The $1.5M Launch Debrief: Messaging, Strategy, Mindset & Every Number | Nici Sweaney Part 2 of 2

In part two of my conversation with Nici Sweaney, we get into the full breakdown of her $1.5 million launch — every number, every decision, every behind-the-scenes moment that made it possible.

This is the episode I've been so excited to share with you. Not because of the result — although it's extraordinary — but because of everything that went into it. The product build, the organic growth strategy, the messaging, the mindset going in, and what it actually felt like to be halfway around the world watching it unfold in real time. This is what scalable freedom actually looks like.

In this episode we cover:

— How Nici rebuilt her entire business from scratch in March before the launch
 — Why she pivoted the masterclass topic just three weeks before going live
 — The product-first philosophy that drove every decision — including shutting the business down for two weeks
 — Growing from 6,000 to 11,000 email subscribers in two weeks with zero ad spend
 — How 5,352 people registered for a free masterclass — when the goal was 1,000
 — The 100% organic launch strategy: what she actually posted and how often
 — The mindset shift that changed everything: downgrading the goal from 100 members to 40
 — The moment Ellie knew it was going to be massive — before Nici had any idea
 — Checking the numbers on the morning of a 3,000-person keynote
 — The phone call to Tom from a hotel taxi line: "We've just made $1 million"
 — Cart close in South America — and the final number that changed everything
 — What a $1.5M launch actually cost to run (the answer will surprise you)
 — A $160K day — made while sleeping in, going to the gym and having champagnes at a speaker dinner
 — What the real transformation of this launch was — and it wasn't the money

LINKS:

FREE GUIDE: Sell Out & Retain Mastermind Clients in 2026: https://ellieswift.com/mastermind2026

Connect with Ellie on Instagram: https://instagram.com/elliehswift

Subscribe to Inside The Mastermind Newsletter: https://ellieswift.com/newsletter

Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@elliehswift

Keen to work together?

1. Sell Out Your Mastermind: The Mastermind Model - https://ellieswift.com/model
2. Be Coached By Ellie to $500k+ : The Scalable Freedom Mastermind - https://ellieswift.com/scalablefreedom

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

And I rang Tom and we're like, how are the kids? And composed. And then full silent. I said, um, so we've just made a million dollars.

SPEAKER_01 0:09

And then he was speechless, and I was speechless. I am so incredibly excited to introduce you to Nikki Sweeney.

SPEAKER_02 0:17

I see this huge time for women to be able to really take up space in the market and in the world because they can make AI work for them rather than waiting for permission from other people.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

AI Powerhouse and my incredible client. Nikki won Australian female AI Leader of the Year and was featured on the Forbes women list just last year. Within six months, while still working a full-time job and raising four kids, she'd hit six figures. Today she's tracking past $2 million a year with no full-time employees and a four-day work week. Nikki and I started working together six months ago. And during that first six-month period, Nikki went on to have a $1.5 million launch from her membership program.

SPEAKER_03 1:03

So all I did was check my numbers each morning before I left my hotel room. And on the morning of my biggest keynote in California, that was the last day of the early bird. I was about to speak for 3,000 people. And I was like, I'm just gonna check my little numbers. And I rang Tom and we're like, how are the kids fall silent? And I said, um, so we've just made a million dollars. And he cried and I cried, and then we're both just, I don't even know what that means. Like, I can't even fathom that. I was like, I don't even understand what this number is. I just know that is so astronomical for us.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

Everything from her mindset leading up to that launch, the strategy that was used, the messaging, the marketing. In this two-part series, you are going to hear all of it and more. I know you're gonna love this episode. Okay, so we are kicking off part two of talking about your $1.5 million launch. For those of you that are here, welcome. We're so happy to have you here. If you're coming into this and this is the first episode that you're listening to, keep listening. It will pick up at a point that makes sense, but I highly recommend going back and getting the full context. We tell a lot of story. We talk about life before AI Herway, we talk about the buildup, we talk about choosing the business model of deciding that you were going to run a membership. And we were just talking off-air about like all the decisions that you made once you decided that this was the business model. Like literally, this wasn't like I don't want people to hear this and go, oh yeah, this was just a marketing launch, or this was just uh, or even just this was just a new product launch. No, no, this was an entire new business. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 2:45

We essentially rebuilt my business from scratch, like beginning in March this year.

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Entire new CRM.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

Yeah, uh, so literally we were talking about this in the last episode, but I think it probably took until about February before I kind of really got behind the concept and felt like I was steady in that decision and that we really had a path forward. So February rolls around, and um, and then I decide, well, if I'm going to have this new business and I'm hoping to scale it, we really need the infrastructure to support that. And we've been playing around with some new concepts and ideas for website and how our systems ran leading up to this moment. And so in like March, I decide to tell my team that we were changing our CRM, changing our website, changing where the course would be, changing what community platform we used, changing our payment portal, changing the way that we tracked finances, changing, changing which AI tools we uh were using, and then also um building out an entirely new product.

SPEAKER_01 3:54

Yeah, so Claude became of the moment literally like three weeks before we started pre-launch.

