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How far down should you niche?

This is a question I hear a LOT, especially from women who are just getting their business off the ground.

I’m sure you’ve heard that “niching” is the key to your success as a business owner…

But if you’re like me (and most people), getting hung up on your niche can actually have the opposite effect, where you get stuck in “analysis paralysis” overthinking this part of your business and end up wasting time or worse, not taking paying clients until you have “clarity”… which doesn’t seem to ever come. 

Here are some common mindset blocks around niching….

• Wanting to serve everyone: “Any person could benefit from my product or service. I don’t want to exclude anyone, so I will just work with EVERYONE. “
• Feeling like you need to choose between two important parts of yourself/your biz: “I love relationship coaching but maybe I need to do purpose coaching, I love both – do I really need to choose?”
• Fear of making the wrong decision so making NO decision: I want to work with women but I honestly have a few male clients I enjoy working with so I don’t want to say I only work with women, so what do I do, gah!

It all comes down to fear around not “doing it wrong.”

But here is the deal – you can not get it wrong!

We get so stuck on trying to figure out how to pick one definitive path that often we stay stuck for weeks or months or even YEARS.

DO NOT DO THAT.

Instead, try these FOUR simple steps to niche down in a way that is simple, effective, and will have your soul-mate clients lining up to work with you. 

TIP #1: Start by using YOURSELF as your ideal client

We naturally attract people that are most like us. And part of being an Aligned Female Entrepreneur is working with people who most need the unique medicine that you ‌ offer… the people who are struggling right now with the things you have learned to overcome. 

I love starting to niche here because you can get really dialed really quick and begin speaking to the hearts and minds of your people because you are going to be speaking to a former version of you.

What do I mean by this?

When I first started health coaching, I knew I wanted to help women have a better relationship with food and their body, and because I struggled with emotional eating and weight loss I wanted to help others do the same.

I also knew when I was looking for help to lose weight and the options on the market sucked – either eat carrot sticks and cottage cheese or just accept your body the way it was. 

I wanted physical results AND to not hate myself as I created those changes. 

I was also a total foodie. 

So I niched down by working with women LIKE ME – women who wanted to lose weight while having a good time and eating amazing food along the way – BOOM – clarity!

When I transitioned my message from a generic health coaching “eat healthy, and thrive” vibe to “have an amazing life and a body to match,” my business exploded. 

People were like YES. I relate to that. I don’t want to obsess about food. I want to obsess about my amazing life! 

And because I was basically talking to the younger “me” that didn’t have the tools to overcome emotional eating and could speak to her fears and dreams and desires, people really felt authentically connected to me.

I wasn’t saying “hey, you should eat more kale because it has folic acid and yaddah yaddah yaddah”… I was filming myself on Instagram like “hey I am REALLY wanting to binge on ice cream right now – the feeling is so intense I want to eat it and I want to eat it ALL then hide the container before my partner gets home… BUT I’m not going to do that, here is what I am going to do instead…” 

People would watch that and feel an instant connection because they could totally RELATE and instantly felt a sense of connection and trust because of it.

THAT is the power of niching.

It wasn’t that I picked a specific demographic – I picked a type of person – (the person I was) and spoke to her so that things started clicking.

This makes all of your copy, products and programs really come ALIVE.

So ask yourself… and I in my head when I am writing content or am I in my heart? Am I speaking directly to someone’s heart or am I on a megaphone just shouting out things to the masses? 

It’s a different energy. 

TIP #2: Niche based on the RESULT, not the demographic

This is a controversial one. People loooooove putting people in boxes and saying “ok work with this age group, with this specific problem, in this category, etc.”

But I actually don’t love this approach. I find that my people are women from their late 20s all the way through their 60s.

I love working with women, or people who identify with feminine principles which is easy because it narrows down ½ the population.  

Most are highly educated but some aren’t, some live in cities, some live in remote regions. 

So instead of getting hung up on the demographic, I speak to my clients and attract them based on the BIG thing they really want, which is to create a profitable, soul-centered business online that gives them the financial freedom to leave their 9-5, set their own schedule, work from anywhere, and make a difference doing it. 

That is a VERY SPECIFIC result. 

So rather than spending time thinking whether you should work with a certain age group or group in your community, think about the END RESULT – what is it that you DO for your people? What is the result that you get for them?

Your niche will be all the people who want THAT SPECIFIC THING. 

So ask yourself: What do all of my people have in common when it comes to the result they desire?

TIP #3: Niche based on the specific PERSON you serve 

So building off of tip #1 and tip #2… don’t focus just on the WHAT – focus on the WHO.

I struggled for YEARS, trying to figure out if I wanted to be a health coach or a business coach. Either ‌felt like cutting off an arm I didn’t want to choose. 

You guys know my mantra is #yestoeverything,.. so eventually I just said F it and did both. 

I worked 1:1 in highly personalized coaching packages to help women create a profitable business while getting into the best shape of their life – mentally, physically, and financially.

And guess what happened when I combined them? 

My business tripled! 

I actually created a very specific niche based on a very specific woman who wanted to create epic results in EVERY area of her life. 

The BEST women came forward who were like “yes I want it all let’s do it!”

I had a client recently who struggled with the same thing. 

She actually stopped working with clients for MONTHS because she was told she needed to choose between being a purpose coach or a relationship coach and she spent so much time and energy ping-ponging back and forth trying to decide – but it was an impossible decision. 

When she finally owned the fact that she is a coach who helps you create greater alignment in all areas of your life, unleash your creativity, align with your purpose, and call in epic love – she started having people come out of the woodwork wanting to work with her again!

So ask yourself:  am I in “either/or” thinking right now? What if I combined BOTH to offer something truly unique to the exact person I want to work with?

TIP #4: cast a wide net, then refine as you go.

When all else fails, start with the one thing you do know for sure, or the few qualities of the person you want to work with.

Start talking to everyone and then notice who signs up. 

Who loves your work who benefits most from it?

I originally was a weight loss coach but realized I loved talking about yogic philosophy and mindfulness practices and the women who had a spiritual practice got life-changing results – the women who just wanted to count calories and get a food plan didn’t. 

So I started sharing that I work with spiritual women who want to lose weight in an aligned way. 

See how easy it can be?

So ask yourself: What do I know for sure?

The truth is, if you are here to do good work on the planet and feel called to be of service in this way then there are people who are currently in this very moment looking for EXACTLY what you have to offer in the way that ONLY YOU can do it. 

You can not mess this up. 

You can not do it wrong. 

Feel into who you are here to help, and look at who most needs what you have. 

Start working with everyone you can when you are starting out so that you can get clear on who benefits most through your work and who you like working with. 

Notice who doesn’t feel aligned. 

For example, if you are not sure if you want to work with men or women, work with 3 of each and then decide from there.

Think you want to have 2 different categories you help people with? Try taking on a client in both or speaking to people who want it all.

And when in doubt, speak to the results you get for your people. It WILL draw people to work with you, even if the only person you have gotten results for is yourself.

Trust you have everything it takes to take the actions necessary to get clear, to gain traction, and keep moving forward.

It doesn’t have to be that hard! Just pick something, try it out, notice the results, and then take the next aligned action.

If you have questions, leave them in the comments on the blog or DM me on Instagram at @xokrissyleonard.

I love you guys, keep going, and I’ll talk to you soon!