You have a LinkedIn account. It has a few hundred connections, mostly former colleagues, a headline from your last corporate job and a profile photo from a wedding. You started coaching a while ago and most of your clients so far came from people who already knew you. Now that circle is running out.
This LinkedIn plan for coaches is for exactly that situation. Thirty days, roughly thirty minutes a day, in four weeks with one focus each. It will not make you famous. It will give you a profile that explains what you do, a network that contains potential clients, a habit of posting, and your first conversations that could turn into discovery calls.
Before the LinkedIn plan for coaches starts: one decision
Everything in the plan depends on one choice: who you want to work with. Not everyone who could benefit from coaching. One type of person in one kind of situation.
For example:
- Women in tech moving into their first management role.
- Founders of service businesses with five to twenty people.
- Teachers who want to leave education for a corporate career.
- HR managers looking for a wellbeing programme for their team.
If you cannot choose, pick the type of client you have enjoyed working with most. You can change later. But a plan aimed at everybody produces a profile nobody recognises themselves in, posts nobody saves, and messages nobody answers.
Write the choice down in one sentence. You will use it every day.
Week 1: the profile
The first week is about making your profile do one job: when the right person lands on it, they understand within ten seconds that you help people like them.
Day 1. Headline. Replace your job title with the person you help and the change you help with. I help new managers in tech lead without burning out | Leadership coach. Name the audience before the method.
Day 2. Photo and banner. A clear, recent photo where you look approachable. A simple banner that repeats your promise in a few words, or shows you at work. Nothing elaborate.
Day 3. About section. Open with the situation your client is in, in their words. Then describe how you work: format, length, what changes. Close with a simple invitation to get in touch. If your coaching touches health or wellbeing, add one line on scope: coaching is not therapy or medical treatment.
Day 4. Featured. Add one thing a visitor can use: a short guide, a video of you explaining an idea, or your best post once you have written one.
Day 5. Experience. Add your coaching practice as a current role, with a short description. Keep your previous career; it is part of why people trust you.
Days 6 and 7. Recommendations. Ask three past clients or colleagues for a recommendation describing what changed for them. Send each a personal message, not the default request.
Week 2: the network
Your current network is mostly people who knew you before you were a coach. This week you start adding the people you want to work with.
Day 8. Build your list. Use LinkedIn search with job titles, locations and industries that match your one-sentence choice. Save twenty to thirty profiles that fit.
Days 9 to 14. Connect, a few a day. Send five to ten connection requests a day to people on your list. Add a short note only if you have something specific to say; otherwise send without a note. Avoid sending large batches at once. The reasons are in the LinkedIn invitation limit and how to work with it.
Every day this week. Comment. Spend ten minutes leaving thoughtful comments on posts by people in your target group. A real comment, adding an idea or a question, not great post. This makes your name familiar before you ever send a message.
By the end of the week you should have forty to sixty new connections who match your ideal client, and a handful of people who have seen your name in their comments.
Week 3: the posts
Now that the right people are in your network, they need a reason to remember you. That is what posts are for.
Day 15. Plan five posts. Write five topics, each based on a question your clients ask you. Not your methods, their questions.
Days 16, 18 and 20. Publish. Three posts this week. Keep each one focused on one idea, written in plain language, a few short paragraphs. Some formats that work well for coaches:
- A question a client asked, and how you answered it.
- A mistake you see often, and what to try instead.
- A short story of a change a client made, without names and with permission.
- Something you believed early in your career and no longer believe.
Days 17, 19 and 21. Respond. Reply to every comment on your posts within a few hours. Conversations under your post help it reach more people, as explained in how the LinkedIn feed decides reach, and they are the first sign of who is interested.
Do not judge the posts by likes this week. Judge them by whether the right people engaged, even just two or three.
Week 4: conversations and first discovery calls
The last week turns attention into conversations. This is where most coaches hesitate, because it feels like selling. It is not. You are starting conversations with people who have already seen your name and your ideas.
Day 22. Make a short list. Note everyone from your target group who accepted your request, commented on your posts or engaged with your comments. That is your warm list.
Days 23 to 27. Send personal messages. Three to five a day. Each one starts with something specific: their comment, their post, a change in their role. End with an easy question, not a meeting request. If you need help with the structure, the examples in LinkedIn message templates for coaches show the shape behind each type of message.
Thanks for your comment on my post about Sunday evening dread, Priya. You mentioned it got better when you changed how you planned Mondays. What did you change?
Days 28 and 29. Follow up and offer a call. For conversations that are going well, suggest a short discovery call with a clear purpose: understanding their situation and seeing whether coaching could help. No pressure, no pitch in the message itself. For people who have not replied, send one short, useful follow-up.
Day 30. Review. Write down three numbers: new relevant connections, conversations started, discovery calls booked. Then write down one thing that worked and one that did not. That review is the basis for the next thirty days.
Keeping it to thirty minutes a day
The plan only works if you keep doing it. Some practical ways to protect the time:
- Same time every day. Before your first session, or right after lunch.
- Batch similar tasks. Write posts on one day, comment on another, research in one block. The method is described in a 25-minute prospecting routine.
- Keep a simple list. A spreadsheet or notebook with each person, where you found them and what you last said.
Some coaches use a tool to take over the search and the first drafts. BIZLINKED finds people who match your ideal client, writes each first message from their profile, can draft your posts in your voice and sends from your own Chrome and LinkedIn session, with daily caps and a pause at the first warning sign. That is automation, which LinkedIn's User Agreement does not allow, and no setting removes the risk of a restriction, so it is a choice to make knowingly. In the first month, doing it by hand also teaches you what your clients respond to.
What to expect after thirty days
Be realistic. Thirty days will not fill your practice. What it should give you is a profile you are no longer embarrassed to share, a network that contains real potential clients, a posting habit, and a few conversations that could turn into calls. For most coaches starting from zero, that is a significant change.
The second month is where it compounds. People who saw your posts in week three start replying to messages in week six. Connections from week two come back to a post in week seven. Keep going.
What to do this week
- Write your one-sentence choice of client and pin it above your desk.
- Rewrite your headline and the first lines of your About section today.
- Block thirty minutes a day in your calendar for the next four weeks.
- Start week one tomorrow, one task a day.
The plan is simple on purpose. The hard part is doing it every day for a month. If you do, you will start the second month in a very different place.
