I started this Flashback Friday Series (now Throwback Thursday) to answer the question I’m always asked, “Marisa, how did you get your start?”
It’s easy to assume — from the outside looking in — that I’ve always been successful and that all things business and marketing came naturally to me, when nothing could be further from the truth.
So over the last 2 years, I’ve shared the stories behind my first 10 products, programs and courses — including the wins, the flubs and the lessons I learned along the way — so you can see behind the curtain and learn from my experiences.
Now I’d like to continue the Series this month and share the skinny on my next 4 launches — starting with my first 12-month group coaching program, Message to Millions.
This was the predecessor to our Momentum Business Coaching Program, which has now been road tested over 10 years with 1,315 students and $25,663,726 in sales!
So, the very first lesson I want to share is that big things often start small and we can’t anticipate what something will become before we start.
Flashback to 2015…
I had a couple years of experience delivering shorter programs (3 months or less) at lower price points (usually $1K or less), but I had never offered a premium yearlong program.
That felt like the next step, but I was terrified.
I wasn’t confident in my sales skills and I knew premium programs required sales conversations — eek!
I also wasn’t confident I could deliver the depth of transformation that premium price points required, since I had more experience as a course creator than as a coach.
So I teamed up with a partner who had both the sales skills and the long-form delivery experience, but struggled with the marketing and facilitation which were my forte.
He had been offering a yearlong program for years, so I borrowed his experience and confidence to launch Message to Millions.
What I didn’t realize at the time is just how much I had to offer and that business partnerships also bring some unique challenges. It’s not just about bringing different skill sets to the table, a successful partnership also requires shared values, comparable work ethic and compatible communication styles.
I wouldn’t recommend jumping straight into a 12-month partnership — like I did — before you’ve had the experience of working with someone on a smaller project and already know you’re compatible.
The other thing I didn’t anticipate was how much harder it is to sell two people than it is to sell one person…
In order to buy, people had to trust and want to spend time with both of us equally and I quickly discovered that people who were attracted to me — and my marketing — weren’t necessarily attracted to my partner.
He was a nice guy but we weren’t on the same wavelength in a lot of ways. While I embraced technology and the internet, he was more comfortable in person. While I love design and experience, his slide decks looked like they were 10 years old. While I’m responsive and responsible, he’d miss messages and often wouldn’t respond for a week.
I also realized that — in addition to needing to split all my profits with him 50/50 — my reputation was now entwined with his. So, if other people had a bad experience with him or felt uncomfortable around him, then they assumed they’d feel the same way with me…
On the flip side, the contrast between our styles helped me understand what I valued and what were non-negotiables for me: congruence, mastery, excellence and, yes, beauty.
I realized: “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”
I didn’t need anyone else to lend me credibility and confidence, I simply had to own it within myself.
At the same time, being in partnership allowed us to divide and conquer.
While I was onstage delivering the Message to Money LIVE event, he was offstage having enrollment conversations with people who applied for the program.
My job was to get people to come to the event and apply, while his job was to enroll them.
I remember how miraculous it felt when I walked off stage on Day 3 and into the lunch room where our new Message to Millions members were waiting for me.
To be honest, I was kind of amazed that anyone bought… so when I walked into the room and saw 18 people smiling up at me, it felt like a Christmas miracle.
We sold 122 tickets to the event and 18 people enrolled in Message to Millions. That’s about a 15% conversion rate, which is solid but not great for a live, in-person event.
So, while we did bring in $259,946 in sales the first time out, I was confused.
I had gotten great feedback about the event and couldn’t understand why more people didn’t join.
Later, several people told me they would have joined if it were just me delivering the program. I also realized that — in my desire to provide huge value at the event — I had left people full. They felt like their problem had been solved and they didn’t need to invest in ongoing support.
That’s when I realized that I was doing people a disservice by trying to give them absolutely everything possible in my free and low-cost content because there’s a huge difference between knowing what to do and actually doing it.
I now know that most people can’t implement a roadmap on their own for something as complex as building a successful business — they need ongoing guidance, support and community to get the best results possible.
That’s why many people stay with us in the Momentum Program for years. It’s not for the content, it’s for the implementation support — because that’s where the rubber meets the road.
