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Courage & Clarity
169: Hustle-Free Visibility: How I Filled a Paid Workshop With 150 Buyers While Overseas
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Welcome to the Courage and Clarity podcast. I'm your host, Steph Crowder. I'm a former sales training director who's helped thousands of entrepreneurs earn a living doing something they love over the past 10 years. On your journey, you'll need the courage to be bold, to take risks, and to do what looks crazy on paper. You'll also need the clarity, the brass tacks, simple strategies that actually work. And on this podcast, we deliver both in equal measure. Oh, and by the way, we've got absolutely no time for bs, gross marketing tactics or get rich quick schemes. Just sustainable business strategies for good humans with big dreams. If that sounds like you, you're in the right place. Let's go.
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Hello. Hello, my courageous listeners. Welcome to the podcast. Today we are going to go a little bit behind the scenes. I want to talk to you about the outcome of my recent Year on the Wall training, which I hosted live just a couple of days ago. This was a really interesting launch and I started to get some questions from some of my clients about how it went and what I learned. And as I was answering that question for my mastermind, I was coming up with so many interesting insights that I just had to share on the podcast. I actually was in the process of writing an email to my email subscribers when I talked to myself. I just have too much to say about all of this to fit into one. And that's when I decided to record a bonus podcast. Really walking you through what I did, because this was definitely a different kind of launch. It was very successful in a different way than like a typical launch that I've talked about on this podcast previously. And there are so many learnings that I really want to share with you. I think this is going to be especially relevant as we think about heading into 2026. I know a big, big goal for many of you, as it should be, is increasing your visibility. That's a big goal for me as well. And that is something I was really able to accomplish with the specific strategy that I used for my Year on the Wall workshop this year. So I want to tell you all about it, break it all down, and give you some insights and ideas that you can take for yourself and use them and apply them to increase your visibility as we head into next year and beyond. So setting the scene a little bit. In case you don't know, Year on the Wall is an annual training that I teach every December. And. And it is a paid live workshop with a replay. You know, sometimes people, a lot of people come live, but then Plenty of people either catch it on the replay or maybe even buy the replay after the live opportunity has passed. But it's a $47 ticket. And I started teaching Year on the Wall years ago. I think it was 2018, 2018 or so, and over 2,000 people have taken the training. It's very popular and it's really fun. It's one of my favorite things to teach because if you haven't seen the imagery for a year on the Wall, it's these, just these giant calendar pages and this sticky note system, these colorful sticky notes that we use to help you plan your life, figure out what you want next year, and then display it visually on your wall so that you can understand what you're doing and kind of remind yourself what you have going on with just one glance. If you're somebody who's keeping track of a lot of different details and wearing a lot of different hats like me, then this is a great system for being able to conceptualize all of that again with just one look at these pages on your wall. And so I teach it every December. It's become a tradition in my business and it's been really successful, but in a different way than what I would call a typical launch. When I'm launching something like my mastermind sold out group programs or even my foundational sales training program, which is called same day Sales, you know the goal. Those are my biggest revenue drivers in the business. That is the revenue for the company. Year on the Wall, quite honestly, is not. I'm at a point where it's not really about the ticket sales. I don't factor that in when I'm doing my, like, where is my revenue going to come from when I'm planning, doing revenue forecasting? Year on the Wall for me is what I would call primarily a lead generation tool. And what I mean by that and what I've seen in previous years is when I attract new people. I love when my current audience comes to Year on the Wall as well, and my clients come. And that's awesome. It's. It's incredibly valuable. So I want as many people to come as possible, but I also really want to use it as a way to attract new leads. And what I have found in previous years is those people who come. My new people that come to Year on the Wall in December end up helping me fill up my launches for the upcoming year. So I really see it as a lead generation tool, as a way of getting myself out there and finding new people. So I knew I wanted to do Year on the Wall. Mostly for that purpose, of course. Like, honestly, it's a few reasons. One of them was, like, thinking to myself, well, I want to do this for my clients because they get to come to Year on the Wall just for being a client of mine. And I know this. I do this process for myself. I know how valuable it is. So I want my clients doing it as they're set, better set up to have a great year. And if I'm already going to be teaching it for my clients, my thought was, like, how do we get as many people to come to this thing as possible? This year I was in a little bit of a pickle because my launch for my sold out group programs Mastermind was a little bit later in the year than it typically is. We wrapped up in mid November. On top of that, I was getting ready. Literally, like two days after my wrapping up that launch, I was headed out of town on a transatlantic flight to go to England for a coaching retreat with my best friend. And so I, you know, knew that Year on the Wall was going to be coming up. We like to do it in the first, if not like pretty much the first week of December. We