3 Insights from $551K in Coaching Sales in 2024

The Power of Doing Less to Gain More

Ryan Hutchinson

and

Ryan Musselman

Mar 23, 2025

If someone sent you this article, consider subscribing to the newsletter…

Join 2732 readers every week learning business strategy, AI, and Automation:

My total 2024 coaching earnings finished at $551K because I stopped trying to do "ALL th3 thInGs."

2024 was about focusing on less.

It paid off and now I can't operate any other way. Here are my 3 favorites learnings from a successful year.

Let's jam!

First, commit to 1 premium group coaching offer.

I used to get excited about:

Launching a course
Selling digital products
Building a subscription community

I thought, “I’ll give so much value at an affordable price people will line-up to buy!”

*Crickets*

Well, I did get some sales, but not enough to write about it in a Substack post.

Those 3 offers appeal to 3 different buyer behaviors, at 3 different stages of their journey, with 3 kinds of buying power (none of which are premium).

They're not bad ideas. They're "really-hard-to-scale-without-volume" ideas.

Unless you're Mr. Beast (or even a fraction of Mr. Beast), you likely don't have the social media traffic to launch, sustain, and scale even 1 of the 3.

But what if I told you that’s good news? It is and here’s why: most people in the world have a small social media following.

This “small” should actually read as, “sufficient.”

It leads to 1 inescapably fascinating paradox that encourages me every time I stop and reflect:

Coaches with a small audience and premium price tag win big.

And they win big because they learn how to target their niche with a premium price instead of trying to target broadly with an “affordable” price.

In 2024, I committed to testing this paradox with:

1 group coaching offer
1 target audience (coaches)
1 specific stage of their journey

You know how my story turned out (see pic at the beginning of this post), so here’s what happened when I taught this to my clients:

Client earned ~$100K in sales after only 4 workshops 🔥
Client closed a deal in 24hrs, then $18K 30 days later
Client closed the largest deal of her coaching career
Client closed her first premium deal, then 8 more
Client earned her first $1,000 payment (above)
Client earned $40K from 1 free workshop

So we're clear, my ~$100K client gets about 20 likes per post and has 7-10 people show up to his monthly workshop.

When you focus on simplification and depth you get Avenger's level clarity as your superpower.

Your content marketing gets sharp, persuasive, influential, powerful, engaging and:

Your landing pages get dialed into your niche buyer
Your workshop delivers must-have knowledge
Your sales conversations get easier (& fun)
Your client delivery gets faster

I've never been more confident that 1 offer is all you need to scale to $1M.

Second, you don't need 100 traffic sources.

I have a presence on 1 social platform: LinkedIn (2, now that I'm on Substack).

Time and time again I said to myself:

"Figure out ads."
"Launch on YouTube."
"I can go viral on TikTok."
"Instagram will be so important."

"You must de-risk from only 1 traffic source," I argued in my head.

While I’m not wrong, there’s a more important lesson to grasp first:

Master 1 social platform, first. And stick with 1 platform until you can maintain an active roster of 20 clients (more on that in my final insight below).

For me, that was LinkedIn. Substack and YT are next ONLY because:

I've mastered LinkedIn (active client roster of 50+)
I'm able to hire support services (like video editors etc.)
I now have the bandwidth (due to my group coaching structure)

I'm not leaving LinkedIn in the dust. I’m only building on the momentum.

To recap our journey in this post so far, my $551K in coaching sales came from a simplified focus of:

1 social platform
1 group coaching offer
1 target audience (coaches)
1 specific stage of their journey

Let’s close with my 3rd and final insight.

You only need 1 conversion protocol: a free workshop.

I've tried to acquire new clients with every blueprint in the playbook.

Videos
Paid ads
Carousels
Text posts
"Clarity Calls"
"Strategy Calls"
"Discovery Calls"
[insert name] Calls" 😂

You know what really worked? 1 free workshop per month.

Think about this math for a second (warning: you can't unsee it).

If you commit to 12 workshops in 2025 (1 per month) with the goal of getting and maintaining 20 active clients, then:

Scenario 1

20 active clients
$500 earned per client
$10K per month or $120K per year

Scenario 2

20 active clients
$750 earned per client
$15K per month or $180K per year

Scenario 3

20 active clients
$1,000 earned per client
$20K per month or $240K per year

12 workshops to get and maintain 20 active clients.

That's so clear.

There's not a person on planet earth who can convince me it's not possible with any audience size. My clients and I proved it.

When I cut back on common strategies and focused on 1 workshop, I not only ended up with a consistent conversion protocol, I found that I always had somewhere to point potential clients to.

You see, we often try to go from content to conversion. But that's really hard to do.

Everyone tries to sell with content. “Content builds a 24/7 sales machine,” the echo chamber says.

Not true.

Sure, it creates “lead warmth.” But everyone wants to sell in content, so everyone looks like they’re selling the same thing.

Social is 1 giant sales circus.

This changes when you build a powerful workshop.

A free workshop between your content and your offer enables you to always point people to 1 highly valuable experience. This makes you distinct among a sea of sellers.

It's valuable because you're NOT hard selling on the workshop. You're forgetting conversion and serving. You’re meeting potential buyers where they’re at.

(“selling” doesn’t feel like selling when it’s human and relationship focused)

The value is that...wait for it...someone (your target buyer) is actually going to gain new information that they can immediately start applying.

This is a dramatically different experience compared to the person who read your post (and everyone else’s) that encouraged them to “DM” you to get their life changed.

Let’s recap our “1’s":”

1 workshop
1 social platform
1 group coaching offer
1 target audience (coaches)
1 specific stage of their journey

This is all you need to build a $20K per month coaching business (and beyond).

Get clear on your group coaching offer first, then craft your workshop, then market your workshop. Repeat it every month until you get better and better.

Let 2025 be the year you do less to get more.