March 24, 2025 • 43 mins
Gillian Perkins is an entrepreneur and YouTuber with over 700,000 subscribers. She shares how she balances running a big family and being the CEO of Startup Society.
- Cut your lead gen costs in HALF with my $37 mini-course–NOW only $17!
- Visit The Art of Online Business website for Facebook Ads help
We talk about the challenges of growing a profitable online business and how she uses YouTube to attract high-quality leads.
Gillian tells her story of going from running a local music school to building a successful online business. She explains her approach to teaching and creating passive income. She also breaks down how structured sales funnels and evergreen content help her grow a sustainable business while managing family life.
Watch the next episode on YouTube, "The Power of YouTube Traffic: Step-by-Step Funnel Breakdown with Gillian Perkins"
Please click here to give an honest Rating/Review for the show on iTunes! Thanks for your support!
Kwadwo [QUĀY.jo] Sampany-Kessie’s Links:
- Get 1:1 Meta Ads Coaching from Kwadwo!
- Say hi to Kwadwo on Instagram
- Subscribe to The Art of Online Business’s YouTube Channel
Gillian’s Links:
- Visit Gillian's website
- Listen to her 10-episode podcast, "The 100k Method"
- Subscribe to her YouTube channel and Apple Podcasts
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Three times on this podcast.
I've had people as guests whohave had a significant impact on
me and my business journey, andGillian Perkins is no exception
.
Many of you know that this ismy second online business and my
first online business, whichwas decimated by the pandemic,
(00:20):
was teaching Chinese, and backin those days I was heavily
invested in growing my YouTubechannel.
Now I made a mistake.
I grew a great YouTube channelbefore I really had an offer,
but once I got the offer down, Ishould say then the YouTube
channel became a good source ofleads for my offer, and Gillian
(00:43):
can speak to this.
Let me share with you a littlebit about her.
She is the CEO of StartupSociety, a YouTuber who I would
say a huge YouTuber.
How many subscribers are you atright now?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Gillian, somewhere a little north of 700,000.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
All right.
And the host of the Work Less,earn More podcast.
She teaches people how to startand build profitable online
businesses that allow them toearn passive income and live a
flexible lifestyle.
And on the personal side ofthings, gillian is a Christian
mom who homeschools her fivekids.
(01:17):
Oh my gosh, every time I meetsomebody who has double the
family size of mine well, yoursis technically slightly more
than double, because I only havetwo kids I'm like how are you
running a successful businessand running such a large family?
Because I feel like I'mprivileged to be up here in like
my guest bedroom converted intoan office, and my wife is
(01:38):
downstairs and our two kids aretrying to pull her brain apart
actively on the daily.
Did you go through that,gillian?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Oh for sure, and little secret that lots of
people know, but not lots ofpeople on the internet know, is
I'm actually expecting my sixthright now, so it's going to get
even crazier.
Congratulations, yeah, but Imean.
The thing about having morekids is that it doesn't increase
exponentially.
In fact it doesn't evenincrease incrementally.
(02:06):
It's each child, you know, addsa little bit more work and a
little bit more work, right?
Having three kids isn't a lotharder at all than having two
kids, and having four kids isbarely harder than having three.
So parenting is hard.
Parenting is hard, for sure,but parenting five kids is not a
lot harder than parenting twokids.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I feel like what you just said is like textbook.
What great parents say, youknow, who have great systems
that just are, overall, betterthan the rest of us at raising
their kids.
They're like it's not that hard.
Yeah, number six will just beeasy Like.
I've seen families, though.
Back when I was living in Chinaand working there at an
(02:44):
elementary school, at aninternational school, I remember
seeing some families and onefamily had six, another had
seven, and I was just like howare you doing it?
But then I see their kids andI'm like okay, your kids are
like not little tyrants, likethey're well behaved.
I'm intrigued at like whatyou're doing behind the scenes,
but I see like the older kidshelping the younger kids.
(03:06):
I see like the younger kidskind of just falling in line,
like I've had the privilege oflike sharing meals, and I'm just
in awe at like at thesefamilies.
What are they doing that I'mnot doing Like I need to learn.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
So well, I will freely admit or maybe I'm
bragging that my kids are likethat, not to say that they're
never crazy.
They bounce off the walls on aregular basis.
For sure, you know, play tag inthe house, and five kids
playing tag in a house iscraziness, but they are very
well behaved and very obedient,and I think that part of that
(03:45):
does.
It's not an absolute certaintyof an outcome with having more
kids, but having more kids, I dothink, tends toward that,
because they kind of learn theirplace in the family order and
the older ones learn to modelthe, or the younger ones learn
to model what they see the olderones doing.
So if you train the firstcouple pretty well, then less
training is required with thefuture ones, and so, yeah, I
(04:07):
think that it's great, though,that you look at those families
and you wonder what they'redoing, because I feel like I get
two reactions to my kids beingwell-behaved.
Some people are like well, youhave it easy, you know.
They're like yeah, I would havefive kids too if my kids were
that well behaved.
And other people have yourreaction of like, what are you
doing?
(04:28):
And that's not.
I hope that doesn't soundprideful, because I take it as
that it was nature and nurture.
You know that.
I know some kids are morechallenging than others and I,
thankfully, have been blessedwith a bunch of kids who, for
the most part, are prettyeasygoing and not very
challenging.
But I do think that there was alot of kids who, for the most
part, are pretty easygoing andnot very challenging.
But I do think that there was alot of intention that went into
(04:48):
it as well, you know, with howwe trained them.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
There we go, there we go.
I love what you said and we'regoing to get back to.
We're going to talk aboutbusiness in a quick moment and I
would love for you to start offwith a snapshot of your
business as it is currently inthe beginning of 2025.
But first I will share,comically so I love what you
said about how, with more kids,they figure out their order like
in the family.
(05:11):
I think that's the biggestissue, like with my eldest right
now.
Like she thinks the order isher and then my wife and I.
It should be my wife and Ifirst and then her behind, and
that's where, like, the frictioncomes from.
We just have to fall in lineand realize that she was
designed to run the show and lether run it.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah, I'm sure that is the solution.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So, gillian, please share about your business now
and, dear listener, as Gillianshares, keep in mind that this
is the first of two episodes.
In the upcoming episode, we'regoing to dive into why YouTube
is the best way to get highquality leads, and Gillian is
going to walk us through herfunnel.
(05:55):
It's a YouTube powered funneland I will share.
As a Facebook and Instagram admanager, there is a certain kind
of client who I enjoy workingwith but is very hard to serve,
and that is the client that hasthe established YouTube channel,
because it's very hard to rivalthose leads that come from
(06:16):
their YouTube channel, and manytimes it's been quite
transparently impossible torival the quality of those leads
with Facebook and Instagram ads.
I always say that Jesus saves.
Facebook and Instagram ads donot, and so more eyeballs on a
bad offer does not a goodbusiness make.
But the Facebook and Instagramads beating system is definitely
(06:40):
, in my experience, the YouTubeone.
So, gillian, tell us about yourbusiness now, and then we'll
dive into some of the challengesand successes that you've had
growing your business.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah, you mentioned that about successful YouTubers
being the hardest clients whenwe recorded an episode on my
podcast a few weeks ago and Ihadn't thought about it exactly
that way as a whole category ofa thing, but that was certainly
my experience when I triedworking with multiple Facebook
ads managers that none of themcould get me really satisfactory
(07:13):
results because nothing couldrival all these free, very warm
leads that I get from YouTube.
So we'll get more into that ina few minutes, I'm sure, but for
a snapshot of my business, so Irun an online business where I
teach regular people how tostart online businesses and how
to grow those businesses tobecome their full-time thing and
(07:34):
replace their nine to five job.
Most of the people who I workwith and most of what I teach
them is about how to buildeither digital product
businesses or service-basedbusinesses.
I don't really touch one-commerce or anything like that
and this might sound surprisingsince I'm a big YouTuber, but I
don't really do social media.
(07:54):
Youtube is the one thing I doand I only kind of have
considered social media becauseit really is long form content,
so I think it's more akin to ablog or a podcast or something
like that.
And, yeah, social media is notreally my jam, so I mostly teach
people how to build theirbusinesses online without social
media or with very minimalsocial media.
So that's basically what Iteach people how to do.
(08:14):
I've got about a half millionor so dollar a year.
Business.
Some of our main offers are ahigh ticket coaching program
that we run, a low ticketmembership that just teaches
people like business basics, andthen a YouTube course and those
three different streams ofincome.
They all bring in wellsignificant percentages of our
(08:36):
income.
With the high ticket mastermindwhich, by the way, the
mastermind works with people whoalready have their businesses
and they have products.
We build systems with them wecall them evergreen sales
funnels to get their productsselling consistently without
having to run launch afterlaunch so that they can have
consistent income in theirbusiness.
Anyway, that mastermind and thelow ticket membership those
(08:59):
bring in the largest chunks ofmy income.
I would say that each of thembrings in about 20% of our gross
revenue for the year.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Okay, all right.
If you had to pick one, whichwould it be to stick with going
forward?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
The high ticket or the low ticket?
Yeah, oh, it's an ongoingquestion.
I started my business with zerooffers, as everyone does, and
then I added an offer and anoffer and an offer, trying to
find, you know, the best offer,and I ended up with a lot of
offers and then I thought thisis big and messy and that's not
(09:32):
what I was trying to createanyway.
So I paired them back andpaired them back, and paired
them back to the point thatwe're at now where we basically
have these three offers themastermind slash coaching
program, the membership and theYouTube course and I kind of
would like to pare it backfurther and I've definitely
thought about doing so manytimes.
You know, maybe I should be aone product business.
That sounds beautifully simpleand there's just too many like
(09:57):
pros and cons of the differentones.
You know they all serve theirown unique purpose.
