So far this month, the coaches in our community have had a lot to celebrate, and what is striking about these successes is that they are not random.
One coach went on holiday and received an inbound enquiry on LinkedIn while she was there. Someone was asking to work with her, which is exactly the kind of enquiry that starts to happen when a coach’s focus, content and visibility are clear enough for the right people to recognise themselves in what she says.
Another coach has just onboarded her 21st client since joining The Coaching Revolution. One of our newer clients, who has only been with us for a few weeks, received a LinkedIn DM at 4am from someone enquiring about working with him. He was absolutely delighted, and rightly so, because once we can articulate the value of coaching in a way that non-coaches can assimilate, everything starts to change.
We have also had a coach recommend me as a presenter for a session with her ICF chapter after she engaged five new clients in her first three months with us. Another coach has just completed her first year in our community and wrote a post reflecting on her experience. What she feels happiest about is that she has found her voice, not in a vague, inspirational sense, but in a commercially useful sense. She can now articulate the value of coaching in a way that her target audience can assimilate, and that has led to paying clients, including a corporate client.
Alongside those wins, several coaches have made their very first posts on LinkedIn, a couple have written their first LinkedIn articles, and across the community, coaches are becoming more confident every day.
These Results Are Not Just About Visibility
It would be easy to look at those examples and think they are simply evidence of more visibility, but visibility on its own is not enough. There are plenty of coaches posting regularly, updating their websites, trying to be seen, trying to be helpful, trying to stay consistent, and still not getting enquiries.
The difference is not just that Coaching Revolution coaches are showing up. The difference is that they are becoming much clearer about who they are speaking to, what problem they help those people solve, and why that problem matters enough for someone to take action. That is where focus comes in.
The Part Coaches Often Resist
Many (most?) coaches resist specificity because they worry that focus will narrow their opportunities. They worry that if they name a particular audience or problem, they will exclude people who might otherwise have worked with them, so they keep their message broad in the hope that broad means more commercially available.
I understand the concern. It feels safer to stay broad, and it can feel more generous, more open and more flexible. The difficulty is that broad coaching language is often one of the reasons good coaches struggle to find clients, because when your message is too general, people cannot easily understand what it is that you do, let alone whether it’s something they’d pay a professional rate for.
They may appreciate what you say, agree with it, and even like it, but they do not recognise themselves clearly enough to think, “This is the person I need to speak to.” That recognition matters because people do not buy coaching as an abstract concept. They buy help with a problem they can feel, name, or at least recognise when someone else names it accurately for them.
Specificity Is Not Exclusion
Specificity is not about shutting people out, it’s about making it easier for the right people to understand the value of your work.
A potential client does not wake up thinking, “I need to experience the transformational power of coaching.” They are far more likely to be thinking about a problem in their own language: a situation at work, a leadership challenge, a confidence issue, a career decision, a business pressure, a team dynamic, or a transition (I could go on…) they don’t know how to navigate. In the vast majority of cases, they have absolutely no idea that working with a coach could help them resolve this problem, because most people have no idea what we do, but they think they know and they’re wrong.
If your marketing speaks mostly in coaching language, other coaches may understand you, but your potential clients will not. That is why once we can articulate the value of coaching in a way that non-coaches can assimilate, everything starts to change. It’s not a cosmetic marketing exercise, it’s often the difference between being a skilled coach who is hoping to be found and being a skilled coach who is able to create interest and paying clients.
Confidence Comes From Clarity
One of the loveliest things to see in our community this month has been the increase in confidence, and it is not the performative kind that comes from trying to be louder online or copying someone else’s content style. The confidence I am talking about comes from clarity.
When a coach knows who they are talking to, understands the problem they are helping with, and can articulate the value of coaching in a way that non-coaches can assimilate, showing up becomes much easier. Posting on LinkedIn becomes less about proving yourself and more about being useful to the right people. Writing an article becomes less about finding something impressive to say and more about saying something that matters to the people you serve.
That is why first posts and first articles matter too. They are not small things for the coaches writing them, and they are not small things commercially. For many coaches, they are signs that the fog is lifting and that visibility is starting to feel connected to a clear business purpose.
This Is the Commercial Work
The work is not to become a different kind of person, and it is certainly not to become pushy, shouty, slick, or obsessed with an algorithm. The work is to get commercially clear: who you help, what problem you help them solve, why that problem matters, why it’s urgent now and how to speak to the people struggling with it in language they understand.
That is what sits underneath these wins. The inbound enquiry while a coach was on holiday, the LinkedIn DM from a potential client, the five new clients in three months, the 21st client onboarded, the corporate client, the first posts, the first articles, the stronger voice and the growing confidence are not magic tricks. They are what starts to happen when good coaches stop hiding behind broad coaching language and learn how to focus.
If You Have Been Resisting Focus
If you have been resisting focus, I’ve written this article for you, because focus will be the thing that makes the biggest difference between where you are now and where you want your coaching business to be.
Remember, coaches don’t fail because they are bad at coaching, or because they lack passion, integrity, or commitment. The issue is much more practical than that: good coaching is not enough if the people who need it cannot recognise that it is for them.
Why don’t you schedule a call to talk about what working with us might look like for you?
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