did it on December 8th this year, which ended up being the second Monday in December. But, you know, I needed to have promotion going out for this event. And I was like, how? I really don't have time or space or bandwidth to muscle my way to getting lots of Year on the Wall tickets. So, you know, how am I going to do this? Was really the question. At the same time, go ahead and fast forward to how it all turned out. I walked away from that training class when I taught it live on Monday with, I had noticed over at a certain point, over 150 people were there live in the Zoom room with me. 150 people. I'm telling you, even though I've been a business coach for 10 years now, over 10 years, it will never stop. I refuse to stop being in awe and just feeling the wonder and feeling blown away by the visual of, like, if I picture me in a lecture hall and there's 150 people packed in there who every single one of those people has paid $47 to be there. Every single one of these people has a busy life and things going on and they've taken the time to come be in my room. Right? I think sometimes because we're on Zoom and you don't see everybody's face, you forget just how incredible that is. But again, I refuse to let myself forget that I've really spent time just letting myself bask in that success. Like, over 150 people came live. That's not even counting the people who are gonna benefit from it in the replay. And I've just been thinking about that, and, you know, one of the things I wanna share about it is one of my greatest aspirations and goals is to take up more space with a bigger stage, Right? Like, I have a message to share and tools to share and strategies to share that I know because I've helped so many clients. I know that what I have to teach changes lives, shapes lives, helps people share their genius with the world. And so when I've been given this opportunity to have the stage that I've really dreamt of, I mean, I'm just. I'm just blown away and so grateful. How did I manage to do that when I also was in England, was not working on my launch, and essentially went away and came home to a live webinar room with 150 humans? Really, I did almost no work for this result. What is the answer? The answer is ads. Okay? That's what we're talking about here today. Ads. Specifically Facebook and Instagram ads. And that's primarily how we created this result. This stage was created, and I did not have to hustle for it. I simply have spent time learning how to turn on ads. Before you go running away, some of you are like, I don't want to hear that. Just hear me out, okay? Hear me out. Because I avoided ads for years, okay? And we're going to talk about all the reasons why. And truly, ads have ended up being the reason that 150 people showed up live to hear me teach, okay? So I want to share with you how I was able to create this and also, like, the reasons I avoided it for so long, but also the biggest lessons that I've learned. And if you are somebody who's hearing me say this right now and for any number of reasons, you're automatically thinking, well, that's not for me. You might be thinking, I'm too much of a beginner, or, I tried that before, or I'm not willing to learn that, or I don't want to give Mark Zuckerberg my money, or, like, whatever version of the thoughts are that you're thinking. I want to encourage you to listen to this episode with an open mind, because no one is more resistant to ads than me or has been in the past. I'm growing and evolving past this. And I think it's. If you are someone who is trying to increase your visibility and you want to have a bigger stage, you need to know about this strategy. Okay. Because. Well, we're going to get into all of the reasons why. But what I will say off the bat is it doesn't, it is not going to take you nearly as much as you think. I know for me, I thought I was going to need this like ginormous budget and I was going to have to like sacrifice so much of my revenue in order to do it and it wasn't going to be worth it. What we're going to talk about in the strategies that I've used, you can get started on any budget. Now I will start by saying that I want to say this at the top of the episode and I'll. Well, I guess we're 10 minutes in now, but somewhat towards the beginning. I'm going to say this now and I'll also share again at the end. But the, one of the reasons why I wanted to record this podcast right now is number one, because it's very timely with what's happened to me with you're on the Wall. But secondly, my very best friend CL pals it. The ultimate irony is my best friend is the industry's best ad consultant and expert. Right. And yet I have really like she has helped me with ads over the years for year on the Wall. But I still have had so much resistance. And let me just tell you that if, like, if Claire could get me the most resistant person to actually be open minded to ads this year, then I'm telling you, you're going to be just fine. Because I have carried around so much stuff about ads and so I wanted to record this episode now because Claire's foundational program that teaches you how to do ads is called Absolute Facebook Ads. And at the time of this recording, it is open for enrollment right now. She has an amazing bonus going on as well. So you've got to check it out. If you go to stephcrowder.com afa you can check out all the details and get yourself signed up. It is the only ad program that I recommend. This is what I personally use. It's what I recommend for my clients. I am an affiliate for the program, but I'm also a client, right? Like I've paid with my own money to be Claire's client and I highly, highly recommend her strategies. She is the real deal and everything I'm going to talk to you about today I learned from being in her world. Okay, so that's stephcrowder.com afa give it a look. It's game changing. And I know one of the big things that she's teaching right now is how you can get amazing results. Increase your visibility with ads by only spending $5 a day. Okay? We can't even get a good coffee for that price anymore, folks. $5 a day. I think it works out to $150 a month that you can invest for your visibility plan. Okay? And I'm talking about ad spend. That's not the cost of her program. I'm talking