High-ticket coaching and personal brand offers: the full research

The research was done by AI agents that open web pages. Some sites refuse them; where that happened we say so. The small numbers point to the source list at the end. Where a figure is our own sum or guess, it is marked “our estimate” and the basis is given.

The claim

Our collection for this scheme is small: 8 tweets from 6 accounts, and the most-viewed has 1,644 views¹. Only one of the six accounts has the 10,000 followers we require before naming an account. So we quote one tweet and describe the rest. The page rests on how the method is promoted generally, not on these tweets. It judges the scheme, not the people who tweeted.

“All you need to hit 6 figures. >> A couple hundred followers >> A bunch of value content to solve problems >> A simple landing page that shows your offer >> All your traffic directed to that landing page $10k a month MINIMUM.”

@IAmAaronWill, 6 October 2026, 1,634 views as collected the same day¹. The date is worked out from the tweet’s ID number.

“Hit 6 figures” means reaching $100,000 or more a year, which is why $10,000 a month follows. A “landing page” is a single web page that presents an offer. This tweet names no price and no sales calls. We use it as an example of the income claim, and the sums below use a $5,000 offer as our assumption, not the author’s.

The other seven tweets, in our words¹:

Two say a YouTube funnel can add $10,000 to $50,000 a month to a business that already has an offer. One of them says its author made more than 30 videos for clients in four months and that these produced over $100,000 in client revenue.
One says a named seller, SooWei Goh, went from about $20,000 a month to being on course for about $500,000 a month through YouTube alone, with no paid ads.
Two ask readers to comment a keyword to receive a script for booking a large number of high-priced coaching clients.
One says reading a linked article will take a personal brand to $10,000 a month.
One invites readers to copy a system for getting clients from Instagram and states no income.

What the tweets do not say matters for the sums below. None of the eight states the price of the offer, the number of sales calls, the share of calls that end in a sale, the audience needed, the months it takes, or the cost¹. We read the tweet text in our collected copy. We did not view the images, videos, threads or links attached to them.

What the scheme is

“High-ticket” means a high price per customer. In a sales pitch recorded in a US regulator’s complaint, a seller put the floor at $5,000⁶. The offer is usually coaching (regular sessions with a person who guides you), consulting (advice to a business) or a done-for-you service.

The method has four parts:

An audience. You post free, useful material under your own name. This is the “personal brand”. On YouTube it is called a “YouTube funnel”: videos that lead viewers, step by step, towards a purchase.
A booking link. Viewers who are interested book a “sales call” or “strategy call”, often after a conversation in DMs (private messages).
The call. You, or a hired salesperson called a “closer”, offer the programme and state the price.
Delivery. You coach the client for some weeks or months.

There is a second layer. Some people sell “client-acquisition systems”: programmes, scripts or agency services that promise to get clients for coaches. Our collection notes record three tweets, from accounts we do not name, as coming from an agency service; two offer a script through DMs, one links an article and one shows nothing for sale¹. For the account we name, our collection note says its bio mentions content and acquisition services¹. We could not open any of these profiles or sales pages to confirm, because X refused our tools, so all of this rests on our collection notes alone¹.

So the mechanism is real and simple. The question is where the sales calls come from, and how many a newcomer can get.

The arithmetic

Step 1: what the income is made of

Income = price x number of sales.

Number of sales = calls booked x share who show up x share who buy.

The tweets give the income and none of the other figures¹. We have to supply them.

Step 2: the price, the show rate and the close rate

We found no independent measurement of these rates for a newcomer’s coaching offer. There are three kinds of figures, and each has a weakness.

Sellers’ pitches. These are recorded in a complaint the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC, the consumer-protection regulator) filed against a company that sold sales training⁶. The complaint concerns only that company. In those pitches:

a high-ticket offer “typically it needs to be at least $5K”⁶;
“Average show-up rate is 80 percent”⁶;
the close rate (the share of held calls that end in a sale) is given as 20%, called both an average and a minimum, and in another pitch as “like 30 percent, but since you’re newer, we’ll say 25”⁶. The 80% show rate comes from the pitch that used 25 to 30%.

The FTC alleged that these pitches overstated what buyers would earn. They also describe hired salespeople selling other companies’ offers, not a coach selling their own⁶. A closers’ network asked applicants for a 20% minimum in a November 2025 job post¹⁵.

A recruiter’s dataset. A firm that recruits salespeople published figures from 273 companies that sell high-priced offers: “core performance metrics like Conversion Rate (25%) and No-Show Rate (25%) have remained remarkably stable”⁶⁶. For business coaching and consulting it gives a 24.8% close rate and 27.4% no-shows⁶⁶. The firm sells recruiting, the numbers are the companies’ own, and the companies are established: the median one collects $175,000 a month⁶⁶. So this describes businesses that lasted, with trained salespeople, not a newcomer’s first calls.

Individual coaches. Reports run from a full calendar of calls each week with 10 clients in four months at $2,000⁵⁰, to one coach who said 60 to 75% of calls ended in a sale⁴⁹. Both are anonymous.

We use the lowest pitch figure, 20% close with 80% showing up, and add a 10% column. A newcomer’s own rate is unknown.

Step 3: the calls needed

Our estimate, from the figures above. “Booked calls” = sales / close rate / 0.8. These are takings before any cost.

Monthly income	Offer price	Sales a month	Booked calls at 20% close	Booked calls at 10% close
$1,000	$1,000	1	about 6	about 13
$10,000	$5,000	2	about 13	25
$10,000	$2,000	5	about 31	about 63
$30,000	$5,000	6	about 38	75
$50,000	$5,000	10	about 63	125

Worked example: $50,000 / $5,000 = 10 sales. 10 / 0.20 = 50 calls held. 50 / 0.80 = 62.5 calls booked, or about 3 every working day (our estimate).

The number of sales is small. That is the attraction of a high price. At the recruiter’s rates (25% close, 75% showing up) the $30,000 row needs 32 booked calls, not 38 (our sum from⁶⁶).

The hard part is the right-hand columns. For $10,000 to $50,000 a month that is 13 to 63 people a month at a 20% close rate, and 25 to 125 at 10%: people who are interested enough and able to pay, booking a call with you. Coaching packages end, so the calls must keep coming.

Step 4: can an audience produce those calls?

