Behind the scenes of Cindy’s first 6-figure launch
"Showing up like a hundred percent. It was me, it was how I played in this game. That is what worked. " - Cindy Wagman
Behind the scenes of Cindy’s first 6-figure launch
Ever wonder what it really takes to launch a successful product or program? How do you transition from a safe, small-scale launch to a full-on, all-in launch? Join us in this episode as Cindy spills all the details about her super successful launch of the Fractional Fundraiser Academy. You'll hear about the nitty-gritty details, the numbers, and the journey from conceptualizing to creating and eventually launching a comprehensive program. It's going to be a deep-dive case study filled with valuable insights and lessons.
Highlights:
Cindy's journey of developing and launching Fractional Fundraiser Academy
The most effective opt-in strategies for the launch
The launch results and ROI
Insights and advice on playing big in launching your program
Find Us Online: https://www.confessionswithjessandcindy.com/
Connect with Cindy:
Cindy Wagman Coaching https://cindywagman.com/
The Good Partnership https://www.thegoodpartnership.com/
Connect with Jess:
Out In the Boons: https://www.outintheboons.me
Transcript:
00:00:00 Cindy: Welcome to the Confessions Podcast. I'm Cindy Wagman.
00:00:03 Jess: And I'm Jess Campbell. We're two former in-house nonprofit pros turned coaches and consultants to purpose-driven organizations.
00:00:11 Cindy: After years of building up our separate six figure businesses from scratch, we've thrown a lot of spaghetti at the wall and have lived to see what sticks.
00:00:20 Jess: We're on a mission to help other non-profit coaches and consultants looking to start or scale their own businesses past the six figure mark by pulling back the curtain.
00:00:30 Cindy: Whether you're still working inside a nonprofit and thinking of one day going out on your own or you've been running your consulting business for years, you understand that working with nonprofits is just different. We're giving you access to the business leaders who serve nonprofits as their clients. You know the people who truly get it.
00:00:52 Jess: No more gatekeeping, no more secrets. This podcast is going to give you an inside look at what running a successful nonprofit coaching and consulting business looks like. Basically, we're asking people how much money they make, how they get paid, and what has and hasn't worked in their businesses.
00:01:11 Cindy: Listen in as these leaders share their insights, their numbers, and the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to building a nonprofit coaching or consulting business. We're gonna empower you to make the power moves that give you the income and freedom you set out to create from day one.
00:01:28 Jess: You ready? Let's go.
00:01:31 Cindy: Hey, Jess.
00:01:33 Jess: Hi I'm so excited.
00:01:35 Cindy: me too slash very nervous
00:01:39 Jess: Aw, Come on.
00:01:41 Cindy: I Can't think I'm in the hot seat today.
00:01:43 Jess: You are in the hot seat. So ladies and gentlemen, for everyone tuning in, we have a very special treat because somehow I've gotten Cindy to agree to do a full launch recap, the nitty gritty details, all the numbers following her super successful launch of her Your Fractional Fundraiser Academy, and we are gonna get into it.
00:02:07 Cindy: Oh, all the details.
00:02:09 Jess: All the details [crosstalk] I know, I always joke, I don't think there's like a launch recap that has gone unread for me. I love them all. Give me--
00:02:21 Cindy: I know. I wanna see--
00:02:22 Jess: Deep dive case study--
00:02:23 Cindy: Yeah. I wanna see everyone else's businesses. I'm so nosy. But it's also so helpful and informative. And I think, there's a lot we can learn from other people. So I'm absolutely, I'm an open book.
00:02:37 Jess: Okay. Cool. Well then let's just context set a little bit. Can you tell us, for those two people listening who might not know what the Fractional fundraiser Academy is, what is this program?
00:02:51 Cindy: Yes. So if you do the podcast and you haven't, you didn't experience the launch. I created a new program, it's called the Fractional Fundraiser Academy, and basically it's a business training program for fundraisers who want to become consultants as fractional fundraisers or who want fractional fundraising in their consulting mix. So I don't teach fundraising. I teach you the business side of things, and it's a six month program. And this was my first formal launch. I'll definitely share a little bit about the history in terms of where it started over a year ago and how it's evolved to this. But this was like my very public all in, put everything on the line launch.
00:03:43 Jess: Yes. Okay, great. So let's do that history lesson. What was it about 18 months ago, and then how did you shake it up to make it what it is today? And then what is it now?
00:03:53 Cindy: Yeah. So back in the day we did this in-house. So I had employees and we offered fractional fundraising services to nonprofits, small nonprofits. And actually, I'd been thinking about what growth looked like and what scale looked like and really struggled with, like how many staff do I need? How many clients do we need to sustain those staff? And the one thing I knew was there was a demand for the service. And so instead of hiring, I actually, I created a job posting and if you wanna do this is as an independent consultant, I have clients for you. And I recruited three people and got them fully booked. And around the same time, one of my staff, so my team was amazing, and one of them gave notice. She was leaving us and I was like, how am I gonna replace her?
