Why Going Deeper With Your Niche Creates More Traction — Not Less

When you're building a coaching business, it's easy to start with the obvious.

You look at the problem you want to solve, the people who have that problem, and the category your business fits into.

That can be a good place to start. But sometimes, there's a much more specific group of people you're actually meant to serve.

I was reminded of this during a recent strategy session with a coach who was moving into her own practice after years of working as a therapist.

At first, she told me she wanted to help people with binge eating.

It made sense. She understood the issue deeply, had years of experience working with people, and knew she could help.

But as we talked about her background, her training, and the kind of work she really wanted to do, something more specific came up.

She said:

"I really want to help people who've already been to therapy. They've done the work, they understand themselves — but when therapy ends, they still struggle. They feel like they should be fine, but they're not."

I stopped her there.

That's your niche.

She could have positioned herself around binge eating, like many other coaches do.

But the people she really wanted to work with were further along. They had already been to therapy. They understood their patterns. They had done a lot of the work.

And they were still struggling.

That is a very different place to build a coaching business from.

Therapy Isn't Always the End — Sometimes It's Just the Start

What she described points to a real gap that doesn't get talked about very often.

Therapy can be incredibly valuable. It can help people understand their patterns, process difficult experiences, and develop a much better understanding of themselves.

But finishing therapy doesn't necessarily mean every challenge disappears.

Eventually, the appointments stop and everyday life takes over.

The structure changes. Old habits can come back. And sometimes people are left thinking:

"I understand why I do this. I've done the work. So why am I still struggling?"

That's where her coaching work can be especially useful.

Her role sits alongside the work clients have already done in therapy, helping them take what they've learned and apply it to everyday life.

For someone who has already spent years trying to understand themselves, that can be a very different coaching conversation from starting at the beginning.

And that difference gives her something valuable when it comes to positioning her business:

She knows exactly who she wants to help and where those people are in their journey.

Her Unique Perspective: Therapist-Turned-Coach

This niche also makes sense because of her background.

She has spent years working as a therapist, so she understands what it looks like when someone is trying to understand their patterns and make sense of what's happening in their life.

Now, as a coach, she can bring that experience into a different kind of work.

Her clients aren't coming to her with no understanding of themselves.

They may already know their triggers. They may understand where certain patterns came from. They may have spent years working through them.

What they're looking for now is help with what happens next.

That gives her a very different perspective from someone who simply decides to coach people around binge eating.

And this is where your own experience can become an important part of your niche.

Your niche doesn't always have to come from asking:

"What problem can I solve?"

A better question might be:

"Who am I particularly well equipped to help?"

Your experience, training, past work, and the types of people you naturally connect with can all point you toward a more specific audience.

In her case, the answer became much clearer once we stopped talking about binge eating as the main category and started talking about where her ideal clients were in their journey.

Most Coaches Start With the Problem

A lot of coaching businesses are built around a broad problem.

Someone is struggling with confidence, burnout, relationships, emotional eating, business growth, or something else.

The coach knows how to help, so that becomes the focus of the business.

There's nothing wrong with that.

The problem is that broad categories can become very crowded.

When hundreds of coaches are talking about the same problem, the messaging starts to sound familiar. Everyone is trying to explain the same pain points and promise similar outcomes.

Going deeper gives you another way to position yourself.

Instead of only asking "What problem does my audience have?", you can ask:

"Where are they in their journey?"

That was the important distinction for this coach.

She isn't trying to reach everyone who struggles with binge eating.

She wants to work with people who have already taken action.

They've been to therapy.
They understand themselves better.
They've probably tried different approaches.

And yet, they still feel stuck in certain patterns.

That gives her a much more specific conversation to have with them.

Why going deeper can help your business

This is one of the biggest benefits of going deeper with your niche.

You don't necessarily need to find a completely untouched market.

You need to find a part of the market where your experience and perspective are particularly relevant.

Finding Your People Means Knowing Where to Look

Once you get more specific about your niche, your visibility strategy can change too.

If you're trying to reach everyone with a particular problem, you'll probably end up looking in all the obvious places.

But when you know exactly who you want to reach, you can ask a much more useful question:

Where are these people already spending time?

For this coach, her ideal clients aren't simply people looking for help with binge eating.

They're people who have already been to therapy and have done a lot of work on themselves.

That gives her a much clearer idea of where to look.

She could explore podcasts and communities around long-term recovery, personal growth, and life after therapy. She could connect with therapists and other professionals who work with people earlier in the process. She could look at workshops, programs, and communities where people are already talking about maintaining progress and dealing with challenges that come up later.

The point isn't to create a giant list of places to market yourself.

It's to understand where your specific audience already goes for information, support, and connection.

That can completely change the way you approach visibility.

Instead of trying to show up everywhere, you can focus on a smaller number of places where the people you want to work with are already paying attention.

Your content can become more specific too.

Compare these two messages:

The second one speaks to a much more specific person.

If that person has experienced exactly that, they're much more likely to stop and read.

That's the power of going deeper.

The Right Niche Usually Isn't the Loudest One

I think this is where many coaches get stuck.

They look at a more specific niche and immediately think:

"But there are fewer people in that market."

That may be true.

But fewer potential clients doesn't automatically mean fewer opportunities.

If your message is so broad that nobody feels like you're talking directly to them, having a huge potential audience doesn't help much.

A smaller audience that immediately understands what you do can be much more useful.

The niche you're looking for may also be hiding in places you haven't considered.

It could come from:

• The clients you've enjoyed working with most
• A problem you understand particularly well
• Your previous career or professional experience
• A type of client who keeps coming back to you
• A question people regularly ask you
• A part of your work you find yourself talking about over and over again

That's why I wouldn't start with, "What niche should I choose?"

I'd start with:

"Who do I understand really well, and what do they need from me that they may not be getting somewhere else?"

That question can lead you to a much stronger niche than simply picking a broad category because it seems popular or profitable.

Your Niche Doesn't Have to Be Bigger. It Has to Be Clearer.

If your current niche feels "fine" but you've never been particularly excited about it, it might be worth looking at it again.

You may not need a completely new business.

You may just need to get more specific about who you want to help.

Think about the people you've worked with who made you think, "I really understand this person. I know how I can help them."

What did they have in common?
Where were they in their journey?
What had they already tried?
What were they struggling with that other people in your industry weren't really talking about?

Those questions can help you find the layer underneath your current niche.

And sometimes, that's where the most interesting opportunity is.

Going deeper with your niche doesn't mean you have to stay in that exact position forever. It simply gives your business a clearer place to start.

It helps you create better content, shape a more relevant offer, and spend your time getting in front of people who are actually looking for what you do.

Most importantly, it gives the right person a reason to think:

"She gets where I am."

That kind of connection is hard to create when your message is trying to speak to everyone.

Ready to Take a Closer Look at Your Niche?

If your niche feels a little too broad, or you know there's something more specific you could be known for, this is worth exploring.

That's exactly the kind of conversation we can have in a 1:1 strategy session.

We'll look at your experience, your current offer, the people you want to work with, and what might be missing from the way you're positioning your business.

You may not need to change everything.

You may just need to find the part that makes your business more distinctly yours.

Let's look at what you're building, figure out where you can go deeper, and create a clearer path forward.