Can you actually build a business off of social media? The short answer is yes. But it’s probably not the way you think, and there is a very important caveat that most coaches miss entirely.
I do believe you can build a business without being glued to social media every day. This is exactly what I help my students do inside Health Coach Accelerator. But “off social media” doesn’t mean what most people think it means. It doesn’t mean you can disappear completely. It means social media stops being your main strategy and starts playing a supporting role.
And that distinction? That’s the difference between burnout and a business that actually works for you.
So let’s break down what it really looks like to build a coaching business that doesn’t revolve around the social media hamster wheel, what you need instead, and where social media actually fits into the picture.
Your Email List Is Your Most Valuable Business Asset
This is the hill I will literally die on. Your email list is your most valuable asset as a business owner. Personally, basically all of my sales come through email. And here’s the thing that separates your email list from everything else: it’s the one thing you actually own.
You don’t own your Instagram followers. You don’t own your Facebook group. These platforms change the algorithm constantly. They can shut down your account, you can get hacked, your reach can get tanked overnight. None of that happens with an email list.
Everything you do in your business should be about building your email list. That’s the real goal. Whether you’re using social media, ads, freebies, or webinars, all roads lead to your email list. If you take nothing else away from this episode, take that. Every strategy, every piece of content, every campaign you run should ultimately be feeding people onto your list because that’s where the sales happen.
Why Most Coaches Have This Backwards
Most coaches in the health and wellness space are spending hours every week creating social media content, stressing about the algorithm, chasing engagement, and hoping something goes viral. Meanwhile their email list is an afterthought, maybe they send one newsletter a month, maybe they don’t even have a freebie driving subscribers.
This is completely backwards. You’re pouring energy into a platform you don’t own and neglecting the one asset that will reliably generate revenue for your business month after month.
Meta Ads: The List-Building Strategy That Works While You Sleep
If you don’t want social media to be your primary strategy, you’re going to need another way to get visibility. And I recommend Meta ads, which are Facebook and Instagram ads. This is what I teach my students inside HCA, and it’s how you build your list without relying on going viral and praying for engagement.
Here’s what makes Meta ads so powerful for coaches: you’re essentially creating one piece of content. You create your freebie, then you create an ad to promote it. You make maybe four to six social media graphics, write two pieces of copy (a short version and a long version), drive ad traffic to it, and then it just runs for you. It works in the background for a month, maybe two, maybe three, maybe longer.
Now, with the recent Andromeda update to Meta ads, I’ve found that ads don’t last quite as long as they used to. The platform seems to burn through audiences quicker. But if you have a relatively small budget, and by small I mean under $50 a day, your ads will probably last a bit longer.
Why Meta Over Other Platforms
The reason I’m such a huge fan of Meta ads specifically is because they work in the background while you live your life and do other things in your business, like actually supporting your clients. Meta also has the cheapest ads compared to other platforms.
Can you advertise on Google or somewhere else off social media? Absolutely. But you are going to pay significantly more. And here’s the reality: even if you’re running Google ads, people in the health and wellness industry are still probably going to click over to your website or your social media to check you out before they buy. Which brings me to the next critical piece of this puzzle.
Why People Need to See You Before They Buy
Health is deeply personal. It’s exposing, it’s vulnerable. People don’t want to just work with anyone. They need to deeply trust the person they’re going to work with because they’re going to be sharing really personal things about their body. Their digestion, their cycles, their hair loss, their skin issues. Things they probably don’t talk about with most people in their life.
So it can’t just be anyone. They need to feel deeply connected to you before they hand over their credit card. And email marketing in itself probably won’t be enough for that. Written word is amazing, but people are going to need to interact with you in some sort of live or video format where they can actually see you.
This is where a lot of coaches get tripped up. They hear “you can build a business off social media” and think that means they never have to show their face or create any content ever again. That’s not what this means.
The Power of Long-Form Video Content
I’m a big fan of long-form content, and I think something like a video podcast is a non-negotiable if you don’t really want to show up on social media regularly. It gives people a way to experience your personality, your energy, your expertise in a format that builds real connection.
We post all of our podcast episodes onto YouTube. I’ll be honest, the setup isn’t that interesting right now (we’re working on a new one), but it gives people a chance to see my face, hear my voice, get a sense of who I am beyond the written word. And that matters. You’re probably going to feel a little more connected with someone when you see them on video versus just hearing their voice or reading their emails.
If a video podcast feels like too much work and you don’t mind social media a little bit, then just post video talking-head reels. You can post up to 20 minutes through a reel. If it’s over three minutes, it doesn’t get pushed out to new people, but that’s fine. That’s not the purpose. The purpose is to send people from your email list to your longer-form content so they can build that deeper connection with you.
Because here’s the truth: I don’t really believe people buy from text alone. Not in today’s world where everyone is on video. If you’re not on video at all, people start to wonder why. What are you hiding? What’s wrong? People need to feel something before they buy. They want to know who you are, hear your voice, relate to you, look up to you, see how you show up.
Social Media as Proof of Life, Not Lead Generation
Here’s the shift that changes everything. Regardless of where you advertise, people are still going to want to check you out on social media. So social media becomes your proof of life, not your lead generation strategy.
What do I mean by this? When people see your ad for your lead magnet or your webinar, a lot of them won’t download the freebie right away. The first thing they do is click on your profile and go check out your Instagram or Facebook. They scroll through your feed and think, who is this person? Then maybe they see your ad again a few days later and think, oh yeah, I remember her, she seemed cool. Now I’ll download the freebie.
