We're talking to The Coaching Academy's coaches about their uniquely inspiring niches! Today we talked to Paul Bailey, to discuss his coaching niche as a Gay Confidence Coach- as seen on TV!
I’ve branded myself as the “Gay Confidence Coach”
I didn’t want to have a “Gay” focus on my business initially. But I felt I needed a way to deine what coaching was and be clear on how I could help. I tried to explain to people what I was, what I did and how I did it. After a while, I realised that three words put together helped me say exactly that, Gay, Confidence, Coach.
Firstly as a gay man, and because of the way I brand myself, my clients are mostly gay men too. This allows them to step past feeling like they need to explain parts of their life and so can get to work on things that matter most to them. I’ve always felt drawn to help people with low confidence levels so putting the two together seemed like the natural way forward.
I thought I was going to get a lot of people coming to me with issues of coming out or relationships. But to my surprise about 90% of my clients come to me with work related issues. Mostly around reputation and how to improve their social skills.
Although their confidence grows as we work together, I think the benefit that the client notices the most is the improvement in their interaction with people, and in turn, the way people respond to them. They feel that the people now listen to them, respect their views and trust their judgment.
Unfortunately men don’t often talk about their problems, and they certainly don’t go telling others they are getting help with their confidence- so I don’t get any referrals at all. All my clients come from my website, podcasts and workshops that I run.
My website is the main place I market myself, and linked to that I also have a podcast that is available for download from iTunes. The website often gets interest from the media and I’ve appeared on TV and had articles in the press because of my niche. I have also written two books which helps add to my profile as a coach.
I’ve been running workshops in central London for almost 5 years now- twice a month in central London for small groups of gay men looking to work on their confidence. Some of my clients there have been attending for almost 2 years, on and off.
If you feel like you are excluding too many people from your marketing plan by niching, you’re on the RIGHT TRACK!
If you think you are revealing too much about yourself by niching, you’re on the RIGHT TRACK!
If you can reduce your elevator speech to 5 words or less, you’re on the RIGHT TRACK!
Enjoy!
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