Hi friend,

Turning your expertise into a successful coaching business can be tough without a roadmap.

I recently finished reading Coach Builder by Donald Miller, and he sets out to help you do just that with his 8-step roadmap to build and grow a coaching business.

I really enjoyed the book!

He laid out actionable and practical steps you should take to start, grow or expand your coaching business from zero to 7-figures.

Even though the book’s target audience is business coaches, the truth is those 8-steps are totally applicable to any service-based business… including a consulting service like myNotion consulting service.

So if you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed about how exactly you should start a coaching business, or if you’ve been a coach for a while but are struggling to grow your coaching business to 6- or 7-figures, then check out Coach Builder.

Today, I wanted to share those 8 simple steps I learned, a few of my personal takeaways, and how I used Notion to turn his 8-step roadmap into an actionable Notion template system to track my own progress of growing my own consulting service.

Before we get into it, a quick reminder, we’re hosting the first ever Notion in Houston event next week! If you’re Houston-based, would love to see you there!

8-Steps to a successful coaching business

According to Donald Miller, the first 3 steps are the most critical if you’re in the first few years of your coaching business journey.

Step 1: Create a menu of products to sell to clients

This step forces you to get clear on the exact problem can you help your clients solve.

Once you gain clarity on that, you can create a suite of products to solve those problems. He suggested create 3 products to get started and avoid overwhelming yourself (and your potential clients).

Here are a few examples he shares in his book:

• Weekly 1:1 “double your revenue” coaching package.

• How to close big sales workshop.

• Operations Overhaul Session.

Giving each product a clear name that is easy to understand and solves a specific problem is the key to attracting the right clients.

Miller suggest creating a small one-off product to give a sense of what it’s like working with you. That could then be a lead-in into a bigger product like a 6 month coaching program.

(After reading this, it’s given me the idea to create a one-off workshop, Slow Productivity Workload Management in Notion, to help coaches and consultants practically implement a system in Notion for managing tasks and projects using Slow Productivity principles from Cal Newport. Does that sound interesting to you?—Hit reply and let me know)

Step 2: Create and manage a list of leads

Service-based businesses are people-businesses.

Finding leads who are a good fit for your coaching or service-based solutions is key to surviving and thriving as a business.

That means having a basic CRM to keep in contact with potential customers.

And it doesn’t have to be some complex or expensive CRM tool. You can literally do it for free in Notion using a free account.

Here’s something I built for a client in Notion as an example:

Once you have a list of people to keep in touch with, then it’s about being immensely helpful and valuable to them, and continuously let the know you exist.

Step 3: Build a website that successfully pitches your services

As a coach or consultant, your website is your sales pitch.

Clearly communicating how you can solve potential customer’s problems must be the # 1 priority of your website.

According to Donald Miller, you gotta clearly state these 3 things at the top of the page:

1. Your offer in very specific terms (niche is king).

2. The transformation you offer to make your client’s lives better.

3. A call to action to tell potential customers how they can work with you.

I love how the Coach Builder outlines the exact website wireframe that you should use to build an effective website for your coaching business.

So if you’re struggling with that, highly recommend checking out the book for this wireframe.

A few months back, I launched version 1 of my Notion Consulting website.

I’ll be going back into my notes from Coach Builder in the coming weeks to make some changes based on the wireframe offered in the book.

Step 4: Write great emails that builds relationships and closes the deal

This chapter was packed with value.

The big takeaway is the “Hero Sales Framework” email sales sequence that Donald Miller uses to close deals.

Here’s a quick run down of the his simple framework that every sales email you write should follow:

1. Start with the problem.

2. Positing your product or service as the solution to the problem.

3. Bridge the customer’s problem to your solution.

4. Highlight the negative stakes if a customer doesn’t take action.

5. Highlight the positive experience the customer gets after taking action.

6. Call on the customer to take action.

Coach Builder even offers you sample email templates that you can use for inspiration if you’re struggling to write effective sales emails to get coaching clients.

Step 5: Map out the client’s journey to create a marketing plan and product ladder that fits your client

Your relationship with potential clients moves through these three stages:

1. Curiosity

2. Enlightenment

3. Commitment

At each stage their experience of you, and the free or paid products you offer them will be different.

For example, at the curiosity stage, email newsletters, lead magnets and free events are a great way of interacting with potential customers and building the relationship.

As they move up the ladder of stages, more trust is built (assuming you consistently offering value). Only then will someone invest some money in your services.

The book gives a heap of examples of the kind of resources and products that makes sense to build for each stage of this customer journey.

As for my takeaway, I’ll be interested to explore more workshops and one-off sessions in 2025. Does that sound interesting to you?

Step 6: Set realistic goals for your coaching business

It might seem odd for goal setting to appear so late in the business building roadmap.

But it’s for good reason.

When you’re starting out, metrics mean very little when you’re still working out what exactly you’re offering and how to get some eyeballs on it.

Once you’re clear on your products, transformation and have a email system set up, then you can start looking at setting goals to optimise for revenue, lead generation and upping the products sold.

Donald Miller’s key message here: Have a bias for action. Stop strategising and start taking action.

Step 7: Join a community to help you grow yourself and your business

That rings true in building and growing your coaching business too.

Hanging around like minded coaches or being part of a community of business owners in the same niche as you not only improves your skills but also how you operate your business.

I definitely gained a heap of value being part of the Notion’s official ambassador program, Notion consultant communities and regularly connecting with other online solopreneurs.

Those conversations challenge me to think outside the box, and help me gain more clarity.

Step 8: Master the soft skills of coaching

The success of your coaching (or other service-based) business hinges on your ability to build trust and establish a good relationships with people.

That means being a guide the “hero” (your client), showing empathy and patience, and being an expert resource to help them solve problems.

To be honest, this is one of the most rewarding parts of being a Notion consultant and often a productivity coach for my clients.

Seeing my clients take on the guidance, and get excited about the growth they’re seeing in themselves is a huge part of why I enjoy doing Notion consulting.

(btw if you’re interested in getting some help with Notion so that you can get organised and productive with you time, happy to help. Just hit reply to this email)

Coach Builder System in Notion

The book was jammed packed with actionable steps.

I’m also a big believer of taking action on information and just-in-time learning.

The beauty of Notion is the flexibility to build anything.

When faced with a challenge of implementing a complex set of actions over a long period of time. Many of which are full fledge projects (e.g. building a website, creating a workshop), I like to turn that into a system where I can track my progress and actions.

In the case of Coach Builder, I’ve turned the 8-Step Roadmap and content into a system in Notion so I can set do-dates and tick thing off as I make progress.

As they say, “what is measured gets done”.

Tracking your progress is one of the simplest ways to achieve action.

That’s it!

Thanks for reading.

Hit reply and let me know if this was helpful in building and growing your coaching business—I’d love to hear from you!

Have a great weekend,

Janice CK

📌 Resources for Coaches and Consultants

1. Communicate with Confidence: The Blueprint for Mastering Every Conversation (Mel Robbins)

   Packed with simple communication scripts to become a better communicator. A key takeaway: Separate the person from the problem, the problem isn’t the person. For example don’t say to your kid your room is really messy, instead say it looks like this room is pretty messy, what should we do about it?

   → Listen to this episode

2. Our favorite travel hacks (Chris Bailey)

   As we head into Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, you might find yourself doing a bit of travel. This is a fun episode where Chris and his wife shares their strategies on how make travelling for work and leisure enjoyable.

   A strategy I follow myself: Don’t connect to WiFi, instead mind-wandering gives me a heap of ideas for my newsletter, content creation and business.

   → Listen to this episode

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