What if your very first affiliate promotion brought in $18,000… and landed you in the Top 25 out of hundreds of seasoned pros? In this episode, we’re talking with someone who did exactly that. No list, no big team. Just a smart plan, a clear voice, and a whole lot of heart. It’s proof that you don’t need to be a marketing ninja or email wizard to have a massive impact in your first affiliate launch.
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Previous Episodes of The Affiliate Guy
$5.7 Million Affiliate Launch Secrets: How to Create Irresistible Opt-in Offers
$5.7 Million Affiliate Launch Secrets The Affiliate Playbook Part Two
$5.7 Million Launch Secrets Revealed: The Affiliate Playbook Part 1
How Two Parents Built a 104,000-Person Email List in Just 14 Days
How Affiliates Can Profit from Virtual Summits (Without Being a Speaker)
$5.7 Million Affiliate Launch Secrets: How a First-Time Affiliate Cracked the Top 25 and Made $18K
Matt McWilliams: Matt McWilliams shows you how to launch a successful affiliate program What if your very first affiliate promotion brought in $18,000 in commissions and put you in the top 25 out of hundreds of seasoned pros? Well, in this episode we’re talking with. Someone who did exactly that. No list, no big team, just a smart plan, a clear voice and a whole lot of heart. It’s proof that you don’t need to be a marketing ninja or email wizard to have a massive impact in your first affiliate launch.
Let’s get started. Part four of our 5.7 million dollar affiliate launch secret series is out Hey, welcome Back to part four of our 5.7 million dollar affiliate launch secret series. today’s episode, one of my favorites in this whole series.
As I’ve mentioned in each episode it’s a seven part series and the first couple of episodes were a recap of the launch, some lessons learned. And then the last one was this bonus episode where I shared a training from the launch. And then the last four are actually interviews with some of the top affiliates. And like I said, this one’s one of my favorites because it’s proof that you don’t need massive list, you don’t need like a huge team, you don’t need to be established for years and years and years to crush it as an affiliate. And in this interview I’m talking with Michelle Caruana who’s, she was a first time affiliate who frankly surprised even herself. She finished 24th out of thousands of affiliates and earned more than $18,000 in the process. And this, this episode, to me it’s all about possibilities. She talks about how she didn’t know what to do. She was really uncertain of.
How could. She even compete in this. But she leaned into it and she talks about how she pivoted in the middle of the promotion by listening to her audience. That’s huge.
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And how being small actually gave her a big edge when it came to building community and offering bonuses. So whether you’re brand new to affiliate marketing, you’ve been, you’re managing a program, you’re, you know, you’re looking to coach up your rookies a little bit and get, you know, have some people like Michelle promoting you, you’re going to want to take notes. So let’s jump in to my conversation with Michelle.
I got to say, this is one I’m like. I don’t know. I excited and, like, nervous in a way, because this one is just going to be, like, super, super awesome. This is our first affiliate promotion, um, ever we are here today with Michelle Caruana.
Yes. That is how you pronounce the name. Okay. She’ll be the first to tell you. It’s. It’s how you think it’s pronounced. And the reason I’m so excited about this, and you can correct me if I’m wrong when we do this, Michelle, is I’m pretty sure we’re talking about your first affiliate promotion, ever. Is that. Is that right?
Michelle Caruana: Yes. Ever. Ever.
Matt McWilliams: Okay. And, guys, we’ll talk about the performance. She absolutely crushed it. Like, this is from a launch that we ran. This is for Stu McLaren. We ran the launch. And I know you’ll take no offense to this, but you weren’t even on our radar, Michelle. Like, it wasn’t even like, this is somebody who could sneak into the top anything, nowhere on the radar, and then all of a sudden, she’s in the top, like, 25, you know? And if I remember correctly, I think you finished in, like, 24th or 26th place.
Michelle Caruana: Like, yeah, I think there was, like, a really big tie for one of the places could have been any of those.
Matt McWilliams: And one of the biggest launch in the Internet marketing world all year. And that is not hyperbole. Stitch launches are always one of the biggest. So I am super excited to, do this today. So, first of all, welcome, Michelle.
Michelle Caruana: Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited, too.
Matt McWilliams: Yeah. I started as a corporate marketing professional before opening an indoor playground business so let’s start real quick. Maybe take a few seconds just to talk about who you are and who you serve, and then we’ll talk about this specific promotion.
Michelle Caruana: Sure.
Matt McWilliams: So tell us about you.
Michelle Caruana: So, I have, I started as a corporate marketing professional. I, went to school for economics, and I just randomly happened to get a marketing internship in, corporate America. It was just pure chance that I got into marketing. It was nothing that I considered, but I loved it. I really was able to hone in my skills there. And eventually I started having kids. And I just decided that the corporate life just wasn’t really going to fit into the lifestyle that I wanted. So I opened a brick and mortar indoor playground business, which was kind of a complete 180 from my corporate life.
And then after a couple years of running that and kind of fine tuning it, I decided to start teaching other people how to open indoor Playgrounds. And that was really my first venture into online courses, online memberships, things like that. So my main course is how to teach people how to open an indoor playground. We get people all the way from daydream to opening day. And then I have a back end membership from that. I launched that in 2017. and then since then, I’ve launched a couple of different courses, a couple standalone courses, and I now have three different memberships that I. That I run. so, yeah, I mainly serve brick and mortar businesses, local businesses, but I have branched out a little bit from that.
Matt McWilliams: So not exactly the audience, and we’ll talk about this. Not exactly the audience one would think to do really well in an online Internet marketing course, launch and make like $20,000 in commissions. Stu McLaren’s tribe affiliate promotion kicks off April 21, 2022 So I want to talk about that a little bit.
Michelle Caruana: Yeah, I was surprised myself.
Matt McWilliams: To be clear, we’re talking about the, you know, the tribe affiliate promotion. you know, Stu McLaren. This is his annual launch. For those of you watching, by the way, we’re gonna put a link under here to sign up as an affiliate for the 2022 launch, because we already know the dates it kicks off. April 21, 2022. Write it down. Tell all your friends. but. And sign up below. Okay, so that’s number one. That’s your call to action. Everyone sign up to be an affiliate. and then let me just give you a little hint. Watch what Michelle does. Oh, here’s another hint. Go back and when you sign up, you’ll get in the Facebook group. Go back and just read what she wrote from this. She’ll share some of it today, I’m sure, but read what she wrote for this year’s promotion. It’s like a masterclass in, like, how to run an affiliate promotion when you don’t have an audience that necessarily fits, at least logically. So that’s just awesome. Okay, so the cost of the product, 1997, $2,000
Okay, so the cost of the product, 1997, $2,000. about 800 bucks per sale that you were making. And remind me again exactly how many sales you made, because I don’t remember the exact number.
