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She Makes $1M a Month: The Strategy That Changed EVERYTHING — Transcript

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0:00I went from making $63 in one year to
0:02over $22 million. And I realized that
0:05most [music] entrepreneurs have no idea
0:06the actual problem they need to be
0:08solving in their business. They think
0:09they need more leads. They think they
0:10need [music] more sales. They think they
0:11need more marketing. They don't. They
0:12actually need more, which is what I
0:14teach my students to do. So, this is the
0:15funnel that's made me $22 million. Meet
0:18Maria Went, business expert and
0:20mastermind [music] behind one of the
0:21biggest digital product empires in the
0:23game. And today, she's going to reveal
0:25her money-making secrets. I would
0:26disagree that you should focus on
0:27organic first. I tell people if you've
0:29made $1 in your business, it's time to
0:30run [music] ads. But it's not so much
0:32about the ad itself. It's what comes
0:34right after the ad. So what we do with
0:35our [music] ads, the ones that get us
0:37sales right away is and the exact
0:39playbook she would use to grow any
0:41brand. How do you figure out pricing? So
0:43we actually have a pricing formula
0:44[music] that we teach our students. I'll
0:45just tell you the price points that are
0:46good and the price points to avoid.
0:47Wait, slow down. Hold on. Hold on. The
0:49thing that got me to a million dollars
0:51was I followed the rule of the five
0:52ones. So you solve one problem for one
0:54target market with one [music] offer and
0:56the next one was a game changer for us.
0:58This is if you do that, you know how to
1:00turn a cold person into a paying
1:02customer in 2 minutes. [music] You're
1:04unstoppable. My brain is like processing
1:06all this. This is crazy. When I first
1:07became a single mom, I was running a
1:09sevenf figureure business, but [music]
1:10it was messy. I was on Zoom calls for 8
1:11hours a day. I got to the point where
1:13I'm like, I don't even care if I'm not
1:14making seven figures anymore. I just
1:16want to figure out my bare bones and
1:17I'll just let the rest go. But then
1:19[music] I realized, what if I what?
1:21Ironically, in the second month, we hit
1:24$80,000. And then I did like $200,000 2
1:26months later. And then I had my first
1:27million dollar month in December of last
1:29year. So, if I wanted to 10x my
1:31business, [music] this is exactly what I
1:33would do.
1:35On this channel, we like to help make
1:37dreams come true. We're currently in
1:38post-production, but we're also getting
1:40back to comments and to dreams that we
1:41feel like that we may be able to help
1:43out with. Whether it's guiding you,
1:44connecting you with mentors, some of
1:46them have even been able to quit their
1:47jobs and actually go forward with their
1:49dream. We have seen some great results.
1:51So, if you currently need help in your
1:53dream in a big or small way, let us know
1:55in the comments. Make sure you're
1:57subscribed and you might just hear from
1:59us. Let's get back to the video. Roy, do
2:01you have a dream?
2:01>> I do.
2:02>> Don't say I do. Say subscribe. Roy, do
2:03you have a dream?
2:04>> I do. It's um
2:06>> for you to subscribe.
2:07>> Oh,
2:08>> because I sent you
2:11>> Roy, do you have a dream?
2:13>> Yes. For someone to subscribe after hear
2:15me subscribe.
2:17I I do.
2:18>> Oh my god. Don't say I. [music]
2:29>> Maria, what do you think is the most
2:31expensive mistake an entrepreneur can
2:33make when trying to grow? The biggest
2:34mistake that entrepreneurs make is they
2:36build a business that they work for
2:38versus a business that works for them.
2:40And here's what I mean by that. When I
2:42first became a single mom, I was running
2:43a sevenf figureure business, but it was
2:44messy and it was it was I was on Zoom
2:46calls for eight hours a day. My life was
2:48such a show in other areas that I
2:50finally had the bravery and the courage
2:51to confront reality. And that's when I
2:54got ruthless and made the decisions that
2:55needed to be made, the cuts that needed
2:57to be made, the firings that needed to
2:59happen, the restructuring that needed to
3:01happen, which then it scaled to eight
3:03figures automatically.
3:04>> Yeah. I mean, you're prioritizing
3:06simplicity, right?
3:06>> Yes. I find a lot of entrepreneurs are
3:08working very hard. They're putting 16
3:10hours a day in. I don't put 16 hours a
3:12day in at all. And yet, I pay myself
3:15like $500,000 personally a month. And
3:17I'm only working on Tuesdays and
3:18Fridays. And so, for me, a successful
3:20business is one that requires no
3:22compromise on the financial goals and no
3:24compromise on the time freedom goals.
3:27It's I don't know why this reminded me
3:28of a meme. I don't know if you've seen
3:30that meme. They're just like, I quit my
3:319 to5 and now I work 247.
3:34>> Yes. Yes. Or the ones where it's like
3:35entrepreneurs will work 80 hours a week
3:37for themselves so they don't have to
3:38work 40 hours a week for somebody else.
3:40We glorify the hustle so unnecessarily.
3:43You don't need to work 16 hours a day in
3:45order to make a ton of money. You are
3:47working hard and that's great. But
3:48imagine how much more money you could
3:50make if you put that same energy towards
3:51actually building a system that worked
3:52for you, which is what I teach my
3:54students to do. And so the goal is not
3:56for you to work for your business. It's
3:57for your business to work for you. Like
3:59what is it really that's getting people
4:00stuck in that? Why are so many of us
4:02making this mistake? I think one, they
4:04don't ask, am I building the business
4:06that I actually want? A business that's
4:07actually going to give me freedom. You
4:09know, you get a client and you're kind
4:10of excited, but you also have a sinking
4:11feeling in your stomach because you're
4:13like, "Oh, damn. Now I got to go
4:14deliver. Now I got to go get this client
4:15this result." That's a sign that
4:17something's off, something's not
4:18aligned. If you hear of a marketing
4:21strategy and you're like, I'm going to
4:22try that, but it feels heavy. There's a
4:24subconscious sabotage that's happening
4:26and it's going to prevent you from
4:27scaling. And so, when I have my people
4:29come in, I help a lot of businesses
4:30scale. We look at all the things they're
4:32doing and so often they don't allow
4:34themselves to grow because they
4:36inherently deep down know if I grow it's
4:39just going to be more of the I
4:40don't like. What is really the key to
4:42actually unlocking what you have figured
4:44out? That's such a good question. We
4:47like to feel like we're the saviors of
4:48our business and that we have to come up
4:50with the ideas and we have to and it's
4:52like it's so humbling when it's like no
4:54dude the thing that I do is have one
4:56link that's sent automatically.
4:57>> That's what Yeah.
4:58>> It's kind of a bummer. It's like a buzz
4:59kill. I was like, "Nope, it's really
5:00simple, but like my ego is hurt by that.
5:02I would love to show you something sexy,
5:04but I don't have something sexy except
5:06the millions of dollars in my bank
5:07account. That's sexy."
5:08>> So, is there a system in the early days
5:09that like really helped your business
5:11that you would recommend?
5:12>> I had no idea what to do as a new
5:13entrepreneur. I made $63 in my first
5:15year. So, it took me a year to make $63
5:17and then another year to make $350. So,
5:20I was really bad at knowing what to do
5:23to make money as a new entrepreneur. And
5:26the thing that changed for me, if you
5:27look at my revenue year by year, you'll
5:28see a year where it's like, "Oh, Maria
5:30figured something out because now she
5:31made like whatever it was, like $10,000
5:32or $20,000 in the year." So, it was a
5:34big difference in in one of those years.
5:36And so, what I found is that we need to
5:38really identify the few things that are
5:40actually making us money. It's like one
5:42or two things and stop doing 80 to 90%
5:45of what you're currently doing. And so,
5:46a big part of what I try to do is have
5:48entrepreneurs examine where our time is
5:50going. So, it's like a time audit. It's
5:52tedious. A good time audit is tedious
5:54because you're really paying attention
5:56to the minutiae of where your time is
5:58going and then we just start asking is
6:00this direct thing making us money and
6:03have the courage because it takes
6:04courage to cut off all the 80 to 90%
6:07that isn't actually making you money. So
6:09I only do something if it makes me money
6:10now and then what I learned is that I
6:12needed to prioritize income generating
6:15activities the things in my business
6:17that were going to actually make me
6:18money. And so for me, what I did was
6:22book two sales calls every single day.
6:24And on those sales calls, I would sell
6:25website design, logo design, like logos
6:27by Maria. That's what I would do. But
6:30sometimes we over glorify systems as
6:33automations or these massive complicated
6:36things. But I like to think of systems
6:38as just anything that I can do on a
6:40regular basis that's going to get me
6:42closer to the money. I'm not running a
6:43business to be a hobby. I'm in business
6:45to make money. And so when I look at a
6:47system, I look at something, a
6:48structure, you know, it can be an
6:50automation, it can be a process, but
6:52just things like step one, step two,
6:54steps, threes, those are I think about
6:55recipes that are going to get me closer
6:57to the almighty dollar. That's what I
6:58care about. That's what I want to do.
7:00And so for me as a new entrepreneur,
7:01just the concept of, okay, every day
7:03before I do anything else in my
7:05business, before I reply to client
7:06emails, before I do anything, I'm going
7:08to sit down and I'm going to book two
7:10sales calls for myself. and I'm not
7:12going to do any other work in my
7:13business until those two sales calls
7:15have been booked. That's what jump
7:16started my revenue because I finally had
7:18latched on to something practical that I
7:20could do every day in order to make
7:21money. And sometimes it really is that
7:23simple. Speaking of sales, I just want
7:25to say that
7:27what do I want to say? Let go.
7:29>> What? [laughter]
7:31>> This episode is sponsored by Tiff.
7:33>> What?
7:34>> Good guess Tiff Granola, the world's
7:36best AI notepad for backto-back
7:37meetings.
7:38>> Are we actually using this?
7:39>> I mean, yeah. This is where I thought
7:40that the sales thing cuz we could show
7:41you utilize Granola for the sales calls,
7:43right? It takes the notes for you and
7:45then you're able to send follow-up
7:46emails.
7:46>> Granola doesn't want to hear about our
7:49sales process.
7:50>> What do they want to see?
7:50>> Uh, let's check the meeting notes.
7:52>> Oh, I'm going to pull up Granola. What
7:55did Granola want? Okay, they wanted us
7:58to talk about the what did I miss
7:59feature, the fact that it's transcribing
8:01everything and then live while you're in
8:03the meeting, you can ask it questions.
8:05Oh, and also the speaker designations,
8:08like who's saying what and
8:09>> Oh, yeah. Like, yeah,
8:12>> save that. And then the Apple Watch. So,
8:15what do we do with the Apple Watch?
8:16>> That's pretty easy. I have a lot of
8:19footage of you using the Apple Watch.
8:21Sometimes I think you talk to your mom,
8:22but it's granola.
8:23>> We've been on multiple walks and you're
8:24just on your own.
8:26>> I've never done that.
8:28>> The first thing that they should see is
8:30what the actual day is going to look
8:33like. I Okay, you guys are acting like
8:35I'm literally always on it. Like I'm I'm
8:37not [laughter]
8:38Are we filming for real?
8:39>> Just reapply my makeup. I'll be right
8:41back.
8:43>> Definitely take it away before she comes
8:45back. All right, guys. Click the link in
8:47the description for 1 month of Granola
8:49for free. I promise you will not regret
8:51it. I feel like a jingle would be good
8:53with that.
8:59[laughter]
9:00>> Are we ready?
9:01>> I'm rolling already. So, what do I say?
9:04>> Back to the video.
9:06>> Back to the You want to start with back
9:07to the video
9:08>> and then just go, right?
9:09>> Like and subscribe.
9:11>> I totally hear you. And I feel like the
9:12thing is like my I'm going to just like
9:14give you the the thing that I know that
9:16if I were listening, I would be like,
9:17"Oh, but I have to make the thing that
9:19I'm selling, right?" But then also, I
9:21have to balance that with the sales. And
9:22I feel like that seesaw you end up
9:25obviously naturally once you get the
9:27client, you are focusing on servicing
9:29them and all of that that you forget
9:31about sales, right? It's like I know
9:32that's important, but like in the moment
9:34I forget about it.
9:34>> But it's a classic mistake that so many
9:36entrepreneurs make, and this is what I
9:37try to teach my students. Even if other
9:39parts of the business are on fire, are
9:41burning, you do the thing that makes
9:43money first. So, using your podcast as
9:46an example, if you've decided that
9:47sponsorships are the way that's going to
9:49make you the most money, I don't care if
9:51you have an episode due in two days, you
9:53sit down and you do whatever you decided
9:55was your sponsorship work first. and to
9:57hell with everything else. In that
9:58moment, the only thing that you're
9:59worried about is the sponsorship emails
10:01or reach outs or whatever it is. If you
10:03don't do that, you're forever stuck in a
10:05feast and famine cycle. You let's use
10:07design business or you have the design
10:08clients because you you had some free
10:09time. So, you want bought some design
10:10clients, then you spend all your time
10:12servicing those clients. So, then when
10:13you're done, you have no clients in your
10:14pipeline. You've got to get out of that
10:16fee and famine cycle. And you do that by
10:18letting that fire burn for a little bit.
10:19It's always going to feel urgent. It's
10:21never going to feel comfortable. But if
10:22you don't do the money generating stuff
10:23first, you'll forever be stuck in that
10:25feast or famine cycle. And that's one of
10:26the things I want entrepreneurs to break
10:28just to get to seven figures. There's a
10:30whole another level going from seven to
10:31eight. But just to get to seven figures,
10:32you've got to get out of that feast and
10:33famine cycle. You have to be consistent
10:35with your money generating stuff. And so
10:37for someone who's in that place where
10:38they're like, well, I mean, I don't know
10:39if I can even sustain
10:41>> the new client. Should they like
10:43actually like just focus on the systems
10:44first before they're actually going to
10:45like do that or should they just be
10:47trying to get that anyway and try to
10:48manage both at the same time? Well, I'll
10:50say first and foremost, this is why I
10:51like a low ticket business because it's
10:52infinitely scalable. You make the course
10:54once, you make the product once, you can
10:55put a thousand people in it or 10,000
10:57people or like in my case, we were
10:58almost at 200,000 customers served. But
11:00to that client, most people don't
11:02actually have that problem. Most new
11:04entrepreneurs do not have so many
11:06clients that their systems are strained.
11:08They have two clients a month if they're
11:10lucky. And so, most people worry about
11:11problems that aren't even problems in
11:13reality. You're very good at agency
11:14stuff, right? You're very good at what
11:15you do. So, that makes more sense that
11:17you were in that position. If I woke up
11:18in your shoes, I would still choose to
11:20prioritize more clients for the
11:21pipeline. That's what I would do. I
11:22would always focus and you you pick up
11:24the pieces as you can, but if you don't
11:27focus on the money-making stuff,
11:29eventually you will run into that famine
11:31and you'll be kicking yourself.
