Why Going Viral Is Ruining Your Coaching Business

In this video, I'm going to show you why trying to go viral is ruining your coaching business. We'll talk about what viral actually means, why different content serves different purposes, and how to think about the content you create each week so you can get more business. If you're new to my channel, I'm James. I run a business called Profit Your Knowledge where we help coaches and experts build 6-figure-plus online businesses working part-time hours. So if that sounds like something you want to do, hit subscribe and enjoy. So before we dive too deep into this, what does viral actually mean? Well, there isn't some magic number. Some people will say, oh, when you have a video that gets a million views, that means you've gone viral. But if MrBeast got a million views, that'd be a terrible video for him. So a viral video or piece of content just means that you had a piece of content that dramatically outperformed the views that you normally get, and it started reaching people outside of your normal audience. And it's really easy to assume that more views equals more money, but that's not necessarily true because if that were true, you wouldn't see videos like this of creators with 2 million subscribers saying that they are broke. Now, I used to obsess over views because I thought that once I finally had a video take off, I would be successful. I would have business just flooding into my ecosystem every single day, calls on the calendar, sales coming in, etc. So a while back, I made a video about ChatGPT that ended up really taking off. And for me, it was a viral video. Every day I was getting thousands of views coming in on this video and I was freaking pumped. And naturally, I kept checking my calendar to see if calls were coming in or if sales were coming in. And while I was waiting for all this business to come to me, Nothing happened. That video ended up getting 77,000 views, which looks amazing on paper. But when we look at the actual numbers in my business, that one video made me a whopping $73 in AdSense. No calls came from it, no course sales, no affiliate commissions, nothing. But then I look back at other videos on my channel and I had someone book a call with me randomly after watching a different video of mine on the best website builder for course creators. Now, at the time, that video only had 200 views, but it landed me a $10,000 paid-in-full They went to Google, typed in their question, trying to figure out the best website builder for a course creator. My video comes up, they liked it, they watched multiple videos of mine, ended up booking a call, we hit it off, and then they became a $10,000 client. That's the moment that I realized that 200 views from the right people is worth way more than 200,000 views from the wrong people. So yeah, going viral and having a video or post really take off, it feels awesome. It really strokes the ego. But virality does not guarantee profitability. I would rather have 100 of my ideal clients watching my content than a million people who would never hire me. And by the way, if you know that you have something great and you're serious about making money from it, I wanna help you turn your knowledge, skills, and expertise into a profitable online business. I put together a totally free 5-day training series that walks you through this entire process. Every day you're gonna get a new training coupled with a workbook with some simple action steps, and by the end you will have a clear plan on how to actually get paid for what you know. And if you do the work that I recommend, recommending it, you can even land a client by day 3. To get access to day 1 right now, totally free, click the button down in the description or visit profityourknowledge.com/training. Now here's something that most coaches and experts do not understand about content, and that's that not every video should be trying to do the same thing. While going viral isn't the goal and it definitely should not be the long-term goal, that does not mean that views just don't matter. But this does. So I think about content in 2 basic categories. We have discovery content and then we have conversion content. So discovery content is designed to get you discovered by more of the right people. So this type of content is a bit broader. It appeals to the masses, but it's still relevant and on topic with the things that you teach or coach people on. And it's very searchable and discoverable, hence the name discovery content. So let me give you a quick example. This is a video of mine that is definitely a discovery piece of content. Now, this one, unlike the ChatGPT video, has actually brought in a lot of money in AdSense. It's brought thousands and thousands of dollars in AdSense, but So affiliate commissions, coaching calls, like all that kind of stuff. This has been a much more profitable video. For me, this is my best performing piece of content. You could say that it kind of went viral in a way, but it only got 223,000 views. The video is How to Create an eBook in 30 Minutes with Canva Step-by-Step Tutorial. So this is much more of a discovery piece of content. It's a bit more broad than me making a video on something like do this to get coaching clients fast. That's a lot more niche. So while this is a broader topic on creating an eBook, I can get a mixed bag of people like realtors who just want to have an ebook to help them with real estate deals, which is not my target audience. But I know that there are a lot of coaches and experts who hear about ebooks as a digital product they can sell and they're like, how do I make that? And Canva is a very relevant tool that they can use and they have a ton of search volume behind both ebook and Canva. So I know that this pulls in more of the right people, but a little bit of a mixed bag. And if you go over to Google, you can actually type in Canva ebook or ebook in Canva, and you're going to see that my video is one of the first ones that pops up, especially if you go over to the videos tab, you'll see it's one of the first ones right there. Now, conversion content is designed for someone who already has the problem that you solve, and it helps them move closer to wanting your help. So these are more specific topics around specific problems. You're dealing with specific objections, shifting beliefs that your audience has, showing case studies, your methodology, Things like that. So for me, with conversion content, I'll make something like nobody is buying your coaching program. So my type of conversion content would be like, this is why 99% of coaches can't sell their programs, or how much should you charge for coaching, how to double your prices as a coach, or even why going viral is ruining your coaching business. So one of my clients is Jason, who runs a business called the Futures Trading Revolution. And when he started, he knew nothing about YouTube content creation, online business. He was just really good at futures trading. So I encouraged him to start his YouTube