No public, checkable figure links YouTube views or followers to booked calls. We looked and found only agency sales pages. One tool vendor that studied coaching channels says so itself: “No public data ties a view count to a number of clients.”⁹

What can be measured is the audience a newcomer starts with:

In vidIQ’s index of 61.2 million YouTube channels, “The median channel in the sample had 508 subscribers.” (The median is the middle channel: half have more, half fewer.) 40.6% had reached 1,000 subscribers and 7.9% had reached 10,000⁸.
Among channels that had posted in the last 90 days, those with 1,000 to 9,999 subscribers gained a median of 13 subscribers a month. Those with 500 to 999 gained 3.7⁸.
In a sample of 165 coaching and consulting channels, the median video got 1,293 views. For channels under 1,000 subscribers it was 348 views, and business-coaching channels had the lowest median, 411⁹.

Limits: vidIQ sells a YouTube tool, its index covers all topics and leaves out 1.39 million channels with no subscribers⁸. The 165-channel sample comes from another tool vendor: the 25 closest matches to each of seven specialty searches in its own index, which it says “is not a random sample”⁹. And subscribers are not buyers. A small channel in a narrow business field can sell with few viewers. YouTube’s own bar for sharing ad money (1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours in 12 months) does not apply here, because the income is from clients, not ads²¹.

Does a small following rule it out? No. Kajabi, which hosts courses and coaching, said in 2025 that its average customer earning six figures had 1,000 to 10,000 followers, an email list of about 4,000 and 309 paying customers⁵⁷. That is more than the tweet’s “a couple hundred followers”, but 309 customers for six figures means low-priced products, a few hundred dollars each (our sum). At $5,000 a sale, $100,000 needs 20 buyers. So audience size alone does not refute the tweet. What the tweet leaves out is trust and a list. The nearest small-channel case we found had a 694-subscriber business channel, and also about 4,600 email subscribers and four years of publishing⁶¹. We read the Kajabi figures in an article about its release, not in the release itself.

How many calls do working consultants get? A firm that coaches consultants surveys its own mailing list. It reports: “Over 70% of consultants are generating 8 calls or less per month”, and “70% of consultants get 0 leads/calls per month from their consulting website”⁶⁵. Asked which marketing brings most clients, 4% named social media; phone calls and networking led⁶⁵. “For over half of consultants, 60% of their business comes via referral”⁶⁵. Yet the same people often earn well: 27% reported $80,000 to $150,000 a year, 18% $150,000 to $300,000 and 7% $300,000 to $1 million, against 26% at $25,000 to $80,000, 15% at $5,000 to $25,000 and 5% under $5,000⁶⁵. The survey gives no sample size, mixes several years, includes people consulting on the side, and comes from a firm that sells coaching to consultants⁶⁵.

It points two ways. Most consultants get far fewer calls than the table needs, and almost none from content. And those who earn well mostly do it with few calls, from referrals and direct contact, at prices and close rates above our table’s, not with a high-volume content funnel.

What an agency page promises. One agency page of the kind the tweets describe promises “10-30 Qualified Calls Every Month (Or You Don’t Pay)”¹⁰. At 20% close and $5,000, 10 to 30 booked calls would be $8,000 to $24,000 a month by our Step 3 formula, or $10,000 to $30,000 if every call is held (our estimate). So the tweets’ range hangs together on paper. The page shows no price and no terms. Its case studies are all businesses already selling: one “scaled from 30k/mo to 75k/mo in 4 months”, another went “From ZERO Inbound leads to a full pipeline, closing 2 deals/month”¹⁰. All results are the agency’s own statements, and the page carries a 2023 copyright line, so it may not be a current offer¹⁰. Two of the tweets likewise speak of adding income to an offer the reader already has¹.

Step 5: what comes off the top

Card fees. Stripe’s standard US rate is “2.9% + 30¢” per card payment, plus 1.5% for foreign cards¹². On a $5,000 sale that is $145.30 (our sum).
A closer. A job post from a coaching company offers “10% commissions upon day 1 cash collected” (the money actually paid on the day of the sale) and expects six to seven one-hour calls a day¹⁵. On a $5,000 sale that is $500 (our sum). With card fees, about 13% is gone before anything else (our estimate).
Tools. Cheap. Calendly $10 to $16 per user a month when billed yearly, Skool $9 or $99, GoHighLevel $97 to $497, Kajabi $179 to $499¹⁷. A basic set costs roughly $20 to $300 a month (our estimate).
Paid leads, if the audience is not enough. “The 2026 average cost per lead in Facebook ads for leads campaigns across all industries is $27.39”, and $26.31 in education¹¹. A lead is a filled-in form, not a booked call, and we found no measured share of leads who book. If between one lead in five and one in twenty books a call, 13 booked calls cost roughly $1,800 to $7,100 a month and 63 cost roughly $8,600 to $34,500 (our estimate; the booking rate is our assumption, with no source). The benchmark comes from local small businesses, not coaching offers¹¹.
An agency or a programme. These are the large costs, and the sellers we opened do not publish prices¹⁰²⁰.
Tax. In the US, “The self-employment tax rate is 15.3%” on net earnings, on top of income tax⁴⁴.
Refunds and disputes. See “What the rules allow now”.

Step 6: the claim against what coaches earn

The biggest survey of working coaches is run for the International Coaching Federation (ICF) by the accounting firm PwC. Its 2023 edition had 14,591 responses². For 2022 it found:

average fee for a one-hour session: $244²;
average active coach: 12.2 clients and 11.9 hours a week of coaching²;
average yearly income from coaching: $52,800 worldwide and $67,800 in North America²;
“Globally, more than one in two coaches (53%) reported less than $30,000 annual revenue/income from coaching.”²

That last figure is income from coaching only, not total income. “Almost all coach practitioners (93%) offer services in addition to coaching”, most often consulting and training². With 11.9 hours a week, coaching is a part-time activity for the average respondent.

Our sums from these: $10,000 a month is $120,000 a year, about 2.3 times the world average and 1.8 times the North American one. $30,000 to $50,000 a month is 7 to 11 times the world average. Under $30,000 a year is under $2,500 a month.

The claimed incomes cannot come from hourly sessions. At $244 an hour, $30,000 to $50,000 a month is 123 to 205 paid hours a month, against about 52 that the average coach works (our estimate from²). So the claim depends on package prices, group programmes or a team.

Limits: most respondents were ICF members, who are trained and often coach executives, and 57% of their clients are paid for by someone else, usually an employer². They are not the same people as social-media sellers. The figures are survey answers.

The 2025 edition counts 122,974 coaches and $5.34 billion of revenue³. That is about $43,400 per coach (our estimate: total divided by all coaches). The per-coach average is behind a sign-up form. Two secondary write-ups give it as $49,283 for an active coach, lower than in 2023, and one says the 2025 study no longer reports how income is spread⁴. So the 53% figure is the latest available and is four years old. ICF’s own pages disagree with each other on some totals (2023 revenue appears as $2.849 billion in one place and $4.564 billion in another), so we use them with care²³.