I know if I say, cut theYouTube course because it's less
of our income, I would haveemails in my inbox every day
people asking me for thatYouTube course.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
And there's nothing else quite like it out there on
the market and we might as wellkeep offering it because people
love it, right.
And then, when it comes to thehigh ticket versus the low
ticket, it's amazing to work asclosely as we can with people in
the high ticket, you know,because they're paying more so
we can afford more of ourresources, you know, be a lot
higher touch with them and wecan help them get a really big
(10:33):
result, and so that's really funto see.
But, at the same time, like oneof the main reasons that I
started this business, becausethis is, like my literally my
12th business that I've run overthe last 20 something years and
I've been running this businessnow for about six years.
Anyway, one of the main reasonsI started this business was
because I was so frustrated whenI was trying to start my first
(10:54):
online businesses, with the lackof affordable and yet thorough
education that was out there.
You know you could find cheaplittle courses, but they just
taught you a random tip or trick.
Basically, you know they didn'treally teach you a system for
starting and building asuccessful online business at
all.
And then you had these reallyexpensive like coaching programs
(11:15):
or $2,000 online courses, ofwhich I bought a few and was
honestly still disappointed bythe quality and the results I
was able to get with them.
But they were also so expensiveand when you're starting a
business and especially you'rebootstrapping it, I definitely
put at least one of those reallyexpensive courses on a credit
card and then had to pay it offand that sort of thing, and I
(11:36):
wanted to solve that problem forpeople and these people who
they just want to learn thebasics of like what do I need to
do to start making money online?
And so that was why I createdStartup Society, my membership,
and so, even though, like,there's some disadvantages with
you know, when people only pay alittle bit, a lot of the time
they're not very personallyinvested and it can be tougher
to get them results, and, ofcourse, we can't spend as much
(11:57):
time with each individual memberunless they like.
Like they add on coaching totheir package, you know, or
upgrade or something like that,that sort of thing, you know,
but as long as they're onlypaying $49 a month.
You know we can't afford tospend that much time as a team
on each person, but we still do,you know, offer them all the
support we can, and we docoworking sessions every week
and group coaching sessions, andwe've got not a Facebook group
(12:20):
where we have a Slack groupwhere we support them, just, you
know, just as much as we can.
But so I love that I canprovide that at that really low
cost to them and we can make itfantastic, like there's two
dozen online business coursesinside that membership, because
that's what you can do with thescale of memberships.
Right, the people are onlypaying $49 each, but we've got
(12:41):
hundreds of members and so it'sworth it to us to create a
course for them, you know,because we know that it's
bringing in 10,000 plus dollarsa month.
So that would be not answeringyour question.
By the way you know, you justtold me to pick and I said sorry
, I can't.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
I've just learned not to force it.
I wasn't clear to answer myquestion, but that's all right,
that's absolutely all right.
I'm intrigued, though, butthat's all right, that's
absolutely all right.
I'm intrigued, though, alongthe way to your current mix the
YouTube course, the monthlymembership and the mastermind
you said that you got rid of alot of other courses that you
(13:17):
sold.
Which was the course that youwere most happy to get rid of in
the past and which was the onethat you have those, I don't
know over the dinner well, maybenot over the dinner table
intimate talks, because you gotfive kids, let's say, when
you're laying in bed about tofall asleep, talk to your
husband and you're like you know, I kind of miss that course.
(13:39):
Can you tell me about those two?
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Yeah, well, there's one course that I wouldn't say I
miss it exactly, but it's onethat people kept asking us for
and they ask us for to this day.
So it's a course called LaunchLike a Boss and it's about how
to launch a course online, and Iretired it because, in short,
the production quality wasn't upto my current standards.
(14:03):
You know, it was one of theearlier courses I made with this
version of my business and so,yeah, the production quality
just wasn't quite there and Ichanged my thinking on some of
the strategies and whatnot.
And I could have rerecorded thewhole thing, of course, and
I've done that with some courses, but in that case, I chose to
not do that because, you know, Iwant to sell courses and
(14:25):
products and programs that Ilike really believe in and like
am very confident that can getpeople results.
And that course, it just wasn'ttested as much as I wanted it
to be tested.
I had created it out of, basedon what had worked for me, you
know, which is where wegenerally start, of course, but
what had worked for me andrelated theory, and but it
(14:48):
wasn't something that I testedwith a lot of clients, and so I
just didn't have nearly as muchconfidence as I do with some
other things that I teach thatit was the best strategy, if
that makes sense.
You know I knew it was a goodstrategy, worked.
But yeah, was it the beststrategy?
I didn't know, and I found thatin my business and this is like
to my detriment to some degreebut I have the best energy and I
(15:12):
enjoy the most when I'm makingnew things, thus lots of courses
and other products.
You know that I had to cullfrom my collection and and other
struggles.
You know it's hard to like kindof stay in my lane if you will,
you know, and not go too broadand too big, but to stay focused
and stay focused on kind ofthat.
You know that one thing.
(15:32):
And to when you sell a productover and over and over again,
you can often take it to newheights, which is fine.
But again, I found I just havethe best energy around a new
product, whether that is aroundthe launch of a new product, so
like writing the emails to sellit, I'll have the best energy
and inspiration and enjoy theprocess, or with creating a new
(15:53):
product.
And so when I considersometimes re-recording a course,
it has to be really worth itfor multiple reasons.
Right To be worth it because Iknow it's going to be not very
fun for me and it might showthat it's not very fun for me.
You know what I mean.
And I don't want that, I don'twant to go to all the work to
re-record a course, only to haveGillian look bored throughout
(16:14):
the whole thing, right?
That's not going to be helpfulto anyone, and so in that case,
you know, yes, it was somethingthat people liked and wanted,
but again, it wasn't somethingthat I felt the best about
selling.
So I decided let's focus onthese other things that I'm very
confident with the strategiesthat I teach and feel very
authentic and good about sellingbecause I know they work for
(16:36):
people.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Okay, all right, so that was the one where people
still request it, but you're notgoing to come out with it again
.
But maybe you're like, could I,should I have?
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Oh yeah, and you know I might recreate it in the
future.
You know it's been years nowsince I retired that course and
especially since I created thefirst version of it, and so at
this point it wouldn't be are-record.
If I created it, it would berebirthing it.
You know brand new.
I wouldn't, even probably goback and look at the old course.
I would just create a courseabout the same topic, probably
(17:08):
with the same name, yeah, but Iwouldn't rerecord.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
And then you also asked about a course that I was
happy to get rid of.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah, that one's a little bit harder.
I mean to some degree that thatsame one I was just talking
about, that's a great example.
I was happy to get rid of itbecause I didn't feel amazing
about selling it, and that'sprobably been the case with
maybe not quite any productsthat I've retired, because there
have been a few that gotretired for some other reason, I
guess.
But for the ones that come tomind that I was happy to get rid
(17:39):
of, it was because while I knewthe strategy had worked for me,
I had not tested it enough andso I didn't feel great about
continuing to sell it, and so Iwas happy to retire it and not
kind of have that liability andI don't mean a legal liability,
but kind of more like a moralliability, if that makes sense
of like worrying that.
You know, maybe I'm teachingsomething that worked for me but
(18:01):
won't work for everyone.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
I mean, we want to bring a level of excellence to
the courses that we have,because I absolutely believe
that we were given our gifts anddesires and passions to help
other people and serve them withexcellence.
And so if we can't do that,then, yeah, it is kind of a
moral obligation to either shoreup the thing or look at some
(18:27):
different way to serve folks.
For sure.
So, seven years on, into yourcurrent business, half a million
dollars in revenue a year,which congrats.
That's quite the nice businessrevenue.
When was the point where thegoing got tough and you almost
gave it all up?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
When was the point that it wasn't?
I mean seriously there havebeen a few periods of time when
it wasn't, but for the most partI would say it's always been
tough and at the same time, likealways, in certain ways, easy,
if that can make any sense.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Like so I remember it in the beginning, make it make
sense.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I'll try.
I remember in the beginning,those first, probably two.
Well, I'll first say the firstyear or two I wasn't making any
money, right.
That's tough, you know.
You're working, working,working and it's like how do I
get this thing to make money,how do I get people to pay
attention and, to, you know, beinterested in what I have to
offer?
So that was really tough, right.
(19:31):
But something that's easy aboutthat is it's still just a hobby,
so it's not.
You know the toughness ofrunning a business, yet it still
is like I hope this works, Ihope this works and you're
really like engaged anddetermined and it can be
frustrating, but you have a lotof like motivation because you
want to solve the puzzle, Right,and then we get into the okay,
(19:53):
now it's starting to work.
But I'm working so much rightnow because there's so much I
don't know.
So I'm constantly Googlingeverything, I'm constantly
reaching out to people for helpand support, I'm creating new
products, so it was just like alot.
(20:13):
So that was tough.
But something that was easyabout that was that the growth
was happening.
Finally people were buyingthings.
So that was exciting and fun,you know, and there's lots of
growth and it's all up.
Those expressions are confusingit's all uphill, it's all
downhill.
We don't know which one is thegood one and which one is the
bad one, but anyway hill.
We don't know which one is thegood one, which one is the bad
one, but anyway it's all forwardprogress in that point, right,
you know, sure, this launchmight have not been quite as a
different launch or somethinglike that, but every normally,
(20:36):
every month, you're making moremoney than the last month, and
certainly every year for thosefirst few years, right.
And then I'd say, maybe it gotto a place where it kind of
wasn't tough for a little while.
You know, we're coasting uphillin a good way.
Right, you're coasting andthings are growing, but you have
mastered at least all thebasics and so you're not having
(20:57):
to constantly google.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
That was nice for a little while right, yeah rewind
to those first two years thatyou told me where you felt like
it was a hobby but you were notmaking money.
What were you doing to makemoney then?
Like were you still working?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Oh, you mean, what was I doing?
That was actually making money.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
So I was running a different business, but it was a
local business.
