Why Coaches Avoid Selling - and What’s Really Going on

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Stop Hiding Behind Content: Why Selling Your Course Matters

Here’s the hard truth: there’s no point creating a course if you’re not going to sell it.

Yet this happens all the time. Brilliant coaches build courses, polish them for months, and then stop short of putting them in front of people.

Why? Because selling forces vulnerability. It means standing by your value, risking rejection, and being seen.

Hiding Feels Safer Than Selling

Building feels productive, but it’s also safe. As long as you’re “still working on it,” you don’t have to face the possibility that people might say no.

That’s why so many coaches hide behind content – it feels easier to tinker with slides, modules, and downloads than to actually sell.

I once worked with a coach who had been told to “just keep creating more courses.” When I looked inside their Kajabi site, it was full of half-finished programmes. Weeks, months, even years of work – unpublished.

The coach had the expertise, but the advice they’d been given was bad. And I’d wager the person giving that advice was the one scared of selling – afraid of being exposed. So instead of selling, they stalled, the coach stayed stuck and lost tens of thousands of dollars.

The Acid Test

Here’s the question to ask yourself:

👉 If someone offered to go out and sell your course for you tomorrow, exactly as it is today, would you let them?

Not polished. Not perfect. Just good enough to deliver a real transformation.

If your answer is yes, then the course is ready – it’s fear of selling that’s holding you back.

If your answer is no, be honest about why. Is it really because the course isn’t ready, or is it fear of what happens if people buy it? Fear they’ll judge it? Fear it won’t be good enough? Fear of being exposed?

That’s what this is really about.

The Real Blockers

• Fear of rejection (avoiding “no”)
• Doubting whether your work is worth the price
• Old money stories that tell you not to charge too much
• Hiding behind building because selling feels too exposing

The Shift

Selling isn’t about being pushy. It isn’t about forcing people into something. It’s about giving people the chance to say yes to change.

If your course delivers a clear outcome, then selling it isn’t something to be ashamed of – it’s your responsibility. Because until you put it out there, nobody gets the result.

3 Steps to Start Selling with Confidence

1. Run the acid test
   Ask yourself: If someone could sell my course tomorrow, would I let them? If the answer is no, get clear on why. Is it the course itself, or is it fear? Naming the block is the first step to breaking it.
2. Stop hiding behind content
   Pick one unfinished course, one coaching package, or even one framework you already know delivers results. Put it out there with a clear call to action. Don’t build three more. Don’t wait until it’s perfect. Ship one.
3. Reframe sales as service
   Selling isn’t pushing. It’s helping people choose to solve their problem. Every time you make your course visible, you give someone the chance to stop struggling alone. That’s not salesy – that’s coaching at its core.

Takeaway

Selling isn’t a separate skill from coaching. It’s the first transformation you create – helping someone move from stuck to committed.

Stop hiding. Start inviting. Let your course do the work it was designed to do.

In Part 5: Keep Students Engaged (and Coming Back for More)

I’ll show you why completion rates matter, how to keep momentum alive, and how engaged learners become your best marketing engine.