What people who tried it report

Tax records for one-person consulting businesses. The US Census counts businesses with no employees from tax filings. In 2023 there were 1,081,961 in “management, scientific and technical consulting”⁵. From its size bands, our sums: 59% took in under $25,000 in the year, 74% under $50,000, about 14% took in $100,000 or more, 4.4% took in $250,000 or more and 1.5% took in $500,000 or more. Average takings were about $59,800. These are takings before costs. The category is wider than coaching and leaves out firms with staff⁵.

So in this wider group, $10,000 a month is reached by about one business in seven. $30,000 to $50,000 a month is $360,000 to $600,000 a year, reached by roughly 1 to 3% (our estimate, placed between the $250,000 and $500,000 bands in⁵).

The count includes every tax filer with any consulting income. Nearly four in ten of these businesses took in under $10,000, which suggests side or part-year work. Among those taking in $25,000 or more, about a third reached $100,000 (our sums from⁵). The data cannot separate full-time from part-time.

Coaches’ own reports. We read four threads on Reddit’s life-coaching forum. Every figure is anonymous and unchecked, and people who answer such threads are not a fair sample.

In a thread asking established coaches what they earn, answers ran from under $20,000 to $300,000 to $600,000 a year. One wrote: “It took me over 12 years to get to 6 figures.” Another reported $70,000, $90,000, $190,000 and $180,000 over four years, after two years of podcasting before opening, with yearly costs of about $40,000 to $50,000⁴⁸.
In a second thread, answers included a part-timer on $700 to $1,200 a month, a coach of 18 months charging $95 a session with six to eight clients a week, and one claiming over $250,000 a year. One coach reported $4,000 to $12,000 a month within three to four months from free LinkedIn posts, closing 60 to 75% of calls. That is the nearest case we found to the tweets’ claim working from content alone, and it is a single unchecked report⁴⁹.
A coach selling a $2,000 programme wrote: “My calendar fills up each week with calls, but no one moves forward because of the price. In the past 4 months, I’ve signed 10 clients”⁵⁰. That is about $5,000 a month before costs (our sum).
One coach reported about $50,000 from coaching in a tax year. Another reported $500,000 over three years, after earlier running a different business⁵¹.

A survey of solo business owners. A survey of solo owners, mostly selling to businesses, was summarised in a February 2026 write-up like this: “If you’re less than 3 years into your solopreneur journey, making over $100,000 is very rare.” 65% of them sold one-to-one consulting⁵². The write-up we read does not state the sample size, the sample is self-selected, and we did not read the full report.

A list of published founder interviews. Starter Story lists 18 coaching businesses, with income stated by the founders. They run from $1,200 a year to $1.44 million. The median is about $90,000 a year, or $7,500 a month, and 8 of the 18 state $120,000 a year or more (our counts)⁵³. These are founders who agreed to be interviewed: a favourable sample, but not only winners. Several are not coaching sold on calls⁵³.

Buyers of systems, in regulator cases. These concern only the companies named in them, and all were settled without a trial, so the claims in them were not tested in court.

Growth Cave. The FTC’s complaint describes a programme sold through YouTube video ads and a “1-on-1 strategy call”, priced at $3,500 to $9,800, with an upgrade (a second, dearer purchase) costing $30,000 to $50,000²². Buyers were promised a business selling their own online course. The FTC alleged: “In most instances, KBA purchasers do not make a single sale and therefore do not earn any income.”²² KBA is the programme’s name. The case was settled in January 2026²³.
Lurn. The FTC’s complaint against this business-coaching seller quotes one marketing employee in the company’s internal chat in February 2021: “I hate to say it, but typical results will suck for all programs. Typically, people don’t do anything, and get no results.”²⁴ That is one employee’s remark, not a company statement. The FTC said “very few, if any consumers actually made money with the programs”²⁵. Lurn settled in 2023²⁵.

What the rules allow now

Selling coaching through videos, DMs and sales calls is legal, and every platform we checked allows it. What is restricted is the way it is often advertised. We did not check the rules for coaches who give regulated advice, such as investment, medical or legal advice.

Income claims

United States. The FTC’s 2021 notice on money-making opportunities says: “It is an unfair or deceptive trade practice to misrepresent, explicitly or implicitly, that participants will or are likely to earn any specific amount or percentage.”²⁹ The same notice lists as unlawful pretending that buyers are screened for suitability, or that places are limited, when anyone who can pay is accepted²⁹.

A small-print line does not fix a headline result. The FTC says: “Statements like “Results not typical” or “Individual results may vary” won’t change that interpretation.”³⁰ The seller must show the result is typical, or say clearly what buyers generally get³⁰.

Since 21 October 2024 an FTC rule allows money penalties for testimonials from people who do not exist, paid-for positive reviews, and testimonials from insiders that do not say so³². We read this through a summarising tool, so it is secondary.

The FTC proposed on 13 January 2025 to bring business coaching under its Business Opportunity Rule, which would require written proof for any earnings claim³¹. It has not become law. The FTC’s August 2026 agenda still lists it as a rulemaking in progress, and we could not establish whether it has been dropped³¹. So today nobody is required to publish what buyers of coaching programmes earn. That is one reason no such data exists.

California has a law for paid plans that help someone start or run a business. For a first payment over $500 and under $50,000, the seller must register and give disclosures 48 hours before payment, and the law “prohibits charging payment of more than 20% in advance”³⁵. Whether it covers a given coaching offer depends on the facts. We found no case applying it to an online coach.

United Kingdom. On 15 October 2025 the advertising regulator (the ASA) ruled against five advertisers of money-making courses and coaching³⁶. One ruling concerned a business coach for fitness coaches whose Instagram ads led with a client’s “£33K month”. The ASA wrote: “Because the ads implied the results were typical, and we understood that was not likely to be the case, we concluded that the ads were misleading.”³⁶ In another ruling it held that a “results aren’t typical” line at the bottom did not cure a claim of £20,000 to £30,000 a month³⁶. The ASA can have ads removed; it does not fine. Its guidance says such marketing “must not imply that exceptional success is typical”³⁷. The rulings concern only the advertisers named in them.

Germany. According to a law firm’s summary, the Federal Court of Justice ruled on 12 June 2025 that a nine-month business mentoring contract priced at 47,600 euros was void, because the provider lacked the approval that the distance-learning law requires⁴⁵. We read the summary, not the judgment, and the firm seeks clients with such claims.

Enforcement in 2025 and 2026

All of these were settled by agreement. They concern only the companies named.

