Behind the Scenes of My $5M Pivot

Hey. Hey, guys. And welcome back to the Doing It Online podcast. I'm Kate McKiven, your host, and today I'm gonna be pulling back the curtain on something I don't talk about nearly enough. This is the pivot that changed everything for me. And I know you're probably rolling your eyes going, yeah, yeah, yeah, we hear that all the time. But seriously, guys, when I look back, this one change, this is what took my business from exhausting launches and razor thin profit margins to to over $5 million in sales from a single offer. And here's the thing. I didn't even know this type of offer was a thing when I created it. I was just a brand new mom trying to figure out how to keep my business running without losing my mind. And what I stumbled into, it became the absolute cornerstone of my business. And it's been the cornerstone of my business for the last six years. So if you listen to the last podcast episode about the DIY course model, sadly on its way out and you're sitting there thinking, okay, kay, I get it, things are changing. But what does the solution actually look like? This episode is your answer, because I'm going to walk you through exactly how I made this pivot, what it looked like behind the scenes, and why. This model is hands down the most profitable, sustainable and enjoyable way I've ever run my business. So let's dive on in.

All right, so let me set the scene. It's 2019, I've just had my son, and at the time I was selling a four week program called the 5K Funnel Formula. Hands up if you are one of the lucky people to go through that. And I was selling it through a webinar funnel. It was a great program. People loved it, it got amazing results. Here's the problem. The way I had to sell it was, wasn't working for me anymore. I had two options to fill it and I was kind of trying to juggle both. Option one, big launches, which meant weeks of lead up, massive energy output, and honestly, they were exhausting. They worked, sure, well enough, but they also left me burnt out and the idea of planning another huge launch while I had a newborn who didn't care about my business schedule that just wasn't going to cut it with me. Option number two was run ads to it because I had a funnel it was converting. But I also was living in a very expensive niche and anytime I tried to scale it, the profit margins disappeared, the ad costs ate up everything, and I was sitting there obsessing over roas like My life depended on it. Neither option felt sustainable, particularly not on Super Broken Sleep. And here's the other thing. I was in no man's land. The program was priced at just under a thousand dollars, which meant I either had to do really big launches to make decent revenue or I had to spend a ton on ads to get enough volume. And neither was very profitable. And definitely not profitable enough to justify the time, the energy and the stress I was putting in. But then something shifted. When I had my son, I wasn't sure how I was going to feel. I thought, you know, maybe I'm going to want to take my foot off the gas, lean back a bit. But I didn't. I was the opposite. I got this fire underneath me, you know, that feeling like I want to build something amazing for him. I want to show him what's possible. I want to create the most incredible life for him. And I knew my program was good. I knew it was getting people phenomenal results. But I also knew it just wasn't set up in a way that was going to let me scale without burning out or going broke. So I had to figure something out. And that's when I had my coach at the time say something to me that was honestly pretty confronting. He said, kate, you need to stop messing around in these low priced offers and you need to come up with something you can charge a minimum of three to five thousand dollars for. Because if you can do that, the numbers will actually make sense. And I remember just sitting there thinking like, first of all, whoa, I can't just make something expensive for the sake of it. That felt weird. But then secondly was like, hang on, I've never sold anything for more than a thousand dollars before. How am I supposed to jump up to three or $5,000? Like that felt impossible. I didn't even know what it looked like. And I had all these fears, right? Like, do I have to be in there delivering all the time? Am I going to have to do 10 calls a week? What if people expect me to be available 24 7? And honestly, I didn't even know what a group program was at that point. But I knew I needed something that wouldn't be any harder to sell than what I was currently selling because that was already enough work would be far more profitable when I did sell it. Which meant I didn't have to be selling quite as many and would still give me the same time freedom as a DIY style course, because that I had locked in that I loved. Um, and I wanted something that would let Me work with people more closely because that's what they were asking for. And that was what I was really was feeling called to do, but without filling my calendar with one on ones. And that's how my program Empire was born. So here's what I did, and I want you to really hear this. I didn't create a whole new program from scratch, okay? I didn't have the time for that. As I said, I had a newborn. And by this point, it was also the start of COVID lockdowns. We were homeschooling two kids to, you know, pre teenagers with adhd. This is not going to happen. I was functioning on very broken sleep, living on dry shampoo. So what I did was this. I took the programs I already had. I bundled them together and extended the curriculum beyond the original four weeks. Then I added in some weekly group calls with me and just made the plan was to add in access to guest expert mentors who were people who were like the best in their business in their specific zones of genius. These were experts my clients would have paid 500 or more to get one single one on one session with. But here they got access to them, you know, Monday to Friday, just as part of the program. I also made it so people could submit their work for review. Because that's where the real transformation happens, right? When someone can say, hey, I built this thing. Can you