Hey Hey Hey Modern Authors!

Let me say the quiet part out loud:

Most coaching books don’t work.

Last week, a well-regarded executive coach told me she would only ever write a book if it wasn't like 'the million tortured, faux-coaching books' she'd seen.

What I said surprised her. "Those books don't fail because the author isn't smart or because they don’t have a life-changing impact on their clients. And definitely not because the author lacks passion.

They fail for a much simpler reason:

Most coaches write the missive instead of the mechanism.

I’ve worked with hundreds of coaches... executive coaches, wellness coaches, performance coaches, leadership coaches, and they all start in the same place:

“I just want to get it out of my head.”

Which is noble. But the book that gets it out of your head rarely becomes the book that gets into anyone else’s business, calendar, or company budget.

🧠 Great coaching books don’t just express your ideas or try to inspire someone. They systematize your process.

And that’s the unlock.

If you've been reading this newsletter, you may know this article is part of my Profitable Author series where I'm doing a deep dive into the 7 Modern Author personas, and more specifically the strategy the best use to turn a book into the most valuable asset in the world. And this week, we're talking about the Coach.

Here is my summary of the Modern Author Playbook:

📖 Your Book Is the Hook.

🧠 Your Persona Is the System.

💸 Your Business Model Is the Result.

Let's go deep into what million dollar coaches from Tony Robbins and Marshall Goldsmith to Gabby Bernstein and Les Brown do differently with their books.

Why So Many Coaches Hit a Ceiling (Without Even Realizing It)

The reality for most working coaches?

Their income is capped by their calendar.

Their impact is limited to how many people they can fit into a week.

And their visibility is often tied to word-of-mouth, not brand authority.

That’s why books should be a secret weapon for coaches... but usually aren’t.

Here’s the trap:

1. They start with good intentions (“Let me share my story…”).
2. They write personal anecdotes, pep talks, or motivational insights.
3. The book ends up being more of a vibe than a value ladder.

What’s missing? A system.

When someone finishes your book, they shouldn’t be inspired alone.

They should be thinking:
• “How do I work with this person?”
• “How do I bring them in to work with my team?”
• “Can they train others to do this?”
• “Is there a program I can join?”

💡 And none of that happens without a framework.

Let’s Talk About the Greats: What Scalable, Profitable Coaches Do Differently

Think about the most successful coaches on the planet.

🔹 Gabby Bernstein built a multi-million-dollar platform with her books at the center. Her strategy? Make the message practical, repeatable, and scalable.

Her books are infused with stories, yes... but they’re also toolkits. People don’t just read them, they practice them. That’s why she can turn a book into a paid course, a coaching community, a certification, a keynote.

Gabby didn’t just sell “inspiration.” She systematized transformation.

🔹 Marshall Goldsmith spent four decades coaching top CEOs, but it’s his books that made him a household name. What Got You Here Won’t Get You There is the executive coaching framework. It’s a diagnostic tool, a playbook, and a language clients now speak fluently.

His ideas are scalable because his writing made them tangible.

🔹 Navid Nazemian is another great example. His book Mastering Executive Transitions is a masterclass in how to translate expertise into frameworks. He doesn’t just say, “Here’s what I believe.” He shows us how to apply it. His framework is now used by Fortune 500 leaders globally.

These authors didn’t just “write a book.” They built a coaching engine.

Coaching Without a Framework = Coaching Without a Future

Here’s the problem with most coaching books:

They’re too anecdotal. Too personal. Too “my journey” without a map.

The truth?

Coaches don’t scale on vibe alone. You scale with a system.

When I see a coaching book that struggles, it’s usually because the author had a magical 1:1 process, deeply intuitive, powerful in the moment, but never codified it into a framework someone else could follow.

No pillars. No stages. No signature method. Just “be more mindful” or “lead with love” or “trust the process.”

Nice advice, but not productizable.

Here’s what we tell coaches inside Modern Author OS:

If your book doesn’t give your process a name, a shape, or a path… It’s not a system.

And if it’s not a system, it won’t scale.

Your Book Isn’t Just a Message. It’s Your Model.

Let’s talk about the two biggest shifts coach-authors need to make:

1) From Story to Structure

Stories inspire. But structures scale.

It’s not enough to say “I went through this and grew.”

People want to apply your process. And ideally, they want a simple, visual, repeatable framework to do it.

That’s what The Prosperous Coach by Rich Litvin did. It laid out a conversational model for transformational coaching, and turned a niche process into a global movement.

Gabby Bernstein does this too. When she visited my Modern Author class, she shared how her early work wasn’t just about her spiritual transformation... it was a structured set of practices people could follow.

And over time, each of her books expanded the model:
• Breathwork, visualization, affirmations
• Emotional processing and inner child healing
• Daily rituals and habit design

She’s built a whole curriculum by packaging her coaching into a series of frameworks.

It’s not just spiritual wisdom. It’s structured transformation.

And the book made that possible.

2) From Client to Curriculum

Most coaches start by helping individuals.

But if you want to go from 1:1 to 1:many (or from personal impact to profitable platform) you need a curriculum.

Something that works:
• Without you needing to be in every session
• For groups, teams, and organizations
• In workshops, courses, and asynchronous formats

That means your book has to do more than inspire.

It has to teach.

