Transcript

Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
You are listening to the Sigrun Show, episode number 397. In this episode, I talk to Claudia Witticke about how her first launch generated 15,000 Euro.
Welcome to the Sigrun Show. I’m your host Sigrun, creator of SOMBA, the MBA program for online entrepreneurs. With each episode, I’ll share with you inspiring case studies and interviews to help you achieve your dreams and turn your passion into profits. Thank you for spending time with me today, building an online business takes time. I share with you proven strategies to help you get there faster. You’ll also learn how to master your mindset, up level your marketing and succeed with Masterminds.
Today, I speak with Claudia Witticke, who participated recently in my SOMBA Accelerator program, Claudia owns a fabric shop and had been doing sewing classes offline. By joining SOMBA Accelerator, she started doing online courses and built her audience. This episode, she talks about how her first launch generated 15,000 Euro. Before we hear about quality launch success. I want to remind you that this week we’re running the free five day online course, how to succeed in the next normal. It’s not too late for you to join. All the recordings are inside our free Facebook group, Selfmade Success in Online Business, and there are a couple of more live sessions coming up. I hope to see you inside the group. Go to the show notes at Sigrun.com/397, where you will find a link to sign up for the five day course, How to Succeed in the Next Normal. You will also find links to Claudia Witticke.
I am so excited to be here with Claudia Witticke and talk about her amazing launch. This was your first launch, right?
Claudia Witticke:
Yes, it was. Thank you for having me Sigrun.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
You have suing classes and until recently they were all offline and then you couldn’t do them anymore. What happened and how did that feel?
Claudia Witticke:
At the beginning, it was okay. I wasn’t allowed doing sewing classes anymore from the beginning of March, 2020 on. At the beginning, it was okay because it was just like a short holiday and there was still my shop running and we are still producing some things so that was okay. Then I had to close the shop too, and then we weren’t allowed to produce anymore. Of course, there were no income anymore and I’m also in charge for my employee. I had decided to do something about it. There were also people learning how to do stuff and things like that and would like to improve, especially in the time when they were staying home during corona. There was definitely something to do.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
Yeah. Yeah. A little bit in the beginning, like, “Oh, okay. I have to close, but then, Oh, I really… It’s closed then I can’t do it.” Yeah?
Claudia Witticke:
Yeah. Essentially, in Italy, production, they’re also closed. They’re suddenly no income anymore, not one cent anymore. I had to do something.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
It feels that you’re so positive, Claudia. Did you just feel that you’ll figure this out and it would all work out or were there moments of despair and thinking like, “Oh, this is not going to go well.”
Claudia Witticke:
Well, of course there were moments of despair where I was… How should I figure out it and when my shop’s arrived this period, but then I decided to believe in the universe. If I go ahead and do something, there will be a way. I don’t know which one and how does it work? I was sure it would figure out, so I just decided to go ahead and do something.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
Yeah. You did something and you decided to join one of our programs, which we called at that time Online Turnaround. Now, we’re renamed it to SOMBA Accelerator and you just came in and we started with creating a short term offer. I taught you guys how to basically go quickly out there without a sales page or a launch or anything. You right away took that opportunity and went along. What happened?
Claudia Witticke:
Yeah. I wrote it, amazing offer for my customers I had, and I put it on my website, just no proper landing page. Just put it, just a copy out there and wrote an email to all my customers and put it on my Facebook page and told them about the possibilities, did some discovery calls, not many, but some. That lead, there were 10 subscribers.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
You immediately sold 10 spots?
Claudia Witticke:
Yes, in two or three days. Your program had already paid off.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
That is fantastic.
Claudia Witticke:
I was really happy about it because it gave me the best confidence that I can do it. If I found one participant I will do in future too. I certainly know there would be a way.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
You had a proof of concept three days, you made the money back in the investment that you made and the program had barely started. Then you learned how to do a proper launch. How did that go?