Michelle Caruana: 23.
Matt McWilliams: 23. Okay. I knew it was between 20 and 25. So I’m going to do some quick math. That is $18,400 total. Once everybody’s paid their payment plans roughly, you’ll make. Could make a tiny bit less, a tiny bit more. Just kind of depends on, you know, how people, pay and whatnot. and this was your very first affiliate promo. Why have you never done affiliate promotions before? I’m curious So here’s a. Here’s a question for him. I’m kind of curious. Why have you never done any affiliate promotions before?
Michelle Caruana: You know what, first of all, I.
Michelle Caruana: Was very blind to the possibilities because I didn’t really realize how much people were paying in commission. I always, ah, promoting other people’s products.
And I just kind of assumed that they get, you know, 10%, something like that. Because in the brick and mortar space, when you become an affiliate for retail products or something like that, the commission is much lower, the profit margin is much lower So I understood the concept behind affiliate.
Michelle Caruana: Marketing, but I wasn’t really privy to the upside and how much potential there actually was. And I would see people putting out all these bonus packages and things like that. And I was thinking to myself, you.
Know, I can’t be making that much. You know, I kind of had this negative connotation with, affiliate marketing. So I was happy when your email. Came across my inbox from, yourself and Stu’s team.
And I thought, you know, might as well. Maybe there will be one or two. People on my list that are interested. I really didn’t have any plans to do any sort of content creation or ads or anything like that. My plan was just to send a couple emails. But then I kind of switched gears once I realized how much potential there really was for my audience. You know, my audience, the brick and mortar world. A lot of people join my list fully expecting to open an indoor playground. And then because of the pandemic, when it happened, a lot of people completely changed their tune and no longer wanted to open a brick and mortar business. Understandably. So while they probably didn’t join my.
List expecting to hear about this sort of thing, they were actually kind of perfect candidates for it because they had that entrepreneurial bug, but their original plans didn’t quite work out and they were kind of looking for the next thing.
Matt McWilliams: So what changed? Like you said, you had, you know, you’re thinking, I’ll make one or two sales, don’t really have any plans because, I mean, you ended up going all in. All in which we talked about, which just as a side note, you know, I remember, right, I wrote about this in my book, like just the other day. So I remember it’s fresh in my mind. Like, that’s the number one thing. When we studied what separates, you know, like mediocre affiliates from, like, the ones who succeed, the ones who do, like you did, and we go, holy crap, we’re.
Wait, where’d she come from? You know, how did she make 23 sales? It’s just they went all in, you know, and the level of effort from all in to, like, half in is not double. It’s. It’s actually not that much more, you know, for most people. so that said, what changed? Like, you went from, I’ll, make one or two sales, I’m just gonna, like, maybe do like, an email or something and call it a day to I’m gonna go all in, be one of the top affiliates, and be, like, super involved and, like, hyperactive in the Facebook group, which was awesome.
Michelle Caruana: Yeah. So, two things, really. First of all, I started joining the affiliate calls, and honestly, I was really just bored.
I have to be honest. I really. I was in an Airbnb thousands of miles away from any family and friends that I had, and I was like, you know what? I saw the call pop up on my calendar, and I was like, I’ll join. I’ll see what these people are up to.
Matt McWilliams: Interesting.
Michelle Caruana: Yeah. So I.
Matt McWilliams: That’s the tagline. Come join my affiliate training if you have nothing better to do.
Michelle Caruana: But I really didn’t. I mean, my husband was still going to work every single day. I was home all day just with my two kids. They were playing outside night. Just joined a couple calls just to see what it was about. Because, again, I really didn’t know that much or if anything, about affiliate marketing. So I joined a couple calls, and. That really kind of ignited.
Michelle Caruana: The possibilities for me. It helped me realize, okay, these people don’t have typical audiences either. Like, Heidi Easley is a perfect example. She doesn’t have an audience that would necessarily be perfect for, online memberships. And she was, you know, getting all of these really early leads for the workshop. So I kind of said, you know, first of all, that was why I started to join the affiliate calls, because I really was a little bit isolated, and I just thought it was, you know, would be an interesting opportunity.
But then once I heard people speak on these affiliate calls, and once I heard you speak, I realized that, you know, it’s not just about making sales. It’s not just about, you know, making a little bit of extra income for me. It really started to open my eyes to the possibility that my audience had. Because when I got the opportunity to join as an affiliate, again, it really didn’t click yet that my audience might actually benefit from this and might actually be interested, because, again, they’re prospective indoor playground owners, or maybe one once hopeful indoor playground owners.
But once I heard the different stories and all of the different walks of life that people were coming from, ah, as Affiliates, I started to kind of think, well, you know, why can’t my audience create memberships? Why can’t teachers or stay at home moms or home organizers or coaches, which are a lot of people on my, email list, why wouldn’t they be interested? I might as well share. And then once I kind of made that switch in my mind, which was definitely ignited by the affiliate calls, I kind of just said, you know what? If I’m going to do it, I’m not going to do it a little bit. I’m just going to go all in. And then if it works, it works. If it doesn’t work, I know better for next year.
Matt McWilliams: Yeah, I think that’s awesome. I mean, you realize that how much it can serve your audience, especially with the way things have changed. And the reality is they’ve changed forever. At some level. You know, clearly we’re not in March of last year. You know, just for those of you who if depending upon when this goes live inside of AIM guys, you know, we’re recording this in May of 2021. So there’s clearly it’s not March of last year, but it’s also not, January of last year, you know, and it’s probably not going to be like that anytime in the extremely near future for some people.
So, I think that’s really cool. Like you saw how much it can serve your audience that this is, this is more than just a quick buck or even, a long term buck. You know, it’s a really cool way to fill a gap because while you have three memberships, I think you’d be the first to tell or tell your audience, you’re not an expert on starting and growing memberships like Stu is. And if you are interested in this, he’s the guy. And I know that messaging has worked really well for us because clearly we have this membership. I know how to run a membership. If you want the comprehensive system from start to finish, don’t ask me
I have a lot of pretty good knowledge about that. I can give you a lot of tips and if you ask me, I’ll tell you. But if you want the comprehensive system from start to finish, don’t ask me. Because I’m not going to spend the time that Stu spends teaching this stuff. I don’t want to. It’s not my jam, but it’s his jam and he’s the best in the world at it. And so find those people. That’s one of the lessons I’m getting from you there. How did you take your audience and tie it into this promotion so let’s talk.
I mean, I’m curious. You kind of Touched on a few, but maybe. Is there any other specific ways that you, you took an audience that you know, like, you know, if you have an online course, it’s really easy to say you should have an online membership. And there’s a, you know, there’s a one to one correlation between those two, but you have an audience that. There is no one to one correlation to membership sites. How did you take that audience and tie it into this promotion?
