Transcript
Sigrun:
You’re listening to the Sigrun Show, episode number 407. In this episode, I share my path to a million dollar online business and case studies from three women who are all on the path or have passed the $1 million and their online businesses.
Welcome to the Sigrum 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, uplevel your marketing, and succeed with masterminds.
Today, I speak about my path to a million dollar online business, full of ups and downs and how I streamlined a path for my clients so that they can achieve million dollars in a few short years and savings in both time and money. I will share three case studies from women on the path to a million dollars, and some of them have even surpassed that.
Before we dive in, I want to remind you of the upcoming weekend bootcamp on November 28th and 29th. In less than 48 hours, you will create the right offer for the right people and be able to sell it right away. Go to the show notes @sigrun.com//407, where you can find the link to sign up for the live bootcamp.
When I started my online business seven years ago, I had no idea that I would seven years later have a multiple seven figure business, or that I would achieve a million dollars in revenue in less than four years. I didn’t even have those aspirations. I didn’t even see myself as someone who could achieve that. I saw other people do it, but I wasn’t there yet. I hadn’t even started. I was throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping that something would stick. I had done an online business course in 2013 and a year later, I hadn’t even started. To be honest, it was embarrassing. I was getting frustrated with myself and it was actually out of frustration that I finally pick the final theme from my website and started to write my first blog post.
I gave myself a deadline of two days after switching the theme of my website five times, yet trying to be the perfectionist, but that doesn’t really work when you want to move forward, perfectionism doesn’t help. And to be honest, the perfect website doesn’t make you money. It is just wasting your time. And maybe it’s pretty to look at, but it actually doesn’t make you money, not the website itself, but I didn’t know that I was throwing spaghetti at the wall, hoping that something would stick.
So after doing all these website rounds and writing a few blog posts, it was January 2014 and still, I hadn’t really started my online business, but I was finally frustrated enough with myself that I knew this was the time to just get going, finally get started and put myself out there. So I created my first freebie because I thought that was the first thing to do, everybody was telling me that I need an email list. And in order to get people on my email list, I need to create a freebie. There was no talk of figuring out the right offer or the right client, or just getting it out there. Nope.
I was thinking of freebie and building an email list. So that’s what I did. In hindsight, I know it’s what’s not the right thing, but at least I was moving a little bit for it. I created a freebie around organic Facebook page reach, something that it didn’t want to be known for, but I had done it for myself in those early days of 2014. And I thought, this is a great freebie. I created it. 70 people signed up within a week. That was awesome. And then I put the freebie out there and I realized, this is not what I want to be doing. So I retracted it again.
Of course, those who had signed up for the freebie got it. But I decided not to advertise it further, to put it into my drawer and come up with something new. In March, I came up with something new, how to find the right business idea, basically how to find your true passion and the right online business idea in seven days. I basically created a seven day challenge. Now we didn’t use the word challenges at the time. It’s kind of funny because they’re so popular now, but it was just for me, a free seven day course that I decided to create basically with my audience.
Aways the day before I created the assignments and the day after I released them and people got going and actually they got the intended results and that made me ecstatic. Now my big mistake was there was no offer at the end of the seven days. I had all these people, 134 people signing up for my seven day challenge as you call it now, and I had nothing to offer them. And I bet I could have sold someone something, but I didn’t know, I was throwing spaghetti at the wall, hoping that something would stick. Funny now when I think of it, but quite frustrating at the time, because I just didn’t know how all of this worked.
I didn’t know what I should be focusing on. I was focusing way too much on building my email list without making an offer. I was constantly coming up with the next freebie and the next freebie, writing blog posts, and then starting to do webinars middle of the year. I started doing weekly webinars. My email list grew and grew and grew, but I wasn’t making a lot of money. I luckily got a project doing a website for a business friend, but that’s had got nothing to do with the business that I was building, which was business coaching.
And I was helping others build their businesses funnily enough, but I didn’t know how to build mine. It was a frustrating time. And still I had these milestones or feelings of success in between when a lot of people were interested in a freebie or in a webinar, or when another person booked one hour business coaching. The first one booked March 26, 2014, and I celebrate that day every year. But by September of my first year in online business, already after nine months throwing spaghetti at the wall, hoping that something would stick, I had an email list of 1500 people, but not much more to show for it. I had some revenue, but it was up and down and selling single sessions, or a little bit of my online course that I had created out of that seven day challenge that I did earlier that same year.
There was not much revenue coming in and I thought to myself, something is not right here. I have an email list with 1500 people. They seem to like every webinar that I do, but they’re not buying anything. Well, maybe the problem was that I didn’t because I’m an offer.
Yes, I was still totally lost how this online business worked. And I was working on the wrong things thinking I was working on the right things and definitely keeping myself very, very busy. Now it’s easy to be busy without doing the right things and actually moving forward. So in the first nine months of my online business, things were moving very slowly in hindsight, as I see it today. But then I can tell you stories like this and make sure that that doesn’t happen for you.
Finally, in the fall of 2014, I hired a business coach for six weeks who taught me how to launch, which is exactly what I wanted to learn. And it’s still my favorite thing that I do in my business today, is launching. And it can be so easy once how to do it. If you don’t know how, it’s frustrating.
So I learned how to do it and I wanted to sell an online course. Although my coach was telling me, let’s start with one-on-one. I ran Facebook ads, got 600 people to sign up for my launch webinar. Offered my online course on the webinar, the one that I have not created yet, yeah. Never created an online course, always sell it first. Luckily I did that because only one person bought. I refunded the person and realized I had to do something differently.
I wrote an email about my up and down path of the last nine months, and still being able to make some money and build a substantial email list for that time. And then I offered online business breakthrough sessions, 90 people booked. And for the next three weeks, I was busy talking to these 90 people and offer them free advice. The thing is, when you talk to so many people, someone is going to buy something from you. Basically the people tell you what they want from you. What if I had done that nine months earlier, wouldn’t my business have looked very much different? I’m absolutely convinced of that. Not that that’s the recipe for everyone, but I saw that just by talking to people and figuring out who is really my ideal client and what can I really help them with, The sales came in effortlessly. I made 27,000 in four weeks. And the last three months of 2014, I made 55,000.
