When I started JJ1 Professional Coaching, every business advisor, marketing expert, and successful coach told me the same thing: “Pick one niche. Master it. Build everything around that single focus.” It was logical, practical, and completely wrong for who I am and the clients I serve.

Every time I tried to narrow down my focus, something inside me rebelled. It felt like I was abandoning parts of myself that desperately needed what I could offer.

Today, I want to share the behind-the-scenes story of how I made the business decision to create three distinct coaching programs, why I ignored conventional wisdom, and how this choice transformed not just my practice, but the lives of clients who needed exactly what I was told not to offer.

The Moment I Recognized My Own Need

In my previous posts, I’ve shared my journey to discovering my calling as a life coach, how I transformed my grief into purpose, and why I believe your niche should be you. But I haven’t shared the specific moment when I realized that building just one coaching program would mean turning away the very people who needed me most.

People often ask why I chose this path instead of the traditional single-focus approach. The answer lies in recognizing that I had been all three types of clients I now serve.

I was the overwhelmed young adult – paralyzed by education and career choices, with no idea how to release myself from the pressure to “figure it out.” As I shared in my post about being a lost teen, I had no idea how to account for whatever skills I had accumulated or how to move forward with confidence.

I was the career-confused professional – laid off and questioning if I was even in the right field. I spent most of my career as an administrative professional, but I no longer had the desire to continue in that industry. As I detailed in “Trials and Tribulations,” I was living behind the scenes of my own professional life, feeling invisible and undervalued.

I was someone who had experienced profound loss – not just the death of my daughter, but losses that extended far beyond traditional grief. I’ve lost friends and relationships in every form, pieces of my identity, the comfort of having a place to call home, opportunities, my definition of health due to diagnosis, dreams, and loved ones.

What I gained through all this was an insurmountable depth of empathy and a unique perspective on life’s highs and lows. I know how to get emotionally overwhelmed, but I’ve also learned how to pull myself out from that depth.

The Business Pushback I Received

When I announced my intention to create three programs, the feedback was swift and unanimous:

“You’ll confuse your market.” “You can’t be everything to everyone.” “Clients won’t know what you’re about.” “You’ll never be able to market effectively.”

From a traditional business perspective, they were right. Single-focus businesses are easier to market, simpler to brand, and clearer to understand. But I wasn’t building a traditional business. I was building a practice that honored the interconnected nature of human challenges.

Here’s what I discovered through my own experience: real life doesn’t fit into marketing categories. The young adult struggling with career direction is often also grieving the loss of their structured college life. The professional navigating career transition frequently needs to process the grief of not obtaining the professional identity they sought within a particular industry. The person processing loss might be questioning their entire life direction without their person of significance.

Instead of forcing clients to compartmentalize their struggles or referring them to three different specialists, I wanted to create a practice where people could show up as whole human beings.

How Each Program Emerged from Personal Experience

When I designed my coaching practice, I could have chosen the easier path. But doing so would have meant ignoring the three versions of myself that desperately needed support at different points in my life.

Career Transitions: From Professional Invisibility to Empowerment

For years, I built a career out of opportunities that were presented to me, not ones I actively sought. I was so busy rushing toward adulthood that I never paused to envision where I actually wanted to go. This pattern of reactive rather than proactive living left me feeling invisible in my own professional story.

My Career Transitions Program emerged from understanding what it feels like to question your value, feel uncertain about your skills, and wonder if meaningful work even exists for you. My clients don’t just get career guidance; they get someone who truly understands the weight of professional uncertainty and the challenge of finding your voice in professional settings.

Young Adult Life Direction: Supporting the Overwhelmed and Unheard

Long before my professional struggles, I experienced being unheard and undervalued during my teens and young adult years. Those relationships taught me what it felt like to have your voice dismissed and your worth questioned by people who were supposed to care about you.

My Young Adult and Teen Life Direction Program exists for the version of myself that needed someone to see her potential when she couldn’t see it herself. For teens and young adults who feel lost, overwhelmed, or uncertain about their path forward. They deserve someone who remembers what it feels like to question everything about yourself and your future.

Grief and Loss Support: Honoring All Forms of Loss

When I lost my daughter, people showed up for the immediate aftermath, but as weeks turned to months, I found myself grieving alone. What struck me most was realizing that throughout my lifetime, I had experienced other significant losses that no one had acknowledged or supported me through.