Getting people to actually implement over an extended timeframe was trickier than I imagined — even at this level of investment and support — and some people struggled.
I learned that a 12-month program is the most challenging type of program to design for since you have to keep people motivated over a long period of time. Life invariably happens along the way — people get sick, they experience loss and hardship. Plus, over longer periods of time, they come face-to-face with the inner blocks and challenges that have stopped them in the past.
One of the things I think we did right from the start is balancing inner and outer growth, because I genuinely believe that both are required to build a successful business.
I created an Ascension Plan for both their business and for themselves, which is something we introduced at Message to Money LIVE and then implemented together during the program.
The initial program design was simple.
Our minimum goal was for all our members to increase their annual income by at least twice the amount of their investment — and the program was focused on coaches who already had a business and were making some money, but hadn’t taken their business across the $100K mark.
And we were able to create that ROI by supporting them with 4 Essential Elements:
- Value & Pricing: Own Your Value, Define Your Offer
- Positioning & Branding: Claim Your Niche, Build Your Brand
- Enrollment: Master Enrollment
- Marketing & Tribe Building: Build Your List, Speak to Sell
In other words, we had a clear target client and a clear path to cash — which are essential for strong sales. We were able to show people they could double their investment by making progress in any of these 4 domains — they could increase their prices, improve their offer, skyrocket their enrollment skills or expand their reach.
We originally offered 2 options:
– Message to Money Silver ($9,997 or $1,997 Up-Front + 12 Payments of $797) – Included bi-monthly coaching and training calls, plus five 2-day Implementation Retreats (one for each of the 4 Elements and one devoted to inner growth).
– Message to Money Gold ($17,997 or $5,997 Up-Front + 14 Payments of $797) – Included everything in Silver, plus monthly small group laser coaching calls, 3 mastermind days (prior to events) and private coaching.
Plus Bonuses such as my partner’s complete archive of trainings.
In the first cycle (January 2015), we sold 8 Silver Packages and 10 Gold. In the second cycle (September 2015), we sold 5 Silver Packages and 13 Gold. So it was clear that people wanted the Private Coaching and additional Access enough to pay for it.
Overall, the program design was solid and it could have potentially continued.
But, there were 2 core challenges:
- True partnership isn’t just about showing up in big bursts, it’s the everyday experience of working together — and how someone shows up over time. That wasn’t aligned for us.
- I hadn’t discovered The Experience Formula yet and — as a deeply compassionate person — it was challenging for me to watch people struggle and that gave me the desire to create an even better program. My partner was less driven to experiment with the program design, since he’d been doing something similar for years, while I was obsessed!
So, after two cycles of Message to Millions — and $543,892 in sales — I sunsetted that program, stepped away from the partnership and launched my own yearlong group coaching program, which was originally called Mentorship. Then Momentum.
10 years later, I’ve mentored 1,315 students and made $25,663,726 in sales with my yearlong programs.
And, most importantly, I’ve designed a 12-month program that works so well that the average student stays for 26 months — that’s over 2 years at a 5-figure investment! I even have one student who’s been with me in Momentum for 10 years.
But it all started in 2015 with those first two groups of Message to Millions students.
I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that first step and that first partnership.
So, here’s to feeling the fear and doing it anyways!
Stay tuned because next Friday I’m going to share the story behind how I created and sold my first implementation event — Your Website in a Weekend!
Throwback Thursday Series
Throwback Thursday #1: Build Your Site, Launch Your Business
Throwback Thursday #2: Strike Two — As If One Failed Attempt Weren’t Enough!
Throwback Thursday #3: My First Semi-Hit — Insights Gained From My Message to Money Program
Throwback Thursday #4: The Win That Came Disguised as a Fail
Throwback Thursday #5: You Did What?!!?
Throwback Thursday #6: This Put Me On the Map
Throwback Thursday #7: Me? Do a Live Event?
Throwback Thursday #8: My First Upsell
Throwback Thursday #9: Course ✅ SaaS Next?
Throwback Thursday #10: 1 Launch > 4 Big Lessons
Throwback Thursday #12: Website in a Weekend