We sit down to write a LinkedIn post and stare at the blank screen. We know we should be posting regularly, that we need to be visible, that content is important for our coaching business – but we have absolutely no idea what to say.
So we write about coaching.
We talk about the power of asking powerful questions, or the importance of holding space, or how transformational coaching can be. We post it, get some likes from other coaches, and wonder why it never leads to actual clients.
The problem isn’t that we’re bad at writing. The problem is that we have no focus for our content. We don’t know who we’re writing for or what that person needs to hear, so we default to writing about the only thing we’re confident talking about – coaching itself.
The Difference Focus Makes
When you compare LinkedIn posts from coaches with different approaches, the contrast is striking. Some posts talk about coaching questions and leadership concepts in general terms – they could have been written by any coach to any potential client. Other posts speak directly to a specific situation, describing a precise challenge that a particular type of person is facing right now.
One approach is about coaching. The other is about a real problem that real people are experiencing. The difference isn’t just in the writing quality – the difference is in knowing what to say in the first place.
What Changes When You Have a Focus
Coaching Revolution coaches spend the first few months of a programme with us digging deeply into the demographics and psychographics of their chosen niche (target audience or focus – all the same thing). They develop a deep understanding of the problems that the people they want to reach are struggling with, and they create a marketing message that speaks to those problems.
We develop this marketing message as a keynote presentation, referred to as a ‘KNP’, and every coach’s KNP is different. The KNP doesn’t shout ‘buy my coaching!’ or brag about what a wonderful coach we are. Instead, it demonstrates deep understanding and knowledge of the situation in which the potential client finds themselves, and massive empathy for that situation.
The KNP is approximately 3000 words long (and yes, we teach how to use AI to do some of the heavy lifting with this), and those 3000 words become the basis for every single piece of content the coach subsequently creates.
So many of our coaches have told me how relieved they were to finally know what they need to say when they post or write articles, and that contrary to the perceived wisdom within our profession about marketing, it’s actually very enjoyable once you know what you’re talking about.
From Random Posting to Focused Marketing
Before coaches have a clear focus and a developed marketing message, their content creation looks like this: they sit down to write, panic about what to say, write something generic about coaching, post it, get some engagement from other coaches, and feel vaguely disappointed that it didn’t lead anywhere.
After coaches have done the work to develop their KNP, their content creation looks completely different. They sit down to write and they know exactly what to say because they’re drawing from a well-developed understanding of their potential client’s situation. They’re not making it up as they go along or hoping something will resonate. They’re speaking directly to the people they want to reach about the problems those people are actually facing.
The relief is palpable. They’ve moved from consistent yet random posting to focused marketing, and they finally understand what focused marketing actually looks like.
Why It Was So Hard Before
Coaches worry that marketing is about being pushy or boastful. They couldn’t figure out why what they were writing was getting engagement from other coaches but not bringing clients. They were posting regularly, being visible, doing everything they were told to do, and it wasn’t working.
The reason it wasn’t working is that they were posting without purpose. They were creating content in a vacuum, with no clear understanding of who needed to read it or what those people needed to hear. They defaulted to talking about coaching because that’s what they knew, and other coaches engaged with it because other coaches understand coaching language.
But their potential clients scrolled right past because a) none of it spoke to them or their situation and b) it was in coach jargon (I call this ‘coach-speak).
What We Don’t Get Told
Here’s what nobody tells us about knowing what to say – it’s a lot of work to get there. Developing a deep understanding of a target audience, creating a detailed ideal client avatar, building out a comprehensive marketing message – this isn’t something you can knock out in an afternoon.
It takes weeks of focused work to develop a KNP properly. You need to really understand the demographics and psychographics of the people you want to reach. You need to get inside their heads, understand their problems from their perspective, and figure out how to articulate those problems in their language, not yours.
Once you’ve done that work however, content creation becomes exponentially easier. Instead of staring at a blank screen wondering what to say, you’re choosing which aspect of your well-developed marketing message to explore in this particular post. Instead of hoping something will resonate, you know it will resonate because you’ve done the work to understand exactly what your potential client needs to hear.
What Knowing What to Say Actually Means
Knowing what to say doesn’t mean you have a list of generic topic ideas. It means you have a deep, well-developed understanding of a specific person’s situation and can speak to that situation with knowledge, empathy, and authority.
It means when you sit down to write, you’re not asking yourself “what should I post about today?” You’re asking yourself “which aspect of my ideal client’s challenge should I address today?” or “what misconception about their situation should I tackle?” or “what encouraging truth do they need to hear right now?”
That’s a completely different starting point, and it makes content creation feel entirely different. It’s no longer a chore you’re doing because you know you should be visible. It’s a purposeful communication with people you genuinely want to help, about problems you genuinely understand.
It’s A Massive Step Forward
Knowing what to say is a massive step in the right direction for your coaching business. It transforms content creation from a dreaded task you avoid into something that actually serves your business goals. It changes your LinkedIn presence from random posts that get likes from other coaches into focused marketing that attracts interest, and clients.
It’s important to understand that getting to that place requires significant work. You can’t skip the step of choosing a focus, developing your ideal client avatar, and building out your marketing message. You can’t shortcut your way to knowing what to say by copying what other coaches are doing or following generic content templates.
The work is in understanding your ideal client so deeply that you always know what they need to hear. Once you’ve done that work, everything else becomes easier. Your content writes itself because you’re drawing from a deep well of understanding. Your posts resonate because they’re speaking to real problems that real people are experiencing. Your marketing actually works because it’s focused, purposeful, and authentic.
If content creation feels hard, if you’re staring at blank screens wondering what to write, if you’re posting regularly but not seeing results, the problem isn’t that you’re bad at content creation. The problem is that you don’t yet know what to say, and you don’t know what to say because you haven’t done the foundational work of developing a focus and a marketing message.
That work is available to you and it’s work that needs to be done. With that in mind, may I offer you the opportunity to learn – for free – how to choose a focus for your coaching business?
An Opportunity
If you’d like the opportunity for a robust conversation about this – or to just flat-out tell me why I’m wrong – why not join my next free challenge, Nail Your Niche? There’s even an option to upgrade to a VIP version, which gives you 3 x 60-minute group mentoring sessions with me for just £99 (inc VAT) – that provides us with time for a lot of robust conversations!
Are you ready to choose a focus for your coaching business? Register for the next challenge by clicking here.
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