13:24Dan Henry · Tutorial
Steal This $5K Pitch to Get Your First Coaching Client
Dan Henry's three-ingredient pitch framework — felt pain, irreversible big idea, and a specific promise — applied to coaching sales in 13 minutes.
June 12thThe argument in one line.
LinkedIn's algorithm now reads your profile and content together to decide which buyers to show you to, so specific positioning matters more than hook formulas or posting tactics.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- A coach or consultant posting on LinkedIn who gets views but can't trace any of them to actual buyers.
- An ex-corporate professional building a coaching business and trying to use LinkedIn as a real client channel.
- Anyone whose headline leans on vague phrases like 'helping professionals unlock their potential' instead of naming a buyer and an outcome.
SKIP IF…
- You already land clients consistently from LinkedIn and just want hook or caption tactics, this video argues those don't matter without positioning first.
- You don't use LinkedIn for client acquisition at all.
The full version, fast.
In late 2025 LinkedIn's engineers revealed they hadn't tuned the algorithm, they replaced it with AI that reads your profile and content together to decide which buyers see your posts, even people who don't follow you yet. Getting coaching clients from LinkedIn now comes down to two problems: sending clear signals (headline, banner, client examples) about who you serve so the algorithm routes the right buyers to you, then moving those buyers through six psychological steps toward becoming a client. Most coaches fail at the first problem. A vague headline gives the algorithm nothing to match on, while a specific one naming an exact buyer and outcome tells the algorithm who to target and lets ideal buyers self-identify instantly.
Free for members
Chat with this breakdown — free.
Sign in and you get 23 free chat messages on us — ask for the hook, quote a framework, find the exact transcript moment, generate a markdown action plan. Bring your own key when you want unlimited.
Create a free account →Where the time goes.
00:00 – 01:00
01 · The 2021-2024 LinkedIn Gold Rush, then the collapse
Between 2021 and 2024 almost any post could reach thousands of views and new followers; by 2025 even accounts with 50,000-100,000 followers saw their reach crater and nobody could explain why.
01:00 – 02:52
02 · LinkedIn quietly replaced its algorithm with AI
A LinkedIn engineering report revealed the platform didn't tweak its ranking rules, it swapped them for an AI system that reads your profile and content together, instead of testing reach on your existing connections first.
02:52 – 04:28
03 · Ignore the tactics, it's a two-part client system
Hooks, captions, and posting tactics are secondary. Getting coaching clients from LinkedIn comes down to two problems: getting your ideal buyer's attention, then moving them through six psychological steps from stranger to client.
04:28 – 04:58
04 · 90% of coaches never get the right buyers looking at them
Most coaches are doing plenty of LinkedIn activity, but don't have the right buyers looking at them in the first place, and don't know how to fix it.
04:58 – 07:30
05 · Case study: how Saarim's own profile signals his ICP
A walkthrough of the creator's own LinkedIn profile: headline, banner, and listed client examples, each one telling the algorithm exactly who to target, plus proof via his recent profile viewers.
07:30 – 08:37
06 · Diagnose your own profile by checking who's viewing you
A free diagnostic: check your LinkedIn profile viewers from the last 24 hours. If the right buyers are showing up, your positioning works; if the wrong industries show up, your signals are broken.
08:37 – 10:03
07 · The vague-profile trap (a bad example, dissected)
A real career-coach headline using words like 'professionals' and 'unlock their potential' is broken down to show why vague language gives the algorithm nothing to match on and gets reach killed.
10:03 – 12:34
08 · The fix: Julie Gustin's specific headline, and her $35k month
A client's headline naming the exact buyer (tech leaders), the exact service, and real credibility (former Google and Adobe) is shown as the model to copy, alongside her $35,000 second-month result.
12:34 – 14:40
09 · Recap, and the capped live-training CTA
A recap of the system (fix positioning, then convert), followed by an invite to a capped, live Wednesday training covering the conversion half of the framework.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- In late 2025, LinkedIn's engineers published a nine-page report revealing they hadn't tweaked the algorithm, they replaced it with AI.
- LinkedIn's new algorithm reads your profile and content together, then decides which buyers to distribute your posts to, even people who don't follow you yet.
- The old LinkedIn algorithm only tested a post on your existing connections first; if they didn't engage, the post died regardless of quality.
- Getting clients on LinkedIn breaks into exactly two problems: getting the right buyers' attention, then moving them through six psychological steps to becoming a client.
- A profile that says you help 'professionals unlock their potential' gives LinkedIn's AI nothing to match on, since a professional could be a Starbucks barista or a Fortune 500 CEO.
