In Part II we talked about the importance of choosing one transformation.
In this blog post, it’s time to talk about the flip side of your niche, which is your client avatar.
Who specifically are you providing this transformation for?
First, I’m going to show you why niche is a little more complicated than you might think.
And then I’m going to show you how choosing the right niche can mean a 100x difference in what you’re able to charge from the same amount of time.
Let’s dive in.
So if I were to ask you who your client avatar is, what would you say?
In my experience, a lot of coaches only have a vague idea of who they serve.
Maybe you help mothers lose a bunch of weight.
So you think: Okay, my client avatar is mothers.
But is that true?
Years ago I was a general business coach. And it was downright exhausting.
I saw myself as a coach for all business owners. But in reality I didn’t have the excitement or energy to help both a chiropractor and parts equipment manufacturer grow their business.
Yes, they’re both business owners. But their needs are very different.
It was too much. Trying to be a business coach for all businesses was hard to sell, hard to be exceptional, and it hurt my confidence.
Going back to the mom example.
Do you really help ALL mothers?
What if your work integrates a lot of spiritual aspects, but someone’s an atheist and devoted pessimist?
Okay, so maybe not them.
And what if you really prefer working with 40 to 50 year olds, specifically, rather than millenials? Okay so not them either.
Are you starting to see why just saying something general like “mothers” as your avatar is too vague?
Now I’m not saying being general can’t work.
But I am saying if you stay general, you’re signing up for a more difficult and painful coaching business journey. Keep that in mind.
“Instead of trying to reach everyone, we should seek to reach the smallest viable audience and delight them so thoughtfully and fully that they tell others.” — Seth Godin
If you want to make your life easier and want to make a good living as a coach, there’s something else you should consider when choosing your "who."
Let’s say you’re a relationship coach. For sake of simplicity, we’ll keep the transformation you provide the same (since we covered that in Part II)
For now, we’ll work only on the avatar side of the equation.
So if you’re promising generic marriage advice, you can probably charge around $100 per coaching session.
Let’s add in an avatar. If you focus on helping women transform their marriages, you could likely sell $1,000 coaching packages.
Now let’s see what happens when you go one level more specific
If you focus on helping corporate women transform their marriages, you could charge $5,000 per coaching package. That type of client has money to invest and the willingness to do so.
But we can go further.
Let’s say you focus on helping female tech executives transform their marriages.
A well-functioning and loving home environment is priceless. And for a rising tech executive that stable home life might mean they’re able to show up as their best self at work and be 20% more productive.
That extra productivity could lead to a major salary bump or even a promotion into the coveted C-suite. To an executive that might mean an additional $60K or more per year, or $300K over 5 years. Your $20,000 coaching package would be reasonable in comparison.
In all these cases, notice how the actual coaching process could be fundamentally the same. You’re helping someone transform their marriage.
But it’s an extremely different result for your business.
At the $20,000 price point, you can wow your clients with an exceptional experience.
At the $100 price point, you’re forced to cram your calendar with as many clients as you can. You barely remember who anyone is.
Just from tweaking the “who” side of the equation, you go from earning $100 to $20,000 per client.
That’s the 200x difference that choosing the right avatar can make.
In the next blog post, I’ll show you how to take your transformation and avatar and leverage them so you stand out in the increasingly crowded coaching industry.
But for now, take a moment and think about how you can go through the same exercise above to get specific about the type of clients you’d like to work with.
With love & joy,
