Embrace your uniqueness.
In this episode, we continue to demystify the process of letting your niche find you. We discuss the crucial role of continuous learning, experimentation, and the power of community.
We share valuable insights and practical tips to navigate this journey. You'll learn to read between the lines, observing how other coaches interact within their communities and why behavioural flexibility can be the key to your success.
Fun fact: did you know the flexibility of your thumb can hint at the flexibility of your mind?
The magic lies in your uniqueness. Your distinct skills, experiences, and perspectives are not just special—they're your ticket to success.
Embrace your uniqueness.
In this episode, we continue to demystify the process of letting your niche find you. We discuss the crucial role of continuous learning, experimentation, and the power of community.
We share valuable insights and practical tips to navigate this journey. You'll learn to read between the lines, observing how other coaches interact within their communities and why behavioural flexibility can be the key to your success.
Fun fact: did you know the flexibility of your thumb can hint at the flexibility of your mind?
The magic lies in your uniqueness. Your distinct skills, experiences, and perspectives are not just special—they're your ticket to success.
Okay, so we're going to pick up where we left off last week on this list, which is 10 tips to help you trust the process and, naturally, fall into your coaching niche 10 tips to help you trust the process and naturally fall into your coaching niche.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, and we already covered numbers one through four last week.
Speaker 1:Yes, we did. And just maybe we could recap what those were. To recap, that was self-reflection, right? So reflecting on your own interests and what you love. Number two was gain experience, so really just get started. Number three was get curious, pay attention to the topics or issues that naturally pique your interest. And number four was listen to feedback, and not necessarily like feedback from coaches or other people in your life, but feedback from your community, the people that you want to be working with.
Speaker 2:Yes, correct, and we broke all of those down pretty nicely. Last week I had one or two people message me Is that episode? That episode went live on Monday, the one that we recorded last week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's live.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we had this morning Jen messaged me asking about niche and potentially one other person Anyways, so people are into this.
Speaker 1:I like it. Yeah Well, we had, I think, not a record number, but I always check in to see how the episode is doing, and we had a big first day, which is always good to see in terms of downloads.
Speaker 2:So thanks for listening everybody.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you're enjoying this topic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a cool topic.
Speaker 1:It's a fun topic. It's important too.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of people don't think niche is a fun topic because they're frustrated.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, that's where the self reflection comes in Right. They need to listen to this episode even more. Okay, let's just get back into the list, enough.
Speaker 1:Enough.
Speaker 2:Enough of that. Number five is continued learning. This is an important skill for coaches in general, for humans in general. You should strive to always be learning until you are dead at least, if not longer. And it says here attend workshops, seminars, conferences and engage in ongoing PED professional development, continuous learning, blah, blah, blah. If you're always in a context of learning, what's going to happen is you're going to activate your unconscious mind to move you in the direction of what your niche is. So as you go and learn additional modalities, you're surrounded by other people in your industry. You're part of the conversation. You're only going to get more and more clarity on who you want to help and how you want to help them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally I'm with you on that. I don't know if there's really much more to say about that one. It's just like keep learning, keep growing, keep expanding. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Coaches are pretty good about this one. If anything, a lot of coaches err on the side of too much learning, and then it's procrastination by education, so don't fall into that trap.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't fall into that. Take action but learn, and I think I don't remember. I know I was talking about this somewhere this week, but it's just like learn but then also take time to let it integrate.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's like you might go on a learning binge for like one quarter but then spend the next quarter letting it integrate and taking what you want from all of the learning. Another thing I heard this morning actually, I was listening to something this morning and it was about you know the term breed between the lines.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, this person was talking about learning between the lines. So when you're in a coaching group or you're learning something and you're in a learning environment, learn between the lines, which means like Observe how they're teaching, observe how they are, like putting themselves out there. You know what I mean. Does that make sense what I'm saying? So it's like you don't necessarily have to take what they're teaching, but you're like sponging how they're teaching, how they're interacting with their community, like all that stuff. So I thought that was kind of a cool thing to think about. Learn between the lines.
