What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Sagar is a coach and entrepreneur who has generated ₹1.7 crore in revenue and mentored over 400 coaches in three and a half years, all through organic marketing. In this episode, he shares how he overcame English as a language barrier through a 365-day content challenge and breaks down his approach to building an email list, optimising social profiles, and choosing a niche that lasts.
[00:00:00.05] – Speaker 1
Hi there. Welcome to the Digital Jayasty Show, your go-to podcast for digital marketing insights that drive business growth and career success. I am Jayasty Anandan, your host, and this podcast is brought to you by Digital Jayasty. That’s my digital marketing consultancy helping businesses worldwide. You can check it out at digitaljayasty.com. Whether you are a B2B business looking to expand your online presence or a professional in a full-time job or freelancing, this podcast is designed to help you learn from top marketing experts and make smarter, more strategic decisions. If you’re watching on YouTube, subscribe to my channel and hit the bell icon for updates. If you’re listening on any podcast app, follow The Digital Jayasty Show, and if you like the show, leave a rating. All right, let’s jump right in.
[00:00:49.26] – Speaker 1
Today we welcome Sagar, a remarkable entrepreneur whose journey from a small town in Orissa to digital marketing success inspires us all. After completing his MBA, Sagar found himself in unfulfilling jobs. His turning point came when he explored different remote work opportunities which he could do from the comfort of home. He tried affiliate marketing and then eventually entered the coaching business, which is now running successfully. Sagar is a true inspiration who overcame English as a barrier, proving that language limitations don’t define success. Today, Sagar runs a thriving coaching business, having generated ₹1.7 crore in revenue and mentored over 400 coaches in just 3 and a half years. Please welcome Sagar, the man who transformed from early career struggles to building a 7-figure coaching empire. So I’ll start with one of the most important questions: where you can start from, Sagar. So many people believe that without excellent English skills, they can’t succeed in digital marketing. As someone who didn’t grow up speaking English, how did you overcome this perceived barrier to build your career?
[00:01:55.20] – Speaker 2
Thank you, Jayasty, for having me here. I’m really grateful for being here. Starting my journey, when I started, almost all, almost till my graduation, it was all English or Odia medium. English was nothing in any, like, see, there was a syllabus to just teach, but all the professor, teacher, they were just teaching, just communicating in Odia. So there was nothing much about it where I could explore or get exposed to. It was the time when I came out of my state, 2014, 10-11 years back, when I went for my master’s in Pune. And that’s where I got to see people just talking about English, and that’s where I started working on it. I had taken a lot of coaching for spoken English and all, but that never worked because only the time that I was there in the institute, that was the time I was just working on it or practising it. But it was not that effective for me. I struggled a lot. So through the environment, it helped me so, so much. But at the same time, it was 2020 when I took a challenge of doing 365-day content creation every single day, no matter what, where I challenged myself to speak only, only English, nothing else.
[00:03:37.23] – Speaker 2
And that’s where I actually started speaking decent English. I believe from there. And I believe that speaking is not a parameter to get success in any, any, any platform or any specific area. I believe it is the intention that matters. My intention is pure to help you; then people can sense that intention, people can sense the vibe of it. It’s said know, you connect with some people, and that person, whatever that person says, you just keep connecting, connecting, and suddenly you listen to the other person, whether they have a very good English, but you can’t connect with that person. You must have gone through something similar like this. Similarly, I just wanted to connect heart to heart, not word to word. This is my way of transformation, I would say. Yeah.
[00:04:43.18] – Speaker 1
Awesome. Okay, so you followed Russell Brunson’s advice to post content for 365 days straight. So what made you commit to this challenge, and how did this daily consistency transform your business and life?
[00:04:56.16] – Speaker 2
A lot of people ask me, Sagar, how did you get so consistent at that time? I say, so there was a big why that was like pushing me from the back. That’s Sagar. If there is a huge stake you have taken, your family is there, and you have to also work on your— build your career. Okay, you have. When I started, I was doing corporate jobs, and since there was COVID time, I think thanks to that particular time, I could get some time from travel work on myself after my job. I used to explore what is online, what this thing is. So throughout that, when Russell says, if you publish 365 days, pick any content format, just be consistent for 1 year, your financial situation will never be the same as today. I said, wow, this is something I really want to work on. I’m struggling for the finances the last 5 years. I really want to work on it. I asked my father, ” Can I get 6 months to work on it? He said, ” Go for it. If you believe, go for it. I said, ” Just take care of my food; the rest I’ll take care of. So that’s where I started my journey. So yeah, that is something that really stuck in my head when Russell said that one, one of the quotes, as well as he also mentioned it in the Expert Secret book.
