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Picking a Coaching Niche Isn't the Real Decision
Treating niche selection like a permanent choice creates more problems than it solves.
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Most people approach coaching like there’s a correct answer waiting to be found.
A niche that’s more profitable than the others. A role that’s more stable. A ‘type of coaching’ that guarantees demand.
They scroll through lists. Compare earnings potential. Read about life coaches, business coaches, executive coaches, mindset coaches, trauma coaches, fitness coaches, career coaches.
And the more they read, the harder the decision becomes.
Because the question they’re asking
“What type of coach should I be?”
assumes coaching is one thing with variations.
It’s not.
Coaching Is a Category System, Not a Single Role
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Did you know there are over 60 distinct coaching niches?
Health, business, leadership, creativity, performance, relationships, spirituality, career, and lifestyle contexts. You name it.
You’ve got coaches working one-to-one helping individuals navigate personal transitions. Others work inside organizations helping executives lead teams. Then there are the coaches who focus on physical performance, mindset, strategy, or creative output.
The roles don’t overlap. They run side by side, rarely touching.
What we lump together as “coaching” is actually dozens of distinct services, audiences, delivery models, and business structures all wrapped in a similar conversational style.
Treating them as the same thing only muddies the waters, making it harder for new coaches (and clients) to know what’s actually happening.
The Real Differentiation Isn’t Technique
Coaching methods overlap more than most people realize.
Ask questions > Create accountability > Guide someone from where they are to where they want to be.
The same frameworks show up everywhere. GROW for business coaches and fitness coaches. CLEAR for executives and career changers. Accountability systems in trauma coaching work in financial coaching alike.
What actually sets life coaches apart isn’t the skill itself.
It’s who they’re talking to. The context they operate in. The transformation their clients are chasing.
Your niche is defined by the people you serve and the world you show up in.
Which means the decision about what kind of coach to become is less about learning different methods and more about deciding whose life you want to change and how.
Business Structure Matters as Much as Niche
Most people obsess over picking the perfect niche. Meanwhile, they miss the part that actually decides whether the business survives: the structure.
The niche tells you what to do. The business model tells you how it works.
You could be a mindset coach with solo clients, running group programs, licensing content, or embedded in a corporate contract.
Same niche. Totally different realities.
One leans on recurring revenue. Another depends on high-ticket sessions. One works on volume. One thrives on partnerships.
Demand alone won’t keep you going. If the structure doesn’t support it, the business collapses under its own weight.
Different Niches. Different Demands. Different Rules.
Not all coaching niches play the same game.
Some pull clients fast but pack the room with competitors. Some move slow but never wobble. Some pay well but demand experience or credentials you don’t have yet. Some are easy but hard to scale.
Executive coaching opens doors to high fees, but only if you’ve walked the corridors that matter..
General life coaching reaches everyone, but standing out? B-R-U-T-A-L.
Fitness coaching locks in repeat clients, but you’re on their schedule, in person or online.
Trauma coaching carries weight you can’t shrug off.
Podcast coaching slices a small, hungry audience but it is exploding.
Each niche sets its own conditions. Comparing them by profit alone is like judging a storm by its color, ignoring wind, tide, and timing.
But the math isn’t just revenue.
It’s access, leverage, and rhythm.
What This Means for Anyone Trying to Choose
Stop hunting for the “perfect” niche. It doesn’t exist.
The right coaching niche isn’t the one that promises the most money. It’s the one that fits you, your skills, your context, and the way you want to run your business.
So ask yourself:
Who do I already understand?
What transformation can I deliver with authority?
How do I want to structure this business?
What demand curve am I ready to play with?
Answer those, and the options collapse. Pick one and start testing. You can always course-correct later because coaching niches aren’t permanent identities… they’re starting positions.
Read my full breakdown of all the different types of coaches and niches.
Keep Talking,
Liam
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Liam Austin
Visibility systems to grow your audience + authority with podcast intervi