Steve Mitten,
MCC, Past ICF President and Marketing Guru (www.acoach4u.com/ ), says there is no end to coaching niches. Coaching is such a young profession that new applications are being invented all the time.
What is important is that coaches choose to focus on groups that they are attracted to, that can afford their services, where the coach has credibility and where people who are open to experience the benefits of coaching. It is also important that the coach's target niche appreciate the coaching service's unique marketable attributes, those things that better qualify the coach for this type of coaching, and set him or her apart from other coaches.
Coach Mitten thinks it is a good idea for coaches to explore niches, but don't throw all your energy into one until you know there is enough depth in the niche to support you. Your niche or niches will emerge from both the branding work you do, and just by noticing who shows up in your practice. Pay attention to the type of coaching and clients that make you feel more fully alive.
John Agno, Certified Executive & Business Coach (www.MENTORINGandCOACHING.com), discovered that he was attracting many executive women as clients. To expand upon this coaching niche, he also decided to partner with Barb McEwen, Master Business Coach of 20/20 Executive Coaching (www.2020ExecutiveCoaching.com), to provide a women-only newsletter and teleseminars that deliver valuable knowledge and guide executive women to success.
So what is professional coaching and how does it differ from consulting?
Download and listen to this MP3 recording of a recent interview of Coach Agno for the answer to that question.
On Sunday, February 10th, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported that an innovative cottage industry is sprouting for people new to gardening or hoping to enrich their crop or flower growing skills. It's called garden coaching and it's a customized kind of training people can apply immediately to their yards, their lifestyles or the family diet.
Practitioners vary from people with academic training to those whose skills are on display from the sidewalk. "Most people new to gardening start by doing everything wrong," said Susan Harris, a garden writer and coach from Takoma Park, MD. "What that does to their confidence level can set them back a decade." Garden coaches are there to guide the gardener; from novice beginners to skilled master gardeners moving into wow-territory. Rates vary from $35 to more than $125 an hour.
Be it gardening, life, business, leadership, ADD or health issues, coaches are filling an apparent void. That familiar trickle-down method of learning from relatives, mentors or friends appears to be a fast-fading tradition for new generations at work, at home or in the garden. The bottom-line is coaching works and is being applied throughout society to help perceptions to evolve.
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