Before investing in a coach, consider what claims they’re using to “prove” their success.
For as long as I can remember, coaches and service providers online use their top-line earnings as a marketing signal.
People use 6,7, and 8-figure business claims to boast evidence that they are an expert at what they do, and therefore, you too should trust them and or follow them for similar results.
I have mixed feelings about this because top-line revenue, sales, and or earnings are not markers for profitability or a well-run business.
However, there is such a small percentage of women who ever reach this milestone that I do believe it is worthy of sharing and celebrating.
But where do we draw the line?
When is it celebrating versus a little bit of embellishing? When does it shift into a whole lot of dishonesty?
There are people who have built 7-figure businesses that are unprofitable. Is that a sign of success you want to emulate?
There are people who use cumulative earnings (adding up every dollar from every year they have been in business) to try to make their business sound much bigger than it is. This leads others to misunderstand the size and scale their business is really operating at.
Is this a fair and honest practice if you’re not being transparent about the duration of time it took you to get those results?
Saying you have a 10 million dollar company implies you do $10 million a year in sales… Not that you’ve done $10 million in sales over the last 20 years.
There is a difference.
I am proud of the fact that I have built three different businesses that have generated over one million dollars annually in sales, and even more so that I have helped countless clients do the same, but it feels like the tip of the iceberg when it comes to my success.
What I consider the real success to be is:
➔ The results my clients have gotten. I am more proud of the people I have helped double, triple, and 10X their results than I am of my ability to sustain my own numbers year over year.
➔ Running a long-term profitable business. I know my numbers, manage cash flow, and have a strong command over the financial workings of the business.
➔ The ability to pay myself and my team. I have never missed payroll in almost 20 years, knowing fully how hard it is to manage cash flow in business.
To me, those are markers that define success more than top-line income does.
Yes, you made the money, bravo, but were you able to keep it? And when making all of that money, did you make a difference?
The next time you fall for earnings marketing, be a bit more discerning.
Ask better questions so you know whether the success you’re aspiring to replicate has really been achieved by the person you’re considering investing your hard-earned money in.
P.S. If you are looking for coaching in your business, you can book me for an Action Accelerator. It’s a 90-minute, 1:1 session where we roll up our sleeves and get to work on the project or offer that keeps getting put on the back burner. This is a general session, so you get to pick what we focus on.
A LIVE 5-MONTH COHORT WITH LISA LARTER · STARTS AUG 4, 2026