Speaker 2:Learn between the lines. Yeah, great point. I liked that one too Cool. All right Number next.
Speaker 1:Next one, number six, it's experiment and evolve.
Speaker 2:Oh, my goodness, that almost sounds like. Take action and measure the results, experiment and evolve. Please go ahead. I interrupted you, ruthie.
Speaker 1:No, it's fine. Be open to trying different coaching approaches and techniques. Yeah, allow yourself the freedom to experiment. You'll gain clarity about what resonates with you the most. Yeah, I like that. You don't want to necessarily pigeonhole yourself into doing it this specific way or having a blueprint or having a specific way of doing things, because chances are you're going to want to make changes and iterate and some things are going to work and other things aren't, and then you're going to want to add something, you're going to learn something. So be open. Isn't that like being flexible, or what's it called Behavioral flexibility?
Speaker 2:Behavioral flexibility yeah, very important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because, yeah, if you get stuck in your way, then it's not fun for you and it's not fun for the people working with you either.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And one way do you know how you can check that on your hand, on your palm? Oh yeah, so your thumb, the flexibility of your thumb is the flexibility of your mind. So if you have a supple jointed thumb, which means like that the knuckle part of your thumb is like super flexible, like, see, mine is like super flexible, that means like flexibility of my mind. That means I'm really open to like other people's perspectives and stuff like that, other people's opinions open to like pivoting. If you have a stiff jointed thumb, then that means you're kind of like stuck in your ways, probably pretty stubborn. So that's like a little sidebar.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Mine is pretty stiff looking. I think let's see Like a straight line.
Speaker 1:No, you still got flexibility there.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:When you press on it like this with your index finger, how yeah, you've got flex. I mean, you're not as flexible in your mind as I am, potentially.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's because you're like tall grass on the wind to landmarks, yeah. To use the metaphor I'm like the scarecrow.
Speaker 1:Well, you're good because you're just like containment, right, Like no, no, no, we've got to get back to the list and I'm like off frolicking in the fields.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's good. It's like a good teamwork.
Speaker 2:There you go Cool.
Speaker 1:If we both had like extremely flexible thumbs, this podcast would sometimes be three hours.
Speaker 2:That's true. Everybody send Alana Banks pictures of your thumbs.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:I know she would be delighted to get them too.
Speaker 1:I would be Absolutely delighted. Please send them to me.
Speaker 2:If you really want to get her out of the way, send her pictures of your palms. She'll be busy for weeks, okay, Number next number seven Trust the process. There's little advice that people like receiving less than trust the process. But it's true, folks, you got to trust the process. Trust that the right coaching niche will reveal itself over time. One of the things that I tell my students is you really need to be patient, but you also really need to be not patient.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, I like it.
Speaker 2:You got to make things happen, okay, but you also like you also got to like chill and let things happen at the right pace.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think what I take from this is yes, I agree, you have to like make things happen, you have to take action, but when you get into the like forcing, controlling energy, then that's where you're like, okay, I need to take a chill pill here, you know, and like step back for a second and just like trust that it's going to evolve the way I want to, because often it's not going to evolve the way you're expecting it to.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And sometimes things take time, right, If people aren't getting back to you fast enough or you know the thing isn't happening like there's other things going on and this is all part of the all part of the plan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure, for sure. Okay, trust the process. I mean that one's very important, but also it's pretty straightforward.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean yes.
Speaker 1:I know it's kind of annoying to hear that, but yeah. You know, I even have I have actually two turtle stickers on my desk that I put there because I have this problem where I want to rush things, I want like things to happen now, like immediately, and I have these little turtles to remind myself to chill, it's going to be okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Don't need to rush it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the other thing actually the same thing I was listening to this morning. It was also bless you talking about Thank you. She was also talking about how people like coaches we'll use that as an example they decide okay, I want to be a coach, I want to do this thing, and then they think that they can just put themselves out there on social media and get results immediately. And that really is coming from an energy of entitlement where you just think like, oh well, I'm going to put myself out there, so the people should just come. But it takes time to build a community, build that no-liking trust factor, build up your expertise, all that stuff. You can't just expect that you're going to rock up to social media and all of a sudden you're going to be making like $10,000 months, right, yeah, it takes time Don't be entitled.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but also, on the other hand, make things happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, take action.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what I mean when I say you got to be patient, but you also got to be not patient. Yeah, you got to find the balance.