11:32>> So, let's say the business can handle
11:34more customers. What is the next thing
11:35that the founder should be putting all
11:36their attention on?
11:37>> Most people have no idea the problem
11:39they're actually supposed to be solving
11:40in their business. They think they need
11:42more leads. They think they need more
11:43sales. They think they need more
11:45marketing. what they actually need is
11:47more traffic. And so if you want to
11:48generate a lot of sales very quickly,
11:50solve your traffic problem. Now, it's
11:52not an easy problem to solve. A traffic
11:54problem is a hard problem to solve. But
11:56all I see entrepreneurs do is instead of
11:58tackling the actual problem that
11:59matters, they have shiny object syndrome
12:00and they go worry about a thousand other
12:02things because they're scared and
12:03avoidant of the actual problem that
12:05needs to get solved. I promise you that
12:07if I sent 3,000 people to your checkout
12:09page or your book a call page or
12:11whatever it might be, you would see a
12:12huge influx in revenue. but you are so
12:15stressed out or so scared or so fearful
12:17to solve that actual traffic problem
12:19that you're optimizing for a thousand
12:20other things instead of focusing on the
12:22number one thing that's going to
12:23actually solve the majority of problems
12:24in your business which is traffic. So I
12:27can't talk enough about traffic because
12:28it is the lifeblood of a healthy
12:30business especially one that's scaling
12:32to seven figures to eight figures.
12:34>> So how exactly do you go about
12:36increasing traffic?
12:37>> Well there's three things that solves a
12:38traffic issue. Number one is content.
12:40Number two is ads. Number three is
12:42email. And I'm going to go into all
12:44three of those because those are the
12:45game changers in your business. If you
12:47have an eyeballs problem, if you have a
12:48traffic problem, we need to make
12:50content. We need to run ads and we need
12:51to send really good emails. And let's
12:52start with content. The thing I always
12:54like to do when I talk about content is
12:56say something that no one else has ever
12:57heard before because we hear so much
12:59content advice and our eyes start to
13:01glaze over. Goes in one ear and out the
13:02other because everyone's like, "Post
13:04more." Like, who gives a rat's ass? We
13:05all know that, right? I like to tell
13:07people that the first thing that you
13:09need to do if you want your content to
13:11make money is track how much money each
13:14and every piece of content is actually
13:15making you because sometimes we make
13:17content that gets low views but very
13:19high sales. And so my ego is not
13:21involved in this at all. I would rather
13:22have a reel that gets me 30,000 views
13:25but makes me 50 sales than a reel that
13:27gets 100,000 views and makes me three
13:29sales. Like today I post an Instagram
13:30story. It has a special little keyword
13:32on it. So I will know by the end of the
13:34day if I go into that stat I'll know
13:36that that Instagram story made me 4,000
13:385,000 or what however many thousands it
13:39is made me that amount of money. But
13:41then every piece of content should have
13:43a call to action. Okay?
13:44>> So every piece of content is going to
13:45have someone do something right and you
13:47should track it. So let's say it's like
13:48to book appointments. If I'm a realtor
13:50like booking appointments well let's say
13:52you have them comment real estate to go
13:54view the listing. That keyword should be
13:56tracked to the book appointment page.
13:57And so if you have a bridal like a
14:00wedding makeup person, comment makeup if
14:02you want me to do your makeup. Even if
14:03it's to a little inquiry form, that
14:05inquiry form should be tracked. Oh, when
14:07I posted this reel of this bride, I got
14:0930 inquiries, but when I posted this
14:11reel of this bride, I only got two. So
14:12obviously, I need to figure out what
14:14about this bride got me so many more or
14:16this content or this makeup got me that
14:18many more inquiries. And so it doesn't
14:19matter what the call to action is.
14:21That's what needs to be tracked so you
14:22can understand the impact of each
14:23individual piece. So this is the funnel
14:25that's made me $22 million. First, I
14:27publish an Instagram reel. People
14:28comment under that reel with a keyword
14:31that I give them. That triggers off a
14:32ManyHat automation. That ManyHat
14:34automation sends them a link directly to
14:36a checkout page and then they buy. So,
14:38it goes real many comment Sam Cart
14:42checkout page. Bada bing, bada boom,
14:44make some money. Now, some people build
14:46out crazy complicated ManyHat funnels
14:49where they collect all this info and
14:50there's 17 steps and it's such a huge
14:53complicated process. But the way I use
14:54ManyHat is very simple, right? It's an
14:56app, a software, it's a program. Explain
14:58just in case someone is.
14:59>> Yeah. So, if you don't know what Manyhat
15:00is, it's basically um a software that
15:01you can sign up for and when you comment
15:03a keyword um it'll send you a link to
15:05something. Now, one of my rules is if
15:07it's not easy, I don't do it. And that's
15:09been my rule for almost a decade. And
15:11so, my many chat funnels, you again
15:13would be underwhelmed. You comment a
15:15keyword, it's one message that says,
15:17"Hi, here's a link." And they click it.
15:20Like, that's it. But I get 7,000
15:22comments a day, 8,000 comments a day,
15:24like thousands of comments a day between
15:25my profiles. Sorry to interrupt here,
15:28guys. Um, Many Shot actually has been a
15:29game changer for our business. And so,
15:31we're going to do a little demo for you
15:32and actually show you how to do it very
15:33quickly before we get back to the video.
15:35Roy, take it away.
15:37>> Hi, guys. Welcome to Many Chat.
15:40>> I think you should look there.
15:41>> Hi guys. Once you load this up, the
15:43modal comes up.
15:44>> Modal.
15:46We're going to go to new automation
15:47where you see a menu of all the kinds of
15:49automations you can do. The one we're
15:51going to pick is autodm links from
15:52comments. Meaning when someone comments
15:55on a specific reel once we put what the
15:58word is that triggers the automation,
16:00they will get an opening DM that says,
16:02"Send me the link."
16:03>> I also highly recommend activating the
16:06DM asking you to follow before they get
16:08the link. Helped us reach 10K recently.
16:10>> Yeah, we were really struggling before
16:11that.
16:12>> And then they will get a DM with a link.
16:15You get to choose what the button is.
16:17>> So, this is a great way to track
16:18conversions other than sales. And it's
16:20also an easy way to get people over to
16:22the checkout page. All right. What's
16:23next?
16:26>> That's it. Now, we just go live.
16:29>> Boom.
16:30>> All right, guys. We love Many Chat so
16:32much, we actually reached out to them
16:34and asked them to be a sponsor on this
16:35video, and they said yes. I actually
16:37don't know what to do with this part, so
16:38I'm going to pass it to the other
16:40screen.
16:40>> You know what to do here. Click below,
16:42use the code anatomy. You get a free
16:44month of ManyHat Pro. You'll thank me
16:46later.
16:46>> All right, guys. Let's go back to the
16:48video.
16:48>> The ghost.
16:49>> I stopped talking over my
16:59>> And then the thing that I'm good at is
17:00the volume. I'm the queen of volume. So,
17:02I'd rather a simple process that I then
17:05absolutely beat the out of at the
17:06front at the That's how I think about
17:08like I just pound the volume at
17:10the top and that's what actually gets
17:12the results. people are focused on
17:13these, oh, if I run someone through and
17:15then does this automatically, especially
17:16in an AI world, we're way too excited
17:17about automations. It's like, it
17:19doesn't matter because you have three
17:20people going through it. So, I try to
17:22get people focused on the beginning
17:24stage on the front-end funnel because
17:25that's the thing that's actually going
17:26to drive sales. So, stop optimizing a
17:28back end and no one's ever going through
17:29and start focusing on simplifying so
17:31your energy, so your time is freed up to
17:33solve the thing that's actually going to
17:34make money, which is traffic.
17:36>> And so, what's your content strategy and
17:38your posting schedule if you don't mind
17:39sharing? Yeah, I want to make a
17:41distinction first between what I did to
17:42get to about half a million followers on
17:44Instagram and what I'm doing now. I
17:46would tell someone who's brand new and
17:47it's like, "Okay, I'm going to start
17:48posting content consistently for the
17:49first time." What they do typically, and
17:52this is the pattern I want to break for
17:53them, is they go and they post two times
17:55a day, every day for two weeks. And then
17:57they fall off. Now, you don't trust
17:58yourself. And that's a huge problem as a
18:00new entrepreneur. You have to learn how
18:01to build that trust in yourself because
18:02it's going to serve you through the
18:04periods where you want to quit. And so a
18:06beginner strategy, if you have never
18:08posted consistently for 90 days, you
18:10need to start here. You need to post
18:12once a week for 4 weeks and never miss
18:16that post. I don't recommend scheduling
18:18it because what we're trying to do is
18:19train your muscle to get into a rhythm
18:21of posting when you say you're going to
18:23post. That's going to kill you. You're
18:25going to be dying. You're going to have
18:26all this excess energy excited to post
18:29more. You have ideas to post more, which
18:31is the opposite energy of most people by
18:33week four. By week four, most people are
18:35scraping the bottom of the barrel of
18:36motivation. They don't have a ton of
18:38ideas. They're coming up short and
18:39they're about to burn out.
18:40>> Yeah.
18:40>> So, you end week four feeling very
18:42excited. Then second round, now you're
18:45posting two times a week, maybe three
18:46times a week for another four weeks. And
18:49then at the last chunk of four weeks,
18:51you can post up to every single day. I
18:53still recommend you do like five times a
18:55week, like not quite fully every single
18:57day, but the energy is so different. And
18:59the key is if you miss a week, if you
19:01miss a post, you have to start from
19:03zero. You don't progress until you hit
19:05the scheduled slots. So you end the 90
19:07days with a totally different muscle
19:09definition where you slowly ramp up,
19:12very disciplined, very controlled versus
19:14the other way where you're just a
19:15frenetic motivated mess for a hot second
19:18and then you burn out. And so if you're
19:19willing to go slow at first, you can go
19:21really far eventually very fast.
19:22>> Right. And so during that time, I know
19:24the goal is consistency, but are is
19:26there any realm where they're actually
19:28tracking the performance of those um
19:31pieces of content? That's a great
19:33question. So, sometimes people will say,
19:34"Hey, Maria, I posted for a while and I
19:36didn't see any results." And I was like,
19:37"Well, were you auditing your content in
19:38between or you just continuing to post
19:41shitty content?" And so, the first piece
19:42of data that I have people track is the
19:45views to followers ratio. Meaning, if I
19:47have a piece of content that has 100,000
19:49views but got me 100 followers, that
19:52views to follower ratio is very low. I
19:54got a ton of views and I didn't get any
19:55followers or very little followers.
19:56Versus, I might have a piece of content
19:58that gets me 5,000 views, but 500
20:00followers. That's an excellent views to
20:03followers ratio. And then eventually we
20:05can graduate to okay views to sales
20:07ratio. That would be the next metric to
20:09track. But in the beginning you just
20:11have to pay attention to what are the
20:12things that are making people click and
20:13stick around because eventually those
20:14clicks and those followers are going to
20:16become customers. But then what I
20:17recommend people post at what times.
20:19This is what works not just for me but I
20:21have the pleasure of having the backend
20:22insight into many thousands of very
20:24successful students. And so I'll give
20:26you like I call it like level one, level
20:27two, and level three of a content
20:29schedule. So level one is one reel every
20:31single day at 7 a.m. PST is just the
20:33time that I recommend. So 7 a.m. PST.
20:35That's step one. Like that's assuming
20:37you've done that 90day content muscle up
20:39rampant. You're like, "Okay, I can
20:40actually post content longer than 90
20:41days. I'm going to do one reel every
20:43single day at 7 a.m.
20:44>> Okay.
20:45>> Level two is where it gets a little
20:47harder. It's one reel every day, one
20:50carousel every single day, and then one
20:52story every single day. So you've gone
20:53from posting one piece of content every
20:54day to three pieces of content. And
20:56you're primarily optimizing in this case
20:57for Instagram or you're you're
20:59crossosting across.
21:00>> I never cross post.
21:01>> Okay. Thank you for clarifying. This is
21:02just an Instagram posting content
21:04schedule. But Instagram is where we make
21:05a lot of sales, especially if we're just
21:07getting started and we're brand new. We
21:08don't have an audience in other places.
21:10Instagram's a fast money maker. You can
21:12post it real and make money within 24
21:13hours because the algorithm puts you in
21:15front of people like emails. What who
21:17are you emailing to? Three people and
21:18your mom on your email list. Like you
21:19just it's just different when you're a
21:20beginner and you don't have an audience.
21:21So then level three would be as many
21:23pieces of content per day as you
21:25possibly can. So for me that's seven
21:28pieces of content to the main feed every
21:29single day. Now I now have a team of two
21:32other people to help me do it. So it's
21:33not me by myself, but I was ramping up
21:35to three pieces of content to the main
21:37feed plus at least one story every
21:40single day by myself. Just by myself.
21:42And the reason why I prioritized is
21:44because it was a money-making activity.
21:45It's one of the things that gets done
21:46first. It's how I make so many sales.
21:48But the way you want to think about it
21:49in your head is the more I post, the
21:50more I make. So your goal needs to be
21:52getting to the volume as fast as you
21:54can.
21:54>> So then what is your goal with the
21:56stories, the reals, and the actual
21:58carousel?
21:59>> So I'll start with the easy one. That's
22:00our Instagram stories. We just do one
22:02story every single day. Post it at 7
22:04a.m. PST. That's a pitch content. So I
22:06think about content in two buckets.
22:07There's pitch content and there's
22:08nurture content, right? And so story
22:10content is always pitch with a clear
22:11call to action to make sales or like if
22:14you're booking calls to book calls,
22:15whatever is the the conversion metric
22:16that makes money for you. Just get the
22:18get the bag. And then some of our reels
22:20pitch and some of our reels nurture
22:22slash like get more followers, right? We
22:24always make sure we have at least one
22:26pitch reel every single day. And the
22:28reason why is I like to start the day
22:29off making money. I want every day to
22:31start with dollars in my bank account.
22:32And so 7 a.m. that's kind of like a
22:34prime slot. And then 9:00 a.m. is always
22:36a carousel. that carousel either pitches
22:39or my um nurture carousels are very
22:42popular. Those tend to go viral pretty
22:43consistently for my account. It's where
22:46I say like Instagram is my diary. So, I
22:48just share what I'm going through,
22:50something that I've been struggling
22:51with, something that happened to me. I'm
22:52extremely vulnerable on those carousels.
22:54>> And you're speaking specifically to your
22:55audience. You're making carousels that,
22:57you know, will speak to the audience
22:58that you have.
