
Hosted by Stu McLaren · EN

Sarah Williams went from running a brick-and-mortar gift shop to 80% recurring revenue, then invented a 5-day launch model that converted at 43% and pulled in 1,400 paid members in a single week. In this episode, she breaks down Coaching Week, the day-one sell strategy, and the paid ad shift that's now driving 3 to 8 new subscribers per day on autopilot. Sarah is the founder of Framed (a women's monogrammed subscription box business doing thousands of subscribers a month) and Launcher Box (a membership that teaches product-based business owners how to launch their own subscription box). She started with a small gift shop in Wichita Falls, Texas. Today subscriptions account for 80% of her e-commerce revenue and her education business surpassed her e-commerce income in its first 18 months. In this conversation, Sarah reveals: - How she built her first subscription box in 2016 by curating her top 3 best-selling categories - The 50-DM launch that got her first 19 paying members in August 2019 - The invention of Coaching Week (5 days, 4 deliverables, 43% conversion rate) - Why she sells on DAY ONE of her launch, not the end - The shift from organic to paid (and why she's keeping ads running year-round) - The $10/day awareness ad that took her blow-dry bar from 1 stylist to 5 - Her three-tier framework: visibility first, conversions second, retention third FREE RESOURCE: Get the full Coaching Week playbook: https://podcast.stu.me CONNECT WITH SARAH: - Launcher Box: https://launchyourboxwithsarah.com - Framed by Sarah: https://framedbysarah.com CONNECT WITH STU: - Website: https://stu.me - Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz - Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren - Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me - Membership.io: https://membership.io Subscribe for new episodes every week.

You're posting consistently, but the followers aren't coming. You're running webinars, but barely anyone shows up. Or you're creating lead magnets, but the list isn't growing. Last week, Stu sat in a room with some of the smartest business owners he knows, and he walked out with three things that flipped how he thinks about content, lead generation, and webinars. In this episode, he unpacks all three so you can start using them in your business right now. First, a gardener with 1.6 million followers reveals the content mix that actually grows a personal brand, and why most experts have it completely backwards. Then, an SEO expert shows how he's using simple AI-powered tools as lead magnets to generate thousands of leads a day. And finally, a former photographer with jaw-dropping webinar numbers explains the pre-webinar work most of us are wasting. Stu shares why these lessons apply whether you sell courses, memberships, software, or anything else, plus why the real magic of a mastermind isn't the strategy at all. In this episode, you'll learn: The 60/20/10/5 content mix for growing a personal brand, and why being known for one thing may be holding you back How to use AI to build simple, free tools that convert at over 2x the rate of PDF lead magnets The pre-webinar email shift that moves people from interested to paying RESOURCE: Grab the resources from this episode at https://podcast.stu.me CONNECT WITH STU: Website: https://stu.me Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me Membership.io: https://membership.io Subscribe and leave a review if this episode helped you.

Olivier Roland has been selling online for 16 years. After two years of declining launches, he flipped his model and beat his previous launch for the first time. In this episode, he breaks down the $5K offer, the hybrid launch sequence, and why most creators are one algorithm change away from losing everything. Olivier Roland is one of the biggest French-speaking online educators on the planet. He has been blogging, building email lists, and running launches since 2010. He has sold the same flagship course for 15 years and pulls 3,000 to 4,000 organic leads a month from content alone. In this conversation, Olivier reveals: - Why he stopped using the word "blog" (and what he calls it instead) - The Donald Trump moment that proves your social audience is not yours - The website + email list combo that converts 5 to 10% (vs. 2 to 3% on social) - The hybrid launch model that beat two years of declining sales - The $5K to $6K offer that replaced his $2K course as the lead product - Why "book a call" beat "click to join" without making it feel like a hard sell - How he uses three AIs (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) to generate winning titles - The "Bye bye Dubai" title that doubled a video's performance FREE RESOURCE: Get the full launch playbook: https://podcast.stu.me CONNECT WITH OLIVIER: - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@OlivierRoland - Website: https://olivier-roland.com CONNECT WITH STU: - Website: https://stu.me - Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz - Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren - Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me - Membership.io: https://membership.io Subscribe for new episodes every week.