about ad spend. Right? So if you're somebody who's been concerned about like, yeah, I don't have the money for ads, though, think about that $5 a day. And we're going to get in this episode too, about what you're getting back in return. So it doesn't even end there. But if the budget's been freaking you out, I want you to give it a look because you don't even have to have a big budget in order to take advantage of this. Okay? So let's talk about why I avoided ads for so long. For me, I always thought they looked really complicated. I'm going to be totally honest with you. I still can't really go into the ads manager without wanting to tear my hair out. I don't get it. I don't like it. It's not really how my brain works. But I just have decided to stop letting that be an excuse because my business. Because I want my business to grow more than I want to keep that excuse, plain and simple. Okay? But for years, I've always assumed I would mess it up. I have definitely always thought that they were for more advanced people than me. And I certainly have underestimated, way, way underestimated how much visibility is possible through Facebook and Instagram ads. Because if I'm being totally honest with you, I've always been able to just use brute force to sell organically. I'm proud of my scrappy selling. I have kind of just had the thought, like, I don't need it. I'm good. I'm doing fine. I'm hitting my goals. Here's my truly, like, I'm gonna take it. I'm get really honest with you, okay? Like, maybe I even had a little bit of a chip on my shoulder about it. Like, maybe I've prided myself on being able to do things the hard way. Okay? There's no metal for never using ads. I just want to go ahead and let you know, sometimes I talk to people and they're like. And I Created all this success with no ads. And it's like, okay, but why is that a thing? Why do we care about that? Right? Like, what's the. What's the shame in using ads? It's so funny. It reminds me of a story that I have to tell that I. With my. With my second child. My first child, I had via natural birth. Okay. I don't know if that's the right terminology. Unmedicated birth. Let's call it that. Okay. Unmed, medicated. And for my second child, I really did not want to do that again. Okay. More power to you if you have done that and repeated it and loved it for yourself. I did it and was like, that was more than enough. And I was wrestling with this decision with my second child to receive pain medication. And I'll never forget, my OB looked at me and said, there's no medal. You're not going to receive a medal for doing it this way. And I was like, wow. So, like, I laughed. But I was like, it's so interesting that.
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We put ourselves, at least me, I put myself in situations where it's like, why do I insist on doing things the hard way sometimes? Maybe you can relate to that, where you just insist on doing things the hard way. I know that I have done that. When it comes to being so determined to do everything organic, it's almost like I was telling myself it wouldn't count if it came from ads. And I can tell you, life on the other side of that is so amazing because again, I was able to pack my room with new people that I'm so. I would not have reached these people otherwise. Right? And so I want to talk about the turning point of why I've, like, finally really gotten on board with ads. Because like I said, what's hilarious is I've done ads with Claire's help in previous years, and they've been really successful for a year on the wall. And I still. Even after that success, I still haven't been able to lean all the way into ads. I know that's wild, but that's the truth. For this year, though, this year in particular. In particular, I knew that the only way that you're on the wall was going to work was going to be to really rely on ads because of launching back to back and going on this coaching retreat in England, as I already mentioned, right? And I really wanted to experiment with stability, predictability, and growth. And not another heroic effort. Not another, like, let me try to pick up a car and throw it across the room with My muscles, right? Like, let me try to work a little bit smarter, not harder, and see what happens. I wanted to experiment with being able to create a stage that I didn't have to build myself with blood, sweat, and tears every single time. And simultaneously, I've seen other business owners like Claire, but also Claire's clients and friends and peers of mine who just use ads like a normal tool. It's not some badge of honor to not use them. It's just something that, like lots and lots of companies use to find new people. And I've been able to be more neutral about it, right, and realize that, like, this is what grown up companies do in a lot of cases. And I real. I've really realized and come to terms with the fact that visibility is my bottlenec. Visibility is my work. The work that I do with my clients is amazing. I convert very well with the people that are in my audience. I get them great results. They love my programs. But visibility is where I really need to be focused. And it's where my clients, many of my clients need to be focused as well. And truthfully, ads solve that, right? And listen, I just want to say, I'm not saying that ads are all like it, all you will do for visibility. I'm still a huge proponent of organic efforts as well, which looks like going on other people's podcasts, doing collaborations, networking, referrals, all of that stuff is still amazing. And also, adding ads into your strategy doesn't take away those things. They can work really, really well together. All right, so let's talk about the numbers. Let me, let me tell you what happened with this launch. I'm going to give you my real numbers of what I did, what I invested, what I got back, and all of my results. Okay? So I have my receipts pulled up and ready for you. I spent on my Year on the Wall ads. Drum roll, please. I spent. And I want to go ahead and say, you do not need to spend this much. Okay? Again, Claire is going to teach you if you want to learn. She will teach you how to spend just $5 a day. But here's what I spent. I spent $9,519 and 10 cents on my ads. Okay?