22:58>> I think a content mistake, and I'm glad
23:00you flagged that, is they think, "Oh, I
23:01got to talk to my audience." Well,
23:03that's so that's so much pressure. What
23:04do I what do I say to my audience? I
23:06don't even know what that means. And so
23:07I just talk about what I want to talk
23:08about, what's really going on. And I
23:10just launched today a course on how I
23:13make those carousels. And one of the
23:14things that I talk about in this course
23:16is if I feel an emotion. So if I feel an
23:19emotion of shame or I feel an emotion of
23:20joy or I feel an emotion of fear, that
23:23emotion in my body is a signal that it
23:25should be a carousel. And that's how I
23:27make content. That's how I come up with
23:28my ideas. And then in the afternoon,
23:30there is structure to it, but it's kind
23:32of like dealer's choice. like it's we've
23:34got some podcasts that we're going to
23:36collab with or we have the studio reels
23:38that I film myself. We always like to do
23:39funny trendy ones cuz those pop off.
23:41These are reals. These are all reals by
23:42the way. We only do one carousel per day
23:44right now. But I would say the two most
23:46important ones would be the pitch
23:47carousel in the morning and then that
23:48carousel rotation of pitch nurture pitch
23:50nurture pitch nurture with the
23:51carousels. Those are like the
23:52foundational pieces of content. Okay.
23:54>> Yeah. How has social media changed in
23:56your opinion as of especially this year?
23:59And how has that changed your strategy
24:01if it has? You know, it's very
24:02interesting. At the beginning of this
24:04month, I had a content day with a bunch
24:06of eight figureure content creators. I
24:07had millions of followers between all of
24:08us. And one of the girls shared that her
24:10what she called identitybased content
24:13was popping off. Now, she's this is all
24:15organic. And it's the same thing where
24:16it's like if you're a high functioning
24:18anxious woman, like shout out in the
24:20comments or something, right? Like she's
24:21calling out these identities. And so who
24:23your people are, how they identify this,
24:25literally putting that in the label,
24:27plumbers of Orange County, new moms of
24:29two kids, like the more specific it is,
24:31the better. However, my theory with that
24:34is that like so many things with content
24:37and with ads, it's a phase. Just use it
24:39while it's working. Eventually,
24:40everyone's going to be doing it. Their
24:41eyes will glaze over and they're
24:43scrolling. That's the nature of content.
24:44That's the nature of ads.
24:45>> Yeah. It's a tactic versus like a
24:46principle overall. Okay. So, let's say
24:47across reals, stories, and carousels,
24:51does one work better to try to get
24:52emails or to get try to get one certain
24:54call to action?
24:55>> The pitch carousels, that would be where
24:57we either collect emails or we pitch
24:59products. Okay. But we ran a six-month
25:02experiment to see, do we make more money
25:04if we send people straight to a checkout
25:05page or email then checkout page?
25:07Because, it's a good question. We wanted
25:09to know we made so much more money
25:10sending them straight to the checkout
25:11page. Hands down. Even though it was
25:13more friction in the conversion point,
25:15you lose so many people throughout that
25:18funnel. It's just more delayed. I'll
25:19tell you, we were gobsmacked by the
25:21result of that experiment because we
25:22like to think we're great marketers. We
25:23like to think we write great copy. We
25:25like to think people read the words we
25:26write and they buy. But that is not what
25:28the data told us with our emails. We
25:29made so much more money when we sent
25:31people straight to a checkout page
25:33rather than put them on what I do think
25:34was a very wellexecuted email campaign
25:37to get them to convert into customers.
25:38They just didn't convert. And so now
25:40what we do is our pitch carousels no
25:42longer collect email addresses. They
25:44just go straight to the checkout page,
25:45which reinforces a theory I've always
25:47had, which is send everybody straight to
25:48the checkout page right away and remove
25:50the obstacles to money. Send people
25:52straight to a book a call page if that's
25:53your point of conversion. Send people
25:54straight to an inquiry form if that's
25:56your point of conversion. Send people
25:57straight to the checkout page if that's
25:58your point of conversion. Don't have
26:00these long nurture sequences or video
26:02sales letters or webinars. Like people
26:04are like, "Oh, I got to stop doing video
26:05sales letters. I got to stop doing
26:06webinars." I would say yes. Yeah. From
26:09the experience we've done,
26:10>> my brain is like processing all this.
26:12This is crazy. I literally
26:13>> Well, this is what people always tell me
26:15because they're like, "Oh, I just spent
26:16a week recording video sales letters or
26:18I've had this webinar that's been
26:19working. I've been doing a webinar
26:20successfully for three years." I'm like,
26:21"Cool. Try to not do the webinar." And
26:24the reason for it is we live in an age
26:25of instant gratification. And so, the
26:27things we think are warming the lead up
26:29are actually cooling them down. Someone
26:31is interested in you. They saw a really
26:32hot piece of content from you. They want
26:34to learn more. They want to work with
26:35you. You go put them through a 9-day
26:37warm-up sequence. by day two they've
26:38lost interest. Prospects always the
26:40highest at the point of them finding you
26:41in my experience. They're like the most
26:43excited about you,
26:44>> right? I feel like we hear so often
26:45like, "Okay, you need to focus on
26:47organic first, right?" Like, how do you
26:48know when it's the right time to start
26:50running ads?
26:50>> Well, I would disagree that you should
26:51focus on organic first. I tell people if
26:53you've made $1 in your business,
26:56>> it's time to run ads. You don't get a
26:58medal for hitting a certain revenue goal
26:59by not running ads. There's no like you
27:01only did it organically confetti award
27:03that comes to you. In my opinion, it's
27:04much better to start running ads as soon
27:06as you possibly can right away and start
27:08getting the sales in. Why take the long
27:10road with organic when you could just do
27:12it the fast way with ads? The reason I
27:14love running ads right away. The way
27:16that we do it is we get our ads to pay
27:18for themselves. We call it elevator ads.
27:20So, you use that money from that first
27:21sale, you put it in the second, and you
27:22scale it up at the pace that you're
27:24bringing in sales. Basically, create an
27:26ads machine. You put $1 in, you get $2.5
27:29out. That's our average return on ad
27:30spend is 2.5x. And if you can do that,
27:32why would you not start doing that right
27:34away? Ads is such a morale booster
27:37because people are dying. They're
27:39languishing in this slow burn of organic
27:41content. It's different. It's good, but
27:44ads is like you press a button and you
27:46get traffic. And I don't know why you
27:47wouldn't do that sooner. And so if
27:49you're entrepreneur and you've made $1,
27:51you've gotten someone to pay you at
27:52least a dollar, it's time to run ads.
27:53Run them yesterday. So what's the
27:55anatomy of a successful ad? It's not so
27:58much about the ad itself. It's what
28:00comes right after the ad because it's
28:01pretty easy to make a good sexy
28:03clickable ad. That's actually pretty
28:04easy. It's just like whatever works on
28:06organic is what works for ads. And some
28:07of mine are literally like a talking
28:08head. Like they're they're not over.
28:09>> What are you saying in them that
28:10actually like gets
28:11>> it would be the same as like my pitch
28:12reels at at at 7 in the morning. So it's
28:14like I just launched my new carousel
28:16course. Comment carousel to get a link.
28:18Like it's basic It's here's what
28:20you're going to get. Click here or
28:22comment the keyword to get taken to the
28:23landing page. Where most people fail and
28:25they don't make the ads profitable is
28:27two things. One, it's the landing page.
28:29page. And so people need to know what is
28:31it I'm going to get and why do I need to
28:33get it right now? Every landing page
28:35needs to answer that question. But
28:37people don't do that. They'll say like,
28:38"Oh, you get seven modules and six
28:40worksheets. That's a feature, not a
28:42benefit. So what am I going to get? Am I
28:44going to get a solution to my problem?
28:45And why do I need to get it right now?"
28:46We teach there's nine different urgency
28:48angles. The more urgency angles you have
28:50on that landing page, the better.
28:51>> So what are the best ways to create
28:53urgency for your product?
28:54>> So there's a couple of different ways.
28:55There's nine ways to do urgency. The
28:57ones that are most important though and
28:58that are not popular, but I think should
29:00be are like flash sales, coupons, and
29:03like discounts. Now, most people hear
29:06and have heard the advice, don't ever
29:08discount your services. Don't ever
29:10discount what you're doing. Don't run
29:11flash sales because it hurts your brand.
29:13We run flash sales all the time, every
29:15month pretty much, every other month,
29:17whatever enough. And my brand is
29:19sterling in this industry. So, there's
29:21no actual connection between discounts
29:23and your brand. People are so worried
29:25about it's going to cheapen the brand.
29:26It's not going to. People think they're
29:28Louis Vuitton. They think they're
29:29Gucci's. Like, you're not there at all.
29:30Those companies have been around for
29:31hundreds of years. Like, God bless you.
29:33But you've got $6 in your bank account.
29:34And you don't need to be worried about
29:36your perception and your brand. You need
29:37money coming in. And urgency really
29:40happens when people are like, I need to
29:41get this now. That's urgency. If I don't
29:44move now and don't buy now, I'm not
29:46going to get as good of a deal. And so
29:47in my opinion, people should be so much
29:50less worried about their brand
29:51perception and so much more worried
29:52about the fact that they don't have the
29:53money to cover an emergency in their
29:55business or their personal life. And so
29:57solve for that stuff later.
29:58>> A lot of times when I see these sales
29:59and I see the sale again tomorrow and
30:00the next day, are you repeating these or
30:02are you actually spacing you're spacing
30:03them out?
30:03>> Yeah. I mean, we're very careful to stay
30:05in integrity. That is a huge deal for
30:08flash sales. The deadline is the
30:09deadline. The flash sale is the flash
30:11sale. The coupon expires and the coupon
30:12expires. And I will make no exceptions
30:14because in my opinion, making exceptions
30:16like that or not being like in integrity
30:18with that is so disrespectful to the
30:20customers that bought when you said it
30:22was time to buy. I would never do that.
30:23I never make a policy exception. Our
30:26policy is our policy. And if you don't
30:27like it, I'm sorry, but like that's that
30:29sucks for you. So that's the first thing
30:31with a good ad is it's a landing page.
30:33Second thing, it's your AOV. And AOV, in
30:35case you don't know what that means, is
30:36average order value. The amount the
30:38average customer pays you at the point
30:40of checkout. Um, and so it's
30:41understanding the ratio of your cost to
30:44acquire a customer, right, via ads
30:46relative to the AOV in that moment. We
30:48want our ads profitable day one. Let's
30:50say the cost to acquire a customer is,
30:53let's just do easy math. It's a dollar.
30:54My AOV we needed to be $2.5, right?
30:57That's how I get my 2.5 return on ad
30:59spend. And so if your cost to acquire
31:00customer is $10, I need to make at least
31:02$25 in my AOV across all my ads funnels.
31:06Those two things, the landing page and
31:08the AOV, that in our experience matters
31:11so much more than the initial creative
31:12because it's fairly easy to get clicks.
31:14Most people can figure out how to do
31:15that. They can't figure out what to do
31:17with the people once they get the
31:18clicks. And those are the two things I
31:19want them paying attention to.
31:20>> So for someone who is in service
31:21businesses and all that, what are other
31:22ways that they could be paying attention
31:24to this if there's no conversion like
31:25that?
31:25>> So if I woke up and I was like, "Okay, I
31:26got to run ads to people who are like
31:28booking calls with me, right?
31:29>> First things first, I want you to be
31:31able to book a call within 24 to 48
31:32hours." So pretty quickly, right? Okay.
31:35and we want to close in that 24 to 48
31:37hours because then in that case I'm
31:38still making a sale within 24 hours,
31:41maybe 48 hours, but that's not typically
31:43what people do in a service space. It's
31:44like, "Oh, cool. I'm going to talk to
31:45you in a week and a half." Then your
31:47show up rate goes to and you don't
31:48really have a good close process in
31:50place. So you're maybe closing, I don't
31:52know, one in five calls when you should
31:53be closing one in three. And so it's the
31:56principle is still the same. It's take
31:58them straight to the the thing, right?
32:00the book call or the buying a page or
32:02whatever and then get them on the phone
32:04as fast as possible and close them as
32:05fast as possible. So maybe you're two
32:08days out from your profit, but I don't
32:09want to be 90 days out. That's how I'm
32:11going to die. Very quickly, like how
32:12much do you spend on typical on ads a
32:16month now versus like at the beginning?
32:18So when we got started, you start with
32:19$5 a day. That $5 might make you a $27
32:22sale and then you put that $27 into the
32:25ad fund and that might get you two $27
32:26sales. And so you start with $5. Like
32:29you don't start with millions of dollars
32:30or thousands of dollars. You start with
32:31$5. And we just very gradually over the
32:34process of a few years have scaled up to
32:36where we're spending about $10,000 a day
32:37on ads. And we want to spend at $30,000.
32:40That's the metric that we're hitting.
32:41But again, if you have a machine, which
32:42we do, that you put a dollar in, you get
32:442.5 out. You just try to scale that
32:46machine as fast as you can at that
32:47profit level until infinity. We know
32:49people that are spending $100,000 a day
32:51on ads. That's the dream. Like that's
32:53what we're trying to go to. And so right
32:55now we're spending about $300,000 per
32:57month with a return on ad spend of 2.5,
32:59but we started with $5. So for someone
33:01who's watching and they have their ads
33:02running and they were successful, but
33:04then they plateau, what should they do
33:05then?
33:06>> Yes. So what's happening there? It's a
33:07very if you people typically get like a
33:09beginner's luck, right, where you just
33:10like you turn it on, it's like, "Oh,
33:11this is amazing." And then you reach
33:12this point where it's like, "Wait." And
33:14it's just like that plateau and it's
33:15very confusing and it's very
33:16discouraging if you don't know what's
33:18going on. And most people panic and they
33:20turn their ads off. You're going to hit
33:22a plateau. And what's happened at that
33:24plateau period is you've tapped out your
33:26war market. Congratulations. You got all
33:29the lowhanging fruit off the tree. You
33:31did a great job. Now you're venturing
33:34into Siberia, which is your cold market.
33:36And that's where I I love it because
33:38that's where the challenge comes in.
33:39It's like, oh, you could kind of get
33:40away with mediocre creatives. Cool. Now
33:43we got to get great creatives. Oh, you
33:44had a pretty good landing page, but it
33:45wasn't a great landing page. Cool. Now
33:47we got to get a great landing page. Oh,
33:48your AOV was like it wasn't quite 25
33:51what it needed to be. It was 17. Nope,
33:53you got to get it up to 25. Like,
33:55now we're playing the game of volume,
33:56which is my favorite game. It's like,
33:58okay, babe, like now we're going to
33:59scale this thing up to a 100 sales a
34:00day, 200 sales a day, and there is no
34:02room for mediocrity at any point. We got
34:04to dial this in so we can really
34:06scale it up. But I love that because
34:08once you've tapped into Siberia and
34:09you've mastered Siberia, no one can stop
34:11you. You know how to turn a cold person
34:13who's never ever seen you before into a
34:16paying customer in a matter of two
34:18minutes. You're unstoppable. You can
34:20literally scale to the moon. And then
34:22the world is your oyster and everything
34:24else is easy.