Growth Cave (settled 27 January 2026): the defendants “are permanently banned from marketing and selling business opportunities and credit repair programs”, with a judgment of $48,597,538, partly suspended because they could not pay²³. The FTC alleged the operation cost consumers nearly $50 million²³. The title of the FTC’s March 2025 release calls it a “Business Opportunity and Credit Repair Scam”²³. That is the regulator’s word, about that company.
Air AI (sued August 2025, settled March 2026): sold coaching materials and resale licences to small business owners with earnings promises and a refund guarantee. The owners agreed to a ban on marketing business opportunities, with an $18 million judgment, mostly suspended, and $50,000 paid²⁷. The FTC alleged that buyers lost as much as $250,000²⁷.
Publishing.com, a seller of self-publishing courses, here for its earnings claims and testimonials (order finalised on 2 July 2026 by a 2-0 vote): agreed to pay $1.5 million. The FTC alleged that most buyers never earned the advertised income and that refund conditions were hidden. “At times, the complaint states, Publishing.com even conditioned refunds on consumers providing positive testimonials.”²⁶
Lurn (2023): agreed to pay $2.5 million. The FTC said buyers were phoned and offered extra coaching costing up to $10,000, and that callers were told to answer any income goal with “I’m 100% confident we can help you.”²⁵
Traffic and Funnels (2023): the FTC said “consumers paid more than $29 million to the defendants” between 2018 and 2022 for sales training advertised as earning $10,000 to $20,000 a month. The defendants agreed to pay $1 million for refunds⁷. In January 2025 the FTC sent more than $960,000 to 8,174 people, about $117 each (our sum). More than $802,000 of that was accepted, and in July 2026 it sent a second round of 1,623 payments totalling more than $136,000⁷.
Older cases: Zurixx, a seller of real-estate investing seminars and phone coaching, here for its earnings claims, ended with bans and about $12 million returned; the FTC said buyers paid “thousands or tens of thousands of dollars” for seminars and phone coaching²⁸.

For context, people reported losing $750.6 million in 2024 in the FTC’s “business and job opportunities” category. Most of that was job offers, so it is not a measure of coaching³⁴.

The FTC’s advice to the public on coaching offers includes one test a reader can apply to a tweet: “If it promises guaranteed income, large returns, or a “proven system,” it’s likely a scam.”³³ The FTC uses that word for offers with those features, not for coaching as a whole.

Platform rules

YouTube allows videos that teach and then offer a service. Its spam policy bans “Promoting “get rich quick” investment schemes” and “Content created solely to drive users off of YouTube to external sites”. A coaching offer is not plainly an investment scheme. “If you get 3 strikes within 90 days, your channel may be terminated.”³⁸
Google and YouTube ads: “Making inaccurate claims or claims that entice the user with an improbable result (even if this result is possible) as the likely outcome a user can expect is not allowed.”³⁹
Instagram: the “comment a word and I’ll DM you” tactic is allowed through Meta’s official tools, within limits: “Only one message can be sent to the commenter”, within 7 days, and more only if the person replies⁴⁰. Instagram’s terms forbid collecting information “in an automated way without our express permission”, which covers bots that send cold DMs⁴⁰.
X: “You may not send unsolicited Direct Messages in a bulk or automated manner”⁴¹. Read through the Internet Archive, because X refused our tools.
LinkedIn bans automation tools for messaging. Members who use them “risk having their accounts restricted or shut down”⁴².
Stripe will not serve businesses that “make outrageous claims” or “use high-pressure upselling”¹⁴. Ordinary coaching is not on its restricted list¹⁴.

We found no figures on how many coaching channels or accounts any platform has closed.

Refunds and disputes

Disputes. If a buyer disputes a card payment, “Stripe in turn debits your Stripe balance for the disputed amount plus a dispute fee.”¹³ Stripe’s US fees are $15 when a dispute is received and a further $15 if the seller contests it, returned only if the seller wins¹². Buyers can usually dispute “within 120 days of the original payment”, or longer for services delivered later¹³. One disputed $5,000 sale is taken back in full while it is decided.
Cooling-off. In the EU, consumers who buy online or by phone “can cancel the contract within 14 days without providing any justification”⁴³. In the UK, “If you do not tell the customer about their right to cancel, they can cancel at any time in the next 12 months.”⁴³ We did not check whether these rights reach someone buying for their business.
Loans. A lender called Elective finances course and coaching purchases of $150 to $15,000. Its page tells sellers: “Overcome your #1 objection: price! Give your customers the freedom to split their purchase over 3, 6, 9, or 12 monthly payments.”¹⁹ The seller is paid up front, less a one-time fee Elective does not publish, and the buyer repays the lender; it is offered in the US and Canada only¹⁹. We did not find what the credit costs the buyer.

Who makes money from it

Coaches and consultants who already have clients. This is where the sums work. Someone with an offer that sells at $5,000 and a source of calls needs only a few sales a month (see Step 3).

Sellers of funnels and client-acquisition systems. These are paid whether or not the buyer’s funnel brings clients, unless a guarantee applies. The two we could open show no price, only a button to book a call¹⁰²⁰. Both advertise a guarantee. Client Ascension’s terms say it “is dependent upon you completing an extensive set of action items”, and we did not see either guarantee’s full terms¹⁰²⁰. Client Ascension’s home page lists client results such as “$42,000/mo in 8 months”, all stated by the company, under the line “These results are not typical or guaranteed.”²⁰ Its terms say: “We exclusively work with businesses that are already operating. … Any results shown by our clients are not typical.”²⁰ So by their own account, these services are for people already in business.

Tool companies and those who refer people to them. Skool takes $9 a month plus 10% of sales, or $99 plus 2.9%¹⁷. It pays referrers: “earn 40% of monthly recurring revenue for life”¹⁸. HighLevel pays “40% recurring commissions” and ClickFunnels “30% recurring”¹⁸. A recommendation of a “system” can carry a monthly commission for the person recommending it.

Closers. About 10% of each sale, where one is hired¹⁵.

Lenders and card processors. Paid on every sale¹²¹⁹.

In the regulator cases, the seller. The documented large sums in this market are those the FTC says were collected by sellers of systems: about $50 million alleged in Growth Cave and more than $29 million in Traffic and Funnels⁷²³. The Growth Cave complaint describes a 2023 event for buyers of the $30,000 to $50,000 upgrade. It had been sold as limited to 25 places; about 100 buyers were present, and the FTC says many told the room they were not making sales²². These are claims in a settled case and concern only that company.

One fairness point. A working consultant who pays an agency to edit videos is buying an ordinary service. The regulator cases bear on a different thing: programmes that sell newcomers a way to become a high-earning coach, with income promises. None of the cases names any account in our collection.

