Coffee With Cole: The Digital Writing Podcast

Episode: Why Commitment Beats Ideas in Business Growth
Host: Nicolas Cole
Date: September 15, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode of Coffee With Cole centers on practical strategies and mindset shifts for business growth in digital writing, ghostwriting, and self-publishing. Cole tackles real questions from community members, exploring why commitment and skill development trump “big ideas” in business success. Through interactive hot seats and live case studies, Cole dissects effective outreach, the importance of focusing on problem-solving, pricing and client selection, operational scaling, and balancing creative fulfillment with revenue.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. How to Move From Friendly Conversations to Closing Sales

Timestamps: 02:38–07:09

• Many struggle with guiding warm leads into actionable sales conversations.
• Cole breaks down the misconception of a hard line between “building rapport” and “doing sales.”
  • Quote:
    “There is no imaginary line or wall where you're not doing sales and then you are doing sales. Sales, you should think of it like you are always doing sales because you are never doing sales.” – Cole [03:20]
• The real process:
  1. Identify a small part of the client’s problem.
  2. Educate continually and specifically on that problem.
  3. Build trust through helpfulness and expertise.
  4. Clients will organically ask, “Is this what you do?” once they understand the problem deeply.
• Most people stop too soon or don’t dig deep enough into specifics.

2. The Skill Gap Between Outreach and Closing

Timestamps: 07:23–11:12

• If people aren't asking about your services, it's usually because you haven’t sufficiently educated or intrigued them—not because of their lack of interest.
• Do real research and go the extra mile for prospects, even “for free,” to practice and build mastery.
  • Quote:
    “Your effort is never a waste. Every single person is an opportunity for you to keep building the skill.” – Cole [10:33]
• Sample outreach: auditing funnels, showing missed CTAs, writing example emails, or sending a Loom video, prioritizing those who engage but not neglecting others if you have the bandwidth.

3. Outreach Strategy: Quality > Quantity

Timestamps: 12:07–14:31

• Don’t automate surface-level pitches to thousands. Instead, pour real effort into a tiny number you can help deeply.
  • Quote:
    “You would way rather spend an hour pitching one specific person that you genuinely feel like you could help, than spending an hour writing up some chicken scratch and finding an email automation to send to 10,000 people ... The underlying thing that is holding you back is that you still have a skill gap in terms of being able to articulate someone's problem.” – Cole [12:23]
• The leverage in outreach comes from your ability to articulate and surface the client’s unique problem.

4. Optimizing Client Slots: Pricing, Client Selection & Workload

Timestamps: 14:34–20:03

• When offering similar services to multiple clients, but some require more effort, observe these patterns to decide which prospects to accept in the future.

• Maximize your business by taking clients who:

  1. Pay most.
  2. Have familiar/easy subject matter.
  3. Are easy personalities.

• Develop a decision matrix and learn to say “no” to difficult clients, leaving space for higher-leverage clients.

  • Quote:
    “Congratulations. You don't have this problem in the beginning—this is a problem you grow into... Now it is about building the skill of saying no to certain clients.” – Cole [17:39]

5. When & How to Hire: Systems Before People

Timestamps: 20:03–24:32

• Don’t hire until you’ve productized your tasks with clear, step-by-step SOPs, leaving no room for misinterpretation.
• Think in percentages: business spending should not exceed more than 20% of revenue.
  • Quote:
    “Before you hire someone, anchor to what are the specific tasks I need help with, create an extraordinarily tangible SOP—literally to the point where … there is no room for interpretation.” – Cole [21:16]

6. Productizing & Naming Offers (the “Talent Magnet” example)

Timestamps: 29:05–35:24

• Don’t overthink “Trojan horse” offers or complicated funnels.
• Zero in on what you do best and build a business around that—naming and claiming ideas gives you a hook that the market responds to.
  • Quote:
    “Talent Magnet is amazing ... You could build an entire business around just building talent magnets for companies that want to attract talent.” – Cole [31:54]
• Audits are best used as free lead-in assets, not the core offer.

