‘Oh no! – not another Ideal-Client-Avatar exercise!’ went through my mind as I started yet-another-business course. 
I have done so many of these I have ICAs coming out of my ears, and yet so often I’d ended up with something unrealistic and unaligned, and certainly not something that was filling me with joy.
And, trust me, I *know* how important it is to have a clear and unambiguous message that has your dream client saying ‘she’s talking to me!’.
Somehow, the whole demographic thing just wasn’t doing it for me. It isn’t all about their gender, what car they drive, how many kids they have, what pets they have and what magazines they read. For me, it was more about whether our values matched, whether they had been experiencing something I understood and could help with and whether my approach was something that spoke directly to them.
In days gone by, when I first specialised, I helped City Professionals who were under so much pressure (and peer-pressure), they had turned more and more to various substances until it was no longer something they just ‘did’ from time to time, but something that was beginning to impact their work-life, home-life and freedom and was sucking the joy out of everything they did.
I *knew* who I helped. And they *knew* I was speaking to them.
When it comes to niching down, designing their programmes and their marketing, therapists & healers face some unique challenges, that don’t fit into the everyday ‘marketing course’ approach.
It’s time to change the widely accepted approach – we don’t all fit in the same box
