I made $1,000,000 in 10 days. Here's what happened.
What's up everyone. I am, back, and it feels good it feels awkward, because i haven't, filmed. A video, filmed an episode, filmed whatever, in so long for those of you who follow me closely, on my socials, you guys have definitely noticed my absence, i haven't been posting. For over a month and i think it's the longest time that i've taken a break from social media, and, for those of you who are new here the reason why i haven't been posting, is, because, i just finished a really, big course launch for my business. And what i do is, not only do i do a lot of free content, here on youtube, podcast, instagram, my facebook group all the likes of that but i also have my paid content my gated content for those of you who want to take the next step with me for those of you who want to access, more premium level stuff it's within my signature program the bossgram, academy this is where i share the entire a to z of my followers, to client system where i really help you, build up a coaching business. Build up your instagram, help you convert your followers, into clients, and so on july 24th. All the way until august 2nd, i launched the third edition, of the boss gram academy, and it was a huge, launch the biggest launch that i have ever done in the two years that i've been in business which honestly i haven't been in business for that long and it completely wiped me out and so that's why i have been posting for a while but i'm back now, and today i really want to answer, a lot of the questions, that you guys have, about, that launch, it was a very successful, launch we did over a thousand. Sales, we enrolled over a thousand students i believe the exact number is a thousand and seventy, and this launch was a million dollar launch and i definitely, learned, so much from it it's the first time that my team and i have ever done something this big and, not only was it a huge success but there were also a lot of major, fails, a lot of mistakes, that i made that i definitely learned from and so, i'm gonna be answering a lot of the questions that you guys have for me specifically, i'm gonna give you a preview, of the questions that i'm going to be covering, for example what are the exact results, of this launch, how to have a successful, launch what are the components, that are needed, how long did i prepare, for this launch, what are the mindset, shifts that i need to make in order to have enough stamina. To, do a launch this big what did i learn, what would i do differently next time the advice that i have for you guys, so there's a lot of good questions, i'm even going to talk about paid advertising, today so if you're interested, in learning more about the intricacies, the behind the scenes, of a million dollar launch, then, definitely stay tuned because i'm gonna be sharing, everything, all right so the first question that i have here is what were the results, of the launch so, during those 10 days where we did the launch between july 24th. And august 2nd, we enrolled, 1070. New students to the program which is unreal, we generated. 1 million. 126. 191. Dollars, in total sales revenue, so 1.1, million, and eight hundred, forty seven thousand nine hundred and two dollars, in cash. Collected. Now some of you guys might be wondering, wait a second so what is it is it one point one million, or is it eight hundred, thousand, now this is a really great question. I mean you didn't ask but i'm just guessing that you have that question what you have to realize, is when you start selling digital courses, there are, two payment methods usually there is painful. And payment plan, painful, is usually when someone just pays for the entire program, in full right away in one go, and so for you as the course creator as the business owner, you get the money, up front right versus, a payment plan, it's really for those people who maybe, don't have the funds to do painful or maybe they just want to free up cash flow for themselves, and split the payments, in let's say three or four installments.
The 1.1, million, is including. The, payment plans it's including, the monthly, recurring, revenue, that we would get from those payment plans and when you're a program creator a course creator, payment plans are really really great, because, it creates that monthly recurring revenue, so that's kind of what i mean so, in total, sales it was 1.1, million and for cash collected, all the money that we collected, up front that went straight to the bank it was 847. 000 which means that we have about two to three hundred thousand dollars worth of payment plans that we'll be generating, on a recurring, basis, up until the last installment, so those were the numbers there now i did get some questions from some of you guys that wanted, like really. Intense numbers, like, conversion, rate attendance, rate, subscriber, list, all those things and i will be covering, that, later on so hang tight, but the next question that i do want to talk about which i think a lot of you guys are also probably wondering is how do you even have a successful, launch now i'm gonna be honest with you having a successful, launch and teaching it and doing all of that, is definitely not something that can be covered, in a youtube video or in a podcast, episode. A lot of that information, the tech setup, the marketing, the promotion. Everything. Is generally. Taught in a program, that spans like maybe six months or something, but i can tell you this i've launched, my program, three times already and each time was different, right the first time was my first time the second time, was a soft launch i barely talked about it and then this third time that i'm talking about now, was the biggest, you know promotion, strategy. Was there, paid advertising. I had a team, i had the webinars, i had all the things you know this was like a monster, launch for me at least but i can say, throughout, all three times that i've launched the program, there are three, elements. That i noticed, contribute, to their success, every single time the first one is social proof, which means people need to understand, or know, that your program can get them results, or that, you or someone that they can trust, because you've gotten results for other people in the past, or anything like that i'm going to talk a little bit more about that later on the second one is you need to have content, that nurtures, and builds demand for your product this is really. Ingrained, in the pre-launch, phase, and also, during, the launch period, where you are really planting, that seed, to your audience, members, that something is coming up you are really creating content that's making your audience realize, that they need your product or service and then during the launch you are creating content, that drives up urgency, for people to take action so content. Is something, that is very very important, or at least something that helps nurture your audience and builds that demand for your product, and then lastly. Traffic, so, that means actually getting eyeballs, onto your offer actually getting people to sign up actually getting, people to book a call with you to go on your sales page to whatever and again i'm going to talk more about traffic specifically. And numbers, specifically. Later on with these three things and i mentioned social proof content that nurtures and builds demand and traffic, some of you guys might be thinking, wait, don't you need like a rock solid, product, why didn't you mention, product or don't you need to have a sales funnel, a functioning, sales funnel yes. Having a good product, is definitely. Important, and having a sales funnel can definitely, help you scale up can help, you get more sales and all that but, i really. Want to explain. That all those things, may not be necessary, especially. If you're starting out and this is just based off of my own experience, of launching, courses, because what you have to understand, is that everyone. Starts, from, zero, not everyone, wakes up with a validated, product not everyone, wakes up, and has. The, money to spend, or all the resources, to create a robust. And very comprehensive. Sales funnel and i was there a year and a half ago so i'm gonna really, explain to you how i launched the bossgram, academy, for the very first time okay, and how i launched it was, i sold the sales page i really took so much inspiration. From. Elon musk, and i have another podcast, episode, where i talk about that and the podcast, episode, is called the difference between a course that flops, versus a course that makes half a million dollars and what elon musk has to do with it but in that episode, i really explain, how elon musk whenever he launches, something, he usually. Launches, the prototype. Of that product he gets demand, for that product first, and then he builds a wait list of people who will send him a deposit, and reserve, that product, even though the product whether that's the cyber truck or the very first tesla that he ever created.