I didn’t feel I was throwing spaghetti at the wall anymore. Something was now sticking. I felt I had found my formula. Now I was selling one-on-one and not online courses, but that was okay. I realized that I had to take a step back and really get to know my ideal client and what I could help them with. So for the next months, and for a whole year, I was mostly doing one-on-one coaching. First, I started with six sessions at 1500, then 12 sessions at 3000. And then gradually I increased my prices as I got booked out, sold out.
And yes, there’s a limit to how much you can grow with one-on-one, but I definitely grew as much as I could. By the end of 2014, I’d made $72,000. And I kept on doing one-on-one the following year. And it was not as hard as before, I didn’t have to have 90 calls to sell coaching sessions. No, I would send an email to my warm list that I was nurturing with regular newsletters and still weekly webinars. And from time to time, I told them that I had a spot available, or that my prices were increasing. And then a few more big things came in and then I kept on getting one-on-one clients.
I felt like I had a plan. It was not the plan that I wanted forever, but the spaghetti throwing wasn’t really there anymore, but I wasn’t working with a coach. And I think I could have done things differently if I had. Now, I’m not the person who has regrets. So I’m not saying this with a feeling of regret. I’m just saying it more for someone who is in those shoes right now, you might not be throwing spaghetti at the wall anymore, but there comes a point where you get stuck again and then it’s so good to be surrounded by like-minded people and someone who has gone that path before you. So it was the experience of my first one and two years in online business, that I created a program called, Samba.
Because I realized people need help with those first steps. In the beginning, you need someone to tell you exactly what to do, when to do it, and how to do it, and not overwhelm you with information, just enough information to take the next step. And once you’ve taken the next step, you need a little bit more information to take the next step and so forth. What I was fighting with in my first year of online business, was too much information, I knew almost too much from watching a lot of people, from taking a lot of online courses, but that was my Accuplacer heel. I couldn’t really move forward. I didn’t know, should I start with this or that? Or is it this one? And that was the spaghetti throwing feeling.
Now, it eventually went away, but it took me a year and it couldn’t take me just 10 weeks if I had had someone to hold my hand and tell me what to do, when to do it, how to do it, in which order to do it. In my second year of online business, I realized it was time to scale up. And I think that’s main reason most people go into online business, you know that you can eventually work less and earn more by scaling up. Selling single sessions or even coaching packages, is not scalable, and at some point you’re working too many hours and sometime for too little money, because you’re not able to charge enough by the hour. It could be your mindset. It could also be what you’re selling that is hard to sell at a higher price, but even in business coaching or marketing, where we can definitely demand higher prices, there is still a limit to what you can charge.
And so by July, 2015, I was finally ready to offer group coaching. I had been ready for probably six months before, but again, I didn’t have a coach. I wasn’t in a program. I didn’t really know how to put it out there, that I was not ready to sell a group program. And when you don’t know how to do it, you do some mistakes. I remember in January, 2015, I ran a 21-day challenge, Stay on Track. My promise was that you would get more done than ever before in the next three weeks. Basically you would do at least as much as you would do in three months in three weeks. And yes, I kept my promise. People got a lot of things done in three weeks.
And then at the end of the challenge, what should you do? Remember my mistake? You should make an offer. And of course I did. I made an offer for my first group coaching program, but I just made one post in my Facebook group. I didn’t send out emails. I didn’t have a launch list. I didn’t know who was really interested in taking things to the next step. I didn’t offer discovery calls or strategy calls. So one post doesn’t sell. And that’s why that failed.
In April, I did something similar. Again, I think I made one post in one email. So I made progress. I did two things instead of one, but people typically need seven, eight, even up to 20 touch points until they buy. So when you think about that, one or two posts or one or two emails are not going to do the trick when you want to sell something. And I know the typical rejection is, I don’t want to send so many emails. I don’t want to make so many posts, but that’s how our brain works. Just think of an ad on the TV. I remember when I moved to Germany, 20-years-old and started to watch TV, and I saw ads on TV for washing powder, for instance, and I’d seen it probably 20 times. And then I go to the shop, what do I buy, the washing powder from the TV, because I didn’t know any other brands. There were different brands being sold in Germany than in Iceland. So I relied on advertisement.
And it’s the same thing with your ideal client, they’re relying on you to advertise what you have to offer. And if you just advertise it once or twice, sounds like you’re not so into it. And I guess that’s where I was, but I also didn’t have anyone telling me how to do it any differently. So I was probably still throwing spaghetti at the wall and hoping that something would stick. So we were admitted in July, 2015, I finally, finally I was ready to get going. And I was on holiday in Iceland and I got this idea, I’m ready for a group coaching program. And even though people think they cannot sell in July, I’m going to prove I can do it.
I drafted the sales page, my virtual assistant set it up and off to the races. During my holiday, I basically launched a group coaching program without a challenge, without a webinar, without a three-part video series, just through several posts in my Facebook group, several emails, but I followed through, fortunate and the follow-up, I didn’t give up until I sold my spots. My original plan was to sell six spots, but I ended up selling 12 spots in my first group coaching program. That was total win. And I felt I was onto something. So I sold another group coaching program a month later. But then I only sold, I don’t know, was it four spots? I was a bit disappointed there, but that’s when you launch too quickly, something too similar, and most of the people already bought. So that’s where I learned from my mistake too, is that you can definitely sell without any fancy launches, but if you’re selling too many times, your email is trice out, however big it is. And you need to make sure that new people come onto your email list and you nurture them until you make the next offer.