Michelle Caruana: Yeah, so I really looked at my. Once I decided I was going to go all in, I realized that I had to get my audience kind of over four different humps. the first being that I had to get them on board with the memberships with a membership site and I had to get them to see the possibilities that I saw with a membership.
So that’s exactly where I started. And I have a blog, a podcast and a YouTube channel and that’s really what I focused on. So I was already putting out content on all of these platforms weekly. I have a small but engaged audience. So the people that are listening to my episodes, the people that are watching my videos, they watch every single one and they watch them all the way through to completion.
So that’s something that I had as a strength, that’s something that I had on my side going into it, is that I have a very engaged audience that already knows and likes and trusts me. And I’ve been consistently showing up for them for years. So the first thing I did was I had to get them on board with membership. So I started with my story because that’s something that I noticed that everybody else was kind of doing. And that’s, really what’s unique about me.
So I started talking about how I decided to create my course and then I talked about how I decided to create my first membership, which was completely out of need. because everybody from m. My course was wanting additional support, they were wanting ongoing support. They, wanted more of me. Exactly what Stu teaches in his course. So I talked about that transition, how I went from, you know, corporate marketing to brick and mortar to almost a stay at home mom, then to finally an online entrepreneur.
And I think because I don’t have thousands and thousands of members, it actually worked on my. Worked as a benefit to me because it was a little bit more relatable than some of the stories that you hear, you know, maybe on Stu’s podcast. Yeah, I could say, you know, I don’t have a thousand members, but I do have 200 members. And this is exactly how it’s impacted My life, just finding those 200 people for my indoor playground membership has changed everything for me.
So I think talking in smaller numbers, that’s something I do. Anyways, on my podcast I really get specific and I think that people related a lot to that. So they didn’t say, okay, I need to have a million dollar launch in order to change my life. I can just make 1, 2, 3 extra thousand dollars a month with my membership and that’s going to change things for me. So I think that was the first thing I did is I told my story and then I actually went into the tribe alumni group and I got a couple other people who I knew through the tribe experience.
And I tapped on a couple shoulders and I said, hey, I think my audience would really resonate with your story. Would you mind hopping on my, YouTube channel on my podcast, sharing your story? So I specifically sought out people that I knew my audience would connect with. So one of them, is Jerry Potter. He has a social media membership. Juliana, she’s, just a stay at home mom who has a purposeful play membership. and then I chose someone who was of retired age that had a subscription box membership because for whatever reason, my audience is like most interested in subscription box memberships. At least that’s what they think they’re interested in. So I tried to get a variety and luckily they were very generous with their time and their knowledge. So I put all of those interviews out on my YouTube channel, on my podcast. And I think that really helped, give people some different stories and different perspectives. So that really, I think, helped them.
Michelle Caruana: See the possibility with membership sites. And then after that I had to get them on board or I had to get them familiar with Stu, which is honestly was the hardest part. because I would say my audience is probably 90% women. So anytime I put a man in front of them, even if he’s the most brilliant man in the world, sometimes a lot of people just completely ignore it. so that was honestly the hardest part.
But then once I could just give them a little bit of taste, then the rest was kind of downhill. So that was really the hardest part. So I think next time going into it, I’m going to talk a lot about it throughout the year and I’m really going to try to integrate talking about memberships throughout all of my promotions, throughout all of my content. because that was the hardest part and I was trying to do it in a really short time period. So I know, but I know now that if I can just get people into Stu’s world earlier. They’re going to be very likely to purchase when the time comes. But that was hard to get them warm to him, if that makes sense.
Matt McWilliams: Yeah, it does.
Michelle Caruana: But once they did, once, once they gave him a chance, he blew their socks off with all of the information. but just getting them to sign up for the workshop and the webinars, that was the hardest part. And I wish I would have started a lot earlier. I wish I would have made that decision to go all in weeks, months earlier because I was trying to create all of this content like a week before cart open.
Matt McWilliams: I’m just glad you got bored all over the place. I think you’re glad you were bored too. Number one was getting them on board with memberships. That was difficult but not impossible That’s three things and I want to recap those in a second. What was the fourth?
so after. After getting them familiar with Stu, or was that the fourth? And I missed the third.
Michelle Caruana: So number one was getting them on board with memberships. That was. That was. That ended up being not. Not as difficult as I thought it. Was going to be. And I had to get them on board with Stu. Then I had to get them on board with tribe because a lot of them, you know, they’ve never taken an online course before.
They are not online course takers. I m would say most of them have not ever purchased an online course before. So that was the next thing I had to get them to buy into tribe. And the interviews with the triber certainly help with that as well. So they had benefits in multiple areas. and then the last thing I had to do was get them on board with my bonuses and how I could help them. Because even though my audience is super engaged, I definitely have people hanging out on my email list that have not engaged with me that maybe, wouldn’t understand what additional value that I could bring.
Because a lot of my audience, again, they’re not marketers. They don’t understand what affiliate marketing is. They don’t understand why I might be promoting somebody else’s products. So I actually had to give them, like, almost a very basic explanation of this is why I’m promoting this. This is the additional value that I could bring. And a lot of people, honestly, I would get emails like, hey, I don’t understand. Is this a catch? Like, why do I get all of this additional support for free just by clicking your link? Like, people were almost thinking that it. Was too good to be true.
Matt McWilliams: Yeah, I’ll bet.
Michelle Caruana: So I had to really take a.
Michelle Caruana: Step back and before I could even.
Michelle Caruana: Talk about my support group or the bonuses that I could offer or the additional value that I could offer. I really had to be like, listen, this isn’t a trick. You know, I’m making commission on every sale. you know, this is. But I’m doing it because I believe in the program, and I would never promote something that I didn’t full, wholeheartedly believe in. And because I don’t, you know, over. I don’t, you know, I was very selective by becoming a tribe affiliate. It is a program I believe wholeheartedly in. but I had to kind of take a step back, and I. As soon as I started getting those emails, I was like, oh, my gosh, I have to go back and explain this whole thing to people because they actually thought it was a scam. They thought it was that they, were almost getting, you know, the wool pulled over their eyes or something. So I had to be a little bit more honest with them than I expected to be. But it was a good learning experience. Important that you shared your story and the impact that it made
Matt McWilliams: Okay, this is powerful. I just want to recap. So much of this is stuff that we teach, and yet you did it. I don’t know how much of it you got from us, but how much of it you got on your own. But, like, so you start with the possibility. It’s like just creating that vision that this concept is even, a possible good idea. Important that you shared your story and the impact that it made. And like, you said, it just really. Just getting familiar with the concept. You know, it’s exactly what we teach when we teach about warming up your audience. And then I’m actually going to skip to now you’re, you know, getting them familiar with the actual product. you know, and Stu and, you know, again, like we talked about, like, just quoting him and kind of, you know, you’re doing a Facebook Live or YouTube Live, and you just, you know, you quote Stu like, you don’t even explain anything.
