#192: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: Harnessing Your 10% Edge as a New Coach

In this episode, I discuss a common challenge faced by new coaches: the struggle to find their niche and the identity crisis that often accompanies it. 

If you’ve ever wondered, “Am I good enough to coach on this?” this episode is for you. 

We explore practical strategies for overcoming perfectionism and imposter syndrome and for leveraging your unique experiences to build a thriving coaching business.

Key Points:

• Understanding the 10% Edge: You don’t need to be an expert at everything; having a slight edge over your audience is enough to start.
• Long-Term Growth: Use your 10% edge as a foundation to continue learning and growing, eventually becoming an expert in your field.

Three Crucial Questions:

• Why am I doing this? (Your purpose and passion)
• What results will my clients achieve? (The value you provide)
• How familiar am I with the subject? (Leveraging personal experiences)

Action Steps:

Reflect on your purpose and the results you aim to deliver.
Focus on continuous improvement from your current knowledge base.
Engage with your audience authentically, building trust and credibility.

Link Mentioned in this episode: 
Amy Porterfield What Does a 10% Edge Really mean & Are You Overthinking it? https://www.amyporterfield.com/2023/07/592/ 

🔥 Free Resources For You: Join Profitable Coach Formula Waitlist Here: https://members.elevatelifecoaching.org/PCF2024Waitlist 

About Me:

Hey There! I’m Michelle! Your Visibility Marketing Coach, content and Email Marketing Strategist, Motivational Speaker, Author (…And soon to be your new business bestie!)

I’m an international speaker, Visibility Marketing Coach, and founder of Elevate LifeCoaching.

I help coaches like yourself to build your brand, attract high-quality 5-6 figure clients, and land paid speaking gigs.

I’ve been public speaking since I was 9 years old.

My dad helped me draft my first speech and signed me up for a contest. (Yep, voluntold!)

And since then, I’ve been the go-to person whenever someone needed a speaker on short notice.

At work, I was the one presenting, running workshops, and leading training sessions.

While everyone else stayed quiet, palms sweating, hoping not to get called on, I was the one grabbing the mic and taking the lead.

After working with hundreds of coaching clients to help them boost their visibility and market their businesses, I realized there’s a HUGE missing piece most coaches overlook.

This is the #1 strategy top coaches use to grow their coaching business. are you using it?

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Transcript

Michelle : 0:03

Hey, you're listening to Make it Visible Podcast. I'm your host, michelle Kui. I am a visibility marketing coach and soon to be your business bestie in the coaching business world. Not knowing how to connect with your audience, grab people's attention and get them excited to buy from you should never be the reason you give up on your dream to become a full-time coach. I'm all about making marketing the easiest part of your coaching business, so that you can turn a passion for coaching into a visible and profitable reality. So buckle up, ladies, let's get started.

Michelle : 0:38

I recently had a conversation with a newbie coach who had been out in the industry for about a year or two and she was struggling with coming up with her own niche, and the biggest problem that she related to me was the fact that this new identity as a coach it doesn't feel connected, it doesn't feel resonate, and she has been struggling with identifying herself as a coach. And there's something about this new role, this new identity, that just keep her feeling like she's an imposter. And so, if that is you, my friend, today we're going to talk about how do you deal with this identity crisis and actually, how do you leverage it and how do you resolve it so that finding your niche is not so damn hard. And I know this is a common struggle for a lot of coaches who come to me and they're trying to find their niche, trying to find a place to stand in this big industry, especially if you're new to that first, maybe three years into your business and you're looking to discover that niche. You're trying to find that magic bullet that will just solve a lot of your marketing issue. And so one of the responses I gave to this post is that the fact that this is something that Amy Porterfield had talked about, and she called it the 10% edge, and I'm going to share the episode to her episode down in the description box below. So definitely go and check it out.

