How I've Made $60,300 With One Single Email (A No-Bull Story)

I’ve made $60,300 selling 25 seats of my program Stand The F*ck Out with one single email.

It sounds a bit clickbait-y, but it’s a true story, and it happened just a few days ago.

Here’s how it happened.

First, some context…

I started to sell my 8-week program last September (STFO #1) to a small group of 14 early adopters and made $7,000 ($500 each). It validated the product, gave me loads of confidence, and helped me improve the product for the next round.

Six months later, with STFO #2, I quadrupled the price (from $500 to $1,900) and made $35,100 with a relatively small email list (2,500 subscribers). I had never made that much money online. It rocked my world and gave me the confidence to triple down on it.

On the 1st of September 2021, I launched STFO #3 (including a new premium tier at $4,900) and sold out within 24 hours with one email. Twenty-five mavericks joined the cohort at an average price of $2,412 per participant.

I had to reject perfect-fit applicants for the first time because I had reached full capacity with my current cohort model.

Here’s how I’ve done it…

1) I pre-sold STFO for six months using a waiting list system.

Folks could join the waiting list for STFO #3 as soon as STFO #2’s launch was over. It’s the reason why I’ve been able to sell out fast.

I had a steady amount of people who joined the waiting list over the last six months, with an acceleration in August. I also gave an option to waiting list members to leave it without unsubscribing from my email list.

I’ve made sure to send a bunch of emails to that waiting list regularly to stay top of mind: what to expect from the program, 24 questions people asked before enrolling, a PDF containing 61 pages of testimonials (more on that later), an impromptu invite to a Zoom call…

And, of course, a countdown email to let them know applications would open in 48 hours.

As a result, 23 people applied to the waiting within 24 hours, which was already enough to sell out.

I had planned a bunch of “objection-busting” emails to follow to try to convince more people who were on the fence to join… But I didn’t need it.

I’ll be honest… I’m very, very proud of that.

2) I tripled down on one focus: helping small businesses stand the f*ck out.

I took a gamble by turning my popular interview-style podcast (more than 1.5M downloads in 5 years) into a narrative-style show featuring practical essays on radical differentiation to build authority around the topic. Each podcast took me 10-15 hours to research and prepare (using past interviews, books, research, and personal experience).

I used the episode recordings to turn them into newsletter essays (I called the newsletter the “Stand The F*ck Out Newsletter”) and hired a Content Editor to help me manage this process.

I updated my website to put the newsletter at the center, with a ton of social proof.

I temporarily switched focus to promote my newsletter instead of my podcast to increase subscriber numbers. Everything I do now points to it: podcast intro, LinkedIn profile, call-to-action when I get interviewed…

3) I said “No” to everything else.

It’s something that tends to be brushed over that I really want to mention.

What you choose NOT to do is more important than what you choose to do.

Over the last six months, I declined countless podcast interviews, invitations to speak, consulting, and coaching gigs… because they didn’t fit my strategy and would drain my energy.

I only accepted opportunities that would significantly improve my authority and my chances to get small business owners/senior marketers to subscribe to my email list.

4) I posted every weekday on LinkedIn.

I started sharing stuff on LinkedIn daily and replying to every single comment this January. As a result, I went from 5,000 followers to nearly 14,000.

But this is a vanity metric. While difficult to measure, many, many email subscribers told me they discovered me through LinkedIn.

I’ve made countless LinkedIn “friends” with who I’ve built great relationships, and I’ve seen the same names appear on my email list and waiting list.

5) I doubled down on social proof.

I wanted to share real stories of transformation, from “I’m lost” to “I know exactly what I’m doing.”

Instead of going the lazy route with two-line testimonials, I decided to work on long-form, authentic testimonials of STFO #1 and #2 alumni.

I spent 25+ hours re-interviewing STFO #1 alumni (either business owners or senior in-house marketers) and asked them to share their progress. And I did the same thing with STFO #2 alumni.

What I’ve learned this time around

1. The launch felt much easier than the previous two.

2. Some prospective applicants needed to talk to me directly.

3. I serve small business owners (<100 employees) and the senior marketers who work there.

4. All (bar one) participants discovered me in the last nine months after I updated my positioning around radical differentiation.

5. Half of STFO #3 participants are freelancers/agencies offering client services.

6. Half of the waiting list members told me they didn’t apply because they were too busy at that moment.

7. A few respondents didn’t apply because of price, but most of them were not the right fit.

8. Four applicants chose the premium option at $4,900. I added this option and didn’t know what to expect. But I pushed through, and I’m glad I did because it raised the average revenue per applicant by $500.

9. The quality of applicants has risen yet again. They are all a perfect fit. They all have a “bleeding-neck” problem they can’t wait to solve.