You know, it’s just. It could be something completely unrelated to the tribe promo. I quoted Stu in my book, it’s completely unrelated to membership sites. It’s just, you know, his famous quote, the more money you make, the more impact you can have. Right. That has nothing to do with impact, but it introduces the. Put somewhere in the recesses of their mind, like, what was that name? Steve McLaren. Gets them thinking the thing where you reached out to the tribe alumni. That was a brilliant move.
Michelle Caruana: Yeah, I’m not even sure where I got that idea. I think I just got tired of putting out content of myself speaking, and I was like, Listen, yeah, I’ve talked enough. They need to hear from other people. Because the biggest objection that my audience had was imposter syndrome. They were all reading my emails and thinking, yeah, recurring revenue sounds good, but I don’t have a business. I would say 90% of the. But eyes does not have any business. So I really had to get people with experiences other than my own to say, okay, it’s not just me, you know, other people that are moms, that are teachers, that are, not who you would normally think of as a typical membership site owners. Because at first I was just kind of directing them to, you know, Zeus podcast episodes where he interviews people.
But a lot of them, again, have these big, crazy success stories, which are great, don’t get me wrong. They’re very motivating. But I think they really needed to hear from people that were a little bit closer to where they are. And I had to get them to kind of say that, like, why not you? And that was really the only. The thing that I found was most effective to kind of get them over that. Get them over that hump. Because I noticed that when I. When I did get people reach out to me, when I did get people on the phone, when I did get people into my Facebook group, they reference those. So I know they watch them.
I know that they were listening, and I think those were really helpful. And I tried to repurpose those interviews in as many ways as I could. So I put clips on my podcast. I did the full interviews on YouTube. I took clips and put them into blogs. I tried to get as much traction as I can out of them, and I’m definitely going to be doing that again because something that I didn’t have the opportunity to do was interview Stu et al. So I kind of had to find a unique way to introduce my audience to Stu and get them to trust him, kind of through these other people who are talking about how much Stu and Tribe changed their life. So they were kind of almost like spokespeople, if that makes sense.
Matt McWilliams: Yeah. So here’s a call to action for you then. In January, reach out to me. We’ll get on Stu’s calendar. Like you put that on your calendar.
Michelle Caruana: Like, January, I waited too long.
Matt McWilliams: Okay, you’re sending me an email. that way you’ll be the first person and we’ll get. We’ll get you a couple of interviews with them.
Michelle Caruana: this worked. I’m sure, you know, that would have had an impact, but I found that this was honestly probably just as effective.
Matt McWilliams: Probably I think it’s just. It would have been, it’s both.
Matt McWilliams: And not either or, you know, and adding on. I think adding him on, you know, in having a. Doing a podcast in late March, early April, just to kind of like, you know, because they listen to your podcast and it doesn’t matter if it’s a guy or not, and they’re not selling anything.
They’re just hearing him and they’re going, oh, my gosh, like, this is a dude. But I can relate to him. That would be, because, I mean, 92% of Stu’s audience is female, you know, which is admittedly kind of weird when you think about it, you know, mine’s like 51% female.
You know, like, we’re like one whole percent tilted. I just. I just love this, you know. You know, one of the things that you were talking about there with, like, the, you know, we call them the but eyes. You know, it’s just those excuses. And, I mean, the reality is, like, online business owners have.
They have big butts, you know, and not. Not the way that it sounds. Well, that’s a great subject line. Do you have a big but? All right, I just came up with a real. I gotta write that one down. That’s gonna be some email copy right there. but they have like, big buts. Like, oh, but, you know, that doesn’t work for me. And that’s where you overcame that. I just wanted, like, to recap, guys, she went into the alumni group. So most stuff that you will promote, you have access to the other students in some way or the other users or whatever. Go to the Facebook group or the forum or wherever they’re at and just ask. Ask what Michelle did. Hey, I’m looking to interview a few people. You know, I’d love to do that. I’ve done that. Right? I’ve done that many times where I’ll host like a little get together, like the day before cart close. And I have five to eight people from that have been through the same course that I’m promoting. They’re friends of mine. They come on.
How are you feeling before you purchase PLF and how did you feel after And I just. I remember one time, and I know I shared this with. With you in that little mastermind that we did. and that’s where you shared this idea with that group. And I just said, there’s something about, like, if I say if I. And I asked Tim, be Becca, who just record. She’s from Zimbabwe, so she has an accent, which is really cool. And she’s from our, And she’s a woman, you know, and when I said, do you have any last words or what would you tell somebody who’s on the fence? She goes just by the course. If I say that, it comes across a certain way because, you know, I’m a 6 foot 2 white guy, you know, and it’s like. And I don’t have an accent, really. People from the south say I start to sound Midwestern. People in the Midwest think I sound like I’m from the south, but whatever. That doesn’t come across the same as her saying it.
Michelle Caruana: Yeah.
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Matt McWilliams: And my favorite thing courses of plf.
Michelle Caruana: Yeah.
Matt McWilliams: Because of her saying that.
Michelle Caruana: And my m favorite thing to ask people, actually, because my audience is also like a little bit emotional. I’ve grown to learn over the years, like, they make a lot of decisions based on emotions. so I asked them. So I asked them, how did you. How are you feeling before you hit that purchase button and how did you feel after?
And I didn’t tell them I was. Going to ask them that because I wanted their, like, genuine reaction and they had perfect answers. Like, they completely blew me away. You know, I was feeling nervous, I was feeling unsure, I was worried I was going to have fire remorse. But then after, you know, I felt supported, I felt relieved. I had an accountability group so they.
Gave exactly what I wanted and they. All gave different answers, which was really interesting. But that was a question that I’m really glad that I asked and I’m. Going to do it again if I. Continue doing interviews, which I definitely, definitely plan to do.
Matt McWilliams: Oh, I hope y’ all are taking notes. You guys gotta write that one down. That is a powerful. We talk about doing that ourselves. We share. you know, one things I talk about is make sure you share what if you were nervous, you know, whatever. And I think I know I shared this in the tribe training where I talk about when I was buying PLF and it was like 10 minutes before the deadline, it was 2:50 in the morning and I’m like shaking to press the button. And when I share that story with my audience, there’s that like, okay, well, yep. And I overcame it and it changed my life, you know. But you asking those people that is a brilliant question. And guys, when you use this strategy, steal that question is that it’s powerful.
I followed your email marketing strategy to a T So I would like to, I know you. You didn’t plan on going all in, but once you shifted and you’re like, okay, I’m, I’m in. what would you say the number one thing that was that led to your success.