Regardless, If it's created or not and it's genius, because. That way he's not wasting, money on manufacturing. These cars, that don't even have, valid. Demand, right and so instead he'll just introduce the prototype, sell the idea. Of that product. Collect the cash, which means that there is demand, there is skin in the game, and then he uses that cash, to build the product, and so when i launched, the bossgram academy for the very first time, i didn't have the course created but what i did have was i had a very solid, sales page, and i had some social, proof from working with clients, in the past, even though they didn't take the course, the fact that i've gotten results, for previous, one-on-one, clients, and also, i leveraged, a lot of testimonials. From my free content, as well, i had a bunch of screenshots, a bunch of gms, of people who would message me saying oh my goodness vanessa, thanks to your free content, i was able to, grow my instagram to 10 000 followers, i was able to sign my very first client and so i leveraged, that and i put it on the sales page to build, that social proof and so i didn't necessarily. Have, the product ready, and i also didn't really have a robust sales funnel at the time my first launch looks very very different, from my third launch the launch that we're talking about right, what we're talking about today my very first launch i just went on facebook live and i just, told people about my product i did three free trainings, and then, i just sent people to a checkout page i didn't have email sequences. I didn't have a lot of the fancy things that i have now and so that's why i firmly believe that the three core elements, of a successful, launch is social proof, content, that builds demand, in my case from my very first launch i had those three trainings. That i did on facebook live it wasn't on a fancy webinar, platform it was literally just on facebook, and also traffic. I, built an email list i built an audience, and all of that and that contributed, to my very first launch even though i didn't have, a validated, product, and instead. People, paying me people investing, in that very first launch then helped me create the product later on it helped me invest, in things like kajabi, it helped me invest, in, hiring a team member to help me deploy, some of the course assets, and all of that having, a good product, is still very, very, very important, and that is exactly, why. My very first launch, made. Six figures, right but you need to be able to repeat that so my very first launch to now my third launch my third launch has made a million, dollars, i have 10xed. The results. Of this program, how, because this program, even though when i first launched it wasn't completely, validated, it i, validated, over time those initial, students, who enrolled in the very first round, of the boss gram academy, they gave me so much feedback, i learned so much from that process, they gave me testimonials. And so i was able to build off of that i redesigned. Re-engineered. The entire program, launched it the second time and the second time that i launched it was in october. Of 2019. So my first launch was april 2019. My second launch was october 2019, and then my third launch, was july 2020. And so my second launch was more of a soft launch i didn't really tell a lot of people about it i just kind of had the funnel set up and we were making income from the funnel alone, and, that also, has made, over a million dollars, over time, as well and then now the third launch made a million dollars within, just those 10 days and so, that, in order to achieve that, that's when you truly do need to have a solid. Product, that gets people results, that gets you those testimonials, that gets you more social proof but, to answer the question of how you have a successful, launch i'm just having, some of you in mind who may be starting out, it's really.
You Having, social proof it's you, having. Content, that builds demand that markets your product that you know really creates that sense of urgency, that promotes your product. And, also, the traffic that you need because you need to still grow an audience and a lot of people think having a small audience is fine and i completely, agree having a small audience. Shouldn't, stop you from starting. However. You need to continuously. Grow that audience, so starting, small, is fine, but you need to continually. Grow, that audience, pool because. Over time you're going to exhaust, that pool of people who are already following you always always have to strive for growth and that's how exactly, i went from 100, 000, to a million, during those three launches. In between, and now my business in total, is at two million that's just something that you wanna keep in mind in when it comes to how do you have a successful, launch now before i move on to the next question i definitely wanna make sure especially, if you're someone who's interested, in learning more about content that creates demand, funnels, and the step by step of how i scaled, from working with 101, clients to selling courses, you definitely definitely want to check out. Www.followers2clients.com. I have a full 90 minute free training there where i really package, all three of these topics into mini trainings, and you can learn a lot of valuable stuff from there so definitely check out. Www.followerstoclients.com. If you want to learn more about what i talked about, in a more comprehensive. Way anyways, the next question that i have here is what were, my kpis. For the launch what were my key performance, indicators, now basically, for me, how i sell my program, is through, a training, it's through a webinar, and inside, this webinar, inside this training i give ton of value and i also give people a preview, of what they can expect from the bossgram, academy it really helps us to ensure. Both, the viewer and both myself, whether or not they'd be a good fit for the program, and so that's essentially, what a lot of course creators, do and so if you are someone who decides, to sell courses and you want to do free trainings you want to do all that to really warm your prospects, up for them to really understand, more about your program, the methods, that you use, all of that stuff then there are a few things that you might want to track beyond, just sales, and unit numbers and all of that because obviously. Revenue goals and sales goals are really important, but what's even more important to help you get to those goals is going to be how many people actually register, for your training, and of those people who register, how many people actually show up so that is your attendance, rate and of those people who show up, what's the percentage, of people that actually, take the next step that actually decide, that your program, is right for them and end up enrolling, in your program, and so for us the original goals that we had, for this launch is we wanted to do 500, 000 in revenue, so 500, new students that we would welcome with open arms into the program we wanted a conversion, rate of 5. And we wanted an attendance, rate of 60, so those were the original, goals that i had communicated, to my team i will admit that i was very very conservative. And it actually bit me in the ass later on and i'm gonna talk about why it's so important to not lowball yourself, when you're setting goals but just so that you guys understand more about the number side of things is, it's so important, to understand, your conversion, rate and your attendance rate because when you have those two numbers, you are going to be able to reverse, engineer, your goal, so let's do this together let's say my goal was, 500. New students, right now if i want 500, new students, and i know that my goal conversion, rate is 5. Then i basically, do basic algebra, and solve for x right if i know i want 500, new students how many people, needs to be at the training in order to convert five percent to equal, 500, people and so when you do 500, units divided, by 5.