The upside

People do report the incomes in the tweets. But we found no independently verified income for a high-ticket offer sold on calls from content. The two verified records below are neighbouring models: one is a subscription, the other a large media company. Every case that matches the tweets’ model is the seller’s own statement.

Records checked by someone other than the seller

DataExpert / TechCreator, a data-engineering training business. A site that reads sales figures directly from Stripe shows “All-time revenue $4,728,361” since March 2023 and 879 active subscriptions⁵⁹. That averages about $110,000 a month over three and a half years (our sum). Revenue is now about half that: the listing gives monthly recurring revenue of $56,294 and $44,201 in the last 30 days⁵⁹. The product is a subscription, not an offer sold on calls.
Ali Abdaal Ltd, the UK company of a YouTuber whose channel shows 6.7 million subscribers and whose site lists courses, among them one on running a YouTube channel⁶⁷. Its filed accounts show net assets of £5,988,251 at the end of 2024, up from £4,731,051, with 15 employees on average⁶⁴. Net assets are what a company owns minus what it owes, built up over years. They are not a year’s income. The accounts are unaudited and show no sales figure or breakdown of income, and the 2025 accounts were not yet filed on 10 October 2026⁶⁴. Nothing we read shows that he sells through sales calls. This is the far end of the scale: his site says he has published on YouTube since 2017⁶⁷.

People’s own statements

Creator Science reports that its membership, priced from $2,000 a year, brought in $496,000 in 2025 and $1.6 million since 2022, with a newsletter of more than 65,000 readers behind it⁶³. Its membership page shows a waitlist and an application; we saw no mention of sales calls⁶³. The owner also writes: “The YouTube channel, in particular, has operated at a loss for most of its existence.”⁶³
Impact Clients, which sells mentoring on starting a digital-product business, says in a job advert that it uses free content “to drive leads (customers and qualified booked calls) to our coaching programs”. It states “over 30 million in sales” (currency not stated), 62 full-time staff and more than 1.5 million followers¹⁶. The advert says it is moving from paid to unpaid growth, and it still has a ten-person paid-advertising team¹⁶. These are the company’s own claims.
SooWei Goh, the example named by a third party in one of our tweets, not by a tweet of his own. That tweet says he went from about $20,000 a month to being on course for about $500,000 a month¹. His own pages give other figures. His site, dated 2026, offers to “help you install our $230k/mo Sales Funnel” through a programme called Brand Architect⁴⁶. Its footer says earnings statements are “aspirational statements only of your earnings potential” and that “The results on this page are OUR results”⁴⁶. The site also says: “If you don’t run a coaching business or consultancy that’s above $30k/mo, please leave this page”⁴⁶. His YouTube channel description, undated, states $151,000 a month and later $408,000 a month, and says he shut down an earlier offer⁴⁷. The channel has 39,900 subscribers and about 2.4 million views across 334 videos since 2021⁴⁷. We found no independent record of any of these figures. If they are accurate, they show that a small expert channel can carry a large offer, because few buyers are needed.
A YouTube-strategy coach published one month’s income: $24,285 in January 2025, of which “1:1 coaching = $12,500”. The audience was a 694-subscriber business channel, a 15,726-subscriber personal channel and 4,594 email subscribers, about four years after starting to write online. Course sales made up $10,925 of the month (55 sales), and stated expenses were $3,983. He writes that “All course sales and clients this year have come through” his email list⁶¹.
A creator whose income mixes sponsors, a cohort course and contract coaching for a company published a full year: $73,653.64 in 2025 and a profit of $37,037.38 after spending on agency help and coaching, for 1,108 hours of work⁶². That is about $3,100 a month in profit (our sum). It shows a creator-education income, not a high-ticket offer sold on calls.

Signs that people pay high prices

On Skool, our count across eight search terms found 670 paid groups for coaching, consulting and mentoring. 127 list $250 a month or more, or $1,000 or more as a single payment⁶⁰. The largest high-priced ones teach a trade to people already in it: commercial roofers ($5,800, 938 members), wedding photographers ($5,800, 628 members), estate agents ($12,000 a year, 1,057 members)⁶⁰. Listed price times members is not income. Owners often add people who paid elsewhere or at other prices.

A consultancy for gym owners enrolled one gym in a $5,000 mastermind (a paid peer group) that teaches high-ticket selling, and tracked a second gym in a different one. It defines high-ticket as five times the gym’s usual rate or at least $1,500 up front. It reported: “Each gym managed to sign up several high-ticket clients”⁵⁴. It published no counts, and it sells mentoring to gym owners. Both gyms already had customers. It does not recommend the strategy for owners at the founder stage: “You could invest your time in other projects that would have a greater return.”⁵⁴

Kajabi says its customers have earned over $12 billion across more than 100,000 businesses⁵⁷. An article on its 2025 release says nearly 1,800 have earned $1 million or more⁵⁷. That is under 2% of them (our sum). The same article says Kajabi reports that its creators “earn an average of $190,000”⁵⁷. That is Kajabi’s own average, with no period stated, and a few very large accounts pull an average up.

The top tenth and the top hundredth

No data exists for this method alone. The nearest is the Census data on solo consulting businesses: about the top 14% take in $100,000 or more a year, the top 4.4% take in $250,000 or more, and the top 1.5% take in $500,000 or more, before costs (our sums from⁵). An earlier Kajabi survey of over 2,000 creators found “96% of creators earn less than $100k annually”; those above it averaged five sources of income⁵⁸.

For context on the skill itself: US management analysts, who advise businesses as employees, had a median wage of $101,860 in May 2025⁵⁵. One study counts 5.6 million Americans earning over $100,000 working independently in all fields⁵⁶.

A realistic good result in the first year or two (our estimate)

No source measures newcomers’ first-year income or the time to a first client. Our estimate, from the ICF figures², the two published income reports⁶¹⁶² and the view counts for small channels⁹: a competent person with a skill others pay for and existing contacts in the field might sign a first few clients within months and reach $2,000 to $6,000 a month in the first one to two years. That range sits roughly between the 59th and 80th percentile of solo consulting businesses in the Census data, so it is a good result, not a middle one (our estimate from⁵). $10,000 a month would put them at about twice the North American average for working coaches². $30,000 to $50,000 a month from YouTube alone appears in our evidence only after several years, and usually with staff.

What it takes to compete

What the people who succeed have

Our evidence shows two routes.