SPEAKER_03 4:01

Yeah, exactly. So we had we had kind of workshopped what that pre-launch webinar masterclass taster would be. And we pivoted because I had just been posting about the developments in tech, how accessible agentic AI was. I'd been posting about the systems that were helpful in running my business, obviously posting also about Claude and skills, and those posts were just going nuts. So kind of in real time, we pivoted and I said, Oh, look, I'm I'm getting lots of traction around just what my AI systems look like. Yes. We were originally going to do this piece around how AI systems had been running my newsletter and how marketing. Yeah, like how I'd grown my mailing list and how, you know, we use these marketing systems to push out content and help support that part of the business. But we switched that at the very last moment it felt, um, and just kind of said, let's just show everyone how I actually run my business and what this looks like because the word AI agent is no longer obtuse to people. There's traction around how do I get this going in my business? And yeah, there'd just been this huge flare-up and huge um huge subscription boost to Claude. And all of a sudden it seemed like everyone was talking about AI skills and systems, and everybody suddenly wanted to know what that actually looked like.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

I think it was such a smart decision because you were you were just really responding to the moment. And I remember I was having one call and you were like, uh, I'm creating the entire product right now, and I have to make so many changes. And it was really good because you were so clear from the get-go, and this is one of the things that makes you so unique and different, is you were like platform agnostic has to be platform agnostic because the tech's going to continue changing. Like, that's always been such a big part of what you do. And it was that was put to the test. No one would have known that, but in the product build, like you were literally, I think, halfway through the product build, and it was like Chat GPT overnight was dead, and everyone had moved to Claude.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

Yeah. And I'd always built it as agnostic, but then there was this huge market demand for Claude-specific things. And also what was possible for your average user just became so much more. So we've always taught these kind of five levels of AI integration, moving up to full kind of agentic AI. But the tools that you needed to make that possible used to be fairly complex and it was a niche part of the market, right? And then almost overnight with things like Codex and Claude Code, it suddenly became accessible to everyone. And I like freaked out. Yeah, I had plenty of nights lying awake or just dreaming about the product and just thinking, how how do I design this? One, so I don't have to redo it all next week because the tools have changed again. Two, so it actually delivers value to my audience and is accessible. And three, so it's responsive to the next wave because I know the next wave will come. And I know that my audience will say, Oh, but where's the video about? Insert whatever the flavor of the month is. So working out what the product would look like took ages. I made so many versions of that product. Versions I didn't even bother showing you, but like I got lost in my home office listening to like Latino trance music for hours on end, just vibe coding and testing all these different ways of structuring that product. Because what I was also really focused on is not just being an education platform, but providing as much as I could do a done-for-you AI operating system out of the box so that you can run your business with the same AI systems I do on day one of joining our AI for Impact Hub. I didn't want just a collection of videos that talked about the theory. So that was a really big driving force. And to get that right, and again, I know it will always evolve and iterate, but to get it to the point that I felt proud of it, yeah, that that took that took work.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

Well, I you were also practicing what you preach because you weren't going to be the AI company that was like, I'm just in constant response mode to whatever's new. Because you don't sleep if you're running that type of business. You're always like on the cusp of having to create the next reel or do the next thing. And you were like, that's not the lifestyle I want to lead. No, that's not how I want to teach women they have to run their business, where they're constantly having to adapt things as the tech changes, because that's the opposite of what we're trying to do. And like that, again, just seeing you and was so inspired by your intentionality around that process of going, I know what this needs to look like, and it's just gonna take me a bit to get it right, which is why you shut down your business. I did, exactly.

SPEAKER_03 8:39

Yeah, because you know, I think a lot in the AI education space, it tends to be a collection of like tips, you know. This is how I do my carousels with Claude, or like this is how I use, you know, Otta to like break up my podcast and repurpose content. Yeah, and you have these short tutorial videos. I imagine those platforms are full of like short tutorial videos about how to do one-off things. Yes. And for me, that's not a systems approach, but it's also not scalable. You just fill your business stuff and that doesn't actually move the needle. So that was the intention. And yeah, to do that, I I shut the business down for two weeks to one, give my business manager time to finish the CRM and all the systems and onboarding and all the funnels that we would need in order to execute and launch the AI for impact hub. And I took those two weeks to actually build the AI for impact hub. So literally we put an out of office on and I just said, like, this is what we have to do because otherwise it's never, it's not going to be finished. And I'm going to launch a product that I don't feel proud of. And that will come through in the messaging, let alone the experience. Really. But I knew that that would carry through to how well I executed because I'd be like, oh, don't look too close.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

Yes. So often, you know, people will go to launch something and they focus so much on the marketing and very little on the product. And so often they'll go, Oh, why didn't that work? Like, did I need to change my launch strategy or my messaging or my positioning? And nine times out of ten, it's like, no, it's just that your product wasn't good enough. Yeah. And we were very much the opposite. Very much the opposite.

