No Excuses Coaching with Ryan Montis & Alanna Banks
The mindset. The attitude. The strategies.
Being an elite coach lights you up, but your insecurities surface when you think of establishing yourself as a coach.
Do I know enough? What if I can't fix their problem? Who am I to think I can be a coach? And on the flip side, you're figuring out how to be an entrepreneur and build a business which feels very overwhelming.
Each week entrepreneurs Ryan Montis, certified trainer and Alanna Banks, certified hypnotherapist and coach, help you chunk it all down so that you can feel like creating a coaching business is fun and easy.
If you're a coach who wants to adopt the mindset, attitude and strategies of an elite coach or a personal development enthusiast who wants to learn and evolve, this show is an invitation to jump in.
Please subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify, join our community on Instagram @itsthenoexcusespodcast and learn more about our offerings Alanna Banks @alannabankscoaching and www.alannabanks.com and Ryan Montis @ryanmontisnlp and www.ryanmontis.com
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Thank you!
No Excuses Coaching with Ryan Montis & Alanna Banks
Part 1 - Trust the Process: Let Your Niche Find You
What if you stopped trying to force it and allowed your coaching niche to develop naturally?
Instead of rushing to figure out your niche, trust the process and let it unfold organically.
It's not just about what you've done in the past, but also about the conversations you engage in, the training you attend, and being curious enough to learn from different contexts.
By paying close attention to the insights from your clients, coaches, and followers, you can discern what people really need and align your niche accordingly. Trust us when we say there's a lot to be gained from listening, and sometimes, the answers are closer than you think.
Oh right. So if you're on a quest for the perfect niche or you are trying to figure out what your purpose is as a coach, this episode's for you. And I'm like super fired up this morning about niching and finding your purpose or figuring out you know where you want to be as a coach, partly because I knew we were going to be talking about this today, but also because I think Ryan and I we have some pretty good stories in terms of, like, how we've gotten at least this far. I mean, who knows where we're going to go from here, but we've had success in getting to where we are now. Also, I listened to this podcast this morning about a woman who, you know, kind of figured out her niche or not niche, I guess but her purpose and her business by really just kind of falling into it.
Speaker 1:And I think that this is something that people don't really understand until you kind of can look back and connect the dots, because there's this sometimes this urgency to figure it out now, like what is my purpose, what is my niche? What am I going to be known for as a coach? How am I going to help people? But what people don't talk about very often is just really trusting the natural process of finding your way right and recognizing that it's a path, like it's a journey to discovering what that ultimate end goal is. You know, and you might start with one thing but then end up doing something totally different. So that's what I want to talk about today on the podcast. What do you think about that, ryan?
Speaker 2:No, I want to talk about Halloween movies. Have you heard of pumpkin head?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:I hadn't heard of it either. I just this moment I noticed it on my other screen here in a chat, like a Facebook post, somebody asked what are your favorite Halloween movies and multiple people wrote pumpkin head. So I briefly Googled. It Doesn't look like my kind of movie, no man.
Speaker 2:I've never heard of that movie, so but I mean, that being said, we probably should talk about niches. Yeah, and some people say niches right, that's a whole episode, right, there Is it niche? Is it niche, was it neither? In Canada, I think it's more common to say niche.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, in the States, don't they say the riches are in the niches.
Speaker 2:I think in the States it kind of depends on the state or or maybe depends on the person. But yeah, it's more common to hear niche rather than niche, but there's an E at the end of the word. If it were niche, would it not be NICH or NITCH?
Speaker 1:Exactly that's what I think. So I mean but hey, we bet it right over here in Canada.
Speaker 2:But either way, regardless of how you pronounce niche, if you're a coach, probably you've given a good amount of thought to what you know how, how and if you're going to niche because the prevailing advice from all of the business leaders in the niching not the niching in the coaching industry is figure out your niche as soon as possible. The riches are in the niches, as Alana said. I think you know you can choose a niche and dive in and make it work, or you know, as I think Alana and I both did, we, you know, allowed our niches to develop organically and this is something that I think was instrumental to me being at the level of becoming you know. The success that I am now is allowing things to develop organically and being a little bit patient and keeping my eyes open for indicators of what direction to move in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, totally, and I would say the same thing, like I mean, man, I've had so many niches in the last just two years that I've got like I dove into and kind of like got really serious about, but then for some reason they never felt authentic to me.