Michelle Caruana: Well, first of all, and this is not. You didn’t tell me to say this. But I really followed your email marketing strategy to a T. Email marketing, it’s pretty refined. It’s not something that I teach, it’s. Not something that I, you know, I.
Do my best at it, but I’ve never put a feather in my hat and said, you know, I am the best email marketer in the world. So I was like, you know what, I know how my audience, I know.
What content they need, but I don’t know how to deliver it to them. So I literally followed your email marketing Strategy to a T. And while I didn’t really follow the swipe copy, I did follow the general topic So, okay, if the, if let’s say the five topics of the swipe copy.
Are, you know, recurring revenue, our success. Stories are social, things like that, I. Took the topics and I made them my own. I didn’t utilize the swipe copy probably as much as I should have. but I did let that lead my way.
Matt McWilliams: But you probably used it the right way.
Michelle Caruana: Yeah. In terms of, like, timing, in terms of frequency, things like that, that I tried to follow to an absolute T, which I think even when it felt uncomfortable, like sending that midnight email, sending 10 emails on current closed day, Things like that, it didn’t feel natural. It didn’t feel right. But I did it anyways and I’m. Definitely glad that I did. So I think that played a big part. And then another thing that I did. That I really think made a big difference is I created a closed Facebook.
Group, like a pop up group for people going through the workshop. Because something that I noticed, and my. Email list isn’t huge, it’s around 7,000 people. But I noticed, that people were. Opening my workshop emails, but they weren’t joining. Like, it took me a long time. To ramp up to get people to actually sign up for the workshop. And I, I kind of had to think, like, what am I doing wrong? What it. Where is this disconnect? And I finally figured out that the disconnect was actually getting them, was the call to action, was getting them to sign up for the workshop. I found that it was so much easier to get them into the Facebook group because it’s, you know, my audience is in a million Facebook groups. That is something that they are very free to do. M. It’s a very easy thing to.
Get them to do. So I would get them to join my Facebook group and that ended up having around 200 people. And then I said, okay, if you want to benefit from this, you have to sign up for the workshop.
But I got them in the Facebook group first. And once I started doing that, the rate at which I was getting people to actually sign up for the workshop and the webinar, that went way, way up. So I think that was absolutely crucial, not only with just getting the leads, but also getting people to engage with me. And something that I did, I shared this in our little mastermind group. But one of the things that I did, because a lot of these people. Again, they don’t have businesses, they don’t.
Have accounts where they can just say. Oh, I’ll expense this. You know, these are parents, these are teachers, these are stay at home moms. So what I did was I did Several different zoom sessions. I actually had a weird number of people from Europe. Like, half the audience was from Europe, which is interesting. Indoor playgrounds are really big in Europe. So a lot of audiences, because it’s.
Matt McWilliams: Really cold in most of Europe.
Michelle Caruana: They. Started there way before they came to the US So a lot of my audience is from Europe. So I had to combat a little time zone issues. But I did four or five different zoom sessions. And they were all called, like, I want to help you pay for Tribe. And we just brainstormed, like founding member launch ideas. We brainstormed different membership offers. We really took the content that Stu was talking about in the membership workshop. But I asked every single person individually. Like, what’s your situation?
I will come up with a membership idea for you, and I will walk you through an entire founding members launch strategy. And a bunch of them actually did launch. And I think the Facebook group really helped them get that momentum because they were seeing other people do it. And it’s easy to get lost in that free Facebook group that Stu has. It has like 60,000 people in it. So I think just having a smaller group, it was easier to get people to engage with each other. It was a little bit tighter knit. So a lot of people, I think, saw everybody launching and got a little FOMO fear of missing out. And then once people were joining, I think that was the real key to.
My entire success was the people in. The Facebook group, because every single person that joined was in the Facebook group. but I was constantly celebrating people. I was calling people out, I was celebrating them for joining. I was asking them. I actually, after a couple people joined, I got them to come on video with me and ask them, you know, what made you buy? How did you feel before?
Matt McWilliams: That’s awesome.
Michelle Caruana: So because luckily I would a lot of people that joined tribe through my link, they’re previous course students of mine. And it’s so funny because back when. I met them, I was so scared to charge them $500 for my course and watching them like take out their cards and pay $2,000, I was almost. Kind of like, wow, you know, this is really interesting. So it taught me a lot about. My own business as well. You did a pop up Facebook group that attracted 32,000 people But because I had such a.
Strong relationship with a lot of them. They were willing to hop on a. Call with me like immediately after they bought. So that I think was really helpful as well. But I don’t think I would have. Been able to establish quite a strong connection or momentum with people had I not done that Facebook group. So I’m glad that you put that. that was in one of the affiliate calls where we talked about m doing the pop up Facebook group. And I’m actually just going to use the same group next year. I’m just going to reopen it because a lot of the people were interested, they were on the fence. So I think if they didn’t buy. Last year, they might, you know, they have a really good chance of buying the next year.
Matt McWilliams: Yeah, that’s powerful. Just, I mean, a few quick takeaways. I think the big lesson is know the audience. You know, you, you saw that like, okay, what I mean, we told you to start a Facebook group and you did. So it’s not like, it’s not like we weren’t saying to do that, but. We were really focused on like get.
Matt McWilliams: Them to the workshop, get in the workshop. And it’s like, well, that wasn’t working. So number one, if you, if you don’t know your audience, you never would have known. Wait, they’re really into Facebook groups? They’re in hundreds of Facebook groups. Let’s use that. So that’s first of all, second of all pivoting, you know, okay, this, this strategy isn’t working. I’ve got to do something different. And then you tried something different. And the cool thing is like you spent I don’t know, 20% of the promo doing something that didn’t work.
Matt McWilliams: Next time you get to spend 100% doing something that does. So it’s only going to make you a few more sales. Like if you do nothing else but just start at that, you know that point and don’t do the 20% that didn’t work, you’ll make more sales. Like you could do nothing else differently. No other lessons that one, doing your own Facebook group, guys, you’ve got to do one. Like she said.
I think the Tribe Workshop Facebook group is great, but there, I think there were 32,000 people in it, if I’m not mistaken. Roughly, it might have been like right under 30, you know, at the high point. But it was, it’s just ridiculous and it’s awesome. But half, you know, half the people in there don’t know a single other person in there. And then there’s 30,000 people. But in your group, 200 people, half of them know half the other half of the people, you know, they all pretty much know somebody in there. And so it’s more intimate. And then the strategy, like welcoming new members. I remember when we shared this, you know, that’s just social proof when you say Joe Smith joined, or in your case, 90% women. So when you know, Sally Smith joins, congratulations and welcome. And then she says, yeah, I’m so excited and here’s why I decided to buy. Somebody reads that and they go, wow, I am right where Sally is. She made the decision, maybe I should.
