The Curious Coach

A

Section AStart Here

For you if you haven't posted about your thing yet, or you posted a few times and nothing happened.

Straight up, nothing happened because nobody knows you (but that's where we all started btw). Nobody opens this app to catch up with a stranger. So your job for the first 60 days is not to sell. It's to get the right people to follow you, get them to trust you, and give them one easy way to raise their hand.

The 60-day order

Days 1 to 30: Grow. Content that gets the one person you want to help to follow you. No selling. Don't even say "I'm a coach." Make what they already like to watch, in THEIR words. You're teaching the algorithm who your videos are for.
Days 30 to 60: Give. Keep growing, and start answering their questions like a friend would, not like a credential. This is where trust comes from.
Day 45: the first Gold. Every fifth post, ten seconds: "My name is Tony, I help this person do this thing, if that's you send me a DM." That's it. An invitation, not a speech.
Day 60: the first conversation. Your first ten clients come from DMs. Every single time. Not a checkout page. A conversation (my first 500 clients came from conversations in the DMs).

Not selling is not the same as not asking

From post one, give them one thing to do that costs nothing: "comment GUIDE and I'll send you the checklist." It's how you find out who's actually listening, and it's how you have a list of people to talk to on day 60 instead of starting from zero twice. The accounts that grow fastest do this on nearly every post from the beginning.

The six steps (tap to check them off)

Pick one person. Not "busy moms." Not "professionals." One specific person with one specific problem you already know how to fix. If you can't describe them in a sentence, you're not ready to post. (Section C helps if you're stuck here.)
Post for that person every day, and never mention that you coach. Every day, not every weekday. Short is fine. Unedited is fine. I don't edit mine. Two a day if you can; the people who break through post more than once.
Put your story in your captions, not in a video. Write one paragraph, 150 words, that starts "Hi, if you're new here." Who you are, where you were, what you figured out, who you help now. Paste it at the bottom of every caption for 60 days. Nobody wants a video about your life yet. They'll read the paragraph once they've watched something useful, and that's when they start to trust you.
Day 45, the soft pitch. Every fifth post. Ten seconds. Then back to giving.
DMs, not checkouts. When someone replies, ask a question back. Then another. The sale is at the end of a conversation.
Repeat until it's a business. The first client is proof, so get the result, tell the story, do it again.

How a post works on each app (this matters!!)

Instagram

The video is 5 to 10 seconds. One clip of you, one line of text on screen, a trending sound. You don't talk. The caption does the teaching: a list, a method, a story, then the ask. The video earns the stop, the caption earns the follow, the last line earns the DM. Long talking videos on Instagram from a new account get 100 to 500 views. Short clips with a real caption are how accounts with 1,500 followers get 160,000 views. Use five hashtags your person would actually search, the same five every time.

TikTok

The opposite. Talk. Start talking on frame one, no intro, no silence. Number your points. Sixty seconds to three minutes is fine if every sentence earns the next. The caption barely matters. What matters is that you say who the video is for in the first sentence and teach one thing all the way through.

Same idea on both. Different container. Most people take their TikTok video and post it to Instagram and wonder why it dies. Now you know.

One more thing

Somebody hands you a free lottery ticket every single day, and it's called posting. Most of you keep saying no. Not because you're busy (I think you're just scared). That's fine. Post scared. The feeling in your stomach never goes away; I've grown two accounts past 100K and I still get it. I just know what's on the other side now.

B

Section BWhat To Post

For you if you're staring at the camera with nothing to say, or you're not even sure your thing is a thing.

It's a thing. The teacher who explains it better than the textbook. The nurse the whole family calls first. The guy who fixed his own credit and now three friends want the steps. You've been giving it away for free for years. Nobody told you it could be an offer. I'm telling you.

Here are the first five posts I'd make with zero followers. None of them sell. All of them build trust. For each one: the hook, what to say on TikTok, and what goes on screen and in the caption on Instagram.

1The question people ask you most

"Everyone asks me the same question about [your thing], so here's the answer once and for all."

TikTokSay the hook, then answer it exactly how you'd answer a friend at a barbecue. No intro.

Instagram7-second clip, text on screen "The question I get asked most about [your thing]." Caption: the question, the answer in five lines, "comment GUIDE for the full version."

2The mistake you made before you figured it out

"Before I figured out [your thing], I did this for two years and it cost me [what it cost]."

TikTokThe mistake, then the fix. People trust someone who admits the mistake more than someone who only shows the fix.

InstagramClip of you shaking your head, text on screen "The mistake that cost me two years." Caption: the mistake, the fix, your story paragraph.

3The thing everyone in your field says that you think is wrong

"Call me crazy, but [the thing everyone says] is wrong, and here's why."

TikTokYour opinion is the most valuable content you have. It's the only thing nobody else can post.

Instagram5-second clip, the whole hook on screen, nothing else. Caption: three lines on why. This is the one that gets argued with in the comments, and that's the point.

4A day that shows the skill without naming it

"Here's what a normal Tuesday looks like when you [do your thing]."

TikTokYou're not teaching in this one. You're letting them see that you actually do this.

InstagramB-roll of the work, text on screen "A normal Tuesday." Caption: what you were doing and why it matters to your person. Trust comes from seeing, not from claiming.

5The first person you helped

"The first person I ever helped with [your thing] was [who]. Here's what happened."

TikTokTheir problem, what you did, what changed. Say their first name if they'll let you.