Speaker 1:You know, like I really felt that I was not forcing necessarily, but I wasn't like being true to who I am and a lot of the niches that I dove into. However, I must say I'm glad I did, because what, what it's allowed is like a huge library of resources in my head which now allows me to have quite a lot of diversity when I am working with people, because you know, I've gone deep on like a few topics that I can work on with people, which I think is super cool. And I wouldn't have had that as a resource had I not kind of forced myself to get into these specific niches that you know that I've worked through. So that's this kind of the same thing. It's just sort of like organically. I got to where I am now, against sort of the advice from a couple of business coaches that I've had who were like you must stay with this niche for at least 18 months, and I was like now I'm out after six.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So we have a list.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, we have a list. Yeah, we got three things that we need to address.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Before we get to the list, we have a. We have a meta list of three things we need to address. We need to address your organic niche development, my organic niche development, as the examples that we're going to share today.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And the list. I don't care what order we do it in. That's what we got to talk. Yes or maybe back to the Halloween movies. I've never seen the Shining, have you?
Speaker 1:Oh, really, I see that's one movie I have seen.
Speaker 2:I've never seen it, I've heard it's long.
Speaker 1:No, not really. You definitely want to watch it. Is it long? I don't know. I can't remember Like how long is a long movie? Two hours.
Speaker 2:It's 146 minutes, okay. So it's two hours and 26 minutes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so it's kind of long.
Speaker 2:Two and a half hours. Okay, it's not as long as I thought. Two and a half hours extravaganza.
Speaker 1:No, it's a pretty good movie. Yeah, jack Nicholson, I love him, jack Nicholson, shelley DuVall.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, so how do we want to start here? Do we want to, like, share our stories through the list?
Speaker 3:Yeah, we could do that. We could do that, or do we?
Speaker 1:want to. I mean we could also take these little notes prior to the list to move into the list.
Speaker 2:I think would you agree that the thesis here is you want to have an idea on what direction you want your business to go. Hopefully you know who you definitely, what niche you definitely do not want to work in and maybe a few niches that you're drawn to.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And as a starting point, maybe you want you know what modality you want to use. Maybe you're really into hypnosis, or maybe you're really into NLP, or maybe you're really into breath work or whatever you're really into. You want to have a few cues in your mind at the general direction you want to go, and then you also want to be keen on letting things develop organically at a pace that works for you. Do we agree on that? When it comes to a niche and developing a niche and establishing a niche, yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1:I think I would add to that that you also want to know what do you On a big umbrella right? What do you want to be known for in the world?
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:To Okay. Yeah, that's part of it, because when I think back to even my fabric store, I just wanted to help people.
Speaker 2:Be a fabric.
Speaker 1:Be a fabric, but I wanted to help people. The story that I created with that was just help people get back to something that brought them joy yeah Right, which was sewing at the time for me and not that I was a sewer, but I knew that that was a passion. So I would create content around having a hobby and what that does for you and how that can help your well-being, and blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm still doing that, but in a totally different capacity.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So I think you want to have this overall. Who are you being?
Speaker 3:What do you want to be?
Speaker 1:known for yeah, yeah Cool. I think that's important.
Speaker 3:Good.
Speaker 2:Agreed Okay.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Let's get into the list.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's do the list. I think then it'll happen just organically We'll be able to share our own stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the list here is the answer to the question how do I allow my niche to develop organically?
Speaker 3:I think that's what this list is.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is yeah.
Speaker 2:Cool, all right. Number one is self-reflection. It's funny that this is number one on the list because this is like what I see a lot of coaches really not doing. It's like they're asking everybody. They're asking everybody but themselves about what direction to take the niche. You know posting in Facebook groups and in masterminds what should my niche be? What niche is good? Is this niche good? Blah, blah, blah. At some point you got to accept responsibility and look inward and ask yourself who do I want to serve?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Self-reflection.