That Will give you about 10, 000, people and so this tells me that okay in order, to have a five percent conversion. And in order to enroll 500, new people, this means that i need 10, 000 people. To show up, to my webinar, okay, and then once you have that number, you ask yourself, okay what is my goal, attendance rate and then you solve for x again so my goal attendance, rate that i communicated, to my team was 60. I was forecasting, that maybe 60 percent of people, who registered, which actually show up and so i do 10 000 attendees, divided, by a 60, attendance rate and that ends up giving me 16. 000, total registrants, so now it tells me that basically, in order for me to enroll 500, students, with the goals that i have which was a 60, attendance, rate and a 5, conversion rate then this means. I need, 16. 000 people, to register, for my training, and so during the launch i was really monitoring. The amount of people that were registering. For the trainings, because if i don't hit that number, then i know i'm not going to hit my goal and so that's why it's really important, when you go into a launch that you know your numbers. Really well, because when you know your numbers you know exactly, what to fix, in order to hit your goal so let's say for example, i know that my goal. Was 16, 000 registrants, and i'm seeing that only 5 000 people registered, then maybe, i need to do more paid advertising. Maybe i need to talk about my training more maybe i need to you know do more promotion, strategies, in order to get that number up because i know if i don't hit that number, then i'm not going to hit my goal, based, on the conversion, rate and the attendance, rate that i had set for myself, or, let's say, you have all these people register, and you meet your goal, but, you don't have a lot of people attending. You actually don't have a lot of people showing up then you know if you don't hit that goal that you set for yourself. Then you're not going to hit your end result goal which is 500, students enrolled, which is whatever revenue you want to make and so therefore, if you know that people aren't attending, your class, then you have to ask yourself okay, maybe something is broken, in my email reminders, maybe i need to send more emails to the people who said that they were going to show up, maybe, i need to do, another, training, at a different time to give people more options which is what we did in our launch so basically we had three, trainings, we had three original webinars, and we were seeing, that oh my goodness, we weren't hitting our attendance, rate so i'll tell you the numbers later but we weren't hitting the attendance rate and i was like oh my gosh holy crap like a lot of people said that they were gonna show up they didn't end up showing up and in our customer support emails we actually had a ton of people tell us oh the times don't work for me i'm in a different country i can't prioritize, it and so at the very last second i ended up actually hopping on youtube, and doing a public, training, youtube live i gave everyone the replay, because i knew that a lot of people couldn't, attend, the training based on our numbers and i knew that if i don't hit those numbers then we're not going to hit our goal as, the business owner it's really important that you are agile, that you know how to read your numbers, because you won't freak out as much and you will just be so logical, in your approach of where you need to focus on in your launch now let's say your conversion, rate is really low so for us we wanted a five percent conversion, rate and let's say the conversion rate is really tanking, let's say it's at like 0.5, percent or something like that compared to our goal it's really far off so that tells me okay so if my conversion, rate is really low, then this means, something is wrong with my training something is wrong with my positioning, maybe, my pitch, isn't really resonating, with people.
Maybe, People just aren't interested in the offer and i need to tweak my positioning, and messaging, maybe i need more testimonials. Maybe i need, you know better payment options, whatever it is now you know looking at your numbers that hey it's the conversion, rate that's not doing well that's suffering, and so instead of focusing, on promoting, the class more promoting your webinar, more you're instead going to fix the webinar, you're instead going to make it better, make it juicier, make it whatever you need because you know where to focus your efforts on and so that's why it's really important that you know your numbers, because, during the launch period you don't want to be focusing on the wrong things and for us in our launch the biggest problem that we had was our attendance, rate we had a bunch of people register, our conversion, rate was phenomenal. But we just didn't have enough people to actually show up because we didn't give, enough, time options and that's kind of the learning lesson that i had because we have a lot of audience members, that are from europe that are from asia that are from different parts of the country that just couldn't make it and so we pivoted, and we ended up doing, a youtube, live stream, of the entire training we gave it to everyone, even if they didn't register, because we knew that our attendance rate wasn't that great and so speaking of which let me tell you what our actual numbers were and all that so our actual numbers, is obviously, like i said earlier on we did 1.1. Million, in total sales, in which. 556. 000 were directly. From the trainings, itself, we did, about three trainings, plus one more bonus training on the last day publicly, on the youtube channel, our conversion, rate was 11. So our original, goal was 5, we actually doubled that and i have a feeling it's because, you know it's they were live trainings, we interacted with the audience and all that and so the conversion rate was much higher we changed the entire webinar, we improved it we did a lot of, value-based. Content, and so, you know you can definitely check it out at. Www.followerstoclients.com. To kind of see more of that in action that probably contributed, to why we had such a great conversion, rate because 11, is really great and then we had an attendance, rate of 36. So you see how the attendance, rate was not what i had anticipated. I thought, that 60. Of people, were gonna, show up, but no only 36 percent of people did and like i said we ended up having to, pivot, and so, that basically. Was, our numbers, and so let me just see how many people actually registered, we ended up getting 13, 000 registrants, in total which isn't bad our original goal was 16, 000, but because our conversion, rate, was a lot higher than we anticipated, almost double, we actually didn't need to have that many registrants, after all and so i just want to share this candidly, with you because i know a lot of people don't share this with new course creators with people who want to monetize, this way i think knowing your numbers just definitely changed the game for me when it comes to anything that i do in business, i am so logical, now, and i don't make decisions, based off of emotions, as much i really make decisions, based off of the pure data, that's sitting right in front of me and so i definitely want to empower you guys to understand, your numbers and even if you're not a course creator and you're, listening to this because you're just curious, to know even when it comes to your youtube channel even when it comes to your, instagram, like look at your analytics, your analytics, can tell you so much of what you need to optimize, and improve, in your strategies.