00:04:48 Cindy: Like, I couldn't imagine replacing any of my team. And so I looked at this also as an opportunity to offer my existing team the opportunity to transition to being consultants themselves. They would make more money and there were lots of benefits to them. So we sort of transitioned. So I kept one staff member to see out some existing contracts. One became a fractional fundraiser, and then as I said, the other gave notice. And so we had three new people and started doing this work and just really organically grew and got to a point where I had 11 fractional fundraisers in my network. They were not employees, they're all their own businesses, and they were all fully booked. And this was towards probably like December and 2022. And I knew I was ready to row and scale this as a more formal training program.
00:05:54 Cindy: Really up until then, people were kind of just like, I trust you, Cindy. You're gonna show me how to show me the road. But there was no, there were no training videos. There were a little bit, but they were really piecemeal and not great. I had some resources, but it really relied on me spending some time with people. And I have off group, like weekly office hours and I was doing a lot of introductions around clients. And then I sort of had an epiphany that I'm not responsible for matching every client with every person who's in the program. And this is something that's a little bit bigger. So put together a program, much more formal. And the Fractional Fundraiser Academy as of this past launch, it's a $9,000 program. As I said, it's six months. There's self-paced training as well as office hours and lunch and learns and community on Slack. So it's pretty comprehensive.
00:06:59 Jess: Okay. So for folks listening in, and we're gonna get to the launch, which is really the meat of this conversation but I have a feeling people are kind of curious about that curriculum design piece. Did you just know what to do? How did you decide what goes where? I've been lucky enough to see the inside of Cindy's masterpiece, and I mean, it has templates, it has spreadsheets, it has examples, it has training videos, it has everything you possibly need to become a fractional fundraiser. And that kind of thing just doesn't get whipped up.
00:07:38 Cindy: No, so a lot of those–
00:07:40 Jess: So what, how much time did you spend, how did you know what to break apart into micro sessions and Yeah. All that stuff.
00:07:46 Cindy: So I got really lucky. I applied for an accelerator program at one of the local universities. And part of what they offer is I get a fractional executive. And so I actually got an executive who does curriculum design. So I worked with her for about three or four months, and she created the curriculum journey. And so we looked at how and because I'd been doing this informally, we had so many case studies and feedback and like we surveyed and interviewed existing members around what would be helpful for them. So we created this journey of like, what your first year as a fractional fundraiser might look like, and what tools do you need and how would you be successful? A lot of the tools we've already been using, so I didn't have to create a lot of the templates, actually at all, some of the stuff I just took what was in my head.
00:08:48 Cindy: So for example, there's FAQs on a sales call or discovery call that I didn't have formalized before, so I just formalized things like that. But a lot of it existed in one way, shape, or form, and it was really about creating structure to that journey and making it palatable for people. So yeah, I got to work with a curriculum designer. I've worked with other curriculum designers before, including our friend Danielle. We have to have on the podcast. But I am not a teacher, and I find it really helpful to get that kind of support for me because it's a huge, It was pretty overwhelming. There's a lot of content and my brain organizes things in a way that makes sense to me, but it doesn't always make sense to everyone else.
00:09:42 Jess: Hmm. Right. And I'm so glad you brought up Danielle. For those who don't know, Danielle Gines from DG Consulting is a curriculum specialist, but one of the things she said at Make it Happen is just adults learn differently. And so even if you were to model how you grew up learning, like in school or something, you just have a totally different way of doing that as a grownup. I know specifically, like short, concise, actionable lessons versus these long 25, 45 minute lessons and that no one will pay attention to is like one thing. But yes, you're listening to this and you're like, okay, I'm gonna go, I would really implore you to talk to someone who's the expert in that space, because it's one thing to create all the content, but it's another thing for people to actually consume and like take action on it. And that's really what you want.
00:10:33 Cindy: If I didn't get that accelerator, I probably would've still hired someone to do this. Yeah. Because it's so outside of my wheelhouse. And especially when you're in the weeds of content, you don't always see what's the curse of knowledge. Right. You don't always see things from someone who's looking at it for the first time. So that was really, really helpful in terms of, and I will say I care very deeply, I think most of us do about the quality of work that I'm doing. And I actually lost a lot of sleep humming about what's my responsibility in people's success? Including the curriculum design, but also just am I responsible for matching them with clients? Do I like what kinds of things? Where does my responsibility end? And they have to take responsibility.
00:11:26 Cindy: And so to me, that was part of the thought around I want the best curriculum because I'm going to set them up to be as successful as possible. But also, whereas in the past, I did all the matchmaking. I found people, their first three clients and now I said that's something I'm not responsible for. Like, I'm teaching them how to go find their clients and making sure it's a really great program. But I can't be responsible for doing all the matchmaking, so to speak. So I really spent a lot of time thinking about my responsibility, their responsibility and pricing as it relates to all of those things.
00:12:07 Jess: Yeah. Okay. Cool. That's really helpful. And I think just for everyone listening, that's thinking of designing a group coaching program, thinking of designing course, anything curriculum based, having some time with your thoughts around this, I think is really important. Okay. Let's get into it. So you spend all this time creating this product. It's beautiful, it's magical. You're like, I'm ready to put this out to the world. Take us back to,you just said, you're all in launch. Take us back to what that originally meant versus where you landed. And talk to us about some of your goals that you kind of had in mind around this launch.