That’s how Marshall Goldsmith built his career. He wrote books like Triggers and MOJO that didn’t just talk about change. They laid out clear models (like Feedforward and Stakeholder Centered Coaching) that other coaches could adopt, license, and scale.

What Makes a Great Coaching Book (That Builds a Business)

Here’s the cheat code.

Every profitable coaching book does three things:

1) Codifies Your Transformation

People don’t buy coaching. They buy the result of coaching. And your book should name that transformation clearly.

Ask yourself:
• What’s the before state?
• What’s the after state?
• What’s the bridge?

That’s your framework.

Examples:
• “From Overwhelm to Clarity” → Productivity coach
• “From Burnout to Boundaries” → Wellness coach
• “From Stuck to Supercharged” → Executive coach

Get clear on your transformation, and your book becomes a promise, not just a story.

2) Creates a Visual Framework

Name it. Shape it. Show it.

Whether it’s a Venn diagram, staircase, flywheel, or four-part quadrant, people remember and share what they can see.
• Gabby Bernstein teaches her 5-Step Spiritually Aligned Action Method.
• Navid Nazemian walks leaders through the Transition Framework in Mastering Executive Transitions.
• Tony Robbins has his Pyramid of Needs.

If someone can draw your method on a napkin, you’re doing it right.

3) Unlocks Scalable Offers

This is the part most coaches miss.

Your book isn’t the end. It’s the on-ramp.

What we found in six-figure coaches is nearly all of them had repurposed their core offerings into new ones... sometimes to allow happy clients to stick with you, but many times to allow multiple entry points for prospective clients.

In our study of over 300 Coaches who had written books, we found these were the six most common business models or offers they deployed. Most had at least three from this list (one core, and two ancillary):

1:1 Premium Coaching
​→ Book positions you as the expert. Rates go up. Inbound goes up.

Group Coaching Programs
​→ The book creates a shared language. Group members come pre-primed.

Digital Course or Masterclass
​→ Turn each chapter into a module. The book becomes the curriculum.

Corporate Training
​→ Companies need frameworks, not personalities. Your book is your entry point.

Certification Models
​→ Train other coaches to use your framework. Think: “I’ve certified 45 coaches to use the X Method.”

Retreats or Cohorts
​→ Books are enrollment vehicles. The right reader becomes the right participant.

Now you may be saying to yourself, "how in the world can I add two more offers or business models? I don't have time for that!"

Our typical coach-author added at least two new offers or models in connection with building the book. How? Because the book anchors the framework ("here are my five pillars") and then the offers complement the book launch ("join my 30-day masterclass with the purchase of my book.")

For most coaching looking to grow, it's not about doing more work. It's about having a framework and system that does more work for you.

📖 The book is the hook. 💬 Coaching is the conversation. 💸 And the model is the multiplier.

Codify Your IP: Why Now Is the Best Time to Be a Coach with a Book

Let me be blunt:

There are too many coaches right now. According to the ICF (International Coaching Federation) 2023 study, they found their average coach-member earned $52,800 globally, with North American coaches earning an average of $67,800.

But what if you wanted to earn six-figures? They distinguished themselves through consistently delivering clear transformation, packing it as a framework, and scaling it beyond one-on-one.

That's where the book comes in (which most six-figure coaches have well-designed ones).

You don’t need a bigger following. You need a better system.

That’s why I push coaches to stop chasing more certifications and start building more codified IP.

You don’t need letters after your name. You need a method someone else can follow.

Here’s your next move:

✅ Write down your signature transformation
✅ Sketch out a simple framework (3–5 stages is ideal)
✅ Run a pilot program to validate it
✅ Then, write the book as the manual for that transformation

And if you already have a book but no system?

Time to retro-fit one. Your content is likely already there... it just needs to be shaped into a repeatable model.

Remember: people don’t just want a coach.

They want a coach with a method.

Final Thought: Books Don’t Just Elevate Coaches. They Multiply Them.

There's a reason I began the Profitable Author series deconstructing the Coach persona and business models: coaching has transformed my life... and yet too many great ones aren't differentiating themselves.

Gabby Bernstein didn’t just scale because she was spiritual. She scaled because she taught people how to be spiritual, and packaged it with books, talks, courses, and community.

Marshall Goldsmith didn’t just coach CEOs. He created frameworks that other coaches could use to scale that impact.

Navid Nazemian didn’t stop at transition coaching. He built a model that became the foundation for C-suite onboarding in global companies.

This is what modern authors do.

They write books that don’t just inspire: they operationalize their coaching.

So if you’re a coach?

Don’t just write a book.

Build your system.

Write with clarity. Coach with purpose. Launch with leverage.

In a sea of Instagram bios that say “Coach-Speaker-Thought Leader,” what cuts through?

To all my coaches out there: please keep doing the important work you're doing (trust me, I'm as big of a believer as there is about the power of coaching to transform us... it's been the key driver of my life inflection points).

And if you're feeling stuck or not accelerating as fast as you think you should, don't give up... it's not about just doing more, it's doing different.

Have a great day and happy writing y'all!

Eric

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🟦 This is Part 4 of a 10-Part Series on Modern Author Personas, the upcoming weeks we'll be diving into Coach, Teacher, Guide, Builder and more, examining how each of these personas leverage their books differently today to grow their influence. 📬 Subscribe at modernauthorguide.com to get the rest.

🟩 Want help designing your coaching book and scaling your system? Reply and let’s talk.

Let’s build your framework... and your future.

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