So I ran a local music schoolwhere we had about 200 students
or so and we'd teach like pianoand guitar, and I had a bunch of
teachers who worked under meand yeah, so that was my day job
and my day job was working formyself.
But there were things that Ididn't like.
You know, I didn't like that Ihad to show up there and you
(21:40):
know it wasn't something I coulddo on my own time at all.
Right, and I also didn't likethat liability of running a
local business with rent andthat sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Gotcha.
Yeah, but you were doing itwith two kids at the time I'm
trying to do the math.
You didn't say how old youreldest was, but I'm like if
you're expecting number six.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yeah, he was 11.
Yeah, so I had two kids.
Yeah, I was doing that before Ihad any kids.
I had two kids and then, when Iwas pregnant with the third was
when I sold that business and Iwent full time with my current
business.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah, Okay, what a journey.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, kind of feels like my little lifetime
sometimes, anyway.
So after that, so there wasthis easy period where it was
like I've mastered the basicsThings are growing, everything
is good, this is amazing, youknow, like doubling revenue
every year, sort of thing, or orbetter, yeah.
And then it got to a pointwhere, of course, you know, for
(22:35):
one reason or another, covidmight have had something to do
with it, when you know, somehowthings plateaued, you know, and
they weren't growing.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
They plateaued For you.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Yeah, and I don't mean necessarily when COVID
happened, because I know a lotof people said, oh, that'll be
really good for business and foronline business and in fact it
was.
So I don't mean COVID hadsomething to do with it, like
COVID happened and it shut downmy business, not like that at
all.
2020 was a good year for me.
In fact, it was my one of mybest years ever Not quite my
(23:05):
best year We've had a betteryear since then but yeah, that
was when we got up to half amillion.
And then the next year was theplateau year and we could get
into this more, but, in short, Ithink that there was a lot more
competition in the online spacethen because so many people had
gone online.
I think that was probably themain thing and the people were
(23:30):
also short on money after beinglocked down, you know, with
COVID and not being able to workand that sort of thing, so it
was bad for the economy, anyway.
So we had a couple of years ofa plateau 2021, 2022.
And that was hard, because I'mthe sort of person and I don't
know, you know what makes methis way exactly but where I
tend to just kind of see wherethings are going, and I don't
know what makes me this wayexactly, but where I tend to
just kind of see where thingsare going and I don't mean I
have incredible foresight, but Ithink about where things are
(23:51):
going.
You know, if this continuesthis way, then it will be really
good.
If this continues this way, itwill be really bad.
So, when my business wasgrowing, it was like, wow, you
know word half a million now andclearly in just a few years
we'll be at multiple millions.
And then, as soon as, just assoon as things plateaued even
and I don't mean they were goingdown, but they plateaued I was
like, well, now we're notgrowing, so now we're dying, so
(24:16):
now everything is going to beruined, you know, very soon,
basically, and this won't besustainable at all.
So the thing that was hardestabout 21 and 22, and being in
that plateau was that was theemotional side of things.
You know, I was also on apractical level, working and
trying to figure out, you know,how can we break out of this
plateau, but mostly it was justreally stressful for me.
(24:37):
Yeah, so yeah, and then 2023, wecame out of the plateau.
I think that was our best yearto date.
So so that's awesome.
And we had like to be clear.
We'd plateaued it right aroundthat half a million mark.
We didn't really dip below that, but so best year was like
650,000.
And then I was like, okay,seems like things are growing.
(24:59):
Let's kind of test the watersscale back.
And so last year 24, we triedjust going a lot.
You know, we were talkingearlier about cutting back on
different programs andsimplifying things and that sort
of thing, and so I was likemaybe we should just, you know,
do fewer launches and sell fewerproducts.
And I'm sure you've probablynoticed that there are some of
(25:23):
the biggest names online.
They sell like one course, youknow, and they do one huge lunch
a year.
Like I think the OG of that wasprobably Marie Forleo with B
school, which I know she's notas much of a main player now,
but for years one B school luncha year and she had multimillion
dollar business.
You know, and so I was likemaybe I'm making things way too
(25:44):
hard for myself, maybe I'm doingway too much, and if I just
scaled back, then I could dofewer launches.
There'd be higher demand for myproducts, you know, like I've
got the audience for it, sort ofthing.
And so I tried that last yearand that was hard and easy at
the same time, because we didwork less and we did have a
better like average revenue perlaunch, if that makes sense.
(26:08):
So like our launches on averagedid bring in more, but not
enough more to compensate forthe revenue we lost from the
launches and promos and thingswe didn't do.
Um, so that was yeah, so itdipped back down a little bit
the revenue did.
So that was, you know,challenging, but also a learning
experience, right?
Speaker 1 (26:25):
so now, but hold on a second.
You just described a that was,you know, challenging, but also
a learning experience.
Right so now, but hold on asecond.
You just described a hugechange.
Like you, basically, what I'minterpreting on this side of the
screen is that you retooledyour business because to go to a
one like one, one, one one timea year launch.
We didn't do one.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Yeah, so what we did specifically was we had been
launching and this is anotherdiscussion, because like why?
are you launching if you haveevergreen funnels?
I like to do both.
I found that doing both bringsin the most revenue because you
get a lot of like energy andhype with the live launches and
I personally love the energy ofthe live launch, but then having
(27:01):
the evergreen funnels runningin the background it creates
this great stability in thebusiness, which is why we're
able to just quote plateau athalf a million dollars a year,
anyway.
But we were doing some sort ofpromo almost every month of the
year, normally about 10 launchesor promos a year for the
previous several years beforethat, and to some people that
might sound like a lot orexhausting or whatnot, but I'm
(27:24):
good at keeping the launchespretty simple and we've done it
so many times that it's kind ofrinse and repeat in terms of
launch strategy and I've got asmall team that supports me
really well, so it's actuallyvery doable.
But what we scaled back to waseach of those three products I
mentioned, and there's actuallyone more that's kind of a sister
product to one of them.
Anyway, there's four products.
We did one of them.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
They're growing like your family.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
So, anyway, so it was four launches for the year, but
only one for each product,instead of two or three for each
product.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Okay, all right, all right.
I think the listener and me arelike super curious.
I know this is a prettystandard question that you
probably get all the time, butwhat percentage of your business
revenue comes from AdSense foryour YouTube channel?
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Oh, that's a great question.
So that's definitely somethingthat's fluctuated throughout the
years, obviously, you know, howcould it not?
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Give us a little ask.
Give us a little bit ofinspiration.
Here you know three quarters ofa million subscribers well, I
mean, first thing, everyoneshould know.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
If you don't realize this already, it has nothing to
do with how many subscribers doyou have, and everything to do,
literally everything to do withhow many views you get on your
videos each month, and then wewant it the vanity metric.
And also depending on the nicheyou're in.
So what you talk about in yourvideos, it greatly affects your
(28:52):
AdSense rates.
So how much you get paid forevery click that someone does on
an ad on your videos.
So of course I started a zero.
It took me about well, in thefirst year I got 55,000
subscribers and about ninemonths into that year I got
55,000 subscribers and aboutnine months into that year I
don't know exactly how manysubscribers that was it was
probably like around 30,000 orso, 25,000.
(29:13):
It was growing quiteexponentially at that point.
Anyway, so about 25,000subscribers nine months in.
That was when I was earning acouple thousand dollars a month
from AdSense, was when I wasearning a couple thousand
dollars a month from AdSense andI was able to.
That was a big part of why Iwas able to sell my other
business and go full time withthis business was because I had
(29:33):
that stability of income.
You know, before I even had anyevergreen funnel set up.
So that was really cool and itkept growing from there very
substantially.
Now something that's interestingis that, like what was fueling
my exponential subscriber growthwith my videos was that I, my
videos, were like popping off.
I had a lot of videos that weregoing viral to at least a small
(29:58):
extent.
So I don't mean millions ofviews, but certainly, you know,
for my small channel, hundredsof thousands of views was going
viral and I would have a video,probably about once a month,
that would take off like thatand get a couple hundred
thousand, even though I only had25,000 subscribers, and so that
was fueling subscriber growthand it was also fueling that
(30:19):
revenue, adsense revenue.
So you could look at thatchannel, you know, or that point
in time, 25,000 subscribers andearning, you know, maybe $1,500
, $2,000 a month and not toolong later, having maybe 150,000
subscribers and earning 5,000plus dollars in ad revenue.
(30:40):
Okay, but what might surprisepeople and the reason that I'm
pointing out that it haseverything to do with the views
and nothing to do with thesubscribers is that today my
channel gets a similar number ofviews as it got back then.
Okay, because I get views frommy subscribers and I get views
from search and suggested, butmy videos don't pop off the same
way they used to, and that'sokay.
(31:01):
You know, we go through thesedifferent cycles and phases in
business and can't expect to bejust like famous and going viral
every day, right, anyway?
And so my channel brings in asimilar amount of revenue today,
you know it can vary anywherebetween 2000 up to about $7,000
in a month, and it just dependson whether or not there is a
(31:22):
video that went viral that monthor how many videos I have that
are currently going viralbecause or currently at least,
continuing to rack up what I'vecalled maybe like evergreen
views.
So I normally have like a fewolder videos that are always
getting views and then one ofthem will drop off and another
one will pick up.
And just depending on how manyof them are doing really well
(31:42):
like that, we'll make thedifference between 2,000 all the
way up to 7,000.
But yeah, so my YouTube revenuehas.
While it has grown andfluctuated over time, it's been
surprisingly consistent, fromthe point of a small channel
25,000 subscribers all the wayup to a big channel 700,000 plus
subscribers.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
You seem like a lady who has a good grasp on the
metrics in your business.
Would that statement beaccurate?
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Yes, at least in a big picture sense.
You know I can speak ingeneralities and I know I do
think a lot about the metrics.
I'm not very much like adetails person and or very good
at staying organized, so I'vegot people in my business who
help me with that.