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$9,500. Let's call it that. If we're rounding. Okay. On my. But here's the cool thing. This is where it gets cool. Because I was charging for my Year on the Wall tickets, I was able to recoup a lot of that investment. And I made 162 sales. Think about that. 162 brand new people to my world who may not have ever found me if not for seeing these ads. 162 sales. And that added up to $7,614 in sales. So I spent 9,500 and got 7,600 back. Okay, now if we were to end the story there, I would actually be really happy with that. That means that I would have invested about nineteen hundred dollars out of my own pocket to get 162 brand new people to take. Would have been really happy with that. At my level, I'm prepared for the reality that I should be spending money on marketing. But guess what? That's not where the story ends so far. And I actually still have a few more leads, so it may, I may end up actually going far above this. But just so far, two days after my training, I have already made $11,000 in additional sales, $11,000 in additional sales between my Mastermind program and my foundational sales training program. And said I have at least two other people seriously considering my Mastermind program, and that's an $8,000 price tag. Okay, so we're talking about, you know, tens of thousands of dollars in return at this point, right? On top of all of that, I also have been noticing that my Instagram account has been growing, so I wasn't able to. I. I didn't take the time to pull up how many new followers I've gotten because quite honestly, I don't spend a ton of time worrying about how many, about my follower count on Instagram. But I know that while I was running ads, every time I would open the app, I would see 10 new followers, 12 new followers. And whether or not those people signed up for a year on the wall is kind of a moot point because now they're paying attention to me on Instagram and they'll have the chance to hang out with me all through next year and, you know, consider my programs, etc. Right? So here's the deal. Ads didn't just help my launch, although they certainly, I mean, yeah, they sure did, but it's like they expanded the surface area of my whole business, right? It's like just pouring gasoline on something that already was working so well. And I think really the surprise benefit above and beyond being able to create ads that generated a positive return on investment is the visibility piece. So knowing that I got more eyeballs on my brand, more Instagram growth, I've grown my email list, I've increased my authority, right? And all of that is like speeding up it's like. It's like a time warp. How many years it would take to create the same results, just grinding away organically. Okay, again, no shade to organic marketing strategies. You will. I. I teach organic marketing strategies, right? I teach launching. I teach all, like, creating podcasts. All of that stuff still stands. It's not a battle between the two. Ads are just going to help you turn up the volume on all the things you're doing that are already working. And you don't need to wait until you're at my level or anywhere near my level to be able to tap into this. And I definitely wish that somebody had told me that sooner. Which brings me to the next section that I wanted to talk about, which is what I've really learned and what I wish I knew. What I wish I knew before that I know now. Okay, My first lesson is that ads are not hard. They're not hard. They're just new, right? They're just new. Just like you. I want you to think about something else in your business that feels new to you. Like, I teach sales, and a lot of people will tell me, like, sales feels hard. I don't want to do it. It feels icky. I don't know how to launch. Right? Well, I teach people that stuff. It's not hard. It's just new. And ads are just like anything else in your business. So I want to think. I want you to think about something that you've learned how to do in your business that you didn't know how to do before. Maybe it was starting a podcast. Maybe it was having an email list. Maybe it was building a website. I want you to go back in time to that moment where you didn't know how to do that, and you thought to yourself, gosh, it's gonna be really hard. And it wasn't really that hard. It was really just new. And now that you've done it, you're like, well, that's not such a big deal. Ads can be like that as well. Okay, lesson number two is that ads don't replace your business. They amplify it. Okay? So they, like, your ads are not gonna fix a bad offer or poor messaging. Claire would tell you that, too. You have to have good messaging. You have to have an offer that works, but they will skyrocket your results. Right? So if you're thinking ads is like some kind of cheat code or some kind of, you know, like. I don't know. I mean, it kind of is a shortcut in a way. So I'm hesitant. I'M hesitant to say it's not a shortcut. I actually think it can be. It's not. But it's not going to be a band aid on something that doesn't work. Right? So ads aren't like a magic bullet. They're not like a potion. They are just a way of amplifying something that's already amazing. So take you're on the wall, for example. Tried and true. Super popular. People love it. It just amplifies that result. Okay? So I think that's really important to keep in mind. Lesson number three is you don't have to understand everything in order to benefit from it. This one I want to shoot. I want to scream this one from the rooftop. I still don't really understand the ads manager, and I just spent $10,000 in there. Okay. I don't really get it. I get the key things, but you don't have