SPEAKER_03 10:10

You know, even though the result might suggest otherwise. Um, yeah, like we we went into this. I just wanted something that I could be proud of. And I remember saying to you, I'm actually less conscious of the launch, and I more just want to use it as a date that I have to do the product by. And I just want that due date so that I stop saying yes to other things and I actually say, All right, Nikki, you've said you'll get it done by the first of April.

unknown 10:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:35

You have to deliver this thing.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Well, in some ways, it's really interesting you say that because the way I saw it was I was like, Well, it's it's really my job to just add all of the strategic scaffolding for the marketing. So I saw that launch as being key because I knew it had the potential to be very amazing. But I was like, that's where I just need to come in and be like, this, then this, then this, then this, so that you could really focus on your product. And I think that was what made it so easy because you were like, once you got it and you knew your product was good, you were like, okay, let's do this. I'm so ready.

SPEAKER_03 11:09

Yeah. I mean, I think I remember saying to you, like, you can just tell me what to do. Just tell me, like, give me a list. I will do all the things.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

And we did.

SPEAKER_03 11:17

Exactly. Because, you know, I was like, once I have that, I'm fine to, as I said in the last episode, like, I have no problem executing. I love what I do. So that's not what I shy away from. It was more the narrowing of the scope and the goal rather than you are able to do everything, so I am doing everything. It was okay, this is the list of things I need from you, Nikki. And once we had the product, I felt like that was just very much a kind of tick and flick.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

So true. And and in that process, we kept coming back to pieces that are the basic fundamentals of business over and over again. Like, I'm just thinking about conversations we had during that time. And it was like price point conversations. And then it was like, well, what's the messaging around this? Well, who's that? Who really is that ideal client? Like, I think we asked each other that question, you know, who really is that ideal client so many times because we were getting narrower and narrower. And because of the work you've done today, you were so able to drill down, but we had to decide and lock in and commit on repeat who that exact ideal client was.

SPEAKER_03 12:24

And because I'd often kind of waver a bit because again, as as I talked about, my particular type of work means that I touch almost every industry you can imagine. I also have a heavy chunk of enterprise corporate clients. I have a large portion of mumpreneurs, solopreneurs, and I have a large proportion of people in the education industry. They are wildly different sectors, and it took a lot of that iteration to focus on which one of those audiences was I going to speak to, at least this time, not forever, but for this time. And I remember you kind of really holding me to that, and many times me kind of again lying in bed going, Oh, I've chosen this path, but maybe I should do that path, and just really feeling that out. And in the end, we actually wrote several sales pages and landing pages. And I remember you coming back, Ellie, with the one that I had written for women and entrepreneurs and small business owners, and you saying, like, oh, I barely have to give you edits because this just speaks to that person because I'm that person, right? And you're that person. And you know, we hang out with those people. And so it was after that feedback that I just went all in on that path because again, it aligned with my mission, and not that I don't want to help those other audiences, but I always come back to that saying, if you're trying to do everything for everyone, you do nothing for anyone. Exactly. So that's where we kind of chose AI Herway was really focused at predominantly women and very much in that entrepreneur, small business owner space.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

What did you find hard then about mapping out the marketing, the positioning, the launch? Because, and again, this is like where we straddle the line of you went away during the launch and you did sweet FA because you'd done everything beforehand, but I just want to like call out the intentionality. Yeah. Because you were very organized and and we did a lot, like we we planned a lot beforehand. Um and that process was new. Yeah. You know, doing that like doing an online launch. And and again, like calling that out because there'll be so many people listening where it's like, I I I've had people say from the outside looking and it looks so expertly done. Yeah. And you're like, this was my first time. It's so good for people to hear that because they could they can say, like, yes, I did not have I did not have a rinse and repeat formula.

SPEAKER_03 14:46

I did not have pre-existing emails that we had sent every single done from scratch. I did not, I've never run a masterclass funnel before. Like I obviously I do a lot of public speaking, but that's four other people. I had not done a masterclass for me before. I'd done a couple of free ones in the past, but never with the intention that you sell them on something afterwards. Like I didn't have any of that infrastructure. Our CRM was brand new. Like this was all brand new territory for me. Um, anyone that knows me well knows that I love colour coding. And time blocking on calendars and like checklists. So I did so many, again, I just did so many iterations of all the pieces that had to be in the plan because there was a lot, like there was a lot of infrastructure that needed to happen, and then there was a lot of content that needed to be produced, and then there was also the actual masterclass structure. There was the sales page, you know, there was the checkout, yeah. The pitch, like how I was actually gonna say it, because I don't know about you, but I feel really uncomfortable selling my my my thing, right? Like yeah, exactly. First time launched, yeah, exactly. And also it's funny because I'm I'm a public speaker, so again, I didn't think that would necessarily feel awkward to me, but it did feel awkward to me. I speak in front of people all the time, but to speak about my thing felt weird. So there were so many components to it. And um, I also I remember at the start I kind of wanted to just send out a bunch of emails to my whole list, and then you came back and you're like, no, you should send a separate segment to people that came to the masterclass versus everybody else that's on your list versus like people that sign up to your email list between when you run the masterclass and when the launch closes, because all those people are having a different experience to you. And I remember you going, so if this creates more work for you, so we're going, that's an understatement. Yeah, I was like, that's another 30 emails. Thanks for that one. But you get it now, right? Yeah, exactly, exactly. So, like I literally I looked to you for really kind of providing that feedback and telling me what needed tweaking, and I just followed everything you said because that's exactly why I hired you in the first place. I was like, I want someone else that knows all the components that need to be here. I know my product, I know my industry. I've never done this before. I'll rely on you just to take that mental load away from me and just to tell me what to do. So you're very creachable, it's very funny. No, I just say yes.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 17:15