Michelle Caruana: And a lot of these people knew each other already. A big mistake that I made. And I spent a good amount of money, like probably like $2,000 on ads going. Like, I was only targeting my email list, so I wasn’t doing any cold audience ads.
Matt McWilliams: Sure.
Michelle Caruana: You know, another source of income that I have in addition to my courses is I manage Facebook ads for clients. I’ve been doing it since like 2015. and that’s something that I’m just, I’m great at. So I have a lot of confidence in my ad strategy. And I was getting a ton of clicks. I don’t think anybody opted into the workshop through my ads, like thousands of dollars of ads. I would say that was the biggest mistake that I made was I put so much time and energy into those ads. And I know for a fact that every single One of the 23 people that bought, they didn’t, they didn’t join because of the ads. even all the people in the Facebook group, I knew them all, either through them engaging on my YouTube channel or them in one of my other memberships. What I will focus on next time is I’m almost going to, as soon as my like pre launch starts, I’m going to completely turn off any cold audience targeting I’m going to turn off any trying.
Michelle Caruana: To develop any new relationships and I’m just going to focus on the relationships that I already have, whether that be my email list or my subscribers. I’m not going to try to get any new people. I spent a lot of time and energy, like trying to get these new people warmed up to me really, really quickly.
Like, I did a lot of, I didn’t do any direct workshop or direct to course ads to a cold audience, but I was promoting the content that I was creating to a cold audience and I spent a lot of money doing that. And I don’t think it made a difference whatsoever. I think the only people that. The only people that bought through my link already had an established relationship with me and they were watching. They were already watching my YouTube videos. They were already listening to my podcast episode. So next time I’m really going to focus on going all in on the relationships that I already have. And I’m just going to do list building all year and work on growing my YouTube channel, work on growing my podcast, because those are the things that made the difference. It was definitely not the ads and I will not be doing that again this year. You said all 23 buyers came from the Facebook group
Matt McWilliams: So you mentioned two things you would do differently. Well, three. Number one, you would start earlier and have a longer Runway.
Michelle Caruana: And I will create all the content when I have energy and not when I should be working on building relationships. I’m going to do my content literally months before because I spent so much time creating content during like the cart open period. And I should have been on the phone with people. I should have been engaging in the Facebook group. But I was like, shoot. I promised eight episodes and I only put out three so far. So I was.
I definitely shot myself a little bit in the foot there. So I’m going to batch create all my content and I’m going to go full 100% in trying to engage people that I already have in my audience. I’m not going to try to expand my audience anymore. Once that probably pre launch start, I’m just gonna say, okay, if you’re in my audience already, good, buckle up because this is what we’re doing. I’m not gonna spend any energy, you know, trying to get people, because I had a really, Because I was trying to like answer comments and stuff like that in Stu’s group. And I had a really. I love helping people and I try to think that I have, you know, a good heart. But the couple people that I met and while I was doing that were actually not nice at all. And a couple people actually messaged me and said that they bought, but specifically not through my affiliate link for whatever reason. It was super strange. so Again, I’m really not going to try to get any people from. From that aren’t already super familiar with me.
Matt McWilliams: interesting.
Michelle Caruana: So that was a mistake I made. I really thought, like, if people are already bought into tribe, I just have to get them to buy into me. But I should have thought the other way around. I need to get people to buy into me first and understand my value, because the best bonus package in the world is not going to work if. People don’t trust me.
So I’m going to spend the entire year getting people to know, like, and trust me. And it’s a lot easier to get them to, be in Stu’s world once I get there. But I kind of did it backwards a little bit. And next year I’m definitely going to do it in the, opposite.
Matt McWilliams: Well, I mean, that’s the cool thing is, like, you know, next year you get to do. You get to take away and not waste your time on any of the stuff that wasn’t working. And I don’t know if that was 20% of your time or 70% of your time, but let’s just say it was 50%. The 50% that you. You would be the first to say, like, I wasted my time because you said all 23 buyers came from the.
Michelle Caruana: Facebook group, and they were people that I knew already.
Matt McWilliams: Yeah. And it’s like, boom, you know, and so it’s like you can put a hundred percent of your effort into the 40, 50, 60 people that are predisposed to buy already and just go all in on them, and that’s how you’ll make 40, 50, or 60 sales.
Michelle Caruana: Yeah. And I really underestimated my audience. Like, I was really surprised at a couple of people that bought. I thought, you know, wow. I know. She, you know, so I want to give my audience a little bit more credit because again, I went into this thinking that, or assuming that my audience just wouldn’t be able to see the benefit in memberships. I thought it was going to be too uphill of a battle, but I really missed an opportunity, which is another reason why I’m going to start producing more regular content about my membership, about why I created a membership, just kind of, again, weaving it into my regular content creation process because it was easier than I thought. And my audience really surprised me at how open their minds were to the possibilities. So I wish I would have gone a little bit more into that. One thing that I think played a huge factor into my success was my bonus package
Matt McWilliams: M. So an interesting question, and we’ll wrap up with kind of a last one. What’s something I didn’t ask you, like what is something you would share. You just, you feel like, I don’t know, it’s a strategy, a mindset of whatever that you’re like, okay, this is something I just, I want to like take people who were in my position, you know, a month ago, two months ago and like I want the world to know this.
Michelle Caruana: Yeah. So one thing that I also think played a huge factor into my success was my bonus package because I knew that I wasn’t going to get 100 sales or 200 sales. I knew that I was going to be serving a very small audience through this program. So I took that as an opportunity and I said, you know what, I’m going to over deliver like crazy.
So my bonus package was probably one of the more robust ones and it’s something that I don’t offer a lot. Like I don’t ever do one on one calls. I don’t ever do, you know, accountability, stuff like that outside of my memberships. So it gave people a unique chance to work with me and again it was included in the course price so I included a lot of support. I’m doing weekly Q and A calls with my group.
I’m doing hot seats and something that I probably wouldn’t do again next year. But I gave everyone a 30 minute one on one call after tribe is over to kind of set up their the rest of the year strategy and make sure that they, you know, are feeling good after they finish the tribe program. So next time I’m going to do that as a fast action bonus for like the first X number of people that join. But I took my small audience as a huge advantage and I said, you know what, I am going to create a bonus package. And another objection that my audience had was overwhelmed. They didn’t, they don’t have time, they don’t have, you know, because they’re not serial course purchasers like you or I might be. So I had to really overcome that time obstacle. So I created my bonuses not to give them more stuff but to really.
Michelle Caruana: Take stuff off their plate to reduce overwhelm. And it’s funny because it’s a lot of stuff that I already had. So a lot of people reached out to me like other tribe affiliates and they were like, I can’t believe you’re creating all of this for your bonus package.