Speaker 1:Well, and also just understanding yourself, understanding what do I want? Like I said before, who do I want to be, what mark do I want to put on this world? And like, how is that going to like? What niche is going to align with that? Right, and I think, too, the other thing is like really looking at your values, like where, like are you the type of person who is just getting into this whole coaching thing because you want to make a lot of money? Well then you know you may pick a niche. Then that is going to align with that value. So, you know, maybe it's like if you're a hypnotherapist, maybe it's just like I just want to work with people who want to quit smoking, because you know that that's like a need people have and it's easy, and like people are going to look for you and done. But if your value is, like you know, creating community or helping people or I don't know what it might be, but like, then you would approach your niche from like a different perspective.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So that's the self reflection. It's really like looking inward and being like what do I want? Like, why do I even want to be a coach? And I think we've talked about this before and I don't think it's necessarily to go crazy on your why. You know what I mean and figuring out, like, you know, why am I doing the thing. But it's important to have an understanding as to like, why are you getting into this type of work? Because this, this type of work, isn't for everybody. In my opinion. Like, it takes a certain person to want to do this type of work and help people and coach people on whatever it is that you decide you want to coach them on. Like, in my opinion, it's a real passion. Like, for me, this work is like a huge passion, yeah, just like my life.
Speaker 2:So, in other words, self reflection.
Speaker 1:Yes, self reflection, do that and this might be boring, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Which is why I think people skip it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or people might just not be ready for self reflection yet, or there's just, or they believe that there's not enough there, which actually kind of leads us to our next point on the list, which is gain experience.
Speaker 2:The more people you've served in a coaching context, the more equipped you are to reflect on the experiences you've had and you know your strengths and guide your own guide yourself in the direction that you want to go. So, for me, part of developing my niche really was gaining experience by just offering coach coaching to as many people as I could, offering the trainings that I was equipped to offer and paying keen attention to what did I enjoy doing, what did I not enjoy as much? Who was responding really well to what I was offering? Who was not responding? Any experience you can get is invaluable and is more and more ammunition for you to really zero in and hone in on your niche. I think another kind of misstep that some people make is that they want to decide on a niche without having worked in that niche, without having served people in that niche, and then go all in. You know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what if you don't like it right, yeah.
Speaker 2:Then you might. You might get there and you might realize either you don't like it, or the people in that niche don't resonate with you as well as they could, or whatever. Right, who knows what's going to happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly yeah. I think it's just like get started. You know, just start coaching people and maybe just sort of generally too, and see what happens from there. It's also really great market research too to figure out what problems are people really having.
Speaker 3:Yeah, all right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay. Plus, you meet people too by doing that. So, like if you're just sitting around worrying about what your niche is going to be and like trying to figure that out, if you just get started and start actually coaching people, kind of like, generally, then that allows you to meet people, which allows you to have other discussions, and then they maybe introduce you to people or like introduce you to concepts that you wouldn't have even considered Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. Yeah, experience isn't necessarily, by the way, just work experience. Experience could be attending trainings, conversations with people you know, being part of the conversation in different places and contexts. It's you know, being out there, you know, will give you a better understanding of the direction you want to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, one thing I just want to add that was really valuable for me was I interviewed people, so I wasn't really offering coaching, but I created a list of about 20 people Some I knew, some I didn't really, some were from my Instagram, some were like parents of my kids' friends and I just set up 30-minute interviews with these people and I had a whole list of questions and I created an Excel spreadsheet and I went through the questions and, you know, everyone was happy to be interviewed, right, and answer some questions and it was really just questions around like you know, what were they experiencing? What difficulties were they having? What you know, what did they want? Like, what was holding them back from having what they want? Like they were very just sort of general questions, but it gave me so much insight into like what women you know in their kind of late 30s, early 40s, were dealing with. And then from there, it allowed me to create content and, you know, move into and I got a couple clients from doing those interviews too.
Speaker 1:That's just a little tip in terms of just like that's one way to get started even is just like start interviewing people, talking to people and finding out what the problems are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, there you go, not just being part of the conversation, but starting the conversation. Yeah, really good. Okay, we might have to make this two parts, another two-parter.
