A new lead joins your list, grabs your free guide, and then hears nothing for two weeks. By the time you finally email them, they’ve forgotten who you are. That gap is where most coaching revenue quietly leaks away.
A nurture sequence for coaches fixes this. It’s a short series of emails that runs automatically the moment someone subscribes, building trust day by day until booking a call feels like the obvious next step instead of a cold pitch. This skill writes that whole sequence for you, in your voice, and this page also teaches you the email logic underneath it so you can edit with confidence.
When to use this
- Someone downloaded your lead magnet and you have no follow-up emails set up yet.
- Your current welcome email is a single ‘thanks for subscribing’ and nothing after it.
- You’re launching a new offer and need a sequence that warms cold subscribers toward a call.
- Your list is growing but almost nobody books with you.
- You want to stop writing one-off broadcast emails and automate the first 8 days instead.
The skill
Paste this whole block into a ChatGPT Custom GPT, a Claude Project, or a Gemini Gem (setup steps are below):
ROLE
You are an expert email copywriter and funnel strategist who has written nurture sequences for hundreds of coaches. You write in plain, human language, you understand buyer psychology, and you never use hype or fake urgency.
GOAL
Build a complete lead-nurture email sequence that moves a new subscriber from cold (just joined the list) to warm enough to take ONE action: {{CTA}}. The sequence should build trust first and sell second.
INPUTS I WILL GIVE YOU
- My niche: {{NICHE}}
- How the lead joined my list: {{LEAD_SOURCE}}
- Who the lead is: {{IDEAL_READER}}
- Their core problem: {{CORE_PROBLEM}}
- The paid offer: {{OFFER}}
- The single action each email drives toward: {{CTA}}
- A real result or story I can use: {{PROOF}}
- My tone: {{TONE}}
- Sequence length and timing: {{SEQUENCE_LENGTH}}
PROCESS
1. FIRST, before writing anything, ask me up to 3 clarifying questions ONLY if a required input is missing, vague, or contradictory (for example, no real proof to use, or an unclear offer). If everything is clear, skip the questions and proceed.
2. Map the emotional arc of the sequence across the number of emails I asked for, using this proven structure and adapting it to fit my length:
- Email 1 (immediately): Welcome + deliver/anchor what they signed up for + set expectations. No selling.
- Email 2 (day 1-2): Empathy. Name their core problem better than they can. Show you understand. One small, usable insight. Soft mention of the offer, no push.
- Middle emails: Teach + reframe. Give one valuable idea per email and gently dismantle a common belief that keeps them stuck. Weave in the real proof story.
- Second-to-last email: Make the offer the obvious next step. Connect the problem to the offer. Clear, direct CTA.
- Final email: Direct invitation + light, honest reason to act now (e.g. limited call slots), then a graceful close.
3. Write every email in full. Do not summarize or use placeholders.
OUTPUT FORMAT
For EACH email, output exactly:
- Email number and send timing (e.g. "Email 3 - Day 4")
- Goal of this email (one line)
- Subject line + ONE alternate subject line to A/B test
- Preview/preheader text (under 90 characters)
- Full email body, written in my tone, using short paragraphs and white space
- The call to action, phrased naturally toward: {{CTA}}
After the full sequence, add:
- A short "How to use this" note: which emails to automate, and what to personalize before sending.
RULES
- Trust before the ask. Do not pitch the offer before email 2, and never more than one CTA per email.
- Sound like a human coach, not a marketer. No buzzwords, no 'in today's fast-paced world', no manufactured urgency, no fake scarcity.
- Do not invent statistics, testimonials, or client results. Use ONLY the proof I give you. If you need a result and I gave none, leave a clearly marked [INSERT REAL RESULT] bracket.
- Keep each email between 120 and 250 words.
- Every email must give value on its own, even if the reader never buys.
- Match the count and timing to {{SEQUENCE_LENGTH}} exactly.
How to set it up
This works best as a saved tool you reuse for every offer, not a one-off paste. Here’s how to install it:
- Create the container. In ChatGPT: your name then ‘My GPTs’ then ‘Create a GPT’. In Claude: open Projects and create a new one. In Gemini: create a new Gem.
- Paste the skill. Drop the full block above into the Instructions / Custom instructions field.
- Name it ‘Nurture Sequence Builder’ so it’s easy to find later.
- Run it. Start a chat and give it your real inputs for each variable below.
- Answer its questions, then paste the finished emails into your email platform as an automation.
