Is your “coach” or “consultant” label costing you clients?
An exercise in positioning, for independents who want to stand out.
We need to talk about the label coach and consultant
As the world becomes more entrepreneurial and more people take on independent work, calling yourself a “coach” or “consultant” is not specific enough. You need positioning that sets you apart.
Keep reading for an exercise to define your positioning, taken from a training that lives inside Authority Club (the membership programme I run for independent coaches & consultants to become go-to experts).
But first, allow me to share a potted history of my own journey of positioning…
My own journey with defining what I do
When I first qualified as a coach via my training diploma, I was quick to see that just calling myself a “coach” wouldn’t be enough if I wanted to make a living doing this work. Not only had most people never experienced true coaching enough to ‘get it’, but I’d also graduated alongside a cohort of people with exactly the same credentials.
I knew that I needed a way to differentiate my skillset. Especially as a 27 year old, who was going to take me seriously?
But I was aware that what differentiated me was my professional background working in recruitment for senior technology and startup professionals. That was my edge. So I started calling myself a career coach who specialised in startup careers.
(Photos from my 2020 camera roll, when I spent too many hours trying to make sense of my niche by journalling and scribbling, and was going for the perfect IG grid!)
Over time, my coaching evolved. I started coaching founders, too. On their businesses and on their psychology. Here’s some newsletters from the archive I sent out during that period of my positioning!
Whilst this Founder coaching made sense given my time supporting
Founders in my last 9-5 my role (where I literally helping the founders on an accelerator programme) I was aware that this type of coaching no longer sat neatly under the “career coach” label.
And, alongside the coaching work, I found myself moving further into ‘mentoring’ territory. Many of these founders came wanting my advice, not just to be asked deep questions.
Soon I had to evolve how I spoke about my business, and I started to call myself a business coach and mentor as a label.
Over time I dropped the label of ‘Founders’ too, since I was working with more independent self-employed folk than I was with founders raising capital.
Today: my positioning is built around coaching and mentoring, specifically for consultants and coaches.
I’ve made these choices for my own positioning in the context of the shift toward mass entrepreneurialism I’ve seen unfold in real-time (I write about this over here) and soon began weaving that insight into everything I do.
I believe the hype around VC backed startups has died down a lot in the five years since I started coaching, but that’s one for another day.
Evolving my positioning didn’t require me to have a perfect answer at the start. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve updated my website and taglines through these evolutions. (I’ve even skipped a few versions from this story for the sake of brevity!) But I got to where I am not through doing the work, seeing where I was most effective, and making iterative changes along the way. And, what I think has stood me well through each iteration, is owning it, sharing it, and building a Body of Work around the ideas.
BTW I wrote more about my journey from a new coach to how I coach today, here:
Your turn: How are you labelling the work that you do?
As a consultant or coach, your positioning is largely shaped by the work you do for your clients.
Chances are, like me, you’ve built this up through a combination of qualifications, prior work or life experience and the clients you choose to serve.
There are lots of components to positioning, but for today, we’re going to focus on the Horizontal Positioning label for your work.
[The below is an excerpt from the Authority Manifesto, shared with members of Authority Club. Learn more or apply to join us here]
Horizontal Positioning is your core method and modality
The tools you use to help others — whether that’s coaching, facilitation, consulting, strategy, storytelling, data analysis, or systems building, or a combination of them — are your horizontal skills.
So beyond that, to articulate what makes your skillset meaningful and distinct, requires going further.
Further might mean going deeper — niching into a specific type of coaching or consulting. Or, it might mean going broader — combining skills in a way that’s unique to you. It could even be both.
Let me show you with the example of a Coach.
i) Going DEEPER
Examples for a Coach on going ‘Deeper’ into their horizontal positioning.
One level deeper: Coaching → Executive coaching
Two levels deeper: Coaching → Executive coaching with somatic practices
Three levels deeper: Coaching → ICF-Accredited executive coaching with somatic practices
Or, some horizontal axis could in fact sit on top of the other, to combine – that would be going broader.
ii) Going BROADER
Examples for a Coach on going ‘Broader’ by layering up their horizontal positioning.
One level broader: Coaching → Coaching and Mentoring
Two levels broader: Coaching → Coaching and Mentoring, and VC Advisory
Three levels broader: Coaching → Coaching and Mentoring and VC Advisory and Speaking
You’ll notice that there is a natural ceiling here. When you go more than three layers either deep or broad, it starts to become either too niche (and limits your potential audience) or too general (and dilutes your Authority).
If this section still feels a bit generic, that’s okay. You’ll have plenty of opportunities to differentiate yourself, in fact this is just one piece of six in your positioning.
Also: don’t worry about pricing or business model yet. Questions like “Should this be 1:1 or group?” often distract people at this stage.
Those decisions can be answered later, in the Body of Work section.
For now, your job is to get clear on what you’re really offering, and why that matters.
Prompt Questions. Use these to dig deeper into what makes your skillset meaningful:
What have you done for 5+ years? Even if not by title, but in your approach?
What would you love to help a past version of you with — if you were to get really hands on, what would you be spending that time with previous you on?
What do you nerd out on?
What are you better at doing than most of your peers in your space?
Where have you over-indexed in terms of skillset or effort?
What do you love doing to create value?
If you had unlimited learning time and budget, what skill would you choose to improve?
You’ll notice that the answers to these questions penetrate layers deeper than just a label that everyone else is using.
And while you may have a tonne of experience across a few areas, remember this isn’t just about your past, it’s about what excites you now. Choose the skill or service you want to double down on going forward. The one that feels aligned with your future.
So whatever you choose now, trust that it can evolve. Your clarity doesn’t have to be perfect to be powerful.
✏️ Your Turn
List the core service or skill you want to build your Authority around. If it’s more than one, what ties them together?
Your ‘horizontal’ is just one layer of your positioning, and stacks on top of other layers that I encourage clients to get really specific on, too. It’s then the combined impact of putting these pieces together so clearly that leads to a uniquely differentiated consulting or coaching practice.
I hope this was a valuable exercise to go through!
If you’re in the market to do some deep positioning work, I offer this with clients 1-1 or inside Authority Club. So if you’re an independent consultant or coach and want to explore joining Authority Club to grow your practice in the year ahead alongside a smart peer group:
Doors are open for another few weeks before we pause on new members joining.
I’ll be back in next week with Shaina Anderson, founder of Hello Generalist, where we chatted in depth about the work independent consultants and coaches can do to hone their positioning as fractional or independent worker. You’re in for a treat!
Thanks for reading as alway, and until next time!
Ellen Donnelly, Founder & Chief Coach, The Ask.
