You're tired of trading time for money, working overtime on client work just to scrape together another 3k a month, while your own business dreams sit on the back burner collecting dust. You've bought the courses, done the 30-day challenges, and followed every "guru" who promised to show you how to grow your online coaching business, yet you're still feeling like you're missing something crucial.
I see you. And I'm about to tell you exactly what's keeping you stuck, because these mistakes aren't just holding back your income, they're stealing your freedom to make money while getting your nails done or lounging on a beach somewhere.
You're Not Speaking to Your Dream Client (You're Talking to Everyone and Converting No One)
If you're attracting clients who need constant hand-holding, who negotiate your prices, and who drain your energy with endless questions, you're not speaking to your dream client. You're speaking to everyone, which means you're speaking to no one.
When you create a profitable business, specificity is your superpower. Your dream client, the one ready to invest £3k+ monthly without batting an eyelash, needs to read your content and think, "Holy shit, she knows me better than I know myself."
What Speaking to Everyone Actually Looks Like: You're creating content like "5 Ways to Build Confidence" or "How to Start Your Business": generic advice that applies to literally anyone. Your captions are filled with motivational quotes and surface-level tips that could work for a 22-year-old fresh graduate or a 45-year-old executive making a career change.
The result? You attract tire-kickers who want free advice, people who ask "Do you have payment plans?" before even knowing what you offer, and clients who question every boundary you set. They see you as a resource, not an authority.
What Speaking to Your Dream Client Looks Like: Instead of "How to Build Confidence," you write "How to Stop Apologizing for Your £5k Prices When You Know You're Worth Every Penny." Instead of "Start Your Business," you create "Why Your Corporate Salary Isn't Preparing You for the Mindset Shift You Need to Hit £10k Months."
See the difference? The second approach immediately filters out people who aren't ready for premium pricing or serious business growth. It speaks directly to someone who's already charging higher rates but struggling with confidence, or someone who's successful in corporate but knows they need a completely different mindset for entrepreneurship.
The Fear That Keeps You Generic
You're terrified of alienating people. You think, "But what if I miss out on potential clients?" What you don't realize is that by trying to appeal to everyone, you're actually repelling the people who would happily pay your premium prices.
Your dream client, the one working overtime on client work while neglecting her own business growth, doesn't want to be lumped in with beginners. She wants content that acknowledges where she actually is: already successful but feeling stuck in the time-for-money trap.
How to Make the Shift?
Start talking about the specific struggles your ideal client faces at 2 AM when she can't sleep because she's worried about her irregular income. Mention the exact thoughts she has when she's delivering amazing results for clients but can't seem to sell her own offers effectively. Reference the frustration of having expertise but feeling invisible in a saturated market.
When you speak this specifically, your dream client will think, "Finally, someone who gets it." Meanwhile, people who aren't a valid will self-select out. That's not a bug, it's a feature.
Stop trying to help everyone. Your message should make some people scroll past, while making your ideal client stop dead in their tracks. That's how you grow your online coaching business with clients who value your expertise instead of questioning your prices.
You're Being a "Nice Woman" Instead of Being Real
Being inspirational isn't going to pay your bills. If people are telling you "Oh my God, you're so inspiring, you made my day!" but they're not buying from you, you've become a pom-pom cheerleader, not an authority.
The "Nice Woman" Trap: You've been conditioned to be agreeable, to never ruffle feathers, to make everyone feel comfortable. So your content is filled with gentle encouragement and soft suggestions. You say things like "Maybe you could try..." or "It might be helpful to consider..." You're so afraid of offending someone that you've drained all the power from your message.
The problem? Your dream client doesn't need another cheerleader. She needs someone who will call her out on her BS and push her toward the results she desperately wants.
What "Nice Woman" Content Sounds Like:
"You're doing amazing, just keep going!"
"Remember to celebrate small wins!"
"Trust the process, everything happens for a reason!"
"You've got this, beautiful!"
This content gets lots of heart emojis and "thank you, I needed this" comments, but zero sales. People see you as a mood booster, not a business strategist who can actually transform their results.
What Real Authority Sounds Like:
"Stop celebrating busy work and start measuring actual revenue."
"If you're working 60-hour weeks and still broke, your strategy is the problem, not your work ethic."
"You can't 'trust the process' your way to £10k months, you need a system that actually converts."
"Your mindset work means nothing if your messaging doesn't make people want to buy."
This approach might ruffle some feathers, but it positions you as someone who gets results, not just warm fuzzy feelings.
Why Your Dream Client Craves This Energy?
Your ideal client is already successful. She doesn't need validation, she needs transformation. She's tired of tiptoeing around problems and wants someone who will tell her exactly what needs to change. She respects direct communication because her time is valuable.
