The Health Coach Sales Lab

Do You Really Need a Niche?

• Jamie Jones

Share episode

Niching isn't about boxing yourself in or limiting your audience—it's about giving your business shape and direction. Your niche provides structure to your message and content, making it easier for potential clients to understand how you can help them solve their problems.

• A niche consists of the problem you solve, the person you solve it for, and your unique approach to the solution
• Many coaches get stuck thinking visibility is the issue when their message lacks clarity and direction
• Your niche should feel like a container you can grow in, not a corner you're trapped in
• Popular health coaching niches include hormone balance, gut health, energy optimization, and nervous system regulation, autoimmune support, blood sugar management, and weight loss resistance are also valuable niches
• Choose a niche based on patterns you see, problems you've overcome, or areas you're passionate about
• You don't need to commit to one niche forever—you just need enough direction to create coherent content

Join our Facebook group at jamiesgroup.com to discuss finding your niche and get personalized advice.

Join us in the Facebook Group: www.jamiesgroup.com

Follow me on Instagram here.

Join us in the Content Club here!

Speaker 1:

Hello everyone. It's Jamie here, welcome back. This week we are going to be talking about niches. Do you really need one? The big question I get asked so often, and I'd love to talk about this and we're even going to talk about, you know, some of the popular niches in the industry at the end. So if you have been wrestling with this, hopefully this will be helpful for you. And if you're a health coach trying to grow your business and you just haven't figured this out yet, if you haven't landed on a niche, then it could be just because you have been looking at it maybe in a different way.

Speaker 1:

A lot of times, when I hear about what people think about niching, they always think that it boxes them in or it takes a huge group of people out of the mix, and it can feel that way. But I want to talk about it in a way today that just may feel a little different. So let's just say this up front I really do think you need a niche, and it's not to box yourself in and it's definitely not to cut yourself off, like in any kind of creative way or with the range of people you want to work with, but I think it's because your niche is what gives your business a shape, and so I think that's a really cool way to look at it. It gives your message a structure, it gives your content a backbone, and without that, everything just kind of stays a little bit floaty and a little too vague to convert and also just a little too general, honestly, and too general to lead in a direction, if that makes sense. So what we're really talking about here is direction, and so if you think about a niche as a direction, then maybe that'll shift those thoughts around for you, because that's really what a niche gives you. It gives your message direction, your content direction. It gives how people understand your direction and how they position you in their mind of what you can do for them.

Speaker 1:

But what I want you to hear the most is that your niche is not just your ideal client, it's not just a cute one-liner, it's not a worksheet you fill out once and then you forget about. I've done that a million times. It's not something you pick out because somebody told you that you know gut health or hormone health or whatever is the hottest topic right now, or you know that cycle syncing gets lots of clicks and lots of engagement. Your niche is your focus and your niche is your solution. It's your point of view on the kind of work that you want to do and also the outcome that you're helping someone create. So that's what your niche is and, yes, I do think even if that niche is something you know that feels a little broad, it doesn't have to be super specific just yet, because you're going to figure that out, and something broad could just be like your niche could be helping people return to health.

Speaker 1:

That can be a niche, as long as it's not vague. That's not vague. It has to mean something. A return to health means something and it has to point somewhere. It needs that structure, that process, that container, that clear outcome, and a return to health is all of those things. And that does encompass a lot of people, because a lot of people are off track and you can help them get back on track and it requires support sometimes and that's what you do. So I would even say you know that's a great niche helping people return to health, back on track, coach.

Speaker 1:

But you know a niche is made up of three things the problem you solve, the person you solve it for, and then your unique lens, like the way you approach the solution, and you don't need all three to be perfectly polished today, but you do need to know what that is like, what that frame is, because when people say you need to niche down, what they really mean is you need to pick something that people can understand, that they can connect with and that then they can trust you to help them solve. And that's what's important. And I firmly think that this is where so many coaches get stuck. They think that the problem is visibility, they think that the problem is engagement, and really the root issue is that their niche just hasn't been clarified enough to carry the weight of a real message. And you can create great content all day long, but if it doesn't have direction, it's not going to lead anywhere, it's not going to do its job, and then you won't be able to do your job because you don't have clients, and that is a bummer. We don't want that. So if you're listening to this and you're thinking, okay, I hear you. I see this differently now. I want to pick a niche, but I'm still not sure where to start.

Speaker 1:

I just want to give you some examples of some functional health niches that are both needed and profitable and clear and also leave room for your voice and your creativity. So let's chat about a couple of those. So number one is hormone balance and cycle health. You could help people women in their 30s regulate irregular periods or reduce PMS symptoms, better understand their cycle so that they can work with their body and not against it. You can also go the opposite route, which is helping people in perimenopause and going into menopause. There's a very wide hormone balance range of what you can do. So that's a big one and, honestly, it's something that women walk through basically their entire lives. Right, we have the beginning of our lives when we're younger, and then our hormones start changing as we hit the double digits and then we're going into that stage and then we're in the childbearing years and then we're in perimenopause and then we're in middle. We are going through it our whole lives, it feels like. So that is a big one. Number two is gut health. You could support clients with bloating or digestion or identifying food triggers and lifestyle triggers and creating gut-friendly routines that support their digestion and so many things, and that is another big problem that a lot of people deal with and you could go more into, even like SIBO and um, you know all kinds of things, so lots to do there as well.