I run my first group coaching program and I loved it. And from there on, I started to run masterminds. So I was selling masterminds in the fall of 2015, but I started to neglect my email lists. And if that’s something that I want to remind you off, you might already be in business for a while and your email list is okay size, but then there comes this plateau. For some reason, every time you launch you add people to your email list, but then afterwards they unsubscribe, or you clean up the less than remove them. And somehow it hoovers around the same mark for a long time. And that’s, is going to stall your sales at some point, it makes selling that more difficult when your email list is not constantly growing.
There is something about our psychic too, always want to buy something that’s new and fresh. So for some reason, it’s easier to sell to people who are relatively fresh on your email list. They have been there for a while, but not too long. Most people buy from us in three to six months. If they’ve been on the list longer, it’s very unlikely that they buy again, they might be friends or lurkers or freebie hunters that they’re just going to sit on your list forever. So you constantly need to be adding people to your email list. And I’ve had a few of these plateaus in my business for the last seven years. And I just want to encourage you to make sure that it’s not happening to you because I can feel it. Even if we always have our launches, it always is more difficult when our list hasn’t been growing steadily for the time period before.
We are now until 2016, I had doubled the revenue in 2015, to 164,000, and I felt on top of the world to be honest. But I wanted to scale with quality, make sure that my business grows, that I can help more people. And I was getting a bit frustrated not to have a signature program. I saw a lot of people have a signature program. Now a signature program is the one program that you’re known for, majority of your revenue can come from it. But I didn’t have one. I was selling one-on-one coaching and group coaching. And I was in my third year of online business. I felt now this increasing frustration, like why do I not have a signature program?
Now you can create an online course in a heartbeat, that’s the easy part, but is it the course, the program that you really want to be known for it? Does it have your formula, your method, your process? And that’s where I was getting stuck on. I think all of 2016, business wise I felt stuck internally. I was growing again. I doubled the revenue of my business focusing mostly on groups, but internally I was wondering what to do with over a hundred webinars I had created in the last few years. The webinars alone were worth something, I was actually running a membership site with my webinars and there was a Facebook group and a monthly call, but I had just a hundred people in it. I never had launched it properly and I wasn’t enjoying it. It was not the way I want to help my clients. I knew there must be a better way.
And so this is not something you see the outside. You saw me having launch successes. My mastermind groups sold out all the time, but internally I was struggling to figure out what is my signature program, and how did the webinars fit into that? The epiphany came in January, 2017. I had sold out all my mastermind groups for 2017 over two months period, from November, 2016 to January, 2017, had I sold mastermind groups for 230,000. So everything was sold out for 2017. And I had been in a mastermind of 2016. I joined another mastermind in 2017. And then the coach asks on the first call, what we’re proud of. And I’m like, “I’m proud of selling all my mastermind groups. Everything is sold out for 2017.” And then he asks me, “And you have nothing else to sell now?” And I realized I had nothing else to sell, and that’s not good when your business is growing and you have capacity and you have people on your email list that possibly want something from you. And now everything is sold out.
And this is when I had my wake-up call, and it doesn’t have to take three years. I start with my clients in their first year of online business to create their signature program. But I haven’t gotten the right help from the very beginning, throwing spaghetti at the wall, hoping that something that was sick and it was only in my fourth year of online business that I created my signature program, and how it happened, was funny. I had been agonizing over how to use my over a hundred webinars and how to create a signature program. And suddenly in that moment where everything was sold out, and I get this question from my coach, I realized what it is. It’s a 12 months online business program and it’s called SOMBA, Sigrun’s Online MBA. The day of the webinar, I always do a webinar after my launch just to share with people how my launches have gone, or I do a podcast episode now.
So on the webinar, a lot of people were signed up that were curious. They were curious about my previous launch, but they were maybe looking for something to buy from me. And that what a lot of people don’t realize, there are constantly people on your email list. They want to buy something from you, but if you don’t make an offer, they will not buy, so simple.
So there, I had this webinar with everything sold out and just on the day of the webinar, we quickly put up a simple sales page for this new idea of Sigrun’s Online MBA. And we had a little outline of what this would entail. And I said, “You can join this new program. It’s going to cost 2000. The next time I open up the doors, but you can now join the inaugural class for $1,000.” And through this soft launch of one webinar and an additional webinar did a month later, I had 50 people join. So I made another 50,000 and I finally kicked off my signature program. And that’s how easy it was when I finally figured it out. But it doesn’t have to take that long. I have my clients in less than 10 weeks create their signature online program. And they’re starting fresh in online business.
I’ve taken all my frustrations and put them into programs, so people are not wasting time and money, and most of all, not throwing spaghetti at the wall, hoping that something would stick because that’s still what I was doing. So I started with Samba and the first official launch was in June. And then I did this real proper launch, it was actually really my hundredth webinar on exactly that day. So that was fun. It was a celebration of the hundredth webinar plus the launch webinar for SOMBA, the first one, the first official launch. And I decided to keep the price $1500. So I still could say to people, it’s going to go up to 2000 next time. And my goal was 100,000 and I think we were at 96,000 when the card close. And I was so disappointed. Of course, I was happy that we almost achieved the goal, but when you have a goal, you want to achieve it.
So the next few days we had a few more people joining us. So I actually did make the six-figure launch and was very proud of that. Last minute we decided to about affiliates. And that has been a great blessing for us to work with affiliates who are actually our students, our clients who know me and my progress very well. And they have been a fantastic help over the years. Typically, you do not start to work with affiliates until you’ve actually launched something yourself. You’ve proven that your program works. You’ve proven that you can launch without the affiliates. So I do think this was a little bit too early, and I wouldn’t recommend anyone to start to work so early with affiliates, but they can be a great asset once you have a proven concept, a proven program, a proven launch method, and then you add affiliates to the mix and the best affiliates are people have done your programs themselves.
I have worked with affiliates that have not done my programs and they’ve never, never been good affiliates. Now, I know there are exceptions out there and people often tell me, “Oh, you just need one big affiliate and dah, dah, dah.” That has not worked for me, not too [inaudible 00:29:41]. And so I would urge you to work with your own students. They’re going to be the best help.
