July 22, 2025
Clarity Through Action: Becoming the Coach You're Meant to Be
Send us a text Are you stuck in the endless cycle of trying to find the perfect niche, create a stunning website, and develop a flawless business strategy before you feel ready to coach? It's time to break free from this trap. After guiding thousands of coaches through the early stages of their journey, we've discovered a powerful truth: the very things most coaches obsess over—niches, websites, business plans—are often the exact things holding them back from making the impact they're meant ...
Are you stuck in the endless cycle of trying to find the perfect niche, create a stunning website, and develop a flawless business strategy before you feel ready to coach? It's time to break free from this trap.
After guiding thousands of coaches through the early stages of their journey, we've discovered a powerful truth: the very things most coaches obsess over—niches, websites, business plans—are often the exact things holding them back from making the impact they're meant to make. This obsession with strategy isn't about confusion; it's about fear. Fear of being seen, fear of failing, fear of not being good enough.
The transformational shift happens when you realize that you don't become a coach by building a website; you become a coach by coaching. When you focus on what we call the "Three S's of Starting"—Service (practicing coaching through free conversations), Showing Up (creating visibility), and Specialty (speaking to real pain points)—everything changes. Your confidence grows with each person you help, and suddenly, the path forward becomes clear.
What's particularly fascinating is how your specialty or niche emerges organically from the work itself. As you coach more people, you'll notice patterns in who gravitates toward you and what problems you're especially adept at solving. This organic discovery is far more powerful and authentic than trying to force yourself into some predetermined box based on market research.
Ready to stop overthinking and start coaching? Our mini action plan will get you moving: message three people offering coaching, go live offering free clarity sessions, and record a video sharing your core message. Because remember, clarity doesn't come before action—it comes from action. What's really holding you back? And what impact could you make if you started today?
Subscribe now and join a community of coaches who are done with perfectionism and ready to make their unique impact on the world.
Want a personalized strategy session for free? Book a free call with Marc or Teresa: https://www.modernleadership.us/apply
Whether you're going through a challenge, or working on a powerful goal, join Marc or Teresa for a 20-minute strategy session and leave the call with a plan to make it happen!
Chapters
00:00 - Why New Coaches Overthink Getting Started
03:20 - Perfectionism Hides Real Fear
05:04 - The Three S's of Starting
09:46 - Your Mini Action Plan
11:15 - Truth Drop: Clarity Comes From Action
Transcript
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If you're a new or a stuck coach who's spinning out thinking that you have to pick the perfect niche, you have to have the most beautiful website, we want you to pause right now.
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Having coached thousands and thousands of coaches, we see this happen over and over and over again, and today I want to tell you what most people won't tell you, and that is that you don't need a niche, you don't need to have a website.
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You just need to do what you do best, which is coach.
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That is what we're diving into today.
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We are Mark and Teresa from Modern Leadership.
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We help heart-centered coaches who really want to make a huge impact in the world but can sometimes talk themselves out of doing those things, and that's really what we're going to dive into today.
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So we're breaking down today exactly how new coaches start.
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We've seen it by actually taking people through this process and seeing them get more clients, make more impact, make more money and have more results, by focusing on things that I feel like most coaches don't focus on.
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All right.
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So today's quote is you don't become a coach by building a website.
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You become a coach by coaching.
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I want to go into, kind of why we overthink this right, why we think that we need all of these different things before we actually do the work.
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One of the reasons why we probably overthink this is because we've actually been conditioned to think like a business owner before we really learn how to embody the identity of a coach.
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So, rather than really focusing on the actual work of becoming a coach, we think that we need all of these bells and whistles, like Mark said.
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We think we need a website, we think we need a niche, we think we need all of the laundry list of things that we feel business owners need to have before we actually become a coach or before we actually coach someone.
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And many times there's this obsession with strategy.
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We need the steps, we need that strategy, that business strategy, before we can actually coach.
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But what that actually means through our coaching, we've actually realized that a lot of people do this because they're in avoidance mode.
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They don't want to actually do the work.
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We think we need to have all of these things in place and we think everything needs to be perfect before we actually become a coach, and this perfectionism actually really hides the real fear, and that is being seen or failing.
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So those are the key things.
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What is actually holding you back, like, think about it.
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Is it confusion or is it fear?
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What do you think is actually holding you back?
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And what if this wasn't actually about building a business, right?