Yeah, so there were so many pieces to that. So literally, I mean, working with AI, of course, and going through all of our transcripts of meetings, all of our emails, all your feedback to do that list and just doing it again and again, and then literally just reminding myself that to get it done, I just have to start and I just move through that. Now, obviously, we use a lot of AI to produce things, but I had to be heavily involved in each section of it because I didn't have a standard to hold AI to because we'd never done the launch before. Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

So there was still a lot of me in it. So just for everyone listening, just to speak a little bit to the structure of that launch. So what you did so well was we knew that at that time lead magnets related to anything new AI, like you tested so much during that lead magnet process, and that really helped us to get clear on what the full launch messaging was actually going to look like. I'd love that you're like, did you forget this bit?

SPEAKER_00 18:15

No, it's not a blur because you did this so well.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

So there were just so many different lead magnets that you had going, and you were making lots of different ones based on, I think you were excited, obviously, because you were talking about so many different pieces at the time. There was a lot of AI news, there was a lot of AI change, there was a lot of cord content, but that was a really key piece of the strategy. A, to get in so many of those leads. So if you're listening, because what was your email list before this launch?

SPEAKER_03 18:45

I reckon before I started that little explosion of because again, those lead magnets weren't actually intentionally meant to lead to this product. It's just that we shifted and went, ah, that worked really well. Turns out we don't actually have to launch this side lead magnet that we kind of had planned. So I was just sharing things because it was just a moment in time where people wanted to know more about these things, and I thought, well, great, I'll just make a notion page and link that to many chat. You know, it was really kind of not a lot of effort for me to do those things, but they just went gangbusters. So I think when we started that sort of process, I think my email list was probably around the 6,000 mark. And by the time we got to masterclass, it was around 11,000, which was only I want to say all up, we had two weeks lead-in to that point. So in two weeks, I grew my list by around about 5,000.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

I think this is also the moment where we tell everyone how much money you spent on ads. Oh, yeah. Let's go there. So, so pre-launch, yeah. So you did the lead magnets for two weeks. Yes. And then went into selling the masterclass. How did you communicate that? And what was your breakdown of media buy?

SPEAKER_03 20:00

Yeah, amazing. So uh we started talking about the masterclass. Yeah, so we were promoting the masterclass for those two weeks in amongst those lead magnets, leading people to the registration page. In the end for our masterclass, so my goal was to have a thousand people register for the masterclass. That was the pie in the sky. Like, if I can get a thousand people in, we're we're probably pretty good. Uh, in the end, we had 5,352 people register for our free masterclass. I had to upgrade the Wazoo out of my Zoom subscription for that one. And to get those five and a half thousand people to register for our masterclass and added to our email list, we spent exactly zero dollars on ads. Or extra marketing, or extra resources, or extra tools.

SPEAKER_01 20:48

We spent nothing. This was a completely 100% organic launch.

SPEAKER_03 20:56

Yep. 100%. And because I also, because we had all these moving parts, right? You remember we changed CRMs, we changed websites, we changed platforms, I changed my team, finances, it's the structure, and I built out an entirely new product. So I remember Ellie said, like, you know, you can consider paid advertising to really because I remember you said if you really want to be sure of those a thousand people registering, we might want to consider paid ads. Um, otherwise, you know, happy not to do it this time. And I said, Oh look, Ellie, like I actually can't, I don't ban with to learn another new thing. Because that was also, I've never done paid ads before. So that was also a whole new thing.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

So I just kind of said, let's go second time.

SPEAKER_03 21:33

Yeah, like let's just bring it in later. I'm happy to be happy with a less result because I am focused on product and I don't want to jeopardize the product by also starting to execute paid ads. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:45

And that was a really smart decision and a really strategic decision because again, everything went on the table. There were trade there were trade off conversations. So I think at this point everyone's gonna hear the level of intentionality, which is really my aim. Every single piece was discussed and decided on. Yeah. So it wasn't like, and I think again, because the result was so amazing, you're like, oh, we did this incredible thing, which is also true. And the behind the scenes is it's like everything was a choice. And you were like, you know what? If if I'm going to have less people, sure. The the other piece that I think you did so well though is you went, okay, if I'm not using paid ads, I'm going so hard on organic content. And what's required of me? What is going hard on organic content look like?

