Defining a Niche (Sharon Richmond)

12/01/21 • 35 min

1 Listener

The idea of narrowing the scope of your coaching business to a specific niche can seem a bit scary and counterintuitive. Sharon Richmond, the founder of Leading Large, acknowledges and understands first-hand that fear and hesitation and explains why clarifying a niche is actually expansive, not limiting.

In this episode, densely packed with answers and advice, Melinda and Sharon discuss how to define a niche as well as the benefits of appealing to a specific client base and what Sharon calls “targeting value”. Similar clients have similar pain points, so targeting a particular client base provides opportunities for shared stories and growth for your clients and for your business. It’s not so much about demographics but about common challenges. Sharon recounts her experience of honing in on her coaching niche and the enormous benefits it has brought to both her and her clients.

In this episode we discuss:

Should you define a niche?
How can you determine what your specific niche should be?
Will you lose opportunities and clients?
What about newer coaches just starting out?
How can clarifying a niche help with marketing efforts?

“Mostly what kept me from being able to define a niche is that I wasn’t confident enough or clear enough myself to be able to describe the who and why of my practice.”

“[Narrowing] allows clients to find me and know that I am someone that works with people just like them, and that turns out to be the biggest thing.” – Sharon Richmond

Sharon Richmond

Guest bio: My executive clients are amazing leaders, and are building companies they are proud of. Working with them is my greatest joy, says Sharon Richmond, the founder of Leading Large. Sharon is an executive coach and consultant, leadership expert, course creator, lecturer, speaker, and published author specializing in business-driven change execution.

She is also an MBTI Master Practitioner, known internationally for her work on how MBTI types lead best. She’s certified and works with emotional intelligence tools (EQi, MSCEIT) and has for many years taught leadership at Stanford GSB and Stanford University.

Sharon has 30+ years of partnering with clients to improve their leadership, accelerate change, and achieve their most important goals:

Venture-backed to Fortune 50 companies
Thousands of leaders
Hundreds of teams
Leadership instructor at Stanford GSB & Stanford University
Founding director of Cisco's global Change Center
International speaker
Published author

Resources or websites for this episode:

Mirasee
Coaches Console
Sharon’s website
Sharon’s LinkedIn

Credits:

Guest: Sharon Richmond
Host: Melinda Cohan
Producer: Cynthia Lamb
Executive producer: Danny Iny
Writer: Michi Lantz, Cynthia Lamb, and Melinda Cohan
Assembled by: Michi Lantz
Audio Post Supervisor: Evan Miles, Christopher Martin
Audio Post Production: Post Office Sound
Music soundscape: Chad Michael Snavely

If you don't want to miss future episodes of Just Between Coaches, please subscribe to Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you're listening right now. And if you liked the show, please leave us a starred review. It's the best way to help us get these ideas to more people.

If you have a question for Just Between Coaches, put the show title in the subject line and send it to [email protected]

Music and SFX credits:

•Track Title: Clouds

•Artist Name(s): Acreage

•Writer Name: Marshall Usinger

•Publisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS

•Track Title: Coastline Dream

•Artist Name(s): Wild Sky

•Writer Name: Adam Simons

•Publisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS

•Track Title: Coo Coos

•Artist Name(s): Dresden, The Flamingo

•Writer Name: Matthew Wigton

•Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

•Track Title: Stars & Trees

•Artist Name(s): Outside The Sky

•Writer Name: Dustin Ransom<...

In this episode we discuss:

Should you define a niche?
How can you determine what your specific niche should be?
Will you lose opportunities and clients?
What about newer coaches just starting out?
How can clarifying a niche help with marketing efforts?

“Mostly what kept me from being able to define a niche is that I wasn’t confident enough or clear enough myself to be able to describe the who and why of my practice.”