When you show up with authority and conviction, you attract clients who are ready to do the work and pay premium prices for real results. When you show up as a "nice woman" who never challenges anyone, you attract people who want to feel better but aren't committed to changing anything.
Your dream client doesn't want sugar-coated motivation. She wants your raw truth, your sass, your real personality, whatever that looks like for you. Stop wearing the mask of the "nice woman" who never challenges anyone. How to grow your online coaching business starts with showing up as the unapologetic version of yourself that your ideal client is desperately searching for.
You're Over-Explaining and Over-Educating (AKA Giving Away the Farm for Free)
Creating endless "how-to" content might feel helpful, but you're actually justifying your expertise away. When you explain every single step of your process, you're not creating value, you're creating DIY-ers who will never invest in working with you.
Transform your basic content into activational content. Instead of "How to Create an Offer," try "How to Create an Offer That Sells Even When You're Sleeping." See the difference? You're speaking to someone who's already moving, not someone who's just starting. This is crucial for understanding how to create a profitable business that runs without your constant involvement.
After giving them a taste, direct them to your masterclass or paid program for the complete system. You educate AND activate them to move. How to grow your online coaching business means making strategic moves, not giving everything away for free.
Your Messaging Is Vague (And Vague Doesn't Convert)
"I help women build confidence", what does that even mean? Vague messaging attracts vague results. When you're not specific about the problems you solve and the transformation you provide, you attract people who aren't ready to invest seriously in themselves.
Why Vague Messaging Feels Safe (But Kills Your Sales): You think broader messaging means more potential clients, right? Wrong. When you say "I help women succeed in business," you're competing with thousands of other coaches saying the exact same thing. Your ideal client scrolls past because she can't immediately see how you're different or why she should choose you.
Vague messaging also attracts bargain hunters and people who aren't serious about investing in themselves. They see your generic promises and think, "I can probably figure this out myself" or "I'll find someone cheaper who says the same thing."
What Vague Messaging Actually Sounds Like:
"I help entrepreneurs scale their business"
"I teach women to love themselves"
"I help coaches get more clients"
"I empower women to live their best life"
These statements could apply to anyone, anywhere, at any stage of their journey. Your dream client, who's already making £3k+ months but working overtime to do it, doesn't see herself in these generic statements.
The Power of Hyper-Specific Messaging: Instead of "I help coaches get more clients," try "I help successful coaches who are burnt out from trading time for money create £10k months with systems that sell while they're on vacation."
See how that immediately speaks to someone specific? It filters out beginners and speaks directly to established coaches who have a particular problem (burnout from the time-for-money trap) and a specific desire (freedom to make money while away from their business).
How to Craft Messaging That Converts: Start with the exact situation your dream client is in right now. She's successful but exhausted. She's making decent money but working too many hours. She knows her worth but struggles to communicate it in her content and sales conversations.
Then, speak to her exact thoughts: "You're tired of being the best-kept secret in your industry while watching coaches with half your experience charge double your rates and book out their programs."
This level of specificity makes your ideal client think, "Holy shit, how does she know exactly what I'm thinking?"
Your messaging should be so specific that your dream client feels like you've been reading her diary. She should think, "This woman understands exactly what I'm going through." This precision is what separates successful coaches who know how to create a profitable business from those who struggle to fill their programs.
You're Afraid of Being Misunderstood (So You Water Down Your Message)
Nobody tells you this: to build a profitable business, you need to be willing to be misunderstood. You need to be okay with people not liking your approach, your prices, or your personality.
When you try to appeal to everyone, you end up attracting no one who's truly aligned with your vision. The coaches who master how to grow your online coaching business understand that polarization is profitable. They'd rather have 100 people who are obsessed with their work than 1,000 lukewarm followers.
You're Neglecting Your Own Marketing While Serving Everyone Else
You're so busy delivering client work that your own content strategy gets pushed to "tomorrow", which never comes. Meanwhile, your audience goes cold, and when you finally do try to sell something, crickets.
The Client Work Trap That's Sabotaging Your Growth: You pride yourself on over-delivering for clients. You spend hours perfecting their strategies, going above and beyond in every session, and basically becoming their unpaid business partner. Meanwhile, your own Instagram hasn't been updated in a week, your email list is getting tumbleweeds, and you haven't created any nurture content in months.
This is the ultimate self-sabotage. You're pouring all your expertise into other people's businesses while your own withers away. Then you wonder why your launches flop and you can't seem to maintain consistent income.
What This Actually Looks Like:
You spend 3 hours on a 1-hour client call because you "want to make sure they get results"
You create custom resources for clients that you never repurpose for your own audience
You respond to client messages instantly but ignore your own social media for days
You know exactly what content strategy works for your clients but can't seem to implement it for yourself
You research and plan amazing campaigns for clients but wing it when it comes to your own launches
The Hidden Cost of This Mistake: Every hour you spend over-delivering for clients is an hour you're not investing in your own business growth. You're essentially paying them to keep you small. While you're busy being the perfect service provider, your competitors are building audiences, launching programs, and scaling their businesses.