SPEAKER_03 22:32

Yeah. And I did, I did a lot of posts in that time. Um, you know, I really, really throughout this process, I've cranked up my marketing, also because I've started enjoying it more again. Yeah. Because there's new things to talk about. And, you know, I have perspectives and I'm I'm leaning into not being so afraid to share your viewpoints and, you know, those contentious remarks. So it's it's becoming more fun for me. So mostly it felt enjoyable, but I also just I just posted a lot and from a lot of different sorts of angles and really lent into what does my business actually look like? What is the lifestyle that I have right now? What is the difference between just using AI tools and actually having AI systems? What are the things that other people are doing that is the thing that I don't do? Why is being tool agnostic important? Why is having ethical AI important? All of that kind of stuff. And it all just drove to the masterclass. And again, because we have so many AI systems running in our business, we are not a business that just uses Clawed, but we have whole processes managed by AI. It really piqued people's interest about what that actually looked like. And of course, that's what the masterclass promised to break down and show them. So yeah, I I think I was posting you know, at least like a couple of times a day throughout those two-week period.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

Yeah, I feel like you really ramped it up to like two, three times a day, which is amazing. And again, you know, you were doing so you were working with Claude and your systems and the gentix support to be like, how can I do this in a really smart way?

SPEAKER_03 24:04

Exactly. Like I was capturing one, our sales page, and asking AI to repackage that into socials, and I was also just voice dumping my own perspectives, and I was also getting Claude to trawl through transcripts of past podcasts and sessions that I had done to pull out my voice to just repackage a lot of it. So, you know, I definitely didn't spend hours manually doing marketing, and neither did my team, but there was a lot of content that went out. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Okay, so something that I want to share from when you were coming up to the masterclass, which I think will be so useful for people, is your mindset. I remember you saying to me leading up to the masterclass when you were kind of getting close to that final number, because you know, I think it's a week out and it was like 4,000 and then it just kept building. And you were really excited. And I think at that point, the great thing about a pre-launch that's done well is you build that momentum, you get really great feedback, you can see interest in topic, which is always so exciting, especially if you're launching something new, which you were. And I should say as well that a lot of the time, and I definitely teach this, you know, in other scenarios, there is a case for don't build the product yet before you sell the thing. And we talked about that as well. And also you built the first iteration of the product, like you were really clear on well, I'm happy to build this thing and then I can evolve, change, add to it, all of that. But I remember you coming up to the masterclass and you did something that was just so, so smart in amongst all the 50,000 smart things you did. Um you were really clear on taking the pressure off yourself.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:45

You got to this point, and you and I both knew what you'd done to get to that masterclass. And I think you could have really freaked yourself out if you'd allowed yourself to. And you just really focused on well, this is me presenting it to the world. This is basically the first opportunity for feedback. Why are people, you know, signing up? What are their objections? Yeah. And I'm gonna take that information and I'll just roll with my next steps from there. Can you talk us through? Because that's obviously the bit that I saw, and you were very honest with me the whole way through. Um, so I remember thinking, she's not super internally freaking out right now. Was that true for you? Like, was there more that was going on there?

SPEAKER_03 26:30

Yeah, like yes and no. I guess I mean, again, the beauty of never having launched before is I really had no idea. Like, obviously, everyone kind of is aware of industry norms and like web masterclass conversion rates and things like that, but you have no idea if it's going to apply to you. So I guess for me, as we approached the masterclass, um, I wanted to take the pressure off because I knew it would feel awkward to the audience if I had everything riding on that moment to convert or die. Right. And because I am a public speaker, I was like, actually, I should just enjoy the fact that thousands of people are coming to my masterclass, right? Like I love public speaking. That is an advantage I do have. And I didn't want to take away the joy of having that opportunity by putting all this pressure on the sell of it. So as we approached the masterclass, again, when we started all of this, my goal was a thousand people to register and eventually a hundred people to buy the membership. And that felt really large and it felt very big. And I was also nervous to share that with my partner, with you, with my team to say that number out loud. Then as we got really into the crux of it and we were approaching the masterclass, I think about like a week beforehand, I said, Oh, you know what? I don't want the pressure of selling a hundred spots. I don't want to feel like if a hundred people don't click checkout now at the end of the masterclass, I failed at life because actually I've built a product I quite like. You know, I already have a small community inside of the harbors, like beta testers. And also, this is the business model. So even if we don't do it right now, I know this is the model that eventually gets me to the million-dollar year, or I know this is the model that eventually allows me to exit the business or whatever it is. I knew that part to be true. So I remember saying to you, I don't want to feel like this is the launch. This is just the start of my product, and eventually we'll get there. Right. And this is all data that's going to inform how to get there. So maybe this isn't the launch, maybe the one in December will be the launch because we'll have had six months of practice or whatever. So about a week beforehand, I said, Oh, actually, I'm just gonna be really happy if 40 people sign up because that'll make it worthwhile. It'll give me information about what people actually want, and I can continue to build from there, and we just double down on what worked and we scrap the rest, and this is an iterative process. So, yeah, it really helped me to feel like it wasn't right or die in that moment.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

So I I've never told you how I felt in that moment or what I thought.

SPEAKER_02 29:01

But like just chicken it out.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

No, no, no, no, not at all. Not at all. I mean, I would never speak that way about you on the mic ever, but I genuinely didn't think that. I I thought the opposite. I was like, this is about to be really fucking big. And she has no idea.