You know.
Help me track everything andkeep track of it, right?
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Gotcha, I'm, it just occurred to me.
Do you have a metric, like fornowadays, given that your
funnels, the leads in yourfunnels, are people who watch
your YouTube videos and theneventually opt in?
Do you have a metric, like anestimated metric, about how much
a video is worth to you, apartfrom adsense, because it's your
(32:47):
videos, yeah you provide theleads right so yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
So of course it depends on the video, because
some videos bring in a lot moreleads than others.
For example, my like classicsort of case study of a video
that was like just a perfectcase study, if you will, of
bringing in leads was I did thisvideo one time about and not
one time actually.
I repeated it a couple of timesbecause it worked so well.
How?
to write a business plan and Iput even on the thumbnail it
(33:14):
said plus free template OK, andso in this video I'm filling out
the business plan and I'mtalking through how to do it and
they can click the link in thedescription to download a cop
you know a copy of this businessplan template and use it for
themselves.
And that video it had about a13 conversion rate, meaning that
(33:35):
13 of the people who watchedthe video and I don't mean
watched it all the way through,I mean who, like, clicked on it
and watched more than threeseconds I've had 13 of those
people went on to sign up for myemail list and it was a quite
popular video.
We got a couple hundredthousand views.
So, yeah, I added thousands ofpeople to my email list with
that one video and of course,you know, a bunch of those
people turned into customers.
(33:55):
So, like I know that that videowas worth at least tens of
thousands of dollars to me, thatone video.
And then I had another video.
You know you're asking abouthow much a video is worth to me,
so I'm telling you about acouple high points, right?
Another high point would be Igenerally have not done
sponsorships.
You know where companies payyou to advertise in your videos.
(34:17):
But in 2023, I did.
I decided to try it out for ayear, see how it went, see how
much it brought in and whatnot.
And 2023 was our highestgrossing year, so there, was
some good about it, right, butultimately I decided to, at
least for now, not do it anymorebecause I didn't enjoy it very
(34:40):
much and kind of going back tolike the joy that comes from
being authentic and reallybelieving in what you are
selling and that sort of thing.
And of course, you know anyrespectable if you will content
creator is going to make surethat they are only promoting a
product that they believe in.
But still, when it's not yourown product, most of the time
(35:00):
you can't believe in it as muchas you would believe in a
product that you created.
You know, and there's alwaysthis kind of conflict of
interest between the productthat would pay you the most
might not be the product thatyou love the most.
So even if the product thatwould pay you the most you know
that you feel good about is agood product, maybe it's not the
(35:21):
thing that you would like totell people is the best thing,
right?
So it's just a lot of gray areathat I didn't love and also a
lot of work working withsponsors.
There's a lot of back and forthcommunication and definitely
some just frustration that comesalong with it.
You know where sometimesthey're not happy with the video
you made, and it's like I putall this time and effort into
(35:42):
this video but they are nothappy with it, or that sort of
thing.
So for the most part, I wouldsay it's a great amount of
revenue per hour, but I wasn't.
It didn't feel like a greatamount of revenue for the amount
of like emotion, like theemotional labor that went into
it or the frustration that wentinto it and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Great revenue per hour, but the amount of life
energy you had to invest intothose hours was much higher than
.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Exactly, yeah, yeah, but great revenue per hour.
It really was great revenue perhour, anyhow.
So I had this video, actually acouple of videos that I did
with a sponsor, and I think Iwon't name them just because
yeah, anyway, but you probablyshouldn't name them.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
It's probably violating some contract.
Yeah, I don't know.
It's probably fine.
But anyway.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
So they paid me first of all a very good rate for
that sponsorship because I wasnot sure I wanted to do it.
And so they emailed me aboutdoing a sponsorship and I was
like, well, I could, like Ididn't have a moral objection to
it or anything you know, but itwas like I'm not really that
excited about this, so I'll justlike name a price, you know.
And I named a way higher pricethan I normally did and I was
like, if they want to do it forthis price, it's worth it, but
(36:45):
I'm sure they won't want to.
And they emailed me back andthey said yes, and I was very
surprised and you might thinkwell, Gillian, you should just
normally ask for more.
But this wasn't my firstsponsorship by any means, and
plenty of other people had saidno to much lower rates than that
.
So you know anyway, but theyhappen to say yes to this much
higher rate.
So I said yes to that.
So immediately you know thisvideo is going to earn me X
(37:08):
number of thousand dollars.
That's good.
So I make the video and theyagreed and this is very unusual
for a sponsorship but theyagreed to also pay me affiliate
commissions on the product salesfrom this video.
Very unusual, Normallycompanies do one or the other
anyway.
But they said affiliatecommissions.
I was commissions, I was like,okay, great, but I didn't expect
it to amount to very much.
(37:28):
It ended up amounting to justeven in the first I don't know,
three, three to six months,twenty thousand dollars of
affiliate commissions on top ofthe amount they'd pay me as a
sponsorship.
And I was like and that videoalso was pretty popular, so I
also got several thousanddollars of ad revenue, AdSense
(37:48):
revenue from it as well.
So it was a very lucrativevideo and so of course I was
like sure we can do this again.
So we did a couple more andthey weren't quite as profitable
as that very first one, butstill brought in thousands of
dollars.
So, that's what a video that,like, you're strategic about
your kind of, your salesstrategy.
(38:09):
Behind it you know what you'regoing to sell, what the, what
the opt-in offer, the free offer, is, and how you're going to
funnel those people into a paidsale.
And then the video pops off.
That's what that can do, right,tens of thousands of dollars.
And then, on the flip side, Ihave videos that I am sure have
earned me $0 because they didn'tget enough views, that they
(38:32):
maybe I shouldn't say $0, maybea couple hundred dollars maybe.
But if you have a video thatdoesn't get very many views,
then it's going to result in avery small amount of ad revenue.
We're talking tens of dollars,maybe a couple hundreds,
depending on how many views youget exactly.
But especially if it happens tobe low CPM, so low cost per
click, you get on those ads andyou don't get very many views.
(38:56):
And then if I'm not verystrategic about my product
strategy or my monetizationstrategy just doesn't pan out
maybe I tried to be strategic,but it was a poor strategy,
right, then I might only getthat ad revenue.
And it's not like the odd videothat that's happened to.
It's happened to dozens anddozens of videos.
So I would say the averagevideo brings in a few thousand
(39:19):
dollars into my business becausewe will either make one big
sale for our high ticketmastermind or we'll make several
sales of one of our lowerticket products.
So yeah, a couple $3,000 or so,and sorry, that's not the great
metric you were looking for,but I hope that that gives
everyone an idea of kind ofwhat's possible.
You know, if you have a videothat gets a few thousand views,
(39:40):
that's what's possible.
You know is a few thousanddollars if you are strategic
about your monetization, and itcan be worth tens of thousands,
you know, up to like a hundredthousand dollars or possibly
more, you know, just dependingon how high the views go, and it
can also be worth practicallynothing okay, whenever we record
the next episode which I guessis not going to happen right now
(40:02):
not today, but but when we dowe are going well.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
I am going to happen right now Not today, but when we
do we are going well.
I am going to ask youspecifically about YouTube why
YouTube?
Why you would say it's worth itfor the online course creator,
and then diving straight intojust how YouTube brings leads
into your automated salesfunnels.
(40:25):
And I would love to go further,as in like, this is the first
step and this is the next touchpoint, and this is the first
time that somebody gets an offerto buy something, basically
kind of like a breakdown of aYouTube powered funnel.
But, before that, right now,where can the listener go to
(40:46):
learn from you more and findthat first step into your funnel
, so that it makes great senseto them as you kind of get
behind the scenes on how thatfunnel works?
Speaker 2 (40:55):
For sure, okay, so are you looking for that
specific resource?
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Yeah, okay, so I'm pretty easy to find.
In general I have a relativelyunique name Gillian Perkins.
If you Google me, if you go toGillianPerkinscom, if you search
Gillian Perkins on YouTube, youwill find me.
Like I said, I'm not really onsocial media, so it's my website
, it's YouTube, that's where youwill find me.
And then, as far as a couplespecific resources go, you
(41:21):
mentioned, I host a podcastcalled Work Less, earn More.
So that's another place you canfind me.
And right now, you knowlistener is listening to podcast
, right, so you might go in yourpodcast player and just search
Work Less, earn More.
But I also have this otherpodcast that is just this
limited podcast series.
It's a 10 episode podcast, sovery consumable, and it's called
the 100K Method or the 100KMethod.
(41:43):
Okay, if you search for my name, gillian Perkins, you'll
probably find both of them.
But anyway, the 100k method itteaches my funnel strategy for
how we build 100k funnels iswhat we call them.
So funnels that can bring in$10,000 plus a month or about
$100,000 a year, and we teach inthat.
(42:04):
Well, in the program that goesalong with that podcast, we
teach not only how to structureyour sales funnel but also that
very important question of howdo you fuel it with leads,
because you can have the moststrategic, powerful funnel in
the world, but if you have noleads coming into it, it's still
not going to make you any money, as I know you well know as a
Facebook ads manager, right?
(42:24):
So we get into that part aswell.
First we build, well, first wetest your product offer and we
make sure we know how to sell iteffectively right, because we
got to have the messaging rightand everything.
Then we build this strategicfunnel for it and then we double
down on what I call evergreenlead generation systems.
So things like creatingevergreen content that can just
(42:46):
live there on the internet andcontinually bring new leads into
your business, because that'swhere the income really gets
passive right.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Yeah, nice, that's called the 100K method, right.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Yeah, that's right.
10 episode podcast.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Okay, I'm going to link that up in the show notes
below and thank you for sharingkind of what has gone into
bringing your business to thispoint and I can't wait until the
next time we get to talk, forthe next episode where we get to
look behind the scenes on thatfunnel that's powered by YouTube
.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
For sure.