7. Content Auditing and Up-Leveling Writing Craft

Timestamps: 36:36–46:24

• When reviewing content, focus on:

  1. The type of content.
  2. The hook.
  3. The main points.

• Eliminate subjective or generic terms from hooks (“turn around,” “better”)—be ultra-specific and concrete for impact.

  • Quote:
    “Literally, this ‘turn their profile around’—those four words could be the difference between this post getting five likes and getting 5,000 likes ... Go for tangible, objective language.” – Cole [42:04]

• Write against the grain by listing overused ideas, then challenging yourself not to use them.

• Memorable exercise:

  • “The craft of writing is, make a list of all the things everyone else has already said. Now you can’t say any of them. Now what do you say?” – Cole [45:12]

8. Purpose, Fulfillment, and Business Building

Timestamps: 48:04–54:27

• It's normal to feel tension between “work for revenue” and “work for fulfillment.”

• Cole shares his own decade-long journey: pausing on fiction writing to master the business and only now returning to his creative passions.

  • Quote:
    “I made a conscious decision ... to give up writing for fulfillment and purpose to figure out how to make money first. Because once I figure out how to make money, I will have all the time and energy and resources to write whatever I want.” – Cole [52:42]

• Honest talk: sometimes you must set aside passion projects to focus on market-driven work.

9. Niching Down & Branding (The Constellation Effect)

Timestamps: 56:08–59:48

• Serving various clients is fine, but publicly “lead with” a focused specialty—this focuses your marketing while still allowing for organic expansion to adjacent “constellation” niches.
  • Quote:
    “The more you can commit to one direction, the faster you will move in that direction.” – Cole [56:19]
• Aim for highly specific content and value posts that reinforce your stated niche.

10. Navigating Internal Team Politics

Timestamps: 62:56–67:29

• When internal staff feel threatened by an external hire (like a ghostwriter or strategist), always frame yourself as an ally who can make their work easier, not a threat.
  • Quote:
    “You always want to frame it as, ‘I am your friend, I am not your enemy. I am additive, not subtractive.’” – Cole [63:43]
• Use “sandwich feedback” (positives, then suggested improvements, then more praise/support).
• Ultimately, don’t get emotionally embroiled in company politics—focus on being additive and leave final decisions to the internal team.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Skill Gaps:
  “Your effort is never a waste. Every single person is an opportunity for you to keep building the skill.” [10:33]

• On Commitment:
  “The more you can commit to one direction, the faster you will move in that direction.” [56:19]

• On outreach quality:
  “You want to do the complete opposite [of blasting emails]. It’s a skill gap issue, not a quantity problem.” [12:23]

• On offer creation:
  “Naming and claiming ideas and saying things in ways that haven’t been said before—that’s the game.” [45:55]

Actionable Takeaways & Next Steps

• In outreach: Prioritize detailed, researched outreach that educates prospects about their problem; quality trumps quantity.
• In sales: Focus on surfacing and articulating specific client problems, build trust by over-delivering.
• In pricing/services: Regularly audit your client roster for effort vs. reward; don’t take difficult clients if easier/higher-paying ones are available.
• In content: Ditch generic hooks and advice—push for specificity and originality; name your frameworks.
• In business building: Master the necessary skills for revenue now; creative work can follow once stability is achieved.
• In internal politics: Always position yourself as a value-add to the client’s current team.

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:38] Moving warm conversations into sales
• [07:23] Skill gap in closing leads
• [12:07] Quality over quantity in outreach
• [14:34] Optimizing client slots and pricing
• [20:03] Hiring: systems before people
• [29:05] Naming offers (“Talent Magnet”)
• [36:36] Auditing and improving content
• [48:04] Balancing fulfillment and revenue
• [56:08] Niching your brand
• [62:56] Internal team politics and value framing

Closing Thoughts

Cole repeatedly emphasizes that true business growth doesn't come from chasing the next big idea, but from deep commitment to skill development, the willingness to do the hard (often unglamorous) work, and an unrelenting focus on clearly articulating and solving client problems. Whether you're scaling, niche-building, or just figuring out your offer, this episode packs actionable advice and inspiration for digital writers and solo entrepreneurs.

“Just pick one of these and implement them.” – Cole [End]