And In your efforts, and all of that and it's just, game changing, when you actually, know your numbers, all right so the next question that i have right in front of me is what did i learn from this launch, what would i do differently, what do i wish i did differently. Was it worth the effort, for some things and what would i drop for next time and so this is a really great question and there's definitely, so much that i can share, but, i will share the top three things that i think i really, should have done better in and the first one is i really wish, that i started, at least six months in advance, to launching, the program, and from starting, everything and if anything six months, honestly doesn't even seem like that much and i know some of you guys are shocked like half a year to launch a program. Absolutely. Especially, the type of launch that we did, that required, so much like operations, logistics. Marketing, paid advertising, like so many new strategies, that i was not used to doing because i'm just so used to just talking about something and then just putting it out there like this was actually a very intentional. Launch that we did and i really wish that i started at least six months in advance i wish i started like smack in january. And to be honest i had the intention. To start that early, but i was just procrastinating. And procrastinating. And procrastinating. So i'm a taurus, and i'm also an enfp. And for those of you who are tauruses, and enfps. You know that we are very lazy. We are very like all talk no action. So i'll be like yeah i'm gonna do all this stuff and then when it actually comes to doing it i'm like nope not today, not today i'm gonna push it i'm gonna push it back and we push it back i'm gonna push it back, to the point where this time for this launch we only really had like two and a half months to prep. Which is not great i really do wish i planned it in advance that i had six months of dedicated, work towards it because i feel like if i did do six months in advance i wouldn't have burnt out as badly, after the launch i wouldn't have compromised. My youtube channel my instagram, the traction that i was getting i really am kicking myself but it was very important for me to take a whole month off of my business just to recuperate. And get my energy back like i was not looking like this for a good solid, three weeks because i was just done because a launch, is very very exhausting, to be honest which is why i don't do live launches, often i think i'll probably just only do them once a year but it was just very exhausting, and if i had those six months and i have a list of things that i would do is, i would have planned my youtube, my facebook, my podcast, my instagram content, a lot farther in advance, i would have batched, everything, and so this is the key difference, between, this launch which was chaotic. Versus my very first launch that i ever did my very first launch vanessa. Back in 2019, she was so smart i was so smart i batched, all of my youtube content and so during the launch, everything was pre-planned, and scheduled, out even after the launch things were still being scheduled, out and so i didn't have to lift a finger on my youtube channel it was already running on its own and i also did a better job with just content planning in general whereas for this launch i was literally doing everything at the last second i didn't batch a single thing even for my instagram, content i was writing them the day of for my youtube channel i just gave up halfway. My podcast, let's not even talk about the podcast, like i didn't even post a single thing because. It was the least of my problems, like i had to figure out so many, internal, things with my team we had to figure out the webinars, we had to do all of that stuff and so my content, my free content, ended up suffering, as a result, and even, after the launch it took me a month to recuperate.
And Rebatch, everything all over again and so i really do wish that i had more time, to batch, every single thing, versus, chasing my tail, which is something that i like literally tell people not to do i ended up doing and i ended up burning out another, thing that i think within those six months i could have allotted more time for, is more time to train new team members and so during that time, we actually, lost a few team members, and we gained a few more team members but they were newer team members and it was like literally, smack in the beginning stages of our launch and so a lot of our time, was spent, obviously. Training these people which took away, from actually planning the launch, itself, and so if i had kind of anticipated, that sooner if i had hired people sooner, and not so close to launch period, then, things would have gone much smoother, and it would have been less chaotic, and so i definitely think i would have allotted, more time for that and just hiring people, way farther in advance, and not during launch season, another thing i would have done more of is doing more pr initiatives, and collaborations. And if i had planned things more in advance i would have been able to slot time for that but as you can see i could barely, keep up with my own channel so why the heck would i hop on someone else's channel why the heck would i hop on someone else's podcast, right and so if i had batched my content better, i would have had created more space to do more collaborations, with other people, which would then help me build my email list, build more exposure, for myself, grow my audience a lot faster and a lot wider so that it would set me up for success for my launch and so if you guys are planning on launching anything, you know six months in advance really plan out your collaborations. Because that's really how, you can grow your email list tap into newer audiences, that don't know you yet that haven't seen your offer yet and so i really wish that i had enough time to do that i didn't another thing that i also wish i did sooner was growing my email list right so if i had those six months i would have spent the whole half a year growing, an email list, with a new freebie, a new lead magnet, that would really help us get a fresher, audience, because for me i have not really spent that much effort, in list building, because i already had a really big email list and one of you guys actually asked me how many people are on my email list we have a hundred thousand people right and so i thought great i have 100 000 people on my email list i'll be fine but what i didn't realize, was okay but all those 100 000 people, they've seen this offer already they already know what bossgram academy is all about.
