Now let’s flash forward to 2011 and my second attempt at a program…
Called the 30 Day Challenge, which lasted all of 3 months!
At the time, membership sites and continuity programs were all the rave and the internet marketing gurus were shouting the promise of passive income from the rooftops.
Monthly recurring income was considered the holy grail of online business, so I thought I’d give it a try.
I’d been invited down to Hawaii to speak at my friend Peri Coeurtney Enkin’s event in Hawaii. It was my second-ever live speaking engagement and I was super nervous and super stoked.
Courtney was putting me up for a few days at an apartment in Kona and I felt like I was living the life.
This felt like my global debut, so I wanted to create something brand new that would wow Peri and her audience…
After watching 87% of my first batch of students finish my program (Build Your Site, Launch Your Business) without launching their sites, I realized there was a BIG gap between learning and doing.
So I wanted my next program to get people into action — that’s why I called it the 30 Day Challenge (or 30DC for short).
The idea was simple — every month, I’d give students ONE AREA of their business to focus on:
- Month 1 was called “Why This? Why Now? Why You?” and was all about turning your story and personal experience into a message.
- Month 2 was called “Walking in Your Clients’ Shoes” and it was about aligning your message with your audience through market research.
- Month 3 was called “Brand New You” and it was about defining the key pieces of your personal brand.
I didn’t see the problem until it was too late…
I was selling the online business equivalent of the “Emperor’s New Clothes” — something that couldn’t be seen with the naked eye…
A whole lot of work and process leading to…
*** drumroll please ***
An invisible transformation.
(Messaging, Market Research, Personal Branding)
Waa-waa.
So even though the price was just $97/month, I only got 3 sales of my new offer.
Granted, there were only 12 people in the room…
But – I did all this work and flew all the way to Hawaii for just $291/month???!!!!!???
Murray had even spent an entire day (and lots of research) building me a home-made teleprompter out of cardboard, 2-way glass and an old LCD monitor so I could record the videos!
That’s when I discovered that people don’t buy your program or solution, they buy the transformation they get.
And that was just the start of it!
Because each month of the 30 Day Challenge was focused on a lot of work and process with an invisible transformation, guess what?!?
Yup. Those 3 students didn’t stick around…
One by one, they dropped out. By the third month I only had one student.
That’s right, I was creating 7-9 videos a month for 1 student (and $97)!
Creating this program was costing me WAY MORE than I was making.
And I discovered a sad fact that none of those internet marketing gurus mentioned: the average continuity program member churns in just 3 months…
That means, after just 3 months, they cancel their membership as they fall farther and farther behind, lose interest or simply stop logging in.
Ouch!
The holy grail didn’t seem so holy after all…
So I decided to abandon my membership and go back to creating online courses…
Throwback Thursday Series
Throwback Thursday #1: Build Your Site, Launch Your Business
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
Throwback Thursday #12: Website in a Weekend