How to Choose a Niche as a Coach or Healer (Hint: Work with 100 People First)
Like most new coaches and healers, I was told I needed a specific niche to start my business.
And I still think that advice is true, but there’s a crucial step most people skip.
Before you figure out who you serve and what problem you solve, go work with 100 clients first.
I had a chat the other day with a new person in my world. She wrote a book on burnout, and we share a great connection on LinkedIn. So I bought her book to support her Amazon launch (she hit #1 in her category and I was so happy to be tiny part of her community support!)
We scheduled a time to connect, and as we were chatting, she got curious about my journey in business, especially around the topic of niching.
She asked, “I’m about to change my niche… have you ever done that?”
I burst out laughing.
“Um, yeah. About 100 times. I used to pick a new niche every week for a while. Then I had a moment of clarity and decided: I’m going to go work with 100 clients before making any other attempts at picking a niche.”
She looked shocked. And relieved.
“Really? That is so cool. That totally flips this niche thing on its head. Most of the coaches I’ve had told me I need a niche first so I can find the right clients. Not to work with a bunch of clients first. You should write a piece about this.”
So here I sit, writing the very piece you’re reading.
Working with 100 Clients Changed My Business
Why work with 100 people before choosing a niche?
I’m going to share a story to illustrate why working with 100 clients FIRST is crucial, rather than coming up with some idealized perfect niche.
First I have to highlight something that affects all healers, especially those earlier in their journey to being professionals.
Healers too often try and figure things out first before jumping in and doing the real work. Reaching out to people, asking for connections, asking for what you need. We are masters at helping Other people ask for what they need, but we tend to be not so great at asking for what WE need.
That need to help others, and to sometimes neglect ourselves, leads us to over thinking in some area’s of our business. One of these is in choosing a Niche.
My story …
I used to work as a life coach in Toronto. I had some success, up and down, stop and start, and all the while, I kept experimenting with different niches.
One week I’d work with a stressed-out mom in her 40s and decide, “That’s it! I can help overwhelmed moms!” The next week I’d work with a guy in his 20s who doubled his personal training business during our first 3 months together and think, “Wait, this is my niche! I help ambitious young men entrepreneurs grow their client base!”
And on it went.
When I started my energy healing practice around 2016, I thought I should do it right this time. So I followed the classic advice. I sat down and wrote out the big three:
The challenges I’d overcome in my own life
The mission I felt called to in the world
The skills I had that I could teach or coach around
I remember sitting behind the front desk at the Delta Hotel in downtown Toronto, scribbling notes on their branded notepads. I was working a swanky private event with high level bankers making deals for millions of dollars. All we had to do was walk them to the right rooms once an hour as the meetings changed. It was a fascinating moment in my life, and also provided LOTS of time to think and reflect in between the brief moments of work.
Hence the image of the Delta Hotel note pad that is still seared into my memory!
I came up with the following niche based on the three questions above:
“I help young men dealing with depression develop and accomplish their deeper mission in life using the skills of self-regulation, physical health, and spiritual growth.”
It hit me hard.
I put my head on the desk and nearly cried. One of those laugh cries of “Really?? WTF!?!?”
I thought “Really? That’s who I’m supposed to serve? Some version of my past self?”
I’d worked so hard to get out of that chapter of my life. Now I was supposed to go back in?
No thank you.
This is why …
Why Most Coaches Pick the Wrong Niche (Too Soon)
We end up coming from Obligation, instead of Joy.
We can’t possibly just pick a niche that is FUN, joyful, or heaven forbid blissful. That can’t be how it’s done?!?
Instead we pick a niche based on helping others, accomplishing “our mission/purpose”. And often this can feel very heavy, filled with “have to” and “Should’s”.
I was tired as hell of all that. So I asked a different question:
“Who would be the most fun to work with?”
“Who could I work with where getting paid almost felt wrong because I’d enjoy it so much?”
At the time, 25 years old, the answer came quickly:
“I work with beautiful women in their 20s and 30s who want to be in a relationship but aren’t yet.”
Wait… what?
I wasn’t single. I wasn’t a woman. I hadn’t struggled to find and marry my partner. Love had always come easily to me.
So that couldn’t be my niche… right?
But I’d tried the serious way long enough. So I followed the fun.
And it worked.
Clients showed up. Women came to my events. And I had a blast.
But after a while, I noticed something: I wasn’t that fulfilled. I got bored. I had little patience for people complaining about their love lives. Not a good indication of a Niche that I could build a business on.
So I kept evolving.
What I did next changed everything
I decided never to approach niching the same way again.
I got too in my head about it. It took forever. It wasn’t fun. And honestly? It was just a sophisticated distraction from actually building my business.
Sound familiar? Let me say it again. Niching practices can, and often are, a distraction from doing the real work of building your healing practice.
Here are some other common distractions:
- Tweaking your offers or reworking your website. - Producing endless content. - Researching AI tools or payment platforms when you don’t even have someone ready to pay you yet.
All distractions.
Instead, I committed to something simple: I would work with 100 clients before deciding anything about my niche.
So I got to work.
I offered free “Clear What’s in the Way” energy healing sessions. And I kept going.
