Does the word "niche" make you cringe? You aren't alone. In this solo episode, Sarah tackles one of the biggest sticking points for new coaches: the fear that narrowing your focus means excluding people.

Sarah reframes niching from a constraint into a "magic wand" - one of the fastest paths to securing paying clients.

Key Takeaways

1. Reframing the "Niche" Concept - Many coaches struggle with niching because they view it as excluding people, which goes against the inclusive nature of coaching. Sarah suggests a mindset shift:

• Think of "niching" simply as having a target audience.

• Just like Waitrose (a high-end positioned supermarket in the UK) advertises in glossy magazines to reach premium buyers, you are simply placing your message where your likely buyers will see it.

2. Hobby vs. Business - Sarah delivers a "hard truth" about the financial reality of coaching:

• You cannot build a sustainable business on clients who cannot afford to pay you.
• If you do not have paying clients, you technically have a hobby, not a business.

3. The 3 Steps to Choosing a Viable Niche - To choose a niche that actually works, Sarah advises looking for three specific criteria:

• Language & Rhythm: Choose a group whose language you speak and whose "rhythm of life" you inherently understand.

• The Problem: Ensure the people in this niche have a specific problem that your coaching can help resolve.

• Financial Viability: Make sure this group is able to pay a professional rate for your services.

"Choosing a niche is for coaches like having a magic wand and one of the fastest paths to paying clients that I know of."

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Do you feel "grubby" or "salesy" when you think about marketing your coaching business? You are not alone. In this short episode, Sarah challenges the common belief that marketing requires being "shouty" or "braggy". She explains how marketing is actually just as client-focused as coaching itself, simply requiring a shift in perspective to help your ideal clients find you.

Key Takeaways:

• The "It Depends" Dilemma: Coaches often struggle to define outcomes because every client is unique and the results depend entirely on the individual's challenges and actions.

• The Visibility Reality Check: Many coaches believe that if their coaching is good enough, clients will magically find them, but clients cannot hire you if they don't know you exist.

• Marketing is Client-Focused: Just as coaching focuses on the client, good marketing focuses on the specific kind of client you love working with—the ones that make you say "yes" when you see their name in your diary.

• The "Coach Marketer" Role: To build a financially viable business, you must embrace the role of "coach marketer," which simply means becoming visible to your chosen clients and articulating the benefits of working with you.

Memorable Quote:

"No matter how wonderful your coaching is, clients can't find you if they don't know you exist."

The Simple Marketing Formula:Sarah breaks it down into two simple steps:

1. Become visible to the people you want as clients.

2. Articulate the benefits of working with you.

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About The Guest:

Yulianna Vilkos is a career journalist with over 20 years of experience in market-moving financial journalism in London. Originally moving from Ukraine to build a career in a major financial hub, she specialised in debt capital markets and bond deals within emerging markets. Her reporting was influential enough to move bond prices and market trends quite literally.

Driven by a lifelong interest in psychology and a desire to help people move forward, Yulianna transitioned into coaching. Unlike therapy, which she felt was too focused on the past or passive listening, coaching allowed her to use her personality and focus on the present to help others achieve their goals.

Today, Yulianna specialises in coaching senior financial journalists. She helps them navigate career transitions, leadership challenges, and the unique pressures of the industry, guiding them to design careers that align with their values and priorities. Her mission is to help journalists realise that their skills are transferable and valuable across many industries, empowering them to edit their own life stories rather than feeling trapped in someone else's.

About the Episode:

In this episode, Sarah chats with Yulianna Vilkos, a former financial journalist turned coach who found success by returning to her roots. After initially trying to build a generic personal brand on the advice of a business coach, Yulianna realised that her true strength lay in her 20-year background in financial journalism. She discusses her journey from reporting on debt capital markets to coaching senior journalists, the pitfalls of trying to be the next "Tony Robbins" without a multimillion-dollar budget, and why focusing on your existing strengths is the key to building a sustainable coaching business.

Key Topics Discussed:

• From Journalism to Coaching: Yulianna shares her 20-year history in London’s financial sector and why she pivoted from market-moving journalism to coaching.

• Why Not Therapy?: Yulianna explains why she chose coaching over psychotherapy, preferring a forward-looking, active approach to helping people.

• The Trap of "Generic" Business Coaching: Yulianna opens up about a negative experience with a business coach who advised her to ignore niches and focus solely on "personal branding" to emulate global giants like Tony Robbins—advice that ultimately didn't work for her lifestyle or goals.

• The "Tony Robbins" Fallacy: Sarah and Yulianna discuss why trying to market to "everyone" is a mistake for new coaches who lack the massive marketing budgets of global celebrities.
• Finding the "Hidden Treasure" Niche: How Yulianna rediscovered the value of her own network and experience, realising she was "sitting on a treasure" by choosing to coach financial journalists rather than starting from scratch.
• Coaching Journalists: The specific challenges journalists face, including transitioning to editors, burnout, losing interest in their beat, or feeling misaligned with organisational values.
• Market to Your Strengths: Yulianna’s core advice for both journalists and coaches: stop trying to fix weaknesses and instead build a career and business around what you are already good at.

Are you a coach struggling to find your niche or a journalist looking to pivot? Yulianna advises focusing on your strengths rather than fixing weaknesses.

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