Matt McWilliams: Rule number one of creating a bonus package, use what you have.
Michelle Caruana: Yeah, most of it I already had. I used to have a membership called like a funnel bundle membership and I used to Give them email swipe copy, Facebook ads, swipe copy, canva templates for ads, things like that. So I kind of pulled what I already had, and I said, okay, how can I use what I already have to not give them more courses, not give them more information, but give them implementation help. Because I knew that’s where my audience was going to get stuck. So I focused on support and accountability, and I focused on anything that’s going to help them implement what Stu teaches easier.
So, again, email swipe files, ad swipe files, sales page templates, which I already had created. So once I would say 90% of the calls I got on people said, I really. I get Tribe. But I think I’m going to do it next year because I just don’t have time. And that was this thing I was hearing over and over. And I knew. I kind of anticipated that because I hear that a lot from my audience. So I would immediately say, you know what? I completely get it. I don’t have any childcare right now. I’m in a bungalow with my two kids trying to take this call right now. So I’m actually giving you all of these resources so that you can not only kind of take the course at your own pace and not have to worry about doing all this stuff, but it’s going to help you get success much faster than you would otherwise. So I think that really helped sell people, was not giving them more stuff, but helping them take stuff off their plate, if that makes sense.
Matt McWilliams: No, it does. I mean, that’s an important thing. Pay attention to what your people are saying.
Michelle Caruana: Yeah, that was. I think the biggest part was pivot. I knew. I know my audience so well. I knew what their objections were going to be. Most of them. I knew what most of their objections. Were going to be before they even said them. So I created my bonus package, like, months before.
Matt McWilliams: Okay.
Michelle Caruana: And I talked about it a lot. but, like, it meant nothing to somebody who didn’t know me because. Exactly. So I. So next time I’m going to really focus on something that I. Because I don’t talk about membership sites ever. It’s not something that I’ve ever mentioned on my YouTube channel or anything like that. But now, again, I’m going to be more consistent with it so that next time my audience hears about memberships, about Tribe, it’s not going to be like, wait, why are you talking about this? Because that was, like. That was a whole, objection that I had to overcome right at the beginning. So just exactly what you said. Next time I’m not going to have to do that because I’m going to really work on building those relationships. Talking about tribe, talking about, membership sites and things like that all year round so that it’s less of, a uphill battle when the launch officially comes.
Matt McWilliams: M. No, I love that. And yeah, paying attention to what people are saying and not only pivoting in your strategy, you know. Okay. You know, like the thing about them not signing up for the workshop, that’s an analytical. That’s a strategy thing. You, you know, nobody was saying, I’m not signing up for the workshop. I’d rather join your Facebook group. No, he’s saying that. But paying attention to what people are saying and you know, and pivoting the messaging.
The cool thing is you probably have it 95% dialed in for next year now. There’s always that 5% that could change. Right? after next year, you’ll have it completely dialed in. Like nobody’s going to ask a new question. It really does. I mean, I can’t remember the last time we got a new question about tribe already. Yeah. And, you know, I mean, like, I shared this, you know, with, with you guys. we literally sent the exact same emails almost word for word. We had to kind of de. Emphasize the pandemic a little bit over last year. you know, but same, same basic. Those 30 minute coaching calls could turn into actual coaching clients if done right
There’s one email we literally took out completely and rewrote. that was, you know, specifically, like, you could not send this outside of May and June of 2021. Like, it will never apply again. But otherwise the content was the same. Why? Because we know the objections. We know the, the stuff, we know the audience.
Matt McWilliams: Other one. You know, here’s a, here’s a little tip for you. I think we shared this guys, in the backstage pass this month. I don’t remember where we learned this, but somebody on one of the tribe calls said that she. So those 30 minute coaching calls that you’re going to do, if you do them right, a good chunk of them could turn into like actual coaching clients. So just a little too. So I know it’s like, I don’t want to do those. I’m not saying you don’t want to do them, but I mean, like, it’s hard, you know, that’s doing, you know, let’s say 18 people sign up for them. That is nine hours of coaching calls that you aren’t making anything on. You know, technically, if you can turn like five or six of them into like full time coaching Clients though, it’s totally worth it because so give them like just go all out for them and it’ll work.
Michelle Caruana: I really want to get testimonials out of them too especially. Yes, that’s something that I really had working against me as well. I had never had anyone in my audience go through tribe before so. So, now I’ll have people that not only will have testimonials for tribe but they’ll have testimonials of going through tribe through me. So that’s something that I’m really going to focus on getting all year round so that I’m not scrambling at the end.
Matt McWilliams: Yeah. So my thought would be if I were to coach you on that I would block off an hour of your time. You know, don’t do them like back to back to back to back because then you won’t have time. Block off an hour. tell them at the beginning, hey, at the end I would love to spend, could we spend like seven or eight minutes? I’d love to just capture some of your thoughts on tribe and then you can ask Robbie on our team. I’ll be happy to share this with you. We have a format for asking these questions. and then you basically ask the questions in like a sequence. The big key I found is and tell them this in advance. depending upon how you use zoom or whatever you use. When you ask the question, they can’t respond for two seconds. It needs that that you being quiet thing to trigger like them, you know, or else like don’t talk over them, don’t say mm, anything like that. It’s really weird sometimes but if you.
Do it right and then when they. Finish answering a question you’re just dead silent for like three seconds and ask the next and then you can splice them together but you ask the questions in a specific manner that leads them to basically tell a story that’s really tight and succinct but really effective. I don’t know how we do it. that’s all magic as far as I’m concerned. but Mark used to do it on our team. Robbie does them now. So ask him and he’ll share. Michelle says it all comes down to knowing your audience
So as we wrap up Michelle, what advice would you give to someone who they’re promoting something that maybe doesn’t make the most logical sense? You know, there is not a linear connection and if you could take somebody who is coming in and promoting a product like in your case, you know, tribe had a huge impact on you, but there was Maybe that like, is my audience, like, am I going to sell zero?
Michelle Caruana: I really thought I was going to sell zero to you.
Matt McWilliams: What advice would you give to them?
Michelle Caruana: I would definitely kind of reiterate what I said about finding people that are in their situation and find people that they can relate to. So my audience I knew didn’t want to hear about the million dollar launches, about the million dollar success stories, about people with huge email lists. They didn’t want to hear from, you.
Know, an Amy Porter field. They wanted to hear from people who are just a few steps ahead of. Them and to have similar backgrounds. So I tried to really. And again, this all comes down to knowing my audience. But I try to find someone that really fit into each of my little avatars that I have. And again, I think it really made a huge difference that they were just a few steps ahead. It wasn’t like, oh, it took me 10 years to get here. It’s no. I launched after tribe last year and this is how my life is different. So finding people that aren’t huge leaps because they all listen to, you know, these big name podcasts, they all follow these influencers on social media, they know their stories. I wanted to bring them some stories that were a little bit more relatable and a little bit more real realistic for them, if that makes sense.
