The first time I got interested in online coaching, I met a lot of different people.

A lot of these individuals were well on their way to developing an online coaching business. “So far, so good”, I thought to myself.

It turned out that a lot of the people I was rubbing shoulders with digitally were basically walking the wrong path. They had all the wrong ideas on how to build and run a successful online coaching business.

In fact, for the longest time, I struggled with my own coaching business because I absorbed a lot of their ideas.

One of the most confusing and toxic ideas that I subscribed to be the idea that I should recruit as many clients for one-on-one coaching. In theory, this made a lot of sense because, let’s face it, if you want to learn from somebody, the best way to do so is to have that person right in front of you.

While that person is talking, you can engage that person and ask questions that mean I lot to you.

Maybe there are a lot of materials that don’t make sense to you. Perhaps this person is skipping certain important materials.

Whatever the case may be, the fact that they’re in front of you enables you to ask questions in real-time so they can engage with you in such a way that you pick up the information that will take your knowledge to the next level. All this is fairly easy to understand.

However, the problem is people are not going to seek out one-to-one coaches unless that person is worth seeking out. I hope you can understand that. I hope the value proposition is quite clear with the statement I just said.

Think about it. If you are just some random person who keeps saying to himself and to anybody who would bother to listen that you are an expert, do you think you will be viewed as an expert? Chances are you won’t.

You have to pay your dues. You have to write lots of books. You have to get interviewed a lot. You have to become some sort of minor media figure. You have to establish a name in your industry.

A lot of these activities take quite a bit of effort, focus and motivation. Yes, they also take a lot of time, and this is how you build a premium brand.

Once you have reached that stage, then it makes sense to market yourself in terms of one-to-one coaching. Prior to that point, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense because people couldn’t care less.

They’d rather read your book. They’ll give you a shot that way. Maybethey’ll watch a video that you shot a long time ago.

However, in terms of paying up to $300 per hour for one hour of FaceTime, I don’t think so. Unfortunately, there are so many other people who think like me.

Do yourself a big favor. Develop a premium brand first. There are many ways to do this. Some ways are more disappointing than others. Some ways lead to success.