And So, i should have, spent more time growing that email list with newer audience, members who've never seen my offer before so that the launch would be more exciting for them and so i really wish that i did that, at least like three months in advance i actually ended up doing, list building activities, like three weeks in advance which is literally, barely any time and so i do wish that i built my email list a lot sooner and i highly recommend that you guys do that too another thing that i wish i did sooner, within those six months is running facebook ads a lot sooner and so i'm very new to facebook ads and we started running facebook ads maybe a month before. The launch, and it was just like test things out and see how i like facebook ads it was about testing, things but what i didn't realize, is that there's a lot of limited things that new facebook ad accounts can do and later on i'm going to talk more about facebook advertising. And was it worth it was it not worth it but what i realized. Is i originally, for this launch i wanted to, spend a lot of money in paid advertising, i wanted to spend a hundred thousand dollars on paid advertising, and to give you more contacts you might think like oh my god a hundred thousand dollars on paid advertising, that's a lot but what you have to realize is with facebook ads if you spend a hundred thousand dollars, and you can make a 2x, roi, or you could make a 3x, roi, on that so let's say for every dollar you put in you make three dollars back a hundred thousand dollars is so worth it if i spend a hundred thousand dollars and i can get three hundred thousand dollars back that's amazing, right and it doesn't matter if it's a hundred thousand it could be ten dollars if you could put ten dollars into something, and get fifty dollars back, totally worth it and so me in order to hit our goals, i, really wanted to spend more money on facebook ads however, because, our ad account, hasn't, been, doing ads or running ads for a while it's still a very brand new account facebook, capped the amount that we could spend and so we weren't able to do as much paid advertising. As i had wanted to and it was all because we weren't, that, old, on facebook like we were just starting out we were a baby account and so if you are someone who is planning to do paid advertising. For your promotional, marketing efforts then you definitely want to make sure that you have a much more, mature, account and you should start now, so you can build up that street cred with facebook, and so i really wish that we did that sooner, and i really wish that i tested facebook ads a lot sooner to get more data, to be more optimized.
And Everything like that and then the last thing that i wish i did, is i wish, that i hired, dmca. Experts. Sooner, and so what dmca. Experts, are is basically, people who will take down pirate, sites and all of that and so, something, that happens, especially, if you grow in business, obviously the target, on your back becomes a bit bigger and so what we found is that some people, knew that we were launching, and because they knew that we were launching. That means that we're going to get a lot of seo, we're going to get a lot of people who go on google and search bossgram, academy, and they wanted to capitalize, on that and so what happened, is that people created, fake websites, of our program. Right and they tried to sell it for free or for twenty dollars, or for fifty dollars, on the internet they tried to scam people, and so during the launch, when someone searched up bossgram, academy, they would see a bunch of these pirate sites they would see a bunch of these fake websites, claiming, that they have our program, and they would be scamming, people from that and they tried to capitalize, on the traffic that we had and so i was in a panic i had a meltdown, over it i couldn't believe, it and it was gonna hurt us and so i ended up having to hire, dmca. Experts, to remove those links and to do all that stuff, and i really wish that i had done that sooner, i wish i was more knowledgeable, in this topic, and i wish that if i knew that i had grown this audience to be this big that of course people are gonna come for me and i wish that i just equipped myself better in handling, piracy, and handling. Scammers. And all of that and that's something that i definitely was not equipped for during the launch and i'm still, learning new things every day of the crazy. Things that people do like people will create, fake accounts, or they'll impersonate, my team and then they'll dm my followers, and say i have bossgram academy, pay me 50 bucks or pay me 100 bucks and they just scam people, using my name the shittiest, part is that it's so hard to, do anything, any legal action around that and so that's why we went with dmca. Experts, that are specialized. In taking down piracy. And taking down links on google and all of that versus going to lawyers, because the lawyers couldn't really do anything about it and so those are things that i really wish that i did sooner and so instead of, six months my team and i we really only had two and a half months to prep for everything, and two and a half months just simply wasn't enough especially, starting from scratch and in my case i ended up redoing, my entire program, too so not only did i have to prepare for the launch itself. But i also. Re-engineered. The entire program for the third time and i'm really glad i did that because, at that time i had collected so many testimonials. I had collected, so much feedback from the program, that i knew exactly, what i needed to put into this third edition, in order to make it the best possible, program ever get people results even faster than they were already getting it and it was so worth the effort, but it takes a while to recreate an entire, program that has like 50, lessons, and not only the program itself but also all the other bonuses, that come with it that's probably why i burnt out right afterwards, because it was just a lot of work in a very short amount of time and i truly wish, and i truly recommend for you guys is to have at least six months, of prep work as six months of building the list six months of planning, six months of just doing the thing right versus leaving it to last minute and doing it in the last two months especially, if you plan on doing something, that is like a huge launch with a bunch of email sequences. Live trainings, testimonial. Campaign, paid advertising. Redoing, your entire program, you know it's a lot of work and so i really do wish that i spent at least six months in advance prepping for all of that to avoid burnout, and also to avoid being in the situation, that i'm in in which case my youtube channel i couldn't keep up with my podcast, i couldn't keep up with my instagram account i couldn't keep up with and now i'm just, you know eating up that mistake. Now the second thing that i have here on my list of things that i learned things that i wish i did differently, things that i won't do for the next time is i just wish i trusted myself, more and truthfully, this was my very first like big big launch with like fancy, funnels. You know 25. Emails, sent out, and, you know all the nine yards of everything paid advertising, blah blah blah fancy sales page and everything like that and because of that i obviously, like many of you, lean towards, mentors, i lean towards people who had, more experience, than me people who have been in the industry for longer because for me even though my results have been really phenomenal. I haven't been in business for that long and so a metaphor, or an analogy, that i really like to share with people, on how i always feel in my business is i feel like my business is like right here, and it's like a million dollar business it's doing really well i have like all the subscribers.
