Focus! Magnifying your power through specialization

Focus is a great thing. When you use a magnifying glass to focus the sun’s rays, you end up with a lot of power in a very specific place.

This power is useful in many ways.

When you specialize your coaching business, you’re bringing a more powerful message to the people who most care.

When you tighten the scope of a coaching discussion, you’re increasing the possible outcome for a specific area of work.

And when you concentrate on a particular area for the next hour, you’ve just increased the likelihood of accomplishing something useful.

I find that focus is a rare thing in our current culture. I struggle with a to-do list with a wide range of Big Important Tasks, while dealing with an overflowing email inbox. Don’t get me started about the nattering of social media. It’s addictive.

Time management experts usually start with identifying the importance of tasks. Prioritize them A, B, C. Or look at the size of the tasks. Do the small ones first so you have a few quick successes. Or do the big ones during your most productive time of the day.

My experience has been that these techniques easily fall into the trap of optimizing at the small scale, while losing sight of the Big Picture.

My cousin’s husband died unexpectedly, which got me thinking about the priorities in my life. All of a sudden my packed calendar seemed to be cluttered with less important activities. I realized that my top priority, even above my coaching business, is my family. So I cleared away some confusion and am now working with new energy.

This is exactly the kind of awakening to which we help our clients arrive. It changes lives.

We might think that clarifying our marketing messages is somehow an artificial exercise. It might be superficial, like whether we want to paint our house red or blue.

But we have to remember that coaching is about helping people who are making the world a better place. Starting with themselves, our clients will move forward with conviction and clarity which will change their families, communities, businesses, and even the planet.

When I’m able to help my clients connect their business vision to the world, their impact increases by leaps and bounds.

When we, as coaches, connect our own sense of mission and values to the right clients, our own power is magnified. And that is simply what marketing is about! Connecting with the right people and moving forward to serve them in life-changing ways.

That is the true power of coaching. But if you don’t connect with the potential clients who will benefit from your work, it’s all for naught. It’s a certificate hanging on your wall and a website that nobody reads.

I hope you’ve learned from the articles in this issue, and are working hard to connect with your own amazing niche.

Your people are out there, just hoping that someone like you will help them.

Published in, and reproduced with permission from, choice, the magazine of professional coaching www.choice-online.com