10 Business Philosophies That Built a $1.5M Coaching Business

 

 

10 Business Philosophies That Built a $1.5M Coaching Business

 

 I'm going to be honest with you.

Building a seven-figure business didn't happen because I had some secret formula or because I worked 80-hour weeks or because I got lucky.

It happened because I developed a set of core philosophies—beliefs about how business should work—and I committed to them even when they felt counterintuitive.

Today, I want to share the ten business philosophies that guided every major decision in building my coaching business to $1.5 million in revenue.

These aren't tactics. They're not step-by-step strategies. They're the foundational beliefs that shaped how I built, how I scaled, and how I stayed sane through all of it.

And I think at least one of these might be exactly what you need to hear right now.

 

1. Foundations: Always Come Back to Them

The Philosophy:
If you're stuck or something isn't working, there's probably a foundational piece you can revisit, tweak, and see massive shifts. Foundations aren't something you do once and forget—they're something you return to again and again.

When I was teaching, I used to watch new instructors get frustrated because their students couldn't execute advanced choreography.

And I'd always bring them back to the same thing: Are they at the barre?

In ballet, the barre is where you build your foundation. It's where you learn proper alignment, how to engage the right muscles, how to balance. It's boring. It's repetitive. But it's everything.

If someone can't do a pirouette in the center of the room, you don't give them a harder turn. You bring them back to the barre and clean up their foundation.

Business is the same.

When I hit a plateau in my business—when something wasn't converting, when I felt scattered, when growth stalled—I didn't need a new strategy. I needed to go back to the barre.

Back to my messaging. Back to my offer. Back to my core framework.

I'd ask myself:

• Is my messaging still clear?
• Does my offer still match what I'm promising?
• Am I still talking to the right person?

And almost always, I'd find something foundational that had drifted.

The Takeaway: Foundations aren't a one-time thing. They're the place you return to when things stop working. You don't need a new offer or a rebrand. You need to go back to the barre and tighten up what's already there.

 

2. Marketing: The #1 Skill You Can Learn

The Philosophy:
Marketing—specifically awareness-stage marketing—is the single most valuable skill you can develop as a business owner. If you can get people to pay attention, everything else becomes possible.

Early in my career, I knew a yoga teacher who was incredible. Truly gifted. Her classes were transformative. Her energy was magnetic. Her students loved her.

But she couldn't fill her classes.

She'd have three people show up to a class designed for twenty. And she'd say things like, "If people just knew about me, they'd come. I just need more people to find me."

And I'd say, "Okay, so what are you doing to help them find you?"

Silence.

She wasn't posting on social media. She wasn't emailing her list. She wasn't networking. She wasn't doing anything to create awareness.

She was waiting to be discovered. And discovery doesn't just happen.

That's when I realized: You can be the best in the world at what you do, but if no one knows you exist, it doesn't matter.

Marketing isn't about being salesy or pushy or inauthentic. Marketing is about making people aware that you exist and that you can help them.

When I committed to learning marketing—really learning it, studying copywriting, understanding how to create demand, how to tell a story, how to get attention—everything changed.

I went from being a good coach no one knew about to being a coach who could fill a program in 48 hours.

Not because I got better at coaching. Because I got better at marketing.

The Takeaway: Marketing is the skill that unlocks everything else. If you can create awareness, you can create demand. And if you can create demand, you can build a business.

 

3. Sales Is Service

The Philosophy:
Sales isn't about convincing someone to buy something they don't need. It's about helping someone say yes to the transformation they already want. When you believe in what you're selling, selling becomes service.

A few years ago, I was on a sales call with a studio owner. She was struggling—burnt out, overwhelmed, doing everything herself. She knew she needed help.

But she was hesitating.

She said, "I don't know if I can afford this right now."

And here's what I could have done: I could have backed off. I could have said, "No problem, reach out when you're ready."

But I didn't.

Because I knew—I knew—that if she didn't join, she'd still be in the same place six months from now. Maybe worse.

So I said, "I hear you. But let me ask you this: What's it costing you to stay where you are?"

She paused.

And then she started talking. About the nights she couldn't sleep. About the fights with her husband because she was always working. About the fact that she'd built this business to have freedom, and instead, she felt trapped.

And I said, "That's what this costs. Not joining doesn't save you money—it costs you your sanity, your time, your life."

She joined.

And six months later, she sent me a message that said, "Thank you for not letting me say no. That call changed everything."

That's what I mean when I say sales is service.