SPEAKER_03 29:18

That you didn't freak me out.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

Well, I remember well, it's it's why it's just like it's funny reflecting on these moments because I just remember thinking you don't need pressure right now. And I work with high-performing women. Like you are you are my client to a team. I think about all the incredible women I support in my mastermind, and often we don't need that externalized pressure. And so there are times when it's like maybe your goal should actually be a little bit bigger, and then there's times to just nod and smile and be like, you got this, you're gonna be amazing. Have fun. And I think I said to you, have fun. Yeah. It's gonna be really great. Exactly. Um, and so it's that really fun thing about any partnership or any moment in time where it's like, you know, you've just got to work with where you're at. And at the time I remember being like, I get not wanting pressure on this right now. Like I really understand that.

SPEAKER_03 30:15

Yeah, because again, just coming back to we built this business model for where I wanted to be. I didn't need to be there tomorrow. Yes. Like, you know, as long as I had 10 people sign up, it would have made it worthwhile for me to be like, cool, I made the product, somebody wants it, I'll see what they say about it and build the next version of it. Um, but it was that we had this scalable model, we had this model that was going to give me the lifestyle that I ultimately wanted and going to allow me to make the impact that I ultimately wanted. So I really wanted to keep that vision in mind instead of putting all this pressure on this one moment because I didn't want to feel like if it didn't work out to that point, it was not worth it. Totally. Because of course it's worth it. Totally. You know, I'm in it for the long game, not for the instant gratification.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

You were locked in. Yeah. Okay, so I wonder if we do a bit of a number summary at this point. Yeah. What do you think? Done. Tell us the numbers. So we got up to masterclass. Okay. You delivered the masterclass.

SPEAKER_03 31:12

So we had five and a half thousand people, roughly, uh, register for the masterclass. We had uh around about almost 50% show up live between the two masterclasses, which was really, really astronomical. From the masterclass, we actually had around a 7.5% conversion rate. So outside of the masterclass, about 7.5% of those people converted into our paid product. That being said, we also then opened it up to our wider list and said, hey, you might not have come to the masterclass, but we've got this thing now. It's yours if you want to sign up to it. So we ran open cart for two weeks. We had one week of early bird, so post-masterclass, and then we had one week at regular pricing. Yes, all strategic, all considered. Yeah, all mapped out, all in our emails, all linked to our carts. Everything was kind of operational to that point. After we closed the masterclass, I think maybe on that day, I remember saying to Tom, like, holy shit, like we've made like 20 grand, right? Like, you know, 10 people or whatever bought straight after the masterclass. And I was like, awesome, so worth it, fantastic. Then we get to three days later, right? And I invited my parents over to have a cup of tea with me before I went overseas. And my mum tried to get out of it because she was a bit tired. And I was like, no, no, no, you have to come over because I'm leaving for America tomorrow. So come over and have a cup of tea.

unknown 32:38

Right?

SPEAKER_03 32:39

And then they came over and had a cup of tea, and then Tom brings out a bottle of champagne. And I told my parents, I said, Oh, like I've launched this product. And I said, I was really hoping that I'd have a hundred people sign up and that I'd make around a hundred grand. And then I said, as of tonight, as I'm flying out to America, I've made half a million dollars, right? And I was like, this is wild, so wild. And I remember then, you know, my parents obviously cried and hugged me, and we had this beautiful moment. I remember getting on the plane the next day and sitting on the plane and just crying in my little pod. And just being so grateful because everything had come true. I was about to fly over to California to speak on the biggest stage I'd ever been on. The client was flying me business class, you know, my partner was at home looking after our beautiful children. I had just made half a million dollars in 72 hours. I was like, it doesn't get any better than this. But then I'm in America traveling. So I spoke in California, I then went to New York, I then went to South America for another speaking gig. And I intentionally really wanted to enjoy it. Because, you know, I'm like, I don't know how many times I get this opportunity. I don't want to sit at my computer every day just because I'm launching. I I want to see New York, I want to see California, I want to make new connections, I want to go to the hotel gym. Like, I'm I do not want to sit at my laptop. So I made a really intentional choice, even flying over, because I had this thought right, Ellie, where I was like, oh, this could be really big. And my first instinct was to say, okay, it could be really big. I better put all of my effort in there and make sure it's as big as possible. And I had to really talk myself out of that. Yes. Because I was like, no, we did this for the life. Yes. If I burn myself and answer every question and jump on Instagram lives every day and try and do all these sales calls, or like I'm in my inbox every day, I'm gonna be so spent by the end of this, and I'll have wasted the opportunity that I'm halfway around the world able to do something. So all I did was check my numbers each morning before I left my hotel room, and I think maximum I sat at my laptop twice while I was having my morning coffee just to tweak a little bit of wording in some of the emails that were going out, right? And on the morning of my biggest keynote in California, that was the last day of the early bird, and I was about to speak in front of 3,000 people, and I was like, I'm just gonna check my check my little numbers. Yeah, and I checked them, and then I messaged Tom and I was like, Can I call you? And I rang Tom, and you know, we're like, How are the kids? And composed, whatever, and then full silent. I said, um, so we've just made a million dollars. And then he was speechless, and I was speechless, and I was like, We've we've made a million dollars. It's been seven days, and I have made a million dollars in this launch. And at that point, I think it was about 650 type people were inside of the hub. And he cried and I cried, and then we're both just like, I don't even know what that means. Like, I can't even fathom that. What does it look like? And I was like, I don't even understand what this number is. I just know that that is so astronomical for us and you know, so life-changing and in such a short amount of time, but also just so amazing that so many people were saying yes to what we were doing and to were saying yes, like quite literally, while I'm, you know, having hotel dinners and like catching up with girls that I've only been on online affiliate summits with and like just all of this amazingness and getting my hair and makeup done. And I just the entire experience was like living in a twilight zone amazing dream where the Pinterest board came to life in that session. And I remember asking to call you and you were like, is everything all right?

