If you have a personal service business that can be delivered online, like consulting, coaching, training etc., and you’d like to open up your business to the world rather than be confined to local clients, this post will cover how I do it.

There are many ways to do it, this is just my preferred way, partly because it’s non-spammy, and partly because it suits my talents and the kinds of activities I enjoy.

I’ll keep it high level, and then you can message me for more details/specific questions: dan@brojo.org.

Main elements

My primary system is based on creating free online content, driving enthusiastic audience members into an online community, and from there creating client relationships.

Nothing tricky or secret about this system. It’s an online version of what I used to do locally in person: I’d do free meetup groups where I’d help people out, then they’d join my Brojo community and do workshops etc., then I’d invite them to 1:1 coaching.

So the main elements are Content, Community, and Relationships.

Content

Give away all your best ideas for free. Understand that your main product is the direct communication with you, which no content will ever be able to substitute for. If your main product is content, this isn’t really a post for you. This is for people who do live services, either 1:1 or to groups.

Choose your preferred method for creating the original content. I prefer videos. You might like the podcast or written methods. Do whatever you enjoy most and will stick with for a long period of time.

I post a combination of short and long content. But I actually only create long-form videos. A good trick I’ve found is to create long form videos, and then use an app like Opus to easily create tonnes of short videos automatically for daily posting.

I then convert all videos into audio and written content as well, using transcribing apps and other tools.

This way, a single long video gives birth to a podcast (both video and audio versions), 4 or 5 medium videos, and 12 short videos. All of these are transcribed and become corresponding written posts. The short videos become my daily newsletter.

Once I’ve created all this content, I then publish it EVERYWHERE.

I have a daily newsletter via Substack, which also gets copied onto all written forms of social media, such as Facebook, Reddit, and Medium.

I have two weekly medium videos on Youtube. I have one podcast length audio on Soundcloud, iTunes, Spotify etc (and video version on Youtube).

This looks like a lot – but it’s only a few hours’ work to generate all this content, especially when I work with apps, and later on you can bring on support people who will do the manual stuff that AI and apps can’t handle well. It takes a while to get familiar with all the platforms – each has different requirements and limits – but once you’re used to it you can adjust the posts as needed quickly.

Don’t be afraid of learning the platforms! You can even hire someone do handle it for you.

My content directly addresses key specific issues my target audience has. I ask my clients and audience directly, I research popular search keyword terms, I look at what’s trending in my niche. I give them what they want!

All of this content serves two purposes: it helps people, and it promotes my community. Every single piece of content in some way tells people to go check out the community, whether it’s directly in the content itself (longer form), or as a comment on the post (shorter form).

Rather than spamming people with direct messages like most nuisance wannabe coaches, I allow people to self-select and come to me as warm connections by gently yet clearly inviting them to the community.

Make sure there are no dead-ends. Any time someone reads/watches your content, they should be prompted on the next step. It should always lead somewhere better.

If you want to be more direct, I also sometimes have a call to action to contact me directly (by email), e.g. invite them to ask me a question or give me feedback. From there, I will develop a relationship with them.

In the podcasts, I will actually invite them to coaching, because longer form content guarantees a more engaged person, whereas in a 1 min video it’s asking too much too soon.

Community

I host the Brojo community on Skool. There are other platforms, such as Facebook groups, or private Reddit forums. It depends on your preferences, whether you’re willing to pay for the platform, and what kind of content you will be posting there.

This is the place where you post all your best stuff and become personally available to your audience. You will dedicate much of your available time to stoking up conversations, making sure people are included, inciting them with questions and so on. Make sure it’s ALIVE in there!

Again, make the group free to join, but more exclusive and private than just commenting on public content. When they join, make personal contact with them and surprise them with extra value – I usually give them a free course worth a few hundred dollars, or one of my books.

Think of the community as a way to serve the world more directly, while also developing client relationships through service.

Relationships

Once someone is in the community, the key is to keep serving them and escalating the level of service.

Remember, your paid product – e.g. coaching sessions – is just a type of service. It’s your content on steroids. So all you’re ever doing, whether it’s free or paid, is trying to improve their lives. It’s just that once they escalate to a certain level, they need to reciprocate by paying for the best stuff and for your time.