have a look at it? Can you tell me what I'm missing? And suddenly it wasn't just a course anymore. It was a real experience. It was community, it was support, it was accountability. But here's the best part. It was still super leveraged. So I started off doing two calls a week myself. Then I switched to one call with me and one call with a guest mentor. And now I do just two calls a month, that's it. And I spend about 20 minutes each morning checking the community, answering questions, sending voice notes and keeping things moving. And the rest, it just runs. The sales come in on autopilot. We've had people in there for three to four years and honestly, I love it because it allows people to have access to things at scale that they couldn't afford individually. They're getting world class expert advice, they're getting templates, community. They're getting a rock solid curriculum and direct access to me, all for a fraction of what it would cost them to piece it together on their own. And I didn't have to completely reinvent the wheel. I just restructured what I already had. Now here's the thing. I knew I Couldn't just throw a $3,000 program on a webinar and expect people to buy it. That wasn't going to work. So I had to add in some extra steps to warm people up, to build trust and show them why this was worth it. And I'll be honest, I figured this out as I went. There was some trial and error, some things I do very differently now. But the core model, it worked. And here's what I've been doing ever since. I sell it on autopilot. Whether I'm running a launch or not, whether I'm running ads or not, it doesn't matter. I make sales of Empire pretty much every single week. And because it's a higher price program, a lot of people take payment plans, which means I've had mid to five figures in recurring payment plan revenue every single month for the last six years. It's not like a membership where people stay two or three months and then churn out and you're constantly having to refill it. This is real revenue stability. I feel like this is a secret that no one is talking about. Enough. And the profit margins, they're incredible because I'm not spending a fortune on ads to sell a $500 course and I'm making 3 to 5k per sale. And the delivery is so light touch that the expenses are minimal. So let me paint the picture of what this looks like. Day to day delivery, 20 minutes in the morning, checking the community, answering people's questions, giving feedback. Two calls a month and you know, sometimes they go for 90 minutes, sometimes they go a bit longer, but that's fine and I love them, but that's it. Revenue. We've got sales coming in pretty much every week, whether I'm actively promoting or not. Got high five to low six figures in recurring payment plan revenue every month and profit margins that actually make sense. Now as far as the client experience, people get access to me, expert mentors, to templates, to community, to real time feedback, and more importantly to a rock solid step by step curriculum. They're getting results faster because they have support when they need it, not just when the next module unlocks. And they're staying for years, which tells me pretty clearly that it's working. And here's the other thing. It fits around my life. When my son was a baby, I could do this. When he started school, I could do this when life gets chaotic because it often does. I'm like recording this in my bathrobe with a head gold right now. I can still do this. It's the most sustainable, profitable and enjoyable model I've ever built. And honestly, if you're a coach or a course creator who wants time, freedom, more profitability, something that fits around your family, a way to work with people more closely without doing one on ones or a massive mastermind or live events, this is the model. So why am I telling you all this? Because this is the exact shift I'm seeing the smartest course creators make right now. They're taking what they already have, their frameworks, their content, their expertise, and they're restructuring it strategically into a high impact, light, touch group program. They're not starting from scratch, they're not throwing out everything they've built. They're just pivoting how they deliver it and how they sell it. And the results are incredible. Because here's what a group program gives you that a DIY course can't compete with. It gives community. People want to be around others who are on the same journey. It gives accountability. They want someone to check in and keep them moving. It gives them real time support. They want to ask questions and get answers now, not wait until the next module unlocks. And it gives them access to you, to your frameworks, your brain, your insights. That's what they're really paying for. And that AI can't touch that. ChatGPT can't build a community, it can't give accountability, it can't coach someone through their specific situation in real time. But you can. And that's why this model works so well. So here's the bottom line. You don't have to blow up your business and start over. You don't have to create something brand new from scratch. You just need to restructure it again strategically. I made a bunch of mistakes with this when I first did it, let me tell you, into a model that's more profitable, more sustainable and more aligned with where the market is going. That's what I did. And that one pivot, it's turnouts B the highest revenue generating, highest profit generating product I've ever sold and it completely changed the trajectory of my business. So if you're sitting there thinking, okay, I get it, this makes sense, how do I actually do this? That's exactly what I'm going to help you with. Doors open on Monday to a special four week mini mind where I'm going to walk you through exactly how to make this shift in your business, how to restructure your offer, how to sell it, how to deliver it without burning out. If you want first access, get on the wait list. Now, the link is in the show notes, and in the next episode, I'm going to walk you through the biggest mistakes people are making when they create group programs. And some of these are doozies, so you can avoid them from the start. I'll see you then.