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Today, I will teach you how to identify and leverage your unique strengths as an educator to grow your executive function coaching practice, avoid spreading yourself too thin, and attract clients who want your unique expertise.
By focusing on your unfair advantage or the expertise that sets you apart from others, you will become the "go-to" person in your network for support with executive function challenges.
This approach is particularly relevant for those transitioning from education to private coaching, as it helps you stand out in a competitive market.
Why Finding Your Unfair Advantage Matters
Specializing in a specific area of executive function coaching can significantly elevate your impact on clients and the number of clients seeking your services.
When you hone in on your unique strengths, you become a sought-after expert, leading to better client outcomes and increased satisfaction.
This is because clients often seek specialists who can address their specific challenges. By mastering this skill, you can provide targeted support that drives progress and success.
What Happens If You Don't Specialize?
When you choose to try and be a generalist, you may still be able to find clients to work with, but you will have a range of other undesirable side effects.
A few of these include:
You will have to develop expertise in multiple areas continually
You will have to create marketing materials and website pages to describe a variety of services rather than one
You will not attract customers who want a specialist and are willing to pay top dollar to use their services
While many coaches are afraid to specialize due to their fear of losing clients by being too specific, the opposite occurs- the more specific you get, the greater the earning potential and the more enthusiastic clients are to find your services.
The riches are in the niches.
Here are a few other reasons many EF coaches fail to attract clients.
Why Do Many EF Coaches Fail To Attract Clients?
They Overgeneralize
Many coaches try to cover too many areas, diluting their expertise and making it difficult for potential clients to see them as specialists. This can lead to fewer clients and less effective coaching sessions.
For example, if you were a parent seeking a coach to help your child with missing assignments, feeling overwhelmed with school, and arguing about homework, which coach would you choose from the offers below?
Offer A
“I help students build essential skills in organization, time management, and goal-setting, empowering them to achieve academic and personal success.”
Or this offer?
Offer B
“I provide students with executive function skills and foundational support in reading, writing, and math, fostering confident and capable learners.”
While they both sound nice, all things aside, I would choose Offer A to support my struggling student.
They Identify Too Many Strengths
Coaches often struggle to pinpoint their unique strengths or unfair advantage. This can be due to a varied educational background, where they have helped students in multiple areas, making it challenging to focus on one.
Just because you helped a handful of students with specialized support in math or reading, if you were spending most of each day guiding students to complete assignments, communicate with their teachers, and task-initiate, your specialty is in executive function skills, not math and reading.
Their Offer Is Too Vague
Without a clear focus, coaches may find it hard to position themselves in the market.
This can result in being overshadowed by more specialized competitors, leading to fewer client inquiries and opportunities.
Remember, there are plenty of reading specialists, dyscalculia specialists, educational therapists, and executive function coaches.
Trying to say you can do all those things is a recipe for being passed by when neuropsychologists are sharing specialist referrals at the end of the assessment reports. Be specific!
Step-by-Step Process to Implement the Skill
Step 1: Identify Your Unfair Advantage
Reflect on your background and experiences. What have you consistently excelled at?
Consider areas where you’ve helped the most students or received the most positive feedback. This could be working with special needs students, teaching organizational skills, or addressing specific academic challenges.
If you are unsure, ask close colleagues or friends, "What do you think I am really good at?"
Another question to ask yourself is, "What problems to people come to me to solve?"
Spend time interviewing others, journaling about this, and reflecting on the common thread in your professional background; the answer will become clearer each day.
Step 2: Understand Client Pain Points
Engage with potential clients to understand their frustrations. Are they struggling with task initiation, missing assignments, or specific subjects like math?
Use this information to tailor your services to meet their needs. Once you've worked with a handful of students, ask yourself, "What was the common thread between these students?"
When you can see the broad pattern of support you provide and refer to it in a way that communicates your specialized expertise, you create more value for others in your business.
3. Draft Your Value Proposition
Once you've zoned in on your area of expertise or "unfair advantage," you are ready to draft your value proposition.
Your area of expertise should be something you can discuss confidently without extensive research.
If you are not able to talk about your area of expertise for 30 minutes without having to look things up, you may not want to tell people you specialize in it.
Step 4: Test And Adapt Your Value Proposition
Now, get to work seeing if you can actually deliver the value you promise in your proposition.
If you are truly the expert you though you were, you will be able to gather testimonials and share success stories that highlight your expertise.
Throughout all this, avoid overselling; instead, present a clear, nuanced offer that showcases your specialized skills.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if I already have another specialty and I am adding executive function coaching?
If you already have another specialty and are adding executive function coaching, consider creating separate landing pages on your existing website to keep each service distinct while guiding clients to the right place.
Alternatively, you can use a simple platform like Tutorbird to set up a straightforward website and test out the new EF coaching service without investing heavily in domains or web design. This approach allows you to gauge interest and adjust your offerings as you grow.
Summary
By determining your unfair advantage, you can enhance your coaching practice, attract more clients, and make a meaningful impact.
Specialization is key to standing out and building a successful business. You can still be open to exploring adjacent areas, but keep your primary focus clear.
If you are ready to take action, try these steps:
Reflect on your experiences and pinpoint areas where you excel.
Engage with clients to discover their main challenges and frustrations.
Draft your value proposition
Test your ideas with clients and make adjustments
Hope this helps 🤙🏻
P.S.
Consider joining hundreds of educators and professionals who have completed our executive function coaching certification. You'll gain all the tools, templates, and techniques you'll need as a coach, plus you'll make new friends and have a community you can rely on to grow and learn. Learn more.
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About Me
Hey! I'm Sean 👋
I'm a former public school special education teacher who realized that executive function skills are more important than knowing when George Washington crossed the Potomac.
Since then, I've made it my mission to teach anyone who will listen about how to develop these key life skills.
In 2020, I founded Executive Function Specialists to ensure all students with ADHD and Autism have access to high-quality online executive function coaching services. We offer online EF coaching and courses to help students and families.
Realizing I could only reach so many people through coaching, in 2021 I started the Executive Function Coaching Academy which trains schools, educators, and individuals to learn the key strategies to improve executive function skills for students.
In 2023, I co-founded of UpSkill Specialists, to provide neurodivergent adults with high-quality executive function coaching services.
When not pursuing my passions through work, I love spending time with my family, getting exercise, and expanding my brain through reading. You can connect with me on LinkedIn.