Speaker 1:Exactly. Well, yeah, make stuff happen, do stuff, put stuff out there, create right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's part of the process.
Speaker 2:Yeah, cool, all right, okay, let's go on to the next one.
Speaker 1:Oh, this is a good one, yes.
Speaker 2:This is an awesome one. What's the next one?
Speaker 1:Oh, I thought you were going to say it. The next one, number eight, is find a supportive community.
Speaker 2:That was supposed to be a joke, by the way, because I was like this is going to be an awesome one and then I was like when is the next one? As if I didn't know. Now, do you get it? Yeah, I missed that. Yeah, yeah. Find a supportive community. Join the simple social sanctuary or the Ascension Circle.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Two totally different types of communities, both highly supportive. Actually, there are a few people that are in both.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they are.
Speaker 2:Everybody who's listening should join both. You should join Lana Banks and Banks's Ascension Circle and you should join Ryan Montes's Simple Social Sanctuary. Yeah, all your dreams will come true, guaranteed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, two business besties right here for you and the podcast Right. Find yourself some business besties, do you like that?
Speaker 2:I do not like that expression business besties. I knew you would. I would never say that, but I don't mind if you do. I don't mind if other people want to use that ridiculous term.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is kind of a silly term.
Speaker 2:No, no, it's not that bad Business, besties.
Speaker 1:That's what came up to mind. For me was just like find yourself some business besties, yeah, or a podcast pal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, does it have to be in alliteration?
Speaker 1:No, it doesn't. Find yourself a supportive community Okay.
Speaker 2:Find yourself a supportive stew or two.
Speaker 1:Just connect with other coaches right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Connect with other people who are doing what you're doing. Connect with like-minded people who are also doing what you're doing, because then you encourage each other, you can bounce ideas around, you can ask questions, you can find out what they're up to, you can celebrate each other's wins, weather the storm together, and it makes it so much more fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because at the end of the day and we've totally talked about this on the podcast, but no one is your competition.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and it only benefits you to be surrounded by like-minded individuals. It really does.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I watched this video today on the internet. Imagine that Fancy that.
Speaker 1:Did you really? Was it on YouTube?
Speaker 2:It was on YouTube. So one of my members, actually from the Simple Social Social Sanctuary, the same fellow that sent me a lovely gift a book.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I saw that. The Alex Hormozzi book yeah, he sent me a hard copy. That's so cool. Have you read it?
Speaker 2:So after he sent me the hard copy version, I got the audiobook version. I'm kind of going through both, and so I've gone through maybe a quarter of it so far. It's very good.
Speaker 1:Cool.
Speaker 2:So same fellow that sent me that book sent me a link to a video today from this like coach guru dude who had never heard of, but it was like how to be a rich coach or something, something like that. I watched it and he gave all these tips and he had written this guy in the video, he had written a book about coaching. He gave all these tips and his last tip was like and this is the most important one be in a community of other coaches who are also success or oriented paraphrase, but that's what he said. He said this is like by far the most important tip I didn't give you is to surround yourself with other people who are doing the same thing. Yeah, if it comes to finding your niche. Yeah, I mean, finding your niche is one step on the path to success, and the path to success is catalyzed by your peers 100%, because then they're going to also see in you what you don't see, what you may not see in yourself.
Speaker 1:To help you develop your niche or, like, fall into more of a niche.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. So, there you go yeah. Yeah, yeah, we have two of them. We have two of them available for you listeners. Yeah, okay, so that was number eight. Oh my God for a minute.
Speaker 1:I just had this moment where I was like, do we not have a number 10? But we do, we do. It's just this.
