The lucrative offer that didn't fit my personality

The idea of coaching people online is intimidating. But working with someone who's done it before gives me confidence to start. Generally, coaching is priced higher than anything else I've sold. So you only need a few clients to generate decent revenue. The only question is: what will I coach people on?

Since I've had some success with YouTube, I decide to help developers grow and monetize their own channels. First, I launch a free community on a platform called Skool. This is my lead magnet. I start mentioning my new community in videos, and soon developers join. With a few sign ups every day, my email list grows.

Next, I set a start date for my coaching program of 1st September. I fix the price at $1,600. My mentor recommends promoting mostly by email, but also in selected videos. Since the price of my offer is higher, I do sales calls with prospects. The idea is to figure out if it's a good fit. If it is, I describe the offer and ask for the sale. The first few calls feel scary, especially since the product doesn't exist yet, but I keep going. For five weeks, my focus is on booking calls, talking to prospects, and landing a client.

In total, I do 19 sales calls. Finally, I land a client. My coaching program now feels real. For eight weeks, I work closely with my client. We have weekly one-to-one calls, while at the same time I create videos that form a course element of my program.

After the first cohort ends, I immediately repeat the sales process and land 3 more clients. It feels like I'm on a roll. My second cohort finishes and I try again. But something's happened and I'm not sure what. After 12 more calls, I don't land a single client.

I'm left feeling exhausted. As an introvert, I get stressed by having too many calls throughout the day. Even worse, some clients haven't got the results I'd hoped for. I question what I'm even doing. But there's an upside to this first coaching experience. Over four months, I make $6,221.

I know how powerful it can be to work with a coach who helps you achieve a big goal. But when I started my own program, I assumed I had to do it like everyone else. My mentor had a Skool community, weekly groups calls, and video course—so that's what I did too. But something didn't quite fit. Rather than feeling excited to run my program, I mostly felt overwhelmed. My goal for next time is to create a program that's uniquely me— one I'm as enthusiastic to run as my clients are to take part in.

Despite coaching relying on clients doing the work, I wasn't happy with some of the results. For me, this was number of YouTube videos uploaded. Although I encouraged clients to follow a weekly schedule, some only uploaded a few videos. But that's on me. Next time, I'll be clearer up-front about expectations and include more accountability in the program.

A coaching program works best if it works for you.

Create something that's not only valuable to others, but also suits your personality, lifestyle, and quirks.