When you truly believe in what you're offering, helping someone say yes isn't manipulation—it's your responsibility.

The Takeaway: If you believe in your work, selling it is an act of service, not selfishness. Your job isn't to convince people. It's to help the right people see what's possible and give them permission to say yes.

 

4. Data + Intuition: Make Decisions With Both

The Philosophy:
Data tells you what's happening. Intuition tells you why and what to do about it. The best decisions come from using both.

I was planning a launch a couple years ago. I had the data—I knew what had worked before, what emails converted, what webinar format got the most signups.

But something felt off.

My gut was telling me that the messaging wasn't right. That the angle I was using didn't match where my audience actually was.

I could have ignored it. I could have said, "The data says this works, so let's just do it."

But instead, I paused.

I went back to my audience. I read through their messages, their questions, their pain points. And I realized: They weren't where I thought they were.

The messaging I was planning was for someone six months ahead of where they actually were.

So I pivoted. I rewrote the entire launch around a different angle—one that felt more aligned, even though I didn't have data to prove it would work.

And that launch? It was one of my most successful ever.

Here's the thing: Data is essential. But data tells you what happened in the past. Intuition helps you navigate what's happening now.

I don't make decisions based on feelings alone. But I also don't ignore my gut when it's telling me something the data can't see.

The Takeaway: Use data to inform your decisions. Use intuition to guide them. Track your numbers, know your conversion rates, understand what's working. But also trust yourself and the voice that says, "This doesn't feel right."

 

5. Business Is Meant to Be Boring-ish

The Philosophy:
A business that works is a business that's predictable, repeatable, and—yes—a little boring. The excitement comes from the results, not the chaos.

I worked with a studio owner once who was always launching something new.

A new intro offer. A new challenge. A new membership tier. A new workshop series.

Every month, it was something different.

And she'd say, "I just want to keep things fresh. I don't want my business to get stale."

But here's what was actually happening: Her team was exhausted. Her members were confused. And she wasn't making any more money—because nothing had time to work.

So I asked her, "What if your business was boring?"

She looked at me like I was crazy.

But I said, "What if you had one intro offer that you ran every single month? One membership structure that never changed? One email sequence that you sent to every new lead? What if your business was so predictable that you could actually step away from it?"

She hated the idea at first. But she tried it.

And within three months, her revenue stabilized. Her team stopped scrambling. And she had time to actually think strategically instead of constantly firefighting.

Here's the truth: Boring businesses make money. Chaotic businesses burn you out.

The most successful businesses I know? They do the same thing over and over. They have systems. They have processes. They're predictable.

And that predictability is what gives you freedom.

The Takeaway: Stop chasing the next shiny thing. Build something repeatable. Let it be boring. That's where the magic is.

 

6. Thinking Someone Else Has the Answer Will Slow You Down

The Philosophy:
You already know more than you think. Outsourcing your decision-making to mentors, courses, or gurus will slow you down. Trust yourself.

When I first started coaching, I thought I needed more credentials.

I had my coaching certification, but I thought, "Maybe I need another one. Maybe I need to study with this person or take that course or get certified in this framework."

And I kept waiting. Waiting to feel ready. Waiting for someone else to give me permission to call myself an expert.

And then one day, a friend said something that stopped me in my tracks.

She said, "Jackie, you've been teaching for years. You've helped dozens of people transform their businesses. What are you waiting for?"

And I realized: I was waiting for someone else to tell me I was ready. But no one was going to do that.

I already had the experience. I already had the results. I already knew what worked.

But I was outsourcing my confidence to certifications and courses because I didn't trust myself.

And that belief—that someone else has the answer—cost me time, money, and momentum.

Here's what I know now: You already know more than you think.

Yes, learn from others. Yes, invest in mentors. Yes, take courses when they fill a real gap.

But stop thinking that the next certification or the next program or the next guru is going to give you the answer.

The Takeaway: Stop outsourcing your decision-making. Trust your expertise. You already have what you need.

 

7. Momentum Builds When You Know Your Top Priority

The Philosophy:
Momentum doesn't come from doing everything. It comes from knowing the ONE thing that matters most right now and going all in on it.

There was a year in my business where I made a decision: I was only going to focus on one thing.

Conversion.

Not lead generation. Not branding. Not launching new offers.

Just conversion.

I wanted to take the people who were already in my world—who were already on my email list, who were already following me—and convert them into clients.

And for twelve months, that was my only priority.

Every decision I made, every piece of content I created, every strategy I tested—it all came back to that one question: Will this improve conversion?

