Sounding like every other coach isn’t a writing problem. It’s a positioning problem showing up on the page. Which is why rewriting your About for the fifth time hasn’t fixed it, and why reading twelve more About pages for inspiration makes it worse.
If you sit down to update your About page and reread the first sentence you wrote three years ago and it sounds like twelve other coaches, this is your problem.
You know this because you just looked at twelve other coaches last week and the words on their sites could’ve been swapped with yours. If you’re sitting there wondering why you sound like every other coach, there’s a real reason, and it isn’t your credentials or your niche.
The actual reason is that you’re describing what you do, not what you believe. That happens to people with real expertise. The shift that pulls your voice back out of the sea of sameness is smaller than it looks, and harder to make alone than most people expect.
The reason everyone sounds the same
Most coaches build their About page from the same template. Credentials, methodology, who they help. The template is reasonable. The problem is that credentials, methodology, and who-you-help are all answers to the question “what do you do,” and that question produces similar answers across similar people.
Your buyer isn’t trying to answer “what do you do.” They’re trying to answer “do I trust this person.” Trust is built on what you believe, not what you deliver.
Which means standing out starts the moment you stop describing your service and start describing your point of view.
What a point of view actually sounds like
A point of view isn’t a tagline. It isn’t a one-liner you workshop until it sings. It’s the sentence you say in client sessions when the client is doing the thing that doesn’t work, and you have to interrupt and tell them why.
A point of view sounds like:
- “You don’t need another funnel. You need a message your referrers can carry.”
- “Nobody hires a methodology. They hire the person who sees the problem clearly.”
- “Burnout isn’t a schedule problem. It’s a boundary problem your calendar inherited.”
These aren’t marketing slogans. They’re the thing you say when you catch yourself believing it. If you don’t know your point of view yet, listen to yourself in your next three client calls. The sentence you keep repeating is your stance in disguise.
Why credentials and niche don’t fix the sameness
Three things that feel like they’ll fix the sameness and don’t:
- Picking a smaller niche. You can niche down to “burnt-out physicians transitioning to private practice” and still sound like every other coach who works with burnt-out physicians.
- Adding more credentials. More letters after your name signal legitimacy, not point of view. The buyer skims past them.
- Writing more content. Volume doesn’t fix voice. Twenty posts a month that describe your service will sound like twenty posts from a competitor who describes theirs.
What fixes the sameness is the thing none of those address, which is naming what you believe that your peers won’t say out loud.
Why stance is harder to surface alone than it looks
The gap between “I have an opinion” and “I have a stance a brand can be built on” is where this work lives. The sentence looks easy from the outside, which is why most coaches assume they can write it in an afternoon. Almost no one finishes it clean on the first try, and the ones who do usually land on something that reads like a tagline instead of something a buyer can repeat.
The reason it’s hard isn’t that you don’t have a stance. The reason is that stance surfaces through specific listening, not through sitting down to invent it. The directions I listen in during a client’s first coaching week are around what you push back on, what you refuse to do, and what you catch yourself saying when nobody else in your industry would say it. Those three lanes produce a stance faster than any brand workshop, when they’re asked by someone who can hear it when it lands.
How to use your stance without being obnoxious
A stance isn’t a cudgel. You’re not trying to pick a fight with your industry. You’re trying to give your buyer something to hold onto when they’re deciding between you and someone whose website looks identical to yours.
Three places to use your stance:
- Hero line on your homepage (one sentence)
- First paragraph of your About page (named, specific, concrete)
- Opening line of every blog post or email you send
When your stance shows up in those three places, buyers who agree with it will self-select in. Buyers who don’t will leave. Both of those are wins.
When to get help
If writing “most people believe X, I believe Y” leaves you with something concrete and usable, do the rewrite yourself. Pull it into your hero, your About, your opening paragraphs.
If you can’t finish the sentence, or if what you produce still sounds like everyone else, that’s the gap a brand coach fixes. Personal Brand Coaching is the done-with-you version. Weekly 1:1 sessions over 3 months where we pull your stance out of your actual words, not a template.
If you’re not sure which fits, the $197 Brand Audit tells you exactly which lines sound like you and which lines sound like everyone else. It credits toward further work if you continue.
What to do next
- You know your stance → rewrite the hero and About today.
- You don’t know your stance yet → start with the free Brand Voice Workbook, the hour-long version of this work.
- Stance is clear but your writing still blurs → book Personal Brand Coaching.
- You want outside eyes on the whole thing → $197 Brand Audit.
FAQ
How do I know if I have a point of view or just an opinion?
A point of view is something you can defend when a client pushes back on it. An opinion is something you say to sound interesting. If you’ve argued it with a real client in the last six months, it’s a point of view.
Can my point of view change over time?
Yes, and it should. Your stance in year one of business won’t be your stance in year five. Name the current one clearly instead of hedging across all the versions you’ve held.
Won’t a strong point of view scare people away?
Yes. That’s working as intended. You want people who agree with your stance to lean in. You want people who disagree to go elsewhere. Trying to appeal to everyone is what made you sound like everyone in the first place.
What if my industry rewards saying nothing controversial?
Every industry has that pressure. Every industry also has people who stood out by naming the thing nobody else would say. If your industry would actually blackball you for a clear point of view, the issue is probably your industry, not the stance.
How do I know if a brand coach is right for me versus a copywriter?
A copywriter polishes words. A brand coach helps you figure out what you believe and gets it on the page. If you already have your stance and need the words tighter, hire a copywriter. If you can’t finish “I believe X, they believe Y,” hire a brand coach first.
