Coach Builder

Have you ever wished you could make a living simply by sharing what you already know—your hard-earned wisdom, your battle-tested experience, your ability to help others succeed? In Coach Builder: How to Turn Your Expertise Into a Profitable Coaching Career, Donald Miller argues that you can. He contends that almost anyone who has built success in their career already possesses everything needed to become a great coach—and to transform that skill into a thriving business. All it takes, Miller says, is discipline, clarity, and a repeatable system.

Miller believes coaching isn’t just about inspiration or mindset—it’s about tangible, structured steps that turn ideas into income. This book isn’t about high-minded philosophies; it’s a practical playbook, built around what he calls the Eight Steps to Grow Your Coaching Business. These steps cover everything from designing what you’ll sell to gathering clients, crafting your website, writing emails that convert, mapping the client journey, setting achievable goals, joining a coaching community, and mastering the soft skills that make clients trust you.

Why Coaching Matters Now

Across industries—from business and finance to health, gardening, parenting, and leadership—the hunger for personal guidance is exploding. Miller frames coaching as essential not only for business success but for broader economic and emotional well-being. Business owners don’t need another MBA, he writes—they need a coach who can help them stay sane while growing profit. (Similar to Michael Hyatt’s argument in Your Best Year Ever, Miller positions coaching as a path toward transformation rather than mere education.)

The Playbook Promise

What makes Coach Builder unique is Miller’s insistence on clarity and simplicity. Every coach, he argues, must stop “winging it and wondering” and instead work a plan that can be executed, measured, and scaled. He promises that if you follow the eight steps, you can go from zero to a six-figure coaching business within a year—and even reach seven figures if you choose to scale.

You’ll learn how to:

• Create a clear menu of coaching products instead of vague advice sessions.
• Develop a client pipeline and nurture it through smart communication.
• Build a simple but effective website that acts like a sales pitch.
• Automate trust-building emails that lead clients toward buying decisions.
• Structure your relationships and products into ladders that invite deeper engagement.
• Join or build a community of coaches for inspiration and accountability.
• Polish the interpersonal skills that turn you into a trusted advisor.

Coaching as Transformation—For You and Your Clients

At its heart, Miller’s message is about transformation. He believes that when you coach others, you also transform yourself—from knowledgeable professional to confident entrepreneur. Each chapter reinforces this dual journey: the systems you install for your business mirror the systems you’ll later help your clients install in theirs. A coach who’s disciplined becomes a mirror of success for others.

The Practical Blueprint

Unlike titles heavy on theory (The Prosperous Coach or Coactive Coaching), Coach Builder gives readers concrete tools. Miller walks you through story-driven examples—Brek, the retired pastor who packaged his wisdom into premium workshops; Nicole Burke, the gardening hobbyist who turned her backyard passion into a seven-figure coaching business; and Jake Brown, the creative director who discovered that being himself was his greatest sales advantage. These are not superhumans—they’re everyday experts who learned to package what they know in ways clients can see, value, and buy.

Why does all this matter? Because too many people who could change lives through coaching never start. They’re afraid of charging money, uncertain how to market, or unsure how to build a system that works. Miller’s playbook cuts through that confusion with exact next steps for turning expertise into revenue. Ultimately, he’s not selling you on becoming a coach—he’s challenging you to become a profitable, confident guide whose impact transforms both client and coach alike.

The first step, Miller insists, is deceptively simple: define your products. Until you know what you’re selling, you can’t market, price, or pitch it. Too many coaches offer vague retainer sessions—“Let’s meet twice a month and I’ll give you business advice”—which Miller likens to a restaurant advertising only “food items.” No one buys the fog. They buy the burger.

Create a Menu of Tangible Offers

Miller urges coaches to create a formal menu of sellable offers, each with a name, description, and price. These could include workshops, one-on-one programs, small groups, assessments, or masterminds. For example, a small business coach might offer a “Product Profitability Audit,” a “Double Your Sales Program,” or a “Leadership Alignment Workshop.” Each product must promise a measurable transformation—whether financial or emotional.

Stories That Show the Shift

Two stories make Miller’s case vivid. Brek, a retired pastor, felt guilty charging money for wisdom he’d always given away. When he packaged his counsel into a life-planning workshop and priced it at a premium, he not only grew his business—he grew his self-worth. Nicole Burke, who started planting lettuce in her backyard, realized her gardening obsession could become an income stream. By adding new products—raised beds, trellises, then certifications—she turned her hobby into a seven-figure brand, Gardenary. Both stories prove that creating products transforms the coach as much as the clients.