Michelle : 2:07

But the point is that you don't need to know everything in order to be good at something. You just need to have that 10% edge compared to the rest of the people who are just getting started. Right, you may be three years down the line, or maybe you even have 10 years of experiences on your belt, but you just need that little head start compared to the rest of the clients that you're serving for Now. This is particularly true for life coaching and mindset coaches because you do have that skills that you have already learned and acquired because of your journey and how far you have come. So, compared to the people who are just in the beginning of the stage, who doesn't have the skill, who doesn't have the mindset strategies of how to eliminate some of the negative self-talk, for example, you are already ahead of them.

Michelle : 2:57

The 10% edge what do you do with that 10%? Once you have that 10%, you can do a number of things right. You can hold on to that 10% and never improve, or, chances are, if you're a coach, you have this inherited growth mindset. You continue, want to learn and grow. So, essentially, with that 10%, you're probably going to take it and make it to the next level. You want to continue to grow on that 10%. So your 10% becomes 20%, become 30%, become 50% and eventually becomes 100%, which makes you the expert in that field. And so all you have to start is just starting with that 10% edge.

Michelle : 3:35

And so do I feel that I need to be good at something in order to coach it? Absolutely not. What you need is that 10% is good enough compared to the people and the rest of the world where they're at is at 0%, and here's why a lot of coaches fail in marketing, because there are so many coaches just thinking about oh my gosh, I only have this 10%. I am not good enough, I will never be good enough in order to help my clients to achieve what they want to achieve, and I can't promise anybody a result or a outcome, and therefore I'm just simply not good enough to do this in the first place. And so if that is how you think, my friend, then today is the day to change. So think about this and approach this.

Michelle : 4:18

There are three questions I want you to start asking yourself every time this am I good enough to coach on this? These are the three questions I want you to ask. One is why are you doing this? Why on earth are you a coach in the first place? And if you can answer that question right, then a lot of these impasse syndromes and the things that you're telling yourself, which is not true, it's going to result because your why, when it's big enough, then none of these will be a hinder or a roadblock for you in continue to move forward in your coaching business journey.

Michelle : 4:53

So the big question to ask number one is why am I doing this? Like why are you doing this? Why are you even starting to coach? And then the second question I want you to ask is what result will my client be able to accomplish after they work with me? Right, that's really big, because you want to think about what's in it for them While you're doing it. Maybe out of passion, you're really passionate about helping the world, you want to make a difference, but what's in it for your people? What's in it for them? That's the second biggest question. I want you to think about what's in it for them. You're doing this not for you, it's for them. So while you're thinking about, you only have this 10%. The rest of the world only got 0%. And here you are. We're so absorbed in our own thoughts and our own mind We'll forget that by stopping and hiding behind the curtain, we're not actually here to serve others. So what's in there for your audience and what's in there for them to actually receive the service that you're providing? So that's the second question.

Michelle : 5:51

The third question is how familiar are you on the subject you're going to be talking about, whether it is on a podcast or videos, or you're writing and creating posts, what is the most familiar subject that you want to talk about. Maybe it's out of your personal experiences. It could be you're overcoming something that you personally struggle in your own journey and that could be something out of your personal experience that you can have that 10% edge. So here are the three questions that you should be asking yourself on a constant basis every time, this idea of am I good enough to coach or am I good enough to talk about this? Am I good enough to actually start a podcast and be the subject matter? Here are the three questions I want you to think about. Number one is why am I doing this? What is the reason for me being here? And number two is what's in it for my audience. What type of result is my client going to get after they start listening to me or after they start working with me?

Michelle : 6:50

The number three big question is how familiar am I on the subject that I'm going to talk about? And this could be out of your own personal experiences how you were able to overcome something and receiving what you're able to accomplish. So comment down below. Let me know what topic or subjects are you most comfortably can talk about day in, day out. In other words, what are you so passionate about, and so let's get a conversation going. Thank you for listening to Make it Visible podcast. If you love this episode and want deeper support for your coaching business, head over to elevatelifecoachingorg and see how we can partner together to turn your passion into a profitable business. I help female coaches launch and scale their coaching business faster than ever, without wasted time and money, filling the gaps in your marketing strategies, creating a simple and easy to follow system so you can accelerate on the path of coaching business that you love. To wake up to, head over to elevatelifecoachingorg and grab a free strategy audit today.