When my sister Narine started her coaching business, she had zero followers.
She's a strength and rehab coach. She can help with knees, backs, shoulders, ankles. She could have talked about all of it.
We picked one thing. Knee pain.
Knees were personal for her. At 30, she hurt her knee doing jiu jitsu. It turned into patellar tendinitis, and it hit at the same time she lost her job.
The pain woke her up at night. She tried chiropractors, creams, rest. Nothing worked. It took her eight months to get out of pain, and a year to get back to martial arts.
Friends and family watched her rebuild and started asking for help. She got certified and took her first client within a week.
She knew knee pain from the inside. So that's where we started with our marketing.
Knee pain, rehab, and strength. Post after post.
In 15 months, she went from zero to 9,500 followers. All organic. No ads.
By the end of year two, she hit six figures. Today she has helped more than 75 people get out of pain.
She started from scratch. What got her there was picking one thing and sticking with it.
Why "Everyone" Feels Safe
When you are building a business, saying no to someone feels risky. I get it. What if the perfect client is a nurse and you're talking to lawyers? What if you pick wrong and the work dries up?
So you keep it wide. You write for everyone. You leave the door open.
But when you talk to everyone, each person has to do extra work to see themselves in your post. Most won't. They scroll.
Think about the last time someone said, "I know a person you should talk to." They said something like, "I know someone who fixes knee pain," or "I know someone who works with moms going back to work."
People remember the specific one. They refer the specific one.
What a Niche Can Be
This is where a lot of people get stuck. They hear "niche" and think they have to pick one industry. Dentists. Real estate agents. Tech founders.
You can do that. But you don't have to.
A niche can be a problem, a moment in someone's life, or a feeling nobody else is naming.
"I help dentists" is a niche.
So is "I help people with knee pain get strong again." And so is "I help coaches who are too busy with clients to market themselves." (That one is mine.)
What matters is that the right person reads it and thinks, "That's me." That feeling is what gets them to read your next post. And the one after that.
How to Find Yours
You don't have to make it up from scratch. The answer is in the work you've done.
Ask yourself three questions.
Who did I love working with? Think of your favorite two or three clients. The ones you looked forward to seeing on your calendar.
Who got the best results? These can be different people. Look for the clients where you saw the biggest change.
What problem did they bring me? Think about what made them reach out to you.
Write the answers down. Look for what repeats.
Not sure yet? Look at the questions people ask you over and over. In your DMs. On calls. At dinner. The problem people keep bringing to you can be your niche. They've picked it for you.
A Niche Is Also What You Leave Out
Narine knows a lot about training. She could have posted about all of it.
Instead, she stuck to rehab and strength, every time.
Each week there was something else she could have talked about. She kept coming back to knees.
That's what makes a niche work. When someone's knee hurts, you want them to think of one name.
Picking a niche means picking what you say yes to. It also means picking what you leave for later.
What Gets Easier Once You Pick
A niche makes your marketing easier to do.
When you write for everyone, every post starts from a blank page. What should I say today? Who is this for? You end up writing general advice because you're afraid of leaving someone out.
When you write for one person, ideas are easier to find. You know what keeps them up at night. You know the questions they ask on your calls. You know the words they use.
Every question a client asks you is a post. Every mistake you see them make is a post.
It helps everywhere else too. Your headline gets clearer. Your website gets clearer. When someone asks what you do at a dinner party, you have an answer that makes them lean in.
Start Narrow, Then Widen
This is the worry I hear the most. If I pick one group, am I stuck there forever?
No.
Narine started with knees. Once she had an audience and a steady flow of clients, we started talking about other areas too. Backs. Shoulders. Ankles.
The lens stayed the same. Rehab and strength. People trusted her on knees, so they trusted her on the rest.
That's the order that works. Get known for one thing first. Then grow from there.
And you can help people outside your niche the whole time. Your niche decides who your marketing talks to. You decide who you work with.
What If I Pick the Wrong One?
Then you change it. You are allowed to test it.
Pick the best answer you have today. Write for that person for a month or two. Watch who replies, who comments, who sends you a message.
If the wrong people show up, adjust. If the right people show up, keep going.
You will learn more from two months of writing to one person than from two years of trying to write to everyone.
And a wrong pick teaches you something too. You find out who you don't want to work with. That's worth knowing.
Try This Week
Go back through your last ten clients. Find the one you'd clone if you could.
Write one post for that one person. Use the words they used when they first came to you.
Then see who answers.
Maybe it's one comment. Maybe it's a message that says, "How did you know?" Either way, you've learned something about who is listening.
If you'd like help figuring out who you're for and what to say to them, that's what I do in strategy work. Book a call here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a niche to grow my coaching business? It helps a lot. A clear niche makes your marketing easier to remember and easier to refer. People are more likely to book a call when they can see you work with people like them.
Is a niche the same as picking an industry? No. You can pick an industry, but you can also pick a problem or a life moment, like knee pain or going back to work. What matters is that the right person reads it and sees themselves.
Will a niche make me lose clients? It tends to bring in more. Your niche shapes who your marketing speaks to. You can work with people outside it too. Many will find you through referrals.
Can I widen my niche later? Yes. Many coaches start with one problem, build an audience, and then add more. The key is to get known for one thing first.
How do I choose a niche as a coach or consultant? Look at your past clients. Ask who you loved working with, who got the best results, and what problem they came to you with. The answer that repeats is a good place to start.
If you want the fuller version of why sounding like yourself matters more than sounding impressive, I wrote about that in Marketing Without Performing.
Want to go deeper into this idea?
Read Marketing Without Performing