The Psychology of Pricing

People respect what they pay for, Miller reminds us. Discounts destroy perceived value. He uses a “10% rule”—charge less than 10% of the expected financial return your client will gain. If your workshop can help generate $100,000 in new revenue, a $10,000 fee is fair. And publish your prices, he says. Transparency weeds out unqualified clients and boosts confidence. (Note: This mirrors Dan Kennedy’s pricing principles in No B.S. Wealth Attraction.)

Establishing Your Flagship Product

To start fast, Miller suggests creating one “flagship” offer—often a six-month small group with a clear deliverable, like increasing revenue by 25%. It’s time-efficient, scalable, and builds community. Once clients experience value at this level, they’ll climb your product ladder toward workshops or one-on-one coaching.

“Nobody wants to buy a patch of fog. Clarity sells, and it sells at a premium.”

When you transcend vague “coaching” talk and present defined products with specific value, you stop sounding like a helper and start commanding respect as a business partner. Creating a menu of offers isn’t just marketing—it’s identity work. It changes how clients see you and how you see yourself.

Once you know what you’re selling, Miller’s second step is finding—and nurturing—the people who’ll buy it. He calls this the “potential client list,” but it’s really the lifeblood of your coaching business. Without a system to capture, communicate with, and convert leads, you’re just a solo expert talking to yourself.

Start Simple: Everyone You Know Is a Lead

You don’t need fancy software yet. Miller tells you to start by listing every person you know who owns or runs a business. Most coaches, he notes, are surrounded by prospects without realizing it. Write down 20 names today—owners, executives, freelancers—and start observing their frustrations. Those frustrations will map directly to your product menu.

Tell the World You’re a Coach

Your biggest marketing mistake, Miller says, is silence. People can’t hire you if they don’t know you’re a coach. He cites his own experience—he followed a friend on social media for years before realizing that friend offered coaching. The friend had to clearly say it: “I’m a business coach.” Repetition creates identity. Whether through social posts or networking introductions, say it until it sticks.

Use a CRM to Keep in Touch

Miller directs readers to start using a simple customer relationship management (CRM) system—like Keap or HubSpot—to store contacts and automate follow-ups. You’ll segment leads by their top challenges (marketing, operations, cash flow) and send targeted advice that earns trust. Every email becomes a drip of value that reminds clients you exist. (In Fanatical Prospecting, Jeb Blount echoes this idea: prospect relationships require long-term nurturing over dozens of touchpoints.)

Create Reciprocity

Regular communication isn’t pestering—it’s generosity. By sharing useful insights, you earn goodwill. When those recipients hit a roadblock, they’ll call the person who’s been generously helping all along. That’s reciprocity—the invisible engine of every coaching business.

Miller even encourages offline community-building: host a monthly breakfast for clients and prospects. It’s casual but powerful. Around coffee and conversation, trust deepens—and coaching decisions happen naturally. As one of his examples proves, even informal meetups can seed six-figure businesses.

The takeaway: don’t overcomplicate early marketing. Build a simple CRM, email useful content, talk openly about your coaching, and make space for connection. Momentum will come not from clicking “ads” but from nurturing real human relationships—one conversation at a time.

In step three, Miller turns digital marketing into psychology. A coaching website, he argues, is not an online résumé—it’s a sales pitch. It must guide visitors through curiosity, enlightenment, and commitment, just like a sales conversation would. Most coaches resist this because they fear “selling themselves.” But Miller reframes it: your site is proof of clarity and professionalism. If you coach business owners to communicate their value, you need to model that skill yourself.

The Anatomy of a Selling Site

Every effective coaching website, he says, needs seven sections. First is the header—your elevator pitch in three sentences: what you do, how your offer makes life better, and what step the client should take next. Below that comes the “stakes” section, where you name the pain points clients face without your help. Then your “menu of services,” a concise list of offerings. After that comes “proof of value”—testimonials or statistics that show transformation. Add a “three-step plan” that makes engaging you feel easy. Include an “explanatory paragraph,” a short storytelling section using Miller’s Customer Is the Hero framework. Finally, offer a lead generator (like a PDF or assessment) to capture emails.

Why This Works

Miller borrows from narrative structure: the visitor is the hero; you’re the guide. The website should make them feel seen in their struggle and confident that you can lead them to success. The site isn’t about you—it’s about the story they want to live. He compares the structure to a date: the first section builds curiosity, the middle brings enlightenment, and the final sections invite commitment.