Followers, Whatever whatever like it's so successful, and it's a lot of things that a lot of people spend years, like 10 years to build so my business is here but my, myself, as like a person. As like a new entrepreneur, a new business owner like i'm like far behind, and i always feel like my business is like dragging me by the legs. And, it's not a bad thing it just means that i'm forced, to be in very uncomfortable, situations. Every month. And i am very forced, to really, learn as much as i can to keep up with the growth if that makes sense so imagine, if you are a mom and pop store, and, you all of a sudden get featured, on buzzfeed. And then you get like thousands, of customers. You get thousands of people, coming to your restaurant, but your restaurant, is like only equipped to handle like 10 people you would be freaking out and you then have to deal with like legal stuff you have to deal with benefits, you have to deal with hiring employees. Because you need employees, and contractors, aren't enough and then you have to figure out your books and your accounting, and, you have to figure out how you're going to scale, because, you know as a person, you working with 10 clients that's one thing but then all of a sudden you have 3 000 people in your program how are you going to deal with that you need to have a business infrastructure, that supports that i, am always, constantly in a position where i'm learning new things every day, as my business, grows. Really fast and it's a blessing, but it's also like really uncomfortable, and i just have to deal with it and so during the launch my imposter syndrome was like through the roof because i'm like oh my goodness like i have these big goals. And i am like so scared that i'm gonna do something wrong, and so i leaned a lot on other people i leaned on other experts, i leaned on mentors, and everything like that and i just took so much opinion, from everyone, that i lost my own opinion, on things and a good example, of things that didn't work, is, we decided, to do expiring, bonuses. Because we had heard that that was successful, for someone else, and what that was was basically. Instead, of all the bonuses, expiring, at the same time it would be like, on, monday, one bonus is gonna disappear, on wednesday, the second bonus is gonna disappear, and then on friday, the third bonus is gonna disappear. And so, theoretically. That's supposed, to cause more excitement, for people. That's going to cause a lot of people to, enroll. Sooner, rather than later rather than at the very last second, because they want to get those bonuses, and so that's one example of something that we try to do but, during the entire, launch, i was so confused. About how these bonuses, even worked i'm pretty sure i had to ask my team like 30 million, questions, every single time about these bonuses, because i couldn't really understand, the logistics, of it and my team wasn't also very sure and so for me what i learned is that if you as the ceo. If you don't understand, your own marketing, strategy, if you don't understand, your own promotional, strategy, then guess what your audience members, are not going to understand, it either and that's exactly, what happened, and so we did these expiring, bonuses, because i didn't trust my intuition.
To Pull the plug because i know that you know this was a successful, strategy, for someone else and so like no no let's do this but, i ended up pulling the plug on it three days into our launch because we had so many customer, support emails. Of, our prospects, being like hey i'm kind of confused, about these bonuses. Like when does it expire, do i get all this how come i didn't get this bonus, all that stuff and it was chaotic. And i felt chaotic, about it and so my biggest lesson is like i said number one if you don't understand, what's going on then your audience member isn't going to understand what's going on and simple is always better and then the second thing that i learned, was you know i should have trusted my gut and i didn't because i was just so, blindsided. By. Everyone, else's best practices. That i totally, ignored, my own philosophy. Of keeping things simple so for me i hate, over complicating, things i really love taking the simpler route of things as much as i can, and, this launch, a lot of the elements of it was far from simple because i wanted, to implement, a lot of the best practices, that other leaders in the industry, were doing, that worked really well for them but just didn't really work well for me but i did it anyways and so i really wish that i listened to myself, more, and i think for next time i will, beyond, just this specific example there were other things too that i really didn't listen to myself, on and i feel like the launch could have been a little bit more simpler, versus, having all these complicated, things but definitely, those expiring, bonuses, did not work well for us and it was just a really big lesson that i learned from that that i'm really glad that i learned now the next thing that i wish, that i did differently, was i wish i communicated. To my team, my real, goal and so like i said earlier on i told my team that the goal was 500, 000. 500, students enrolled. And all of that but deep inside, what i really wanted to do was a thousand new students enrolled, and i wanted to hit that milestone, of having a million dollar launch but, because this was such a big goal for me i didn't, communicate, that to anyone, and i kept it to myself because i didn't want to jinx it i didn't want to do anything like that but this ended up biting me in the ass real bad and what i mean by this is very similar to the example that i gave you about that mom and pop store if your business, is only equipped, to handle.
200, Customers. But then you end up getting a thousand customers, your business is going to break and that's essentially, what happened after the launch and is exactly, why i ended up taking a really big break, on the front end so that you guys didn't see me on youtube, instagram, podcast, facebook, because honestly. Managing my social media accounts was the least of my problems, if i actually told my team, hey listen, i want to enroll, a thousand new students i want to welcome a thousand new bj students into the program, then what we would have done is we would have turned all of our part-time, contractors. Into full-time, employees. To sustain, that we would have hired, more people, more positions. In order to do that we would have restructured, the entire business. So that we could accommodate. A thousand, new students on top of the existing, 2000, students that we already had but because i didn't communicate, those goals, my business was only built, for 500, students but we ended up doubling that and so what happened, is after the launch, instead, of me taking a break or instead of me you know doing youtube videos and podcasts, like i usually do i, really had to work with my team to figure out who are we going to need to let go who do we need to replace who do we need to turn into, a full-time, employee, instead of a contractor, who else do we need to hire and we're still in the process, of hiring new positions, so that we can, fulfill, that many people we also needed to increase people's hours and if i had just been transparent, with everyone of what i truly wanted, if i was, super confident, in the vision that i had for the business and i was transparent. With my team on the vision, then, all of that wouldn't have happened but now i am obviously. Eating up those mistakes, my team and i are working really hard to you know restructure, everything, to fulfill, all of the demand, and all of the success which is obviously, really great but you definitely want to plan for success, you don't want to just like do what i did and just hope secretly, that you'll be successful, and that you'll hit your goals, because if you don't plan for success, and actually, physically, plan, like hey if i'm gonna you know make this much or if i'm gonna enroll this many people if i'm gonna grow my account to this much or whatever, what is, my business strategy. To back that up because if your business strategy, if your, you know infrastructure.
