Strategy Audit · Michael Paul Mottola
34,600 followers, under 30 likes a post. Here’s what was actually broken.
Michael had the story every coach in his niche wishes they had: 100 lbs lost, 12 years sober. The audience was already there. The engagement, the formats and the funnel were not. This audit names the gaps and hands over a 90-day plan to close them.
Client
Michael Paul Mottola
Niche
Men’s health, sobriety & mindset
My role
Social media audit, content & sales strategy
0.1%
Engagement, against a 1–3% standard
4
Content pillars defined
90
Day plan to first paying clients
The Audit
A big audience that had gone quiet.
The strengths were real: a verified account, a high-demand niche, punchy captions, and keyword CTAs like “DM TRUST” that already pulled in leads. His best post worked for obvious reasons, raw vulnerability, a relatable pain point, and one clear instruction.
Everything around it was the problem. Engagement sat near 0.1% against an industry standard of 1–3%. Almost every post was a talking-head video, with no carousels or educational formats. Comments were rare, so the audience stayed passive instead of becoming a community.
And there was no funnel. No offer stated, no booking link, no story highlights doing any work. The keyword CTA dropped people into a cold DM with nothing to buy at the end of it.
Strategy & Execution
Four pillars, one video formula, and a funnel that ends somewhere.
01
Four content pillars
Personal story and sobriety to build trust. Identity and mindset to spark comments. Practical habits to attract new viewers. Transformation and results to drive DMs.
02
A repeatable video formula
Three seconds of pain-point hook, forty seconds of raw unscripted value, five seconds of one clear instruction, plus a bank of hooks written in his own voice.
03
A weekly calendar
Monday story, Tuesday carousel, Thursday fitness, Saturday opinion or Q&A, Sunday rest. Format variety built into the schedule instead of decided on the day.
04
A five-stage funnel
Awareness through reels, interest through carousels, desire through transformation posts, action through the keyword CTA, and a close on a booked discovery call.
05
An offer ladder
A 90-day one-to-one coaching programme as the core offer, a monthly group membership beneath it, a low-cost entry product, and a free guide to warm a cold audience.
06
A DM script that closes
Open with their struggle, connect it to his own story, then offer the programme and the call. Written line by line so it can be used the day it lands.
The 90-Day Plan
Foundation, growth, then revenue.
→
Days 1–30: define the offer and its price, rewrite the bio around it, build a 30-day calendar on the four pillars, and test 5–8 hooks to see which earn views and saves.
→
Days 31–60: double down on what worked, launch a lead magnet, publish the first carousels, reply to every comment, and put a small boost behind the best post.
→
Days 61–90: announce the programme, share the first testimonial, run the full DM funnel, go live, and track calls booked and DM conversion every week.
→
The target for the quarter: the first three to five paying coaching clients.
The story was powerful and the niche was in demand. The gap was engagement, format variety and a path to buy. The audience already existed; they just needed a reason and somewhere to go.
Taimur Ali · Content Strategist
Plenty of followers, not enough clients?
That is usually a funnel problem wearing a content costume. I’ll tell you which one you have.
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