Yeah, this was really fun.
I feel like we scratched thesurface.
We just kind of told like thestory and gave people
perspective.
This time, but next time I'mexcited to get really tactical
about how yeah, like you'resaying how funnels like this
work.
So I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Well, right on.
Thank you very much and, dearlistener, until the next time
that you see me or hear from me,take care, be blessed, and I'll
see you in the next one.
Goodbye.
Three times on this podcast.
I've had people as guests whohave had a significant impact on
me and my business journey, andGillian Perkins is no exception
.
Many of you know that this ismy second online business and my
first online business, whichwas decimated by the pandemic,
(00:20):
was teaching Chinese, and backin those days I was heavily
invested in growing my YouTubechannel.
Now I made a mistake.
I grew a great YouTube channelbefore I really had an offer,
but once I got the offer down, Ishould say then the YouTube
channel became a good source ofleads for my offer, and Gillian
(00:43):
can speak to this.
Let me share with you a littlebit about her.
She is the CEO of StartupSociety, a YouTuber who I would
say a huge YouTuber.
How many subscribers are you atright now?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Gillian, somewhere a little north of 700,000.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
All right.
And the host of the Work Less,earn More podcast.
She teaches people how to startand build profitable online
businesses that allow them toearn passive income and live a
flexible lifestyle.
And on the personal side ofthings, gillian is a Christian
mom who homeschools her fivekids.
(01:17):
Oh my gosh, every time I meetsomebody who has double the
family size of mine well, yoursis technically slightly more
than double, because I only havetwo kids I'm like how are you
running a successful businessand running such a large family?
Because I feel like I'mprivileged to be up here in like
my guest bedroom converted intoan office, and my wife is
(01:38):
downstairs and our two kids aretrying to pull her brain apart
actively on the daily.
Did you go through that,gillian?
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Oh for sure, and little secret that lots of
people know, but not lots ofpeople on the internet know, is
I'm actually expecting my sixthright now, so it's going to get
even crazier.
Congratulations, yeah, but Imean.
The thing about having morekids is that it doesn't increase
exponentially.
In fact it doesn't evenincrease incrementally.
(02:06):
It's each child, you know, addsa little bit more work and a
little bit more work, right?
Having three kids isn't a lotharder at all than having two
kids, and having four kids isbarely harder than having three.
So parenting is hard.
Parenting is hard, for sure,but parenting five kids is not a
lot harder than parenting twokids.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
I feel like what you just said is like textbook.
What great parents say, youknow, who have great systems
that just are, overall, betterthan the rest of us at raising
their kids.
They're like it's not that hard.
Yeah, number six will just beeasy Like.
I've seen families, though.
Back when I was living in Chinaand working there at an
(02:44):
elementary school, at aninternational school, I remember
seeing some families and onefamily had six, another had
seven, and I was just like howare you doing it?
But then I see their kids andI'm like okay, your kids are
like not little tyrants, likethey're well behaved.
I'm intrigued at like whatyou're doing behind the scenes,
but I see like the older kidshelping the younger kids.
(03:06):
I see like the younger kidskind of just falling in line,
like I've had the privilege oflike sharing meals, and I'm just
in awe at like at thesefamilies.
What are they doing that I'mnot doing Like I need to learn.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
So well, I will freely admit or maybe I'm
bragging that my kids are likethat, not to say that they're
never crazy.
They bounce off the walls on aregular basis.
For sure, you know, play tag inthe house, and five kids
playing tag in a house iscraziness, but they are very
well behaved and very obedient,and I think that part of that
(03:45):
does.
It's not an absolute certaintyof an outcome with having more
kids, but having more kids, I dothink, tends toward that,
because they kind of learn theirplace in the family order and
the older ones learn to modelthe, or the younger ones learn
to model what they see the olderones doing.
So if you train the firstcouple pretty well, then less
training is required with thefuture ones, and so, yeah, I
(04:07):
think that it's great, though,that you look at those families
and you wonder what they'redoing, because I feel like I get
two reactions to my kids beingwell-behaved.
Some people are like well, youhave it easy, you know.
They're like yeah, I would havefive kids too if my kids were
that well behaved.
And other people have yourreaction of like, what are you
doing?
(04:28):
And that's not.
I hope that doesn't soundprideful, because I take it as
that it was nature and nurture.
You know that.
I know some kids are morechallenging than others and I,
thankfully, have been blessedwith a bunch of kids who, for
the most part, are prettyeasygoing and not very
challenging.
But I do think that there was alot of kids who, for the most
part, are pretty easygoing andnot very challenging.
But I do think that there was alot of intention that went into
(04:48):
it as well, you know, with howwe trained them.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
There we go, there we go.
I love what you said and we'regoing to get back to.
We're going to talk aboutbusiness in a quick moment and I
would love for you to start offwith a snapshot of your
business as it is currently inthe beginning of 2025.
But first I will share,comically so I love what you
said about how, with more kids,they figure out their order like
in the family.
(05:11):
I think that's the biggestissue, like with my eldest right
now.
Like she thinks the order isher and then my wife and I.
It should be my wife and Ifirst and then her behind, and
that's where, like, the frictioncomes from.
We just have to fall in lineand realize that she was
designed to run the show and lether run it.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
Yeah, I'm sure that is the solution.
Speaker 1 (05:33):
So, gillian, please share about your business now
and, dear listener, as Gillianshares, keep in mind that this
is the first of two episodes.
In the upcoming episode, we'regoing to dive into why YouTube
is the best way to get highquality leads, and Gillian is
going to walk us through herfunnel.
(05:55):
It's a YouTube powered funneland I will share.
As a Facebook and Instagram admanager, there is a certain kind
of client who I enjoy workingwith but is very hard to serve,
and that is the client that hasthe established YouTube channel,
because it's very hard to rivalthose leads that come from
(06:16):
their YouTube channel, and manytimes it's been quite
transparently impossible torival the quality of those leads
with Facebook and Instagram ads.
I always say that Jesus saves.
Facebook and Instagram ads donot, and so more eyeballs on a
bad offer does not a goodbusiness make.
But the Facebook and Instagramads beating system is definitely
(06:40):
, in my experience, the YouTubeone.
So, gillian, tell us about yourbusiness now, and then we'll
dive into some of the challengesand successes that you've had
growing your business.
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah, you mentioned that about successful YouTubers
being the hardest clients whenwe recorded an episode on my
podcast a few weeks ago and Ihadn't thought about it exactly
that way as a whole category ofa thing, but that was certainly
my experience when I triedworking with multiple Facebook
ads managers that none of themcould get me really satisfactory
(07:13):
results because nothing couldrival all these free, very warm
leads that I get from YouTube.
So we'll get more into that ina few minutes, I'm sure, but for
a snapshot of my business, so Irun an online business where I
teach regular people how tostart online businesses and how
to grow those businesses tobecome their full-time thing and
(07:34):
replace their nine to five job.
Most of the people who I workwith and most of what I teach
them is about how to buildeither digital product
businesses or service-basedbusinesses.
I don't really touch one-commerce or anything like that
and this might sound surprisingsince I'm a big YouTuber, but I
don't really do social media.
(07:54):
Youtube is the one thing I doand I only kind of have
considered social media becauseit really is long form content,
so I think it's more akin to ablog or a podcast or something
like that.
And, yeah, social media is notreally my jam, so I mostly teach
people how to build theirbusinesses online without social
media or with very minimalsocial media.
So that's basically what Iteach people how to do.
(08:14):
I've got about a half millionor so dollar a year.
Business.
Some of our main offers are ahigh ticket coaching program
that we run, a low ticketmembership that just teaches
people like business basics, andthen a YouTube course and those
three different streams ofincome.
They all bring in wellsignificant percentages of our
(08:36):
income.
With the high ticket mastermindwhich, by the way, the
mastermind works with people whoalready have their businesses
and they have products.
We build systems with them wecall them evergreen sales
funnels to get their productsselling consistently without
having to run launch afterlaunch so that they can have
consistent income in theirbusiness.
Anyway, that mastermind and thelow ticket membership those
(08:59):
bring in the largest chunks ofmy income.
I would say that each of thembrings in about 20% of our gross
revenue for the year.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Okay, all right.
If you had to pick one, whichwould it be to stick with going
forward?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
The high ticket or the low ticket?
Yeah, oh, it's an ongoingquestion.
I started my business with zerooffers, as everyone does, and
then I added an offer and anoffer and an offer, trying to
find, you know, the best offer,and I ended up with a lot of
offers and then I thought thisis big and messy and that's not
(09:32):
what I was trying to createanyway.
So I paired them back andpaired them back, and paired
them back to the point thatwe're at now where we basically
have these three offers themastermind slash coaching
program, the membership and theYouTube course and I kind of
would like to pare it backfurther and I've definitely
thought about doing so manytimes.
You know, maybe I should be aone product business.
That sounds beautifully simpleand there's just too many like
(09:57):
pros and cons of the differentones.
You know they all serve theirown unique purpose.
I know if I say, cut theYouTube course because it's less
of our income, I would haveemails in my inbox every day
people asking me for thatYouTube course.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
And there's nothing else quite like it out there on
the market and we might as wellkeep offering it because people
love it, right.
And then, when it comes to thehigh ticket versus the low
ticket, it's amazing to work asclosely as we can with people in
the high ticket, you know,because they're paying more so
we can afford more of ourresources, you know, be a lot
higher touch with them and wecan help them get a really big
(10:33):
result, and so that's really funto see.
But, at the same time, like oneof the main reasons that I
started this business, becausethis is, like my literally my
12th business that I've run overthe last 20 something years and
I've been running this businessnow for about six years.
Anyway, one of the main reasonsI started this business was
because I was so frustrated whenI was trying to start my first
(10:54):
online businesses, with the lackof affordable and yet thorough
education that was out there.
You know you could find cheaplittle courses, but they just
taught you a random tip or trick.
