How to stop spending hours on marketing activities that aren't bringing in paying clients and start focusing on what actually deserves your time.
Picture this: It's 4pm Wednesday afternoon. You've spent a solid 5 hours working on your wellness coaching business.
You created 3 Instagram graphics, rewrote your bio (...ugh, again), updated your website homepage, and spent 45 minutes comparing different email marketing software before making your final purchasing decision.
You even organized your Canva folders!
You're exhausted, but at least you were productive, right?
Well...let me ask you something:
Did ANY of those 5 hours create an actual opportunity for someone to become a paying client?
Because I see this all the time with newbie and messy-middle wellness coaches: They're spending 10, 15, sometimes 20+ hours a week working on their businesses, yet haven't had a discovery call in weeks.
Or they've signed a couple of clients but have absolutely no idea where the next 1 is coming from.
And when business is slow, they do what seems logical. They work harder, create more content, buy another course, or start building something new.
Meanwhile, the activities that could actually help them get paying clients keep getting pushed to next week's to-do list.
Sound familiar?😬
Well, let’s just say I speak from personal experience because I did ALL of these things…FOR YEARS!
Here's what I want you to consider:
What if you don't need MORE time to grow your coaching business?
What if you need to spend the time you already have on a few completely different things?
Let me show you exactly what I mean.
What Should You Actually Spend Your Time on to Get More Wellness Coaching Clients?
This depends on what's currently getting in the way of people paying you for your coaching.
If you've never signed a paying client, your priorities should look very different from those of a coach who's already sold her coaching package 5 times.
And if you've got 200 email subscribers, regular workshop attendees, and people telling you how helpful your content is, but nobody's buying? Well, you've got a different situation entirely.
Yet somehow, it seems the online business world keeps handing all 3 coaches the same advice:
Post more. Grow your email list. Create a funnel. Build a signature program.
Just keep showing up…oh, and be CONSISTENT.
No wonder we're all exhausted - and frustrated!
So rather than giving you another generic list of marketing strategies, I'm going to show you how I'd spend 5 hours working with 3 wellness coaches at completely different stages of business.
See which 1 sounds most like you.
Coach #1: You’re a certified coach, you’ve got a website, and exactly 0 paying clients
Meet Sarah.
Sarah’s a certified menopause wellness coach who helps corporate menopausal women build realistic eating and movement routines while navigating perimenopause.
She's been certified for 5 months and has been BUSY.
She's got a beautiful website, an IG account with 102 followers, and 2 different coaching packages she keeps going back and forth on. She's researched what other menopause coaches charge, rewritten her About page multiple times, and spent approximately a 100 hours deciding whether to offer a 6-week or 12-week program.
Her current to-do list includes creating a lead magnet, setting up an email welcome sequence, and finally figuring out how to make Reels.
Number of paying clients? 0.
Now, if Sarah came to me for business coaching, I'd have some questions.
Has she actually talked to perimenopausal women who might want her services?
Has she made any direct invitations to work with her?
Does she have a specific easy yes offer that solves a specific problem her specific niche would pay for? (notice a key word here?!?)
Or has she spent the last 5 months preparing to have a business without actually giving anyone an opportunity to become a client?
Because those are 2 VERY different things.
Here's How I'd Have Sarah Spend Her Next 5 Hours:
What That Actually Looks Like
Instead of offering a vague "menopause wellness coaching program," Sarah uses her market research to identify ONE specific problem her ideal clients want help solving.
For example:
The 3 PM Energy Crash Plan: For corporate women navigating perimenopause who hit an afternoon energy slump and want more manageable eating and movement routines during their workday.
The 2 AM Wake-Up Plan: For working women navigating perimenopause who regularly wake up in the middle of the night and want to build better sleep-supporting habits.
The After-Work Couch Trap: For corporate women navigating perimenopause who spend all day sitting at a desk, then feel too exhausted to exercise after work.
See how much more specific those are than "menopause wellness coaching"?
Sarah chooses ONE, creates a simple 3-session Mini-Offer, and invites interested survey respondents to a complimentary 20-minute Strategy Call. She learns more about their challenges, offers 1 practical takeaway, and, when appropriate, introduces her paid Mini-Offer.
The point isn't to spend another 3 weeks perfecting an offer before anyone sees it. It's to get something clear and specific in front of potential buyers, have real conversations, and learn what people are actually willing to PAY for, which she can use to inform and refine her current offer and content if needed.
Will she automatically sign her first client in those 5 hours? Maybe, maybe not. But she'll be taking meaningful steps toward her first beta launch instead of spending another weekend agonizing over her home page😏.