2017 was the year that I made the million dollars. And this episode is about my path to a million dollars. So I’m not going to talk about everything that’s happened afterwards. There are other episodes for that, but basically by August, I had made 340,000, which is the same amount I made in 2016. So I was only one third there. I still had two thirds to go to reach the million, but I had decided that this was going to be the year I made the million. So here’s what I do. I did launch a podcast in August 2nd, 2017. I had my first live event, September, 2017. I had spots for 90 people, it sold out. And I decided to do another live event in January, 2018 because… And that sold out again. But when you do a live event for the first time, you don’t know how many people are actually going to sign up.
So I am glad I only have spots for 90 people. And then I offered people to already join my mastermind programs for 2018. And my VIP mastermind group sold out in one day. So a lot of things happened in August and September, which fueled a lot of revenue, but I was still getting quite nervous if I would achieve this goal. And I started to do something that I really, really think helped me. I would write down at least once a week, if not twice a week into my notebook, my goal, how much was left to achieve the goal, was it, were we 300,000 away or 200,000 away, or 100,000 away? Then I would list all the programs that I had available. I had still a retreat to sell. I hadn’t started to sell mastermind, retreat Iceland, 2018. I had other mastermind groups that were open. I could, pre-sell something, that’s what I’ve recommended to a lot of my clients, actually, one of my clients who just reached the million about two weeks ago. Steve was also about 100,000 away from the million or even less.
And I told her, just pre-sell something that starts next year. And that’s a great trick that you can use right now. So if you’re not really thinking of launching something big for the rest of the year, pre-sell something and you can do it with a simple weapon or a simple information call or a weekend bootcamp, like we are doing soon.
So there I was writing in my book regularly and I got closer and closer and closer. And I really think that helped. And I don’t call this manifestation anything, it’s just like, I’m really keeping the eyes on the ball. I’m not throwing spaghetti at the wall, hoping that something would stick. I have a plan. I can see that I’m getting closer and closer to my goal because I write down what’s left and just click closer and closer. It was a very nervous day, December 31st, 2017, because I achieved my goal just before midnight. And I think you can make it easier by starting earlier, but it was exciting. It was fun.
So based on my path to a million dollars, I achieved it in four years, but there was a lot of spaghetti throwing at the wall. There was a lot of un-clarity of what to do next. The reason I really achieved the goal in 2017 was I finally had a scalable online course. It is hard to achieve the million dollars with a group program or one-on-one coaching. I’m saying it’s hard, it’s not impossible, but you have to have a scalable program.
Now it doesn’t have to be endlessly scalable, but it has to be scalable in a way that you can work less and earn more, that you can have more people with it costing you a lot more of your time. And that’s why I’m helping my clients create a scalable program as soon as possible, even when they join me right away. So we’ve actually changed SOMBA, because of my own path. And because of the way I saw my clients work in the SOMBA program, SOMBA is now SOMBA Kickstart and SOMBA Accelerator. SOMBA Kickstart, you create your first or next online course, and build your list, and learn how to sell all in 10 weeks.
If I think about how long it took me to learn all of that, it almost, almost makes me want to cry because it definitely took me more than a year, or maybe even two years to get the knowledge that people can now get in 10 weeks. So in SOMBA Kickstart, you learn all of that. A lot of people create their signature program. Now in SOMBA Kickstart, we tell everyone create a four week online course first, but many people changed it later on into eight week or 12 week program. And then it becomes their signature program.
And then in SOMBA Accelerator, I teach people how to market and sell an online program. It could be one-on-one coaching. It could be group coaching. It could be the online course they created in Kickstart, but it doesn’t have be, it’s a standalone program. But this is the combination you need. You need to have a scalable online course and you need to learn how to launch it, how to sell it. And with that combination, you can absolutely grow faster and easier than I did. And there’s no spaghetti throwing at the wall.
I want to tell you about Ingrid, and then we’re going to listen to her, of course. Ingrid, she joined in January this year, she was doing one-on-one coaching, but she didn’t have an online business. She didn’t have anything scalable. She had basically in her books, zero online business, because she had zero email list. The one-on-one coaching she was doing was referral, was word of mouth. People were not finding her necessarily through her… They were not coming onto our email list, and she was nurturing them, and then would buy from her, they were just coming directly to her and buying from her, copywriting services. So she had no email list and no online business.
Beginning of this year, she joined SOMBA Kickstart. She created an online course and she learned to sell, she made $8,700. So basically she got her investment three times back within 10 weeks. Then she learned to launch. She joined then our next program, which is Momentum. It’s a group coaching program where people learn how to really cement this, what they’ve learned before, what they’ve learned in SOMBA Kickstart and SOMBA Accelerator, you cement it in Momentum. You really build your own online business because there isn’t one size fits all. Some people want to build a 12 month program. Some people want to build a short online course. Some people want to launch with this method or another method. There are a gazillion ways to do it. And I don’t believe everyone should just follow one path or one method, there isn’t.
We do it for those who are starting and Kickstarting Accelerator, because in the beginning, just as I explained, when I was explaining my own path, when you have so much information out there and you don’t know what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and in which order, it is easier to have someone tell you what to do every week. And that’s why our Kickstart and Accelerator programs are built the way they’re built. After people have graduated from these two programs and come into Momentum, or they come straight into Momentum if they have some prior experience, that is a 12-month group coaching program, where we help people really cement this experience.
They are launching, they’re creating content, they’re building their following, but we are focusing a lot on launching, on automation, on getting better at Facebook ads, building up organic and paid reach, and basically building the business that you want to have, building a scalable business model. The key thing to me then, not just making the million in 2017, wasn’t just from creating SOMBA alone. It was because I had SOMBA and then I had my mastermind programs on top, which is an essential module. So in Momentum, we focus on helping our clients, our Momentum members, as we call them to create an ascension model. It’s not about one scalable online course. It’s about having maybe a group coaching or one-on-one, something around because repeat clients is the best thing you can have in business. It costs 27 times more to acquire a new client than to keep an existing one. And clients typically want to stay with you for years.