Matt McWilliams: That is such a great lesson. you only have to be one step ahead, you know, Exactly.
Michelle Caruana: And yeah, and really understand their objections before I even opened my mouth or before I even created my content plan. I knew based on my previous interactions with them because I am so engaged with my audience because I have been working on building a relationship with them for so long. I again already knew what objections I had to overcome, that it was going to be impossible. Imposter syndrome, money time. Those were going to be the big things that I had to hit on again and again and again and again because unfortunately my audience a lot of times just doesn’t believe in themselves because a lot of them are still disappointed that they didn’t get to go through. With their original dream.
Michelle Caruana: So I m would just find people that they’re going to relate to and make it realistic or else it’s going to be too much of a, bridge that you’re going to have to walk them over to get them from A to B. They want to see, you know, the people that are just a few steps ahead of them.
Matt McWilliams: I love that.
Michelle Caruana says YouTube is best place for people to follow her online business Well, Michelle, if people are curious, want to follow you. And guys, I would. I mean, this is one of the things, like, you may even have no interest in starting, an online indoor playground. That would be weird. An indoor playground. You may have no interest in doing anything brick or mortar. but if you just want to follow Michelle and kind of see the cool stuff she’s doing. Where. Where can they do that?
Michelle Caruana: Yeah, so the best place is probably my YouTube channel. It’s just my name. that’s a newer channel. I have an indoor playground specific channel. I do more behind the scenes tutorials of things that I do in my online business on my Michelle Caruana channel. And then my podcast is just called the marketing junkie channel, which is exactly what it sounds like. I really dive into what works and what doesn’t work with my online business. Even though that’s not something I teach, I find that it really helps. and it’s really going to help me, I think, in the future, get people on board with memberships by sharing more behind the scenes details exactly how I get there.
Matt McWilliams: Love that. Well, Michelle, thank you so much. this has been awesome and I can’t wait till next year to see how you do again. We’ll probably have to have.
Michelle Caruana: I’m excited. I’m going all in. My other triple.
Matt McWilliams: You’re going to triple sales next year?
Michelle Caruana: Oh, I’m definitely going to. I’m already starting. I’m like, starting now.
Matt McWilliams: Love it.
Michelle Caruana: I’m doing all sorts of stuff. I have tons of content planned for next year that I’m going to start right now while it’s still all fresh in my head. But my other tip, if I could just share one more, is to just. Go all in, like you have nothing to lose.
I was really hesitant and I was like, you know, my audience doesn’t care. My audience doesn’t care. But I just kept going and I just didn’t relent. And I didn’t give, up either. When I didn’t get a ton of sales on the first day, I didn’t. I got zero sales on like days two and three. I got all my sales on like, day one and four, but I didn’t give up. I m. Lose energy. I didn’t say, oh, you know, I guess everyone that’s bought has already bought. I didn’t give up energy. I didn’t lose hope. I just kept, you know, going and going and put on the gas. And then it paid off because I like doubled my sales on the last or triple my sales on the last day. So I’m glad I didn’t lose Energy.
Matt McWilliams: But, like, I taught that or something, right?
Michelle Caruana: Yeah. It’s so weird.
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Matt McWilliams: I feel like that was, like, in the. In the training, you know, to. Reiterate what you said or to say, I mean, that’s what we talked about is like, yeah, there’s the excitement on day one. The early adopters are in, and then there’s a little bit.
Michelle Caruana: You said it was gonna slow down. I had zero and that.
Matt McWilliams: And that’s. See, that’s the thing is, with 23, slowing down could be zero. Like, when I talked about. The example I share is Ray Edwards. You know, he was making, like, one a day out of 200, you know, and so to slow down to one a day out of 200 is. I mean, it’s the same as going to zero out of 23. but what was happening on day two and three, and you know, this now, of course, is you took people that were maybe at a 5 out of 10, they were like, halfway there, and you moved them to a six, and then do a seven, and then do an eight. And then, sure enough, now there’s a deadline, and it’s like, well, I’m not. I’m not fully convinced, but there’s a deadline. I just. I’ll just buy, you know? and so that’s. That’s what happens is, you know, when there’s no deadline and they’re kind of like at an 8, they don’t buy. But then the deadline comes in. We always say the deadline’s worth two points.
Michelle Caruana: and it’s so funny, though, because my own launches, I’m very fast to give up. I’m very fast to lose energy when I’m not seeing the results that I want. So now I know that if I just keep going, if I just don’t give up, because I only did that because people were watching, and I felt like I was gonna. You know, I’m so competitive. I’m hyper competitive. I don’t know if you noticed that, but, like, having other people watch and having that accountability really helps. So now I’m like, oh, my gosh, what if I took the same level of energy and the same level of commitment to my own launches? So that really helped in my overall mindset, is I’m going to take that same energy, that same plan, that same commitment, and go through to my own launches. Because I, a lot of times will give up, like, even a couple days before cart closes if I’m not where I am or if I’m not where I want to be. So I Have to just keep that in mind when no one is watching.
That’s a powerful lesson. You said this multiple times, but you took stuff from this affiliate promo. You can apply to your own business, which is, that’s what we want. We want people to do that. So, everyone do that. And, Michelle, guys, reach out to Michelle, tell her thank you. hit her up on social media, give her a follow and watch what she’s doing. Definitely subscribe to her podcast. We’ll put the links below. And Michelle, thanks so much. This has been awesome.
Michelle Caruana: Thank you.
Matt McWilliams: What a cool episode, right? This episode is probably my favorite in the series And I hope you see why I said this is probably my favorite in the series. here, right in the middle. Because if you’ve ever thought, you know, I’m too new, my list is too small. Today proved otherwise. She didn’t just earn $18,000. She didn’t just finish in the top 25. She did it by leaning into what made her unique, by really, really, really listening closely to her audience and building real trust.
That’s ultimately what that’s all about. So again, like I said at the top of the episode, whether you’re a first time affiliate, you’re an affiliate manager, coaching your team, whatever you are, there are so many takeaways you can use right now. I mentioned it in the last few episodes. If you want a copy of the exact, opt in or the exact, not opt in strategy, the, the midnight email that made such a big difference for her and, and other affiliates, just text the word midnight to 260-217-4619. I’ll send it right to you again. You can text me there anytime, actually. So, 260-217-4619. If you got questions or, you know.
Ideas for the show, whatever, that’s how to reach out to me. Also, make sure if you are not that you are subscribed so you don’t miss the rest of the series. We’re at the midway point, so we still got three more amazing episodes episodes in this series. I’ll see you in the next episode.
See you soon.