Speaker 2:Another two-parter because we're only on. We're only starting number three now and we're already like almost a time for this episode. I think we should like go through three and four because we didn't. We had a lot of preamble. We really like got into the, got into the weeds during the preamble. I think we should do three and four and then break for the week and next week finish off the list.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure.
Speaker 2:Cool, All right. So number three is get curious. Get curious. Curiosity always maybe not always curiosity to kill the cat, but curiosity usually will serve you well as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 2:Being curious about what can you do, what works, what are other people doing? What do I like? Pay attention to the topics or issues that naturally peak your interest. Yeah, you know I obviously part of my niche right now is helping people with social media and you know, every now and then somebody will say well, you know, I get into social media, I post what I got to post and then I eject, right, and then they wonder why social media is not serving them well. Well, because they're not exercising curiosity whatsoever. Yeah, Like part of being part of a system and utilizing it is, you know, consuming from it as much as putting into it. Right, being curious, what else is going on here in this context where I want to attract clients? What are other people who serve the same niche up to? What are they talking about? What's important in the conversation right now? Yeah, you know, that's a big, that's a big part of it. Yeah, huge.
Speaker 1:Being curious is huge and also, you know, I would add that it's just being curious about, like, what you're naturally drawn to Like.
Speaker 1:If you say you're going down the path of a specific niche but you're always drawn back to researching about something else, then why not get curious about bad interests that you have and figure out, like, how could I incorporate that into my, into my niche, or into my purpose or into, like, what I'm coaching on? Yeah, like for me, for example, I've had all these niches and I keep coming back to now, while this doesn't necessarily like create my niche, but I keep coming back to sort of these like divination tools, right, so, like you know, tarot cards and oracle cards, and now I'm into palmistry and so I got curious with that in terms of like, how can I start incorporating more of this unique interest that I have into my coaching? You know it's not necessarily that I only want to be a palm reader, but how do I integrate that into coaching with people or how do what? Or you know, this new kind of path that I'm on now is like, how do I help other coaches integrate their unique spiritual practices or specific interests into their coaching practice?
Speaker 1:And that's kind of the new path that I'm on, like I really want to help coaches create their their unique selling proposition around, like how can you incorporate all the cool things that you like to do for you into developing those relationships with your clients and enhancing your sessions from that perspective? Yeah, yeah, absolutely, and that comes with curiosity, right, it just comes with naturally being interested in, in what you know, and it's also like tapping into your own knowing.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because you know, right, like a lot of people, aren't trusting of that inner knowing and so then they overthink or they doubt themselves because they listen to other people. And I was listening to this podcast this morning and I loved it because she was talking a lot about paying attention and listening to your intuition.
Speaker 1:And you have to kind of decide are you going to listen to the knows that you get from people in your life or are you going to listen to your own knowing and that's a decision that you really have to make, or it's also a skill that you need to develop, to learn how to listen to your own knowing and just ignore the knows, because, at the end of the day, those knows are not your knowing. I loved that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:And like this is something that I ran up against. I've run up against so much because I went through like all these niches with coaching and I've been. You know, from the outside it might look to some people like I'm struggling right, but on the inside I know I'm fine. You know I'm just going through the process and, like you know, being patient with it Because I know that there's more for me. I know that deep.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I trust it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it is, you know, and for you, things really have been developing quite a lot, and especially in the last year, like a lot has been falling into place and coming together.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But, you know why? It's because I have learned how to trust me and not listen to other people.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know that's been a big thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which brings us awkwardly to our next point, Number four listen to feedback. And point number four says pay attention to the feedback you receive. Well, this is going to make more sense from clients or from those you have helped in the past, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So this is not about letting other people tell you what to do. This is more about paying attention to feedback. Look for patterns in the feedback and in the stuff you are already helping clients with. This provides valuable insights into the areas where you have the most impact and where you can specialize. So you know, a really good example of this is three years ago.