[00:06:33.29] – Speaker 1
All right, so you have coached approximately 400 coaches over 3 and a half years, generating ₹1.7 crore in revenue. What was the turning point that took you from struggling financially to building this successful coaching business?
[00:06:47.29] – Speaker 2
So I started my coaching business 2021 September month, and that’s when I was also procrastinating a lot to launch. Hey, I’m not ready. People will not buy from me. So many things were going on in my head, even if I sold some 10-15 lakhs in my affiliate marketing journey. But one thing that I understood was that this game is all about being in the game. I had a lot of breakdown time where I literally broke down, and I could not like control myself. Thanks to my mentors, who actually helped me to come out of those situations, even if it was a feeling like giving up. But I’ll say there’s one trusting moment that happened 2 years back where I was like 3 months back to back, almost zero sales, like low sales, you can say. And it was like, I would say this was a defining moment. So I asked for help from all of my mentors. 2 of my mentors really helped me to come out of that situation. And after that, I was like, I got, I got my clarity: what if, when the day I started in 2021, there was a coach? I did not start this business to give up.
[00:08:18.20] – Speaker 2
Okay, I started to build. From there, I started seeing my grad— my business as a graduation. In graduation, we took for like how many, 4 years? Some people take 6 years, 8 years, preparing for JEE or whatever things. And I think, why not consider this as a second graduation? Okay, it will take time to build up. So that’s where I got motivation, and I never stopped to date. I never stopped, even if there is a low time, low time. I just saw this as an opportunity to grow. I just worked on it. So yeah.
[00:09:03.24] – Speaker 1
Great. So your success has largely been built through organic marketing across multiple platforms. Could you walk us through the specific organic strategies that worked best for you on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn? And what are the key differences in approach for each platform? What practical tips can you share with viewers and listeners who are just starting to build their presence on these platforms?
[00:09:28.15] – Speaker 2
I will talk about how organic marketing actually works in social media rather than just like, I’ll definitely talk about different platforms, but let me next share the essence of organic marketing: how people can actually do it. A lot of people misunderstood this part, and they start learning about different platforms. If the platform changes or they stop, like how TikTok was banned, then people lose their followers. The first thing is to understand that all followers on these platforms are not yours— it is a rented platform. At any point in time, these companies can get shut down, or these companies can be like, they will just, uh, maybe there are a lot of hackers out there, and your account will get hacked. My account got hacked 2023 February. So anything can happen. So what will you do? Like, you’ll build for $1 million, then suddenly you realise that zero. It is a very difficult. The first thing is the internet. If you really want to build a business, you have to build your email list. Email list, that’s the first thing that I will suggest. How will I do it? The first thing is step one: every profile, it is the same for every profile or every platform.
[00:10:51.28] – Speaker 2
Optimise your profile. Okay, optimise your profile means every profile. The moment people see your profile, they should know this person helped me. Like, if you’re your target audience, your target audience should know that this person helped me. That’s it. How? There is a statement called I help in what? Love. I help the target audience. Let’s say I would say I help coaches to build an organic cash flow system. I help you in [what] (2 things need to be very clear on all platforms). Sometimes you need to add them in the cover photo, sometimes in the bio in one line. On YouTube, you have a banner which acts as your profile and CV, and one more point is there, which is a call to action. I see a lot of people do not have a call to action in their funnel. If you really want to build a business or coaching business or service business, I’ve seen people who do not have a call to action, meaning a link or maybe a DM. Okay, so let’s suppose some freelancer wants to get clients.
[00:12:18.21] – Speaker 2
They want to build, let’s say, a landing page and Facebook ads. So they can say, run, like, do you want us to run ads, run your Facebook ads, DM ads, something like this. You’re a coach; how will they do it? Like, okay, join my live cash flow workshop. Okay, then put your webinar link. So people will not just become followers; the moment they see your profile, at the same time they follow you or they connect with you, they become your lead. They become your lead. Customer data will be created from there. Okay, there are other ways to generate leads, but these are the basic things that people need to know to optimise your profile. Your message is very, very clear with the right call to action.