Route 1: a skill people already pay for, plus referrals or an audience. This is the better supported route. The largest high-priced groups we counted teach a trade to people in it, and the verified subscription business teaches data engineering⁵⁹⁶⁰. The ICF study says the highest earners are “coaches who mainly serve executives”². Consultants who earn well get most clients from referrals and direct contact⁶⁵.
Route 2: becoming good at content and selling, then selling that to others. Several of the upside cases took it, some young: the channel description quoted above states its figures at ages 19 and 20, and Starter Story lists a 22-year-old with a $10,000-a-month personal growth business⁴⁷⁵³. Every figure on this route is the seller’s own statement. It is also the route where income claims to newcomers meet the rules above, as the regulator cases show for the companies named in them²²²⁵.

On either route, the people who succeed tend to have:

Buyers who can pay. Higher earners sell to businesses or professionals, and 57% of ICF coaches’ clients are paid for by someone else, usually an employer².
Years. Twelve years to six figures in one account; two years of podcasting before opening in another; about four years of writing before the $24,000 month⁴⁸⁶¹. “On average, years of coaching experience is positively linked to the drivers of coaching revenue.”²
A list, not only followers. Kajabi’s six-figure profile includes about 4,000 email subscribers⁵⁷. Creator Science’s sales rest on a newsletter, while its YouTube channel loses money⁶³. The YouTube-strategy coach credits his email list for every sale⁶¹.
At scale, a team. The company that runs the tweets’ model at size states 62 staff, and its adverts mention closers and a ten-person paid-advertising team¹⁵¹⁶.
Willingness to sell on calls, again and again.

What it costs

Tools: roughly $20 to $300 a month (our estimate from¹⁷).
Time: the real cost. Expect a year or more of publishing and selling with little income, on the evidence above⁴⁸⁵².
Optional and large: an agency, a programme or ads. Prices are not published¹⁰²⁰. Programme prices in the regulator cases ran from thousands to $50,000²²²⁵. For ads, we found no measured cost per booked call; our rough range in Step 5 runs from about $1,800 a month for 13 calls to about $34,500 for 63 (our estimate, on an unsourced booking rate).
Per sale: about 3% in US card fees, and about 10% more if a closer is used¹²¹⁵.

How to tell early which side you are on

Has anyone already paid you for this skill? If people have paid you for the same help without a funnel, a funnel can add to it. If nobody has, a funnel has nothing to add to. One agency’s lead example starts from a business at $30,000 a month¹⁰. Goh Consulting’s page turns away businesses under $30,000 a month⁴⁶. Client Ascension’s terms say it works only with businesses already operating²⁰.
Do referrals and direct contact already bring you a few calls a month? That is the usual route for consultants who earn well⁶⁵. A funnel is an addition to it.
Can you name 20 people who could buy? High-ticket needs few buyers, so early sales usually come from people who already know your work.
Count booked calls, not views. After three months of regular posting, compare your monthly calls with the table in Step 3. Typical small coaching channels get a few hundred views a video⁹.
Track your own close rate. If calls fill up and few buy, as in one coach’s report, the limit is the offer or the price, not the traffic⁵⁰.
Check any seller’s pitch against the rules above. The FTC’s advice names guaranteed income, large returns and a “proven system” as warning signs³³. Its notice lists untrue claims of screening or limited places as unlawful²⁹. An application form, or a price given only on a call, is common and lawful. Treat it only as a reason to ask for the price, and what a typical buyer earns, in writing.

What we did not verify

Any measured rate from YouTube views or subscribers to booked calls for coaching offers. Without it, the audience needed for a given income cannot be worked out from a source.
Show rates and close rates for a newcomer. The FTC complaint’s pitches give 20%, 25% and 30%; the recruiter’s dataset is the companies’ own figures, from an interested source; nobody has measured a beginner’s rate.
The share of ad leads who book a call. Our ad cost range rests on an assumption.
The consultant survey’s sample size and method, which its publisher does not state.
The tweets themselves. We did not open them on X, or their images, videos, threads and links. The claim that 30 client videos produced over $100,000, and the figures for SooWei Goh, are not confirmed.
What the accounts in our collection sell and at what price. X refused our tools, and searches on the names found nothing.
Prices of high-ticket coaching and client-acquisition programmes on sellers’ own pages. The sellers we opened show none. Our price points come from regulator and court documents.
The 2025 ICF per-coach figures and income spread. The summary is behind a sign-up form, and ICF’s pages disagree on some totals. The share of coaches reaching $10,000 a month is not published.
All Reddit and newsletter income figures. They are the writers’ own statements.
Starter Story’s figures, which are the founders’ own statements.
The exact wording of the FTC’s March 2025 Growth Cave release and its rule on reviews, read through a summarising tool. We have not quoted the body of either.
Whether the FTC’s January 2025 proposal on coaching was withdrawn or is still active, and whether the Air AI order was signed by the judge.
The German court ruling itself, the three UK rulings beyond the two we opened, and any US state case against a social-media coaching seller.
Rules of PayPal, TikTok, Whop and Meta’s ad policy, and licensing for coaches who give regulated advice.
Refund and dispute rates on high-priced coaching sales, the cost of buyer loans, and video production costs.
Kajabi’s original release (it refused our tools), the period behind Kajabi’s $190,000 average, and the full MBO Partners and solo-owner reports, including the solo-owner survey’s sample size.
How the Skool groups’ members paid. Our count covers eight search terms, not all of Skool.
What Ali Abdaal Ltd’s income is made of, the full terms of either agency guarantee, the Client Ascension terms as they stand today (we read a cached copy), and whether the TikScale page is a current offer.
First-year income, time to first client and the share who give up. Nobody measures these, and our “realistic good result” is an estimate.
Tax outside the US, and card fees outside the US.

Sources

“Read at source” means we opened the page itself on 10 October 2026. “Secondary” means we read an article or summary about the source, or read the page through a tool that summarises. “Estimate” means our own sum. “Through a reader service” means a service fetched the page for us because the site refused our tools directly.