Basically, you know they didn'treally teach you a system for
starting and building asuccessful online business at
all.
And then you had these reallyexpensive like coaching programs
(11:15):
or $2,000 online courses, ofwhich I bought a few and was
honestly still disappointed bythe quality and the results I
was able to get with them.
But they were also so expensiveand when you're starting a
business and especially you'rebootstrapping it, I definitely
put at least one of those reallyexpensive courses on a credit
card and then had to pay it offand that sort of thing, and I
(11:36):
wanted to solve that problem forpeople and these people who
they just want to learn thebasics of like what do I need to
do to start making money online?
And so that was why I createdStartup Society, my membership,
and so, even though, like,there's some disadvantages with
you know, when people only pay alittle bit, a lot of the time
they're not very personallyinvested and it can be tougher
to get them results, and, ofcourse, we can't spend as much
(11:57):
time with each individual memberunless they like.
Like they add on coaching totheir package, you know, or
upgrade or something like that,that sort of thing, you know,
but as long as they're onlypaying $49 a month.
You know we can't afford tospend that much time as a team
on each person, but we still do,you know, offer them all the
support we can, and we docoworking sessions every week
and group coaching sessions, andwe've got not a Facebook group
(12:20):
where we have a Slack groupwhere we support them, just, you
know, just as much as we can.
But so I love that I canprovide that at that really low
cost to them and we can make itfantastic, like there's two
dozen online business coursesinside that membership, because
that's what you can do with thescale of memberships.
Right, the people are onlypaying $49 each, but we've got
(12:41):
hundreds of members and so it'sworth it to us to create a
course for them, you know,because we know that it's
bringing in 10,000 plus dollarsa month.
So that would be not answeringyour question.
By the way you know, you justtold me to pick and I said sorry
, I can't.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
I've just learned not to force it.
I wasn't clear to answer myquestion, but that's all right,
that's absolutely all right.
I'm intrigued, though, butthat's all right, that's
absolutely all right.
I'm intrigued, though, alongthe way to your current mix the
YouTube course, the monthlymembership and the mastermind
you said that you got rid of alot of other courses that you
(13:17):
sold.
Which was the course that youwere most happy to get rid of in
the past and which was the onethat you have those, I don't
know over the dinner well, maybenot over the dinner table
intimate talks, because you gotfive kids, let's say, when
you're laying in bed about tofall asleep, talk to your
husband and you're like you know, I kind of miss that course.
(13:39):
Can you tell me about those two?
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Yeah, well, there's one course that I wouldn't say I
miss it exactly, but it's onethat people kept asking us for
and they ask us for to this day.
So it's a course called LaunchLike a Boss and it's about how
to launch a course online, and Iretired it because, in short,
the production quality wasn't upto my current standards.
(14:03):
You know, it was one of theearlier courses I made with this
version of my business and so,yeah, the production quality
just wasn't quite there and Ichanged my thinking on some of
the strategies and whatnot.
And I could have rerecorded thewhole thing, of course, and
I've done that with some courses, but in that case, I chose to
not do that because, you know, Iwant to sell courses and
(14:25):
products and programs that Ilike really believe in and like
am very confident that can getpeople results.
And that course, it just wasn'ttested as much as I wanted it
to be tested.
I had created it out of, basedon what had worked for me, you
know, which is where wegenerally start, of course, but
what had worked for me andrelated theory, and but it
(14:48):
wasn't something that I testedwith a lot of clients, and so I
just didn't have nearly as muchconfidence as I do with some
other things that I teach thatit was the best strategy, if
that makes sense.
You know I knew it was a goodstrategy, worked.
But yeah, was it the beststrategy?
I didn't know, and I found thatin my business and this is like
to my detriment to some degreebut I have the best energy and I
(15:12):
enjoy the most when I'm makingnew things, thus lots of courses
and other products.
You know that I had to cullfrom my collection and and other
struggles.
You know it's hard to like kindof stay in my lane if you will,
you know, and not go too broadand too big, but to stay focused
and stay focused on kind ofthat.
You know that one thing.
(15:32):
And to when you sell a productover and over and over again,
you can often take it to newheights, which is fine.
But again, I found I just havethe best energy around a new
product, whether that is aroundthe launch of a new product, so
like writing the emails to sellit, I'll have the best energy
and inspiration and enjoy theprocess, or with creating a new
(15:53):
product.
And so when I considersometimes re-recording a course,
it has to be really worth itfor multiple reasons.
Right To be worth it because Iknow it's going to be not very
fun for me and it might showthat it's not very fun for me.
You know what I mean.
And I don't want that, I don'twant to go to all the work to
re-record a course, only to haveGillian look bored throughout
(16:14):
the whole thing, right?
That's not going to be helpfulto anyone, and so in that case,
you know, yes, it was somethingthat people liked and wanted,
but again, it wasn't somethingthat I felt the best about
selling.
So I decided let's focus onthese other things that I'm very
confident with the strategiesthat I teach and feel very
authentic and good about sellingbecause I know they work for
(16:36):
people.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
Okay, all right, so that was the one where people
still request it, but you're notgoing to come out with it again
.
But maybe you're like, could I,should I have?
Speaker 2 (16:47):
Oh yeah, and you know I might recreate it in the
future.
You know it's been years nowsince I retired that course and
especially since I created thefirst version of it, and so at
this point it wouldn't be are-record.
If I created it, it would berebirthing it.
You know brand new.
I wouldn't, even probably goback and look at the old course.
I would just create a courseabout the same topic, probably
(17:08):
with the same name, yeah, but Iwouldn't rerecord.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
And then you also asked about a course that I was
happy to get rid of.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
Yeah, that one's a little bit harder.
I mean to some degree that thatsame one I was just talking
about, that's a great example.
I was happy to get rid of itbecause I didn't feel amazing
about selling it, and that'sprobably been the case with
maybe not quite any productsthat I've retired, because there
have been a few that gotretired for some other reason, I
guess.
But for the ones that come tomind that I was happy to get rid
(17:39):
of, it was because while I knewthe strategy had worked for me,
I had not tested it enough andso I didn't feel great about
continuing to sell it, and so Iwas happy to retire it and not
kind of have that liability andI don't mean a legal liability,
but kind of more like a moralliability, if that makes sense
of like worrying that.
You know, maybe I'm teachingsomething that worked for me but
(18:01):
won't work for everyone.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
I mean, we want to bring a level of excellence to
the courses that we have,because I absolutely believe
that we were given our gifts anddesires and passions to help
other people and serve them withexcellence.
And so if we can't do that,then, yeah, it is kind of a
moral obligation to either shoreup the thing or look at some
(18:27):
different way to serve folks.
For sure.
So, seven years on, into yourcurrent business, half a million
dollars in revenue a year,which congrats.
That's quite the nice businessrevenue.
When was the point where thegoing got tough and you almost
gave it all up?
Speaker 2 (18:46):
When was the point that it wasn't?
I mean seriously there havebeen a few periods of time when
it wasn't, but for the most partI would say it's always been
tough and at the same time, likealways, in certain ways, easy,
if that can make any sense.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
Like so I remember it in the beginning, make it make
sense.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
I'll try.
I remember in the beginning,those first, probably two.
Well, I'll first say the firstyear or two I wasn't making any
money, right.
That's tough, you know.
You're working, working,working and it's like how do I
get this thing to make money,how do I get people to pay
attention and, to, you know, beinterested in what I have to
offer?
So that was really tough, right.
(19:31):
But something that's easy aboutthat is it's still just a hobby,
so it's not.
You know the toughness ofrunning a business, yet it still
is like I hope this works, Ihope this works and you're
really like engaged anddetermined and it can be
frustrating, but you have a lotof like motivation because you
want to solve the puzzle, Right,and then we get into the okay,
(19:53):
now it's starting to work.
But I'm working so much rightnow because there's so much I
don't know.
So I'm constantly Googlingeverything, I'm constantly
reaching out to people for helpand support, I'm creating new
products, so it was just like alot.
(20:13):
So that was tough.
But something that was easyabout that was that the growth
was happening.
Finally people were buyingthings.
So that was exciting and fun,you know, and there's lots of
growth and it's all up.
Those expressions are confusingit's all uphill, it's all
downhill.
We don't know which one is thegood one and which one is the
bad one, but anyway hill.
We don't know which one is thegood one, which one is the bad
one, but anyway it's all forwardprogress in that point, right,
you know, sure, this launchmight have not been quite as a
different launch or somethinglike that, but every normally,
(20:36):
every month, you're making moremoney than the last month, and
certainly every year for thosefirst few years, right.
And then I'd say, maybe it gotto a place where it kind of
wasn't tough for a little while.
You know, we're coasting uphillin a good way.
Right, you're coasting andthings are growing, but you have
mastered at least all thebasics and so you're not having
(20:57):
to constantly google.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
That was nice for a little while right, yeah rewind
to those first two years thatyou told me where you felt like
it was a hobby but you were notmaking money.
What were you doing to makemoney then?
Like were you still working?
Speaker 2 (21:13):
Oh, you mean, what was I doing?
That was actually making money.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
So I was running a different business, but it was a
local business.
So I ran a local music schoolwhere we had about 200 students
or so and we'd teach like pianoand guitar, and I had a bunch of
teachers who worked under meand yeah, so that was my day job
and my day job was working formyself.
But there were things that Ididn't like.
You know, I didn't like that Ihad to show up there and you
(21:40):
know it wasn't something I coulddo on my own time at all.
Right, and I also didn't likethat liability of running a
local business with rent andthat sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
Gotcha.
Yeah, but you were doing itwith two kids at the time I'm
trying to do the math.
You didn't say how old youreldest was, but I'm like if
you're expecting number six.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Yeah, he was 11.
Yeah, so I had two kids.
Yeah, I was doing that before Ihad any kids.