Generally people escalate very quickly or very slowly. So they’ll either be on a trial coaching call within 3 days of first hearing your name, or they’ll become a client within the next few years.

You don’t need to rush or push. You’re not trying to manipulate them. Rather, you serve them until they’re ready for the good stuff.

Start with getting to know them. This can be done with messages, quick calls, questionnaires etc. Try to get a sense of who this person is, what they need, and what level of service they can currently handle.

Track all your relationships on a CRM of some kind, whether this is a formal program (I use Pipedrive), or an excel spreadsheet, or a notice board with stick notes. You should be on top of where every individual is in the basic system of your client relationship, every step from first contact through to paid client.

You should also have a sense of where you fit into the process with your service. Do you work with beginners or experts? Make sure you invite them to your services at the right level. It’s no good inviting a broke student to your financial planning coaching, just as it’s no use inviting a champion body builder to your weight loss for new mums program.

Basically, treat every positive response as a sign to escalate. Commented on your post? Invite to the group. Joined the group? Give them a free course. Engaged in the course? Invite them to a discovery call. Booked the call and showed up enthusiastically? Offer them paid coaching.

And if they’re slow to respond, hesitant, or directly say No (but still like you), you treat them as a longer term relationship. Think: “Not yet, they need more service first”. Slow it down, check in on them every month, make sure they’re subscribed to your newsletter, and keep making their lives better.

Make sure any time you contact someone, first ask yourself, “How do I improve their life today?”

Going online

Most of the above is just a process that could be applied in any context, including in-person with local leads. So here are some online-specific things to consider:

Whatever else you do, have an email list! I prefer Substack but there are AWeber, Mailchimp and many others. Email addresses are the most solid contact information available.

Third world countries are broke. Sounds ruthless, but you have a business to run here. So while I will happily serve people from India, Nigeria, Pakistan etc as enthusiastically as anyone else, I don’t bother escalating to paid coaching. I give them big discounts on courses instead. My coaching costs thousands in USD – it’s just out of reach for some countries.

Paid advertising helps indirectly. Let go of the idea that paid ads for your service are a great idea. It’s better off having at least a low level budget for paid ads on Meta or Google that promote your community. You might not see a direct correlation – e.g. ad leads becoming clients – but there’s something about running ads online that boosts your overall reach. Even better, run ads for your most popular content, e.g. advertise your most watched Youtube video and set the ads to focus on getting subscribers.

Prepare to work with different timezones. It’s no good being only rigidly available to people locally if you want international clients. You’d be amazed how much business you lose just from being hard to book in with. There are certain times that work well for almost everyone, such as evening European time (daytime America and Oceania). Or at least be available for your favourite region’s after work hours.

If you are multi-lingual, put it to good use. Non-English speaking countries are often starved for services that are abundant in English. If you speak more than one language, double everything up for both, e.g. have both an English and a Spanish Youtube channel.

Put all your fees in USD – it’s the currency most people are able to convert easily to their own in their heads. Try not to use a weirdly specific currency. Some people are distrusting of spending money online, and an unusual country will be off-putting for them (e.g. I’m in Czech Republic but charged in USD). Use Stripe to create invoices that can be paid in multiple ways online, or a similar trustworthy system. Make it very easy for them to pay – every barrier you put up loses clients.

Be prepared to have platforms rug-pull you. I get shadow-banned at random. Sometimes a platform will just stop showing my posts for a while. If you’re controversial, you might even get banned. So make sure you repost everything on as many platforms as possible, avoiding the risk of having it all taken away at once.

Different platforms attract different crowds. If you’re a business consultant, you’re better off focusing on LinkedIn than Facebook, but a beauty specialist should forget about LinkedIn and focus on Instagram. If your audience is young, go with TikTok. If they’re older and well-read, go with Medium and Substack. Etc.

Likes don’t mean shit. The number of followers is misleading. I have a 6 figure business from mostly Youtube leads, and I’ve never had a viral video. Most of my videos only get a couple hundred views. I have 5000 subscribers. Those numbers don’t matter. If you put out quality content, you find quality clients.

This approach overall takes time. It was 5 years before I had enough people coming to me passively to provide a full income on its own. You will have to squeeze the most out of every comment, every community member, until the momentum builds.