InstagramClip of you looking at the camera, text on screen "The first person I ever helped." Caption: the whole story in eight lines. This is the first proof you have, and proof is what people buy.

Then repeat them. Seriously. Just keep making those.

Pick the one that did best. Post it again with a different clip on top and the same caption. Then again. One of the fastest-growing small coaching accounts we've studied has posted essentially one caption, with a different 7-second clip each time, for months, and it keeps working. Repetition isn't lazy. Repetition is how the right person finally sees it.

C

Section CWho It's For, and What It Is

For you if you're posting but talking to everyone, or to people at your own level. Also for you if you've never turned what you know into an actual offer.

Here's why nothing's landing. Picture four levels.

Level 4The established coach. Book, podcast, big audience. They sell the big transformation because they've been doing it for a decade.
Level 3You. Ten years in your field. Real skill, real results with real people. Zero audience, never sold anything online.
Level 2Knows they have the problem. They've been looking for help for a year. They read everything. They haven't hired anyone. And nobody is talking directly to them.
Level 1Doesn't know their problem has a name yet. Level 4 reaches them with a huge audience. You can't. Yet.

Every professional who opens a coaching account tries to sound like Level 4 on day one. But that's the same as selling an outcome you haven't achieved. Level 1s won't be inspired since it's insanely inauthentic, and Level 2 scrolls right past it because it doesn't sound like someone who remembers being them. But you remember. That's the whole advantage. Sell to the person one step behind you. You already know exactly what they need because you were them.

Define your Level 2 in one sentence

Fill this in. Out loud.

"I help [the person] who [the frustration in their words] so they can [the thing they actually want]."

If it takes more than one breath, it's too broad. Cut until it fits.

Your first offer: one, one, one, one

You don't need a program, a website, a certificate, or a logo. You need four things, and each one is a single choice.

One person. The sentence you just wrote.
One problem. Not everything you know. The one thing they're stuck on right now. If they get past it, they'll come back for the rest.
One format. Start with one of two: a 45-minute one-to-one call where you solve that one problem live, or a single workshop where you walk five people through it together. Not a course. Not a membership. Those come after you have an audience.
One price. Low enough that nobody can say no. Your first client isn't revenue, they're proof: a result you can talk about, a testimonial, a story for your captions. Get the result, then raise it. Client four pays more. Client ten pays what it's worth.

Write your offer as one sentence you could say on a video without reading it:

"I do a 45-minute call with [person] who's stuck on [problem] and we fix it. DM me."

If that sentence embarrasses you, good. Say it anyway. Embarrassment is what the first offer feels like for everyone.

Three posts written for Level 2

"If you've been thinking about [the change] for a year and haven't done it, this is for you." Say who it's for in the first sentence, on screen on Instagram, out loud on TikTok. The right person stops. The wrong person scrolls. Both are good for you.
"Nobody told me this when I was where you are." One thing you wish someone had said to you at Level 2. Not a list. One thing.
"You don't need [the thing they think they need] to start." The permission slip. Level 2 is waiting for someone to tell them they're allowed. Be that person.

D

Section DMake It Work

For you if you're posting, to the right person, with a plan, and you're still stuck under 200 views.

Good news: you're doing the hard part right. So the problem is mechanical, and mechanical problems have short fixes.

The weekly mix: Grow, Give, Gold

This is about what your captions and videos say, not what day you post. Post every day. Of every seven posts:

4

Grow

Content for your person, in their words, no selling.

2

Give

A story, an opinion, or a question answered like a friend.

1

Gold

After day 45 only. Ten seconds. Who you help, what changes, "send me a DM."

Under day 45, the Gold is another Give. If you're doing all three kinds every week and still not seeing sales, you're not doing all three. I ask everyone and it's never all three.

The swap list: resume words out, customer words in

You spent fifteen years learning to sound professional. On this app, professional sounds like a company, and people don't follow companies.

Delete from your bio: passionate about, empowering, helping clients achieve, holistic, certified, solutions, journey, results-driven.
Stop saying on camera: "I'm excited to announce," "as a professional," "in my experience," "reach out to learn more," "let's connect."
Say instead: the exact sentence your person says when they're frustrated. "I've tried everything." "Nobody told me this." "Why is this so hard." Then answer it like a friend would.

Eight things I'd fix in one minute

Your bio says who you are. Change it to who you help and what changes for them. "Nurse, 15 years, passionate about wellness" becomes "I help new nurses survive the first year without quitting."
Say who the video is for in the first sentence. On screen on Instagram, out loud on TikTok. The right person stops. Everyone else was never going to hire you.
Cut the credentials from the first line. Lead with their problem. Credentials go in the caption, if anywhere.
On Instagram, stop talking and shorten it. If your reels are 60 seconds of you explaining, cut to 7 seconds of one line on screen and move the explaining into the caption. This is the single biggest fix for a new account on Instagram and almost nobody does it.
On TikTok, cut the silence. Watch your last video. The first three seconds are you breathing and saying "okay so." Cut them. Start on the sentence.
One idea per post. You know twelve things about this. Say one. The other eleven are eleven more posts.
Give them one thing to do. Every post ends with a question or a comment word. "What's yours?" or "Comment GUIDE." A post with no ask is a post that ends.
Wipe your camera. Blurry does not get pushed. This one's embarrassing and it's the most common.

Do this today

Do the bio one first. Then post something today with fix number four or five applied, depending on the app. Come back and tell me what changed. I read every DM.