I started 2015 with 3 years of business experience under my belt… and it turned into my breakthrough year!
In just 12 months, my revenue shot up from $648,374 to $1,453,795.
So, what made the difference?
This was the year I introduced my first 12-month Mastermind program (Throwback Thursday #11) — and it’s a lot easier to reach those higher numbers when you’re charging ten or twenty thousand dollars than when you’re charging $100 or $1,000!
That’s why, each year, I take a small group of business owners to Lake Como, Italy to design high-ticket programs that skyrocket sales.
And that’s why I tell my Momentum students that — no matter how much (or how little) experience they have — their first year is all about building their foundation, so in year two they can leverage what they built, in year three they can gain traction and in year four and beyond they can optimize and scale.
So, year four was the beginning of the hockey stick that would take me and my “little” business coaching and training company to over $7.5M/year.
And it wasn’t just about adding high-ticket sales…
I also grew my email list to over 50,000 subscribers in 2015 by continuing my Superhero Summit Series (Throwback Thursday #5 & #6)…
And I made a discovery that changed everything.
By this time, I had created 10 online courses and programs that had brought in over $2.5MM in sales and had slammed head-first into the dirty secret of the online course industry.
Only 3-7% of people who buy a traditional online course — the kind currently being cranked out by the dozen using AI — finish the courses they buy and get the results they were promised — just 3%! Say what!?!!
At first I didn’t believe it, but then I started digging into my stats and saw that my courses were not an exception.
Out of desperation, I approached a colleague and asked, “Do people buy your courses and not finish them?”
She looked at me and said something that changed my life forever. She said: “Yes, but maybe some people aren’t meant to succeed…”
Those 7 words — maybe some people aren’t meant to succeed — lit a fire in my belly…
Because I believe that every person is meant to succeed. That every single person — given the right education, the right advice and the right support — can and WILL succeed.
That’s why I became a course creator — and that’s why so many of my students become course creators!
BUT, I kept bumping up against the same problem over and over again — people buying my programs and not completing them, which was keeping me stuck.
I just didn’t feel good about selling something that wasn’t consistently and reliably getting my clients results, so I got obsessed with what it took to drive engagement, results and success for my students.
So I went down the rabbit hole — researching EVERYTHING from video games to slot machines to the best-selling and most popular apps…
I also researched psychology and education — or how we as humans learn best…
Because, I wasn’t interested in creating a game here — I wanted to change how online courses were delivered and consumed!
And you know what I found? Over and over again, I found that THE best and most addictive apps and games ALL relied on the same collection of 10 Core Experiences to engage people and get them hooked on taking HUGE action.
I turned this discovery into The Experience Formula, which ultimately became the methodology that put me on the map as the premiere curriculum design expert for people who care about student success.
But, before I started teaching this to others, I experimented with using just the first 3 Core Experiences in Call to Adventure, a new course I wanted to launch to support my students in mining their strengths, passions and past to discover the right business — for them.
THREE amazing things instantly happened:
First, my sales spiked 33%.
You see — rather than trying to promise the sun, the moon and a bag of chips — I created a Product Mission (Core Experience #1) and Future Self Vision (Core Experience #2) with a crystal clear promise that people could imagine themselves realizing. I also defined my Bird’s Eye View or the specific way I was going to get them across the finish line, which is Core Experience #3.
The “Big 3” answered the essential what, why and how questions my students had, which inspired them to buy! I quickly sold 83 units @ $197 for a total of $16,351.
But that was just the beginning…
Next, student engagement inside the course went through the roof!
Rather than the typical 3-7% completion rate, my new course saw a 76% completion rate!! That’s 25x higher than the industry average! TWENTY-FIVE TIMES!
And third: most of those 76% were so happy with their success that they immediately bought from me again!
In less than 60-days, that SINGLE group of 83 students investing just $197 each up front — brought in over $138,000 in revenue in total, because happy customers buy more.
And, as an added bonus, since those who engaged got serious results, they gladly gave testimonials and became ambassadors for the course.
Which led to another spike in sales as word got around — and the next time I launched this program, I upped the price to $997 and 50 people bought!
That’s when I realized that customer success is the best marketing you could ever get, because when your customers win, they reward you with repeat sales, referrals and testimonials.
So, in 2015, I made Student Success the North Star Metric here at Live Your Message;
Student Success: All Our Programs Create at Least 10x the Industry Standard Student Success Rate (minimum: 30%, target: 45%, stretch: 51%+)
A North Star Metric is a single, measurable metric that captures the core value a company delivers to its customers and acts as a guiding light for long-term growth and success.
Assuming the industry-standard Student Success Rate is 3%, we have a Minimum Goal of 10x, which is 30% Student Success. A Target Goal of 45%, which is 15x the industry-standard. And a Stretch Goal of 51% — which is what it takes to be able to look our students in the eye and say that more students succeed in our programs than fail.
We take this goal seriously and it’s the secret behind how I went from ~$2.5MM in sales in 2015 to over $53MM in 2025.
In fact, our last annual cohort of the Experience Product Masterclass (in 2024) had almost 63% of our students complete — that’s over 20x the industry standard student success rate, which has led to 3,388 testimonials for a SINGLE online course.
I made the switch from creating traditional online courses to Experience Products in 2015 and it’s made all the difference especially now — as traditional online courses have been replaced by AI.
But Experience Products continue to command a premium because they’re based on getting your students results — in an engaging and inspiring way — rather than overwhelming them with information.
That’s why this is the only way I’d create an online program in today’s market!
Discover the 20 Mega-Niches shaping the online program market in 2027 — with the trends, spending shifts and demand signals behind each one.
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 #11: Message to Millions