The 6-Month Rule Nobody Talks About (And Why Most Coaches Quit Too Early)

The 6-Month Rule on Social Media

I used to think social media was broken.

Three months of consistent content. Zero clients. Crickets in the DMs. Meanwhile, some 23-year-old with a certification they got last Tuesday is posting bicep flexes and booking out their calendar.

I see this frustration every single week with the coaches I mentor. They commit to showing up online, they post valuable content, they do everything "right” and then they quit at month two because it's not working.

Here's what nobody tells you: social media success has a 6-month lead time. Not three weeks. Not three months. Six. Fucking. Months.

And if you quit before that, you never get to see the payoff.

The Proof Is in the Process

Two coaches in my mentorship program just onboarded 10 new clients in January. Ten. Including their first client from completely outside their network, which is a HUGE win for someone starting in the online space, since most of your initial clients will be people whom you already know or are connected with.

Want to know when they started their social media build-out? Six months ago.

For the first five months, it looked like nothing was happening. A like here. A comment there. Maybe a few profile views. But they kept showing up. They kept putting in the work. And in month six, everything changed.

This isn't unique to them. I've seen this pattern play out with hundreds of coaches. The timeline is real. The lead time is real. And most coaches quit right before they would have broken through.

What Actually Happens in Months 1-6

Here's the reality of building trust and momentum online:

Months 1-2: You're invisible. You're speaking into the void. The algorithm doesn't know who you are yet. Your audience doesn't exist yet. This is normal.

Months 3-4: People start watching. They're not engaging yet, but they're consuming. They scroll past your content, pause briefly, then move on. They're building familiarity without commitment.

Months 5-6: Trust starts to form. They've seen you show up consistently. They've watched you demonstrate competence. They've noticed you're not going anywhere. Now they're ready to engage, to reach out, to become clients.

The coaches who win understand this isn't a sprint. It's not about going viral. It's about building a body of evidence that you're the real deal.

The Question That Changes Everything

Most coaches ask: "Why isn't this working yet?"

Better question: "What am I learning about my audience right now?"

In months 1-6, you're not just creating content. You're collecting data. Which posts get saves? Which topics generate DMs? What language resonates? What problems are people actually struggling with?

The coaches who treat the first six months as research instead of results end up with a far more dialled-in message when people are finally ready to buy.

How to Stay Consistent When You Can't See Results

I'm not going to lie to you. Those first six months are hard. You're putting in work without immediate payoff. You're showing up when it feels like nobody's watching.

Here's what kept me going (and what I tell every coach I work with):

Systematize your content creation. Don't rely on motivation. Build a repeatable process that works whether you feel inspired or not. Define your pillars, batch your content, and schedule it in advance.

Track leading indicators, not just results. Don't measure success by client inquiries in month two. Measure it by consistency. Did you post daily this week? Did you engage with your audience? Did you stick to your system?

Remember why you started. You're not doing this because it's easy. You're doing this because you want to build a business that gives you freedom, impact, and the life you actually want to live.

The Bottom Line

You're fucking right! It IS hard to show up for six months without seeing immediate results. But if you want to build a sustainable coaching business that goes beyond referrals and word-of-mouth, this is the work.

The coaches who make it aren't more talented. They're not luckier. They just refused to quit at month five. They post, they evaluate, they iterate, they improve, and they keep going.

Six months. That's the timeline. Put in the work.

If you're ready to stop guessing and start building a systematic approach to your content and business growth, that's exactly what we do inside Coaches Corner University.Apply here.

The question isn't whether this works. The question is whether you're willing to do it long enough to find out.

Keep Raising the Bar,

Paul Oneid MS, MS, CSCS