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What if it was about becoming an actual coach?
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If you've ever thought this, like when you first get in, start into coaching, we know a lot of people are excited about it.
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They're excited about making an impact, asking questions, helping guide people, all that kind of stuff and then, before you know it, the whole idea of a business comes to mind.
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We've seen it happen time and time again by coaches who are really want to make an impact yes, want to make some income but it derails them because now they're all thinking about the strategy, like Teresa was saying, and they lose touch of the thing that actually moves the needle.
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And, by the way, we're not saying that you should never have a niche, that you should never have a business plan and you should never have an LLC Like we would not say that.
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But when you think about tracking expenses, doing all those kind of things, like you need to have clients before you can actually figure out what do you need to track.
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And even if you sat down and you figured it out now, you're going to probably change it three or four more times, and so it's a really big waste of time as opposed to just getting out there coaching, learning some frameworks, implementing them and helping people, because there's nothing more powerful than you changing someone's life and they're not going to be like wait, do you have a business license?
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To be honest, like people, don't even ask me if I have a certification, because when you can change somebody's life, those things don't really matter that much.
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They matter more to us than they do to the clients, and we realize that that's the case, and sometimes you put too much action, too much energy into it, which is why the first part really diving into why we overthink this is an important part of this process right, a lot of people think that there's one right, best, only way to do something, and that we have found is false.
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News is, anytime somebody teaches you one right, best, only way to do it and you feel like you have to do it, you totally lose yourself in the process and you're back into business mode instead of actually coaching and leaning into your strengths.
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And so when we take people through this process and they realize this isn't about a niche, a website or any of these other things that people are telling you about, it's actually just about coaching people and getting people to see that you can change their life, talking to people about their pain points and their problems, rather than what niche you serve.
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That's really what moves the needle, and it's because when you focus on the things that really matter, everything else falls apart, and yet this whole idea of like procrastinating or being uncomfortable it just disappears because you're not focused on all of those business type things.
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So here's the thing I want to share with you what actually gets clients early on.
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Okay, so this is not just from me saying that this is what I did, but this is like from helping coach hundreds and hundreds of people to find their first clients.
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All right, this is what happens right Now.
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We call this the three S's of starting.
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Number one is the first S of service.
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This is actually practice coaching getting on free calls, having real conversations.
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We get a lot of people to get started with having free clients for do some free coaching.
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Because there's a mindset switch that happens when you become an actual coach, when you realize what you're doing is impacting somebody's life.
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It doesn't happen in one session, it happens from you actually coaching a human and you can see when that mindset shift happens of like, I'm not just saying I'm a coach, I am a coach Whether people pay me a million dollars or not, I'm gonna show up and I'm gonna be able to help them because that is what I do.
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That's why having real conversations, really doing whatever you can, getting on free calls to be able to develop your coaching skill, will help you exponentially, not only at attracting more clients, but knowing that you're a coach.
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Because, just like we teach in the be do have part of the process.
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You don't just start doing things and then automatically have the results.
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You have to first become somebody different in the process.
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That's why we always start people off with coaching and just coaching Free.
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Some people do paid, but, like we always say, there's no one right way to do anything.
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So even if we said there was one right way, we also wouldn't want you to believe that either.
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There's multiple different ways, but it depends on really where you're at.
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But that's the first S is service.
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The second S is showing up.
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Now we talk about this related to visibility, and that is like getting people to know what you do.
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If you're a coach and you're a powerful coach and nobody knows who you are, it's really hard to be able to get people to see that next step.
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But also, you don't have to have a million followers on IG to make that kind of visibility, like there's five or 10 people that if they knew you were a coach right now they would say yes, and you would have some clients and you'd learn so much through that process.
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But you have to be visible.
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So you have to be going out there, showing up visibly and letting people know what you do.
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Because if nobody knows what you do and all you do is you share inspirational quotes which is great you'll see them on my channel too, but you'll also hear me talking about me coaching my clients, me going through specific things, me teaching a certification, me teaching the coach accelerator, because that stuff drops breadcrumbs.
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So that people know what I do, you have to show up, and show up visibly, so they know what you're doing.
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The third S is specialty.
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Now, what I don't mean by specialty is your niche.
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Some of you guys will have a niche and you'll love it and it'll be amazing.
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But what happens first is you don't find your niche first and then start coaching.
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You start coaching and then you find your niche and the beautiful place there is, like when you start talking to real people about real problems.