And here's what happened:

My revenue doubled.

Not because I got more leads. Not because I launched something new.

Because I went deep on the one thing that mattered most.

The Takeaway: Momentum builds when you know your top priority. Not your top five priorities. Your top ONE. When you're clear on what matters most, every decision becomes easier and every action compounds.

8. Tiny Tweaks, Big Results

The Philosophy:
You don't need a massive overhaul. You need to identify the small thing that's holding everything else back and fix it. Tiny tweaks create massive shifts.

This isn't a business story—it's a house story. But it taught me one of the most important business lessons I've ever learned.

A few years ago, we were getting ready to sell our house. And I was stressed because I thought we needed to do all these big renovations to make it look good.

New paint. New floors. Maybe even a kitchen remodel.

But our realtor came over, walked through the house, and said, "You know what would make the biggest difference? Clean the baseboards."

I was like, "The baseboards? That's it?"

And she said, "Yes. When baseboards are dirty, the whole house feels neglected. When they're clean, everything else looks better."

So I spent two hours cleaning the baseboards.

And she was right. The house looked completely different.

That's how business works too.

Most of the time, you don't need a rebrand. You don't need a new offer. You don't need to blow everything up and start over.

You need to find the baseboard—the small thing that's making everything else feel off—and fix it.

Maybe it's your email subject lines. Maybe it's the first sentence on your homepage. Maybe it's the way you're asking for the sale.

The Takeaway: Look for the baseboards. The tiny tweaks that create massive results. Transformation doesn't always require revolution. Sometimes it just requires attention to the details.

 

9. How You Build It Now Is How You'll Experience It Then

The Philosophy:
The energy, systems, and pace you create today become your long-term reality. If you build your business in chaos, it will always feel chaotic. But if you build it with intention, that's what you get to keep.

Early in my business, I made a decision that felt risky at the time: I hired help.

I brought on an OBM (Raven) and a VA (Ashley) way before I thought I "should."

And people told me I was crazy. They said, "You're not making enough money yet to have a team."

But I knew something they didn't: If I built this business doing everything myself, I'd always be doing everything myself.

I didn't want a business that required me to work 60-hour weeks. I didn't want to be the bottleneck. I didn't want to sacrifice my life for my business.

So I built systems. I documented processes. I hired support.

And yes, it was uncomfortable at first. Yes, I had to invest before I was "ready."

But that decision—to build with intention from the beginning—is the reason I was able to scale to $1.5 million without burning out.

The Takeaway: The way you're operating right now is training you—and your business—for how it will operate at scale. You don't suddenly become calm and strategic at $1M if you were frantic and reactive at $100K. Build it the way you want to experience it.

 

10. Problems Scale, Strategies Scale

The Philosophy:
If you don't fix the root problem, you'll just have a bigger version of that problem later. But when you solve a problem at its root and build a strategy around it, that solution scales with your business.

Here's what I see all the time:

A studio owner has a conversion problem. Only 5% of people who try their intro offer actually become members.

And instead of fixing conversion, they focus on getting more leads.

So they run ads. They post more on social media. They try to fill the funnel.

And guess what happens?

They get 100 leads instead of 50. And they're still only converting 5%.

The problem didn't go away. It just got bigger.

But here's what happens when you fix the root problem:

You go deep on conversion. You figure out why people aren't joining. You fix your process, your messaging, your follow-up.

And you move that 5% to 25%.

Now when you get 100 leads, you're converting 25 of them instead of 5.

The strategy scaled. The problem didn't.

The Takeaway: Stop trying to outrun broken systems with more effort, more offers, or more marketing. Fix the root problem deeply. That's what scales.

 

The Bottom Line

These ten philosophies aren't just how I built a $1.5 million business.

They're how I built a business I actually want to run.

Because revenue matters, but sustainability matters more.

Your business should serve your life, not consume it.

So here's what I want you to do:

Pick one philosophy from this list that resonates most with you.

Just one.

And go apply it this week.

See what shifts.

 

About Jackie Murphy

Jackie Murphy is a business coach specializing in helping yoga, Pilates, barre, and boutique fitness studio owners transition from teacher mindset to CEO leadership. She runs the Studio CEO Program and Grow Mastermind, hosts the Studio CEO podcast, and operates Run Like Clockwork as an Asana/ClickUp expert and project management consultant. Jackie has built her coaching business to $1.5 million in revenue by focusing on sustainable growth, systems, and strategic marketing.

 

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