SPEAKER_01 36:28

I'm like, oh yeah, you can just context because everything was going so well. I I remember again, things I haven't shared with you that you wouldn't say out loud. I remember thinking like we haven't we'd had like a tech snag like early on for something small. And I remember I think I remember saying, Oh cool, our tech snag's done. Like we didn't need to worry about that because I can't remember what it was for. But I just remember being like, everything is going so so well. And so you're like, Can I call you? Like, can you talk? And I was like, is everything okay? Yeah, because I'm like halfway around the world. Halfway around the world, and I was like, Oh gosh, I hope everything's good. Like, what's going on? And I was like, absolutely, like, I can't remember what I said, can't talk now. Can we talk tomorrow?

SPEAKER_03 37:12

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I I called you. I was literally waiting for a cab to go to the speaker dinner after the talk.

SPEAKER_01 37:19

And can I say where I was? I was in my car, about to get out to go get a coffee, like in South Fremantle.

SPEAKER_03 37:25

We both lived in like, yeah, exactly. So it's like evening for me, I'm going out to the speaker dinner, you're getting up for the day. And yeah, I remember calling you and being like, Ellie, like we've just done this. And then you were so lovely, and you started crying. And I started crying again while I'm waiting in this taxi lot outside of my hotel. And then I was like, I actually gotta talk, and I really want to talk to you and I want to celebrate, but I like having the speaker dinner, but I just had to tell you that like we did it. We did this massive, massive thing. And so, yeah, went out to the speaker dinner. Then I went to New York for four days, living my best life. Like, took myself out to dinner. I went dancing to 2 a.m. in Brooklyn. Like, I just had the most amazing time. Went to South America, gave a keynote, and on that next morning, the day before I was due to fly home is when my cart closed. All right, so it'd been this awesome, awesome journey. At this point, I hadn't updated anyone else outside of Tom and you, right? You're the only two people in my life that knew how it was even tracking since I'd told my parents that you know I was on track for half a million. So that day before I leave South America and fly back, I check. And at cart close, we had sold 896 spots inside of the hub, from a starting goal of 100, which was downgraded to 40. And we bought in just over 1.51 million in contracted value. So people signed up for quarterly payments or paid in full. In cash, we made around 900,000. And for the first time in my life, the first time of many, the first time in my life, I had over a million dollars sitting in the bank account, which is insane. And I didn't tell anyone for quite a few hours because I just wanted to sit with it, and I wanted to sit with the gratitude, and I wanted to sit with that feeling of what we had just done, and I wanted to sit with this is so impactful because think about how many people we're about to teach this to, and think about the ripple effect of that, and think about the entire mission around empowering women, and now we've just got 900 of predominantly women. We also have men inside our community because there was lots of men reaching out going, is this only for women? I want to join. Inclusivity. Yeah, exactly. I was like, women with an asterisk, like you know, if you love us, you can come in. Um, so just like all of those massive moments, and the fact that this was a dream a moment ago, and literally we only put it together in March, and now it's April, or it was the very start of May, and I had just changed my entire business trajectory, I'd changed our entire business model, and I changed my whole family's life. Like, it's such a big feeling to sit with. But that night I called my parents underneath the pretense of like, I'll just check in before I hop my flight. And my sister joined the call, and you know, my parents and my sister have been such champions throughout this whole journey, and always there every time I kind of want to like spitball something. They're really amazing. My mum was a CEO, you know. My sister is a really great strategic thinker, so I really value their input. And we were kind of chit-chatting for a while, and I was like, Oh, I've got to tell them. And I was nervous to tell them because I kind of didn't want the moment burst for myself, but it got to this silent moment. I said, Oh, I've got something kind of big to tell you guys. And they were like, Oh, what?

SPEAKER_00 40:53

Are you okay?