Speaker 2:I was focusing almost 100% on running NLP and Hypnotherapy and Timeline Therapy Technique certifications for coaches. So I've run, I've training, certification, teach, teach, teach and give certificates to the people that attended the trainings. And today, although my niche is the same it's coaches, hypnotherapists, nlp practitioners. Most of what I'm teaching is not skills certifications, it's business and social media Right. In fact, you know I have one hypnotherapy cert coming up in November.
Speaker 2:But other than that, everything else I've gone on between now and the end of the year is business coaching, social media coaching, content coaching, the simple social sanctuary, membership speaking coaching, public speaking coaching, because I paid very close attention to what you know, my graduates and what my followers were asking for and needing and wanting, and you know the questions, particularly that I was getting back, and the responses to the questions like oh, ryan, nobody's ever, you know, made it this simple before. Nobody's ever, you know, been able to help me solve this one little problem and you were able to do it in seconds of effort. Yeah, that's all really good evidence about you know where a person's gifts lie and what might be a good direction to take your niche for your business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I feel like you did that really skillfully and it just made sense, right, like you didn't like force it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Like you know the famous story of the crotchety old man who has a gas station and all he wants to do and it's on the side of the highway all he wants to do is sell gas. And all he wants to do is sell gas. And you know, every day people come in by gas and they say hey look, do you have water? I'm thirsty? And we get annoyed because then he would give them a little plastic cup and they would go and fill up their water cup at the sink. And then one day somebody said well, why don't you just sell bottled water and pop and slushies? Right, yeah, pay attention to the feedback of you know, your clients, the people you served or whatever. And now, gas stations these days make more money from the snacks that they sell in the inside than from the gasoline outside in a lot of cases. Yeah, yeah that's true.
Speaker 1:Yeah, listening to feedback is key, because sometimes you, you and I think this is something too that coaches get into, and I know I certainly did too it's just sort of like you want to make it work for you, or it's like you're kind of like coming up with the idea of like what you think people need, but then you put it out there and nobody actually needs it, but they're giving you feedback on what they actually do need.
Speaker 1:So, like, it's important to listen to that and like you know, while I know I went on a bit of a tangent about your knowing and like knowing what you want, it's like, it's a discernment too. You know what I mean. Like, and I think it's also important to get feedback from not necessarily not even just the clients, but like, if you are working with a coach, you know what I mean. It's just sort of like it's this fine balance between what you know you want to be doing and like where you want to go, but then also like getting constructive criticism. That is going to help you grow that part of you too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know and like because I think before I mentioned like, I had a business coach for a bit that I was working with and he was just like you've got to like focus on this niche for 18 months, and I listened to him for about six months and I was like, no, I can't do this. But I'm glad I did stick with that Because, as a result, I got some really great feedback from the people that I was working with and from myself in terms of like, ok, this isn't for me, this does not feel aligned. So, yes, listen to your own knowing, but then also listen to the feedback.
Speaker 3:That's going to help you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, extend your own knowing, or something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, agreed, cool, ok, so is that where we're stopping. Just like that. I think we're wrapping there, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then yeah, the rest of the items on the list are really really good and really on point. So, folks, one of the best things you can do for getting clarity around your niche is to listen to this episode and listen to next week's episode when we finish this list, for you know what are the key things you need to be doing and knowing to allow your niche to develop organically. So my advice is, you know, now you've listened to this episode, let this all simmer. You know, maybe do some relaxation, maybe some meditation and see what starts to come to mind. Don't strain yourself by any means. And then visit with us again next week and listen to the remainder of this list. Yeah for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think sitting with yourself is like a good idea. Really sit with yourself and reflect on, like what do I really want and what you know? What do I really want? You know, what do I also to? I think another one that I'll leave you with is, like look at where you were 10 years ago and you know, figure out. How can I like, what is my growth been and how can I use that to help people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, because that's often going to feel the most authentic. Yeah.
Speaker 1:To you.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right, cool. Well, I'm excited to talk more about this next week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, me too. This is a great list and this is an important topic and, yeah, cool, everybody join the simple social sanctuary rymontiscom.
Speaker 1:Yeah and join my Ascension Circle. You can find out more about that at Atlanta Banks Coaching on Instagram.
Speaker 3:Cool, all right, I guess that's it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's it Okay, bye everyone.
Speaker 2:Bye.