[00:13:13.05] – Speaker 1
So how do they get into your email list through social media platforms?
[00:13:16.26] – Speaker 2
So let’s suppose I have a landing page to register for my workshop. Then through the landing page, it’s connected to my ConvertKit account. Then they’ll register, they’ll join my WhatsApp group where I nurture them for the webinar, and the email list will also get created so that I can nurture them for the next webinar. If they can’t attend today, they will attend tomorrow. All these things will happen.
[00:13:44.21] – Speaker 1
Okay, for our listeners who are considering starting a coaching business, whether they are working full-time jobs, stay-at-home parents, or in any other life situation, what is your advice on the minimum daily commitments they should make to see results, and how should they structure this time effectively?
[00:14:04.28] – Speaker 2
See, some people work. They just give weekend time or maybe just nighttime. Okay. To build a business, I would say a minimum of 2 hours is a must every day. But if I calculate it in a week, minimum 10 hours, minimum, like worst case scenario, minimum 10 hours is a must to build. There is no actual number as such, but based on my experience, I would give this advice.
[00:14:37.01] – Speaker 1
All right, so based on your experience in the coaching industry, who would you say is best suited to start a coaching business? Could you share some insights from the types of people who reached out to you for help in starting or scaling their coaching business, and what timeline to success you typically observed with your most dedicated clients?
[00:14:57.11] – Speaker 2
So when it comes to starting a coaching business, people need to do something or help something, not based on what is happening in the market. Most people see if there’s money in this market, then do it. This is the worst mistake that a lot of people do. I would say go from your story because when you go from your own journey, your own mess in the past, like it’s said, your mess becomes your message. What is something that mess that you had gone through in the last 3 years, 5 years, 10 years down the line, and you have worked on it? You have solved it. That’s where you will like it. You will be charged up. Even if there is a downtime, they say, “Hey, I never started with this business to make money.” When they don’t earn money, they give up. I’ve seen so many coaches. When I started affiliate marketing in the organic space, there were one hundred plus. At least a minimum of coaches that I have seen in my list promoting the same products today, I see only five people. They are not; they have not survived, or they have changed the business, or they have gone back to their job.
[00:16:06.22] – Speaker 2
They have given up. Okay, because they choose something that is happening in the market. They start with, definitely will explore and see. But to sustain something long term, it needs to be aligned with your backstory. You need to be aligned with you, your value system. Then only can someone start with something. It can be health, it can be relationships, it can be money, finance, anything that you resonate with, that you have worked on. That, that’s how you will be able to naturally coach someone.
[00:16:40.23] – Speaker 2
Okay, so if someone has to pick a successful niche, according to you, what has worked for your clients?
[00:16:49.26] – Speaker 2
See, there is again- I do not comment on this because this is something that is a very direct question to anybody. If I say this, as people will look at this works in the market. But one thing that I always suggest is you try out what, like there are you do go through a niche clarity journey, go through try one. 3 months, 6 months, try it. If not, I’ve seen people change niche for 3 times, then they are doing something which is aligned with them. Like, but that’s why I say do not waste time. Go with your heart, not with your head. This is something I would suggest. Yeah.
[00:17:33.25] – Speaker 1
Okay, I think that’s about it. So thank you so much, Sagar, for sharing your incredible journey. And valuable insights with us today. Your transformation from humble beginnings to building a 7-figure coaching empire is truly inspirational. Your practical strategies for organic marketing will undoubtedly help many of our audience who are looking to make similar transitions. Before we wrap up, where can our audience find you online and learn more about your coaching programs?
[00:18:03.03] – Speaker 2
So they can definitely connect with me or follow me on Instagram. Facebook, and LinkedIn; I am very much active there. So yeah, like first let them consume some content. If they find it relatable, then they can explore my program.
[00:18:23.29] – Speaker 1
All right. Thank you once again for being such a generous guest and for showing that determination— with determination, success is possible regardless of where you start or what barriers you face. Thank you so much.
[00:18:37.07] – Speaker 2
Thank you, Jayasty, for having me.
[00:18:44.04] – Speaker 1
This podcast is brought to you by Digital Jayasty. If you want more tips, strategies, and interviews with top marketing experts from around the world, make sure to subscribe or follow The Digital Jayasty Show. Thank you for tuning in, and I’ll catch you next time.