The clients that I have helped to a million dollars, or are now on their path to a million dollars, have stayed with me for years. They’ve stayed with me because I have programs that take them to the next level. This is also how you can way more easily built a million dollar online business. And this doesn’t happen typically in your first year, but actually it does when you work in my programs, because through Kickstart and Accelerator and then by joining Momentum within one year, my clients have created three levels of programs. They’ve created an essential model, which is the key to the business model that brings you to a million dollars. So let’s hear it directly from Ingrid, who has joined SOMBA Kickstart and now is in Momentum and has achieved $100,000 in online business in only 10 months. And I know she will achieve the million.
Ingrid:
So before I met Sigrun, basically, so I’m a copywriter in Czech language. And I was all the time booked with one to one, but I was having so much work. I have three kids and each evening, each night on the weekends, I was only working, working, all the time. And last year in total, I made $14,000 the whole year.
Sigrun:
Whole year?
Ingrid:
Yes. And I was working like crazy. I was tired all the time and that’s why basically I decided I need to change something. I need to use my time more wisely, and I need to scale. So in January, I made a huge step for me because in that time I was having only some small savings and I was like, “Okay, I have to pay for some support because I cannot go on like this,” and I decided I would you in SOMBA. And this was such a big change because suddenly like I have to overcome so many blocks, like, okay, I have to be visible, and I have to be seen in front of more people. It was really scary. And I can tell you that without the support, I would completely run away, I would never do it by myself. But since I was having all the support and all the steps and everything, so I just went through it.
And it was really amazing because in March, I made my first launch and I made $8,700 just for the one month. My husband was completely in a shock. He couldn’t believe it because he was like, “Oh, you will do this SOMBA.” Now. He goes, “Oh my God, this is really like magic.”
Sigrun:
It’s like magic. Yeah. You invested $3,000.
Ingrid:
Yes.
Sigrun:
And I remember you telling me that you had the choice, “Well, either I invest these $3,000 into this weird online program called SOMBA from this Icelandic lady in red,” or you may be, go on a proper holiday. So how did you decide?
Ingrid:
Well, I felt that I have a message that I can tell to people. I have something that needs to be seen, and I have some gifts maybe that I want to share with more people. And I thought if I help people only one to one, I have only a small amount of people I can help. So I already felt and I’m really like shy person, but I kind of like felt that now it’s my time to speak up. And now it’s my time to be seen and to be more visible. And my husband is just like, “Oh my God, are you insane? You want to put all our savings there?” But somehow I concluded, this is the way I will do it. And I was having exactly this amount on my account. So I was like, okay, that’s a sign that I have to do it. So I just did it.
Now, of course, also for me, it was a motivation that I didn’t give up because I gave all my money. So I better do the job, and I better do it. And of course-
Sigrun:
You followed the whole process, you trusted the process, and you tripled, you got the money back.
Ingrid:
Yes. Three times. Exactly. And I was like, “Oh my God, this is so amazing,” but I cannot [inaudible 00:44:06] find, so now this is it. Maybe in summer, I will make maybe a second launch with 5k, and I will be so happy, we will have this vacation finally. And I do not have to work on the evenings. Oh my God. I would have had such a nice life. But then in a June I made another launch for $25,000.
Sigrun:
$2,5000 in the second launch?
Ingrid:
Yes. And I was completely in a shock, I couldn’t believe it. It was almost two times as I made in 2019 for the whole year. And I still remember this day, I felt like something could be changed inside of my head, the reality around me changed so much. I was dancing for two hours in a row in the kitchen because I just couldn’t believe it. And what was the best part was when I realized, okay, but this means I can do more because I was able to go so quickly from eight to 25. This actually really means I can do more, the days more. And on this day, actually, I decided that I want to join Momentum because I suddenly saw, okay, but there is more and I can do more. And if I can make 80 people to buy my course, I guess there is more, I can even have a bigger event.
Sigrun:
[inaudible 00:45:37], why not?
Ingrid:
Yeah. So I decided I will go all in and actually I can tell you, it was a little bit hard in summer, because it was nice weather and everybody… So I’ve worked a lot during summer, but I wasn’t even enjoying it. I was having a real nice launch and people have been so happy. And the result again was far beyond my expectations. So I was having my third launch this year. So it was like, it started in August and it ended in September. I made 39,000 during this launch.
Sigrun:
39,000? And you are still in your first year of online business. I just get jealous. Why did I do it?
Ingrid:
I was totally shocked by this. And it was because basically I’m still doing the same things, but of course I’m getting better and better. And also I’m increasing my prices. And I like my experience and I believe much more in myself. So now I’m not afraid to being visible and I go to some interviews or something and once you start and you know how to do it, and you have the right support, then you just believe in yourself and you just go. And I think I would like to share my recent month, which was October, because I thought, okay, I will have a break. I will not work because that’s fine. But then you gave me this idea that maybe I can make this 10k offer. And I was like, that sounds completely crazy. Who would buy a 10,000 package in my country? That is absolutely totally-
Sigrun:
Oh, you argued with me. I remember it. You said, no, Sigrun nobody in the Czech Republic buys a $10,000 offer from a copywriter.
Ingrid:
… Exactly. But I was like, okay. So I have a bit of time today. Let’s put this on my page. And then I was writing my newsletter. So I wrote, okay. And PS, here are a few ways how can work with me, if you want to have a look one hour later and lady wrote me back, “Oh, I would love to hear more about your offer.” I was like, “Okay. I think she means this six sessions.”
Sigrun:
That people offer. Yes.
Ingrid:
Yes. She said, “No-no. I want to know more about your 10k offer.” I was like, “My God.” I couldn’t believe that she’s asking me for the offer. And the next morning this lady bought my 10k offer. So it took me two days to sell my 10k off. And the best part was that after that immediately, all of my other packages sold out because people saw that I have a 10k package sold out after two days-
Sigrun:
You better buy the other stuff.
