Your Income Comes from Their Spending
This post is for solopreneurs who need paying clients — especially if you’ve invested time and money in your business but still struggle with enrollment. Your goal is to have this wonderful work you do to be more than a hobby or volunteer project.
A soulpreneur business lives at the intersection of what lights you up, and what people value enough to pay for. This post focuses on the second half — what people want to buy — because it’s the half most solopreneurs skip.
A Common Pattern:
I’ve been coaching solopreneurs since 2009, and I keep seeing a familiar pattern… one that I’ve lived too. I find myself reminding clients of this concept multiple times a year, which is why I’m writing it down here.
The pattern goes like this: You discover a modality, framework, or practice that truly helps you. Maybe it’s some kind of coaching, or somatic work, or a personal growth path that resonates deeply with you. Of course you feel excited — when something changes our life, it’s natural to want to share it!
Then comes the assumption: create content to share my excitement → attract clients → make money. “If I explain it well enough, others will want it too!”
Your passion and excitement are real, and they matter, of course! Yet… passion alone is not a business strategy — and confusing the two is the pitfall most soulpreneurs fall into early on.
The Costly Mistake:
So we invest — sometimes thousands of dollars — in branding and a website centered on the thing we’re passionate about. We create content. Maybe lots of it. Maybe even for many months. And then… we discover (and maybe baffled by the fact) that people aren’t as excited as we are. Some don’t even understand it at all. Some do appreciate it, but don’t buy anything from us…
We conclude that the problem must be tactical. We just better copywriting, more persuasion, better design, right? So we invest again, and maybe again.
And yet… enrollment is still in drips.
Sometimes a solopreneur does manage to build a significant audience through content — a genuine achievement!
But even then, they may find that enrolling that audience into their programs remain a struggle… because the underlying issue isn’t reach, nor marketing tactics. It’s what the offer is built around.
Where Your Income Comes From:
Your income comes from the spending of your market — what people already invest in, already seek paid help for.
Your income doesn’t come directly from your own excitement, passion, or vision. Your excitement is necessary for your endurance, yes. But your market’s spending is your income. Both essential… but not interchangeable.
What is “Your Market”?
When I say “your market,” I don’t mean everyone on the internet. I mean the spending patterns of the people you are currently able to reach — your network, friends, colleagues, social media followers, email subscribers, people in your communities.
More specifically: your market is the spending patterns, within the area you want to serve, of the people you can reach right now. So it’s not just any spending they do — it’s their spending that’s directly related to, or at least adjacent to, your offering.
An important nuance: “your market” is not just everyone you happen to know — but the people currently in your life are there for a reason. Even if they aren’t the ones who will hire you directly, they may be exactly the kind of people who can connect you to someone who will. Your friend who isn’t looking for coaching may have a colleague who’s been searching for exactly the kind of support you offer. The work is the same either way: discover what the people around you are already investing in — and what the people they know well are investing in — in areas related to what you want to offer.
Prior Buys Predicts Future Buys:
I’m putting this early because it’s one of the most actionable ideas in this post. It tells you exactly what to look for when you research.
It’s a simple principle: if someone has already invested in a certain kind of support, they are far more likely to invest in that kind of support again — even from someone new. For example, the first time someone hires a coach or therapist, they had to overcome an initial resistance barrier, as they’ve been trying to get that kind of support from friends and family for years. However, someone who has already crossed that barrier, and have already hired a coach before meeting you, is far more likely to consider your coaching services too.
This extends to adjacent services too… if someone has hired a coach, they may also be more open to an energy healer, a somatic therapist, a breathwork facilitator, a spiritual mentor. The first yes to these types of services is the hardest. Each one after that? It gets easier.
So when you research your market, this is what you’re looking for: people who already invest monetarily in their transformation, growth, healing, or support. Not people you need to convince from scratch.
Why Excitement and Charisma Aren’t Enough:
Even charismatic solopreneurs with contagious energy face real resistance when the person across from them didn’t already want what’s being offered. People have deep resistance to spending money on something they didn’t want before someone tried to convince (or charm) them.
There’s an exception: some charismatic people — or those in high-energy in-person events or retreats — can generate impulse purchases. But most solopreneurs don’t want to build a business that depends on charming people into buying. It can be exhausting, not sustainable.