Speaker 2:The formatting is weird. Yeah, number nine, this is a good one. This is a really good one, I think. I think when you embodied this one in my opinion and observation, things started to really shift for an app I did For you. Yes, I'm using.
Speaker 1:Oh yes.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So number nine is embrace your uniqueness. Remember that your unique combination of skills, experiences and perspectives is what sets you apart as a coach. Embrace your individuality, et cetera, et cetera. It goes on like that. You get the idea, do you not agree, that when you, you know I remember you talking about like this and like, well, I've got these different modalities and I'm going to, you know, lean into this and that, and then, like all of a sudden, you were like reading poems and then, like business exploded.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's true, yeah, and that's where I'm at these days, where I'm feeling like I'm embodied in what is truly me, because and the palm reading allowed me to do that Like it allowed me to kind of come out of the closet, so to speak you know when, with my coaching.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. You came wandering out of the closet big fog, misty fog around you, holding a severed hand and pointing at the palm and being like look at this Ryan.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's true, and now true, that is what happens?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's exactly what happens.
Speaker 1:But I feel like now it's allowed me to recognize, like how I want to help people, which is to find their uniqueness right Through like divination tools specifically. So like, if you're like a mystical kind of person and you're multi-dimensional, like you kind of have like a thing for everything, then use that for your coaching. I've actually created a free group on not on Instagram, on Facebook called the Intuition. What's it called? Let?
Speaker 2:me look it up. Intuitive Session Circle. Yeah, I know these names are hard. They really are.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the Intuitive Session Circle is where I'm going to help you enhance your client experience, enhance your sessions with people using divination tools or using what really is unique to you.
Speaker 2:It is free. It's a free group.
Speaker 1:It's totally free.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that folks get off your keysters and get into Alanna's free group. The Intuition, something, something.
Speaker 1:Intuitive Session Circle ISC.
Speaker 2:Oh, that sounds so serious. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, anyway. So yeah, back to that, and same kind of thing with you, ryan. Right Like you embraced your uniqueness in your way of doing social media.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:Right and like that's how you're setting yourself apart, where you're taking like your NLP training skills, like hypnosis and combining that with social media, and like how you like your own approach to it, which is super cool. I love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah Cool, all right, yeah, so embrace your uniqueness. Everybody, don't be shy, get out there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, do it.
Speaker 2:Let your, let your freak flag fly, as the expression goes. I didn't make that up. You look impressed, but I did not make that up.
Speaker 1:No, I know, I, it was another little alliteration though.
Speaker 2:Oh, it wasn't, alliteration.
Speaker 1:It was, it is, it is, still is Right now it's happening.
Speaker 2:All right, number last, which is number 10.
Speaker 1:I'm just going to go on to number 10 for one second.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm not going to read it, we're going to do something else.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I forgot that last week and I'm just hoping that I think we have done this. But I just want to make sure we said that we wanted to kind of like pepper in our story about like how we fell into our niche. Do you think we've done enough of that, because we did say we were going to do that.
Speaker 2:Oh, I have no idea. I don't. I don't remember what we said last week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do, because I edit. I edit the episodes.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, I am, but in there, I am but a, you know, meek co-host in this endeavor. Lana Banks is the editor, the producer, the muscle, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I'm the CEO, I'm the CEO of the, I manage the social media.
Speaker 2:Everything. Social media manager. Yeah, I just yeah, I'm just up to the zoom call. I'm just a mindless talent, just a voice, a tinny voice, as a one of our listeners.
Speaker 1:What? Who said that?
Speaker 2:I was talking to another, another hypnotherapist on Facebook. We were talking about podcasts and she was like, oh, what's your podcast? And I, like gave her the link and she went and listened to like a minute or two of it and she was like you record your podcast in like an office with a lot of hard surfaces, don't you? And she's correct, I'm surrounded 100% by hard surfaces. And she's like you know, you're echoey. She wasn't like pooping on us, she was giving, you know, constructive, correct feedback.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well we've already had this conversation before.
Speaker 2:Like, yeah, I need to lay. I need to like buy some used Oriental rugs and just like hammer them to the wall all around me.