To date, I’ve delivered somewhere around 800–1000 of them. I lost count. And sometimes think about taking the time to go back through all those session notes, calendar links, etc and then realize “HA! That is another distraction! Phew, not today my friend!”
What I gained was better.
I had data. Real human patterns. Clear insight into who I loved working with, and who I didn’t. I learned what problems I could help solve most effectively, and which ones drained me.
Out of that, I developed a couple of Maps, Frameworks, that I still use today:
The Four Bridges of Growth for Coaches and Healers
Most healers spin their wheels trying to solve the wrong problem. Why? Because they’re stuck on Bridge One—Identity and Confidence—but they’re trying to leap ahead to marketing and visibility (bridge #3) or creating scale and rhythm (#4). The Four Bridges framework shows you where you actually are, and what to focus on now.
2. The Impostor Complex in Healing Work: A Hidden Trap
There are actually Eight Pillars of the Impostor Complex. It’s not just about “Self Belief” or “thinking positive”.
It’s a layered journey. Each pillar represents a different challenge—and each has its own business strategy and energy healing tool. These also go in order. Focusing on Pillar #8 “Boundaries” isn’t very helpful if you are stuck on Pillar #1 “Procrastination”. They all drive together but the early ones need to be handled first. Again, this is an area of profound frustration for Healers growing a practice. They are often focused on the wrong problem given the stage of business they are at.
3. The Helper’s Paradox
Almost every healer, coach, or therapist I know is stuck in this. I sum it up in one phrase “The need to help destroys your ability to help.” I’ve had everyone from brand new healers, to 20 year executive corporate Coaches identify themselves in this trap. I STILL hit this block often in my business. The Need-To-Help pattern is an insidious one.
It has three layers:
Saving (Saviour syndrome)
This is the most egregious and obvious. It’s the belief that YOU are responsible for the world, you have to save the world.
Fixing (“I know what’s best. I have the answer, solution.”)
This is the second most obvious and very easy to see in OTHER PEOPLE. However, whenever we are in a belief that we know best, and not able to see other perspectives easily, when we dig out heels in, this part is at play.
Helping (Overgiving and neglecting your own growth, “But, they need me!”)
The least obvious one. This can look like “High Functioning” being super responsible and dependable. Being people’s Go To person. I also see this show up in many people with Chronic Health conditions. They are so available for others that they aren’t available enough for themselves.
How to Build Confidence in Your Coaching Practice
It’s simple, but not always easy. Work with more people.
Once you work with your first 100 clients you’ll NEVER again have the same doubt. The Impostor Complex won’t have the material it used to to be able to mess with you.
You will fully Own your Expertise and embody your Identity as a Professional.
When I did this in my business it was amazing the magic that showed up.
I saw patterns. Over and over again, people said things like:
“I can’t seem to grow my business.” “I keep attracting people who drain me.” “I’m tired of being invisible.”
And under all of it? The same spiritual thread’s, limiting beliefs and energetic patterns that were keeping them stuck.
I wouldn’t have seen that if I’d kept polishing a message for people I hadn’t met yet. My messaging, my core philosophy, my niche, everything, came out of doing the work.
You don’t discover your niche through another worksheet. You discover it through witnessing people’s pain and joy—and noticing what calls to your soul.
This is what I want for you too.
It’s time to step up to and cross Bridge One: Confidence and Identity
You have to know, not think, not hope, but know, that your work is valuable. That you’ve helped people. That even when you feel like crap or doubt your ability to succeed, you’re standing on a foundation you built through action.
That’s what Bridge One gives you.
Until you cross that, no marketing funnel or Instagram strategy will stick. Not really.
So if you’re early in business… or in a pivot… or sick of changing your mind every week like I was…
It’s time to go serve 100 people.
How to get started:
How do you do that? It’s all find and good to say “Go work with 100 people” when you’ve been stuck so far.
If the solution isn’t to fill out more sheets on your Niche, what is the work?
My clients find that the work is identifying the limiting beliefs, the energetic patterns, that are keeping them stuck. Together we use what I call “The Truth Process” to find where they are misaligned. (Basically where they are lying to themselves)
Once we find these spots of misalignment, I help them pinpoint the exact belief, the “Thing” that has been making business growth so challenging.
Then we clear that belief at it’s energetic core.
If you are Ready to get moving, I encourage you to join me for a free energy healing session where we do just that.
A Free 25-Minute Energy + Business Clarity Session
This isn’t a consultation. We don’t spend 20 minutes chatting and 5 minutes pitching.
We do the work. This looks like direct and no B.S. belief shifting work.
You’ll walk away with:
A clear sense of which of the Four Bridges you’re currently on, or stuck under!
I will help you pinpoint one specific belief or pattern that’s slowing you down
We will use a specific Energy healing process to release that belief or pattern, on the spot
After the session If it feels right to go deeper and work more together, we’ll talk. If not, no pressure. You’ll leave feeling lighter, clearer, like a weight has been lifted.
Ready to book your free session?
Book here: www.myspiritualclarity.com
Let’s clear what’s in the way, so you can have more ease, joy and fun as you grow your business!