Your audience needs consistent touchpoints to stay warm and engaged. When you disappear for weeks at a time, they forget about you. When you suddenly show up to sell something, it feels pushy and out of nowhere because you haven't been nurturing the relationship.
The Mindset Shift That Changes Everything: Your own marketing isn't optional, it's the lifeline of your business. How to create a profitable business means treating your own marketing as non-negotiable client work. You wouldn't skip a client call, so why are you skipping the content creation that brings you new clients?
Start batch creating content during your high-energy times. Repurpose the strategies you create for clients into content for your own audience. Set boundaries with client work so you have energy left for your own business growth.
Your audience needs consistent nurturing to stay warm and ready to buy. You can't expect to show up sporadically and have people throwing money at you.
You're Holding Back Your Boldness (Playing Small Doesn't Pay Bills)
You know you have something powerful to say, but you're tiptoeing around it because you're worried about what people might think. This lukewarm approach is exactly why your content isn't converting.
The Fear Behind the Mask: You have strong opinions about your industry. You see coaches making promises they can't keep, selling programs that don't work, or giving advice that's completely outdated. You watch people struggle with the same problems over and over because they're following generic advice that doesn't address their real situation.
But instead of speaking up, you water down your message. You add disclaimers to everything. You soften your language until it has no impact. You're so afraid of being controversial that you end up being forgettable.
What Holding Back Actually Costs You: While you're tiptoeing around your real opinions, your competitors are taking bold stances and attracting your ideal clients. They're saying what you're thinking, and people are responding with their wallets.
Your dream client doesn't need another gentle voice telling her everything will be okay. She needs someone who will challenge her thinking, call out her excuses, and push her toward real change. When you hold back your boldness, you're robbing her of the transformation she's desperately seeking.
The Boldness Your Dream Client Craves: She wants you to say what others won't: "Stop pretending that posting motivational quotes is a business strategy." "Your pricing problem isn't about confidence, it's about positioning." "You don't need another course, you need to actually implement what you already know."
This directness doesn't make you mean, it makes you valuable. Your ideal client respects straight talk because she doesn't have time for fluff. She's already successful enough to know that real results require uncomfortable truths.
How Your Boldness Becomes Your Brand: Your strong opinions are what differentiate you in a saturated market. When you boldly state your methodology, your beliefs about what works and what doesn't, and your non-negotiable standards, you attract people who align with your approach.
The coaches making £10k+ months aren't afraid to polarize their audience. They know that having 100 people who are obsessed with their approach is better than having 1,000 lukewarm followers who scroll past everything they post.
The Permission You've Been Waiting For: You have permission to have opinions. You have permission to challenge industry norms. You have permission to call out bad advice and share what actually works. Your boldness isn't a liability, it's your superpower.
Your boldness is your differentiator. Your strong opinions, your unique perspective, your willingness to say what others won't, that's what makes people stop scrolling and start buying. Understanding how to grow your online coaching business means embracing what makes you different, not hiding from it.
You're Focusing on Vanity Metrics Instead of Revenue Metrics
Getting caught up in likes, comments, and followers while your bank account stays stagnant? Those vanity metrics don't pay your bills or fund your dreams of making money while traveling.
Focus on metrics that matter: email subscribers, discovery call bookings, conversion rates, and actual sales. These are the numbers that indicate whether you truly understand how to create a profitable business that generates recurring income.
You're Not Building Systems for Recurring Revenue
You're stuck in the feast-or-famine cycle because you're not thinking strategically about recurring income. Every month, you're starting from zero, scrambling to find new clients instead of building systems that generate predictable revenue.
The Exhausting Cycle You're Stuck In:
Month one: You hustle like crazy, post constantly, do discovery calls, and manage to sign a few clients. You feel successful and think you've "figured it out."
Month two: You're so busy delivering on those clients that you stop marketing. Your content becomes sporadic, you're not nurturing your audience, and you're not having sales conversations.
Month three: Your clients finish their programs, and suddenly you realize your pipeline is empty. Panic sets in. You scramble to create content, reach out to your network, and desperately try to find new clients to replace the income you just lost.
This cycle is exhausting and completely preventable. The most successful coaches who've mastered how to grow your online coaching business have multiple income streams and systems that sell while they sleep. They're not just trading hours for dollars, they're building assets that work for them.
What Recurring Revenue Actually Looks Like: Instead of selling one-off coaching packages, you create membership programs, group coaching programs, or done-with-you services that clients stay in for 6-12 months. You build email sequences that sell your programs automatically. You create digital products that generate passive income.
You develop client ascension paths so that when someone finishes your signature program, they naturally move into your higher-level mastermind. You're not constantly chasing new clients because your existing clients are staying longer and investing more.
