#1 Mistake That Keeps Online Coaches Under 6 Figures

It took me over 5 years to finally hit my first $100K year as an online coach, and it was all because of one huge mistake that I didn't even realize I was making. But once I fixed it, everything changed. I started consistently hitting $10K months, working less than 20 hours a week, and I actually enjoyed my business again. So in this video, I'm going to show you what that costly mistake was, why it kept me stuck for years, and how you can avoid it to grow your coaching business faster. Let's dive into the number one mistake that coaches make. Have you ever had one of those days where you feel like you worked all day but somehow nothing important got done? That is a trap that most online coaches live and I did for years. Typically a coach wakes up, they check their phone, they see they need to post on Instagram and then TikTok, maybe try YouTube Shorts, update their website, tweak their email funnel, respond to comments, and oh, should we do a rebrand? By the end of the day, they've checked 100 boxes, but their bank account hasn't moved. Why? Because they are mistaking movement for progress. It's like running on a treadmill. They're working hard, but you're not going anywhere. So the big mistake that cost me hundreds of thousands of dollars and that I now help other coaches avoid is this, it's trying to do everything instead of focusing on the right things. To be productive, you have to work at producing a result. It's literally in the name. If your goal is to fill your client list, for example, but you're too busy tweaking Canva graphics, hunting for viral content ideas, and avoiding the real work of meeting and inviting clients into your offer, how are you ever going to build a full client list? If that is your goal, none of those surface-level tasks matter because you're not building real relationships making clear offers and helping people get results. But most coaches avoid the hard stuff like starting conversations, inviting people into their offers and following up without being awkward. So they default to this busy work because it feels safer and it feels like they're doing something. But if you want to break past 6 figures as an online coach, you have got to simplify. To help you do that, I'm going to take you through a simple 3-step process that I took my client Mercedes through. This allowed her to quit her job and make over $30,000 in the first 2 months of working together. But before we get into that, if you're serious about finding high-paying coaching clients, I put together a free guide that gives you 15 proven ways to find your next high-ticket coaching client. Whether you're just starting out or you're just looking to get more clients, this guide will get you booked. I've tested just about every strategy that you can think of to get clients, and these are my top 15 in a curated list that helped me build a 6-figure coaching business in 20 hours a week. And I'm just going to give it to you. Click on the first link in the description and it's yours. Now let's dive into step number 1. Have you ever walked into a restaurant with a 10-page menu and somehow it felt like you didn't know what to order? That's what most coaches are doing to their audience. They've got a course, a workshop, a group program, a one-on-one offer, a $27 ebook, a free challenge, and their audience is thinking, wait, what do you do? Now imagine walking into a restaurant that is known for just one signature dish and everybody raves about it. You would know exactly what to order, right? That's the kind of clarity that your audience needs. When you try to be everything to everyone, you end up being forgettable to everyone. But the solution's simple: create one Irresistible offer. Going back to my client Mercedes, she was a journalist for 15 years and now coaches experts on how to get featured in major media outlets like Business Insider, Forbes, and the Today Show. When we were building out her offer, we focused on solving one specific problem for one specific person. She's not trying to solve 50 different problems from 50 different ways for 10 different people. If you're an expert or a thought leader of some kind and you want to get featured in major media outlets like Business Insider, Mercedes is your girl. She knows how to get you in touch with and stand out to the journalists that will get you featured. And after 15 years of being a journalist herself, she has a ton of connections, which makes your chance of getting featured virtually guaranteed. She will literally refer you to journalists that are a perfect fit. All of this makes it a no-brainer to hire her if that is your goal. Here's what makes an offer truly irresistible. It solves a real problem that your ideal client is actively trying to fix. With Mercedes, her clients want cool logos on their website, they want increased authority, and they want a ton of traffic to their site. A great offer is clear, outcome-focused, and easy to understand, and it feels like a no-brainer for the right person. Whether it's a group program, a one-on-one coaching package, a course, a membership, the format doesn't matter as much as the focus. Trying to juggle multiple offers spreads your time, energy, and message too thin. There will come a time when you can add different variations of your offer down the road. For example, turning your one-on-one coaching process into a do-it-yourself online course. The offer and the outcome are the same, but the way it's experienced is different. And when you're unclear, your audience is even more confused. So if you're stuck under 6 figures, the first move is this: nail one offer for one type of person that solves one burning problem and gives them one clear transformation. Keep it simple, make it clear, and make it a no-brainer. Once your offer is dialed in, the next question becomes, how do you consistently get the right people in front of it? And that brings us to step number 2. Imagine you wanting this beautiful garden, but your strategy is just to toss seeds into the wind and hope that something grows. Sure, you're doing something, thing, but there's no plan, there's no structure, and there's definitely no guarantee that anything will actually grow. Now instead, imagine you pick a spot with the perfect conditions for the plants that you want to grow. You plant the right seeds in the right soil, water them regularly, and