“It just doesn’t get any better than this!” That’s what a former boss used to shout after particularly crazy conference calls at my corporate job. When I think of that now, I realize how lucky I am to have my own business helping coaches and creatives bring their work into the world.
And a huge part of loving what I do is working with my ideal clients.
The benefits of working with your ideal clients. Everybody gets this. They are your ideal clients for goodness sake! However, I’ve seen a tendency in some coaches to shy away from identifying them too specifically.
Maybe you’re not yet clear on who those clients might be (and I’ll be writing about that in an upcoming post.)
But, maybe, you do know. AND you’re a little afraid to niche down and really target them.
What if there just aren’t enough of those kinds of people for me to help? What if I can’t find them?
Fear then can pretend to be confusion. I just don’t know who my ideal clients are, really. I mean, they could be anyone!
And, it can pretend to be magnanimous. I could help so many people. I can help overwhelmed stay at home mothers of small children AND working women who are stressed in their careers too. Well, for that matter, so many men are stressed out too. I could help them too!
Yes, you can help lots of different types of people.
But the more specific you are about who you help, the greater the chance your ideal client will clearly see YOU As the one to help them.
And how do you go about determining who your ideal clients are? Like all the work I do with coaches and creatives, it starts with YOU - recognizing what you do and don’t want. What you like and don’t like.
So let’s take fear out of the equation for now. Ask yourself this:
If you knew you had a never-ending string of people waiting to buy your services, who would you most like to help?
Picture that long list of people waiting, just dying, to work with you. Then, answer the following questions:
Whose name do you most want to see in your inbox asking to buy your coaching program? Describe that person in detail.
Is it a man’s name? A woman’s name? A gender-neutral name?
How old are they?
Keep thinking about who you would really want to sit down and spend an hour sharing your genius with. Then, get even more detailed:
Do you want them to be extroverted or more introverted?
Do you like to meet a video or on the phone? Remember this is about you. If you want to meet on video, your ideal client wants that too.
Are they a planner, or a go-for-it-in-the-moment type?
Do they Get It Off Their Desk or do they Wait to the Last Minute in case something more dazzling floats along?
Are they laser-focused or drawn in by sparkly ideas?
Are they visionary, detail oriented - or bit of both?
Knowing who your ideal clients are, in deep detail, makes you much more effective at attracting exactly the kind of people you want to.
And you want your coaching practice to be filled with people you love to be around, don’t you?
Martha Beck introduced me to the spoon theory. Doing things that energize us, gives us – well, more energy. It also raises our vibration and attracts more of the same. Hanging out with clients that don’t do that, even if they are paying us, drains us, and – attracts more of the same.
Working with our ideal clients lets us be fully, wholly ourselves. We get to bring our gifts and coaching genius to the fore naturally.
And really, how much better does it get than that?
Photo by Jessica Lewis on Unsplash