Loss isn’t just about death. It’s about dreams that didn’t materialize, relationships that ended, versions of ourselves we had to let go of, career paths that closed, roles we once held that no longer existed.

My Grief and Loss Support Program was born from understanding that grief extends far beyond traditional bereavement. It exists for anyone who has experienced loss in any form and needs someone who understands that all grief deserves witness, validation, and compassionate support.

The Integration Strategy: Making Three Programs Work as One

The business challenge wasn’t just creating three programs; it was ensuring they worked together cohesively. I developed what I call the “interconnected approach” – acknowledging that most clients’ challenges don’t exist in isolation.

Here’s how it works in practice:

• A career transition client might also need grief support for the professional identity they’re leaving behind
• A young adult working on life direction might be processing the grief of childhood certainty
• Someone in grief support might be questioning their entire career path

Rather than creating artificial boundaries, I built flexibility into each program that allows clients to access what they need when they need it.

A Real Example of Integration in Action

Recently, a parent reached out for advice because their 34-year-old was struggling to create a stable career. But fifteen minutes into our first session, I realized we weren’t just dealing with the instability of their child’s career. This parent needed me more than their child did.

I discovered that this child actually had a full career of their choosing, but the parent was grieving the dream they had for their child’s future. They were carrying guilt about what they thought they didn’t do while raising their child, and fear about where they, as a parent, had failed.

So we pivoted. We worked through the grief of unmet expectations. We talked about coping skills for managing anxiety about their child’s future. We explored how to support without rescuing, how to love without controlling.

Months later, something beautiful happened. This parent found peace with their child’s career choice and their relationship became less strained. The parent even shared my programs with their child, who is now planning to work with me on their life direction and career goals.

One client became two clients, accessing three programs, creating comprehensive transformation. Because life doesn’t happen in neat categories. Career transitions trigger grief. Grief affects our relationships with the young adults we love. Sometimes the most powerful transformation happens when we address the whole person.

Each program represents a part of my story where I needed “a me” as a coach. I needed someone who had walked through career uncertainty and come out stronger, someone who understood the unique grief of losing a child while also honoring all other losses, and someone who remembered what it felt like to be young and overwhelmed by life’s possibilities.

The Unexpected Business Success

Creating three programs instead of one wasn’t just a business decision; it was an act of integrity. It allowed me to show up authentically for each client, drawing from lived experience rather than just training and techniques.

What I’ve learned through building these three programs is that when we create space for all parts of our story, we give others permission to be whole too. My clients don’t have to compartmentalize their struggles or pretend that one area of their life doesn’t affect the others.

In a world that often asks us to be one-dimensional, there’s profound power in embracing complexity. My three programs exist because human beings are complex. We don’t experience life in neat categories, and our support shouldn’t be categorized either.

The business advisors were wrong about one thing: creating three programs didn’t confuse my market. It attracted exactly the clients who needed comprehensive, integrated support for the beautifully complex experience of being human.

Your Whole Self Deserves Whole Support

If you’re reading this and recognizing yourself in any part of this story – whether you’re struggling with career uncertainty, grieving any kind of loss, or trying to find direction in your teens or young adulthood – you deserve someone who understands the fullness of these experiences.

You don’t have to choose just one area to work on. Life is interconnected, and your support should be too. Whether you need career transition guidance, grief and loss support, or young adult life direction coaching, all three programs are designed to meet you exactly where you are.

That’s exactly what these three programs were designed to provide: comprehensive support that honors the beautiful, messy, interconnected nature of being human.

Ready to explore how integrated coaching can support your unique journey? Whether you’re navigating career transitions, processing grief and loss, or seeking direction as a young adult, I’m here to support you with programs designed from lived experience and deep understanding. Contact me today to take the first step toward your next chapter.

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This post builds upon themes I’ve explored in First Client was ME!, My Story of Trials and Tribulations, From Lost Teen to Life Coach, Finding Your Voice in a Room Full of Resumes, From Surviving to Thriving, Transforming Grief into Purpose, and Why Your Niche Should Be YOU. For more insights into my coaching philosophy and programs, explore my other posts on jj1pc.com.