- Checking who viewed your LinkedIn profile in the last 24 hours is a free diagnostic: if the wrong industries and titles show up, your signals are broken, not your content.
- A specific headline like 'executive coach helping tech leaders navigate executive interviews and leadership transitions' tells both the algorithm and the reader exactly who the offer is for.
- One client who rebuilt her headline around specificity made $35,000 in her second month of coaching while working 20 to 25 hours a week.
- Banner photos and listed client examples do double duty: they tell the algorithm who to target and let ideal buyers self-identify when they land on the profile.
- Hook formulas, caption tightening, and posting tactics are worthless if the underlying profile never tells LinkedIn's algorithm who the content is for.
Specificity Beats Tactics On LinkedIn's New Algorithm
POSITIONING SIGNALS
LinkedIn's algorithm now reads your profile and content to decide which buyers to show you, so fixing your positioning beats learning another hook or caption trick.
01The 2021-2024 LinkedIn Gold Rush, then the collapse
- Platforms that reward broad, random content eventually collapse that reward once the algorithm changes, so don't build a strategy around exploiting a temporary loophole.
- A sudden reach drop across accounts of every size, including ones with 50,000-100,000 followers, is usually a platform-wide algorithm change, not a sign your content got worse.
02LinkedIn quietly replaced its algorithm with AI
- When a platform says it reads your profile and content together to route distribution, your bio and headline become targeting inputs, not decoration.
- An interest-matching algorithm can route your content to total strangers who match your niche, so follower count matters less than specific positioning.
03Ignore the tactics, it's a two-part client system
- Separate the two jobs a platform presence has to do: getting the right person's attention, and giving them a reason to want to work with you. Most tactics only address the second.
- Hook formulas and caption tightening are wasted effort if your underlying profile never tells the algorithm who your content is for in the first place.
0490% of coaches never get the right buyers looking at them
- About 90% of the coaches in one coach's own client base had the same failure: lots of LinkedIn activity, but never the right buyers looking at them.
- Diagnosing the wrong problem wastes effort, posting more content won't fix a positioning problem that's stopping the algorithm from finding your buyers at all.
05Case study: how Saarim's own profile signals his ICP
- A headline naming both your exact buyer and your category (like 'LinkedIn business coach for ex-corporate coaches') tells an algorithm precisely who to show your content to.
- A banner image restating your result and price point does double duty, it feeds the algorithm the same signal and lets human visitors self-qualify instantly.
- Listing named client examples on your profile proves the claim and reinforces the exact niche you're telling the algorithm to target.
06Diagnose your own profile by checking who's viewing you
- Checking who viewed your profile in the last 24 hours is a free, immediate diagnostic for whether your positioning signals are actually working.
- If the wrong industries or unqualified people are viewing your profile, that's a positioning problem to fix immediately, not a content-volume problem.
07The vague-profile trap (a bad example, dissected)
- Vague aspirational phrases like 'unlock their potential' don't mirror how people actually think about their problems, they want a promotion or a raise, not their potential unlocked.
- A profile with no specificity doesn't just undersell you to humans, it gets its reach throttled because the algorithm can't tell who to distribute it to.
08The fix: Julie Gustin's specific headline, and her $35k month
- A headline naming the exact buyer, the exact service, and real credibility sells itself before any conversation happens.
- Specific niches that sound narrow, like leaders 'transitioning' roles, are a strength, not a weakness, because the small subset who match it self-select immediately.
- One client who rebuilt her headline around this specificity made $35,000 in her second month of coaching while working 20-25 hours a week.
09Recap, and the capped live-training CTA
- A real system beats a pile of tactics, fix your profile's targeting signals first, then focus everything else on converting the buyers who are now looking at you.
- A capped, live, Q&A-driven offer at the end of free content converts better than a generic link because it gives a concrete reason to act now.
Terms worth knowing.
- ICP (Ideal Client Profile)
- A marketing term for the specific type of buyer a business targets; used throughout the video as shorthand for the exact person you want LinkedIn's algorithm to show your content to.
- LinkedIn signal
- Any element of a profile or post, headline wording, banner image, client examples, that tells LinkedIn's AI-driven algorithm who the creator is trying to reach.
- Six psychological steps
- The video's framework for moving a LinkedIn viewer from stranger to paying client (realizing the problem is serious, realizing they can't solve it alone, realizing they need to act now); referenced here but taught in full in a separate training.
Things they pointed at.
13:23productLive LinkedIn client-acquisition training (Wednesday, capped at 50 signups via YouTube description link)
Lines you could clip.
00:54
“They replaced the algorithms with AI.”
01:26
“If you didn't get immediate engagement from your immediate followers, LinkedIn would just kill the posts entirely.”