channel and he spent the first handful of videos and couple months, just learning how to make videos, how to edit, things like that. And then when he got more comfortable and confident in making these videos, he had this video, If I Started Futures Trading in 2026, This Is What I Would Do. The video started taking off and it was his first semi-viral video, but it only got like 1,000 views. For his tiny channel though, that was great. It was his 12th video and at the time he only had about 54 subscribers, but he landed his first $3,000 client from his YouTube channel. Based on this video. That was a conversion piece of content. It was a prime opportunity for him to showcase his expertise by saying, look, if I started doing this, this is what I would do. And it's an amazing piece of content that any expert or coach could start by making. But get this, Jason started to learn from what worked on this video and we started to double down on things. He started getting thousands, tens of thousands views on videos, and at just 19 videos, he finally passed 1,000 subscribers and had made over $20,000 from his YouTube channel. So if we were judging his channel by sheer subscribers or views, we would probably say that he has a very unsuccessful channel. But if he's generating $3,000 clients at 50-something subscribers in his 12th video, being totally new to this and making over $20 grand from his channel, which is 19 videos, I'd say he's not doing that bad. So what I'd recommend to you is to stop judging every video by the same metrics and be a little more intentional about the types of video that you're making. A discovery video might need thousands of views to do its job, which is simply to get you discovered by more of the right people. While a conversion video might only need one person to sign up for your program at a high ticket. And if it does that, that video did its job. But the cool thing is that these work hand in hand. Your discovery videos will get you discovered by more people, and then they start to subscribe, binge watch your other videos, and then they land on a conversion video. And that's the one that tips them over the edge. So a 500-view video that generates a $10,000 client who pays in full didn't really underperform. It just did what it was supposed to do. So now the question becomes, if you're not just trying to get the most views as possible, then what content should you actually make every single week? I see so many coaches and experts overcomplicate this because they are constantly asking, what should I be posting? What's trending right now? What's going to get me the most views? Or what does the algorithm want me to post? And instead, I like to use the same simple framework, whether I'm creating content, speaking on a stage, or having a conversation with a potential client. And that is connect, inspire, invite. Instead, I use the same simple framework whether I'm creating content, speaking on a stage or having a conversation with a potential client. And it's this. So first we connect. Now this is you going to a networking event, but in the sense of creating content, you want to get connected by having them actually discover your video or watch your video or click on your thumbnail and packaging on YouTube or your episode on your podcast. The way you do that is by understanding them, talking about the problems that they're actually dealing with, that they're searching into, that they want answers to these questions. So what topics are your people searching for and consuming that would solve their actual problems? All right, don't try and get fancy with this. If you're a fitness coach and you're helping your people get lean, then they could be thinking, how do I get a 6-pack? What do I eat to get lean? What's the best online course platform that I should use for my business? How do I create an online course package around the problem that people know they already have? And that's the starting point. So once you have connected with your audience because they've actually watched your piece of content, then inside of the content we have one key job, and that is to inspire them. Your job to make content actually convert is to help them see their situation differently. Teach them something useful. Tell stories of how you or your clients overcame their specific challenges. So they're not just seeing that, oh, this person's saying it like you did it, you helped other people do it, and it relates to me. I feel like I can do it now. You can challenge their assumptions or give them a new perspective or just show them what's possible For them, not in general, for them. The best content in the world doesn't just give people more information. They have ChatGPT for that. Instead, the best content changes the way that they think. And this video is actually doing that right now. I'm shifting you from thinking I need to get more views to I need to get more of the right views. So if you've done your job, you've connected because they're actually consuming your content. They were interested enough to click on it because you are solving their actual problems. You're inspiring them by showing them what is possible for them and getting them to believe that it is possible for them. Finally, we need to give people a clear next step if they want to go deeper with you. The way we do that is to invite them to take that next step. We have to offer them something when we invite them. So it could be watching another video on your channel or another podcast episode. It could be joining your email list, downloading something, coming to an event, booking a call with you. Always have a next step for people and lead them closer to actually hiring you. Now, you don't need to hard pitch people in every single video. You just need to invite them to take the next step in solving their problem. And this is where chasing virality can actually screw up a lot of coaches. You start creating content for the algorithm instead of the person that you're just trying to help. So stop asking, how do I get the most people to watch this? And start asking, how do I connect with my audience by creating something valuable for them, inspire them inside the content, and then invite them to take that next step? Focus on that and you'll be way more successful and just be consistent with it. And if a content— and if a piece of your content goes viral, I mean, that's awesome, take the views. But if 200 of the right people watch it and one becomes a $10,000 client, then that content did its job. So the goal isn't to create viral content, the goal is to create more profitable content. So watch this video next and I'll show you the exact content formula that helped me build my 6-figure coaching business. Hey, this video was helpful, please like it, share it with someone that you think would benefit. It really helps boost the videos. If you have any questions or comments, let me know in a comment below. And as always, take what you learned here, get out there, make something happen. I'll see you in the next one.