e187 Uneath Your Edge and Never Get Lost In The Sea Of Sound-The-Sames Again
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[00:00:00] Welcome. Welcome to rewild Your Business. I'm your host, Gill Moakes. Thank you so much for joining me again this week, or if you are new around these parts. Thank you so much for being here. Good to have you. So this week I wanna talk a little bit about something that is very, very foundational to the success of any coaching business, and that is your personal brand.
You know, as coaches, I think. We all need to be developing a personal brand. For a lot of businesses, there can be a fairly decent argument to simply have your business brand and really you can, I don't wanna say hide behind that, but you can certainly be inside of that brand. And it can be all about building the brand of your business.
As coaches, I believe that we're [00:01:00] personal brands, whether we like it or not. And. The more you can develop your personal brand, your authentic, real personal brand, the more of a unique edge that will give you in differentiating yourself from all the other coaches out there, and the more of a chance you are giving yourself to build a hugely successful coaching business.
This isn't an episode where I'm gonna be talking about brand from the perspective of picking colors and fonts and crafting. Maybe you know, the perfect elevator pitch. That's not what I wanna focus on. In this episode. I really want to focus on this foundational part of your business, which is around unearthing your edge.
So let's dive in. Welcome [00:02:00] to rewild Your Business, the podcast for women doing the work, their soul intended. I'm Gill Moakes. I'm an international business coach, and I'm a guide for women doing the work that matters. Rewilding your business means cutting away what doesn't belong to allow, what does to thrive.
Finding simplicity in your work. And it's about bringing the whole of who you are to the table, whether you are building something new or finding your way back to what really matters to you. I'm so glad you're here. So something I see happening all the time, and I mean all the time, is that coaches are completing their coaching certification and they are buzzing, you know, they're, they're literally.
So excited to be able to use this skill that they've developed, that they've put all this effort into learning how to be a really great coach, and they're ready to change lives. They're ready to [00:03:00] really get going and work with the clients that they wanna work with. And so they're sit down, they're ready, they wanna build their business.
What is the first thing they do? They look around at what everyone else is doing, and this is so natural. This is not me having a dick. This is not me saying that, you know, oh God, how stupid. Because we all do that. It's human nature. So what we end up doing is we end up looking at other coaches' websites.
They are reading other coaches', Instagram bios. Whether they realize it or not, they start mimicking the language that they're seeing everywhere from inside that zeitgeist of other coaches. The problem with that is that the language, the messaging, it becomes incredibly beige, very safe, very kind of generic, and I'm betting that this is ringing true for you.
I bet you know exactly what I mean by [00:04:00] this. When you know you're scrolling through and you are seeing so much repetition out there of sound, the same messaging. So then what happens when a potential client is maybe scrolling through Instagram or reading an email or on LinkedIn, and they're either looking for a coach or certainly open to learning about how a coach could help them?
Well, what they're seeing is they're seeing all these coaches who are saying the exact same things and they can't tell the difference between any of them. So all of these amazingly good coaches are lost in a bit of a sea of sound, the sames, right? And the coaches who have posted those beige bios, you know, they're kind of wondering, why am I not getting the inquiries?
Why is the content I'm creating not landing? Why isn't it resulting in anything happening? And the answer to that is [00:05:00] twofold. One is that you probably haven't. Really been taught how to actually become visible. So in other words, you probably haven't been taught how to market your business. And the second part of it is that even if you have, people are not seeing you because you are not standing out.
There's nothing about what you are putting out there that is setting you apart, that is really reaching out, grabbing the potential client so that they can say, oh my goodness, yes, now this person really gets me right? And. When you're sort of blending in like that, there's actually a few things that happen.
One of the things is that you absolutely undercharge, well, actually it's not even undercharging because you can't articulate [00:06:00] well, what makes you different Then you cannot justify premium pricing. So then what happens is you go into this pot of the sound, the same coaches, and you are all competing on price instead of the value you bring.
The second thing that happens is that you start attracting the wrong clients. If you are attracting any clients, sometimes it's that you're not attracting any clients at all. But basically your messaging is so vague that no one really knows if you are actually the right fit for them. So they are not getting that extra spur to action to take the next step with you to book a discovery call with you to raise a hand and opt in for a freebie or something like that.