08:37
“It all comes down to one thing, making it painfully obvious for the algorithms to know who your ideal buyers are.”
10:03
“No one wakes up in the morning thinking they need someone to help them unlock their potential.”
12:06
“Julie made 35,000 in her second month of my coaching program.”
Word for word.
Read-along
Don't just watch it. Burn it in.
See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.
metaphorstory
The is back. Now, I don't know if you were on LinkedIn between the years 2021 to 2024, but that was the easiest time in LinkedIn history to grow a following and get reach. People were posting anything and getting thousands of views.
And it was almost as if the broader the post was, the easier it was to get reach. The more random the content was, the easier it was to get followers. And that is why they called it the LinkedIn Gold Rush.
But then somewhere around 2025, reach fell off a cliff. Getting followers became incredibly hard and almost nobody was really making money on LinkedIn. And the worst part was even accounts with 50 ,000, 100 ,000 followers on LinkedIn were seeing major drops in their impressions.
And the worst part is nobody could figure out why this was happening until late in 2025, the LinkedIn engineers released a nine -page report talking about the updated algorithm. And what they said was they didn't change it. They replaced the algorithms with AI.
So now the LinkedIn algorithms have really shifted. They have become an interest -based platform, meaning the algorithm now reads your content, looks at your profile, combines these things, and then makes a decision as to who to distribute your content to. Whereas before, the algorithms were very different.
First, they would show your content to your initial connections, who you were already connected with. If you didn't get immediate engagement from your immediate followers, LinkedIn would just kill the posts entirely and that would be it. So here's the good news with the new algorithm.
Regardless of what niche you are in, if you can send the right signals to the algorithm, letting them know who you are trying to target, LinkedIn will help you out and give you that distribution to those exact. people so now the question becomes if linkedin has made it so easy for us to get in front of our ideal buyers why are so many coaches still struggling to get clients from linkedin it's actually a lot more simple than you'd think and to understand this we have to go back to the old linkedin gold rush for a second because even back then it was just a set of rules that people had to follow now this new gold rush actually follows the same principles just a different set of rules so once you understand the rules of the new algorithms, well, then it becomes pretty straightforward to start getting more of the right buyers looking at you.
All right. Now, one important thing before we get into the new rules of LinkedIn, if you go on LinkedIn right now, you'll see all these gurus talking about tips, tricks, tactics. Things like, oh, how to have the best hook, how to tighten the body of your post, all of that stuff.
I need you to put it to the side because none of that stuff is going to help you unless you understand the fundamentals of client acquisition on LinkedIn. So let's get into it. Now, getting high ticket buyers from LinkedIn really just boils down to two things.
Number one. getting the attention of your ideal buyers on LinkedIn through the content that you post. And number two, saying the right things through your content that gives them the want and desire to work with you.
And that's really it. Do you see what I mean here? The first is to attract the right person to get them in front of you.
And the second is to convert them from just being a viewer. into a buyer all right so let's break down how each one works the first part of the system comes down to the signals you send to the algorithm when your linkedin profile and content make it clear exactly who you are targeting linkedin will start to put your content in front of that ideal buyer even if they're not following you yet now the second part of the system is the journey once you have the buyers looking at you how do you move them from just being a casual stranger to an actual pain.
client. The way you do that is through six psychological steps you move them through to get them from stranger to paying client. Like getting them to realize their problem is actually serious and that they should solve it right away.
Getting them to realize that they can't do it themselves. And finally, getting them to realize that, hey, they need to act now. If you can do this, now you start to establish trust before they've even reached out to you or ever spoken to you.
So by the time they do speak to you, All the barriers, objections, they're put to the side. They're ready.
They're feeling excited. That's the way you want to get buyers on LinkedIn. Now you absolutely need both sides of the system if you consistently want to get clients from LinkedIn.
But ironically... The second part of the system, which is converting those viewers into buyers, is actually quite straightforward. And at the end of this video, I'm gonna point you to a training where you can actually learn how to convert those buyers or viewers into buyers very consistently.
What is incredibly important at the beginning is making sure you have the right buyers looking at you. Because if you don't have the right people looking at you on LinkedIn, well then, no amount of conversion's gonna work. You need to make sure that anybody you're trying to convert actually has the potential to become your client, right?
Is your ideal client profile. You're gonna hear me say the word ICP a lot. It just means ideal client profile.
It's a marketing term which means your ideal buyer. So how do you actually get your ICP looking at you? Well, let's dive into this.
And the most scary part about all of this is about 90 % of the coaches I talk to have this exact problem. They're doing all this activity on LinkedIn, but they don't even have the right buyers looking at them. And worse, they don't know how to get the right buyers looking at them.