Speaker 1:

Number three is energy. You know working busy professionals who wake up super tired. Everyone's crashing mid-afternoon. They just feel like they're dragging all day Uh're not sleeping well, their blood sugar is wonky, they aren't eating enough. There's so many things in the energy thing as well, and that is also another big problem that a lot of people deal with, a lot of people in all areas of life. Number four is nervous system regulation. So this is I see this one so much like all over the internet uh, because it's so important. But we could help overwhelmed people, you know, learn how to regulate their nervous system. Uh, build stress, um, resilience, excuse me. Uh, shift out of that constant fight or flight mode and that's just helping them by, you know, giving them repeatable tools they can use every day. Some somatic stuff, daily habit changes, all kinds of things like that.

Speaker 1:

Next is autoimmune stuff. So this usually is for someone who's already dealt with it. They feel passionate about it, they've walked through it before, so they'll start helping people with their specific autoimmune issue as well. And there's so many of them, so it could be anything like for example, I have thyroid problems. So I've thought about that as well. I think that they're healed now, which is amazing. But I've been dealing with those for a few years and I've so many times thought that that would be a great niche for me, because it's something really close to me, it's something I've walked through and people really notice that and they want to know what you did to get where you are, and then they want to get there too, right. So that's always a great niche to pick if you have that sort of story for yourself.

Speaker 1:

But we do have to be careful with what we say about, you know, the sort of more heavy health problems like autoimmune disorders and stuff like that. We want to make sure that we're staying in our scope of practice, but there is so much that we can say just about living a healthier life and you know those things do improve when we do that. So, anyway, just my little disclaimer to be careful with that and really be careful with anything you say. Next is blood sugar and metabolic function, another huge one. Like, if you live in America, you know that we in general are incredibly unhealthy and that falls under the blood sugar and the metabolic function, and so I guarantee you that millions and millions, probably billions of people need help with this, especially worldwide and you are worldwide when you are on the internet, right? So this can be insulin resistance, it could be balancing blood sugar, it could be so many things, but this is a really important part of health and if this is out of whack and this isn't going well, then it's really hard to be healthy otherwise. So this is a really good foundational thing to focus on.

Speaker 1:

And lastly, is weight loss resistance and I think that weight loss is a dirty word in the health coaching industry, but I think it's a mistake. I think that, if you, I think that we've kind of decided that it's a bad word. But the truth is that a lot of people need to lose weight to be healthier and of course, we want them to do that in a healthy way and of course we want them to have a healthy relationship with their bodies and with their food and with everything in their life. But you can be the support for that, you can model that behavior and they could see for the first time maybe, that oh okay, I can lose weight without it being super strict or super restrictive or super unhealthy for me and I fail right away because it doesn't, it's not sustainable, and I gain it right back and it's just this constant cycle of failure and so I never even try because it's never worked for me. Like you could be the first person in their lives that showed them otherwise.

Speaker 1:

Like I have that coach and that happened to me, um, and maybe I'll have her on one day and we'll talk about that story and I'll talk more in depth about that, because I really think it's important to talk more about weight loss as a health coach. Um, because so very many people need it and I think that we avoid it because we don't want to hurt feelings or we don't want to. You know, there could be so many reasons and maybe I'll save that for that episode, but I think that this is a really important niche and I think that it is untapped from what I've seen in the health coaching industry over the 13 years I've been here. So, and I also think that if you go out there and ask, you know, pull your audience, pull everyone on your Facebook and those are probably just your friends and family or whatever like, go into a Facebook group with tons of people and ask them what is the number one thing that you want in your health, I guarantee you almost every single reply would be they want to lose weight and keep it off, but we don't talk about it, and so, anyway, I could go on a rampage about that, but maybe I will at a different time. So, anyway, I just wanted to end with that niche because I think it's really important.

Speaker 1:

So each of those is a niche and each of those could, you know, hold its own message, its own audience, its own offer suite, like all the offers you could offer people, like programs, guides, all that kind of thing, but none of those are narrowing in a limiting way. Like I just told you, those encompass almost everyone I can think of, so, but it is specific, it gives you a direction, and that's the nuance I want you to take with you today. I hope all that makes sense, and so your niche should just feel like a container you can grow in, not a corner you're trapped in, and so I want you to think about it like that. So how do you pick one? And we'll end with that. This is just my advice.

Speaker 1:

There are so many ways to do it and, of course, you know yourself best, but I think you should start with what you see the most often Like of the things I just said. Did any of them stick out to you? Are you, do you have a lot of feelings about any of them? Have you walked that path yourself? What's the pattern in the people who come to you? What are they struggling with that you can speak to? You know without hesitation that you could just go on and on and on about what result are you actually built to help someone get, not just with your tools, but with your teaching style, your energy, your beliefs.

Speaker 1:

And when you find that that's your lane, and if you are still in the early stages, or if you are pivoting and you don't really know what to do yet, or you're not feeling ready to commit to one thing forever, that is totally okay.

Speaker 1:

You don't need to marry your niche, but you do need to pick a direction that makes your content coherent and your offer believable and tangible and go from there. That's the only way you're going to find out is you try it out and you see what you enjoy, and maybe you shift some things around and that changes, but that is okay. So I would love to hear, if you're in the stage right now, what you're thinking what niche you're leading towards. If we can help you decide, we would love to do that. Hop in the Facebook group and we can chat there about it. The link is in the show notes here, but if you go to jamiesgroupcom it'll take you there and we would love to talk to you there. So I will wrap up by saying, yes, I think you do need in, you do need a niche, and that's what turns a coach into a business. I truly believe that. So let's talk more about that in the group and I will see you there. I will also see you next week.