34:24>> So obviously we hear so much about we
34:26should build an email list. I know
34:28emails are really important for you. So
34:29now how are you balancing?
34:31>> Well, it's so interesting because our
34:32top revenue every single month, it's not
34:34from ads, although we make a ton of
34:35money from our ads. It's not from
34:37Instagram, although we make a ton of
34:38money from Instagram. It's actually from
34:40our emails. We have an email list of
34:42over a million subscribers, right? But
34:45don't get twisted. We do not get many
34:47new customers from email. So no one is
34:51reading our email and turning into a
34:53customer. Our customers are reading our
34:55emails and buying from us again. Does
34:57that distinction make sense?
34:58>> Yes.
34:58>> And so our acquisition strategies should
35:02not be to generate an email list because
35:04we could just focus on acquiring
35:07customers and sending people straight to
35:09a checkout page and then we can just
35:10email them again and continue to get the
35:13repeat customers to buy from us. Yes,
35:15our revenue is the most from email, but
35:18I'm just making a lot of money from the
35:19customers I have already acquired from
35:22ads and Instagram. Does that make sense?
35:24>> It's a one. Yes, it's a one-two step.
35:25You want to get them first to get the
35:27product so that you can get them into
35:28the email so that then you could
35:29actually continue to
35:30>> No one should be focusing on on
35:32collecting email addresses. They should
35:33be focusing on collecting customers and
35:35then emailing their customers later.
35:36Does that make sense?
35:37>> Totally.
35:37>> Okay. Because that is not a popular
35:39strategy because most people say send
35:41people to a freebie like warm them up.
35:43But again, it comes back to like, do you
35:45want the dollar or do you not? And so,
35:46if you want the dollar, you'll remove
35:48the things that we think warm them up,
35:50but actually stand to cool them down.
35:52So, with emails, how many emails are you
35:53sending a day?
35:54>> We send three emails every single day.
35:56It sounds scary. People are like, "Oh my
35:57god, Maria, like I would unsubscribe."
35:59But they don't. Unsubscribe rate stayed
36:01the same. Of course, we closely
36:02monitored that. And all we did was add
36:04an extra like $2 or $3,000 per day to
36:07our revenue by sending that third email.
36:09So, we do make a lot of money from our
36:11emails, but the the way that we do it is
36:13a 7 a.m. nurture. And so, a lot of times
36:15the nurture emails are repurposed from
36:18carousels, but with at least a 90-day
36:21lag. And so, we're very careful to like
36:23structure our content so that people are
36:25seeing different stuff. So, the nurture
36:26one is typically a repurposed carousel
36:28and it's a 7 a.m. always includes a
36:30photo of me. It's very conversational.
36:32You would think it was from a friend,
36:33like it's just a chatty email. No
36:35pitches. I actually build up to a pain
36:37point so they're expecting a pitch and
36:38then I don't which like pops the balloon
36:40and makes them love me even more. And
36:42then we do one at 1 pm. This is all PST
36:44time. So 1 PM and 5 PM are our two
36:46pitches. If you've ever seen my pitch
36:47emails, they're very very short. I like
36:49to say four sentences or less. We just
36:51go in. We do not beat around the bush. A
36:53lot of people do with their pitches.
36:54They drag it out because they're scared
36:55to ask for the pitch. So they'll just
36:57like pat it. We just say, "Hey, I have
36:59this. If you want it, it's going to be
37:00super helpful. You're going to enjoy it.
37:01Click here to grab it. I'll see you
37:02there." We do that a little assumptive
37:04close a lot where it's like I'll see you
37:05there or like see you on the inside
37:07because it's that assumptive close where
37:08it's like I assume I'll see you on the
37:10inside and I can't wait. I'm know you're
37:11going to buy it. I'm actually curious
37:12cuz I think that like one of the things
37:15I found really fascinating were your
37:16subjects.
37:17>> Yes. My subject lines. I put so much
37:20work into those cuz I write all my
37:21emails. Um yeah, I think the written
37:23word is the last thing a founder should
37:24outsource. That's my theory. And so I
37:27write every caption on Instagram. I
37:29write every carousel.
37:31>> That makes me feel so much better.
37:32>> Yeah. And the reason for it is that it's
37:34the money maker thing. It's the it's the
37:35most important thing, right? It's the
37:36thing that drives the traffic. And so
37:38it's worth the founders's time. Good
37:39content is worth the founders's time.
37:41And so with my subject lines, I probably
37:43put more effort into my subject lines
37:45and more intentionality and more time
37:47than any other piece of content because
37:49email is my highest form of revenue and
37:51the subject line is what gets people to
37:52open my emails and read it. Our email
37:54open rate is like 50% or higher for
37:56every email. It's very, very high. The
37:57average is like 25 to 30 in most
37:59industries at the volume that we do. Um,
38:02and so hundreds of thousands of people
38:03read my emails every single day. That's
38:05why I put so much work into the subject
38:07line. And so I learned everything that I
38:09know about writing subject lines for my
38:10one of my first ever mentors, Talking
38:12More. If you're on his email list, his
38:14subject lines are even better than mine.
38:16So, how do you go about creating a good
38:17subject so that people actually open it?
38:19Basically, it's not what you expect.
38:21That's the It's like the most clickbait
38:23thing, but not clickbait in a negative
38:26way, clickbait in a positive way where
38:28it's like, I got to know like what that
38:30is. like the porch pirate. What the heck
38:31is a porch pirate? And then in that I
38:35share how I saw that subject line from a
38:37local community app thing that just is
38:39like someone was stealing packages off a
38:41porch and they called it the porch
38:43pirate. And I'll share what a pattern
38:45interrupt that was for me and how
38:47important it is to have pattern
38:48interrupts in our content. And so
38:50anytime I grab on anything that's
38:52interesting, I'm I'll grab it and then I
38:54will find a way to tie it back to the
38:56email because the subject line is the
38:58most important thing. I can craft a
38:59story around the subject line, but the
39:00most important thing is the subject line
39:02because otherwise people won't read it.
39:03>> One of the things I noticed is like on I
39:04don't know if it was a few of them or a
39:05lot of them, they were like all
39:06lowercase. Like it was like little
39:07things where I'm like, "Oh man, like
39:08that stand out against like you really
39:09were thinking about like small little
39:11things."
39:11>> Little things really really add up. And
39:12again, I'm not an optimizer. Like I'm a
39:15big fan of like just get it done and get
39:17it out. But there are a few things that
39:20I will spend time on optimizing. Subject
39:22lines are one of them. But the lesson is
39:23not to overly optimize everything. It's
39:25to just get a bunch of stuff out there.
39:27then start paying attention to what's
39:28actually making you money and optimize
39:30that. Too many people are overoptimizing
39:32things that don't actually have anything
39:33to do with their business or their money
39:35or their revenue. I can't deal with it.
39:36It's like go figure out what's actually
39:39connected to you making more money and
39:41then cut away everything. Then you can
39:43optimize. But you're like six steps away
39:45from that.
39:45>> All right. So, how do you choose the
39:47pricing for your products? So, we
39:48actually have a pricing formula that we
39:49teach our students. I'll just tell you
39:50the price points that are good and the
39:52price points to avoid. 27, 37, 47, 57
39:55sweet spots. great pricing. Even up to
39:5797 is like fine. Then from like 197
40:00to9.97 pretty much is what I call the
40:03pricing dead zone. So like 2.97 bad
40:05pricing, $4.97 bad pricing, 5.97
40:08terrible pricing dead zones. And then
40:10you get to 97 you're in the sweet spot
40:12again. Let me tell you why that's a dead
40:13zone. It's because it's too much to have
40:16an impulse purchase, which is what we
40:17want in a low ticket roll. Like yes, I
40:19need this. I need it right now. I'm just
40:20going to buy it. I'm not going to think
40:21about it. So impulse purchasing happens
40:23below $97 pretty much. But then if
40:26you're in that like 497, you need sales
40:28infrastructure. You have greater
40:29objections. There's more friction to the
40:31sale, but the price point doesn't
40:32justify the infrastructure. And so if
40:34you're going to be selling something at
40:35volume at 97 or higher, that's worth it
40:38to build it out because there's enough
40:39margin to actually do it well. We should
40:41be able to charge 10 times more for a
40:44product than we are. So if I charge $27,
40:46I should be able to charge and get make
40:49sales at repeat $270. And so that's our
40:52metric. Some of our products we charge
40:54$6, but we could charge $6,000. And so
40:57we really look for a huge gap in what we
40:59could actually charge versus what we do.
41:01Most people charge, they're like, "Oh,
41:02but it's worth more than $27." He's
41:04like, "I don't care. I'm going to go
41:05sell it for 20 20 spots, 20 units at $27
41:09and I'm going to make more money. You're
41:10over here selling, you know, maybe one
41:12every other day and you're not making
41:14enough." And I learned this from Sam
41:15Walton, the founded Walmart, because he
41:17talks about how his competitors would be
41:19worried that they weren't charging
41:20enough. So, he lowered his price and
41:22then he priced for volume. That's what
41:23we teach our customers is to price for
41:25volume. And we always tell our students
41:26like if you aren't sure what price point
41:27to start, start with $27 because that is
41:29objectively a no-brainer price. And then
41:31if your sales aren't moving at $27, you
41:33have a packaging issue, you have a
41:34messaging issue, you have a traffic
41:35issue, you have other issues, but you
41:37sure don't have a pricing issue at
41:39$27. And so, I'm just a huge fan of
41:42there's so much money to be made in that
41:44low ticket range. And then like in the
41:45high ticket world, I'll tell you the
41:46price point that move well there. It's
41:4897, it's 4.97, it's 8.97, and then you
41:52can really get into the nitty-gritty
41:53like after 10,000. But like people feel
41:55weird about like 3,000. Like there's
41:57typically some friction at the $3,000
41:59point. Again, we just know this as we've
42:01been doing this for 13 years. But it's
42:03totally fine to experiment and change
42:04price points. Like that's not a big deal
42:06at all, but you can kind of ask around
42:08and know. But there's pricing dead zones
42:09in the high ticket range as much as a
42:11low ticket. But I have made millions of
42:13dollars selling stuff for $9.97, which
42:15is what I did and how I got to seven
42:16figures. And then I've made literally
42:18millions and millions of dollars selling
42:20$27 things. But if you have previously
42:22sold a high ticket offer, there's so
42:26much lowhanging fruit. Think about all
42:27the leads that you brought in. Like
42:29let's say we convert 2% of our leads or
42:3110% of our leads, right, into a high
42:32ticket thing, whatever it is, right? You
42:35have 100 leads that come in, maybe one
42:36or two of them buy your high ticket
42:38offer. 90 each of them can buy your low
42:40ticket offer. I think that's why I saw
42:43so much success with a low ticket is I
42:46had been selling a high ticket offer for
42:47like three years, making over a million
42:49dollars doing it, but there's a lot of
42:50people that like had never been able to
42:51afford it and they were like they ate up
42:53the low ticket thing. So, if somebody is
42:55brought in, they heard you, they're
42:56like, "Okay, fine. Yes,
42:57>> I'm going to make a low ticket offer.
42:58I'm going to do it." What would you do
43:00for the first 30 days?
43:01>> That's a great question. Okay, for the
43:03first 30 days, well, you have to start
43:05by knowing what kind of low ticket
43:06product you're going to sell. So 30 days
43:08you have an idea for your product but
43:09you don't know what to do after that.
43:11First thing that you need to understand
43:12is that you do not like put good work
43:15into the product but it's not as much
43:17time as you think. Most people spend way
43:19too much time on the first version of
43:21their product. I say that it should take
43:23anywhere from 2 to 5 hours from start to
43:25finish. And here's why you think that it
43:28has to be this big fat beefy 30 video
43:31course massive thing. It shouldn't. A
43:34good low ticket product solves one
43:37hypersp specific problem. So it's not
43:40making money or like the wealth academy
43:42or like the things we call our high
43:43ticket things. It's how to make more
43:46sales with your Instagram stories.
43:49>> Super specific. My students always
43:50panic. They're like, "Oh my god, I'm
43:51going to sell a shitty product." Like
43:52they hear two to five hours and they
43:53think shitty product. And let's just say
43:55that it's not a good enough product.
43:57Let's just say that like, okay, it it
43:59really isn't good enough. Do you know a
44:00really good way to get great feedback on
44:02a shitty product? get a hundred
44:04customers to to experience it because
44:05they're going to let you know
44:06immediately what problems they have with
44:08it. You know, we always say like if one
44:09customer has a problem with it, we're
44:11not going to pay that much attention.
44:12But if we have like a hundred people
44:13telling us this part is wrong, we pay
44:14attention to that. We have we really
44:16want to fix that. And so we're always
44:17optimizing our own products, but it's
44:19the customers that tell us what we
44:21really need to improve. You as the
44:22founder, you have blind spots. You don't
44:24know what actually truly matters to the
44:27degree that your customers do. And so if
44:28we put it in the hands of our customers,
44:30they're going to help us make a good
44:31product even better. So spend two to
44:33five hours making a good product. That's
44:35the first thing you're going to do in
44:36your 30 days. And then we recommend that
44:38you put it on like Sam Cart. That's the
44:39checkout page that we use. That should
44:41take you like two of the 28 days. Your
44:43next 28 days is generating traffic to
44:46that checkout page. So that's the
44:48content we talked about. That's the ads
44:49we talked about. That's the emails we
44:51talked about. But most people don't do
44:52that. They spend the entire 30 days on
44:55step one, which is designing and
44:57creating their product. And most people
44:58take longer than 30 days to create their
45:00product. You should take two days to
45:01build it and get it set up, 28 days to
45:04actually like market it and send all the
45:06traffic to it. Yeah,
45:07>> that is a phenomenal breakdown. So, I
45:10want to rewind. I want you to take me
45:13back before the 8 figureure business
45:15>> to when you were even just struggling to
45:18make your first sale.
45:19>> Yeah. Yeah. Where did it all start?