“[Narrowing] allows clients to find me and know that I am someone that works with people just like them, and that turns out to be the biggest thing.” – Sharon Richmond

Sharon Richmond

Sharon has 30+ years of partnering with clients to improve their leadership, accelerate change, and achieve their most important goals:

Venture-backed to Fortune 50 companies
Thousands of leaders
Hundreds of teams
Leadership instructor at Stanford GSB & Stanford University
Founding director of Cisco's global Change Center
International speaker
Published author

Resources or websites for this episode:

Mirasee
Coaches Console
Sharon’s website
Sharon’s LinkedIn

Credits:

Guest: Sharon Richmond
Host: Melinda Cohan
Producer: Cynthia Lamb
Executive producer: Danny Iny
Writer: Michi Lantz, Cynthia Lamb, and Melinda Cohan
Assembled by: Michi Lantz
Audio Post Supervisor: Evan Miles, Christopher Martin
Audio Post Production: Post Office Sound
Music soundscape: Chad Michael Snavely

If you have a question for Just Between Coaches, put the show title in the subject line and send it to [email protected]

Music and SFX credits:

•Track Title: Clouds

•Artist Name(s): Acreage

•Writer Name: Marshall Usinger

•Publisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS

•Track Title: Coastline Dream

•Artist Name(s): Wild Sky

•Writer Name: Adam Simons

•Publisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS

•Track Title: Coo Coos

•Artist Name(s): Dresden, The Flamingo

•Writer Name: Matthew Wigton

•Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

•Track Title: Stars & Trees

•Artist Name(s): Outside The Sky

•Writer Name: Dustin Ransom<...

Previous Episode

Enhance Your Coaching with Neuroscience (Dr. Eugene Choi)

With four simple steps, you can enhance your coaching and your client’s performance, says Dr. Eugene Choi, the founder of Destiny Hacks. Science shows that at any given moment, your brain is either in an executive state or a survival state. If it’s in the latter, you’re literally not able to think, much less powerfully support your clients.

How can you help your client snap out of the survival state? What does “neuro-hacking” really mean? What are the signs that your client is in a survival state, and what can. you do about it when that happens?

Dr. Choi explains that by the time you're about 35 years old, 90 to 95% of your brain function becomes subconscious. It's on autopilot. And it triggers the survival state, which in turn triggers the fight, flight, or freeze response. Dr. Choi explains that and much more in this episode where he and Melinda talk about how neuroscience enhances performance, in your client and yourself.

In this episode we discuss:

The difference between the executive state and survival state.
The emotions connected to the survival state and how much of our time we spend in that state.
What we are actually trying to survive--physical or emotional danger?
The emotions connected to the executive state, and the actions and behaviors available to you in that state.
The four steps to help you get out of the survival state on a moment-to-moment basis.

“Research shows that by the time you're about 35 years old, more or less, 90 to 95% of your brain becomes subconscious. What does that mean? It's on autopilot. It's programming.” – Eugene Choi

Guest Bio: Dr. Eugene K. Choi, the founder of Destiny Hacks, uses neuroscience and technology to help leaders activate peak performance to boost their critical thinking, decision making, and revenue generation skills. He’s also been an Aces coach at Mirasee.

The most heartbreaking moment for Dr. Choi was when he discovered that 80% of people from all around the world reported hating their work when surveyed anonymously. That’s why he left behind a successful career in healthcare to dedicate his life to showing entrepreneurs how to fully unlock their own potential using neuroscience and technology.

Eugene is a certified transformational mindset coach and a board-certified clinical pharmacist who is on a mission to help talented, heart-driven leaders operate at their highest levels of performance, intelligence, and communication. He firmly believes that, by activating the powerful executive brain, results can be maximized, not just in business leaders, but in humanity as a whole.

With a background in clinical pharmacy, neuroscience, and business coaching, his unique science-backed process helps clients figure out how to dramatically improve performance, innovate dynamic solutions, and achieve their goals.