They're just, they're just not noticing you. And the other thing is. Honestly that you are a prime candidate for burning out [00:07:00] because what will happen is when you are not seeing the results, when you haven't figured out what's actually gonna make you stand out, you end up trying to be everywhere and do everything.
Just hoping something will stick because you're not really sure what the right thing for you to do is. Your messaging isn't working hard enough for you, and all of those things can absolutely result in losing confidence, and that's the saddest thing. I think because, and I see this a lot, it's almost like coaches, they set themselves up for failure because they've been taught the skills of coaching, but not the skill of building a coaching business.
Whilst we can look at that from the outside and think, well, obviously you don't know what you don't know. Obviously you need help to learn how to grow a coaching business. But actually what happens is they start thinking there's something wrong with them. Start thinking, oh, maybe I'm not cut out for this, [00:08:00] you know?
But the problem is twofold. It's one that you haven't been taught how to grow your business and the other that you haven't yet. Unearthed your edge. The thing about you that will make the right clients pay attention. So when I talk about your edge, what do I actually mean by that? I believe that your edge is the combination of everything that makes you unmistakably you.
So it's your values, it's the things that really matter to you. What are the hills you're willing to die on? What are those opinions that you will absolutely put a stake in the ground around what's important to you? It's also your lived and learned experience, so all of the stuff you've been through.
Over your life, all of the lessons you learned the hard way. It's the things that you believe in that maybe not everyone agrees with. Maybe it's the [00:09:00] perspectives that you hold that make some people nod furiously agreeing with you and other people hit the unfollow button. Brilliant because. That is part of your edge.
Having something that is setting you apart, something that is so radically authentically you, your authentic personality, not the professional coach version of yourself. You know, not that version that you think you should be. It's the actual you, the whole of you, and it's your messaging. It's the things that you can't stop talking about.
The stuff that drives everything you do. It's your voice. It's the way you say things. And notice with this, there's no right or wrong answers for all of this. There's no right or wrong answers. It's the phrases you use. It's the tone that's you uniquely yours. And when you bring [00:10:00] all of those things together, that is your edge.
Can you see that when you do that? You straight away are dropping your competition because no one else has that exact combination. No one else has your specific lived experience combined with your particular values and way of explaining things, right? So when you lean into your edge. Then you start to automatically stand out.
Not really because you are trying to be different, but because you actually are, you are different. You are you, you are not that coach who on that day one of trying to build their business just started by googling other coaches' websites and Instagram bios, right? So if developing personal brand, your unique edge.
It's so bloody important. [00:11:00] Why are more coaches not doing it? And I think, you know, there are a few reasons for this. I think the first one is it's a fear of being judged. And this is so natural because it feels vulnerable to show up as your authentic self with your real opinions and daring to voice them.
Your actual personality that some people won't like that can feel a bit terrifying. It's much safer. Safer, feels much safer anyway, to hide behind that generic language and blend in with everyone else. 'cause then at least you can't be rejected for being you. But you've probably heard this a thousand times.
What actually happens is what, when you try and appeal to everyone, you are appealing to no one because no one is identifying closely enough with you for you to become like magnetic to them. It's only when you are willing to repel some people that you become magnetic [00:12:00] to the right people. Oh, bloody hell.
There's a quote, right? So true. The second reason I think that coaches are resistant to this is. I touched on this before, you know most coaching certifications, they teach you how to coach, how to be a great coach, but they don't teach you how to build a business and they definitely don't teach you how to develop a personal brand that's gonna attract your ideal clients.
So then coaches are graduating their training and are brilliant at the coaching part, but they dunno how to position themselves. In the market to be able to attract the right clients. And then, you know, you're probably Googling how to get coaching clients and going down rabbit hole after rabbit hole of like marketing tactics and Instagram strategies and funnel building and all of those tactical things.
But none of that addresses the really fundamental question, which is who [00:13:00] are you and why should someone choose you? I think the third thing is that. It's a bit of chicken and egg really. I think a lot of coaches feel like they need to be more experienced, almost like, you know, well, once I've worked with more clients, then I'll figure out my niche.
Once I'm more established, I'll develop my brand. I'll know more about what my brand is. Once I feel more confident, then I'll be able to show up more authentically. It just doesn't work that way round. Right. You don't build a business and then figure out your brand. Your brand is the foundation that you build your business on top of, and anyone who is telling you that it's marketing that matters most and not brand, in my opinion, is crazy because if you don't have a solid, strong brand, you have nothing to market.