45:21>> So, I started in 2013 and I had the
45:26great joy of working for my dad in his
45:28company. And so, this was in high
45:29school. I was working for him. And so
45:30going into college, I studied graphic
45:32design and I knew that I did not want a
45:34real job after college. So straight
45:36away, a little freshman Maria, 18 years
45:38old, I got to work. And I worked really
45:41hard in college cuz I also had a
45:42full-time job cuz my parents just didn't
45:43have the money to pay for anything,
45:45including my college. So I really didn't
45:47experience a typical college experience
45:48like most people do. I went to a local
45:50college. It was not out of state or
45:52anything like that. I I drove home and I
45:53live with my parents cuz I couldn't
45:55afford anything at the time. And
45:56eventually I was able to like script
45:57together two pennies and move into a
45:58terrible neighborhood. So next I went on
46:01a company that is not even around
46:02anymore. It was called odesk. It became
46:04Upwork I think is what it was. It's a
46:06gig website where you go on and this is
46:07very much pre-Cva. This is very much
46:09preI and you got paid to make posters
46:14and invitations and graphic design
46:16stuff. Like I thought, oh I heard that
46:18graphic designers if they work really
46:19hard eventually they can make $60,000
46:21like at the peak of their career. And I
46:23almost had to sit down on the bench
46:24because I thought that was so much
46:25money. Like I didn't know anyone making
46:27more than $20,000 a year in my rural
46:29small town. And so I would go and apply
46:33to hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
46:36jobs. Mind you, this was one of the
46:37first years that I made $63. So I wasn't
46:39that good at it. And I literally would
46:42apply and spend like three hours
46:45applying for a $20 gig, which I then
46:47didn't get. But I so much look back and
46:50admire the grit and determination of
46:5218-year-old Maria. not a lot going on
46:54upstairs, but I just had to like hustle
46:55and I knew what I wanted. Um, the thing
46:57that I tell people because they ask me,
46:59Maria, how did you stick around when
47:01your business only made $63 in the first
47:03year and I was working really hard in
47:05that first year and then in the second
47:07year I only made $350. How did you keep
47:10going past that second year? I would
47:11have quit. I would have pivoted. I would
47:13have changed directions and you didn't.
47:14What did you do? And I was really
47:16struggling to answer that because I was
47:18like, I don't know what I did. I just
47:19didn't quit. That's not a helpful
47:20answer. And so when I really sat down
47:22and I really thought about it, I
47:24realized that I kept my word to myself
47:26in other areas of my life. So if I said
47:28I was going to wake up and go to the
47:29gym, I woke up and went to the gym. If I
47:31said I was going to lunch with a friend,
47:32I went to that lunch with a friend and I
47:33didn't cancel, even if I felt like
47:35cancelling. And so in any other area of
47:37my life, I kept my word to myself. And
47:40so my brain and my body trusted me when
47:43I said, "I'm going to be a millionaire.
47:44I'm living in a hole in a small
47:46town in Ohio, terrible neighborhood.
47:48Nothing around me is saying, "You're
47:49going to be a millionaire." No one
47:50around me is saying you're going to be a
47:51millionaire. But I said to myself, I'm
47:53going to be a millionaire. And I
47:55believed it because in other areas of my
47:57life, I kept my word to myself. And so I
47:59wasn't panicked. I wasn't stressed. I
48:01wasn't I didn't have any scarcity
48:03because my body and my brain knew what
48:05we say comes true because we keep our
48:07word to oursel. And it's such an
48:09important value. I see so many flaky
48:11people. I see so many entrepreneurs say
48:12I'm going to post every day and then
48:13they don't. And apart from the money
48:15that they're leaving on the table and
48:17missing out on, I think more
48:18importantly, they're destroying their
48:20own trust in themselves, their own like
48:22my word to myself as my bond. Um, and
48:24they miss that. And I think that that
48:26causes a lot of shakiness where they're
48:27like, "Oh, I don't trust myself to solve
48:29this traffic problem. So, I'm going to
48:30go over here and try to figure out a
48:32different problem because I don't trust
48:33that I can solve the real problems in my
48:34business, and I'm going to avoid that
48:36feeling by working on something else."
48:38It's very, very important that we keep
48:39our word to oursel. Um, I never break my
48:42word to myself and that's one of the
48:43huge reasons I've been able to build
48:44what I built. So, fast forward to like
48:462016ish. I think I made $8,000 and
48:49that's when I figured out how to get
48:51gigs. Okay, but still, if you're getting
48:53gigs, you have to do 300 applications to
48:56get one $60 gig. That's how I ended up
48:59with like $8,000 a year. So, it still
49:00wasn't a lot. And then I hired my first
49:03ever business coach. I made an
49:04investment in myself. And I literally
49:06had to sell my camera, my clothes, like
49:08and I didn't have brand name clothes.
49:09I'm selling like stuff I bought at TJ
49:11Maxx for $3. Like I'm emptying my
49:14wardrobe. It was spill of my clothes.
49:15Anything I could find that wasn't bolted
49:17to the ground, I sold to pay for this
49:19coach that was like $1,500. She taught
49:21me that the gap is that I wasn't selling
49:25my own thing. I was like trying to get
49:28other people's jobs, but that I would
49:30make more money if I sold logo and
49:32website packages. She taught me about
49:34the concept of packages and being able
49:36to charge a little bit more of a premium
49:37price. And she also taught me the value
49:39of a niche and focusing in on a
49:41particular group of people. So I was
49:42like, "All right, I'm gonna design logos
49:44and websites for new female founders."
49:46That was my little niche was like people
49:48who are just getting started. I charge
49:49$1,500 for the logos and the websites
49:51cuz she charged $1,500 for her coaching.
49:53So I was like, I guess this is just what
49:54we're going to do. And I would put them
49:56on a little payment plan. So they would
49:57pay me $250 per month for like six
50:00months or whatever it was. And I
50:02remember when I got on the first sales
50:04call, ran through the script that this
50:05business coach had gave gave me, and she
50:07said yes. And then she paid $250.
50:13I was like in the bedroom and I was like
50:16gasping for air. I couldn't believe it.
50:18I was just like, I'm rich. I really felt
50:21so rich. And then one of the things that
50:23made a big difference was hiring my
50:25first part-time team member. But again,
50:27I'm making $8,000 in a year. I'm living
50:30very much hand-to-mouth like I don't
50:32have money at all to hire anybody. And
50:34so I decided that I'm going to cancel
50:36Netflix. I'm going to cancel my personal
50:37gym subscription. I'm going to cut back
50:39on my food budget. I knew every dollar
50:41where it was going and what it was
50:43doing. And I still found things to cut
50:45to pay for this. And then this is what
50:47really made the unlock to me is she's
50:49going to work for me two hours a week
50:51and I'm going to use those two hours to
50:54do income generating activities so that
50:56I am making sales. I took my sales calls
50:58at those times. So, I am making sales
51:01that will pay for Yoland's check and
51:03then some. So, then Yolandi over time,
51:05she went from getting paid $200 a month
51:07to $2,000 a month and then far beyond.
51:10But it started at a very, very, very
51:13tiny amount. Most people don't think
51:14they can hire for as little as $200 a
51:17month, but you can. You just have to use
51:20that new time very intentionally,
51:21>> right? So, if someone who is starting
51:23off and they are just like, I literally
51:26don't have the resources to bring anyone
51:28on. Like, I'm I'm literally screwed.
51:30Like, what do I do? Let's say there's
51:32someone who's watching this and they
51:33genuinely do not have the money, right?
51:35Like, you there really is no money
51:37coming in. Like, it's just like true. I
51:39actually do not have the money. What do
51:41you do then? Well, your time is still
51:43worth something. Some activities that
51:45you do are like negative dollars.
51:47Scrolling social media, negative dollars
51:49because it's costing me brain power. I
51:50think of it as I actively lose money
51:53when I scroll social media. So that's
51:55the first thing you can start doing is
51:57stop scrolling social media. That would
51:59literally give you three hours in your
52:00day for most people. Yep.
52:02>> And then we have all the time that
52:04people spend, this is going to sound so
52:05weird, but like gossiping and talking
52:07Like people spend a lot of time
52:09talking about what the tea is. That
52:10activity in particular actually has a
52:12cost. There's a difference between
52:13hanging out with your friends and having
52:15like positive things. And that's
52:17something anyone can do even if they
52:18don't have any money at all. And if you
52:20just do that, yeah, it's not the only
52:22reason, but it's in part.
52:22>> No, that makes total sense. I feel like
52:24what's really fascinating is again, you
52:26really seem to like not only audit your
52:28time, but you understand how much that
52:29time cost.
52:30>> Yes. The most important thing as an
52:31entrepreneur in my opinion is to know
52:33what your hourly rate is. That's like
52:34the most important thing. And your true
52:36hourly rate. I've gone through many
52:38years where my hourly rate was a
52:40humbling amount, right? Where my hourly
52:41rate was like $8 or $17. And it's like
52:43hard to face that. It's hard to accept
52:45that like, oh, I could actually go to
52:46Target and make more money with what my
52:47actual hourly rate is right now. But let
52:49me tell you, when you know what your
52:50true hourly rate is, you start making
52:52decisions differently, which I'm a huge
52:53fan of,
52:54>> right? And so I am, you know, curious
52:55like how did you actually get it to that
52:58seven figure mark? Because that's a
53:00remarkable thing that you did on your
53:01own.
53:02>> And so then it was like full steam
53:03ahead. I think I made $20,000 that year,
53:05which was like more than double what I
53:06done the year before. And then I think I
53:07made like $40,000 an extra $50,000. Like
53:09I got it. I got how packages worked. I
53:11got how sales worked. I got like that
53:13was where the whole like booking two
53:15sales calls every day came from. woke
53:16up, even if a client's logo was due, I
53:18was like, I'm going to figure out how to
53:19do this in the afternoon because my job
53:20in the morning is to book these two
53:22sales calls. So, after that, I was a
53:23machine. I ended up being so good at
53:25booking clients that people would pay me
53:28in February, get put on a wait list, I
53:30couldn't even work on their logos until
53:32November, but I was so good at
53:33positioning myself that people would
53:35wait for a Maria Went logo. They wanted
53:37it that bad because I like knew how to
53:39make them do that.
53:40>> And how were you booking them? Like were
53:41you I was posting in Facebook groups and
53:43then the call to action was to book a
53:46call and so I was just like comment I'll
53:48give you a free strate brand strategy
53:49sessions are what I call them. I
53:50reviewed the current brand like look
53:52here's the gaps. I'm literally it was
53:53the most unscalable thing. However like
53:55I hustled it up to six figures and then
53:58what happened is I had graphic designer
54:00friends and they were like Maria you
54:02were booked out what are you doing? So,
54:04I just started showing my friends how I
54:06was getting clients and then they
54:07started sending their friends to me and
54:09their friends to me and it grew very
54:10word of mouth and eventually I had more
54:13people wanting to work with me to get
54:15clients than I even did doing the logo
54:17stuff. And so then I made the full pivot
54:19into teaching people how to get clients.
54:21It was very specifically for like
54:22service based people like getting those
54:23like service based clients. And then the
54:25thing that got me to a million dollars
54:27and I was at a million dollars every
54:28single year very consistently for a
54:30number of years was I followed the rule
54:31of the five ones that I learned from
54:33talking. And so the rule of the five
54:34ones is something that you should follow
54:36if you want to get to a million dollars
54:38as quickly as possible. So if speed is
54:40your metric, this is the rule of five
54:41ones you follow. So you solve one
54:43problem for one target market with one
54:46offer on one platform for one year. And
54:50I started following the rule of five
54:51ones in November. And by May of the next
54:53year, so like seven months or whatever
54:55that was, I had hit my first million
54:57dollar month like run rate. Like so like
54:58$80 $80,000 a month. That simplicity is
55:01why it scales so quickly. Now, most
55:03people don't have the balls specifically
55:05to pair down their offers to just one
55:07offer. They have tiers of offers. They
55:10have different offers or they'll be on
55:11Instagram and other things. But I
55:13personally helped many students scale to
55:15over a million dollars now. And the ones
55:18that hit it are the ones that had the
55:19balls to cut off all the low performing
55:21offers and go all in on one offer. But
55:23let me tell you, all the energy that
55:25you're diluting over three offers or
55:26five offers is what's keeping you from
55:28hitting seven figures. And imagine the
55:30micro shifts in your marketing that
55:32happen when you know the end result is
55:33this offer. You It's just everything
55:35just gets so freaking dialed in. But
55:37that is the thing that's keeping you
55:38from seven figures. And so I tell people
55:40I'm like, "Look, if you want to go
55:41slower and keep your multiple offers,
55:42you can. It's totally up to you. You're
55:44the captain of your ship. You can sell
55:45your boat, make it take three times as
55:47long, but if you want to get to a
55:48million dollars quickly, you got to cut
55:49the low performers if that's your
55:51objective. It's totally okay if you want
55:52to take longer. And I don't mean that
55:53sarcastically. Like some people really
55:55do want multiple offers. But if you want
55:57speed, five ones." And you can always
55:59build on them. That's the thing. It's
56:01like you just That's a starting point. I
56:02wish I knew that. I wish I I actually
56:04listened to that advice. I feel like
56:06Evan Roy.
56:08>> We did not do that. We didn't do that.
56:10We didn't do it. We took a long route.
56:11We took a very long scenic route. It
56:13worked but it didn't work at the same
56:15time. So I definitely I feel like any
56:16entrepreneur listening to if like I if
56:18you're doing this great. If you're not,
56:19please do this. Like this is like
56:21fundamental.
56:22>> It's just in my experience it then sets
56:23you up very beautifully for the next
56:25stage which is seven to eight. That's
56:26the other thing is like there is the
56:28cost of how long it's going to take you
56:30to get eight figures. If you take longer
56:31to get seven figures, it's going to take
56:33you like 10 times longer to hit eight
56:34figures if you even hit it. And Michael
56:37Masterson talks about this in his book,
56:38Ready, Fire, Aim, which I highly
56:40recommend. The skills that you master
56:42and perfect at level one, stage one,
56:44where you're only selling one product is
56:47exactly what sets you up to hit eight
56:49figures very quickly. And so um I think
56:52even if you have taken the longer route
56:54to get seven figures, I would still push
56:55you to pair down and learn how to sell
56:57one product. I think learning how to
56:58sell only one product is fundamental in
57:01my opinion, not just to get to seven,
57:02but also to get to eight. It's a very
57:04important exercise all I think all
57:05entrepreneurs should do.
57:06>> Absolutely. Very quickly, like I I do
57:08want to talk about the fact that like at
57:10this point, you know, you've you've
57:11gotten this really big accomplishment,
57:13right? And I know that you had a bigger
57:15team and then you shrunk the team. Was
57:16this around that time?
57:17>> Yes. So, my team was very big when I was
57:19making about a million dollars a year,
57:21>> okay?
57:22>> And I just couldn't deal with it
57:23anymore. I had like 30 people would be
57:25on a Zoom call and I was like, "Who are
57:26these people? What are they? What is too
57:28many?" Right? So, my profit margins were
57:30abysmal and I just was like, "We need to
57:32simplify." And so, I had conversations
57:34with people. I let them all I let a lot
57:36of them go. You know, we do great stuff
57:37packages and stuff, but I just like I
57:39need to simplify. And ironically, we
57:41then got to eight figures with like
57:43three team members. And so that's how I
57:45was able to take home such tremendous
57:47amounts of money every month.