I recommend this instead: a financially sustainable practice built on connecting with people who already want the kind of help you offer… rather than one that depends on convincing or charming…
Ease of Enrollment:
Your business becomes sustainable when enrollment feels natural rather than forced. The easiest enrollments happen when someone already wants the kind of support you provide — without persuasion, without pressure, without a performance.
The more naturally someone wants what you offer, the more enrollment feels like a generous invitation rather than a sales pitch. That’s the feeling to aim for.
The Familiar Doorway:
This is one of the most important shifts for soulpreneurs specifically — and it’s where many accidentally make things harder.
The mistake: leading with the name of your modality, method, or framework when your audience doesn’t yet know or care what that modality is. Most people aren’t shopping for a modality. They’re looking for relief. Clarity. Healing. Direction. Presence. Support.
The shift: lead with the problem, desire, or transformation they recognize and already invest in. Then once they enter the doorway, they meet your modality.
So instead of something like “Somatic Recalibration Package,” lead with something more like “Support for overwhelm, shutdown, and nervous-system recovery.” Instead of “Akashic Records Intensive,” lead with “Spiritual clarity for people stuck at a crossroads — career, relationship, or life direction.” Instead of “IFS coaching,” lead with “Thoughtful support for high-achievers who feel burned out and disconnected from themselves.”
Your modality is still how you deliver. But the doorway is the outcome they already want. You’re not hiding your gifts — you’re translating them into language that matches what people already seek and pay for.
Savvy Startup Thinking:
Greg Isenberg, a well-known business mentor in the startup scene, outlines a market-first framework for building businesses. Soulpreneurs don’t need to think like software founders — but his core principles, translated for us, are remarkably useful…
- Map your client’s actual journey. What does their life look like day to day? Where do they struggle, get stuck, or feel pain in the area you serve?
- Notice where they already seek help and spend money. What practitioners, programs, retreats, tools, or books have they invested in? Those are the real signals of what they value enough to pay for.
- Identify recurring friction. What pain or frustration keeps coming back, even after they’ve tried other solutions? Recurring pain is a signal of unmet need — and a potential opening for your unique gifts.
- Shape your offer around that existing desire or pain point. Don’t invent a need. Meet one that already exists, using the skills and modalities you already have.
This empathy-first approach is fundamentally different from the soulpreneur default — believing that your vision, excitement, and presence are enough to generate enrollment. If excitement alone isn’t working, the necessary shift is to move into genuine empathy with the people you wish to serve. Research what they already invest in. It’s how you stop trying to persuade people who aren’t ready and start serving people who already want help.
Practical Application:
Here again is the foundational principle:
Your income comes from the spending of the people you can reach. Your market is their investing patterns in the area of transformation, growth, and healing.
So the action is to research what the people you can reach are already investing — in coaching, healing, personal development, retreats, programs, therapy, spiritual guidance, or adjacent services.
For more about doing this kind of research, read: how to do authentic market discovery.
Start with who you can already reach now. They’re the first and easiest group to learn from.Start with who you can already reach now. They’re the first and easiest group to learn from.
Examples:
- Friends
- Colleagues
- Past clients
- Classmates
- Family members
- Social media connections
Over time, your reach will expand through content, netcaring, collaborations, and word of mouth from simply doing your excellent work.
Once you see the patterns, reframe your skills, passion, and heart into a service or offer that aligns with what’s already there. Lead with the familiar doorway — the outcome or transformation they already seek — and once they walk through the doorway they meet your unique modality. This pathway makes it much easier for them to say yes.
Here’s the compounding advantage: these people already know you. When your offer aligns with something they already invest in, they are much more likely to invest with you.
Your Turn:
If getting paying clients is a top priority for you right now, then don’t lead only with what excites you, but instead, lead with the problem, desire, or transformation people already care enough to invest in — and then bring your excitement, your heart, and your unique gifts into that doorway.
This week, list 10–20 people you can actually reach. Research (or ask) what they’ve recently invested in — coaching, healing, retreats, programs, therapy, personal development — in areas related to your work. Write down the patterns. Then ask yourself: how could I reframe what I offer to fit naturally into those patterns? What familiar doorway could I lead with?
I look forward to hearing whether this helps you 🙏🧡
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