Does It Pay collection of 8 tweets on this scheme, collected 2026-10-06; the quoted tweet is linked above. Read from our collected copy on 2026-10-10, not from the live tweets; attachments not viewed. Counts by label are estimates.
International Coaching Federation and PwC, “2023 ICF Global Coaching Study: Executive Summary”. https://coachingfederation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/2023ICFGlobalCoachingStudy_ExecutiveSummary.pdf . 2023 (data for 2022). Read at source on 2026-10-10; the site refused direct reading, and the PDF was read by download, through a reader service and in an Internet Archive copy.
International Coaching Federation, Global Coaching Study page and blog posts on the 2025 study. https://coachingfederation.org/resources/research/global-coaching-study/ and https://coachingfederation.org/blog/coaching-industry-continues-global-growth-with-5-34-billion-usd-revenue-new-research-reveals/ . 2025-09-16 and 2026-02-09. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service. The per-coach figure is our estimate.
The Coaching Tools Company, coaching industry trends 2025. https://www.thecoachingtoolscompany.com/the-coaching-industry-trends-2025/ . 2026-02-05. Secondary. Same figure at https://www.erickson.edu/resources/the-state-of-the-coaching-profession , 2026-02-27.
US Census Bureau, Nonemployer Statistics 2023, national file, industry 5416. https://www2.census.gov/programs-surveys/nonemployer-statistics/datasets/2023/historical-datasets/nonemp23us.zip . Data year 2023. Read at source on 2026-10-10; the percentages are our estimate from the counts.
Federal Trade Commission, complaint against Traffic and Funnels. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/TrafficandFunnelsComplaintfiled.pdf . Filed 2023-12-05. Read at source on 2026-10-10 in an Internet Archive copy. The call volumes built on it are our estimate.
Federal Trade Commission, press release on Traffic and Funnels. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/12/ftc-acts-against-operators-income-scheme-sales-mentor-charged-consumers-millions-bogus-telemarketing . 2023-12-11. Refund release: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/01/ftc-sends-more-960000-refunds-consumers-harmed-income-scheme-sales-mentor , 2025-01-14. Refunds page: https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/refunds/sales-mentor-refunds , July 2026. All read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service. The per-person figure is our estimate.
vidIQ, “YouTube subscriber benchmarks 2026”. https://vidiq.com/research/youtube-subscriber-benchmarks-2026/ . 2026-07-20. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service; direct reading was refused.
OutlierKit, views on coaching YouTube channels. https://outlierkit.com/resources/coaching-youtube-channel-views/ . 2026-10-08. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
TikScale, agency sales page. https://tikscale.carrd.co/ . Footer dated 2023. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service.
WordStream, “Facebook ads benchmarks 2026”. https://www.wordstream.com/blog/facebook-ads-benchmarks-2026 . 2026-09-14. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service; direct reading was refused. The monthly ad costs are our estimate.
Stripe, US pricing. https://stripe.com/us/pricing . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service.
Stripe, “How disputes work”. https://docs.stripe.com/disputes/how-disputes-work . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
Stripe, restricted businesses. https://stripe.com/legal/restricted-businesses . Last updated 2026-09-22. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
Impact Clients, job post for a closer. https://apply.workable.com/impact-clients/jobs/view/3F6F07E3F2.md . 2025-05-21. Read at source on 2026-10-10. Also a closers’ network post, https://www.skool.com/elite-remote-closers-network-3228/seeking-2-3-elite-closers , November 2025, read at source on 2026-10-10.
Impact Clients, job advert for a content role. https://jobs.workable.com/jobs/cb82bb80-a69b-408c-a8de-bdabfa3bf996.md . Undated. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
Price pages: https://calendly.com/pricing , https://www.skool.com/pricing , https://www.gohighlevel.com/pricing , https://kajabi.com/pricing . Undated pages. Read at source on 2026-10-10, some through a reader service. Calendly’s prices are its yearly-billed rates. The combined cost is our estimate.
Referral programmes: https://www.skool.com/affiliate-program , https://www.gohighlevel.com/affiliate-program , https://www.clickfunnels.com/affiliates . Undated pages. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service.
Elective, financing for courses and coaching. https://www.elective.com/ . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service.
Client Ascension, home page and terms. https://www.clientascension.com/ (undated) and https://www.clientascension.com/terms (cached copy dated 2025-10-10). Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service; direct reading was refused.
YouTube Help, “YouTube Partner Program overview and eligibility”. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/72851 . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
Federal Trade Commission, first amended complaint against Growth Cave. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/GROWTHCAVE-FIRSTAMENDEDCOMPLAINT.pdf . Filed 2025-05-09. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service.
Federal Trade Commission, press releases on Growth Cave. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/01/ftc-secures-settlement-banning-growth-cave-defendants-marketing-selling-business-opportunities (2026-01-27, read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service) and https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/03/ftc-takes-action-stop-sprawling-growth-cave-business-opportunity-credit-repair-scam (2025-03-07, secondary: read through a summarising tool).
Federal Trade Commission, complaint against Lurn. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/FiledLurnComplaint.pdf . 2023-09-27. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service.
Federal Trade Commission, press release on Lurn. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2023/09/ftc-acts-stop-online-business-coaching-scheme-lurn-deceiving-consumers-about-money-making-potential . 2023-09-28. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service and an Internet Archive copy.
Federal Trade Commission, press releases on Publishing.com. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/04/publishingcom-pay-15-million-misleading-consumers-about-how-much-income-they-could-earn-using (2026-04-13) and https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/07/ftc-approves-final-order-against-publishingcom-settling-allegations-it-misled-consumers (2026-07-02). Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service.
Federal Trade Commission, press releases on Air AI. https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2025/08/ftc-sues-stop-air-ai-using-deceptive-claims-about-business-growth-earnings-potential-refund (2025-08-25) and https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/03/air-ai-its-owners-will-be-banned-marketing-business-opportunities-settle-ftc-charges-company-misled (2026-03-24). Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service.
Federal Trade Commission, Zurixx case page. https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedings/182-3063/zurixx-llc . Refunds announced 2024-07-31. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service.
Federal Trade Commission, Notice of Penalty Offenses Concerning Money-Making Opportunities. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/attachments/penalty-offenses-concerning-money-making-opportunities/mmo-notice.pdf . October 2021. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service.
Federal Trade Commission, “FTC’s Endorsement Guides: What People Are Asking”. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/ftcs-endorsement-guides-what-people-are-asking . Undated; refers to the 2023 guides. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service.
Federal Trade Commission, press release on proposed rule changes. https://www.ftc.gov/node/87160 . 2025-01-13. Read at source on 2026-10-10. Regulatory agenda: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/08/14/2026-16617/regulatory-agenda , 2026-08-14, read at source on 2026-10-10.
Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule: questions and answers. https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/consumer-reviews-testimonials-rule-questions-answers . November 2024. Secondary (read through a summarising tool).
Federal Trade Commission, consumer advice, “When a Business Offer or Coaching Program Is a Scam”. https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/when-business-offer-or-coaching-program-scam . August 2022. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
Federal Trade Commission, release on 2024 reported losses. https://www.ftc.gov/node/87602 . 2025-03-10. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
California Attorney General, Seller Assisted Marketing Plans. https://oag.ca.gov/consumers/general/samp . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service.
Advertising Standards Authority (UK), rulings on Charlie Johnson and Self Made Girl Boss Ltd. https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/charlie-johnson-a25-1293121-charlie-johnson.html and https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/self-made-girl-boss-ltd-a25-1293166-self-made-girl-boss-ltd.html . 2025-10-15. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
Advertising Standards Authority (UK), “Money-making courses: stick to the facts”. https://www.asa.org.uk/news/money-making-courses-stick-to-the-facts.html . 2026-04-09. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
YouTube Help, “Spam, deceptive practices, and scams policies”. https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2801973?hl=en . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
Google Advertising Policies Help, misrepresentation. https://support.google.com/adspolicy/answer/15936857?hl=en . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
Meta for Developers, Instagram private replies. https://developers.facebook.com/docs/instagram-platform/private-replies . Updated 2026-06-30. Read at source on 2026-10-10. Instagram Terms of Use: https://help.instagram.com/581066165581870 , read at source on 2026-10-10.
X Help, automation rules. https://help.x.com/en/rules-and-policies/x-automation . Updated April 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-10 in an Internet Archive copy of 2026-10-01; X refused our tools directly and through a reader service.
LinkedIn Help, prohibited software and extensions. https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1341387 . Undated page. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service.
European Union, Your Europe, returns and cancellation. https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/returns/index_en.htm . Checked 2026-04-28. Read at source on 2026-10-10. UK: https://www.gov.uk/online-and-distance-selling-for-businesses , undated, read at source on 2026-10-10.
Internal Revenue Service, self-employment tax. https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/self-employment-tax-social-security-and-medicare-taxes . Reviewed 2026-06-27. Read at source on 2026-10-10.
WBS Legal, article on Federal Court of Justice ruling III ZR 109/24. https://www.wbs.legal/allgemein/wichtiges-urteil-bgh-erklaert-coaching-vertrag-fuer-nichtig-jetzt-geld-zurueckfordern-83351/ . Article 2026-03-04; ruling 2025-06-12. Secondary.
Goh Consulting, home page. https://gohconsulting.com . Footer dated 2026. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service; images not seen.
SooWei Goh, YouTube channel description. https://www.youtube.com/@sooweigoh/about . Read at source on 2026-10-10.
Reddit, r/lifecoaching, thread asking established coaches about earnings. https://www.reddit.com/r/lifecoaching/comments/1ielbzg/for_those_established_in_their_coaching_careers/ . 2025-01-31. Read at source on 2026-10-10 through the thread’s feed. Anonymous statements.
Reddit, r/lifecoaching, “Are you actually making a living as a coach?”. https://www.reddit.com/r/lifecoaching/comments/1ma86u0/are_you_actually_making_a_living_as_a_coach/ . 2025-07-27. Read at source on 2026-10-10. Anonymous statements.
Reddit, r/lifecoaching, thread on selling a high-ticket programme. https://www.reddit.com/r/lifecoaching/comments/1gwupne/struggling_to_sell_highticket_coaching_program/ . 2024-11-22. Read at source on 2026-10-10. Anonymous statement.
Reddit, r/lifecoaching, two income posts. https://www.reddit.com/r/lifecoaching/comments/1jo51tu/celebrating_myself_for_making_50k_in_coaching/ (2025-03-31) and https://www.reddit.com/r/lifecoaching/comments/1iwaxnq/half_a_million_in_earnings_in_3_years/ (2025-02-23). Read at source on 2026-10-10. Anonymous statements.
Side Hustle Nation, write-up of the State of Solopreneurship survey. https://www.sidehustlenation.com/state-of-solopreneurship-2026/ . 2026-02-23. Secondary (a write-up of the survey), read through a reader service.
Starter Story, coaching business success stories. https://www.starterstory.com/ideas/coaching-business/success-stories . Updated 2026-05-02. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service; the median and counts are our estimate.
Two-Brain Business, “High-ticket coaching”. https://twobrainbusiness.com/high-ticket-coaching/ . 2021-09-08. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service.
US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, management analysts. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/business-and-financial/management-analysts.htm . Modified 2026-08-27. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service.
MBO Partners by Beeline, press release on the State of Independence study. https://www.beeline.com/news/mbo-partners-by-beeline-releases-15th-annual-state-of-independence-study . 2025-09-09. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service; the full report was not read.
Net Influencer, article on Kajabi’s 2025 release. https://www.netinfluencer.com/kajabi-platform-reports-10b-in-creator-revenue-as-business-models-shift/ . 2025-08-07. Secondary. The $12 billion and 100,000 figures were read at source on https://kajabi.com on 2026-10-10.
Net Influencer, article on Kajabi’s State of Creators report. https://www.netinfluencer.com/kajabi-state-of-creators-24-report/ . 2024. Secondary.
TrustMRR, listing for DataExpert / TechCreator. https://trustmrr.com/startup/dataexpert-techcreator . Updated 2026-10-10. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service. The monthly average is our estimate.
Skool, discovery search. https://www.skool.com/discovery?q=coaching . Read at source on 2026-10-10 (eight search terms, four pages each). The counts are our estimate.
YouTube How To (Substack), income report for January 2025. https://youtubehowto.substack.com/p/how-much-money-i-made-in-january . 2025-02-05. Read at source on 2026-10-10. The writer’s own statement.
Chaotic Creator (Beehiiv), 2025 business finances. https://chaotic-creator.beehiiv.com/p/my-2025-business-finances . 2025-12-26. Read at source on 2026-10-10. The writer’s own statement.
Creator Science, year in review 2025 and membership pages. https://creatorscience.com/year-in-review-2025/ (2026-01-04), https://creatorscience.com/teardown/ and https://creatorscience.com/thelab/ (undated). Read at source on 2026-10-10. The owner’s own statements.
Companies House (UK), Ali Abdaal Ltd, accounts for the year to 2024-12-31. https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12112883/filing-history . Filed 2025-08-15. Read at source on 2026-10-10 from a scanned document.
Consulting Success, “Marketing for Consultants Study 2024”. https://www.consultingsuccess.com/consultant-marketing-study . Updated 2025-06-29. Read at source on 2026-10-10. Survey of the firm’s own mailing list; no sample size given.
InstaRecruiter, “The State of High-Ticket Sales Recruiting: A Market Intelligence Report”. https://instarecruiter.notion.site/The-State-of-High-Ticket-Sales-Recruiting-A-Market-Intelligence-Report-317e7975a432809da7c5e0e81495cb58 . Analysis dated 2026-03-03, published 2026-07-09. Read at source on 2026-10-10, through a reader service; the page does not load directly. The companies’ own figures.
Ali Abdaal, YouTube channel page and website. https://www.youtube.com/@aliabdaal and https://aliabdaal.com/ . Undated pages. Read at source on 2026-10-10; the website through a reader service, because direct reading was refused.

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