Claudia Witticke:
It was an amazing time with a lot of emotions and ups and downs. I had to learn all this technical stuff from being totally offline. It was quite a lot of work. I did homeschooling with the kids running the online shop and in the evenings, I did all the tasks you gave us. I definitely would like to do a proper launch. I managed to get 900 sign ups for the webinar, which was amazing.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
Amazing.
Claudia Witticke:
Yes. I was getting really nervous about the webinars and then the webinars didn’t went well because of lots of crazy things happening that evening. There was a big thunderstorms, so a couple of times the internet crashed. There were some people in the webinar not being happy with her stuff and unsatisfied. They started a shit storm during the webinar and so they started a huge discussion.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
Basically everything that people are afraid will happen in a webinar, happened to you on your first webinar. It’s good. It’s done.
Claudia Witticke:
Yes.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
You survived and you’re alive and you’re still here and I’m talking to you. That’s a good lesson for anyone who is worried. It all happened to you. It was probably horrible in the moment, but what did you then do?
Claudia Witticke:
I stayed focused during the webinar and decided not to focus on that people messing around and did the whole thing. Interesting was that all people stayed during the webinar until the end. About 450 people stayed until the end.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
You had a 50% show up rate, which is already amazing, another amazing thing. They stayed until the end, despite internet going out and some weird people making a shit show. That’s amazing.
Claudia Witticke:
Yeah. I did make my first sales during the webinar, even though I was really happy about it. After the webinar, I was, “I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to talk to people who are so unsatisfied, so annoying.” I was really, really down. It was like, the webinar was on a Thursday and I tried it. I didn’t do nothing. I was just like, “Oh, I don’t want to get up and go out there.” Then I had all these lovely people writing me from, other people from the wrapping and the group, your group from the program. They were so supportive and then I decided, “Okay, I go and stand up and go for the open cart period and do my best and sell as much as I can.” Then I go there and did it. I was really happy. I sold 17 spots for really high price for sewing classes. I was really, really happy about this. I was so proud of mine that I managed to get up and stand up and go ahead and just don’t stay in bed and “Oh, no, I’m not doing this anymore.”
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
Yeah. It’s so easy to give up. The hardest thing is to actually stand up and say, “No, I’m doing this.” you did the right thing. You gave yourself a one day break where you felt sorry for herself.
Claudia Witticke:
Yeah. I definitely need to discuss.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
Then you got up as it let’s do it. 70 spots, high price. What does that mean in terms of revenue?
Claudia Witticke:
I had about 15,000 euros revenue from all classes I sold and I also saw an upside and downside. I made a bit more than 15,000 euros in 10 weeks.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
That is great. Is that anything in relation to what you were expecting?
Claudia Witticke:
No. My hope was I would make back the money for the program.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
Okay. You had already made that back in three days.
Claudia Witticke:
Yeah. Then was my goal just to go ahead and make a proper launch and get some money to invest in my company to grow. That was my goal, but I never, ever dreamed that I would make a fixed five figure launch. My first proper launch though, I was really, really happy about this.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
Yeah. Fantastic. Since then, you have continued. Have you launched again, or are you currently in the launch?
Claudia Witticke:
I haven’t launched again yet, but I’m currently in the launch. During [inaudible 00:11:12], there are not so many sewing classes and I need some time to get organized again after corona. I got a travel freely during the summer and I managed to double my email list. I’m in the middle of the launch now.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
Yeah. That’s exciting. What is your goal now? Now you’ve already done a launch, five figure launch. What’s your next goal?
Claudia Witticke:
I would love to have an overall of 100 participants in all classes during the fall and yeah. It figures I’m not sure yet because I have some cooperation with [inaudible 00:11:55], so I definitely hope to double the revenue.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
Yes. Yeah. Our 30 K launch is coming up.
Claudia Witticke:
I hope so, yes. I’m doing the best.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
I know you are.
