I love the simplicity of a fable.

Ever read any?

Some of my favorites are from Aesop (which has a pretty cool backstory). If you don’t recognize him, you’ll probably recognize some of his most famous ones including: The Tortoise and the Hare, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and The Lion and the Mouse.

But there’s a lesser known fable that I actually taught my class a couple years ago.

It’s The Dog and His Reflection.

Gist of the story is a dog crosses a bridge holding some meat in his mouth. It catches its reflection in the water below and mistakes that reflection for another dog (with a larger piece of meat). As a result, he barks at the other dog (his reflection) and drops the piece of meat, losing it into the water.

The moral of the story?

Wanting more than you need can lead to poor choices.

Here’s the connection for mental performance coaches:

Going broad can be a trap

And it’s a tough trap to pull yourself away from.

The thinking is: “if I go for everyone I’m bound to have a surplus of interested clients.” When I started co-writing I had the exact same fear. If I narrow myself down too much, there’s not going to be enough interested people. The advice you’ve probably gotten: don’t get too specific, or you’ll scare people off. But I think it has more to do with commitment than anything.

Niching down or getting specific is less about people and more about time.

And commitment is about taking control of your time.

Think of it like your summer plans. The time horizon makes it look like you’ll have all the time in the world to finally clean out your garage, declutter your pantry, organize your shelves, train for your marathon, automate your business with AI, and quilt–only to recognize that it’s mid-August and your summer has come to a close and you’ve done 1 out of the 357 things on your list. It’s nothing to be ashamed about and that excitement is genuinely useful, but one of the reasons we fail to do some of the things we want to is because we assume we’ll get around to it because we have sooo much TIME.

We also think we’ll have all the ENERGY too without considering the daily fluctuations of life (something that’s a lot harder when you have a family or building alongside your 9-5).

Commitment is prioritizing depth

Commitment is an active choice to pursue depth, in spite of the limited time we have.

When you go broad, you’re choosing to be a 'maximizer’. While maximizing looks enticing, it can lead you to be very unsatisfied. Because you try to ensure every decision is the best that could be made. The reality is there’s uncertainty in almost every part of life. Taking a risk is a necessary part of growth and success.

What this looks like for the mental performance coach is choosing everyone instead of someone, especially when you branch off from the practice you were part of and start something new.

It’s almost instinctual to think broad.

And thinking broad is like the dog looking at its own reflection in the water. When you default to 'bigger' in the sense of who you serve, especially when you’re getting yourself established, it’s hard to gain traction. Because without a commitment, it’s harder to gain an information advantage.

An information advantage helps you become an expert in the field. Which can ultimately be attractive to people in other areas.

Commit

This is not a marriage decision. You can always change later.

But people need to understand the problem before anything else. Problems are specific. And when you try to serve everyone, you end up talking to no one.

More importantly, when you don’t commit to something/someone, it’s more likely you end up offering different services to different people in different industries which can be a recipe for being overworked and underpaid.

So here’s where to start:

1. Instead of listing services, focus on the specific transformation: Listing every service can create ‘decision fatigue’ for potential clients. They don’t want a generalist. They want a specialist that has solved their exact problem before.
2. Your First “Yes” is Your Compass: Say you’re working with an executive with burnout and a college athlete with test anxiety. That’s two potential commitments already sitting in your calendar. Pay attention to where you have an information advantage, and where the work doesn’t drain you.
3. Build Your Advantage: Once you pick a lane, your content should start being a library of solutions for that specific problem. Not a laundry list of services.
   1. Yes: “I help C-suite executives manage high-stakes decision fatigue so they can lead without burning out.”
   2. No: “I help people with mental performance”

One choice over the other doesn’t lead to a ‘perfect future.’ It is not a quiz with one right answer. Going broad feels like the safe choice. It’s actually the one that keeps you invisible.

As always, thanks for reading.
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Until next time,
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- Marcus W.

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