I had two kids and then, when Iwas pregnant with the third was
when I sold that business and Iwent full time with my current
business.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Yeah, Okay, what a journey.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Yeah, kind of feels like my little lifetime
sometimes, anyway.
So after that, so there wasthis easy period where it was
like I've mastered the basicsThings are growing, everything
is good, this is amazing, youknow, like doubling revenue
every year, sort of thing, or orbetter, yeah.
And then it got to a pointwhere, of course, you know, for
(22:35):
one reason or another, covidmight have had something to do
with it, when you know, somehowthings plateaued, you know, and
they weren't growing.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
They plateaued For you.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Yeah, and I don't mean necessarily when COVID
happened, because I know a lotof people said, oh, that'll be
really good for business and foronline business and in fact it
was.
So I don't mean COVID hadsomething to do with it, like
COVID happened and it shut downmy business, not like that at
all.
2020 was a good year for me.
In fact, it was my one of mybest years ever Not quite my
(23:05):
best year We've had a betteryear since then but yeah, that
was when we got up to half amillion.
And then the next year was theplateau year and we could get
into this more, but, in short, Ithink that there was a lot more
competition in the online spacethen because so many people had
gone online.
I think that was probably themain thing and the people were
(23:30):
also short on money after beinglocked down, you know, with
COVID and not being able to workand that sort of thing, so it
was bad for the economy, anyway.
So we had a couple of years ofa plateau 2021, 2022.
And that was hard, because I'mthe sort of person and I don't
know, you know what makes methis way exactly but where I
tend to just kind of see wherethings are going, and I don't
know what makes me this wayexactly, but where I tend to
just kind of see where thingsare going and I don't mean I
have incredible foresight, but Ithink about where things are
(23:51):
going.
You know, if this continuesthis way, then it will be really
good.
If this continues this way, itwill be really bad.
So, when my business wasgrowing, it was like, wow, you
know word half a million now andclearly in just a few years
we'll be at multiple millions.
And then, as soon as, just assoon as things plateaued even
and I don't mean they were goingdown, but they plateaued I was
like, well, now we're notgrowing, so now we're dying, so
(24:16):
now everything is going to beruined, you know, very soon,
basically, and this won't besustainable at all.
So the thing that was hardestabout 21 and 22, and being in
that plateau was that was theemotional side of things.
You know, I was also on apractical level, working and
trying to figure out, you know,how can we break out of this
plateau, but mostly it was justreally stressful for me.
(24:37):
Yeah, so yeah, and then 2023, wecame out of the plateau.
I think that was our best yearto date.
So so that's awesome.
And we had like to be clear.
We'd plateaued it right aroundthat half a million mark.
We didn't really dip below that, but so best year was like
650,000.
And then I was like, okay,seems like things are growing.
(24:59):
Let's kind of test the watersscale back.
And so last year 24, we triedjust going a lot.
You know, we were talkingearlier about cutting back on
different programs andsimplifying things and that sort
of thing, and so I was likemaybe we should just, you know,
do fewer launches and sell fewerproducts.
And I'm sure you've probablynoticed that there are some of
(25:23):
the biggest names online.
They sell like one course, youknow, and they do one huge lunch
a year.
Like I think the OG of that wasprobably Marie Forleo with B
school, which I know she's notas much of a main player now,
but for years one B school luncha year and she had multimillion
dollar business.
You know, and so I was likemaybe I'm making things way too
(25:44):
hard for myself, maybe I'm doingway too much, and if I just
scaled back, then I could dofewer launches.
There'd be higher demand for myproducts, you know, like I've
got the audience for it, sort ofthing.
And so I tried that last yearand that was hard and easy at
the same time, because we didwork less and we did have a
better like average revenue perlaunch, if that makes sense.
(26:08):
So like our launches on averagedid bring in more, but not
enough more to compensate forthe revenue we lost from the
launches and promos and thingswe didn't do.
Um, so that was yeah, so itdipped back down a little bit
the revenue did.
So that was, you know,challenging, but also a learning
experience, right?
Speaker 1 (26:25):
so now, but hold on a second.
You just described a that was,you know, challenging, but also
a learning experience.
Right so now, but hold on asecond.
You just described a hugechange.
Like you, basically, what I'minterpreting on this side of the
screen is that you retooledyour business because to go to a
one like one, one, one one timea year launch.
We didn't do one.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Yeah, so what we did specifically was we had been
launching and this is anotherdiscussion, because like why?
are you launching if you haveevergreen funnels?
I like to do both.
I found that doing both bringsin the most revenue because you
get a lot of like energy andhype with the live launches and
I personally love the energy ofthe live launch, but then having
(27:01):
the evergreen funnels runningin the background it creates
this great stability in thebusiness, which is why we're
able to just quote plateau athalf a million dollars a year,
anyway.
But we were doing some sort ofpromo almost every month of the
year, normally about 10 launchesor promos a year for the
previous several years beforethat, and to some people that
might sound like a lot orexhausting or whatnot, but I'm
(27:24):
good at keeping the launchespretty simple and we've done it
so many times that it's kind ofrinse and repeat in terms of
launch strategy and I've got asmall team that supports me
really well, so it's actuallyvery doable.
But what we scaled back to waseach of those three products I
mentioned, and there's actuallyone more that's kind of a sister
product to one of them.
Anyway, there's four products.
We did one of them.
Speaker 1 (27:45):
They're growing like your family.
Speaker 2 (27:48):
So, anyway, so it was four launches for the year, but
only one for each product,instead of two or three for each
product.
Speaker 1 (27:55):
Okay, all right, all right.
I think the listener and me arelike super curious.
I know this is a prettystandard question that you
probably get all the time, butwhat percentage of your business
revenue comes from AdSense foryour YouTube channel?
Speaker 2 (28:15):
Oh, that's a great question.
So that's definitely somethingthat's fluctuated throughout the
years, obviously, you know, howcould it not?
Speaker 1 (28:22):
Give us a little ask.
Give us a little bit ofinspiration.
Here you know three quarters ofa million subscribers well, I
mean, first thing, everyoneshould know.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
If you don't realize this already, it has nothing to
do with how many subscribers doyou have, and everything to do,
literally everything to do withhow many views you get on your
videos each month, and then wewant it the vanity metric.
And also depending on the nicheyou're in.
So what you talk about in yourvideos, it greatly affects your
(28:52):
AdSense rates.
So how much you get paid forevery click that someone does on
an ad on your videos.
So of course I started a zero.
It took me about well, in thefirst year I got 55,000
subscribers and about ninemonths into that year I got
55,000 subscribers and aboutnine months into that year I
don't know exactly how manysubscribers that was it was
probably like around 30,000 orso, 25,000.
(29:13):
It was growing quiteexponentially at that point.
Anyway, so about 25,000subscribers nine months in.
That was when I was earning acouple thousand dollars a month
from AdSense, was when I wasearning a couple thousand
dollars a month from AdSense andI was able to.
That was a big part of why Iwas able to sell my other
business and go full time withthis business was because I had
(29:33):
that stability of income.
You know, before I even had anyevergreen funnel set up.
So that was really cool and itkept growing from there very
substantially.
Now something that's interestingis that, like what was fueling
my exponential subscriber growthwith my videos was that I, my
videos, were like popping off.
I had a lot of videos that weregoing viral to at least a small
(29:58):
extent.
So I don't mean millions ofviews, but certainly, you know,
for my small channel, hundredsof thousands of views was going
viral and I would have a video,probably about once a month,
that would take off like thatand get a couple hundred
thousand, even though I only had25,000 subscribers, and so that
was fueling subscriber growthand it was also fueling that
(30:19):
revenue, adsense revenue.
So you could look at thatchannel, you know, or that point
in time, 25,000 subscribers andearning, you know, maybe $1,500
, $2,000 a month and not toolong later, having maybe 150,000
subscribers and earning 5,000plus dollars in ad revenue.
(30:40):
Okay, but what might surprisepeople and the reason that I'm
pointing out that it haseverything to do with the views
and nothing to do with thesubscribers is that today my
channel gets a similar number ofviews as it got back then.
Okay, because I get views frommy subscribers and I get views
from search and suggested, butmy videos don't pop off the same
way they used to, and that'sokay.
(31:01):
You know, we go through thesedifferent cycles and phases in
business and can't expect to bejust like famous and going viral
every day, right, anyway?
And so my channel brings in asimilar amount of revenue today,
you know it can vary anywherebetween 2000 up to about $7,000
in a month, and it just dependson whether or not there is a
(31:22):
video that went viral that monthor how many videos I have that
are currently going viralbecause or currently at least,
continuing to rack up what I'vecalled maybe like evergreen
views.
So I normally have like a fewolder videos that are always
getting views and then one ofthem will drop off and another
one will pick up.
And just depending on how manyof them are doing really well
(31:42):
like that, we'll make thedifference between 2,000 all the
way up to 7,000.
But yeah, so my YouTube revenuehas.
While it has grown andfluctuated over time, it's been
surprisingly consistent, fromthe point of a small channel
25,000 subscribers all the wayup to a big channel 700,000 plus
subscribers.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
You seem like a lady who has a good grasp on the
metrics in your business.
Would that statement beaccurate?
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Yes, at least in a big picture sense.
You know I can speak ingeneralities and I know I do
think a lot about the metrics.
I'm not very much like adetails person and or very good
at staying organized, so I'vegot people in my business who
help me with that.
You know.
Help me track everything andkeep track of it, right?
Speaker 1 (32:25):
Gotcha, I'm, it just occurred to me.
Do you have a metric, like fornowadays, given that your
funnels, the leads in yourfunnels, are people who watch
your YouTube videos and theneventually opt in?
Do you have a metric, like anestimated metric, about how much
a video is worth to you, apartfrom adsense, because it's your
(32:47):
videos, yeah you provide theleads right so yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
So of course it depends on the video, because
some videos bring in a lot moreleads than others.