So let's solve this once and for all. All right, so come look at my LinkedIn profile with me here. So right off the bat, when you look at my LinkedIn profile, What do you see here in my headline?
LinkedIn business coach for ex -corporate coaches get three to five clients per month from LinkedIn organically and then free workshop October 21st. So what am I telling the LinkedIn algorithms right off the bat? Number one, extremely clear, LinkedIn business coach.
Okay, it is. Couldn't be more clear exactly who I am. What's more important is when I say who I help.
I help ex -corporate coaches. So I'm telling the algorithms, people who are either working in corporate or just left corporate and are now trying to get their coaching business off the ground, show my content to them. Now, it doesn't end there.
Look at my banner photo. Leave corporate and build a $10 ,000 to $30 ,000 per month coaching business on LinkedIn organically. And then I even show examples.
Maria Malek, Speaking Coach, Nada Buhindi. These are all my clients, right? Now, I'm doing two things at once.
Number one, I'm getting the algorithms to realize and understand exactly who I'm targeting. And then when those ideal buyers come to me because the algorithm starts to show them my profile, my content, they also self -identify. They're like, yes, this is for me.
So it creates this win -win situation. where my ideal buyers see me on a consistent basis. And I'll even show you this in the proof.
So one of the easiest ways to tell if the algorithms are actually showing your ideal buyers to you is to go and see who is viewing your profile. So come look at mine right now. Four hours ago, Zach Young, coaching and consulting psychologist.
Interesting. Catherine, cancer coach. Okay, what do we have here?
Ash Cross, career coach, right? Amy, Phoenix coach. You can see there's so many examples here of people who are my ideal buyers looking at me.
And this is not over weeks. These are over the last 24 hours, last couple days at max, right? And this is what I'm trying to tell you.
Elizabeth here, speaker coach, right? Why? This is not happening by accident.
The reason this is happening is because I have told the LinkedIn algorithms who I am trying to target. By the way, I've set up my LinkedIn profile. By the way, I have actually published my content.
And now, in return, the LinkedIn algorithms are giving me that distribution I want to be in front of my ideal buyers. Okay, so now that you've seen it work on my LinkedIn profile, I want you to immediately try it with yours. Go to your LinkedIn profile settings.
See who's viewed your profile. Now, the outcome is going to be... one of two things.
Either number one, a big chunk of the people looking at your profile are your ideal buyers. And if that's the case, great. The first part of the system's actually working for you.
You probably need to focus on converting your buyers way more. Or if you look at your LinkedIn profile and it's the wrong people, people from the wrong industries, people who are not financially qualified, people from other countries who you're not targeting are viewing your LinkedIn profile, then that right there. is your problem and that is immediately what you need to solve for.
So now I need you to be very honest with yourself. Which one are you? If the wrong people are seeing your LinkedIn profile, okay.
Let's solve it. It all comes down to one thing, making it painfully obvious for the algorithms to know who your ideal buyers are. Now, there are a lot of ways to signal to the LinkedIn algorithms who you are targeting.
I'm not gonna dump it all on you and make it super confusing. I'm gonna show you the most important ones, which starts with your LinkedIn headline on your profile. So let's look at another example here for a career coach.
All right, so come look at my screen over here. I intentionally blocked this person's name out because I don't want to publicly roast them here. But over here, look at what they have on their profile.
Career coach, resume writer, LinkedIn strategist, helping professionals unlock their potential and land the role they deserve. Sounds okay on a first glance, right? But this is probably one of the worst LinkedIn profiles someone could have.
And I say this with all due respect, right? Who are professionals? A professional could be someone working at Starbucks.
A professional could be a teacher. A professional could be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. There's no specificity here.
So if I'm the LinkedIn algorithms. And I look at this, I will have no idea who to distribute this content to, right? So therefore, what am I going to do?
I'm just going to kill the reach. And this person is probably struggling very hard to get buyers from LinkedIn. Even here, resume writer, okay, that's relatively specific.
LinkedIn strategist, okay, fair enough. But simply this. The professionals thing's gone.
Unlock their potential. You cannot use vague language. No one wakes up in the morning thinking they need someone to help them unlock their potential.
People wake up in the morning thinking they need a promotion. They need a salary increase. They need to talk to their boss.
They need their team to work more efficiently. That's what they need, not unlock their potential. So eliminate all the vague wording.
Okay, so now that you've seen a... poor LinkedIn profile, I'll show you a really good one for a career coach. So come look at this right here.