57:48Personally, my tax bill is millions of
57:50dollars every year. Personally, my tax
57:52bill is millions of dollars because of
57:54the fact that because I have a very
57:55small, tight team and a very, very
57:57scalable business model. We don't need a
57:59big staff to handle it, which I like.
58:00Although, I will say now we're selling
58:02to nine figures, I'm slowly, it's like
58:04barnacles, like you're slowly acquiring
58:05more people. But I've learned how not to
58:08build a team. And so even though we are
58:09bringing on more people, each person
58:11brings in a lot of revenue. I want every
58:13person on the team, you have to be
58:15bringing in a minimum of $300,000 a year
58:18in annual revenue at a minimum or at
58:19least have to see the direct connection
58:21to that in your role. And that's kind of
58:23like a bare minimum for me. I know
58:24people who are like, "Each person needs
58:25to bring in at least a million dollars
58:26in revenue." And I think that's a good
58:28thing to aim for. Bringing in $20,000 a
58:30year, you're just taking up my time.
58:32You're you're costing me some.
58:33>> So then I do think that like this is a
58:35really pivotal part of your story.
58:37>> Yeah. So, in let's see, Ellie was born
58:40in 2022
58:42and in the very beginning of 2023,
58:46unfortunately, I found out some stuff
58:47about my ex-husband that caused us to
58:49separate and get divorced. And rough
58:52timing, right? I'm 3 months postpartum,
58:54four months postpartum. So, I was very
58:56>> Yeah, I was very, very new. And so, um,
59:00and obviously it's like hard to talk
59:02about, but, um,
59:07yeah, I think I just was really, like,
59:09you're right, I had things going for me
59:10professionally, but then I was also
59:12adjusting to being single and then being
59:14a single mom, taking care of Ellie all
59:17by myself for a period, which he's much
59:18more involved now, but at the time, um,
59:20it was just me taking care of Ellie. And
59:22so the unsustainability of all of that
59:24came crashing and like the walls came
59:26caving in really fast. My breaking point
59:30was when I I would drive to drop Ellie
59:32off at daycare. I was like across town.
59:34It's really lovely daycare, but it's
59:35always hard. Drop offs always sucked.
59:37Sometimes when I would drop off at the
59:38daycare, if it had been a particularly
59:40hard emotional day, I would have to like
59:42literally take a nap on the couch before
59:44I could work and I I was just sleepy.
59:47And then when I would pick her up, she
59:50never wanted to go in her car seat right
59:52away cuz she had been separated from me
59:53all day. And then she didn't want to be
59:55separated from me again to be in the car
59:57seat in the back seat while I drove her
59:58in the front seat. And so I would sit
1:00:00with her in the backseat of the car just
1:00:02kind of like hold her on my lap for 10
1:00:03minutes and I was holding her like this
1:00:06and I just reached like full proper rock
1:00:10bottom and I was like this has got to
1:00:12change. I can't do this anymore. more
1:00:13wine
1:00:15>> because
1:00:17I could tell she wasn't getting
1:00:18everything she deserved.
1:00:28I I
1:00:30it was just so hard to see how much she
1:00:33like clung to me. like she was
1:00:35physically on me and I just had this
1:00:38like such a it was so um
1:00:42I saw so clearly in that moment how big
1:00:45my pride was. I didn't like that some
1:00:47parts of my old life had lost, right? My
1:00:50husband, my life as a married woman. I
1:00:52hated that I was a single mom. And so um
1:00:55I was trying to preserve at least some
1:00:57part of my old life which was my
1:00:58successful sevenf figureure business.
1:01:00And so I was trying to make it work. And
1:01:02it just got to a point where I was like,
1:01:03"This is so stupid. Like, I've got to do
1:01:06something that's better for her." And
1:01:07so, I felt that
1:01:10I had to die to the death of my ego as a
1:01:14sevenf figureure business owner and be
1:01:16willing to dramatically downsize to make
1:01:19sure Ellie had what she needed. It got
1:01:21to the point where I'm like, I am
1:01:22willing to just make I think like it was
1:01:24like $8,000 a month was like my
1:01:26expenses, maybe even less. And I was
1:01:27like, I'm going to figure out a way to
1:01:29make $8,000 with low ticket products and
1:01:32I'll just let the rest go. Like, I just
1:01:33need to be with Ellie Moore. I need to
1:01:35not be doing this. That's when I let
1:01:37people go. I finished out my contracts
1:01:39with my high ticket customers. I fully
1:01:42released and let go of the successful
1:01:44business. And so that was devastating.
1:01:48Um, but in the second month of doing low
1:01:51ticket, we hit $80,000 again. And then I
1:01:54did like $200,000 two months later. and
1:01:56then $400,000 and then you know $700,000
1:01:59I think the year after that and then I
1:02:01had my first million dollar month
1:02:02December of last year. The best part was
1:02:04I had all this free time. It was
1:02:06incredible but I think it all started
1:02:08because I made a decision that like I
1:02:10want a business that works for me.
1:02:11>> Were you fearful at the time at all that
1:02:13you were you know how you were going to
1:02:14manage
1:02:15>> I think at that point my confidence in
1:02:17myself from a sales and marketing I mean
1:02:18I was making a million dollars a year. I
1:02:20was I was like I bet I can find a way to
1:02:22at least pay our bills. Um,
1:02:24I weirdly feel a lot of pressure now
1:02:27because I'm the sole provider to like
1:02:30make sure I have good disability
1:02:31insurance to make sure like I have
1:02:33money. Like I live very frugally still.
1:02:35My lifestyle creep has not changed at
1:02:36all. So I still live in the same
1:02:37apartment I lived in before Ellie was
1:02:39born. I have to drive the same paid for
1:02:41car. Like I live on the same couple
1:02:43thousand dollar a month, not a lot that
1:02:45I did for a long time. And the rest of
1:02:47the money is just going into
1:02:47investments. So I have a number in my
1:02:48head that I want to see in my
1:02:49investments. And then I I want a house
1:02:51that's paid for in cash. And then I
1:02:53think I'll take a little bit of a breath
1:02:54because I'll know that no matter what
1:02:56happens to me for the rest of my entire
1:02:59life until I die, I will have enough to
1:03:01live on and Ellie will have enough to
1:03:02live on and like be fine and comfortable
1:03:04in the future. So I want to close here
1:03:07with the biggest lessons that I have
1:03:08learned from your story overall is
1:03:11simplicity is really the key to growing
1:03:14a business. You have definitely had many
1:03:15lives as an entrepreneur. You've had to
1:03:17reinvent many times. I find it very
1:03:20inspiring and empowering to see an
1:03:23individual like herself really
1:03:25graciously identified the priorities in
1:03:27life. Right now, I know that you've
1:03:28spoken a lot about it. It's Ellie. It's
1:03:30the business. You know, the anatomy of a
1:03:32dream is about living the life that you
1:03:34ultimately want to live. Like the
1:03:36ultimate dream, I think, is that by
1:03:38accomplishing your own, other people can
1:03:39live theirs.
1:03:40>> That's [music] right.
1:03:41>> And I see that in your story that you're
1:03:43now also accomplishing that and helping
1:03:45so many people accomplish their dreams.
1:03:47And I always tell people, [music] I'm
1:03:48not smarter or more clever. And I don't
1:03:50mean that in a self-deprecating way. I
1:03:52mean that in a like, there's nothing
1:03:53special about me. You can do it, too.
1:03:55[music] If I can figure it out, you can.
1:03:57And hopefully I can help you figure it
1:03:58out a little bit faster. And I just And
1:04:00I'm grateful every day for it. Thank you
1:04:02so much. Thank you. All right, guys. You
1:04:04know the drill. We're going to be diving
1:04:05into the anatomy of Maria's dream. We're
1:04:08going to be going over all of the
1:04:09principles that came up in her journey.
1:04:10And because there are so many, we're
1:04:13going to be putting a list of all of
1:04:14them right here. and we're just going to
1:04:17be touching on the few that we find to
1:04:18be the most important. And if there are
1:04:20any that you want us to go deep on in a
1:04:21future video, let us know. All right,
1:04:24let's dive in. So, the first principle
1:04:26that came up in Maria's story is to
1:04:28recruit superstars. Now, superstars are
1:04:30your employees, your seauite, and
1:04:32sometimes they are even your mentors.
1:04:34They're going to be the people who are
1:04:36going to increase your chances in
1:04:38business. Maria actually began doing
1:04:40this really early in her journey when
1:04:42she hired a coach. And she was making
1:04:44around $8,000 a year doing freelance
1:04:46graphic design gigs. It was around that
1:04:48time that she hired the coach for about
1:04:50$1,500. And you might recall she
1:04:52mentioned she had to sell her camera and
1:04:54she had to sell clothes to afford it.
1:04:56But this ended up being pivotal because
1:04:58that coach helped her put together a
1:05:00logo and website packages. She had her
1:05:02target a specific audience. And then I
1:05:04believe she also taught her how to run a
1:05:06sales call. and that more than doubled
1:05:09her income and then doubled it again.
1:05:11Ultimately, I feel like we just can't
1:05:12ignore this principle anymore. We keep
1:05:15seeing it in our previous episodes.
1:05:17Shiron Stuvata became a billion-dollar
1:05:19company after paying $10,000 that he
1:05:21didn't have, by the way, after hiring a
1:05:23coach. Charlotte Tardan created an
1:05:25insanely viral and profitable business
1:05:27when she hired a Tik Tok coach for just
1:05:29$300 a month. And she also signed up for
1:05:31the small business development center
1:05:32and found a mentor through that. and
1:05:34that was free. Meaning, yes, a lot of
1:05:37the people that we have interviewed have
1:05:38spent a lot of money on coaches, but
1:05:40that doesn't mean that's the only way to
1:05:41attain one. And I think the thing I'm
1:05:42realizing is that the most successful
1:05:44people, all of them tend to hire a coach
1:05:48before they are successful. And I've
1:05:50spoken about this before that you have
1:05:51to look at the anatomy of your dream
1:05:53like a sports team because you're the
1:05:56owner of this team. Now, you as the
1:05:58owner of this team, what is the first
1:06:00thing that you do? You'd recruit
1:06:02players, but you'd also recruit coaches.
1:06:05And the thing is, in the beginning of
1:06:06our companies or our dreams, we're
1:06:08wearing all three hats. But who the hell
1:06:10is watching what you're doing when you
1:06:12were on the field, whether it's in the
1:06:14form of an actual business coach or a
1:06:15mentor or a teacher? It ultimately needs
1:06:18to be someone who has done this before.
1:06:20We need to recruit them as seriously as
1:06:22we would a player. And speaking of
1:06:24players, I wanted to talk about the way
1:06:26that Maria actually approaches hiring
1:06:28her players. Now, the thing I'm noticing
1:06:29is that she's incredibly intentional
1:06:31about who she brings in and what each
1:06:33person actually contributes because
1:06:35right now, every single person on her
1:06:37team needs to bring in at least 300K in
1:06:39revenue is what she said or at least
1:06:41have a direct connection to it in their
1:06:42role. And I mean, how many times do we
1:06:44actually hire someone without knowing
1:06:47how much that person would actually
1:06:48generate for us? Because I think a lot
1:06:50of us when we approach hiring, we
1:06:53immediately go to what is the thing that
1:06:54I need and I really need this particular
1:06:57thing because then it'll allow me to do
1:06:58a bunch of other things, but ultimately
1:06:59we're not really actually asking
1:07:01ourselves is this role going to actually
1:07:03free enough time for me to do the
1:07:05revenue generating activities. In the
1:07:07early days of our business, I remember
1:07:08that we would have a very clear
1:07:10understanding more or less as to how
1:07:12much we had for the role, but we didn't
1:07:15necessarily have in mind like an actual
1:07:18number attached to what that role should
1:07:19bring, making it really hard to actually
1:07:21measure success in that role. Of course,
1:07:23like a sales position is super easy, but
1:07:25in other positions, it's really hard.
1:07:27And so, no matter what game you're in or
1:07:29what industry you're in, that should be
1:07:32our focus. Because when you do find
1:07:34these superstars, what's interesting is
1:07:36you don't need many of them. She talks
1:07:38about how she shrunk her team and then
1:07:40basically she really was able to get it
1:07:41to eight figures with just three team
1:07:43members. That's nothing. Kim Kardashian
1:07:45herself said that she builds skims with
1:07:46three people, which shows you that if
1:07:48those three people are the best at what
1:07:50they do and they actually hold their
1:07:53weight, you can get a lot more done
1:07:54compared to a big team who does not have
1:07:57superstars. So ask yourself this one,
1:08:00who is coaching you? Now, if the answer
1:08:02is no one, who's one person who has
1:08:04already done exactly what you're trying
1:08:05to do, even if they're only a few steps
1:08:07ahead of you, and what would it take to
1:08:09get time with them this month? Number
1:08:11two, for the next person you want to
1:08:13hire, can you draw a direct line from
1:08:16their role to revenue? If you can't, is
1:08:19that really the hire you need right now?
1:08:21Oh, and by the way, down below, we have
1:08:22included a downloadable worksheet where
1:08:24you can go through all these questions
1:08:25yourself and hopefully start putting
1:08:27these principles into action. Moving on
1:08:29to our next principle, which is
1:08:30strategic focus, which is basically the
1:08:32practice of narrowing your business
1:08:34around one clear direction, whether it's
1:08:37where you compete or who you serve or
1:08:40what you offer or what receives your
1:08:43attention so that your effort becomes
1:08:45concentrated enough to actually break
1:08:48through. Now, there are three ways to
1:08:50apply strategic focus and Maria, she
1:08:53does all three. Number one, simplicity.
1:08:57Number two, attention. Number three,
1:09:00niches. So, let's start with simplicity,
1:09:03which is this idea that the simpler your
1:09:06business is, the easier it is for it to
1:09:08grow, which is by far the most important
1:09:11part of the anatomy of Maria's dream.
1:09:13Now, you may remember her talking about
1:09:14the rule of five once, which was one
1:09:16problem, one target market, one offer,
1:09:19one platform for one year. The whole
1:09:21point of the five ones is ultimately how
1:09:24simple it is. Now, by following that,
1:09:26she hit a million-doll run rate in about
1:09:28seven months by simply simplifying. And
1:09:31then at the seven figure mark, she
1:09:34simplified again. And so, she spoke
1:09:36about how she had around 30 people on a
1:09:38Zoom call and terrible profit margins.