What Sarah needs most right now: ONE specific, easy-yes Mini-Offer, conversations with potential buyers, and a simple plan to beta-launch it. She can worry about elaborate funnels and signature programs once she's proven people are willing to pay for her coaching.
Coach #2: You've Signed Paying Clients, But Every New Client Feels Like a Lucky Break
Now let's talk about Rachel.
Rachel is a wellness coach helping peri- and menopausal elementary school teachers create manageable after-work stress-recovery routines.
She's signed 4 paying clients. 3 came from referrals, and another was recommended by a former colleague.
Her clients are making progress, giving her great feedback, and she's finally starting to feel confident in her coaching skills.
There's just 1 teeny-tiny problem.
She has absolutely no idea where client #5 (or 15) is coming from.
So she does what Instagram tells her to do. She creates more stress-management content, starts experimenting with Reels, and spends hours trying to grow her following.
Except most of the people engaging with her posts are other coaches, her friends, and her aunt Linda.
Love you, Linda. But unless you're an overwhelmed perimenopausal elementary school teacher looking for coaching, you're probably not Rachel's ideal client😏.
Here's what I'd want Rachel to recognize: She's already got proof that people will pay for her offer.
What she doesn't have is a consistent way to get in front of MORE people who might want it.
And that's where I'd put her energy.
Here's How I'd Have Rachel Spend Her Next 5 Hours:
What That Actually Looks Like
Rachel develops a workshop called:
The After-School Reset: 3 Ways to Stop Carrying the School Day Into Your Evening
Then she reaches out to a local teachers' association.
Here's what she might say:
"Hi Jennifer! I'm a former 3rd grade teacher turned wellness coach who helps elementary school teachers create more manageable after-work stress-recovery routines.
I noticed your association offers professional development and wellness resources for teachers, and I thought your members might enjoy a short, practical workshop on transitioning out of work mode after a demanding school day.
Would something like that be useful for an upcoming member event?"
Notice what she's doing here.
She's getting in front of an organization that already has relationships with the EXACT people she wants to work with.
And if she books the workshop, she has a natural opportunity to introduce her coaching package to teachers who want more personalized support.
One workshop could lead to inquiries, professional connections, or invitations to speak to other groups. None of those outcomes is guaranteed, but they're relevant opportunities worth testing.
Compare that with spending 5 hours creating another batch of Instagram content and praying the algorithm puts it in front of the right people at exactly the right time so they actually even see it.
What Rachel needs most right now: More intentional ways to get her proven offer in front of the right people.
She doesn't necessarily need to change her coaching package, lower her prices, or become a full-time content creator.
She needs to create more opportunities for potential clients to discover her.
Coach #3: People LOVE Your Content. So Why Isn't Anyone Buying?
Last up, meet Denise.
Denise helps women ages 50–65 who are caring for aging parents establish manageable self-care routines without adding more to their already overwhelming schedules.
She has 180 email subscribers, hosts occasional workshops, and consistently shares really helpful content.
And people LOVE it.
She gets replies like, "OMG, I needed this today!" and "Thank you for talking about this. I feel so seen!"
Which is wonderful.
Except Denise hasn't signed a paying client in 4 months.
So she's thinking she probably needs a bigger email list. Maybe a new lead magnet. Maybe she should start posting more consistently on Instagram.
But here's what I'd want to know.
When was the last time Denise actually invited someone to work with her?
Turns out, it's been 6 weeks.
7 WEEKS.
She's been so focused on showing up, sharing value, and building relationships that she's barely mentioned her paid coaching offer.
And the people reading her emails? They might genuinely appreciate her content without having the slightest clue what working with her would involve.
Here's How I'd Have Denise Spend Her Next 5 Hours:
What That Actually Looks Like
Instead of sending another email with 5 tips for managing caregiver stress, Denise sends something like this:
Subject: Taking care of everyone except yourself?
“Hey {first_name},
If you're working full-time, caring for an aging parent, and constantly putting your own health at the bottom of the list, I know how exhausting that can be.
Because I've been there.
I spent years taking care of everyone except myself, telling myself I'd focus on MY health when life finally slowed down.
Except it never did.
And eventually, I found myself dealing with chronic fatigue, anxiety, and a type 2 diabetes diagnosis.
That's why I created my Caregiver Wellness Reset coaching program. I don't want other women caught in the sandwich-generation squeeze to keep sacrificing their own health while taking care of everyone else.
Together, we'll figure out what's getting in the way of YOUR well-being and build realistic eating, movement, and self-care routines that actually fit around your work and caregiving responsibilities.
Without adding another 10 things to your already overflowing plate.
If you're ready to start making your own health a priority again, just reply CAREGIVER and I'll send you the details.”
That's it.