So this right here is my client, Julie Gustin. Now, if you look at her headline, what do you see immediately? Executive coach helping tech leaders navigate executive interviews, leadership growth, and leadership transitions, former senior director at Google and Adobe.
Just look at that. Okay, we know she is an executive coach. Very clear.
I help tech leaders navigate executive interviews. So think about it. You are a tech leader and you are trying to get another job.
You are doing interviews and you see this. Okay, got it. Julie is for me, right?
Leadership growth and leadership transitions. Transitions, think about it. How many leaders are actually transitioning from one role to another?
It's a very small subsect. And because that's such a specific subsect, when they look at Julie's profile, they're gonna think to themselves, yes, this is exactly what I'm looking for. And she has over here, former senior director at Google and Adobe.
So the credibility behind her name is all there. So if I'm her ideal buyer and I come to her LinkedIn profile, I'm sold.
I'm sold. Why? Because I know exactly who she is.
I know exactly how she can help me. And there's credibility behind her name. Now, I'm not saying you need to be a senior director at Google and Adobe, but you put on your profile what you can.
Start with the specificity. Call out your niche. Talk about exactly the end result you're going to get them so that clarity is there.
Now, this helps two things. Number one, the algorithms. The algorithms now know exactly who to show Julie's profile.
and content too which allows her to actually get a lot more clients in fact julie made 35 000 in her second month of my coaching program you can see the screenshot right here and she's consistently been growing her business ever since and the best part about all this she's only working about 20 25 hours a week she told me herself she said look i want to spend more time with my kids i didn't leave corporate to work another 60 hours a week i did this because i wanted to enjoy my family time while building a business that i'm very proud of and look how she's doing it why Because she knew exactly who she was targeting.
She knew exactly how to get in front of the right buyers. She put the right systems in place and it allowed her business to operate. And this is what I'm trying to tell you.
You don't need to be doing all these tips, tricks, tactics, following all these gurus on LinkedIn. What you need is a real system. You need to learn how to get the right buyers in front of you.
Once you have the right buyers in front of you, you need to know how to actually nurture them. Go through the six psychological agreements so that by the end of it, they're excited. They're raising their hands.
They're eager to work with you. So what you've learned in this video so far is how to get the LinkedIn algorithms to show your ideal buyers to you on LinkedIn. But what we have not covered yet is how to convert them into paying clients.
So this upcoming Wednesday, I'm going to be hosting a live. training where I'm going to be teaching how to get three to five buyers from LinkedIn every month. We are going to go over this exact second part here of how to convert those buyers, right?
I'm going to show you. each one of these psychological steps in depth so that when you do start posting content, you're not wasting your time. You know exactly how to get the right buyer looking at you, how to nurture them the right way so that by the end of it, they're raising their hand saying, hey, look, I'd love to work with you.
I really need help, right? That's the kind of business I want you to have for yourself. So make sure to come to the training.
It's gonna be happening this upcoming Wednesday. Now, the way to register is very simple. There's a link in the description.
of this YouTube video, make sure to click it and save your spot. I'm limiting it to only 50 people from YouTube. The reason because of this is because it's a live training, I do Q &A, meaning this is an opportunity for you to ask questions to me live and I'll answer them.
So it's very capped, it's totally free. So if you're watching this video on time, make sure to register right now and I'd love to meet you too, right? Love to speak with you, hear more about your business, what your goals are, what you're trying to achieve and go from there.
All right. Awesome. Thanks for watching.
I'll see you in the next video. Take care.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
A LinkedIn coach for ex-corporate professionals explains why reach collapsed sometime after the 2021-2024 'gold rush', and the nine-page report that explains why: LinkedIn quietly swapped its algorithm for AI.
Named ideas worth stealing.
02:52model
The Two-Part LinkedIn Client System
- Send signals so the algorithm shows your content to the right buyers
- Move those buyers through six psychological steps from stranger to client
Everything that gets a coach clients from LinkedIn reduces to two problems: getting your ideal buyer's attention, then converting that attention into desire to work with you.
Steal forany service-business profile on a platform with an interest-matching algorithm
06:16list
Profile Signals That Tell the Algorithm Who You Target
- A specific headline naming the exact buyer and outcome
- A banner image restating the promise and price point
- Named client examples that let ideal buyers self-identify
The three profile elements that double as targeting data for the algorithm and as proof for a human visitor.
Steal forany LinkedIn, or algorithm-matched, profile
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
13:23link
“There's a link in the description of this YouTube video, make sure to click it and save your spot. I'm limiting it to only 50 people from YouTube.”
Soft-mentions the Wednesday training twice earlier in the video, then closes with scarcity (50-person cap) and a stated reason (live Q&A) right before sign-off.
Visual structure at a glance.