SPEAKER_03 40:55

And I was like, Oh, I've done something fairly massive. Um, and then yeah, I said, Yeah, I've launched this hub. And this is the first time my sister's even hearing that I have a product, by the way. And I said, Oh, yeah, I've launched the hub. And I said, and and cart's closed, and I said, Oh, we've we've made we've made over a million dollars. And then they just burst out crying, they're like, What? And I'm like, Oh, we've actually made $1.5 million. And then I was like, and it's a membership. So that now happens again next year. Next month. Yeah, exactly. And they were just like, they were so amazed, and it was just so beautiful. Because when you're in business, sometimes these things start to sound normal, right? Because you see it on Instagram and you see these numbers and they kind of take on this abstract value. And also as you start earning more, it starts to kind of lose its shine a little bit, you know, because you know that it's possible. You know there are people around there doing one million dollar months, but when you say it to people that have only ever had a nine to five job that live in the quote unquote like real world, and you say that to them, just their reaction was so affirming that I'm like, no, it is a big deal. And that is, you know, in insane. Like when I think about the fact that I could pay off my house and my parents' house and have money left over, that is not a small piece, right? And the fact that we did it, there's lots of people that ask, and lots of people have have reached out to me to ask to say, okay, but like what did it actually cost you? The fact that we did it without additional spend, like, yes, I pay my team, but they were there pre this product because I still need their support in other areas. Outside of that, like I didn't even have additional hours for me because we had set up the systems to run it. So I essentially made $1.5 million in profit, less maybe like $10K on the two weeks of staff costs where they were running the inbox and answering questions and making sure the checkout worked. It is still insane to say. But I'm also very grateful to say thank you to your coaching because it now also feels insane, but normal, which is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 43:14

I want to be like, and at that bit hour I'm speechless, but the team are probably gonna be like, nope, we'll just keep that video. I said this to you at the very start that I wanted this to be uh, can you talk about this to share what is possible? And I love the way that you have because I hope that everyone that's listening can see all the pieces, all the intentionality, all the strategy, all of the build. People are probably gonna be listening and being like, oh my gosh, that amount. Like what was in those emails? It was all strategic, it was all clear messaging, like it was all and also you had the systems, you you know, like go to Nikki's workshop, like get in Nikki's world because the implementation that is a result of everything you teach to be able to make this possible. And So the the fact that it created this, I think you have such a clear mission mission and you are so clear on the impact that you want to create in the world and hearing you speak to that win, you know, I know you're just like a gal after my own heart when you're like, and then it happened, and I called my family, and I just just had that moment with my family and thought about the impact of all the women inside the hub who are all raving fans, like the amount of feedback that you've received that I've heard, you know, this product is so exceptional. And I really, really hope that people can hear there is so much that I can change about my product or my process or my strategy or my messaging to create better results. And I think that you've normalized how abnormal this feels to create, and also how possible it is at the same time, which is the exact combination that I think women listening really need to hear.

SPEAKER_03 45:02

Yeah, it is so possible. And this is coming from someone who probably didn't really believe, you know. Um, I was having this conversation with my friend. Uh, she was talking about the launch, and we were just talking about how like you see all these numbers on socials, particularly, right? About people having a million dollar months or a hundred cash, like a hundred K cash day or whatever. And it almost always feels like the yeah, but that happens to other people, and that happens over there. Yes. And I don't really understand how to bridge that gap. But really, like we were really methodical about it. And also, even if we hadn't crossed over a million dollars, what we put in place would have got us there eventually, you know, but the way that we did it is really condensed and collapsed that time. Like I remember just feeling like, my gosh, I've cracked the code. Like I have collapsed time into a black hole and just like making things happen. You know, like ever before that, my biggest month had been 160k. I had 160k day during that launch, and just and also while I slept in, went to the hotel gym and did a keynote speech and had my makeup done and went to a speaker dinner and had a few too many champagnes, like that was the day I made $160,000. And that feeling is something that I want for everyone, and particularly women, because the feeling of safety, that has been the biggest transformation. You know, my parents often now, because they still kind of don't get it. And they're like, what is it, what does it feel like? What do you even mean? You have a million dollars. Like, what does that feel like? And I said, I don't really know what it feels like because I'm not out there spending it, like I'm building the next thing and it's and it's for the business as well. But the change in me is how safe I feel. Like I feel safe to try new things in my business, but I also feel safe for my family and my children, and that's been always a driving force. The whole reason that I've been so passionate about my business is, you know, living through domestic abuse. Not I always had somewhere else to go. Like my parents are beautiful, but I didn't have finances, I didn't have things for myself. I worked on a very casual basis. I had about $9,000 in super. I didn't own any assets. And so there was always like a, but I don't have options, right? Like if I leave this, I don't have options, or if this all goes down, I don't have options. Now, finally, I got left. I didn't do the leaving. But I was left in a scenario where I really didn't have anything and I had to rely very heavily on my family to get me back on my feet. And starting this business, I always thought, I want to create enough safety so that my children never have to choose between security and financial safety. I want enough safety and legacy that, you know, they have an apartment that they can escape to, that they have something to fall back on, that they never have to make that choice. And for the first time, I feel like I've started to create that.

SPEAKER_01 48:01

I am so in awe of you. I think you're so phenomenal, Nikki. I'm so now we're both crying. I think that um you are so mission-driven, and I've got to see that, you know, every single step of the way, just how devoted you are to your people, how much you care, how invested you've been in supporting them, and then in turn, what that would mean for you too.

SPEAKER_00 48:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:32

And it's been such a privilege to get to do this alongside you. So thank you for having me on your team, and thank you so much for sharing this with everyone.

SPEAKER_03 48:40

And thank you so much for being a part of this journey. I'm no one else I'd rather do it.