Ali Kay closed the doors on her membership and added 3,000 new members in a single week. In this episode, she breaks down the exact 5-day workshop launch, the $10 coupon that fills day one, and the charity day that turns cart close into her biggest sales moment. Ali Kay is a working artist who built a 6,300-member painting community by doing the opposite of what most online creators do. She closed the doors. She picked up the phone instead of running ads. She gave away her cart-close day to charity. And it worked. In this conversation, Ali reveals: - Why she went from an "always open" membership to a closed cart (and why it tripled her launch result) - The $10 coupon trick that makes day one of every workshop her biggest sales day - The charity-day strategy that turns hesitant buyers into confident members - Why the "wakeboarding while painting" ad worked when text-heavy creatives flopped - The exact moment she stopped feeling like she was "selling out" as an artist FREE RESOURCE: Get the full membership launch playbook → https://podcast.stu.me CONNECT WITH ALI: - Instagram: https://instagram.com/alikstudio - Facebook: https://facebook.com/alikstudio CONNECT WITH STU: - Website: https://stu.me - Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz - Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren - Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me - Membership.io: https://membership.io Subscribe for new episodes every week.

The AI world is moving fast, and it is hard to keep up. New tools, new studies, new shifts in how people are buying, searching, and consuming. So Stu started keeping a running list of the things that kept grabbing his attention, and this week five of them stood out. In this episode, Stu walks through the five shifts he believes will change how you and he run our businesses moving forward. Some are practical. Some are still being figured out in real time. All of them are worth paying attention to. You will hear why audiences are now consuming content through AI summaries instead of watching all the way through, why small publishers have lost 60% of their search traffic in the last two years, and why most creators are actually working more hours with AI, not fewer. Stu also shares the story of what his teammate Rebecca did before a mastermind that AI could never replicate, plus the conversation he is still wrestling with about AI becoming the boss instead of the assistant. In this episode, you will learn: Why AI summaries are changing how people consume your content (and what to do about it) The one ingredient that flips AI from time-drain to time-saver How to use AI for volume without losing the human trust that builds a brand RESOURCE: Grab the resources from this episode at https://podcast.stu.me CONNECT WITH STU: Website: https://stu.me Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me Membership.io: https://membership.io Subscribe and leave a review if this episode helped you.

If you teach for a living and your students keep telling you your content is amazing, but six months later nothing's changed in their business... this episode might rattle you a little bit. And that's a good thing. A conversation with Scott Paley inside our Impact Mastermind cracked something open for me. Scott consumed all of our Summit content, but didn't show up live, didn't watch a single video. Instead, he ran the transcripts through Claude. And it made me ask a bigger question: what's actually happening to retention when people learn this way? The research is staggering. Students who used ChatGPT to study scored 57.5% on retention tests 45 days later. Traditional learners scored 68.5%. That's an 11-point gap, and it's not because AI is bad. It's because of cognitive offloading. In this episode, I'll share three things that stood out from the research, and then walk you through a simple five-letter test you can run your content through. I'm calling it the STICK test, and once you hear it, you'll see exactly where your courses, programs, and memberships are leaking transformation, and what to do about it. In this episode, you'll learn: Why AI summaries cause students to retain 11 points less than traditional learners (and the cognitive offloading effect behind it) The "passive learner trap": passive learners feel 62.5% prepared but only retain 79%, while active learners retain 94% The full STICK test — Space, Trigger, Illustrate, Community, Keep — and how to apply it to anything you teach Why the membership model naturally outperforms one-off courses for long-term student transformation The one shift that changes everything: you're not paid to teach, you're paid to make it stick RESOURCE: Grab the resources from this episode at https://podcast.stu.me CONNECT WITH STU: Website: https://stu.me Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me Membership.io: https://membership.io Subscribe and leave a review if this episode helped you.