1:09:40And so, she made cuts and she
1:09:42restructured the company to have those
1:09:44three team members. And that led her to
1:09:46the eight figures. Now, the part that
1:09:47really stuck with me is when she was
1:09:48talking about how she simplified the
1:09:49business so much that it scaled on its
1:09:51own because most of us do the opposite.
1:09:52At the beginning, we tend to offer every
1:09:56service line, every feature. But what's
1:09:59worse, and I'm speaking from experience
1:10:00here, is if you see success from that.
1:10:03Because by the way, I am not saying that
1:10:06an unsimple business cannot grow, but to
1:10:09a point
1:10:11because then what happens is you
1:10:13successfully build five service lines
1:10:15and employees under each of them. And
1:10:17then you reach a point where you can't
1:10:18figure out how to scale. And you're
1:10:19wondering, what am I doing wrong? and
1:10:22I'm having to do it all myself. Shiron
1:10:23Shervasa talks about it like the more
1:10:25capable you are as an entrepreneur like
1:10:26technically speaking you could build a
1:10:29pretty successful business but at a
1:10:31certain point because you didn't build
1:10:32the infrastructure and the simplicity to
1:10:34run without you. Guess what happens?
1:10:36You're not going to scale for longevity.
1:10:38And one of the key reasons is because of
1:10:41attention which is another way to apply
1:10:44strategic focus. Now when it comes to
1:10:46attention we want to focus it on the few
1:10:48things that actually matter. meaning
1:10:50you're gonna say no to most things,
1:10:51which is someone with ADHD that
1:10:53literally feels criminal to my brain.
1:10:54But man, is Maria savage at doing this.
1:10:57You might remember Maria doing a time
1:10:58audit of her time where she actually
1:11:00goes through every single line item of
1:11:02what she does and she asks herself one
1:11:04question. Is this making me money? She
1:11:07focuses on the income generating
1:11:09activities first. And for her in the
1:11:11early days, that meant booking two sales
1:11:13calls every single day before she did
1:11:15any other work. And the reason this
1:11:16works is because Maria understood that
1:11:18attention is finite. And as founders, we
1:11:20so often treat our attention like it's
1:11:22an unlimited resource. I mean, how many
1:11:25times do you get to the end of the day
1:11:27and you feel that you did so much, but
1:11:29then also feel like you got nothing
1:11:31done? And it's because our attention
1:11:33went everywhere and absolutely nowhere
1:11:36at the same time. And so why do we do
1:11:37it? And I honestly thought about this a
1:11:40lot. And I think it's honestly just
1:11:42because that work that actually moves
1:11:44the needle usually doesn't feel good.
1:11:47[snorts] It's boring because it's the
1:11:50same thing over and over or it's
1:11:52uncomfortable because it generally comes
1:11:54with some sort of rejection or honestly
1:11:57no guaranteed payoff. And busy work is
1:11:59how we avoid it while still feeling
1:12:02productive. But people like Maria, they
1:12:04do not prioritize their feelings. They
1:12:06prioritize their attention and their
1:12:08time on the highest leverage tasks and
1:12:12that might mean other areas of your
1:12:14business might not be at their best and
1:12:17that is okay.
1:12:19Telling myself that that is okay because
1:12:21by doing everything we accomplish
1:12:24nothing which brings us to niches. The
1:12:27third way to apply strategic focus. Now
1:12:29I think the biggest fear with niching is
1:12:31that it'll limit how big we can get.
1:12:33Like if I can only speak to this one
1:12:34group of people, aren't I leaving money
1:12:36on the table? But look at Maria. She's
1:12:39really clear that she's for beginners. I
1:12:41mean, from an early stage, her niche was
1:12:44for new female founders. And today,
1:12:46she's often speaking directly to moms
1:12:47and the women that are building their
1:12:49businesses after their kids go to bed.
1:12:51And she's built an 8 figureure business
1:12:52with almost 200,000 customers. And I
1:12:56mean, honestly, that's not a small pond.
1:12:57And the thing is, the most successful
1:12:59people, they start with one pond and
1:13:00then they pond up, which is what Caleb
1:13:02Rosson talked about. I mean, look at
1:13:03Amazon. They literally started by
1:13:05selling books. But I think we look at
1:13:07how big these companies are now and we
1:13:09see the massive pond that they're in and
1:13:11we forget that they started in a much
1:13:14smaller one. Which brings me to our next
1:13:16principle, which is to build a personal
1:13:19brand. And obviously, this is a
1:13:20significant part of the anatomy of
1:13:22Maria's dream. A huge portion of it is
1:13:24when she began started posting online,
1:13:26not just to sell her courses, but to
1:13:28actually build an audience that knew her
1:13:29and trusted her and wanted to learn from
1:13:32her. In Caleb Rston's episode, we talked
1:13:34a lot about building a personal brand
1:13:36and how the strongest personal brands
1:13:38build the strongest associations. And
1:13:40ultimately what he was telling us is
1:13:42that we need to decide what we want
1:13:44people to think of when they hear our
1:13:46name and then pairing ourselves with
1:13:48that over and over and over again. Now,
1:13:51I want to touch on something that she
1:13:52spoke about, which is pitch content
1:13:53versus nurture content. And so, let's
1:13:55start with pitch. Now, pitch content's
1:13:57job is to make money today. Meaning,
1:13:59we're going to measure that in sales or
1:14:01booked calls or inquiries. And here's
1:14:03what's super important because every
1:14:04post for your business should have some
1:14:06sort of call to action, especially the
1:14:07pitch content, meaning the comment
1:14:09keyword, book a call, the stuff that we
1:14:11talked about with many chat is so
1:14:12important because this is how you're
1:14:14going to actually be able to track the
1:14:16results. We'll pop up some examples on
1:14:18the screen from Maria's content for you
1:14:20to see what I mean because this is where
1:14:22Many Chat is actually super useful. And
1:14:24overall, the whole goal with pitch
1:14:26content is it is very clear this is the
1:14:29information that she can provide you.
1:14:31This is what she can help you with and
1:14:32this is what you can purchase. When you
1:14:34see pitch content online, it's generally
1:14:36comment down below, comment this keyword
1:14:38and I'll send you this. Now, let's move
1:14:41on to nurture content. Now, the point of
1:14:43nurture content is to build trust with
1:14:45the people that you already have. Now,
1:14:46she mentioned that some of them do go
1:14:47viral, which is great, but again, that
1:14:49is not the point of it. In those cases,
1:14:52you are going to optimize for
1:14:53engagement, like comments with your
1:14:56community. Now, I want to look at posts
1:14:57of hers that I think are nurture cuz
1:15:00what I will say is this is that she's
1:15:02not posting random stuff. So, I'm going
1:15:05to pull up Maria's Instagram. I'm going
1:15:07to record my little screen here. For
1:15:10example, here right now, I'm going to
1:15:12read the caption for those of you who
1:15:13are listening and not looking at the
1:15:15screen. 22 months ago, I decided to
1:15:16start posting consistently online.
1:15:18Almost 400,000 followers later, people
1:15:20are starting to recognize me when I'm
1:15:22out and about, and I'm getting invited
1:15:23to better and bigger rooms. I make
1:15:25hundreds of thousands of dollars per
1:15:26month from the digital products I sell
1:15:28on Instagram. Trust me, you will never
1:15:29regret working to grow your Instagram
1:15:31account. So, basically, she's just
1:15:32talking and sharing like her personal
1:15:35like journey. She's literally sitting in
1:15:38business class with a Louis Vuitton. So,
1:15:41immediately we're associating her with
1:15:42success, okay? and she's talking about
1:15:45her success. Now, let's look at another
1:15:47piece of nurture content. This right
1:15:49here with her daughter, a week in my
1:15:50life as a single mama millionaire, what
1:15:53I did every day. She's posting things
1:15:54that ultimately strengthen her
1:15:56associations to her success so that you
1:15:58trust her more. So, even the diary post
1:16:00is technically proof that her method
1:16:02works because she's living the result
1:16:04her customers want because she's not
1:16:06just selling the skill, she is selling
1:16:08the lifestyle, one that she has. and
1:16:12that's why you trust her more. Now, yes,
1:16:14these posts, they are vulnerable and
1:16:16they are personal to her, but motherhood
1:16:20in her case is very tied to her business
1:16:22and her customer. So, she is speaking
1:16:25specifically about the things that are
1:16:27personal to her, but also to her
1:16:29consumer. And so, I think that this is
1:16:32when Caleb Rollson was talking about
1:16:33like don't just post your Starbucks
1:16:34order, okay? Don't just post these
1:16:36random things in your life just to
1:16:38engage with your audience because that's
1:16:40not engaging with your audience. When
1:16:41you are very clear about the
1:16:43associations about the thing that you
1:16:45are actually providing why you have a
1:16:47personal brand to begin with, you begin
1:16:49filtering everything through that lens.
1:16:51And so ultimately I think the biggest
1:16:53thing that we can take from Maria is
1:16:55that everything that she shares is not
1:16:57only authentic and true to her, but it
1:17:00is also relevant to her audience and
1:17:02very helpful for building trust. And
1:17:05like I've said, we're not just buying
1:17:07from brands anymore. We're buying into
1:17:09the people behind them. Which brings me
1:17:12to
1:17:14Gentry Quinn, who is one of our [music]
1:17:17subscribers and our dream shout out for
1:17:20this episode. Wait, hold on. There's way
1:17:22more products.
1:17:22>> I'm probably the worst QVC hoster ever.
1:17:25>> So, Gentry is an esthetician and a
1:17:27makeup artist and she created this
1:17:29incredible line of products. It's a
1:17:31restorative beauty brand for women over
1:17:3340. She runs it with her husband, which
1:17:35Roy and I can relate. And part of their
1:17:38story is extra [music] virgin olive oil
1:17:40straight from his family's farm in
1:17:42Italy. Audo, do you see that? Roy, do
1:17:46you want to try it? Roy, I have to have
1:17:47you smell this. Come here.
1:17:49>> Is that perfume?
1:17:51>> Can I take you for [music] the rest of
1:17:52the session?
1:17:54>> I'm blown away by these products. So, I
1:17:56will leave her details down below. Go
1:17:58give her some love. And if you have a
1:17:59dream or a business that [music] you
1:18:00want us to shout out on this show,
1:18:02there's a form down below in the
1:18:03description that you can fill out and
1:18:05you might just hear us talk about it and
1:18:07give this wonderful QVC style [music]
1:18:11ad for free. All right, our next
1:18:13principle is evaluating the right
1:18:15metrics, which is to measure success by
1:18:18the numbers that show whether we're
1:18:19getting closer to our dream and not the
1:18:21numbers that simply look impressive.
1:18:23Now, in the anatomy of Maria's dream, an
1:18:25incredibly important part of her success
1:18:27was the fact that she understood which
1:18:29metrics to focus on, and that was sales.
1:18:33Now, she tracks how much money every
1:18:36single piece of her content makes down
1:18:38to the story that went out at 7 a.m. And
1:18:40she's not the first person on this show
1:18:41to say that sometimes she makes a piece
1:18:42of content that gets low views, but gets
1:18:45very high sales. Now, it's not always
1:18:47sales. She said it could be inquiries,
1:18:49it could be signups, it could be clicks
1:18:50to your podcast, whatever it may be. The
1:18:53point is you have to be clear before
1:18:54posting in order to make sure you are
1:18:56evaluating the right metrics. And if the
1:18:59goal of signups or sales are not met,
1:19:01you need to try something new until you
1:19:03get something that gets you at least 10
1:19:05more than the last. So before you
1:19:07release your next piece of content or
1:19:09launch your product or make another
1:19:11investment in your dream, you need to
1:19:13ask yourself this. Number one, what
1:19:15outcome am I actually trying to create?
1:19:17And number two, which metric would prove
1:19:19that I'm getting closer to it. And after
1:19:21you do that, this is where you create a
1:19:23spreadsheet where you basically have
1:19:25your intention and the outcome, the post
1:19:28and the actual numbers that came from
1:19:30it. And this will allow you to see that
1:19:31if you set out for this to be a sales
1:19:33post, what did it actually convert to?
1:19:35And so that you are tracking it
1:19:37properly. And this leads me to our next
1:19:39principle, which is the volume
1:19:41principle. Now, this is basically what
1:19:42it sounds like. It's that success
1:19:44becomes predictable when you increase
1:19:46the number of highquality attempts that
1:19:48you make. Maria is the queen of volume.
1:19:52I mean, she literally said, "The more I
1:19:54post, the more I make." And now, in
1:19:56order to do this, she keeps the product
1:19:58simple. And then she puts all of her
1:20:00energy into getting it in front of as
1:20:02many people as possible. Here's the
1:20:04thing, cuz I think that a lot of times
1:20:06we get really caught up in the quality
1:20:08of our work. I know that we do. And I
1:20:10think that we really just have to be
1:20:11honest with oursel, especially in the
1:20:13earlier days of something. Quality
1:20:15really comes with reps. But I do want to
1:20:19make this clear cuz we hear the Gary V's
1:20:20of the world saying that we need to post
1:20:22300 times a day. And the truth is your
1:20:25volume doesn't need to be Maria's seven
1:20:27posts a day. It just needs to be more
1:20:30than you did last month. And this is
1:20:32where her 90day ramp came in. I mean,
1:20:35most people get really excited and then
1:20:37they post twice a day for, you know, a
1:20:39few weeks and then eventually they fall
1:20:41off and then at a certain point you
1:20:44don't trust yourself. I am speaking from
1:20:46my own experience on that. I have done
1:20:48that so many times before and Maria's
1:20:51approach I honestly like now that I'm
1:20:53actually doing it more consistently.
