Why I Don't Talk About Niching Any More (And What I Say Instead)

Tell me something. How do you feel when you hear the word niche? Because I've seen that one word stop. So many counselors, mid-sentence, you know, everything's flowing. You are thinking about your practice, your website, what you want to say, and then suddenly. It's, oh, I need to pick a niche. And then everything just stalls.

And I think what makes it harder is that it feels like such a big, huge decision. Like you're supposed to get it right first time. Like if you choose the wrong thing, you might limit yourself or miss out or close doors before you've even opened them. So if you've ever found yourself going around in circles with this.

Well look, you are definitely not the only one.

Hi, and welcome to the Grow Your Private Practice Show. I'm Jane Travis and I help counselors and therapists to get found by the right clients using clear human words on their website and blogs. So if your marketing feels a little bit hit and miss or not quite sounding like you yet, then you are in the right place.

Hello, hello, hello and welcome back and if it's your first time here, you are very, very welcome. And today we're talking about something that I think holds a lot of counselors back without them even realizing it. So look, before we go any further, let's just quickly talk about what we actually mean when we say niche, because it's one of those words that gets thrown around a lot, and all it really means is who are the type of clients that you tend to work with and enjoy working with the most, or the kind of issues that you naturally.

Focus on. So it's not about limiting who you can work with, it's just about helping the right people to find you more easily. But, and here's the interesting part. That word just doesn't seem to work for a lot of people. You know, for a lot of counselors, it brings up such a lot of pressure almost straight away.

So it starts to feel like there's. A right answer and a wrong answer. And that's where things start to feel a little bit stuck for people. And I think this is where the disconnect happens because logically it absolutely makes sense to have a niche, but emotionally it feels like pressure. And when something feels like pressure, it's very hard to move forward with it.

Now I've seen this play out time and time again because when I first started working with counselors, one of the very first things I offered was a service called Know Your Niche. And I absolutely loved it because getting clear on who you love working with really does change everything in your practice.

But like I say, over time I noticed a pattern and it wasn't the idea that people struggled with. It was just that word. So every time I talked about niche, people tended to tense up. There was this pressure. There was overthinking and that sense of needing to get it right, they knew that it was important, but that that put them under pressure because they felt that they had to absolutely nail it and get it totally right.

And that's when it started to click. For me, the idea of the niche wasn't the problem, but the word was. So let's talk a little bit about what's really going on here, because there are a few worries that come up again and again, and I'm calling them myths because that's exactly what they are. These are myths.

It's not real. These worries aren't something that are real, but these are myths that happen. So the first myth, and the one I hear all the time is I don't want to see just one type of person. And I understand that. Who does? That'd be a bit boring, wouldn't it? But just think about it. But your clients don't arrive with one neatly labeled issue. They bring everything. You know, somebody might come to you for anxiety, but underneath that anxiety, there's all sorts of stuff. Childhood stuff and relationship stuff. And maybe there's grief and weird family history, maybe trauma. That's just the way people are.

So your work doesn't become repetitive. It can't, because the people out there are also unique. So getting clear on who you love working with, well, it simply means that you are working with the kinds of people and the kinds of experiences and issues that bring out your best. So myth two, and this is another big worry is, oh, but Jane, I'm gonna have to turn people away.

And I remember somebody saying this to me once, you know, what am I supposed to do if somebody comes to me with something that's outside of my, my niche? What am I supposed to do then? And underneath that question isn't really about the logistics. It's fear. It's fear about not having enough clients. It's a fear of having to say no.

It's a fear of getting it wrong. But look, the thing is, having a niche doesn't mean that you have to turn people away. Like I said before, people that come to you are unique, interesting, fully rounded people. So it's definitely not about turning people away.

You're not gonna suddenly stop helping people. You are still gonna work with anybody within your capacity, but you'll start attracting more of the people that you absolutely love working with. So, myth three, I don't have enough experience to specialize. So I would suggest that if you look back, you are probably already seeing the patterns that you have in the work that you do.

There are gonna be clients that you really look forward to seeing, and there'll be clients that you probably don't look forward to seeing, and that's normal. It's something nobody really talks about, but that's absolutely normal. You also have clients that are the ones who make real progress, and you have sessions that leave you feeling.