The Systems You Need to Build:
Automated email sequences that nurture leads and sell your programs
Content systems that consistently attract your ideal clients
Client retention strategies that extend the lifetime value of each customer
Multiple offers at different price points to capture clients at various stages
Referral systems that turn happy clients into a consistent source of new business
Why Most Coaches Skip This Step: Building systems feels less exciting than signing new clients. You get addicted to the high of closing deals, but you never invest time in creating the infrastructure that would make those deals more predictable and consistent.
You also underestimate how much energy the feast-or-famine cycle is draining from you. The constant stress of wondering where your next paycheck will come from is preventing you from showing up as your best self for the clients you do have.
The Freedom That Systems Create: When you have recurring revenue systems in place, you can make money while traveling, spending time with family, or even taking a break from actively marketing. Your business becomes an asset that serves your lifestyle instead of consuming it.
This is how you transition from trading time for money to building a business that generates wealth. This is how you create a profitable business that gives you freedom instead of chains.
You're Trying to Do Everything Instead of Focusing on What Actually Moves the Needle
You're jumping from strategy to strategy, trend to trend, never giving anything enough time to actually work. One week you're focused on Pinterest, the next week it's TikTok, then it's launching a podcast, but none of it connects to a cohesive strategy.
The Shiny Object Syndrome That's Killing Your Progress: You see a successful coach talking about how Instagram Reels transformed her business, so you spend the next month creating Reels. Then you hear about someone making six figures from Pinterest, so you abandon Reels and dive into Pinterest strategy. Next, you read about the power of email marketing, so you start focusing on that while your Pinterest account sits neglected.
The result? You're mediocre at everything and excellent at nothing. You never give any strategy enough time or consistent effort to actually work. Meanwhile, your competitors are going deep on one or two platforms and seeing incredible results.
Why This Happens (And Why It's So Tempting): Every success story you hear makes you question your current approach. "Maybe I'm doing this wrong," you think. "Maybe I should try what she's doing instead." You're constantly second-guessing yourself instead of committing to a strategy and seeing it through.
You're also afraid of missing out. What if TikTok is the key to your success and you're wasting time on Instagram? What if everyone moves to a new platform and you're left behind? This fear keeps you scattered and ineffective.
The Hidden Cost of Strategy Hopping: Every time you switch strategies, you're starting from zero. All the momentum you built on the previous platform is lost. Your audience gets confused about where to find you and what you're actually offering. Your messaging becomes inconsistent because you're trying to adapt it to different platforms and approaches.
You also never develop true mastery. Becoming excellent at content creation, audience building, or sales requires consistent practice over time. When you're constantly switching approaches, you never get past the beginner phase of any strategy.
What Focus Actually Looks Like: Pick 1-2 platforms where your ideal clients spend time. Commit to showing up consistently for at least 6 months. Learn everything you can about those platforms and how to create content that resonates with your audience there.
Develop a content system that you can execute even when motivation is low. Create templates, batching systems, and processes that make consistency easier. Focus on mastering your message on these platforms before adding anything new.
The Power of Going Deep Instead of Wide: When you focus your energy, you can actually become known for something. You become the coach who creates incredible Instagram content, or the one with the most valuable newsletter in your industry. This expertise becomes part of your brand and helps you stand out in a crowded market.
You also start to see compound results. Each piece of content builds on the last. Your audience grows more quickly because you're consistently showing up in the same place. Your message becomes clearer and more refined because you're practicing it regularly.
How to Break the Cycle: Stop consuming so much "how-to" content from other coaches. Unsubscribe from the newsletters that constantly tempt you with new strategies. Choose your approach based on where your ideal clients actually spend time, not on what's trending.
How to create a profitable business requires focus. Pick the strategies that align with your strengths and your client's preferences, then go deep instead of wide. Consistency with the right strategy beats sporadic attempts at everything.
Stop Doing More and Start Making More
Building a profitable online business doesn't require you to work harder or do more. It requires you to work smarter, be more strategic, and finally embrace the bold, unapologetic version of yourself that your dream clients are searching for.
You don't need another course or another 30-day challenge. You need to stop making these mistakes and start implementing a content and sales strategy that actually converts. One that allows you to create a profitable business while maintaining your sanity and your family time. Your business can be profitable without being overwhelming. You can make money and memories. You can build recurring income that gives you freedom instead of chains.
First, you need to stop sabotaging yourself with these mistakes and start building the business you actually want, one that serves you as much as it serves your clients.
Join my free Telegram community True circle: a space where I share no-fluff tips, mindset breakthroughs, and storytelling secrets to help you scale your business without losing yourself in the process.
Ready to stop making these mistakes and start building a business that actually works for you? It's time to make it happen.
See you soon
XOXO
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