1:20:54Maria's approach is 100% correct because
1:20:56it's ultimately what worked for us which
1:20:58was that month one once a week same time
1:21:01you never miss. You start with the
1:21:03minimal amount that you actually feel
1:21:04that you can keep up with. And then
1:21:06month two to three times a week and
1:21:09month three up to five times a week. You
1:21:11can make the numbers however you want,
1:21:13whatever works for you. It's just
1:21:14picking a number that you actually can
1:21:15stick to. And then we do what Maria says
1:21:17to do and is that if we miss one in
1:21:20those 90 days, we have to start over. I
1:21:23loved this part when she was saying slow
1:21:25to build, slow to break. And of course,
1:21:28this doesn't just apply to content. It
1:21:29can be your outreach or your sales
1:21:31calls. The point is you don't have to do
1:21:33volume everywhere in your business all
1:21:35at once. You want to pick one area to
1:21:37strategically focus on and then build it
1:21:39up until the volume is there and there's
1:21:41a system behind it. And then only then
1:21:45we move on to the next one which brings
1:21:47us to finding the bottlenecks. Now
1:21:50finding the bottleneck is the practice
1:21:51of identifying the things that are
1:21:53holding your business back whether it be
1:21:55now or down the line. And in most early
1:21:58stage businesses the bottleneck is often
1:22:01the founder. The founder. Here's the
1:22:04thing. You're not going to fix it
1:22:04overnight. And this is why working
1:22:07backwards with bottlenecks is so
1:22:08important because bottlenecks don't get
1:22:11solved all at once. You have to pace
1:22:13yourself. Now most people say to hand
1:22:16off the most important thing first or
1:22:17the thing that's most timeconuming or
1:22:19essential in your business, right? In my
1:22:21experience, what usually happens is that
1:22:23you can't find the right person for
1:22:24that. And so you never really fully let
1:22:26go of it anyway, meaning you are still
1:22:28the bottleneck. That is why I think
1:22:30working backwards is a better way. So,
1:22:32you want to start with the lowest
1:22:34leveraged tasks and you want to work
1:22:35your way up. Now, in our episode, John
1:22:37Hoo, he talked about this where he says
1:22:39that you want to start with the things
1:22:40that you could immediately trust a
1:22:42talented high school intern to do. That
1:22:44being said, being a bottleneck isn't
1:22:46always a terrible thing, at least for a
1:22:48while. And it's because sometimes you
1:22:50need to understand the problem inside
1:22:52out before you can hand it off. Elon
1:22:53Musk, whether we like him or not, he
1:22:56does run very successful businesses and
1:22:58he is known for jumping into a
1:23:00department himself and sometimes he even
1:23:02works the line and he understands
1:23:04exactly where the problem is and then
1:23:06how to fix it. So once you understand
1:23:08what it takes, then you build a system
1:23:09for it and that's when you can remove
1:23:11the bottleneck by having someone else do
1:23:13it. So the goal isn't to get rid of the
1:23:15bottleneck immediately. It's to
1:23:16understand it, build a system for it and
1:23:18then let it go. Now again, you want to
1:23:20start by letting go of the simplest
1:23:21lowleverage thing and then work your way
1:23:23up until you reach the highest lever
1:23:25thing, what John called the magic in a
1:23:28bottle. And I really loved that. So for
1:23:30Maria, that magic was the writing. She
1:23:33said that she still writes every email
1:23:35and every caption and every carousel
1:23:37herself because that is what makes her
1:23:39the money. I want to backtrack here and
1:23:41I do want to talk about another
1:23:42bottleneck in Maria's journey and that
1:23:45was in her former business. And in that
1:23:47former business, the bottleneck was
1:23:49Maria. That business was her sevenfigure
1:23:52business, which was uh group coaching
1:23:55and high ticket clients. And it
1:23:57ultimately ran through her. So every
1:23:59single sales call needed her, and every
1:24:01single client meeting needed her time.
1:24:03Here's the other thing. Bottlenecks
1:24:05generally have more than one way of
1:24:06solving them. And so she had two paths.
1:24:09One was to keep the model and replace
1:24:11herself and train other coaches under
1:24:14her so that she didn't have to be the
1:24:15one in every single one of those
1:24:16meetings. And number two was to change
1:24:18the model, to change the offer itself so
1:24:21that it didn't need her time at all. And
1:24:23as we know, she chose the second one.
1:24:25And that's when she moved into low
1:24:26ticket products where it ultimately
1:24:29saved her time. A big part of that
1:24:30reason was her daughter. She didn't just
1:24:32want the fewer calls, she wanted her
1:24:35time back with Ellie. And so training
1:24:37coaches option one well honestly that
1:24:39would have taken longer and she wanted
1:24:41something simple enough to fit around
1:24:43being a mom which brings me to our next
1:24:46principle which is to know when to quit
1:24:48slash pivot. Now the thing that we can
1:24:50really learn from Maria is that in the
1:24:52anatomy of her dream she knew when it
1:24:54was time to pivot away from what was no
1:24:56longer working for her life. On paper
1:24:59yes it was successful but it wasn't what
1:25:03success looked like for her. Because for
1:25:05Maria, success actually looked like a
1:25:07business that gave her freedom to be
1:25:08with the most important thing in her
1:25:09life, which was her daughter. And the
1:25:11current model of her business was not
1:25:12allowing her to do that. And this is
1:25:14where I keep thinking about her saying
1:25:16that the point of a business is for it
1:25:18to work for us, not the other way
1:25:21around. There are three signs that it's
1:25:23ultimately time to pivot. There's no
1:25:24momentum, there's diminishing returns,
1:25:27or there's new information. And Maria's
1:25:30new information wasn't a market shift or
1:25:33a bad quarter. It was realizing that the
1:25:34life her business was giving her wasn't
1:25:37the life that she actually wanted, which
1:25:38is the whole freaking point. And let's
1:25:40be real, it's easier to pivot away from
1:25:42something that's failing on paper. And
1:25:44it's much harder to pivot away from
1:25:46something that is working, especially
1:25:48when you have a family to support. But
1:25:50we can't hold on to the dream so tightly
1:25:53that we forget why we built it in the
1:25:55first place. And for Maria, why she
1:25:57built it was freedom. her old business,
1:26:01as successful as it was, had taken that
1:26:04away. And sometimes quitting or pivoting
1:26:07doesn't mean giving up on the dream. It
1:26:10can mean getting back to it. And I think
1:26:12what made this decision possible for
1:26:14Maria is that she already knew what
1:26:16mattered most, her daughter. So when her
1:26:19business started taking her away from
1:26:20her daughter, the decision wasn't really
1:26:22about strategy,
1:26:24it was about her values.
1:26:27Which brings me to our next principle.
1:26:29which is to lead with values.
1:26:32Now, leading with values means not
1:26:34compromising what matters to you, even
1:26:36when there is something to gain. And if
1:26:38I'm being honest, when I was breaking
1:26:41down the anatomy of Maria's dream, I was
1:26:42so focused on all of the tangible
1:26:45principles that she basically talked
1:26:48about. But the more time I spent with
1:26:50her story, the more that I realized that
1:26:52her values were behind every single
1:26:54decision that she made. Her values are
1:26:56the northstar of her dream. And
1:26:59honestly, I think that if I were in
1:27:00Maria's shoes, I would have probably
1:27:02fallen into the trap of convincing
1:27:03myself that there was only one way to do
1:27:05this for my daughter, right? I would
1:27:07have probably told myself, "Okay, if I
1:27:08push harder now in this coaching
1:27:10business and I get there as fast as
1:27:12possible and I build all this wealth and
1:27:14financial stability, eventually I will
1:27:16be able to spend time with my daughter,
1:27:18right?" But Maria was so clear that the
1:27:19whole reason she was doing any of this
1:27:21was to be with her daughter now, not
1:27:23someday. So, that path wasn't really an
1:27:25option for her. And so, she had to find
1:27:27another way. And the thing is, as
1:27:29founders, we're faced with so many
1:27:30decisions. And the truth is, there are
1:27:33many right ways to go, but there's
1:27:34usually only one or two that are really
1:27:37right for you. And your values are what
1:27:40help you figure out which ones those
1:27:41are. So, you have to ask yourself, what
1:27:44are the things you're not willing to
1:27:45compromise on along the way? Which
1:27:48brings me to our next one, which is
1:27:50resourcefulness. Resourcefulness is the
1:27:52ability to find creative solutions with
1:27:54what you already have instead of waiting
1:27:56for what you think you need. When Maria
1:27:57decided that she needed her time back
1:27:59with her daughter, she didn't really
1:28:00have a playbook for the low ticket
1:28:02world. But she looked at what she did
1:28:04have and she had years of knowledge
1:28:06teaching people how to get clients. She
1:28:08had an audience that couldn't afford her
1:28:10high ticket offer. And she had two whole
1:28:13days a week, plus early mornings and
1:28:15late nights. So, she built a business
1:28:16that fit exactly that. And here's the
1:28:18thing, the most successful people, they
1:28:20don't just make do with what they have.
1:28:23They turn it into something better than
1:28:25the original plan. Like James Clear, New
1:28:27York Times bestselling author of Atomic
1:28:29Habits, he was spending over 20 hours on
1:28:31each article for his newsletter twice a
1:28:34week. So when he had a newborn baby, he
1:28:38didn't have as much time anymore. And so
1:28:40he had to ask himself, "What would I do
1:28:42if I only had 2 to four hours?" And
1:28:44that's how his 321 newsletter was born.
1:28:47And it now exploded. And it goes out to
1:28:503 million people every week. Or let's
1:28:52take Jaws, one of my favorite movies. I
1:28:54don't know if you guys know this, but
1:28:55the mechanical shark in that film, it
1:28:58kept breaking down. So Spielberg had to
1:29:00suggest the shark instead. That's why we
1:29:02don't see it. And so he suggested it
1:29:04with the barrels and the underwater
1:29:06shots and that iconic score, the
1:29:11okay, that whole thing was literally all
1:29:13of that to insinuate the shark was there
1:29:15without showing it because the literal
1:29:17shark they had did not work. And all of
1:29:21that is what made it so terrifying. It
1:29:24made it better. And Maria didn't just
1:29:27rebuild her business. She built a better
1:29:29one. It made more money and gave her the
1:29:31freedom that she actually wanted. Most
1:29:33of us, we do the opposite. We look at
1:29:35what we don't have and we use it as a
1:29:37reason to wait. And we actually caught
1:29:40ourselves doing this recently. We've
1:29:42been wanting to meet up with you guys
1:29:44and do some sort of meetup. And we met
1:29:46so many times to discuss the type of
1:29:47event that we wanted to do. We were
1:29:49pulling together numbers, looking at
1:29:50venues, all of this. And eventually we
1:29:52had to come to the conclusion that it
1:29:54just wasn't the right time. Every
1:29:55episode takes so much of our resources
1:29:58and ultimately it just felt like it was
1:30:02going to have to be a next year project.
1:30:05And then after making that decision
1:30:08I realized wait why does it have to be a
1:30:12big event? What could we do with what we
1:30:14have right now? And that's how the idea
1:30:18of a walk came about. And so we hosted
1:30:21our first founder walk in Los Angeles
1:30:24and we met with about 27 founders at a
1:30:27park and one of our subscribers, her
1:30:29name is Perky, flew from Denver to be a
1:30:33part of this walk. And I just have to
1:30:36say, Perky, if you're listening, thank
1:30:37you so much. Seriously, you are a champ.
1:30:40You are amazing and such an inspiration.
1:30:41and she wrote a whole Substack article
1:30:44that we'll link below about the walk if
1:30:46you want to hear more about how it went
1:30:48and from her POV.
1:30:50But I'm saying all of this because
1:30:54meeting Perky and meeting all of these
1:30:56founders was one of the biggest
1:30:58highlights from building this channel so
1:31:00far.
1:31:06I'm not going to talk about it too much
1:31:08because we all know that I tend to get a
1:31:10little emotional. But ultimately,
1:31:12what started as this big idea turned
1:31:15into something much smaller. But that
1:31:16smaller, simpler
1:31:19idea for what we did actually led us to
1:31:21having the ability to talk to every
1:31:23single person there and building a
1:31:26deeper connection. And ultimately,
1:31:28that's really what we want to do. And
1:31:29what I keep thinking about is that we
1:31:31almost didn't do it because we couldn't
1:31:32afford the version that we had in our
1:31:34heads. Which brings us to our last
1:31:36principle, which is mindset. Because
1:31:39mindset is ultimately the thing that
1:31:41gets us to be resourceful or not.
1:31:44Breaking down the anatomy of Maria's
1:31:45dream and sitting in front of her
1:31:46talking about how simple and scalable
1:31:48her business is, especially when our
1:31:52show is the most unscalable and
1:31:55complicated
1:31:57thing ever. I mean, literally, we are
1:31:59shooting and releasing one episode every
1:32:01single month. and all of the creative
1:32:04decisions and processes are mainly all
1:32:07running through me and Roy. And so when
1:32:09I look at what she's been able to build
1:32:10and the freedom that she's been able to
1:32:12attain from it, I would be lying if I
1:32:14would be sitting here and not disclosing
1:32:17to you guys that
1:32:19I feel so far from that. When I think of
1:32:23all the bottlenecks that we have and all
1:32:24the problems that we need to solve to
1:32:26actually get to the place where it's
1:32:27scalable and simplified, I feel like
1:32:29we're never going to get there. And I
1:32:31think there's something really humbling
1:32:33about doing this show where I come on
1:32:35here and I feel like I understand all of
1:32:38these concepts perfectly well, right?
1:32:41Sometimes I I talk about a few of these
1:32:42principles and I ask myself like why
1:32:44haven't we been able to apply that for
1:32:46ourselves?
1:32:49Like does that mean that what we're
1:32:52building at some point I'm going to have
1:32:53to completely start over from scratch
1:32:55and rebuild something else? And then I
1:32:58get terrified because I feel like I've
1:33:00already done that too many times. And
1:33:02then I get in my head over and over and
1:33:05over again in the process of documenting
1:33:08and studying other people's dreams and
1:33:10what they've done. And I feel like there
1:33:11is something that they have that I do
1:33:13not. But maybe I'm just not cut out
1:33:18for the the dream I have in my mind.
1:33:24But then I honestly I look at Maria and
1:33:26I think the thing that I really took
1:33:27from
1:33:31her is that that my dream isn't on the
1:33:34other side of me figuring out the
1:33:36answers. It's on the other side of me
1:33:38deciding
1:33:41that I'm capable of solving them.
1:33:46Like I have to really believe that. If
1:33:48you don't believe that you're really
1:33:50capable of solving that, you are just
1:33:52going to stare at the problem. And
1:33:53honestly, that is like I think what I do
1:33:58almost every day. And I'm sure if you're
1:34:01watching this
1:34:02and you've gotten this far, you are
1:34:04probably looking for answers, too.
1:34:07I think we look externally for answers.
1:34:09But I wonder how many of them are
1:34:13already
1:34:15within us. Like I look at Maria and she
1:34:18changed her model
1:34:20and she didn't have to go back to
1:34:23school. All of those answers were within
1:34:25her. She just had to trust herself
1:34:29to find the right way. She just had to
1:34:33trust herself. I think so much of the
1:34:35anatomy of our dream is getting out of
1:34:39our own way.
1:34:43think we want to become
1:34:46the successful version, but what if that
1:34:49successful version of us
1:34:52already exists and we just have to let
1:34:54them take over?
1:34:57And so when you don't know the answers,
1:35:00let them take over.
1:35:03When you don't know if what you're doing
1:35:05is going to work,
1:35:07let them take over.
1:35:10If you feel
1:35:12tired and burnt out and like you can't
1:35:14keep going, let them take over
1:35:21because I think that when we do
1:35:26I think that's when [music] we reach the
1:35:27anatomy
1:35:29of our dream.
1:35:36All right, guys.
1:35:38I will see you in the next one.
1:35:50>> Can I hug you?

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