That's the [00:14:00] truth. So you can waste a ton of time learning marketing strategy, but if you haven't done the foundational work around your brand, you are wasting your time. So your edge, it's not something you earn after you've been coaching for certain number of years. It's something that you've already got, but you have to uncover it.
Okay. That's actually a shift that I really want you to think about. We need to stop thinking about our personal brand as something we create and start thinking about it as something we uncover. So you are not inventing a persona, you are not manufacturing some kind of brand identity, right? You are excavating what's already there.
Your values already there. Your lived experience, it's already happened. Your strong opinions, you've already got them. Authentic personality. It is what it is, [00:15:00] right? So the work isn't about creating something new. It's about getting really clear on what's already true and then having the courage to let that show.
And when you do that, everything gets easier. Building that business, growing that business on top of that strong foundation becomes so much easier. Your messaging actually becomes. So much clearer and easier to create because you're not trying to sound like someone else. You're not gonna need to use AI as a crutch to create sound, the same kind of content, because you'll get so good at getting out exactly what you believe in and what you think.
And that's gonna make so much difference. That's when people start noticing and start saying, yeah, have you seen that person? That person definitely has a way of saying things that I just relate to. I wanna know more about her. And [00:16:00] your ideal clients. Start finding you because your authenticity acts like a filter.
It attracts the people who resonate with you and repels the ones who don't. And as soon as you can get brave enough to repel people who aren't your ideal clients, as soon as you can grow a thick enough skin so that if someone says, oh, I don't agree with her. I don't like the way she says that, I don't agree with her point of view on that.
If that's not your ideal client, that's what we're aiming for. And it's not about being disruptive or contrary for the sake of it. It's about being very clear about what you do believe in and who you are for, right? So like I say, your edge isn't just about your marketing. It is absolutely your business foundation.
And when you are clear on your edge, when your personal brand is developed and you are really secure in it, [00:17:00] then your niche becomes very obvious to you. Because you naturally attract people who resonate with your values and your way of seeing the world. I'm a big believer that our niche isn't just about demographics, it's about psychographics.
It's about who are the people's whose values, who are the people whose values are aligned with ours? And when you are clear on your edge, your offers become irresistible. And that is because they're built around your unique approach, your specific expertise, right? They're not a diluted kind of imitation of what someone else offers.
Probably someone who has actually done the work and created something that is, you know, perhaps reflective of them. If we then try and copy that. And just, you know, very lightly adapt it in a tiny way. You know, we can see that. People can [00:18:00] feel that, people can feel it when it's not authentically yours. And if you skip this step, if you try and build a coaching business without first unearthing your edge, you are actually building a business on sand.
I've talked about this before because what happens is when the market shifts or when your confidence takes a bit of a hit, or you hit a rough patch, the whole thing can crumble. I do see that happen a lot. It's coaches, they'll, they'll jump from strategy to strategy. They'll keep tweaking and changing their niche, trying to find the thing that works and they get exhausted.
'cause nothing's sticking. But it isn't the strategies that are the problem, it's the foundation. When you get clear on that, then everything else becomes possible. Right. Starting on the 8th of December, eighth, ninth, and 10th of December, I'm gonna be hosting a [00:19:00] free three day masterclass. I did this last year and it was my most popular event of the year, and it's completely free.
It's live on Zoom. We we're on Zoom together for 90 minutes on Monday the eighth, Tuesday the ninth, Wednesday the 10th, and at 5:00 PM UK time. There are three layers to the work, so that's why this masterclass is over three days. It's too much to give you in one go, but I give away a lot here. This is really the foundational work that I do with clients in my Mastery 18 week accelerator.
So this is really the first module of MASTERY, kind of. Brought to life in this free masterclass, and because this is so foundational, you know, I've had people tell me that this has actually changed the trajectory of their business just going through this free masterclass. So I would love you to come and join [00:20:00] me for this.
I wanna tell you a little bit about what we'll cover each day. So the first day, we're gonna cover who you are. So, like I say, this is about getting crystal clear on your values, your story, so that lift and learned experience and what you bring to the table that no one else does, and most coaches skip this part.
They jump straight into who do I serve without first getting very clear on who am I, right? So that's what we'll be doing on the first day. The second day, once you are clear on who you are, now your ideal clients are gonna become much more obvious because they're almost always, let's face it, a previous version of yourself.
