Todd Herman posted something that got me thinking:

I’ve met a lot of SaaS founders since starting Kilo, and the prevailing sentiment is that coaching businesses aren’t “real businesses.”

As someone who has scaled both a saas and a coaching business, I can tell you that’s bullshit.

A good coaching business has sticky recurring revenue and plentiful profits, just like a good saas business.

To which most tech people will say:

“lol, well good luck selling a coaching business.”

It’s true that coaching businesses don't sell for SaaS multiples, but you can still get rich selling one. In 2021, Alex Hormozi disclosed that he sold a majority interest in Gym Launch & Prestige Labs for $46.2 million.

That said, if you have a low-stress business that cash flows like crazy, why would you want to sell it in the first place?

Jonathan Goodman, an online coach that teaches people how to be an online coach, agrees:

When I asked a fitness insider what kind of money Goodman makes from his coaching business, their reply was:

“Pretty sure a fuck ton. I would assume north of $1M in income at least.”

If true, that’s more than some S&P 500 CEOs make.

How to build an extremely profitable online coaching biz

So you’re probably thinking, “I can get down with a low-stress business that spits off a ton of cash, but where do I start?”

To get the answer, I spoke with Dani & Jason Brown.

Dani is a marketing whiz & Jason is a programming expert. The two of them run Jason Brown Coaching from their home in New Hampshire.

They work 25-30 hours a week & bring in over $500k/yr.

And since you subscribe to Gym World, you get to steal their playbook.

1/ Own one word in the prospect’s mind

Jason brands himself as “The King of Programming” and offers "the last training system you'll ever need.”

By associating his brand with one word, he becomes known as the “programming guy,” so people seek out his expertise on that topic.

Other examples from the fitness industry include:

• Ben Patrick - "Knees Over Toes Guy"

• Bret Contreras - "The Glute Guy"

• Kelly Starrett - Mobility

2/ Pick one channel & dominate it

Dani & Jason get most of their traffic from Instagram.

Here’s their strategy:

1 carousel a week

A carousel lets your swipe through 10 photos and/or videos in a single post.

Jason's content is dense, so carousels allow him to deliver a lot of information in a small space.

Each carousel is educational, entertaining, and well-designed.

Dani said making one takes up to 12 HOURS, but some get 400k+ impressions.

1-2 Reels a day

Reels are short-form vertical videos for Instagram. They’re perfect for anyone with a short attention span—which is everybody.

Workouts and workout tips perform well:

3-5 Stories a day

These promote the day’s posts & drive engagement.

3/ Have a low ticket and a high ticket offer

Attention is worthless unless you monetize it.

Jason drives his following to two low-barrier offers—a $97 PDF & a $27/mo programming subscription. Those products provide leads for his main offer—an $8k/yr coaching program.

Yes, you read that right. If you want to work with Jason, it’ll cost you $8k/yr.

Last week, we talked about the importance of premium positioning, and Jason is driving that point home:

4/ Repeat yourself over and over and over and ov-

If you're planning on running a coaching business for a long time, you'll find yourself talking about the same things a million times.

My mentor—who owns a coaching business that has done more than $25M—has been writing about the same 6 things for the last 10 years.

It takes a while to get traction, so you REALLY need to love what you do. If not, you’ll burn out long before you make the big bucks.

Most people do the right things, but they don’t do enough reps.

Take podcasts, for example - less than 4% have 10+ episodes and publish weekly.

To win, you have to be persistent.

Want to learn more?

We dive deep into Jason’s business—and rank the best garage gyms on TikTok—on this week's Gym World:

Until next week,

John