Ingrid:
So I was completely like… So I was offering 10 spots in some other packages, everything sold out in three days. So I didn’t think I will make any money in October. And I made more than 20K just by three days.
Sigrun:
Three days, 20k. So you must be well over six figures in your first year Ingrid.
Ingrid:
Yes I am. And then that’s also something which I didn’t even think about it, I didn’t even hope for this. And then it just happens. And really, in January, if you would tell me that this will happen, I would think that you are completely crazy because I have three kids. I don’t have fancy equipment. I don’t have a fancy website. I don’t have a huge list. Like in January, I didn’t even have an email list. I started from completely no emails, I was just nothing. I would never, ever believe it’s possible. But now I have to believe because it’s happening.
Sigrun:
You are the proof. That’s why you’re here. Because if I would tell someone that there’s this woman in the Czech Republic that did this, they’re like, “No, first, she’s got to tell the story herself.”
Ingrid:
Exactly. Well, there is somebody asking me about my webpage. Actually, I still don’t have a nice one. I put my offer on lead pages, but people in today. So who cares?
Sigrun:
You don’t need a website. I’m trying to tell people that for the last seven years. And the funny thing is I used to run a website agency. But I’m telling you don’t need a fancy website, my website is from 2015.
Ingrid:
So actually what I think is unique is your mindset and your support. Because if I would stay in the same way of thinking I was having in January, I would never do all these things. I would never be visible. I would never even think about putting out this offer. And of course you encouraged me to do it, but also it’s because I am in Momentum so I can reflect. So what kind of offers people make? Because of course, if I make an offer like, okay, 50 hours with me, it doesn’t really sound fancy. But I already got some ideas how to make my offer sound like really, really something special. So as people think, “Oh my God, this is very nice.” And actually now even people are like talking about my offer. So it’s really something which I will be a little bit like. “No-no.” So it’s because all these support and this mindset support and strategy support that this works so well. So no website magic there.
Sigrun:
No website, not Mac side. Yeah. It’s, I think we’re talking about the past to a million dollars in the beginning. You need the step-by-step like you got an Kickstart to tell you everything you need to do.
Ingrid:
Yes, it was so good, and it was so nice because I just knew what to focus on because when I was starting, I didn’t know what to do first, like my email list or Facebook, it was so many things. But with you, I just know exactly which steps to take. And I was sure that it will work, that it was a huge help.
Sigrun:
Yeah. And now in Momentum, you are on your own path, but you’re guided with your accountability mentor and then you have all the different coaches to help you take to the next level. So next year, 250,000, are you in?
Ingrid:
Yes, I am. Because in 2022, I would like to join Red Circle. So of course, next year I have to do this 250, so that I can join you afterwards in Red Circle. So I have a goal, it’s on my vision board now. So there is nothing that can stop me from doing it.
Sigrun:
Absolutely nothing. And I have no doubt that you’re going to make 250,000 next year, and then you will make the million, the following year.
Ingrid:
Thank you.
Sigrun:
Ingrid, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you for sharing your story. It’s so inspirational. It’s helping so many people. Thank you so much.
Now you’ve heard from Ingrid and I want to share with you another story from Claudia. Now, Claudia joined SOMBA in 2018. SOMBA was a bit different then. I didn’t have Kickstart and Accelerator programs like I have today, but I had SOMBA summer school in the middle of the summer. And I created it out of frustration. I saw that too many of my clients were coming into my SOMBA program and they were not going and watching the videos and taking action on the videos in the way that I wanted. Of course, we had lots of success stories, but I wanted more. I wanted more people to have success.
And I would say Claudia is just a typical student there. She came into the program. There wasn’t the hand-holding that we offer today, but SOMBA Summer School woke her up and she created her first online course and she sold 80 spots, 80 spots.
She had over 900 people signed up for her free course. And from there she was able to up sell 80 spots. It was exactly through SOMBA Summer School, 2018 that I realized I was onto something. It took me another year to implement this as a course in itself. But it was through the success stories of Claudia and other that I realized, this is what people need. This is what we need to make sure people are not throwing spaghetti at the wall hoping that something sticks, that they actually do the work. They have to know what to do, when to do it, how to do it, in which order, and to be really just get simple tasks every week.
So Claudia had her first online course and she was onto something. She joined Mastermind Retreat Iceland, which I ran for four years, 2016, ’17, ’18, and ’19, not in 2020 for obvious reasons, but also I wasn’t planning to run it this year. Maybe I’ll run it again someday in the future. But it was through the retreat that I got to know Claudia a bit better and realized that she had been working very hard for a lot of years. Highly educated, very experienced, but basically doing too much for too little money.
And I told her to reduce her costs in her business. She was late, basically not paying herself any salary for many, many years. And I told her, cut so deep that it bleeds. This is a sentence you might have heard from me before. If you have listened to any of my turnaround episodes. When you have too much costs in your business, you need to let go of those costs, and you need to let go of maybe more costs than you want to, to cut so deep that it bleeds. And this is the sentence she walked away with after the retreat, was to cut costs in her business, and be focused, not be juggling too many balls, which she has a tendency to do. And I do too, that’s what entrepreneurship is about. We like to start a lot of projects, but it’s important to finish them and not to have too much going on at the same time.
So that’s what she walked away with. But Claudia wasn’t finished. She came back, she realized she couldn’t do this on her own. And she joined VIP Mastermind in 2019. And we had a very interesting episode on our first retreat. In a VIP mastermind, now I run a program called Red Circle. I basically merged VIP Mastermind with Red Circle, and she was still charging, her highest price was 400 Euro. And she had cut costs. She had taken my advice from the retreat from the few months earlier, but she wasn’t still raising her prices.
And I told her to basically 10X her prices. She was a bit unhappy with me. So he was thinking how to get out of the Mastermind, but he took my advice and she was able to have $100,000 launch in her first real year of online business. This year, she had a multiple six figure online launch. She’s approaching 500,000. If she hasn’t already made it as I record this episode. Two, three years ago, see, was making 100,000 a year, which she was making for many, many years. And now she’s that half a million dollars, and I know, see we’ll make a million dollars next year because she has joined Red Circle, which is the program where I help women who have already achieved 250,000 in online business to go to the million.
