To The Coaches Who Think They Need To Automate Their Business...

One big problem I see is coaches who are focused on hiring marketing teams, sales reps, and coaches so they can remove themselves from their business.

The underlying problem? They aren’t excited about their niche anymore.

What if - instead of focusing on removing themselves from their business - they just pivoted to a new niche that excited them - so that they didn’t feel the need to escape?

Many people will say that I’m wrong, and systemizing your business is the answer.

And - obviously - in many cases that’s true.

Just look at any great business in the world and you’ll see systemization on a major scale.

But what I'm talking about is different here. I'm talking about getting the business into alignment BEFORE you scale.

I've personally spoken with coaches doing multiple 6 and even 7 figures who are heavily trying to automate their business so they can step out and coach in a new niche entirely.

What if they'd gotten their niche right on the first try?

If you look at someone like Tony Robbins or Brendon Burchard, they have a lot of employees, and have systemized in order to scale.

But, notice that they're still very present in their businesses. In a big way.

They aren't trying to escape.

They systemized so that they can focus on the parts that they're great at.

There's a difference between automating when you love your business so you can focus on your zone of genius...

And automating because you don't enjoy your business and want to remove yourself from it.

The first decision they made - the niche they wanted to coach in - they got right.

This ensured that they had continued excitement for what they do - over decades.

Then they applied systems on top of that, and BOOM. Look at where they are now.

Think about whatever gurus you admire - and I’d bet they did the same thing.

This post is all about helping you make sure you choose the right niche too - so you don’t:

Hit a dead end…

Lose your excitement, and …

Spend a ton of time trying to “systemize your way out” of your business (so you can go do the thing you love and should have done from the start).

This is a problem I know well, having started a house flipping business and scaling it to 7 figures per year, running that business for the better part of a decade and hiring & managing 8 team members.

I was heavy into systems and processes in that business - because I didn’t like it and was constantly trying to remove myself.

When I started coaching (in the real estate investing space) I did the exact same thing. I focused on hiring and systemizing everything so that I could build a “hands-off” business.

It wasn’t until I got really honest about what I wanted to be doing - then rebuilt my entire business to the place it is now - that I no longer had the desire to remove myself anymore.

I know I want to grow in this space for the next 10, 20, even 30 years.

So, let’s spend some time talking about how you can avoid 11 years of being in the wrong businesses (like I was) and really NAIL the niche decision from the get-go, shall we?

There's no exact science to this, but I do have a method for getting as close as you possibly can.

Here's my step process for defining your dream niche:

1) Make a list of the topics that excite you the most.

What type of podcasts do you listen to when you go on a walk or a drive?

What type of non-fiction books do you read while on vacation?

What topics do you find yourself wanting to talk about when you're in conversation with someone?

What would you love to teach to others (even if you feel underqualified in that area)?

For example, your list might start out looking like this:

-Mindset
-Personal Development
-Marketing
-Sales
-Nutrition
-Exercise
-Business
-Spirituality

2) Now, assign a score of 1 to 10 to each topic on your list, in 2 areas:

a) level of excitement for it, and

b) level of confidence in teaching it

For example:

-Mindset (excitement = 10, confidence = 8)
-Personal Development (excitement = 10, confidence = 7)
-Business structure (excitement = 6, confidence = 6)
-Sales (excitement = 7, confidence = 6)
-Nutrition (excitement = 7, confidence = 9)
-Exercise (excitement = 7, confidence = 7)
-Marketing (excitement = 10, confidence = 8)
-Spirituality (excitement = 8, confidence = 8)

3) Take your top 2 highest scoring answers, and brainstorm on different ways you could authentically teach in that niche, using your current skills & experience:

(Note: the purpose of this step is just to get your brain turning on how this niche pivot could be possible for you. I've seen a lot of people hit a mental roadblock here, saying things like "Well I don't know what I would teach". Doing a brain dump on different things you could teach (within your dream niche) is a way to overcome that block by starting to see the possibilities.

For example:

Marketing

- I could help people write really good emails that convert.

- I could help people identify the type of marketing they would actually enjoy and could do with consistency and longevity.

- I could help people start their first podcast.

- I could help people learn to write copy that cuts through all the noise.

Mindset

- I could help people overcome the fear of delegating things in their business.

- I could help people get out of their heads when exercising so they can take their fitness to a completely new level

- I could help people connect with their heart and start getting the real answers to the direction they should take their life

- I could help people get over the fear of posting on their social media profiles so they can start making the impact they crave.

4) Repeat step #2 (the scoring of a) excitement and b) confidence) for each of your ideas.

5) Make your final decision on the niche that would be best for you moving forward. Really FEEL into the decision.

Your heart (or gut, or body, or intuition, whichever you prefer) knows the answer.

Your head is often just a negative voice that stands in between you and your heart.

Try to get into your body and FEEL what the best path is for you.

(Note that we haven't talked about ideal client here, which is why I just used "people" for the examples above.)

Choosing your ideal niche is one critical piece that fits together with choosing your ideal client. When you combine those with an exciting, authentic offer to sell, and marketing that you enjoy and can do with consistency and longevity….

Then you will have all the building blocks of a fully aligned coaching business that you can excitedly scale to the moon and back :)

When you align with your ideal niche, you will all of the sudden begin to feel a sense of excitement and anticipation when you look at your schedule - the one that is full of marketing, sales, and fulfillment type activities.

Deciding what niche you will pivot to can be done in as little as 1-2 weeks. The actual pivot can happen in 1-3 months, all depending on your situation.

But you’ve got to want it bad enough, first.

Realigning your niche is one of the things I address in my 6 week 1:1 program that takes coaches & experts who feel out of alignment with their business and rebuilds their business so that they are completely aligned with the right client, niche, and offer for them.

I also address choosing the marketing strategy you're going to have the most fun with, and structuring your pricing & delivery model so the business can provide you the income you desire in the hours you want to work.

If you're interested, shoot me a DM and we can have a chat over Messenger to see if it makes sense for you or not.