• Resources or websites mentioned in this episode:

Mirasee
Coaches Console
Eugene’s website
Eugene’s LinkedIn
Eugene’s The Neurohacker podcast
Eugene’s articles on his Medium page

• Credits:

Guest: Eugene Choi
Host: Melinda Cohan
Producer: Cynthia Lamb
Executive producer: Danny Iny
Writer: Michi Lantz and Melinda Cohan
Assembled by: Michi Lantz
Audio Post Supervisor: Evan Miles, Christopher Martin
Audio Post Production: Post Office Sound
Music soundscape: Chad Michael Snavely

If you have a question for Just Between Coaches, put the show title in the subject line and send it to [email protected]

• Music and SFX credits:

•Track Title: Clouds

Artist Name(s): Acreage

Writer Name: Marshall Usinger

Publisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS

•Track Title: Coastline Dream

Artist Name(s): Wild Sky

Writer Name: Adam Simons

Publisher Name: BO...

Next Episode

Presenting: Once Upon a Business

You listen to Just Between Coaches because you want to become the best coach you can be. You want to bravely dive into those tough conversations that others might shy away from.

We love supporting you in that deep dive and exploration. So that’s why we thought you might be interested in a brand new show that just joined the Mirasee FM Podcast Network. It’s called Once Upon a Business and it's hosted by our good friend and colleague Lisa Bloom, the story coach.

In Once Upon a Business Lisa does some deep diving as well. She reaches into a fairy, folk or traditional tale and pulls out the business and growth lessons that you can apply to your own coaching and coaching business.

To give you a taste of the show, we’re running an episode from that podcast right here in your feed. Melinda chose this particular episode because Lisa talks about a common mistake that coaches make when trying to sell their services and what they should do instead. So just keep listening and you'll hear exactly what the new show is all about.

“At a deeper level, people need so much more than they think they want. And so when we combine truth and story, we combine the ability to give people their desire in the moment, and also their deeper need in the longer term.” – Lisa Bloom

Lisa Bloom is a storyteller, author and coach who’s passionate about the art and business of storytelling. She runs a business called ‘Story Coach’ and helps entrepreneurs, business owners & leaders attract & impact ideal clients and grow their business.

After traveling the world and working a variety of jobs, Lisa settled down and created her business: story coaching, developing transformational story leaders & delivering global conference keynotes and workshops. She is also the Director of Mirasee’s ACES Business Acceleration Program.

There’s nothing Lisa loves more than to spend time with her partner & their four sons, walk her dog, travel, read and share stories!

Resources or websites mentioned in this episode:

Credits:

Host: Lisa Bloom
Producer: Cynthia Lamb
Executive producer: Danny Iny
Assembled by: Geoff Govertsen
Audio Post Supervisor: Evan Miles, Christopher Martin
Audio Post Production: Post Office Sound
Music soundscape: Chad Michael Snavely

If you don't want to miss future episodes of Once Upon a Business, please subscribe to Apple podcasts or Spotify or wherever you're listening right now. And if you liked the show, please leave us a starred review. It's the best way to help us get these ideas to more people.

Music credits:

• Track Title: Firestone

Artist Name(s): Pete Stewart

Publisher Name: Chad Michael Snavely

• Track Title: Emeralds

Artist Name(s): Hale

Writer Name: Cory Hale Williams

Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

• Track Title: Places in Dreams

Artist Name(s): Alsever Lake

Writer Name: Adrian Dominic Walther

Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

Episode transcript: Presenting: Once Upon a Business . Coming soon.

[00:00:00] : recently, Mira Asi Hello, I'm Melinda Cohen your host for Just between coaches and I'm here with a special episode. You listen to just between coaches because you want to become the best coach you can be, you want to bravely dive into those tough conversations that others might shy away from. We love supporting you in that deep dive and exploration. So that's why I thought you might be interested in a brand new show that just joined the Mirror CFM podcast network. It's called Once Upon a Business and it's hosted by my good friend and colleague, lisa bloom the story coach and Once Upon a business lisa does some deep diving as well. She reaches into a fairy folk or traditional tail and pulls out the business and growth lessons that you can apply to your own coaching and coaching business to give you a taste of the show. I'm running an episode from that podcast right here in your feed and I chose this particular episode because lisa talks about a common mista...