And that’s the path I’ve laid out for Ingrid and others, get 200,000 and then 250,000 inside Momentum group coaching program and then join Red Circle to achieve the million. Before we listen to Claudia, I want to quickly share from another clients who just crossed the million dollar mark two weeks ago. I have helped several people get to a million dollars. Sometimes they’ve only been with me for a few months. I worked with one client for instance, six months, a couple of years ago. She just shared in a Facebook group yesterday that she’s making $1.8 million this year. So yes, I’ve helped a lot of people who are making a million dollars, but what is so beautiful about this latest example that I want to tell you about is that she joined SOMBA in 2017 when it was brand new. And she came on our coaching and he came on a few hot seat calls in SOMBA, and it was very clear that it was going places, but she needed guidance like everybody does, no matter how good you are.
And in 2018, January, I realized she had not joined one of my masterminds, and I was a little bit disappointed because I knew it based on the interactions where hat that there was a big potential there. So I actually reached out to her and I said, “I think you should be in one of my masterminds. What do you think about it? Do you want to talk about it?” The next day she said, “I’m in.” I said, “You don’t want to have a call about it?” “No, I’m in.” So I had to reach out to her and that’s something that everyone has to remember, no matter what level you’re at people like to be seen, and reaching out to potential clients is not a sign of weakness. It’s a sign of strength, and fortune is in the followup too.
So she joined one of my mastermind programs. That was a program called Accelerator. And then that was in 2018. 2019 she joined VIP Mastermind and in 2020, she was in Red Circle, most highest level program. She’s been in four programs with me. And just a couple of weeks ago, she crossed the million dollar mark.
I am the only business coach she has worked with. Now, our paths will, what do you say cross or split up? Because I think the time is now. I’ve given her rings to fly. She have reached a million dollars. I have reached my goal with her. I think it’s time to move on, but she’s going to be very dear to my heart because she went through exactly the steps that I’ve laid out for you here. It doesn’t have to be complicated. It can be easy. You just need to have someone show you the steps. And I want to end with this story from Claudia in her own words, because I know that next year she will achieve the million dollars in her online business.
I was saying in 2018, you joined SOMBA, but you sold an online course, but your online business, you weren’t really doing it yet, but you sold your first online course, right?
Claudia:
Yes. After the SOMBA Summer School, which was my start in June, 2018.
Sigrun:
Yeah. And we call this now SOMBA Kickstart. So that’s the same program that Ingrid did earlier this year. So you sold your first online course and then you were not so sure how to take the next steps.
Claudia:
Yes. I will never forget a very important sentence of you because I was scared to sell something that costs more than 200 euros. This was my blocking money mindset. Yes. When you analyzed how stupid it was, I have a PhD, I have written more than 20 books and I was scared to earn money. Yes. And with your work, I realized, and the very important sentence from your words, if I sell such a cheap product, I have to be like a YouTube star. Yes. I need many followers. Yes. And that’s true. And then I have seen how exhausting it is selling cheap product because I had with the [inaudible 01:03:06], which I sold for 52 euros, like a health tip I week. And I had 200 clients, but I needed an own support department because they didn’t know where to find the emails, how to log in, how to do this, how to do that. And I thought, that’s not my business. I don’t like it.
Sigrun:
I know, and they only paid 52 euros. So you started to resent this business model. I talked about before the way to a million dollars is, is first getting the business model, right? Business model means the different ways how you earn money and you were earning your money mostly with single sessions clients, consumers, regular people off the streets getting nutrition advice. And how much money were you making at the time?
Claudia:
At that time I had also my cooking studio, and I had a revenue of 100,000, but I had expenses of 95,000. So I earned nothing. Yeah.
Sigrun:
You earned nothing. So nothing was-
Claudia:
I earned nothing and I worked 80 hours a week, yes. This was a big mistake. And another very important sentence of yours, “Cut your costs until you bleed.” Yes. And I learned a lot in the first month working together with you and that shifted completely my business model. And I grew a lot from my mindset as we had yesterday in our mastermind round, I got addicted to earning money and it’s so much fun because I see how happy my clients are, yes. And I shifted now to the B2B models. So I teach now the health experts with all my experiences have more than 8,000 nutrition consultancies. And I really like it, to share my knowledge and to see how the others grow. And my product now has a price of 4,800.
Sigrun:
That’s a little bit more than 200.
Claudia:
Yes. And it’s so much more fun.
Sigrun:
So let’s recap how you did that though. So you were making about 100,000 a year with 95,000 costs. How many years did you do that?
Claudia:
Around 10 years. And I was completely exhausted and it costed me the love of my life and my marriage and other things. I was really broken when we met. Yeah.
Sigrun:
Yeah. But you got help from someone with your room and then you start to think about, okay, maybe I want to do this online business thing.
Claudia:
Yes. And my life changed completely. I work half the time now, and this year, five times more than three and a half years ago, and I’m happy again. And I have a lot of new friends, and I have a new environment of entrepreneurs, and that’s so important for me that I can live my vision, and that I have a surrounding of persons who support me and I can exchange my fears. I can share my wins. And I really like it.
Sigrun:
Let’s talk about February, 2019. You had joined the-
Claudia:
I will never forget these tow days.
Sigrun:
… Yeah. Just like we do in Red Circle, we do retreats. And when it’s safe, of course we had a retreat at my home in [Sarek 01:07:01] and Claudia, I was finally getting to know you properly because before that, you were in SOMBA and you talked about your prices and we are all shocked. And then I tell you that you should sell something for 3000, right?
Claudia:
Yes. And I said, “Yes,” because the group version of us there, but then I went to the train station and from Zurich to Vienna, it’s around eight hours train drive. And I sat in the train and I thought, “That’s a stupid women. What does she want from me?” I really hated you for three hours and I started-
Sigrun:
Okay. Only three hours. That’s okay.
