The first few weeks were savage. I kept checking my inbox obsessively. Wondering if anyone was actually reading this stuff. Second-guessing whether being myself was enough. Then things started happening. I launched a paid webinar. Two sales. Both completely new customers who'd found me through the emails. Did another webinar. Eight new people showed up. Made more sales in between to people joining my paid community before I closed it to new members again. One of those email subscribers became a 1:1 coaching client. Revenue without spending all day in the DMs. What surprised me most was how amazing it felt to write emails in my own voice about my own experiences. Writing as myself. Sounding like me. Sharing what was actually happening as I was building. My lived experience. Struggles, wins, doubts. People could follow it. Apply it. It was happening in real time. That's what The Known Coach is built on. Your experience and insights turned into email and content while you build your email list through simple LinkedIn outreach. Performing someone else's version doesn't work. So don’t waste your time trying.

We're losing brilliant coaches. Not because they're bad at coaching. Because they're broke. The cycle is always the same. Certification teaches you to be excellent at your craft. Gives you sod all about running a business. So coaches come out skilled at helping people and completely unprepared to actually get any. Then the marketing agency appears. "We have a system." Cost: $15,000. The tactics don't work. High-volume spam that feels disgusting, outdated methods from 2019, or just lies. But surely the NEXT one will be different? Different guru, same promises. Another $15,000 for cold DMs and sales calls that make you feel like you're selling timeshares in Benidorm. After $30,000, you get two options. Figure it out yourself if you've still got money left. Or go back to a proper job. This happens to thousands of coaches. Talented people who could genuinely help others. Taken out by programs selling hope instead of anything resembling a system. Two things bother me. First - we need more coaches, not fewer. The world's more psychologically complex than ever. People need help. We're losing good ones because they can't afford another $15,000 gamble. Second - there's a better way. No hours on sales calls, fake DM conversations or becoming someone you're not. Build real relationships. Share what you know. Make offers to people who trust you. Client acquisition isn't complicated. It's just not what the $15,000 programs are selling.

"Have you shared your struggles?" Generic. Safe. The kind of shit AI writes. What I actually thought: "Stop trying to sound clever with frameworks. Just share your truth instead of pretending you had it all figured out." Too harsh. Too direct. Might piss people off. So I nearly didn't post it. This is the problem. I've been doing this gradually through daily reflection. Getting slightly more honest each time. First it was swearing. That's how I actually talk. Then making jokes. Because that's what I do in real life. Then sharing opinions that sit on the edges instead of the safe middle. Each time I worried it would limit my pool. Opposite happened. Started attracting people like me. People I actually want to work with. See, AI made everyone sound identical. Which means your actual voice - edges and all - became MORE valuable. The worst place to be is the middle. Safe. Polished. Forgettable. That year jumping between tactics wasn't about finding the right strategy. It was fear disguised as "finding the right approach." What changed everything was committing long enough to be myself. That's when clients started coming. Daily reflection trains this. You catch yourself mid-performance. Get slightly braver each time. The edges you're scared to show connect you to the right people.

I stopped selling. Most coaches think you need to chase people to make money - book more calls, follow up harder, be persistent. I thought that too for a while. Then I realised chasing pushes them away. It screams "I need you more than you need me" and people can feel that desperation through the screen. I was running two systems in January. Outreach into sales calls. Content building my email list. Both worked. Then I realised something. The system - LinkedIn outreach building list, daily content, emails - brought clients without me chasing them onto calls. So I dropped calls entirely. More clients since. Because I stopped splitting my attention like a moron between two approaches. And because I proved the system works by using it right now. Sales calls are linear work. Every month resets to zero. Stop chasing, stop getting clients. This compounds instead. Your list grows. People come to you. You're in the high status position of being willing to help rather than desperate to. The foundation takes time upfront. If you're booking calls and following up, you feel like you're doing something. Admitting you can't force timing means accepting you're not in charge of when clients show up. That's uncomfortable. But it's also what makes this work.