Introduction

2024 was a big year of change for me — personally, professionally, physically, and mentally.

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As you know, we are in the midst of a recession (and least here in Europe), and companies have stopped hiring or have reduced their staff. Naturally, my social recruiting agency was also struggling to grow. So, at the beginning of 2024, I decided to "up my game" and get external support from top-notch business coaches to grow my business again. Unfortunately, roughly one year after investing $10,000+ in coaching, I still haven't managed to grow my business.

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Nonetheless, the money invested in coaching wasn't all for nothing. While I learned some insightful business strategies, coaching taught me something way more important: it fundamentally changed my perspective on business and personal well-being.

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In this article, I want to share my "aha moments" and the three key insights I gained from investing $10,000+ in coaching last year.

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Shifting from Output to Input Goals

Before coaching, I was obsessed with hitting a revenue milestone or scaling KPI metrics. Get to 30k MRR, make $100k in profit — you name it. After all, these goals seem reasonable for an agency owner, right?

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But what I learned only after spending a little fortune on coaching:
These are all output-based goals. And the thing with output is you can't control it — no matter how hard you try.

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Output results from all your actions and measures (aka your input) and infinite variables affecting them (e.g., your offer, pricing, market, target audience, economic and political situations,…). The dependence on these variables means you could do all the right things, but you still don't reach your goal or your next milestone.

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On the other hand, inputs are things you can actually control. They include what you do daily or weekly, such as the content you create, the number of sales calls you make, and the amount of money you spend on ads.

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So, when I set goals now, I only focus on input. For example, I want to create 200 content pieces yearly rather than "making 100k in profit". Another example would be to spend at least 10 hours every week to create and improve my online courses and coaching programs rather than "selling XY courses this year."

Prioritizing Your Health Might Be the Best Business Strategy You'll Ever Learn

When I started coaching, I wasn't prepared for the fact that business coaching could also impact my health. Surprisingly, one of the first pieces of advice that both my coaches would give was to work out regularly, eat clean, sleep enough, and work on your mental health. Both could not stress enough the tremendous effect a healthy body and mind have on your business.

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I wouldn't say I neglected my health in the past, but it definitely wasn't on top of my mind. However, expecting marketing and sales strategies and instead getting full-on workout and meal prep plans really made me think. Maybe business success wasn’t all about the business after all… be that as it may, it definitely gave me the final push I needed to start working on my health.

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I started going to the gym, eating healthier, and sleeping a lot longer than before. Believe it or not, the sleeping part of this transformation was actually the hardest (and still is). For years, I used to stay up very late, until 2 or 3 a.m., and then sleep for maybe 5 or 6 hours. It always felt long enough for me, and I wasn't particularly tired… or so I thought.

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After rigorously breaking my sleep rhythm and changing my bedtime to 11 p.m. and my alarm to 7 a.m., I soon noticed some significant changes. The black rings under my eyes that I've always had were becoming less and less visible, and soon, they were gone completely. My mood improved drastically; I went from being grumpy all day to being happy, motivated, and much more joyful.

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A couple of months later, I also noticed the change from eating healthier and doing a lot more sports. I lost weight (in total 14kg/31lbs) and started growing muscles. The gym's successes also made me more disciplined and motivated at work.

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All the things that I hated to do and postponed again and again, I suddenly did. I procrastinated a lot less than before and noticed that I became much more resilient to the stress produced by clients, deadlines, and work.

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It probably doubled (or even tripled) my productivity — something I never thought possible. And these were just the business effects of making health a priority for my business — all the other positive effects it had on my life are not even mentioned. So, while working out, eating less junk food, and sleeping 8 hours daily requires a lot of time and dedication, it's definitely worth it and one of the learnings from coaching that changed me for the better.

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Why I Chose Authenticity Over Cold Outreach

While the first two insights came directly from implementing my coaches' advice, this last one is quite the opposite.

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Before I dive into that, you have to understand that I've always struggled with sales. I'm not a people schmoozer or an extrovert, and I hate to call clients. My best-case scenario is to get my clients via a referral, deliver the service they want, and do it quickly with as little interpersonal contact as possible. That's probably not the ideal trait for an entrepreneur (especially as an agency owner), but it's who I am.

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So when both my coaches told me to focus solely on cold outreach (especially cold calling) to scale my business, as they claimed it was the only reliable and scalable way — I refused to accept that.

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Truth be told, cold outreach is a numbers game, and it works—I'm not arguing that. The question is, at what cost does it work? Let me elaborate: If you are a copywriter, a freelancer, or a business owner working in any marketing-related niche, you probably know how annoying and saturated the online marketing niche is.

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Thousands of "online gurus" are selling their courses, pushing their aggressive cold outreach tactics, and selling a get-rich-quick scheme to young, hopeful, adventurous young people (mostly male). As a result, they are flooding the market, all using the same cold outreach scripts, selling high-ticket "premium" services without actually caring about clients or their results, and making cold outreach miserably for everyone in this market.

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So, if I ask at what cost it works, I mean I'd get compared to this kind of people. I'd annoy potential clients and be the "tenth one calling today," trying to sell them something they don't want or don't need. I'd instantly face a lot of distrust and sometimes even hate just because I'm operating in this niche — and you usually don't get the time to explain your unique selling proposition, your experience, or whatever separates you from the young adventurers.

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Worst of all, it would feel totally inauthentic. I'd constantly work against my introverted personality. I'd be miserable for the rest of my life or until I quit my business because I'd be burned out from all the hustle. So, no, thank you. My coaches were not right in this case. Their advice, however, really opened my eyes to what it actually takes to grow a business today.

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I strongly believe it needs the exact opposite to stand out in a market where everyone is babbling the same sales scripts, just like robots, and all services sound identical to clients. Marketing and sales need to be more "human" again, feel authentic, and align service providers with clients who share their values or perspectives.

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It's about creating content that feels right for you — content that feels true to yourself, comes from within, and is not generated for some stupid target audience avatar/persona or to make a quick buck. It should reflect your "true voice," your very own tactics for doing business, and what will get client results.

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With this approach, you'll attract clients who feel the same way as you and with whom you'll love to work. And guess what? You don't even have to sell them anymore. Your content, perspective, and true voice already sell them.

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Some might call me a dreamer, but it's what spending a fortune on coaching made me realize. By the way, this is also how I'll be running my own business moving forward and how I'll be showing other introverted entrepreneurs how to do it. If you're interested in that, you can join my waitlist.

Was It Worth It?

Looking back, was spending over $10,000 on coaching worth it?

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Well, I didn't achieve the immediate boost in growth I'd hoped for. Instead, the lessons I learned have proven invaluable. I've gained a deeper understanding of what truly drives success — focusing on what I can control, prioritizing health as a foundation for productivity, and embracing an authentic marketing approach.

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While I haven't seen the initially expected growth in my business (yet), my quality of life has improved tremendously, and I'm more dedicated and motivated than ever. So, for me, it was absolutely worth it.