Energized, and that's really important. You know, your experiences already pointing you to somewhere, and that's a place where you are. What is it? It's, it's that you love it. It's because it's the thing that you love to do. And yeah, imagine working with those sorts of people the whole of the time. So the last one, myth four, and this is what if I choose the wrong niche? This really isn't about the choosing. This is again about fear. The fear of getting it wrong, the fear of, you know, what if I change my mind, but look, I really want to reassure you about this because nothing is set in stone here. You know, you can make a decision and work with that for a while and then think, well, you know what?

This doesn't feel quite right, and then you can change direction. That's fine. That's okay. I change all the time. And it is far easier to refine something than it is to try to speak to everybody and feel like nothing quite sits with them. So the idea of having a niche that's not really the issue. It never was.

It's the word. So I stopped using it and I started talking about something else instead. And I now talk about your ideal client, 'cause that just feels a little bit more comfortable because your ideal client isn't a demographic, you know, it's not a woman age 30 to 50 or a busy professional, no. It's more about who you really love working with. You know, the issues that make you lean forward, the clients that you genuinely look forward to seeing, and the work that reminds you why you became a counselor in the first place.

So let me show you what I mean, because this is where it's gonna really click for you. So instead of saying some, so think of your website instead of saying something like, I work with busy professionals, age 30 to 50. You might say you are holding everything together on the outside, but inside you are exhausted in a way that a good night's sleep doesn't fix.

So you're talking to the same person then, but can you see how it's a really completely different feeling? So now they're not just thinking, oh, maybe that's me. What they're thinking now is how do they know me so well? And that's when people decide to reach out. And when you get clear on your ideal client, your marketing changes almost immediately. Your website. It stops trying to speak to everyone, which means it actually starts speaking to someone.

But honestly, one of the biggest shifts isn't your marketing as such. It's about your diary. So just imagine this for a moment. You open your diary on a Monday morning and you are not feeling that quiet sense of dread before sessions. You are not feeling that small sense of relief if somebody cancels, but instead you see a week full of people that you genuinely want to work with.

And I think a lot of this comes down to permission. You know, giving yourself permission to notice what you actually enjoy because you're allowed to enjoy the work that you do, and to notice which clients you really feel drawn to and which conversations you lean into rather than just thinking about what you should be doing.

Because most counselors already have a sense of this. They just haven't quite trusted it yet. So if you are not sure who your ideal client is yet, well this is where I'd start with it. So the first thing I'd think is what brought you to counseling in the first place, because quite often there's something in your own story there.

It might be something that you've struggled with or experienced or seen up close. So I see a lot of counselors that end up working with the sorts of issues that got them into counseling in the first place. So if some, if a counselor has or had a low self-esteem, and they went and got some help with that and they started to see that, I feel so much better.

I want to help other people with this. If you start working with those sorts of people, you are going to be so much, you're gonna be so fired up, you know you're gonna enjoy the work that you do because, not because you have to, because you just get it. You'll have a deeper lived understanding of what that feels like, and that can make the work that you do incredibly powerful.

And then I want you to think about the clients that you've already worked with. Have a think about whose name made you feel just a little bit lighter when you saw it in your diary. What was it about them? Was it about how they showed up? Was it about what they were working through? Was it about the way they engaged with the process?

And then on the flip side of that, which sessions left you feeling a bit drained? That contrast can really help you a lot. And now I want you to take all of that and just get it from out of your head. And onto paper or onto a document, but I find with mind mapping paper always helps me. So look, don't overthink about it. Look for patterns there in the work that you do, and that is gonna be your starting point. So for me, after nearly 20 years of doing this work, and yeah, I know, I know.

I don't look old enough. I can tell you this. You already know more than you think you do. You just haven't had the space to really see it clearly yet. And that's what I want you to do now. And look if you'd like some help with it. Well, that is exactly what we do in my write your homepage call. The first thing we do is get really clear on who you love working with, and then we make your homepage sound like you're talking to that.

That exact person and start bringing you more clients. So if you'd like some help with that, if you go to jane travis.co uk slash write your homepage and I'll put all the details in the show notes like I always do, then you can go and check it out and it would be absolutely fabulous to work with you because like I said, I just genuinely love, love, love doing this.

So that's it for today. Thank you so much for listening, and if this episode has resonated with you, make sure you hit follow so you don't miss the next one. And honestly, your ideal clients are already out there. This is just about helping them to find you. So there you go. Hope you have a brilliant rest of the day.

Take care of yourself and I'll see you soon. Bye.