Claudia:
Only three hours, yes. I thought that’s impossible and I want to quit the program. And I thought how to discuss with you, that you give me the money back because that’s how stupid, I can’t do it. And then I reached the border from Australia and I thought, okay, that’s a big challenge. And I got more relaxed and I thought it’s just a calculation of numbers. I like selling. And I know it’s just at the count. If I have 50 nos, the 51st person will say yes.
And I made a contract with myself. I said, “Okay, I can stand 50 nos. I know who I am. I am in the Mastermind. I’m not alone. I did so many things already in my life and 50 nos will not break me.” Yes. And when I reached the train station in Vienna, I was relaxed. And I said, “Okay, I’ll start from tomorrow, and the 51st person finally will say yes.” And the funny thing is I checked Facebook and I came home went to my bedroom, and I checked Facebook again. And I get a message of a friend I haven’t seen for 30 years. Yes. And he said, “You’re doing something with nutrition. Can you help me? I want to lose 15 kilos.”
And I said, “Yes, I can help you. Do you want to hop on a call tomorrow morning on Saturday?” I know that he is a doctor and he earns a lot of money. And he said, “I want to lose 10 kilos. Can you help me? How much is it?” And I said, “3,000.” And he said, “Oh, come on. We are friends. Can you give me a little discount?” And I worked with him for 2,500. And the first person said, “Yes.”
Sigrun:
The first person said, yes, you didn’t have to get 50 nos. Yeah.
Claudia:
Yes. But it was the decision that I can stand the 50 nos. Then I had some several nos, and the group program didn’t really work out. But with the challenge doing the group program, I had two clients, one for 2,500 and another one for 3000. And I learned it’s possible to charge this amount. Yes. And I made a huge step from the mindset, also the topic of the group course was not the right thing, because I realized also that people pay me more money, I do the same I did in 8,000 nutrition consultancies, and I don’t want to do the same. It was, I wanted to do the next step, [inaudible 01:10:48].
Sigrun:
This was the first retreat, talking about the power of retreats. The second retreat she attended, June 2019, in the Swiss Alps, we told you, “You need to focus on B2B. You need to teach health experts how they can help their clients with nutrition, because you, with all your experience should not do this with consumers anymore.” That is so natural today because this is how you were able to scale your business. It’s shifting that business model. I think that’s important for people to see, it was the business model that was the turn key moment in order to make this kind of money, to work less, to help more people at the end of the day.
Claudia:
Yeah. And this was a magic in the process because from February to June, with experimenting charging high prices, so many things happened inside of me and with the regular mastermind calls, I [inaudible 01:11:51] what I really want to do. And your questions helped me so much. Yes. It’s the coaching process, which was very helpful for me. And today it’s very normal and I think, why not? Yes. I like efficient more than now. Yes. It’s so natural what I do, but I needed your expertise. Yes. That aside from above on everything, and also the group was very important for me.
Sigrun:
Yeah. Being surrounded by like-minded people in a relatively small setting, which Red Circle is. And you had your first six-figure launch. When you finally said, let go of your old business, you had six figure launch. And before that you had earned six figures in a whole year and you had more money left, right?
Claudia:
Yeah. I do have, yes. That was really magic. And when Ingrid told her story, I had no website for the new product.
Sigrun:
No.
Claudia:
I just sold from my list with a PDF I made in two hours myself, but I knew what I want and I made strategy calls, and I learned a lot in the strategy calls and yes, I like it. And it’s easy now. Today I sold another spot because some person wanted to hop in the course, which starts-
Sigrun:
Ohm you’re still selling, the program started in October.
Claudia:
… Yes, I’m still.
Sigrun:
How big was your launch now that you just finished?
Claudia:
63 persons.
Sigrun:
Times 4,800.
Claudia:
Yes. 300,000.
Sigrun:
Oh, 300,000. But you’re not the only one. We had a couple of $300,000 launches-
Claudia:
Yes, that’s so great.
Sigrun:
… in the mastermind and that’s the power also off seeing other people. And then everyone is pulling each other forward.
Claudia:
Yes. And she also will renew for next year. I heard that great tour to go the next steps together. Yeah.
Sigrun:
Claudia, your story is so powerful. Thank you for sharing. And I cannot wait to help you get to the seven figures next.
Claudia:
Yes. But I learned from you and I really like the sentence, “If I can do it, you can do it.” And all the ladies in the background can do it also.
Sigrun:
Absolutely. Thank you so much.
Claudia:
Thank you for your support Sigrun.
Sigrun:
If Ingrid can do it, make 100,000 in less than 10 months. And if Claudia can do it after 10 years in offline business, move over to online and 5x her revenue with a lot more profit, finally paying herself a decent salary, then you can do it too. But you need a path. You need to stop throwing spaghetti at the wall and waiting for something to stick. You need to know what to do next, know in which order to do it. And that’s why I’ve created the progress that I’ve created. If you’re just at the beginning, SOMBA Kickstart is the right one. If you’re already been in business for a while online business, that is to say, and you have an online course, then Accelerator is potentially right for you.
Momentum group coaching program is open at any time, starts right away when you join. So if you have things in place, it might be the right fit for you. And then if you’re already at 250,000 or more, then Red Circle is the right way to join, if you’re serious about making a million dollars. Now with Red Circle, we only have four spots left. Yes. Only four spots. So your path a million dollars, if you want to get on that path with me, you’ve already achieved the 250,000, then apply right away because these spots will be gone shortly.
Have you signed up for the weekend bootcamp? If you haven’t, then go to the show notes @sigrun.com//407, where you can find the link to sign up for the live bootcamp, create your recession proof offer in a weekend. It’s happening on November 28 and 29. And then following Monday, the following week, you can start to sell your new offer right away.
Thank you for listening to the Sigrun Show. Did you enjoy this episode? Let me know that you listened by tagging me in your Insta story or Instagram post, using my hands with Sigrun Gmbh and the #sigrunshow. See you in the next episode.