For example, my like classicsort of case study of a video
that was like just a perfectcase study, if you will, of
bringing in leads was I did thisvideo one time about and not
one time actually.
I repeated it a couple of timesbecause it worked so well.
How?
to write a business plan and Iput even on the thumbnail it
(33:14):
said plus free template OK, andso in this video I'm filling out
the business plan and I'mtalking through how to do it and
they can click the link in thedescription to download a cop
you know a copy of this businessplan template and use it for
themselves.
And that video it had about a13 conversion rate, meaning that
(33:35):
13 of the people who watchedthe video and I don't mean
watched it all the way through,I mean who, like, clicked on it
and watched more than threeseconds I've had 13 of those
people went on to sign up for myemail list and it was a quite
popular video.
We got a couple hundredthousand views.
So, yeah, I added thousands ofpeople to my email list with
that one video and of course,you know, a bunch of those
people turned into customers.
(33:55):
So, like I know that that videowas worth at least tens of
thousands of dollars to me, thatone video.
And then I had another video.
You know you're asking abouthow much a video is worth to me,
so I'm telling you about acouple high points, right?
Another high point would be Igenerally have not done
sponsorships.
You know where companies payyou to advertise in your videos.
(34:17):
But in 2023, I did.
I decided to try it out for ayear, see how it went, see how
much it brought in and whatnot.
And 2023 was our highestgrossing year, so there, was
some good about it, right, butultimately I decided to, at
least for now, not do it anymorebecause I didn't enjoy it very
(34:40):
much and kind of going back tolike the joy that comes from
being authentic and reallybelieving in what you are
selling and that sort of thing.
And of course, you know anyrespectable if you will content
creator is going to make surethat they are only promoting a
product that they believe in.
But still, when it's not yourown product, most of the time
(35:00):
you can't believe in it as muchas you would believe in a
product that you created.
You know, and there's alwaysthis kind of conflict of
interest between the productthat would pay you the most
might not be the product thatyou love the most.
So even if the product thatwould pay you the most you know
that you feel good about is agood product, maybe it's not the
(35:21):
thing that you would like totell people is the best thing,
right?
So it's just a lot of gray areathat I didn't love and also a
lot of work working withsponsors.
There's a lot of back and forthcommunication and definitely
some just frustration that comesalong with it.
You know where sometimesthey're not happy with the video
you made, and it's like I putall this time and effort into
(35:42):
this video but they are nothappy with it, or that sort of
thing.
So for the most part, I wouldsay it's a great amount of
revenue per hour, but I wasn't.
It didn't feel like a greatamount of revenue for the amount
of like emotion, like theemotional labor that went into
it or the frustration that wentinto it and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Great revenue per hour, but the amount of life
energy you had to invest intothose hours was much higher than
.
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Exactly, yeah, yeah, but great revenue per hour.
It really was great revenue perhour, anyhow.
So I had this video, actually acouple of videos that I did
with a sponsor, and I think Iwon't name them just because
yeah, anyway, but you probablyshouldn't name them.
Speaker 1 (36:20):
It's probably violating some contract.
Yeah, I don't know.
It's probably fine.
But anyway.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
So they paid me first of all a very good rate for
that sponsorship because I wasnot sure I wanted to do it.
And so they emailed me aboutdoing a sponsorship and I was
like, well, I could, like Ididn't have a moral objection to
it or anything you know, but itwas like I'm not really that
excited about this, so I'll justlike name a price, you know.
And I named a way higher pricethan I normally did and I was
like, if they want to do it forthis price, it's worth it, but
(36:45):
I'm sure they won't want to.
And they emailed me back andthey said yes, and I was very
surprised and you might thinkwell, Gillian, you should just
normally ask for more.
But this wasn't my firstsponsorship by any means, and
plenty of other people had saidno to much lower rates than that
.
So you know anyway, but theyhappen to say yes to this much
higher rate.
So I said yes to that.
So immediately you know thisvideo is going to earn me X
(37:08):
number of thousand dollars.
That's good.
So I make the video and theyagreed and this is very unusual
for a sponsorship but theyagreed to also pay me affiliate
commissions on the product salesfrom this video.
Very unusual, Normallycompanies do one or the other
anyway.
But they said affiliatecommissions.
I was commissions, I was like,okay, great, but I didn't expect
it to amount to very much.
(37:28):
It ended up amounting to justeven in the first I don't know,
three, three to six months,twenty thousand dollars of
affiliate commissions on top ofthe amount they'd pay me as a
sponsorship.
And I was like and that videoalso was pretty popular, so I
also got several thousanddollars of ad revenue, AdSense
(37:48):
revenue from it as well.
So it was a very lucrativevideo and so of course I was
like sure we can do this again.
So we did a couple more andthey weren't quite as profitable
as that very first one, butstill brought in thousands of
dollars.
So, that's what a video that,like, you're strategic about
your kind of, your salesstrategy.
(38:09):
Behind it you know what you'regoing to sell, what the, what
the opt-in offer, the free offer, is, and how you're going to
funnel those people into a paidsale.
And then the video pops off.
That's what that can do, right,tens of thousands of dollars.
And then, on the flip side, Ihave videos that I am sure have
earned me $0 because they didn'tget enough views, that they
(38:32):
maybe I shouldn't say $0, maybea couple hundred dollars maybe.
But if you have a video thatdoesn't get very many views,
then it's going to result in avery small amount of ad revenue.
We're talking tens of dollars,maybe a couple hundreds,
depending on how many views youget exactly.
But especially if it happens tobe low CPM, so low cost per
click, you get on those ads andyou don't get very many views.
(38:56):
And then if I'm not verystrategic about my product
strategy or my monetizationstrategy just doesn't pan out
maybe I tried to be strategic,but it was a poor strategy,
right, then I might only getthat ad revenue.
And it's not like the odd videothat that's happened to.
It's happened to dozens anddozens of videos.
So I would say the averagevideo brings in a few thousand
(39:19):
dollars into my business becausewe will either make one big
sale for our high ticketmastermind or we'll make several
sales of one of our lowerticket products.
So yeah, a couple $3,000 or so,and sorry, that's not the great
metric you were looking for,but I hope that that gives
everyone an idea of kind ofwhat's possible.
You know, if you have a videothat gets a few thousand views,
(39:40):
that's what's possible.
You know is a few thousanddollars if you are strategic
about your monetization, and itcan be worth tens of thousands,
you know, up to like a hundredthousand dollars or possibly
more, you know, just dependingon how high the views go, and it
can also be worth practicallynothing okay, whenever we record
the next episode which I guessis not going to happen right now
(40:02):
not today, but but when we dowe are going well.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
I am going to happen right now Not today, but when we
do we are going well.
I am going to ask youspecifically about YouTube why
YouTube?
Why you would say it's worth itfor the online course creator,
and then diving straight intojust how YouTube brings leads
into your automated salesfunnels.
(40:25):
And I would love to go further,as in like, this is the first
step and this is the next touchpoint, and this is the first
time that somebody gets an offerto buy something, basically
kind of like a breakdown of aYouTube powered funnel.
But, before that, right now,where can the listener go to
(40:46):
learn from you more and findthat first step into your funnel
, so that it makes great senseto them as you kind of get
behind the scenes on how thatfunnel works?
Speaker 2 (40:55):
For sure, okay, so are you looking for that
specific resource?
Speaker 1 (40:58):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Yeah, okay, so I'm pretty easy to find.
In general I have a relativelyunique name Gillian Perkins.
If you Google me, if you go toGillianPerkinscom, if you search
Gillian Perkins on YouTube, youwill find me.
Like I said, I'm not really onsocial media, so it's my website
, it's YouTube, that's where youwill find me.
And then, as far as a couplespecific resources go, you
(41:21):
mentioned, I host a podcastcalled Work Less, earn More.
So that's another place you canfind me.
And right now, you knowlistener is listening to podcast
, right, so you might go in yourpodcast player and just search
Work Less, earn More.
But I also have this otherpodcast that is just this
limited podcast series.
It's a 10 episode podcast, sovery consumable, and it's called
the 100K Method or the 100KMethod.
(41:43):
Okay, if you search for my name, gillian Perkins, you'll
probably find both of them.
But anyway, the 100k method itteaches my funnel strategy for
how we build 100k funnels iswhat we call them.
So funnels that can bring in$10,000 plus a month or about
$100,000 a year, and we teach inthat.
(42:04):
Well, in the program that goesalong with that podcast, we
teach not only how to structureyour sales funnel but also that
very important question of howdo you fuel it with leads,
because you can have the moststrategic, powerful funnel in
the world, but if you have noleads coming into it, it's still
not going to make you any money, as I know you well know as a
Facebook ads manager, right?
(42:24):
So we get into that part aswell.
First we build, well, first wetest your product offer and we
make sure we know how to sell iteffectively right, because we
got to have the messaging rightand everything.
Then we build this strategicfunnel for it and then we double
down on what I call evergreenlead generation systems.
So things like creatingevergreen content that can just
(42:46):
live there on the internet andcontinually bring new leads into
your business, because that'swhere the income really gets
passive right.
Speaker 1 (42:52):
Yeah, nice, that's called the 100K method, right.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Yeah, that's right.
10 episode podcast.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Okay, I'm going to link that up in the show notes
below and thank you for sharingkind of what has gone into
bringing your business to thispoint and I can't wait until the
next time we get to talk, forthe next episode where we get to
look behind the scenes on thatfunnel that's powered by YouTube
.
Speaker 2 (43:19):
For sure.
Yeah, this was really fun.
I feel like we scratched thesurface.
We just kind of told like thestory and gave people
perspective.
This time, but next time I'mexcited to get really tactical
about how yeah, like you'resaying how funnels like this
work.
So I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Well, right on.
Thank you very much and, dearlistener, until the next time
that you see me or hear from me,take care, be blessed, and I'll
see you in the next one.
Goodbye.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!