The variables it expects:
| Variable | What to put | Example |
|---|---|---|
{{NICHE}} |
Your coaching niche | career coaching for mid-career women in tech |
{{LEAD_SOURCE}} |
How they joined your list | downloaded my free ‘Pivot Without Starting Over’ guide |
{{IDEAL_READER}} |
Who the lead is | senior engineers and PMs feeling stuck and burned out |
{{CORE_PROBLEM}} |
Their painful problem | they keep getting passed over and don’t know why |
{{OFFER}} |
The paid offer | a 12-week 1:1 career acceleration program |
{{CTA}} |
The single action each email drives toward | book a free 30-minute career strategy call |
{{PROOF}} |
A real result or story | a client who went from senior engineer to director in 9 months |
{{TONE}} |
How you sound | warm, encouraging, no-fluff |
{{SEQUENCE_LENGTH}} |
Count and timing | 5 emails over 8 days |
See it in action (full example)
Here is the exact set of inputs a career coach pasted after the saved skill. This is the whole input, nothing hidden:
My niche: career coaching for mid-career women in tech
How the lead joined my list: downloaded my free 'Pivot Without Starting Over' guide
Who the lead is: senior engineers and PMs, 32-45, feeling stuck and quietly burned out
Their core problem: they want a bigger role but keep getting passed over for promotion and don't know why
The paid offer: a 12-week 1:1 career acceleration program
The single action each email drives toward: book a free 30-minute career strategy call
A real result I can use: my client Priya went from senior engineer to director in 9 months
My tone: warm, encouraging, no-fluff
Sequence length and timing: 5 emails over 8 days
Because every required input was clear, the model skipped the clarifying questions and returned the complete sequence:
Email 1 – Immediately Goal: Welcome them, deliver the guide, set expectations. No selling.
Subject: Your Pivot guide is inside (plus what to read first) Alt subject: Here’s your guide, Priya-style Preview: The one page to read tonight if you only have five minutes.
Hi {first name},
Your copy of Pivot Without Starting Over is right here: [link].
Quick tip before you dive in. Don’t try to read all 18 pages tonight. Open it, go straight to page 4, and read the section called “The promotion gap nobody explains.” That one page reframes why talented people get stuck, and it’s the thing most of my clients wish they’d seen years earlier.
A bit about me: I’m Maya, and I coach mid-career women in tech who are great at the work but keep watching less-qualified people get promoted past them. Over the next week I’ll send you a few short emails, each with one idea you can actually use. No fluff, no daily spam.
Read page 4. Then hit reply and tell me the single thing about your career that’s bugging you most right now. I read every reply.
Talk soon, Maya
Email 2 – Day 2 Goal: Name their problem better than they can. Build empathy. Soft offer mention.
Subject: “I’m doing everything right and still getting passed over” Alt subject: Why your results aren’t getting you promoted Preview: It’s almost never about working harder.
Hi {first name},
Here’s a sentence I hear almost every week: “I’m doing everything right and I’m still getting passed over.”
If that’s you, I want you to know it’s not a story you’re making up, and it’s not because you’re not good enough. You’re probably very good. That’s exactly the trap.
Strong individual contributors get rewarded for delivery. But promotion to the next level rewards something different: visible influence. The work that gets you promoted is often the work that feels least like “real work” to engineers and PMs, so we avoid it.
Today’s small shift: this week, in one meeting, say the thing you’d normally save for the Slack thread afterward. Out loud. In the room. That’s it.
I help women make this shift deliberately inside my 12-week program, but you don’t need me to start. You just need to be in the room.
More on the “how” in a couple of days.
Maya
Email 3 – Day 4 Goal: Teach and reframe a stuck belief. Weave in the proof story.
Subject: Priya’s 9 months (senior engineer to director) Alt subject: The myth that kept Priya stuck for 3 years Preview: She didn’t get louder. She got specific.
Hi {first name},
The belief that keeps most of my clients stuck is this: “If I just keep delivering great work, someone will eventually notice and promote me.”
It feels fair. It’s also the slowest path there is.
When Priya came to me, she’d been a senior engineer for three years, watching peers move up. She wasn’t doing anything wrong. She was just invisible above her manager’s level.
We changed three things: she started framing her work in terms of business impact, she made her ambitions explicit to her skip-level, and she stopped waiting to be “ready.” Nine months later she was a director.
Nothing about Priya’s talent changed. Her visibility did.
If you want a clear read on what’s actually blocking your next level, that’s exactly what we map out on a free 30-minute career strategy call. No pitch, just a plan. Grab a time here: [link].
Maya
Email 4 – Day 6 Goal: Make the offer the obvious next step. Connect problem to offer. Direct CTA.
Subject: What 12 weeks of this actually looks like Alt subject: From “stuck” to a plan, in one quarter Preview: Here’s how the program works, plainly.