Your Ecosystem. If it doesn't match the goal that you have and you actually hit that goal, well guess what your business will break, and this is a very common thing that happens, as you scale up, you know my business breaks, every like two months i swear, and so every time it breaks you just have to troubleshoot, you have to pivot you have to prioritize. And in my case i prioritized. Fixing my business on the back end, instead, of posting, instagram, captions, and being on instagram, story, now of course those things are still so important for my business, but during that time i had to make a decision, do i want to continue, posting, videos, while the back end of my business is on fire, probably, not, and so that's why i had to take that break and now that, we're slowly, settling, into, fixing all the things that are breaking, internally, in our business, i'm now, back on youtube, back on podcast, you know i'm, re. Rethinking, everything, and you know it feels good but i just really want to be transparent. Of the back end of the behind the scenes of what happens, when you do, meet your goals or when you exceed your goals you know seeing your goal celebrating, is one thing but then you've got to clean up all the things that you need to fix because of that success and that's gonna happen. Every time, you, grow it's like a pair of shoes right, let's say you are a size six, when at this time and then all of a sudden your feet grow, you know it's gonna be painful, your shoes are no longer gonna fit and you're going to need new shoes and so, in your business. Every, three months every quarter, expect, yourself to get new shoes and if you have to constantly get new shoes. You are in a good position my friend because that means you're growing, if you're in the same pair of shoes. You know. It's probably a sign that you're not growing right and so that's something that i wanted to share with you and something that i wish that i did differently. With this launch now moving on to the next question that i have here and that is how long did you prepare for this launch now earlier on i did say that it was like two and a half months of like, pure, work but i will, tell you that there were some things that i put in motion, before, the two and a half month mark so i have the timeline, here right in front of me in february. That's when we started to work with branda. So brandup, is the agency, that i outsource, a lot of my branding, to, i outsource, web design landing page design too, and so what brand up did what i asked them to do for me was i wanted to rebrand. The entire program, i wanted to clean up the logo, clean up the color palette, really rebuild, it because, bossgram, academy, was my very first course that i launched. And it really looks like an amateur, did the logo it doesn't look, you know like a million dollar program, and i really wanted to step into, that million, dollar, program, vibe that energy, and at that time i already had a validated, product a product that sells consistently. I have the money to back it up i have everything, it's validated, i want to invest in it and so i did and so brandup, and i we worked on a new color palette a new look and feel new logo, new design, new everything, and so they helped me with that in february. And then, they also. Helped me in april. To, design, and create the sales page so once we created, the finalized. Style, guide of all the logos, the icons, the color palette in april, that's when we started to kick start, the sales page project so for me i've been selling the boss gram academy with the sales page that i built myself, and obviously, it looks good but it doesn't give you that professional. Feel and i really wanted, to have that million dollar feel i really wanted, that luxurious. Feel of oh my gosh this is a premium, program, and especially, because something that i'm doing now is paid advertising. And really, putting my program, in front of colder audiences. I really wanted to make sure that it had a really polished look brand up was the ones that designed the sales page and the sales page is gorgeous. It is so nice and that's stuff that we kicked off back in april, and at the same time, i outsourced, a lot of the copywriting. To my friend purna, over at content, bistro, she is a conversion copywriter. And she helped us create a lot of the copy for the sales page and she did a lot of market research, on our students she went through the entire, program. She knew everything inside and out and she knew exactly, the right words to convey. The results that people would get in the program the transformation. All of that and she did that all on our sales page and so those were things that we started to do in april, and we ended up launching everything in july so you can do the math and see how long ago that was and then in may, in may was when my team and i started to do a lot of outreach, to our existing, students to get testimonials.
Because Like i said earlier, on one of the key factors, of a successful, launch is social proof and i really, knew that we had so many amazing, wins from our students from the past, you know year that we've had the program, we wanted to reach out to each student who has had a win in the program, and see if they'd be willing to send us a video testimonial. A written testimonial. All of that and so we already started that process, in may, to collect those testimonials. To put on the sales page and then we also created an instagram, account, called at the bossgram, academy, where we showcased, a lot of these testimonials. And also, screenshots. Of the wins that we got in our facebook group and so this was a very long process, to look at all the wins collect everything go through the entire facebook group screenshot, all the ones that we've seen, and it really taught me how important it is as a business to have a really good testimonial. Process. And it wasn't until i did this where i realized, that i needed a better testimonial, process, you shouldn't be asking your students for a video testimonial, like, months after they finish the program you should probably ask them the moment they have a win but we didn't do that and so it took us a while to really collect all the testimonials. Videos all of that get consent. All that stuff, and so we kicked that off in may, and not only this in may i also reached out to 99, designs, so 99designs. Is a company, where you can outsource a lot of graphic design work and i got 99, designs, using the brand, guideline, that brand up made for us 99, designs then helped us create. A presentation. Template, so a template, that, is a powerpoint, template using our bossgram academy, branding, and then in june, was when i used that presentation, template, and redid, the entire, bossgram, academy, program, so the entire, june i was sitting in front of the computer. Redoing, all the modules, redoing, all the powerpoints, redoing, all the videos myself, filming, editing, all of that all of june, and then july, 1st, was when we launched the bossgram, academy, 3.0, so the third version the updated version, to our existing, students, only so it wasn't available publicly, we only gave it to our existing, students, and this was such a good move on our part because our students, told us, what was missing, any links that were broken, things that didn't really make sense in the new program, and so they really were kind of like our guinea pigs our beta testers, on this program. And they gave us so much feedback that we were able to fix things before we actually launched it to the public and so when we launched the actual program to the public, it was already validated, by our existing, students and we had already fixed a lot of the major issues like missing links, missing worksheets, and all of that you know human error stuff so that by the time that the new students came in most of it was already very very polished. And all of that and so that's kind of the timeline, of how things happened, and then in july, that's where my team and i really doubled down, in terms of the marketing material, the webinars. The logistics, we did a lot of tech checking, so like a lot of tech run throughs, we wanted to make sure that the funnels, the tags, the webinar, platforms, that we were using were working it was just a lot of testing, at that point we. Really doubled down a lot, on making sure the emails, were written correctly, that the messaging was good during the launch period we had about 25. Emails. That were sent out it was a lot it was more emails that i've ever sent in my entire life and a lot of that is really thanks to hiring and outsourcing, as well so, we have our conversion, copywriter, purnam, who worked on us with this project she did our sales page she helped us with our emails and all of that and so when you have the capacity, to, outsource, as much as you can like outsource, the graphics, outsource the design, template outsource, whatever, if you have, the capacity, to if you have the financial, resources, too now obviously for me the very first time that i launched the bossgram academy, i did everything myself, but it's also why my first launch wasn't as robust, as this launch right here whereas this launch i had the financial, capacity, to outsource, as much as i could so that my zona genius, was really focused, on marketing the program promoting the program, and also creating the program and recreating, it and updating it that took me a whole month to do even if you, hire, one person, to help you out definitely do that i remember my very first launch i had one person helping me out and she helped me with uploading, things to kajabi, she helped me with you know fixing up my powerpoint.