Bonnie Christine bet $42,000 on a trade show booth with zero experience. What happened next changed her entire business. In this episode, she reveals the 10% ad budget rule, the 12-week nurture sequence that fills her course, and the moment in her workshops that makes her tear up every time. Bonnie Christine is a surface pattern designer who built a multi-million dollar business teaching creatives - without ever going to design school. In this conversation, Bonnie reveals: • The "gift wrap strategy" that introduces people to her world months before she sells • Why she allocates exactly 10% of revenue to ads (and how that removes the fear) • The $42,000 trade show bet that made 10 years of connections in 3 days • The 5 lies holding creatives back (and the moment that makes her cry) • Why she's going physical when everyone else goes digital 📚 FREE RESOURCE: Get Bonnie's 10% Ad Budget Framework + Gift Wrap Nurture Sequence Template → https://podcast.stu.me CONNECT WITH BONNIE: • Website: https://bonniechristine.com • Instagram: https://instagram.com/bonniechristine • Pattern Magazine: https://www.bonniechristine.com/patternmagazine CONNECT WITH STU: • Website: https://stu.me • Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz • Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren • Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me • Membership.io: https://membership.io Subscribe for new episodes every week.

The playbook said our launch was done. We'd sent the emails. Hit the reminders. Ran the countdown. Most teams would have let the sequence ride out. We did something different. We opened a Zoom room for three hours with no slides, no script, and no pitch. Just over 100 people showed up. 30 sales came in. Over $100,000 in revenue. And most of those buyers? People we had never seen engage the whole launch. In this solo episode, Stu walks through the two moves his team made in the "in-between days" of a recent summit launch that completely changed how he thinks about the end of a campaign. You'll hear why the Rule of 7 has quietly become the Rule of 8-to-13, why confidence in your offer is the thing people can actually feel, and the one question that surfaces the highest-converting move you're probably not making. In this episode, you'll learn: Why buyers are taking longer to decide and what the new touchpoint research says How to sell without selling (and the one condition that makes it work) The simple question to ask your team before every launch ends RESOURCE: Grab the resources from this episode at https://podcast.stu.me CONNECT WITH STU: Website: https://stu.me Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me Membership.io: https://membership.io Subscribe and leave a review if this episode helped you.

If you've been watching AI roll through every industry and wondering what's left, what your edge is, what can't be automated, this episode is for you. Because the answer isn't more tech. It's actually the opposite. I was sitting in a movie theater at a VIP premiere of Super Mario Brothers with my son, brother-in-law, and nephew. The tickets, drinks, popcorn, candy, all free. 100 families in the room. No pitch, no transaction, just pure investment in relationships. While I was there, I asked my bank advisor Adrian if AI had impacted his work. He paused, looked at me, and said, "Not really. Because everything I do is based on relationships and AI can't replace relationships." That's when the light bulb went off. In this episode, I walk through three simple, intentional relationship touch points you can start using this week to deepen your connection with your best customers. The more the world automates, the rarer human connection becomes, and the more valuable it gets. In this episode, you'll learn: * Why a 5% increase in retention can boost profits by 25 to 95% (Bain research) * The experience touch point: why family-friendly beats "a nice night out" every time * The care touch point: how a two-sentence message during the hurricanes deepened customer loyalty * The intimate touch point: how we're running mini masterminds for our best customers this year * The one word that ties all three ideas together (and why efficiency is the wrong goal) RESOURCE: Grab the resources from this episode at https://podcast.stu.me CONNECT WITH STU: * Website: https://stu.me * Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz * Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren * Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me * Membership.io: https://membership.io Subscribe and leave a review if this episode helped you.

Brandon Turner built a $1 billion real estate portfolio with 14,000 units. Now he's $700 million in debt with 3 years to build and sell a company for $50 million - or lose $100 million in investor capital. This is his comeback plan. Brandon Turner hosted the BiggerPockets podcast for a decade, owns over $1 billion in real estate, and runs multiple companies from Hawaii. In this conversation, Brandon reveals: • Why having a large personal brand is like being a "really hot girl" • The "cross point of two niches" strategy that built his audience • What happened when his Texas properties dropped 30% in value • His "this sucks, I'm sorry" leadership framework for crisis management • Why being down to your last dollar makes you play your best game • The $50 million company he needs to build in 3 years 📚 FREE RESOURCE: Get Brandon's Crisis Leadership Framework + Personal Brand Strategy Guide → https://podcast.stu.me CONNECT WITH BRANDON: • Website: https://beardybrandon.com • Instagram: https://instagram.com/beardybrandon • BiggerPockets: https://biggerpockets.com • Book "The Book on Rental Property Investing": https://a.co/d/6EWQ9Fm CONNECT WITH STU: • Website: https://stu.me • Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz • Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren • Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me • Membership.io: https://membership.io Subscribe for new episodes every week.