One of the most frequent questions I get asked is how do I define my niche if I don’t have any experience?
You niche is uniquely you and yours. It is the intersection of what you enjoy, what you are good at and your purpose in life. This includes who you work most effectively with, who you get the best results with and whose needs your coaching strengths match most closely.
It is about the magical dance between you and your potential client. It’s your zone of excellence.
The Japanese have a concept called ikigai that perfectly embodies the concept of niche (in my opinion).
Ikigai is normally used in the sense of defining your purpose in life…that driving force that makes you leap out of bed in the morning, excited to face the day. It’s your reason for being, and I can’t think of a more fulfilling thing than living your purpose.
Your “ikigai” consists of 4 key areas:
- Your passion: a strong and barely controllable emotion;
- Your vocation: a calling or feeling of suitability for a particular career or occupation;
- Your profession: a paid occupation, especially one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification, and
- Your mission: a strongly felt aim, ambition, or calling.
Where passion and mission intersect, you are doing what you love.
Where mission and vocation intersect, you are giving the world what it needs.
Where vocation and profession intersect, you are doing what you can be paid for.
Where profession and passion intersect, you are doing what you are good at.
Your “ikigai” is the sweet spot right at the centre, where doing what you love, what you are good at and what you can be paid for is also giving the world what it needs. This, I believe, is where your niche resides.
Why don’t you spend some time attaching words, ideas and concepts to the passion, mission, vocation and profession quadrants in the ikigai model and let me know what you come up with.
If you’d like to book a coaching session to ikigai your niche with me, fill out the form below:
Reference: Oxford Dictionaries