But if you haven’t posted in a year, or even a couple of months, they may assume you’re a scammer or you’re not serious about your business. That one moment of doubt kills the conversion.
What “Minimal Social Media” Actually Looks Like
When you’re running ads, I recommend posting a minimum of a couple times per month. Ideally once a week. That’s it. Focus on video content because, again, in this industry people want to feel connected to you before they buy. They want to see your personality, they want to vibe with you.
I don’t think text posts alone will cut it anymore. But a once-a-week video post? Totally doable. Especially if you have a video podcast, because you can just repurpose clips from that and throw them on your social feed. Now you’ve got your weekly content basically handled without any additional effort.
The reason most people say they don’t want to be on social media is that they’re sick of the social hustle. And I get it. I’ve been on social media since 2012. That’s over 14 years of showing up consistently. I fantasize every day about starting a new business that doesn’t involve social media, and I probably will at some point. So I completely understand the exhaustion.
But there’s a massive difference between being a content machine posting every single day and posting one piece of video content a week so you look like an active, real human being. One of those will burn you out. The other takes maybe 30 minutes.
Proof That This Actually Works: The HTMA Expert Model
I don’t just teach this. I have a second business that runs on this exact model. It’s called HTMA Expert, where I teach health practitioners how to interpret hair tissue mineral analysis. I got into HTMA back in 2016, became obsessed with it, and it was a big part of my own healing journey with fatigue.
At the time, very few people were teaching it, and the people who did would only teach interpretation without sharing protocols. I was one of the first to create a course that actually taught the protocols. Since then, other courses have popped up, but I was very much a pioneer in that space.
With HTMA Expert, I only run ads and do email marketing. No organic social media posts. No podcast for that brand. No YouTube channel. No blogs. Nothing. I only run ads to build my email list and then sell through evergreen and live webinars.
Why This Works (And the Caveat You Need to Hear)
The reason this works for HTMA Expert is authority. Being one of the first people to create a course like this back in 2019, I have a ton of credibility to fall back on. We’ve served well over a thousand students, probably bordering on 1,500 now, across 27 different countries. I get a lot of referrals. I’m not new to the space.
I also do regular live events and automated webinars, which really push people over the edge to buy. When you’re building a business off social media, you absolutely need some kind of live or real-time interaction to replace the connection that social media provides.
But here’s the important distinction. HTMA is a technical skill. People don’t need the same level of personal connection from me to feel confident buying a course where they’re learning a methodology. They want to know I’m an expert, they want to know I teach differently than others, but they don’t need to feel as deeply bonded to me as they would to a health coach they’re sharing personal health details with.
In the health coaching and practitioner space, people really do need to feel connected to you. Which is why the video component, whether that’s a podcast, YouTube channel, or even weekly video reels, becomes so important.
And here’s another thing worth noting: even with HTMA Expert, I’m running ads for my business coaching brand on social media. So when people click over to my profile, they still see that I’m active and creating content. It’s about business, not HTMA, but they can still see that I’m a real, active person. If I were to shut down HCA tomorrow and only focus on HTMA Expert, I would probably hire someone to create one to two pieces of content per week just to keep that social presence looking alive.
Why This Formula Gives You Endless Content Ideas
Here’s what I love most about the Story Imprint Formula: it never runs dry. Because life keeps happening. Every single week, you’re going to have little moments that are slightly out of the ordinary. Funny things your kids say. Awkward interactions. Small adventures that didn’t go as planned. Weird observations. Things that made you laugh or think or shake your head.
And every one of those moments is a potential piece of content. You just need to capture it (hello, story dump note), find a relevant lesson to connect it to, and then write it using the structure I just outlined.
When you start sending out story-based emails and creating this kind of content, I almost guarantee you’re going to get more response. More replies. More engagement. More people telling you that your emails are funny and relatable. And that’s exactly what you’re going for.
Because at the end of the day, humans buy from humans. And when you tell stories, you become more memorable and more unforgettable. People start picturing themselves in your life. They feel like they know you. And that kind of connection is something no amount of educational content can replicate.
You end up with content that feels human, connection-based, and relatable, instead of stuffy, formulaic posts that sound like everybody else’s. And you don’t need to share everything or be an open book. You can be an incredibly private person and still show up online with stories that make people feel something.
The Bottom Line: Your Off-Social-Media Business Blueprint
You don’t need to be a content machine on social media to build a real business. But you do need a few non-negotiable pieces in place.
You need an email list. That’s the foundation everything else is built on. You need a way to build that list, and I recommend ads because they’re the most time-effective option available. You could do speaking events, but that’s a lot of labor. You could do collaborations, which some people do well with, but I find those aren’t as effective as they used to be. Ads give you your time back while consistently growing your list.
You need enough of a social media presence that you look like a real, active human being. People will check you out before they buy. If your feed looks abandoned, they’re going to bounce. Post once a week, focus on video, and you’re covered.
And you need some sort of connection-building content, ideally long-form video, where people on your email list can go deeper with you. A podcast, a YouTube channel, longer reels. Something that lets people experience you beyond the written word.
Think of it this way: social media is your storefront window. Email is the cash register. And ads are what get people to walk by the store in the first place.
You don’t need to hustle on social media every day to make this work. You just need the right system in place so that when people find you, they trust you, they connect with you, and they buy.