Practice What You Preach

If you help clients create clear messaging, your site must do the same. Miller emphasizes that a well-crafted site doesn’t just close deals—it also shows clients what clarity looks like. You’re modeling excellence. In action, the process of wireframing your website (planning the words before designing visuals) will actually increase your own confidence in what you offer.

“Your coaching website isn’t vanity—it’s leadership in HTML.”

By turning your website into a story-driven pitch, you convert browsers into buyers and show clients exactly how messaging and structure can drive results. It’s not about bragging; it’s about clearly guiding them through transformation—starting at the very first click.

Email, Miller argues in step four, is the heartbeat of modern coaching marketing. People don’t hire coaches impulsively—they hire when frustration peaks. The only way to be present in that decision window is to stay in their inbox consistently. He calls this the formula of trust: Value over time.

Lead Generators: The Entry Point

Start every email relationship by offering something valuable—a checklist, worksheet, assessment, or article. These “lead magnets” attract the right kind of client and give you their email in exchange. Miller shares examples like “The Perfect Week Template” or “Five Meetings to Run Your Business.” Once downloaded, the relationship begins.

The Story Framework That Sells

Each email should follow what Miller calls The Customer Is the Hero Sales Framework: start with the client’s problem, position your product as the solution, build a bridge from the problem to the solution, paint the negative and positive stakes, and call them to action. Each message closes a story loop in the client’s mind—they move from frustration to hope. (This method closely parallels Donald Miller’s earlier work in Building a StoryBrand.)

Sales and Nurture Campaigns

He recommends starting with six direct sales emails followed by months of slower “nurture” messages—useful insights that keep your name familiar. You might share a step-by-step how-to, a case study, or a motivational vignette. Every few weeks, weave in a gentle sales note. Persistence drives familiarity, and familiarity drives sales.

Keep Your Fly on the Water

Miller’s metaphor for email marketing is beautifully simple: “If you don’t keep a hook in the water, you’ll never catch a fish.” Sending ongoing value—not spam—keeps your “fly” visible when the client is ready to bite. The longer you nurture, the higher your odds of conversion.

“Trust isn’t built in a single click; it’s grown week by week in the inbox.”

For coaches nervous about marketing, Miller’s approach demystifies it: you’re not selling—you’re serving. Each email is a mini coaching session delivered free, proving your expertise until the client decides to pay for deeper partnership.

The fifth step turns relationships into systems. Miller introduces the idea of the client journey, a structured ladder that mirrors the client’s emotional process—moving from curiosity to enlightenment to commitment. Knowing where your clients are on that ladder allows you to guide them intentionally and avoid confusion.

Phase One: Curiosity

Clients begin by wondering if you can help them survive and thrive. Here, your job is to spark interest through simple, low-risk touchpoints—your one-liner, a lead generator, a free event, or a friendly conversation. Each interaction should point them toward clarity, not overwhelm. Miller shares coaching examples like Jake Brown’s realization that his own energy and authenticity attracted clients—it was his unique “curiosity tool.”

Phase Two: Enlightenment

Once curious, potential clients start exploring whether your process works for them. This is where you offer low-cost, high-value experiences—assessments, webinars, or introductory workshops. Miller recalls hosting a free mastermind that later converted nearly half the participants into paid program members. Enlightenment happens when potential clients see firsthand how you deliver transformation.

Phase Three: Commitment

Finally, clients are ready to invest. Here, Miller introduces the “product ladder”—a hierarchy of paid offers that lead from entry-level services to premium engagements. A client might start with a low-priced online course, join your flagship small group, then ascend to your elite mastermind or one-on-one coaching. Roughly 10% of paying clients, he says, will pay ten times more for deeper access if the value is clear.

The Power of Progression

Mapping this ladder creates stability. No client feels abandoned; instead, each has a next step waiting. It also enables scaling. As Miller puts it: “If you build clarity into every rung, clients will climb naturally.”

“You’re not just selling coaching—you’re guiding a journey.”

By documenting how clients move through curiosity, enlightenment, and commitment, your coaching business starts running on rails. You stop chasing randomness and start orchestrating transformation step by step.

In step six, Miller shifts from marketing to mindset. Coaches love telling clients to set goals—but rarely set their own. He calls that hypocrisy. To build a dependable business, you need concrete goals in three areas: revenue, qualified leads, and products sold.

Revenue Targets: Money as Motivation

Start with how much you want to earn—say $150,000 in year one—and reverse-engineer it into monthly product sales goals. This turns aspirations into math. Knowing what it takes ($5,000 small group × 30 clients) helps you focus on actions that matter.

