Show Notes:

If you want people to pay you $2,000, $3,000, $5,000—or more—for coaching, there’s one question I want you to ask about your niche:

Are you selling an advanced skill?

I started thinking about this while coaching a client in person in San Francisco.

She was a leadership coach struggling with her content. I pulled up her Instagram, and everything felt very cheerleadery.

Women of color, you can do it.

We can believe we’re leaders.

We can hold leadership positions.

And I asked her:

“Would somebody pay you $2,000, $3,000, or $5,000 just to be hyped up in that way?”

Then I asked:

“Are you offering an advanced skill?”

She said, “Ooh, I’ve never heard you say that before.”

And I said, “Say no more. I’m gonna do a whole podcast episode on it.”

Because if you want to build a high-ticket coaching business, your niche can’t only sound inspiring.

It needs to communicate expertise.

Your potential client needs to see a problem she wants solved, a result she wants to create, and a level of expertise she doesn’t believe she can simply reproduce by herself.

That is where the advanced skill comes in.

What Is an Advanced Skill in Coaching?

An advanced skill is a skill or specialty your ideal client perceives she cannot easily do herself.

This distinction becomes especially important if you’re selling high-ticket coaching.

If you’re asking someone to invest $2,000 or $5,000, she needs to believe the problem is important enough—and your expertise is advanced enough—that getting help makes sense.

That’s why I want coaches to be careful about building an entire niche around things like burnout, self-care, time management, or feelings-based work without connecting that work to a specific result.

Your buyer might think:

I can figure this out myself.

And if she thinks she can do it herself, why would she pay you thousands of dollars?

Your work can absolutely include those tools.

But your niche needs to communicate the advanced result those tools help create.

1. Your Client Should Believe She Can’t Do It Herself

This is the first test.

Ask:

Does my ideal client perceive that she needs expertise to create this result?

Let’s say you’re a creativity coach and your positioning is:

I help people become more creative.

Someone could hear that and think:

Okay. I can buy a paint kit, sit down for a few hours, and play around.

She may want to become more creative, but she doesn’t necessarily perceive coaching as necessary.

The same issue can happen with happiness coaching.

If you say:

I help Black women become happier.

Someone might think:

I know what makes me happy. I’ll schedule a solo date, eat my favorite meal, and watch my favorite show without my kids.

Again:

Why does she need the coach?

Now compare that with my leadership coaching client.

Instead of:

I’m a leadership coach for women of color.

What if she said:

I help women of color get promoted through LinkedIn without networking.

Now I’m thinking:

Wait. I don’t know how to do that.

That’s exactly what I want.

That’s an advanced skill.

2. Promise a Result, Not a Task

The second test is that your niche needs to promise a result, not merely an activity.

You’re not selling what you’re doing.

You’re selling what that work produces.

For example:

Bookkeeping isn’t necessarily the niche.

The transformation could be helping business owners run profitable companies even when they’re behind on back taxes.

Same underlying expertise.

Different positioning.

Inside my membership, I teach this as tools versus transformation.

You don’t want to sell the hammer.

You want to sell the whole house.

Don’t Sell the Tool When Your Client Wants the Transformation

I see this with nervous system coaches all the time.

Someone tells me:

“I’m a nervous system coach.”

Okay.

What’s your modality?

Meditation.

But someone can learn meditation on YouTube.

So I want to know:

What does your nervous system coaching actually produce?

Maybe you help women reduce postpartum anxiety through meditation.

Now we’re talking about an outcome people are actively searching for.

Maybe your expertise includes hypnobirthing and you help women reduce pain during birth.

Again, that’s a clear transformation.

The modality can still be nervous system work.

The tool can still be meditation.

But your positioning communicates what those tools produce.

So if you’re struggling to articulate your niche, ask:

What does my tool produce?

That answer may get you much closer to your advanced skill.

3. Your Content Can’t Just Cheerlead Your Audience

This is where I want you to go look at your content.

Are you solving a problem?

Or are you primarily telling people:

Believe in yourself.

You’ve got this.

You can do it.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with encouragement.

But encouragement alone doesn’t demonstrate why someone needs your expertise.

Your potential client can hype herself up.

She can call her best friend.

She can listen to a motivational podcast.

If your content only tells her that she’s capable, she’s still left asking:

“Okay…but how?”