to understand everything in order to benefit. Especially when you have a great teacher like Claire who's going to simplify it for you. That's the key. Like, I think I could have spent months and months and months trying to become an ADS expert, but frankly, I have no desire to do that. I don't want to be, I don't have to be an ad expert in order to benefit from the incredible power of this strategy. So I want you to think about this. If you're somebody who's like, God, I don't have time to learn a whole new language. Yeah, me neither. Me neither. I, I, I don't want to transparently. I even went to my assistant before this episode. It was like, hey, can you, like, verify for me that I'm even reading this correctly? Like, you don't have understand everything in order to use this. Okay? And like I said, especially when you have the support of a teacher and a program that's there to help you simplify it, Totally a game changer. Okay. It's kind of like electricity, right? You don't have to understand electricity in order to flip on a light switch in your bedroom. You just go up to the light switch and you flip it and the lights come on, right? If I asked you to break down the equation of how electricity works, I really doubt that you could do it. Maybe a couple of you could, but most of you wouldn't be able to do that. You don't have to fully understand it and know every nuance in order to be able to use it. I think that thought right there is going to free a lot of you. You do not have to Understand it on a super deep level in, in order to benefit. Okay. I think that's a really freeing thought. Lesson number four is that your visibility problem is a solvable problem and you don't have to keep hustling so hard. Now, if you know me, you know I'm not afraid of, of hustle. I'm not afraid of hard work. In fact, I think hard work is really important. I think hard work is underrated. And also, you don't have to make it harder than it needs to be. If you're having visibility challenges and you're like, gosh, I just feel like a best kept secret. I feel like nobody knows I exist. You can solve this problem. There's an answer. And I think that that alone can be really hopeful. Like, that can create a lot of hope and possibility. So visibility is just another problem in your business that can be solved. Okay? And then lesson number five is that the right teacher really makes all the difference. I'm sure you've experienced this in other areas of your business and of your life is sometimes it takes having the right mentor and the right teacher and the right expert for it to really click. And you know, obviously I make no, like, I'm not hiding the fact that Claire is one of my very dearest friends, so I'm biased in that way. But I'm also a client of hers, right? And the way that she teaches ads, first of all, she's been doing it for over 10 years. She has helped seven figure, probably even eight figure business owners with their ads. She knows this stuff inside and out. But it's not just that. It's her way of teaching. She's a phenomenal coach. She's there to help you get it. She has an incredible level of patience to be able to deal with me over all these years, right? And so, you know, if you've tried it before, you've tried ads, you're like, because I run, I have some clients who will say that to me. They're like, oh, I've tried ads. I don't want to do it again. My question is always like, did you have the right teacher? Right? Was it like the right environment for you to learn? Because that makes all the difference. And so if you are want, you're curious about this strategy, you're curious about trying this and giving it a look. I really want to encourage you to check out absolute Facebook ads. Claire demystifies ads. Right. If you are someone who likes me, enjoys me and my teaching style, you're listening to this podcast and you've been here for 28 minutes at this point, so I'm gonna go ahead and assume. Assume that you do. Her teaching style is very similar to mine. It's simple, it's strategic, it's grounded. It's no BS but it's also very patient and loving. Okay. And she will help you understand what you're doing and why. Why it's not working and what. What to change. And she teaches ads for normal humans is the way that I would explain it. Right? You can learn how to run ads without burning money, without wasting your brain cells. And, you know, having this idea that ads can buy you visibility. Right? That is really a different way to look at it. If you're ready to solve this visibility problem in as little as $5 a day with your ads, I think it could be an incredible opportunity for you. So if you're ad curious or you know that your visibility is the bottlene cannot recommend Claire's absolute Facebook ads program enough so you can go to steph crowder.com afa if you want to check it out. And either way, even if you don't, I hope it was really interesting for you to hear. This was a very different launch for me. It was really cool for me to experience.
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Gosh, being able to call in and attract people without feeling like I had to hustle my butt off for it. I was having a blast over in England, and every day I would come back to our hotel and I'd look at my phone and I'd be like, 10 more people signed up, 20 more people signed up. And I was just having the time of my life. This is a possibility for you, right? Ads personally gave me my stage, and I can tell you that I'm not going back. So I hope you've enjoyed this episode and again, I hope you will check out Claire's class. Either way, you all know I'm wishing you the courage and the clarity to go after what you love. And I will see you in the next episode.