I asked Downey about his thoughts on creating a niche as a coach. He replied saying "I think focussing on a niche is briljant! To find a niche in which you can operate is a fabulous thing to do." We dove deeper into the topic and Myles explained that when focussing on one group of people it is easier to market yourself, sell yourself, get references, demonstrate that you can make a difference, and more. According to Myles, the topic of a niche has everything to do with the marketing aspect of your coaching business, as well as your personal interests. You can listen to the full conversation (S1EP18) of the Extraordinary Coaches Podcast through my YouTube channel @mickrutjes or on Spotify.

There is a story from Christian Mickelsen that I will remember for ever. During one of his seminars, after the audience just had their lunch break, Mickelsen asked the group "who wants food?" A few people who did not have lunch yet raised their hands. Next he asked "who wants dessert?" As a result of asking that question more people raised their hands. Then he said "who wants chocolate covered strawberries?" Almost everyone raised their hands. To Mickelsen, this was a wonderful example of what happens when you pick a niche - you get to spark people's imagination and actually speak their language.

On the other side of the to niche or not to niche debate we have the group of powerful coaches who say that creating a niche isn't that big of a deal. In one of his articles, Rich Litvin says that when you do not know who your niche is, just coach anyone and everyone. He adds to that by saying that when you go about your coaching practice in this way, you will find out who your dream clients are eventually. This is to say that there is a power in creating a niche, but only for yourself as a coach. In this way, it's more a matter of who you like to work with and focussing on that specific group of that people. Instead of focussing on a niche, Litvin invites you as a coach to focus on a need. He explains that when most coaches focus on a niche, they filter around demographics like the age, the background, and income of people. "The problem with that," he says, "is that this is completely made up." He explains that when somebody outside of that demographic comes along most coaches would say yes to coaching them anyway. Instead, Rich teaches to focus on a psychographic, which is more related to the mindset of the people you're working with.

During the conversation I had with Bert Jansen on the Extraordinary Coaches Podcast, he gave a beautiful example that ties into Rich's way of seeing things. Albert said: "Let's say you decide to coach rodeo clowns only. Then you're on an airport explaining to a potential client you just met what you do for a living and they get completely blown away by the power of your coaching. They immediately want to work with you because they love the conversation so much and want to continue. Then you ask "but, are you a rodeo clown?" If they say no, that means you just lost out on a potential client." You can listen to the full episode of the Extraordinary Coaches Podcast (S1EP13) on YouTube @mickrutjes or Spotify.

The person with the most convincing way of speaking about this matter, in my opinion, is Steve Chandler . He says: “Most coaching 'certification' programs urge novice coaches to find and choose a niche…a specialty! I have never encountered such counter-productive nonsense. Most of the coaches I know who are extremely successful have no niche at all. A niche would limit them! It would shut them off from many categories of people who are yearning for their help. I know coaches who emerge from 'certification' programs crowing about the niche they have chosen. They have no clients, but they have a niche! “I am going to coach rodeo clowns!” I mean, good luck! The only time I see a niche working in a coach’s favor is when it emerges on its own…..if you have a certain success in a certain category (and it can happen by accident) you can now go to other people in that category and they are more likely to listen to your success stories. But even then, you don’t have to let it restrict you.”

When writing this article it only becomes more apparent to me how opposite the views of every party actually is. During my coaching career, I have been in both camps. There were times where I was only working with holistic health professionals like energetic therapists, reiki healers, and akashic record experts because I have a background in spirituality as well (haven't we all ;). This brought me many clients. Later on, I learned that this niche might be limiting me and so I also opened myself up for other coaches and therapists in other fields. I noticed this brought a different type of success and most clients in the holistic health area noticed me less. It felt as though I was losing out on one group and moving onto the next broader group. After that, I abandoned the niche completely and started to look for the people that just excited and inspired me. It turned out that that worked too!

Personally, I am somebody who gets bored very fast. One day I can be super excited about starting project X and the week after I can be completely disgusted by that stupid idea I had the week before. There even was a period in my life where I taught myself to create and finish new things within a week, else I knew I would be too bored to ever look at them again. The same goes for picking a niche. In the beginning of January 2023 I worked with people in the holistic health field, around March that year I started to work with online entrepreneurs who suffered from sleeping problems, around June that year I broadened my niche to coaches and therapists in general, and in August I completely dropped that all together. As I am writing this, it is February 2024 and I am noticing myself working together with a lot of successful entrepreneurs who want to move into the field of coaching and make a bigger impact. Almost to the point where I want to niche down again. This lead me to writing this article.

Finding and creating a niche has both its upsides and down sides. Focussing on one specific group of people will help you a lot with setting up an irrefutable offer and will make your clients feel heard and understood, according to Alex Hormozi , Myles Downey and Christian Mickelsen . However, on the other hand, only targeting a certain set of individuals will put a limit on your coaching potential and restrict you on the long run, according to Rich Litvin , Bert Jansen and Steve Chandler .

What I would say is to find your own way with this. If I can draw one conclusion from the outline above, it's that apparently it does not matter. There are examples of three wonderfully successful coaches and entrepreneurs who have a niche, and examples of three extraordinarily successful coaches and entrepreneurs who don't have a niche. Both of these approaches work and have their challenges. I am a big fan of playfulness and therefore I keep things flexible. I would like to invite you to do the same. You can become a successful coach with or without a niche, so just follow your excitement.

A big thank you to Alex Hormozi , Myles Downey , Christian Mickelsen , Rich Litvin , Bert Jansen and Steve Chandler for inspiring me and helping me to write this article. Every single one of you has had a massive impact on the coach I am today. We're all creating ripples...