What would you do for 1,000 leads in 7 days? Robin Waite shares the one-page business plan and how one podcast generated £250,000 in new business.
If you had to generate 1,000 leads in seven days or face serious consequences, what would you do? Most business owners can answer that question - they just aren't doing any of it. In this episode of the Healthy Entrepreneur Podcast, host Freddie Pullen sits down with business coach Robin Waite to break down how to build a business on "easy mode." They cover why 90% of what you need to learn comes from selling something, the one-page business plan that reveals your true price, and how one strategic partnership generated £250,000 from a single podcast appearance. This article breaks down their conversation into practical steps for coaches, consultants, and freelancers who want to stop overcomplicating their path to clients.
Most business owners intellectualise everything before starting. Research, planning, website building, branding, social media setup - all the things experts say you should do before launching. Robin takes the opposite view. If you've got an idea for a business, that's really just a hypothesis. Rather than getting lost in preparation, go to market and see if anybody wants the thing. Only two things can really go wrong: you look a bit dumb to friends and family, or you lose some money. Both are recoverable. You can get a job or stop talking to embarrassed relatives.
During his agency days, Robin had a three-month logo design process - what he calls "design agency ping-pong." Back and forth, revisions, composites. Billing around £500 for 10-12 hours of creative work. One day, a client walked in needing a logo by Monday. It was Tuesday. Robin's instinct was to refuse - impossible timeline. But the client pushed: "You're a smart guy. You must be able to do something." Robin pitched an idea: get the client, a designer, and himself in a room on Thursday. Bash through the entire seven-step process in one day. The client asked: "How much?" Robin's only reference was £50/hour for a day's work. But the client wanted it fast. Remember the time-quality-cost triangle - fast and good means expensive. He blurted out: "£1,500." The client said yes without hesitation. Then asked for bank details to transfer immediately.
Three weeks later, Robin's sales mentor called. Could he do a one-day branding workshop in York tomorrow? Robin lived in the Cotswolds - £1,500 to travel north seemed pointless. He declined. Five minutes later, the mentor called back: "You're going to want to do this. I've booked you for £18,000." Robin was already in the car. That single evolution - from £500 over three months to £18,000 in one day - opened his eyes to packaging, value articulation, and selling concepts rather than hours.
Robin walks through a simple framework that reveals whether your business model actually works.
Most business owners fill their diary with client work, then marketing, then scramble when someone wants a consultation. Robin recommends the opposite. Put two empty consultation slots into your default diary first. They're sacred - nothing gets booked over them. The goal shifts from "do some marketing" to "fill these two slots this week." If each slot needs 8-10 warm conversations to fill, you need roughly 1,000 leads annually. Which brings Robin to his favourite challenge.
If you had to get 1,000 leads in seven days - or face serious consequences - what would you do? Most people can answer immediately: cold outreach, email, LinkedIn, phone calls, in-person meetings, asking everyone they know. Robin's follow-up question: how long into your business was it before you started doing any of that? The gap between what we'd do under pressure and what we actually do reveals our problem. We want things to be easy. We avoid the hard work. Then we wonder why we're not getting traction.
Robin demonstrates a technique for finding your true price point. The conversation goes something like this: You've sold at £5,000 before. Your coach suggests that's too cheap - you could potentially charge £25,000. That's a bandwidth of 20,000 numbers in between. Rather than binary thinking (cheap or expensive), Robin tests the range: "6K, 7.5K, 9K..." At some point, body language shifts. In Freddie's case, 7.5K felt inside the comfort zone; 9K felt just outside.
Robin's challenge: pitch the next 10 people at £9,000. That's an 80% price increase discovered in seconds by getting out of your head and into your gut. Why 10 people? Because clients are like buses - with a one-in-five conversion rate, you're looking for two yeses. Often it's client nine and ten who say yes. You have to get through the rejection unless luck strikes early. Robin makes a bet with clients: if you pitch 10 people and sell none, he'll be their first customer. He's that confident in the process.
Freddie asks about price anchoring - offering bronze, silver, and platinum packages to make the middle option attractive. Robin's response is uncomfortable but important: which package gets the client the best results? If it's the most expensive one, it's unethical to sell the cheaper options to qualified clients. If someone needs the platinum package to achieve their goals, offering bronze does them a disservice. When clients ask for the cheaper option, Robin suggests responding: "Which part of the result don't you want?"
By the end of 2022, Robin was burnt out. He'd spent 20-30 hours weekly on short and long-form content, LinkedIn posting, email newsletters - everything the marketing gurus recommended. He'd even hired someone for a year to run his videos and social accounts. When they tracked results from all that activity: zero clients. Great for personal brand, literally zero attributable sales. His actual client sources? Books, speaking, and podcasting. Those three consistently worked.
Robin built relationships with Ali Abdaal's team. He coached several team members - for free, because they were fun people to work with. He never asked for anything. Eventually, one team member asked: "What can I do for you?" Robin's response was careful. He didn't ask to be on the podcast - too direct. Instead: "Ali's got 24 guests booked. If one cancels, put me on the subs bench." 24 hours later, someone cancelled. Robin got the call. That interview got 300,000 views. More importantly, over the following 12 months, it generated 3,000 leads and approximately £250,000 in new business - from two hours of work. The key insight: the timing of the ask, who you ask, and the size of the ask all matter. If Robin had directly requested the podcast spot, he probably wouldn't have got it.
Days 1-14 - Foundation: Run the one-page business plan. Set your revenue target, calculate clients needed, verify capacity. Put sacred consultation slots into your diary.
Days 15-45 - Market Testing: Go to where your ideal clients hang out. Pitch your offer to at least 10 qualified prospects. Use the pricing auction to find your edge.
Days 46-90 - Credibility Building: Gather social proof from your first clients. Write your list of 10 dream partnerships. Start showing up in their world, giving value without asking.
"I need to build my website/brand first." Robin sold an £18,000 workshop from a concept in his head - no website, no brochure. Productise your service, articulate the value, and test the market.
"Partnerships take too long." Robin spent 20-30 hours weekly on social media for zero clients. One partnership generated £250,000. The long game is the shortcut.
Building a business on easy mode doesn't mean avoiding work - it means doing the right work. Selling before building, testing prices in real conversations, and investing in partnerships that compound over years. Robin's final advice: "I would always rather know whether it's going to work or not. I don't care, but I want to know." Take your shot. What's the worst that can happen?
Robin is restocking signed copies of Take Your Shot. Visit fearless.biz/tys to claim yours.Connect with Robin on YouTube or learn more at robinwaite.com.
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This Scorecard has been designed to show Coaches, Consultants and Freelancers their blind spots and provide instant, actionable steps on how to increase their prices.