Claudia Witticke:
There are already more than 50 people on the waiting list, so they’re just waiting to get something.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
How is your business going to look like moving forward, the online versus offline. Now, you’ve completely gone online and you’ve shown yourself and anybody else and also those who are listening or watching, that you can easily have a six figure business selling sewing classes online, but how do you envision your business?
Claudia Witticke:
My vision is to combine this online business with my local fabric store because I’m living in a tiny village and we just need this local stores to survive. For the people out here, and I would love to combine this. I saw this works really, really well. My vision is to also innate young mothers to take part in sewing classes who can’t go away during the evening, or especially here in the mountains, live in a tiny village far from the next sewing class. That’s my mission that all these lovely woman can take part in a sewing class. I would love to build up more sewing classes, more different topics. Hopefully next year I get some other trainers. That’s what I would love to do. Yeah. I have to fix the internet problem.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
Yeah. You have an internet problem with the location you’re in. You’re in North Italy. They speak German where you live.
Claudia Witticke:
German, yeah.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
Type of German. The internet has got good, but otherwise you would love to stay there, help the location or, be location dependent in some ways, and then have your online courses. It sounds like you are wanting to build an academy online.
Claudia Witticke:
Yeah. It’s a dream of mine, but I need some time. My kids are still not grown up, so they still need me. I think I’m in a good way. There are many ideas and I have a great, amazing employee who works with me very closely and she’s doing great things. I think there’s coming a lot and I’m staying behind the workers around here who installed a proper internet right now.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
You are advocating for better internet and saying, “Hey, I have a important business good for the local economy, bring a good internet.”
Claudia Witticke:
Yes. They’re already working on here, but it’s not as easy because we are surrounded by a lot of mountains. They are all above 2000 meters high. It’s a bit tricky.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
It’s a bit tricky, but I love that you are advocating for the local community, the local economy. At the same time, you are inspiring other women around the world that here that you can actually do this from anywhere in the world and in any type of industry. Because as you said, sewing online courses are typically low priced, but you have raised your price too.
Claudia Witticke:
Yes, I have. I raised my prices about between three and four times the normal sewing class. Yeah.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
Just this year, during a recession.
Claudia Witticke:
Just this year. Yes. You encouraged me to do this and it feels good. It really feels good. It feels right. It wasn’t that hard to explain this price to my former clients and they enjoyed the service and they love that they get all the fabric and the material they need, I include. They really love it. They are willing to pay the price and they love the personal support. Yeah. It wasn’t that hot, as I imagined.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
Yeah. That’s a good inspiration for someone because these doubts tend to come up all the time before you actually do it. Then in hindsight, you’re like, “Oh, that wasn’t that hard.”
Claudia Witticke:
Yeah. For all of our participants, they are so much more motivated if they pay a bit more and it keeps the group a bit tinier. I had a really great engagement between the participants and they started talking about each other and helping out each other. It was really, really great. I only want to work with motivated people. I don’t want to work with people who always moaning and blame others for their problems. I don’t want to have this people. That’s a good way.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
It’s a self selecting thing by raising your prices.
Claudia Witticke:
Yes.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
Claudia, I am sure you’re going to make your academy, not just a dream, but a reality sooner than later. You are inspiring a lot of women and also your children and other children that they can go off to their games too. Thank you for sharing your story Claudia, and I wish you all the best for the launch you’re in right now.
Claudia Witticke:
Thank you, Sigrun. Thank you so much.
Sigrun Gudjonsdottir:
Go to the show notes at Sigrun.com/397 to sign up for the free five day online course, How to Succeed in the Next Normal In Online Business. There, you will also find links to Claudia Witticke. Thank you for listening to the Sigrun Show. Did you enjoy this episode? Let me know that you listened by tagging me in your Instastory or Instagram post using my [inaudible 00:18:09] Sigrun com and the hashtag Sigrun Show. See you in the next episode.