Speaker 1:Or just get a different mic.
Speaker 2:It's not the microphone, it's the room.
Speaker 1:You think?
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I have these tall ceilings and their wood, exposed wood, and yeah, it's like it's an echoey room. Ok, all right, I could get those like sound deadening foam panels for the walls.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, you could do that.
Speaker 2:Or I could do nothing.
Speaker 1:Anyways, anyway, I think we've kind of shared enough of our story, right Like throughout these points, for people to understand, like how we yeah, it's been, it's been.
Speaker 2:Peppered, and we'll just leave it up to the audience. You want to know more about our stories? Send us your questions.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, good idea.
Speaker 2:Your questions and we will answer them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, send them to Ryan, though, so he can do some work.
Speaker 2:Yeah, send them to me so I can forward them to Atlanta Banks. What content planner for the no Excuses coaching bucket?
Speaker 1:OK, all right, number 10, we let them wait long enough.
Speaker 2:Number last yeah, stay open and adaptable as you progress. Remain open to refining and expanding your niche. Your coaching niche may, I would say will, evolve over time as you gain more experience and insights. Be flexible. This really is the like, the definition of just allow your niche to develop, and part of this is like remembering that you know you're not married to your niche. If you choose your niche, you start working in it, you start serving people, it can, will and is going to develop organically, and that's fine 100 percent. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think you know, you have to remember that you're a multi dimensional being too.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And like there's a lot more that goes into your coaching than just like your niche right. It's like your life experience, your training, your personality, your interests, all that stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's going to evolve and change, as you do, because we all do. Hopefully, as a coach, you're growing and changing, because if you're not, then maybe you shouldn't be coaching. I don't know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, cool. Are there any things to add that work in terms of finding your niche or refining your niche? That we're not on the list?
Speaker 1:I don't think so. I mean, I'm sure there are many. Yeah Right, I'm sure there are many things. Someone is in their car right now being like you missed the football point.
Speaker 2:Whatever we missed, blah, blah, blah point. I think the message will add it.
Speaker 1:But I think overall, the message here is just let it happen, let it evolve. And when we say trust the process, it's also like enjoy the journey. You know it's not a race to get to your niche or your purpose. It's like every evolving it's going to change. It's going you know. So, like, what are you really into right now? Do that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, agreed, agreed.
Speaker 1:If you try to force something like we said, it's just not going to resonate. People aren't going to feel it. Just like you said, once you found palm reading, you know for me specifically like that's where I felt like I was home almost, or something Like I was just like this is it? And that's what I've been telling a lot of people is like this is the missing link to my coaching. So it's not to say that I'm now only going to be a palm reader. Not at all. I'm using palm reading as a gateway into my coaching.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's, it is really working. You know, like a lot of people, that I am like, I do palm reading with. They're like oh, what else do you have to offer? You know, how else can I work with you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's, true, and so you know, and now I've created this whole free group about how to use your gifts, your magical gifts, to deepen rapport and build community and no like and trust factor. Yeah, so it's every evolving. If someone had told me I was doing this last year at this time, I would have been like what? Yeah, that's crazy, Because last year at this time I was focused on something completely different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, and same thing with you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, last year at this time I'd just gotten back from being away. Yeah, I don't even remember what exactly my offers were at that time. I was kind of like winding down the NLP and no training and winding up the social media.
Speaker 1:Well, I think you were in. You were on step one. You were like reflecting. You were in the self reflection phase. You were like what am I going to do now?
Speaker 2:That's true, that's true.
Speaker 1:And look who. It's happened in one year. It's amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:I guess that's it.
Speaker 1:Let's wrap it up. Wrap it up, folks, join the simple social sanctuary.
Speaker 2:You can find info at RyanMontuscom, but just message me on Instagram at RyanMontusNLP and we'll chat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and join the Ascension Circle. That's my group and you can find me on Instagram at AlanaBatesCoaching.
Speaker 2:Cool, there we go.
Speaker 1:That's it, thanks everyone.
Speaker 2:Bye.