Lead Goals: Relationships Drive Income

Because about 10% of leads convert, Miller advises tracking how many qualified leads you need each month. If you want 20 active clients, aim for 200 total leads per year. This forces consistent outreach—calls, emails, speaking events—to keep the funnel alive.

Products Sold: Tie Actions to Outcomes

Break big numbers down by product: how many assessments, trainings, small groups, and retainer clients you need. The sample table in Miller’s book shows how even modest product sales can compound to six-figure revenue when organized.

Action Bias and Resilience

Miller draws from Tim Grover’s Relentless and world-class athletes like Michael Jordan: success correlates to motion. You’ll never feel “ready”—start anyway. Be willing to “play injured,” as athletes do. The winners are those who act before perfection.

Celebrating Progress

Miller closes with a reminder to celebrate victories—take your team to dinner, buy yourself that watch, or enjoy your weekend. Reward reinforces discipline. The virtuous cycle of goal-setting, action, and celebration prevents burnout and keeps you excited to coach.

“Success favors those who move before they feel ready.”

For ambitious coaches, this chapter is both a mirror and a mandate. You tell clients to take decisive action; now it’s your turn to practice it. Business goals are no longer theory—they’re exercise. The only way to hit them is to move.

Step seven reminds every coach of a vital truth: transformation requires community. You’re constantly pouring out knowledge and empathy. Without peers to refill your own tank, burnout is inevitable. Miller calls for coaches to build or join a coaching community that offers wisdom, accountability, and encouragement.

The Power of Collective Intelligence

He points to legendary examples: football coaches Nick Saban and Bill Belichick, who meet each year not to reminisce but to dissect what works and what doesn’t in football. Their friendship—a partnership rooted in obsession and curiosity—shows that mastery thrives where ideas meet humility.

Avoiding the Lonely Coach Trap

Without community, success can distort your ego. Miller describes how leaders implode when they trade peers for “echo chambers” of followers. True greatness, he says, comes from humility—the willingness to keep learning. Warren Buffett, not known for coaching but for wisdom, models this humility by crediting partners and assistants for his success.

Building Your Own Tribe

If you don’t have a community, create one. Invite local coaches for coffee monthly. Expect early awkwardness; consistency transforms strangers into allies. Miller’s own groups—like his diverse entrepreneurial cohort—started stiff but soon felt like family. Time and shared pursuit create belonging.

History’s Pattern: Greatness in Groups

Miller connects this to creative clusters—Vienna’s psychologists (Freud, Jung, Frankl), the Renaissance artists, even Jefferson and Adams. They thrived because they talked, debated, and refined ideas together. Coaching, he insists, should follow that same model.

“The great ones hang together.”

Community doesn't just help you grow your business—it keeps you grounded as a human. Coaching is relational work, not solitary hustle. Find peers who inspire your curiosity. Success shared in good company multiplies. Success pursued alone corrodes.

The final step returns to the soul of coaching—the soft skills that make a coach worth following. Processes and playbooks won’t matter if you’re not good with people. As Miller writes, “When clients sign up for coaching, they’re not trusting your frameworks — they’re trusting you.”

Be the Guide, Not the Hero

Borrowing from his StoryBrand philosophy, Miller reminds coaches that their role is the guide, not the star. The hero is the client. Your job is to show empathy and competence—to say, “I know how this feels” and “I know how to fix it.” When you embody both, clients relax and learn.

Patience and Persistence

Clients move slower than you’d like. Resist frustration. Progress feels like inches to you but miles to them. Combine patience with persistence—letting them move at their pace but ensuring they move forward.

Lead Clients to Realization

Don’t lecture; lead by questions. Help clients realize truths on their own: Which products are losing money? How would clarity change morale? Realization creates ownership—teaching creates dependence. Coaching is self-discovery, not dictation.

Create Safety and Trust

Half your work begins before frameworks—listening, understanding, verifying. Miller suggests this ratio: 50% listening and verifying, 40% empathy and normalization, only 10% giving advice. Judgment kills trust; curiosity builds it.

Affirm Transformation

Finally, celebrate breakthroughs. Remind clients how far they’ve come—with a note, gift, or symbolic token. Acknowledgment locks transformation into identity. As Miller puts it, “Heroes need guides to affirm their change.”

“Your framework may start the transformation, but your presence completes it.”

Soft skills are simple, but not easy. They require depth of character. Coaches who live by empathy, patience, and affirmation make not just stronger businesses—but better human connections. After all, transformation—the book’s ultimate theme—starts with trust.