Hi {first name},
Over the last few emails we’ve covered why great work alone doesn’t get you promoted, and what shifts the picture: visibility, explicit ambition, and acting before you feel ready.
Doing that alone is possible. It’s also slow and lonely, which is why I built my 12-week 1:1 program.
Here’s what it is, plainly. Twelve weeks, one private session a week, plus a clear plan we build in week one: the roles you’re targeting, the people who need to see your work, and the specific conversations that move you up. You’ll also have me on call between sessions for the high-stakes moments (the skip-level meeting, the negotiation, the “do I take this offer” decision).
It’s not a course you watch. It’s me, in your corner, every week.
The best way to find out if it fits is a free 30-minute strategy call. We’ll map your situation and you’ll leave with next steps whether or not you join. Book a time here: [link].
Maya
Email 5 – Day 8 Goal: Direct invitation with an honest reason to act now. Graceful close.
Subject: I take on 4 clients a quarter (a heads up) Alt subject: Last note about the strategy call Preview: No pressure, just being straight with you.
Hi {first name},
This is the last email in this little series, so I’ll be direct.
Because the program is 1:1, I only take on four new clients each quarter, and I’m currently booking strategy calls for the next round. When those four spots are filled, the calendar closes until the following quarter.
That’s not a fake countdown. It’s just how a 1:1 calendar works.
So if anything in these emails landed, the move that costs you nothing is the call. Thirty minutes, we map what’s actually blocking your next level, and you walk away with a plan whether you ever work with me or not.
Book your free strategy call here: [link].
And if now isn’t the time, no problem at all. Stay on the list, keep replying, and I’ll keep sending ideas worth your inbox.
Cheering you on, Maya
How to use this Automate emails 1-5 in your email tool as a sequence triggered by the guide download. Personalize the first name token and the [link] placeholders (your booking page). Before sending, swap in your real booking link and double-check Priya’s story matches what you’ve actually agreed to share. Emails 3, 4, and 5 are the ones to revisit after 30 days; if call bookings are low, test the alternate subject lines first.
That is a sequence you could load into ConvertKit this afternoon. A few minutes swapping in your real links and it’s live.
Why this works
The skill produces a good sequence because of a few deliberate choices in how it’s written. Learn these and you’ll write sharper instructions for any task:
- Role priming sets the quality bar. The opening line (‘You are an expert email copywriter and funnel strategist who has written nurture sequences for hundreds of coaches’) tells the model which part of its training to reach for. ‘Write me some emails’ pulls the bland average of the internet. Naming an expert role pulls the good stuff, and adding ‘never uses hype or fake urgency’ steers it away from the spammy voice most AI defaults to.
- Specificity in, specificity out. The output is only as good as the inputs. A vague problem (‘they want to grow’) produces vague emails. A concrete one (‘they keep getting passed over for promotion and don’t know why’) gives the model something true to write toward. Your
{{CORE_PROBLEM}}and{{PROOF}}are the two inputs that most decide whether the result sounds real. - Constraints are quality control. The rules aren’t decoration; each one kills a known failure mode. ‘No pitch before email 2’ stops the model from selling too early. ‘Use ONLY the proof I give you, or leave an [INSERT REAL RESULT] bracket’ stops it from inventing fake testimonials, the single most dangerous AI habit in marketing copy. The word counts keep emails skimmable. Telling the model what NOT to do is as powerful as telling it what to do.
- A clarifying-questions gate prevents garbage. The instruction to ‘ask up to 3 clarifying questions ONLY if an input is missing or contradictory’ lets the model fill gaps by asking instead of guessing. Guessing is where generic, off-brand copy comes from. This one mechanism is the biggest single upgrade you can add to almost any prompt.
Do this now
- Save the skill as a Custom GPT, Claude Project, or Gemini Gem using the setup steps above.
- Write down your real answers to the nine inputs, especially one true client result for
{{PROOF}}. - Run it, answer any clarifying questions honestly, and read the sequence out loud once to catch anything that doesn’t sound like you.
- Paste the emails into your email tool as an automation triggered by your lead magnet, and turn it on today.
Pro tips
- Give it a real proof story. One true client outcome does more for trust than ten clever subject lines. If you don’t have one yet, use the [INSERT REAL RESULT] bracket and fill it the moment you do.
- Run it once per offer, not once forever. Generate a separate sequence for each lead magnet and offer. A guide about salary negotiation should not feed the same emails as a guide about burnout.
- A/B test the subject lines it gives you. Every email comes with an alternate. Test the second-to-last and final emails first, since those drive the most bookings.
- Edit email 1 by hand. The welcome email gets opened the most. Spend five minutes making the first two lines unmistakably yours, then let the automation carry the rest.
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