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You will find out which people tend to gravitate towards you.
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They'll be like you are an expert in this area.
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I need your help in this area.
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They don't care about your niche.
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They don't care how beautiful your website is they're like.
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If you can help me, I need that help.
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Yes, as we grow, we're going to probably talk about a niche.
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We're probably going to put together a website.
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We're going to do all those things.
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But don't put the cart in front of the horse.
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So many times it happens in reverse, where you coaching actually presents the niche to you, one that you could have never thought through in the first place, but because you're actually helping people solve real pain and real problems, that's what puts you on the map and the game changes forever.
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So those are the three S's Service, meaning, get out there, practice, coaching, showing up.
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That means being visible, letting people know that you're a coach and what you can do and the impact that you can create.
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And then specificity, talking about the pain points, the problems that you help people solve.
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Now you can start figuring out all that other stuff right, but that's after you're coaching people and you're having conversations and you really, truly have that mindset shift that you're a coach.
00:09:01.052 --> 00:09:09.133
So remember you don't need a niche, you need to speak to people like you understand what somebody is actually going through.
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That, my friend, is the game changer.
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It'll be any niche, any day of the week, because when people are like it's like you've been reading my diary, it's like you know what it is that I'm going through.
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Now you know you're speaking to somebody in a way that makes them feel like you get them.
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It doesn't matter what your niche is at that point, it's just that you connected with them on a really deeper level.
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I want to point out actual coaching, like going out there and coaching people benefits for free.
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The biggest thing for me, which is what I kind of learned through, is the confidence that's built up.
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So I want to give you guys a little mini action plan, so this is something that you can do this week.
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So, number one message three people and offer to coach them.
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So everybody knows at least three people I hope so.
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If it could be anybody it could be a friend, it could be a colleague, it could be a family member, anybody that you would be okay, reaching out to them and just offering you coaching.
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And then I want you to go live on Instagram or just post a story offering a free clarity session or a free clarity chat, whatever you want to call it, but offering a free service to people.
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And then I want you to record one video or a voice note with your core message.
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Record one video or a voice note with your core message.
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So what is it that you truly believe you can help people with?
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What are your values, your core values that you want to spread the message on?
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I want you to record that and just post it.
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Post it raw, you don't have to edit it or anything like that.
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It's what comes out of you, what's truly in your heart, and I want you to do that.
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So one of the things that we do here, especially when we're going to talk about our Modern Leadership Coaching Academy, is it's not just about the mindset shift, it's also about getting you to perform and take actions for you to achieve something different.
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Because, like Jim Rohn said, if you want something different, you have to do something different.
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He didn't say you have to think something different.
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That's the first step, but the second step is you have to do something different with it.
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And so, when we fueled you in the beginning with the mindset piece, now we're getting into what is the tactical plan that's going to help teach me the lessons that I need to learn?
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Notice, I don't say this is the tactical plan for you to get all of the clients that you're going to get this week and it's going to help you sign 50 clients.
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We don't know that, but what I can tell you is, if you don't do any of these and you don't take any action, you will have zero clients, because then we'll be failing by default.
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But when we lean into this and you learn the lessons that these three things are going to teach you, you're going to come back in two weeks and go three things are going to teach you.
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They're going to come back in two weeks and go this changed the game.
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I'm now coaching, I'm now having these conversations and now your next thing is going to be like Mark, how do I actually get them to want to actually continue to sign up with me and continue to be a part of my programs?
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All right, so the final truth drop that we want to share with you guys here is coaches don't get clarity first and then take action.
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They take action and that's how they get their clarity.
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So clarity comes from action.
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It doesn't come from waiting.
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It doesn't come from thinking it out.
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It doesn't come from your business plan.
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It doesn't come from you creating your LLC, your tracking spreadsheets none of that.
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All of that stuff comes after you start implementing, you start taking action and you start helping some people.
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All right, I appreciate you all for your leadership.
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Leaders are not defined when everything's going well.
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They're not defined when everything gets handed to us, and they're definitely not defined when everything's smooth sailing.
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Leaders are defined because they're willing to do things differently.
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They're willing to show up anyway, they're willing to experience the fear and then do it anyway, because you cannot have bravery without fear first.
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So thank you for being willing to lean in, thank you for doing what you do out there every single day, and we'll see you guys in the next video.
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Bye, everybody.
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