maybe even whisper a few motivational quotes to your basil while you're at it. The difference here is that you are intentional, and when you're intentional and consistent, your garden actually grows. Well, that's exactly what we want to do for getting clients to your coaching business. If you don't have a predictable way to consistently get in front of and build trust with your target audience, you will always struggle to make offers and grow your business. So here's what real intentionality looks like. You pick one platform where your ideal clients are already hanging out. You share consistent value-driven content that shifts their thinking and shows them what's possible. And then you offer a simple, no-brainer next step to dive deeper with you. This is exactly what my client Mercedes did. She focused purely on Instagram. She loves Instagram, and that's where her audience is hanging out. So she started answering her audience's biggest questions. Telling stories of real clients that she's worked with in landing major media features, and then inviting people to a free session where she would show them how to do the same. By sticking to this one simple system, Mercedes made $30,000 in the first 2 months with me, and she even quit her job to go full time in her business. The goal isn't to do more stuff. It's to build a system that brings in leads consistently so you can focus your time and energy on what you do best— actually coaching your clients. Now, even if you have a killer offer and you have a great system to get in touch with the right people, if you don't nail this next piece, you're never going to get booked out and get clients. Imagine throwing a party expecting 20 people to show up, but you've only invited 3 people, and then you get frustrated because nobody showed up. This is exactly what most coaches do when they're trying to get clients. We are in the people business. So if you want clients, you've got to talk to people, start conversations, build real relationships, and yes, invite them into your offer. That's the big piece right now. Think about the number of clients that you would love to have. And then multiply that by 6. That is the amount of invites that you need to make. So if you want 10 high-paying one-on-one coaching clients, you need to make 60 invitations. 60 times you have to say, this is what it looks like to work with me. Here's how much it is. Do you want to do it? But this is where most coaches get stuck. They avoid the direct, vulnerable work of making offers because it feels scary or salesy or they're afraid of rejection. So instead, they passively post content and hope that somebody magically clicks the link in their bio and buy something from them. But hope is not a marketing strategy. If you want to grow, making invites is the work that moves the needle. And this doesn't need to be complicated or weird. One of my favorite invites to use after you've added value in your content or one-on-one conversation is the if-then transition. And it goes like this: if you want blank, then blank. Here's how this invite can sound in a couple different niches. Let's say that you're a health coach. You could say, if you want help finally losing the last 15 pounds without fad diets or measuring out every single meal, 'then book a free call with me and I'll walk you through the exact process my clients use to get there.' If you're a business coach, you could say, 'If you want help landing your first 5 high-ticket clients, then join my private community and I'll give you the exact framework I used to help hundreds of others do it in under 30 days.' And if you're a parenting coach, you could say, 'If you want help getting your kids to listen without yelling or bribes, then grab a spot on my calendar and I'll give you a simple strategy that's working for dozens of my clients right now.' This makes your offer feel natural, clear, value-driven to the person instead of you just trying to sell something. People want help and it's up to you to offer to help them. But you really have to understand your target audience because if you don't, you're not going to be able to speak to them in a way that makes them take action. Now, here's a simple weekly game plan that you can follow every day, Monday through Friday. We'll say reach out to 5 new people each day, comment on their posts, reply to stories, or send a DM that adds value and starts a genuine conversation. The first step is to just start some sort of interaction with the right people. Be genuine about this because if you're not, they're gonna feel that you're just trying to get leads. Next, follow up with 3 to 5 warm leads per week. These are people who have shown interest in the past. They've engaged with your content, like commenting or sending you a message saying, that was so awesome. They've downloaded your lead magnet, maybe booked a past call, or maybe you've even worked with this person in the past. Next, create 3 valuable pieces of content per week. Share tips, stories, and wins that relate to the problem that you've solved and the transformation that you offer. And lastly, make 3 to 5 direct offers per week. Use the if-then transition that I just showed you, or invite people who are clearly a fit into a next step, like a free session to download your lead magnet and help you grow your list, or just straight into one of your programs. If you repeat this rhythm every week, your pipeline will grow and stay full. Your audience will stay warm, and you'll always have momentum building behind your business. This is the work that actually makes you money as an online coach. And when I started getting serious about making invites, that's when my income grew. You don't need to be pushy. You just need to be present, consistent, helpful, and clear. Because if you're not consistently inviting people into your coaching, you're just running an expensive hobby. This is a business, and businesses grow through real conversations and real invitations. Now, if you're serious about growing a coaching business that doesn't depend on you working 24/7, then watch this video next, and I'll show you exactly how to build a scalable coaching business. If you have any questions for me, just leave a comment below. Please like this video, share it with someone that you think it would benefit, and as always, take what you learned here, get out there, make something happen. I'll see you in the next one.