She's not pressuring anyone. She's giving the women who already know, like, and trust her a clear opportunity to explore working together.
Because here's something wellness coaches sometimes forget:
You can share the most helpful content in the world, but people still need to know what you're selling and how to buy it.
Of course, some of Denise's subscribers may simply enjoy her free resources. That's fine, too.
But the women who ARE looking for personalized support shouldn't have to go digging through her website to figure out whether she even offers coaching.
What Denise needs most right now: A clearer path from interested subscriber to potential paying client.
Not necessarily another 100 subscribers.
And definitely not another 30 days of helpful content without a single invitation.
Not Sure Which Coach Sounds Most Like You?
That's exactly what we're working through in my FREE Want Consistent $5K Months? workshop on Tuesday, November 17 at 11 AM CT!
You'll use my 3F Client-Getting Framework and Guided Assessment to identify what actually deserves your time, what's missing, and what to focus on FIRST.
Can’t make it live? Sign up anyway and you can get the replay.
BUT only those who attend live will get my Client-Getting Quick-Start Guide: 9 Low-Lift Ways to Create More Paying Client Opportunities, so you can choose ONE practical next move based on what you discover during the workshop. No extra marketing madness required.😉
Before You Spend Another Hour on Your Coaching Business, Ask Yourself These 3 Questions
Notice something about Sarah, Rachel, and Denise?
They all want more paying clients.
But if I handed each of them the exact same marketing plan, at least 2 would probably end up spending their limited time on activities that aren't their highest priority.
So before you sit down to work on your business again, I'd love for you to ask yourself these 3 questions.
1. What's Actually Getting in the Way of More Paying Clients?
Do you have an offer people are willing to pay for? Are enough of the RIGHT people discovering your coaching business? And when someone is interested, do they clearly understand what you offer and how to take the next step?
You don't have to diagnose your entire business in 5 minutes. But you do need to start looking at where things might be breaking down instead of assuming the solution is always more visibility or more content.
2. What's ONE Specific Activity That Could Help Address That Gap?
And please, for the love of all things profitable, don't write "work on marketing" on your to-do list😂.
That's not a task. That's an entire category of business activities.
Instead, write something you can actually complete.
"Find 3 local yoga studios that serve my ideal clients and pitch 1 workshop."
"Send a clear coaching invitation to my email subscribers."
"Reach out to 3 people who've previously expressed interest in my offer in the past 3 months."
See how much easier it becomes to follow through when you know exactly what you're doing?
3. What Can I STOP Doing to Make Room for It?
This 1 might be the most important.
Because I know you're already busy. And the LAST thing you need is someone handing you another list of marketing activities to squeeze into your week.
Maybe you can post 2X on Instagram instead of 5 times (unless you’re actually getting paying clients directly from it).
Maybe your website is perfectly fine for now.
Maybe that lead magnet you've been trying to finish for 3 weeks can wait until you've tested whether people are willing to pay for your offer.
Maybe you can let go of “learn Pinterest” on your to-do list.
You don't have to stop doing those things forever. You just need to decide whether they deserve your limited time, energy, and attention right now.
Your Next 5 Hours Could Look Completely Different
Here's what I really want you to take away from this.
There's no ONE perfect weekly marketing schedule that works for every wellness coach.
Sarah needs to get her offer in front of potential buyers.
Rachel needs more opportunities to reach the right people.
Denise needs to make it easier for interested people to become paying clients.
And YOU?
Your biggest opportunity might be something completely different.
That's why I spend so much time helping coaches get clear on what actually matters for their specific business, rather than handing everyone another giant list of marketing strategies.
And once you've identified those priorities, there's still the matter of implementing them consistently, figuring out what's working, and making adjustments when something isn't producing results.
That's where a more intentional, repeatable client-getting system starts to take shape.
Because the goal isn't to spend MORE hours building your coaching business.
It's to spend more of those hours doing the things that actually help you GET PAYING CLIENTS.
Want to Make Sure You're Spending Your Time on the RIGHT Things?
Grab my FREE Your Profitable Weekly Schedule guide to help you create a realistic weekly plan that prioritizes the business-building activities that matter most, without working 40+ hours a week.
GRAB YOUR FREE PROFITABLE WEEKLY SCHEDULE →
You didn't become a wellness coach to spend your evenings creating Canva graphics, researching software, and wondering whether you're doing enough.
You became one to help people, make money doing work you love, and build a business that supports the life you actually want.
Don’t forget to grab your free seat to my workshop, “Want Consistent $5K Months?” happening on Tuesday 11/17 at 11amCT where we’ll identify what’s working, what’s missing, and what to fix 1st to hit your income goals.
👉Yes, Save My Free Seat!