That’s the question your expertise needs to answer.

What process do you have?

What specific problem do you solve?

What result do you create?

What do you know how to do that your ideal client does not?

That’s where you move from cheerleader to expert.

4. At Least 100,000 People Should Already Want the Outcome

Here’s another test for your niche:

Could 100,000 people want this outcome?

That doesn’t mean you need 100,000 followers right now.

It means the market for your result needs to be big enough.

People should already understand that they want the outcome.

They already want a promotion.

They already want to get married.

They already want to improve their finances.

They already want help with their health.

They don’t need a long education process before they can even understand the problem you’re describing.

This is why I caution coaches about getting too deep into language like capacity, burnout, or nervous system healing without connecting those concepts to something the buyer already knows she wants.

You may have spent years studying your methodology.

Your ideal client hasn’t.

If she has to learn your entire vocabulary before she understands why she needs you, you’ve made the sale harder.

Your Method Doesn’t Need to Be What People Are Searching For

Your outcome should already have demand.

Your methodology can be different.

Your framework can be unique.

Your process can be something your audience has never encountered before.

But the person you’re selling to should recognize the destination.

That’s another reason I talk about health, wealth, and relationships.

People already want outcomes in those categories.

They’re already searching Google.

They’re already asking their friends for referrals.

They’re already looking for somebody who can solve the problem.

You don’t need to convince them to care about the result before you can sell your solution.

5. Your Advanced Skill Should Hold for Two to Three Years

The fifth test is longevity.

Could someone continue developing this skill or pursuing increasingly advanced results with your expertise for two or three years?

They don’t have to work with you for three years.

That’s not the point.

The question is whether the expertise is deep enough that there’s somewhere for the client to go next.

I coached a client who helped women get their investments and retirement on track.

She had a 90-day program.

A client finished the program, and then she realized:

Okay…now what?

She had helped the client get on track for retirement.

But I asked:

Could you help her speed up retirement?

Could you help her double her retirement?

Could you help her reach Coast FI?

Could you help her reach FIRE?

Could you help her earn more money so she can invest more?

Suddenly, the niche had depth.

The first result wasn’t the end of her expertise.

It was the beginning.

Your Program Can Be Short While Your Expertise Is Deep

This doesn’t mean every coaching container needs to last three years.

Your client might create a result quickly.

My clients can sign a client in a week.

They can launch within 30 or 45 days.

But I’m not simply promising:

I’ll help you sign one client.

I’m helping clients double their sales and work toward six-figure launches.

A client might need three launches or five launches to crack that result.

There is depth to the expertise.

The delivery can still be simple.

The coaching can still be straightforward.

Simple does not have to mean shallow.

That’s the nuance.

The Five Tests for an Advanced Coaching Skill

When you’re evaluating whether your niche supports premium coaching, ask yourself these five questions:

1. Does she perceive that she can’t do it herself?
2. Am I promising a result instead of a task?
3. Am I demonstrating expertise instead of only cheerleading?
4. Could 100,000 people already want this outcome?
5. Does this expertise have enough depth to hold for two to three years?

Those five questions can help you see whether you’re offering an advanced skill—or whether your niche needs stronger positioning.

Your Niche Is the Bowling Ball of Your Sales Process

I think niche work is the bowling ball of sales.

Because if your niche doesn’t convert, everything behind it becomes harder.

Your content becomes harder.

Your offer becomes harder.

Your pricing becomes harder.

Your sales calls become harder.

You’re trying to fix everything downstream when the first problem may be that your potential client doesn’t clearly understand why she needs your expertise.

That’s why choosing your niche isn’t simply about finding something you’re passionate about.

It’s about finding the intersection between your expertise and a result your market already wants.

Your work needs to be valuable.

But your buyer also needs to perceive that value.

She needs to see something she wants and think:

“I don’t know how to do that by myself.”

That’s when your niche stops sounding like encouragement and starts communicating expertise.

And if you want to charge premium prices, build a sustainable coaching business, and become known for what you do, that advanced skill needs to be clear.

Don’t just tell her she can do it.

Show her what you know how to help her do.

Join the 5 Day Know Your Niche Workshop: https://forthe23percent.com/niche

LISTEN BELOW ON APPLE PODCASTS AND SPOTIFY