When Progress Begins To Feel Invisible

There is a phase in building a coaching business — or any meaningful piece of work — that few people prepare you for.

It’s the phase where you are showing up, doing the work, staying consistent… and yet the results don’t seem to reflect the effort you’re putting in.

From the outside, it can look like nothing is happening.

But that is rarely the truth.

Most coaches and creators encounter this stage at some point. You continue posting content, refining your offers, speaking to potential clients, improving your skills — and still, the momentum you expected hasn’t quite materialised...yet.

It can be quietly unsettling.

Particularly in a world where we are constantly exposed to announcements of six-figure launches, fully booked programmes, and overnight success stories. It is all too easy to look sideways and wonder whether you are further behind than you “should” be.

Yet what often goes unseen during this period is the amount of growth taking place beneath the surface.

• Your voice is becoming clearer.
• Your message is becoming sharper.
• Your confidence is stabilising.
• Your reputation is beginning to form — often long before enquiries arrive.
• Invisible growth is still growth.

In fact, many sustainable businesses are built during seasons that feel, at the time, remarkably unremarkable.

The real danger in this phase is not failure.

It is premature withdrawal.

People abandon good work not because it wasn’t working, but because it wasn’t working fast enough. Others pivot repeatedly, chasing the illusion of a quicker path, never quite staying anywhere long enough for momentum to build.

Of course, persistence alone is not a strategy. From time to time, it is wise to step back and ask whether your efforts are aligned with where you want to go. But there is a meaningful difference between making a thoughtful adjustment and stepping away just as something is beginning to take root.

So if things feel slower than you would like right now, consider asking yourself a simple question:

Is this truly not working… or has it simply not worked yet?

Because building anything of substance — a business, a reputation, a body of work — asks more of us than enthusiasm. It asks for patience. For consistency. For a willingness to continue, even when the evidence of progress is not immediately visible.

Stay in the work a little longer than feels comfortable.

Very often, the results arrive shortly after most people would have stepped away.

And if this resonates with you, I’d genuinely be interested to know — where does your progress currently feel invisible?

Let me know in the comments box below.