You Know reviewing, any typos and already, that was such a big blessing, and so definitely outsourcing, is key here but i just wanted to give you the timeline, of how we prepared for the launch and the different focuses, that we had per month but like i said earlier on i really do wish that we had the full six months to be hyper intentional. I wish i spent, more time building my list planning my content. And i wish i didn't leave a lot of the bulk of the work like the logistics. The, marketing. The creation, or the recreation, of the program, within the last two and a half months you know that was really brutal and i really would not do that again all right another question that i have is what percentage, was ad spend and is paid advertising. Worth it, so this was my very first time experimenting. With facebook, ads and, like i said earlier on we did have an issue with how much we could actually spend on advertising, because we had a new facebook, ad account so i really wish that i had spent more time running facebook ads before the launch, so that we could build you know a street cred with facebook, and therefore, we could have spent more money on paid advertising, but to give you the numbers for those of you who are interested in paid advertising. We spent a total of seven thousand two hundred and seventy seven dollars on paid ads on facebook, only, and we ended up making, a hundred and fifty seven thousand six hundred and seventy three dollars. With facebook ads alone, meaning, our return on ad spend was. 21.67. X and our cost per lead for those of you who are like really into facebook ads was 3.90. These are phenomenal, results, to have a 21x. Return, on ad spend, is amazing, right so that's kind of like i said earlier if you can spend ten dollars. And make twenty dollars, back, that ten dollars is definitely, worth it right, and so imagine, if facebook, didn't cap us, imagine, if we could have spent more on advertising, instead of only being able to spend seven thousand if we could have spent fifty thousand a hundred thousand, and our, return on ad spend was 10x, let's say, we could have probably done a lot more but of course i'm really happy with what i have. So don't get me wrong but just letting you guys know that paid advertising, is really, really. Magical. If you really think about it because again you put one dollar in you make five dollars back right if you, have a validated, product if you have good messaging and all that so, back to the question of is paid advertising, worth it i definitely think it's worth it but only. If you have a validated. Product, if you already have good positioning. And good messaging, right so for a lot of you guys who are just starting out in business and you don't even know what your niche is you don't even have a target audience, in mind like you don't have a validated, product, it's gonna be very hard for your facebook ads to succeed because you're not going to know who to target you're not going to know how to optimize, your ads, right and your messaging, your creatives. You know you might not know what the right creatives, are what the right messaging, is to, get, a good return on investment and you might even lose money let's say and so that's why i would highly recommend, facebook, ads once you, do at least have an idea, of, who your target audience, is what your product is what is your unique selling point all of these things because that's what's going to actually make your ads a lot, stronger, but anyways, that is the details. Of, facebook ads, for those of you who are interested. Now before i move on to the next question two i also want to address, as to why i chose to redo, my entire, program. Right, so the reason why i decided to redo, my entire program, for the third edition is because at that point i had collected. A year's worth of data a year's worth of student feedback, and i knew exactly. What i needed to remove from the program to get people better results, i knew exactly what i needed to add to get people better results. And i also like i said because. I really wanted to step into the next version, of myself, i really wanted to step into the next level of my business, i just wanted to upgrade everything i rebranded. It so that it would look more polished, i also, invested, in better screen recording, software, so instead of recording things using zoom, i used screenflow. And screenflow, was able to record everything in 4k, instead of using, my, macbook, webcam, i ended up using, my, youtube webcam. To, do all the filming so that the camera that i use for youtube which is a 4k, camera, i upgraded to a better microphone, so when you actually go into the new program. It's an entire, elevated, look and feel, it really feels like a million dollar program, and that's why i decided, to, redo the whole thing because i wanted to go big you know go big or go home i decided to go big i decided to invest a lot of time energy resources, money into making this program.
A Very polished, program, and of course you don't get here overnight, and for me my journey, and you're gonna learn more about that journey if you go to. Www.followers2clients.com. And attend my training i share more about how i exactly, scaled up to this point but it took me like. Two renditions. Of the program, in order to finally get this third version which i am super super happy with right, it took me. Three attempts. Basically, to get to this level, and it took me a year and a half to get to this level as well of polishing, everything, and so your first program your first course your first draft. Is always going to look like hotmess, express, i look at my old program, versus what it looks like now and i cannot even recognize, the quality difference, but that never stopped me from launching, it and never stopped me from helping people through my program, and it didn't stop me from making the revenue that i need to make in order to, create, even better programs in order to reinvest, it back into my business, right, the million dollars that we made the 800, 000 cash collected that we made, it doesn't all go to me it goes to hiring new team members it goes to upgrading, equipment. It goes to taxes, it goes to so many things that elevates, my content, even more to help more people, it helps me increase, people's salaries, on my team that work really hard for me it helps us hire new people, a lot of things that go into business, now i also get a lot of questions sometimes, about profit, and how revenue, also does not equal profit and that's totally true, and so i'm transparent, with you guys in my business our profit is about 50 to 60, percent, which is really
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