Who Am I as a Coach?

It sounds like such a simple question.

But I think it might be one of the hardest questions to answer when you are trying to build a coaching business.

Who Am I As A Coach?

You may have completed your coach training.

You may have years of valuable experience behind you.

You may know that you are a good coach and have already helped people achieve some really positive outcomes.

And yet, when someone asks:

“So, what kind of coaching do you do?”

Suddenly it can become surprisingly difficult to explain.

You might say you're an Executive Coach. A Leadership Coach. A Career Coach.

But does that really tell people enough?

And, perhaps more importantly, does it really describe you?

Positioning Isn't Just About Choosing A Niche

We often make finding your positioning sound quite simple.

Who is your target market?

What problem do you solve?

What is your niche?

These are useful questions. But I don't think they go quite deep enough.

Because behind them are some much more interesting questions:

Who do I really want to help?

Why them?

What do I understand about their world?

What experience do I bring that might be particularly valuable?

What am I naturally good at?

What do I care about helping people change?

And then, importantly:

Where does all of this meet a genuine need in the market?

For me, this is where good positioning starts to emerge.

It isn't simply about picking a sector or choosing a niche because someone told you that you needed one.

It's about finding the intersection between you, the people you want to help, the value you can bring and a market that needs it.

You're not starting from zero

This is something I find myself saying to coaches a lot.

When you qualify as a coach, you haven't suddenly left everything that came before behind.

Quite the opposite.

Your previous career matters.

The people you have worked with matter.

The problems you've helped solve matter.

Your leadership experience matters.

Your life experience matters.

The feedback people have consistently given you matters.

Even the things you find relatively easy — but other people seem to struggle with — can provide clues.

You're Not Starting From Zero.

You are bringing all of that experience with you into your coaching business.

The challenge is learning how to recognise what is valuable and connect it to the people who may need it.

What Could You Be Known For?

I think this is a much more useful question than simply asking:

“What's my niche?”

Imagine, for example, two people who both describe themselves as Executive Coaches.

One has spent 20 years working in financial services and has a particular interest in supporting women moving into their first senior leadership roles.

Another has built and scaled technology businesses and particularly enjoys working with founders who are moving from entrepreneurial leadership into leading a much larger organisation.

They may both be excellent Executive Coaches.

But their experience, understanding, credibility and natural markets are very different.

Once they start exploring those differences, much more interesting positioning possibilities begin to appear.

And importantly, those positions give other people something to remember them for.

Why Positioning Makes Business Development Easier

This is where I think positioning becomes really important.

Because positioning isn't just a branding exercise.

It affects almost everything you do to grow your coaching business.

When you are clearer about who you want to work with and the value you want to be known for, it becomes easier to decide:

What should I talk about on LinkedIn?

Who should I be connecting with?

Who could refer me?

Which networking groups are worth joining?

What talks could I give?

What should my website say?

Who might I collaborate with?

What kind of coaching offer could I develop?

Instead of trying lots of disconnected marketing activities, you begin to have a direction.

And that direction creates focus.

Positioning Can Create Momentum

I've seen this happen many times with coaches I've worked with.

They have lots of ideas, lots of experience and lots of enthusiasm — but their business development feels scattered.

They're posting on LinkedIn.

Going networking.

Having coffees.

Changing their website.

Thinking about creating a course.

Wondering whether they should start a newsletter.

But none of it quite joins up.

Then something changes.

They become clearer about who they are as a coach and what they want to be known for.

Suddenly the business development starts to make more sense.

They know who they want to talk to.

They know what conversations they want to have.

They know what they want to write about.

And they become much more comfortable telling people what they do.

It's almost as if the penny drops.

That clarity can create real momentum.

Perhaps Positioning Is An Enquiry

I don't think good positioning always arrives as a sudden lightbulb moment.

Sometimes it needs exploring.

You may need to look backwards before you look forwards.

You may need to notice patterns in your experience.

You may need to think about the people you naturally understand.

You may need to explore what's happening in the market.

And you may need to consider several possible positions before one starts to feel right.

So perhaps positioning isn't simply an exercise to complete.

Perhaps it's an enquiry.

An opportunity to ask better questions about who you are, what you bring and where that might have most value.

And perhaps the most useful place to start is with one deceptively simple question:

Who Am I As A Coach? Would you like to explore that question further?

I've been thinking about this question for a long time because positioning is one of the things coaches I work with seem to find hardest.

It's also one of the things that can make the biggest difference once they get clear about it.

That's why I'm developing The Coach Positioning Diagnostic™, using my Coach Positioning Framework™.

It is designed to help you explore your experience, strengths, contribution, ideal clients and market opportunity — and identify 3–4 potential coaching positions you could build a business around.

The Diagnostic will be available to purchase at the end of January 2027.

For now, I'm inviting coaches who are interested to register their interest.

As a thank you, I'll send you a set of reflection questions you can use straight away to start exploring:

Who am I as a coach — and what could I be known for?