As coaches, our ideal clients are nearly always a version of us before we overcame our own struggle or achieved our own goal. I know that's true for me. My ideal [00:21:00] clients are coaches who at the beginning of their journey feel like no one has told them the secret to growing a business that who feel like there must be some secret key that no one has shared with them.
That was me overwhelmed not knowing how to grow my business. And I think that's true for most coaches. So whatever general niche you are in, you know your ideal clients are probably that previous version of yourself. But what we do in day two is we're gonna talk about how to refine your niche. And this is so much more than just those.
Demographics, age, location, you know, what they do for a living, what industry they're in, whatever, things like that. It's much more than that. It's about genuine alignment between who you are and who you are meant to serve. Okay. Third date is all about how you [00:22:00] communicate, so this is where your messaging is coming in.
So when you know who you are and you know who you serve, then creating pitch perfect messaging that actually converts becomes much easier, right? Because this isn't about trying to craft a perfect elevator pitch. This is about genuinely articulating what you believe in, in a way that resonates with the people that you are meant to work with.
So those three layers that we're doing day one, day two, day three, embracing your unique edge, refining your niche, and nailing your messaging, those three things come together, and that is your edge. And when you get those three things aligned, then you become unmissable. There's a lot of noise in business in general at the moment, to be quite honest with you.
But in the coaching industry, I [00:23:00] think there is a deafening amount of noise. I think there's a lot of people who are teaching marketing tactics and growth hacks and all that, how to scale to six figures in six months nonsense. And some of that stuff might work for some people. I'm not saying that it's all rubbish.
But what I know for sure is that if you are a coach who wants to build a business that actually feels good to you, that is actually in alignment with what matters to you, with what's important to you, and allows you to work with the clients that you love to work with, then you can't skip this foundational work.
Can't outsource this. You can't just copy someone else's positioning. There's no shortcut around this work. It probably isn't the glamorous bit of building a business. You know, it's probably not the stuff that makes for the exciting Instagram reels, right? But it is the difference between a [00:24:00] coaching business that's actually gonna grow and make you money and a coaching business that is constantly struggling to attract the right people.
Okay. It really is the difference between feeling confident in who you are and what you offer versus feeling like a bit of an imposter every time you post on social media. It's definitely the difference between attracting your ideal clients versus attracting anyone who'll say yes. So this is important work.
I probably sound like I'm massively over egging this. But I, I'm not gonna apologize for it, honestly. It is that important, right? So come and join me, like I said, starting December the eighth, three days foundational work that changes everything for you and it's completely free. How good is that? You're gonna get 90 minutes on Zoom.
There's gonna be time to ask [00:25:00] questions. We're actually on Zoom together. It's not a webinar. You know, we're working together, so you're gonna get time to ask questions, et cetera. You're gonna get workbooks for each day, so each day you've got these workbooks to work through. So you are ready then for the next day and moving onto the next step.
This masterclass is genuinely gonna move you forward. That's a promise. That is a promise that I'm not afraid to make. This is gonna move you forward in your business. So I am gonna cap the numbers on the masterclass because I really want to make sure that everyone gets enough kind of space to ask questions.
So I would definitely get in quickly and bag a spot. And I think this follows on nicely really from the planning work we've been doing. So I did the two episodes recently, I think it was episodes 1 8 5 and 1 8 6 about planning for next year. [00:26:00] And it'll probably be good to go back before the masterclass, go back and just re-listen to those actually, because you know, thinking about your vision for next year is gonna be a really important part.
Of understanding why this work matters. Why does this foundational work matter? Why is it so important that you position yourself right? Because it, it's the key. It is one of the keys to unlocking, bringing that vision to life for yourself. Okay. Right. So I hope that appeals to you. I will, of course, pop the link into the show notes to sign up for the three day masterclass.
It's gillmoakes.com/unearth. It's called Unearth Your Edge. Come and join me. Let's do this work together. I'm gonna walk you through this step by step, and if you've been to any of my workshops or master classes before, you'll know that's my [00:27:00] style. You know, I give you the workbooks and then I talk you through it.
Do this thing, try this, experiment with this. I'm really going to give you what you need to work through this. Okay? Alright. I hope this has resonated with you. I hope to see you on the 8th of December, but I will also be back here between your ears next week, same time, same place. I will see you then. Bye for now.