00:12:51 Cindy: So, because it's grown so organically, my first goal was like, okay, I want four people in this program–
00:13:01 Jess: Yeah I remember when you said six, I was like, great.
00:13:03 Cindy: Like where does six people that feels really successful and manageable. So for me, that felt really safe. if all things failed, I could easily find them clients. My mind worked that way. It felt really safe, but still a step towards my goals. And you and some friends basically said to me like, you're plain small. You said it in nicer terms, but you were right. And actually, my other mastermind kind of said the same thing and I have a history of playing things safe. It doesn't look like I'm risk averse but I am. And I need stability and predictability in a lot of ways. So that felt really comfortable. And so I was like, okay, no, I'm going all in. I'm actually gonna make sure that I don't leave anything on the table.
00:14:11 Cindy: I wanna look back and know that I did everything I could to make this as big as possible. And again like Jess said it before, you know this. But to our listeners, Jess was so instrumental in helping me raise my sights and really think of a more comprehensive launch. I was just gonna do like an open house, come and learn about this and I'll walk you through all the launch, stuff. But for me if I can do something, I'm gonna do it. I'm putting every-- I did advertising, I did affiliates, I did a bunch of things. And then I sort of was like, okay, well what does success look like? And I held in my mind like 25 people, which is huge from four and spoiler I didn't get the 25, but I got pretty damn close. And I'm really proud of how it went. And I definitely feel like, it met my expectations in terms of like plain big and the reward paying off for that risk.
00:15:21 Jess: Yes. Okay. So just to recap for everyone, just to like, again, she came in four, I think when I spoke to her on the phone, it was like six. And then her big, wild out of this world goal ended up at 25. So what are some of the different things that you had planned for versus things you did to actually go from that four to six person goal to 25. Because just for everyone listening, I kept hearing Cindy say to me like, I wanna go all in on this. I want this to be big. She kept saying that over and over. For anyone listening, Cindy is such an action taker, it's almost something I've never seen before. Like when I say action taker, when she says she's gonna do something, she delivers. And so the two things weren't matched. She was saying four people, but then the biggest launch ever. And I was like, this is not–
00:16:23 Cindy: And like in my mind, those four to six people that was still really big at a $9,000 program, that's not totally something to like sneeze at. But so how did I go from like, so originally as I said, my idea was like, let's do an open house. That's work for me to get the people we've had in the program so far. Uh, and then–
00:16:45 Jess: And what don't you also say that some of the coaches that we're inspired by, that's kind of their model to do like an open house. [crosstalk] And so it's like, okay, we see other people out there doing that.
00:16:56 Cindy: Yeah. Exactly. And like also the idea for me was open house, like really straightforward. Like, you're coming to learn if this is right for you. Right? I don't, it wasn't like a come learn some skill and I'm gonna sell you off the back. It was you are going to come and discover if this is a good fit, if you're interested. So thanks to you Jess and our mastermind buddies, I started to look at how else am I going to build momentum and buy-in over like a launch period. And so while we were talking, I was also launch watching Mariah cause launch one of her programs. And so I got inspired from our group and from that. And so really what it started with was and I built all of this as I--
00:17:53 Jess: No, you guys, she was like also changing her emails and service providers. She went crazy for a couple of weeks. I was just like-- wait, wait, I told you to go bigger, but slow down. Face yourself, face yourself.
00:18:04 Cindy: No, I was like, everything's coming together. So I started with a quiz. I created this quiz, and I will say I've launched a lot of things in the past. This one just felt so aligned in my bones. It just felt, so when I went to write this quiz, it poured out of me. it wasn't even, I created this quiz in like an hour and it was so good. I've since adopted the quiz to be used for my coaching business as well. But so I created this quiz, how to find your fundraising consulting personality. There's four potential outcomes. and I posted that on LinkedIn and I shared it in a couple LinkedIn groups for fundraisers. And it like blew up. It blew up. I had, so–
00:19:00 Jess: Well, let's go through, go through all of the opt-ins. And then we'll go through the numbers. The numbers. So the first thing we had was the quiz which [inaudible]
00:19:07 Cindy: Actually We'd teased it up with a wait list first. I forgot about that. Okay. So I teased it out with a wait list. Then I launched the quiz then I had a private podcast which was so, so good because I got to interview people who are currently fractional fundraisers in my network. about how it serves their life and their goals. And I think was what people needed to hear, but also made me feel really good. Not gonna lie, I felt really proud. Then I created a budget template cause I'm a numbers person, I like to crunch the numbers and see the scenarios to make decisions. And then I still did the open house at the end. And then I had an application period, so you had to apply, you couldn't just buy it. So I had an application period and did some calls in that time.
00:20:03 Jess: So for everyone listening, I just really wanna red lined, double scored circle, circle, circle/. Because if you were someone that is trying to like post a course or a group coaching program, I wish we lived in 2019 or 2020 where you could just do one thing and get people to opt in and grow your segment or audience and sell to them. But people have gotten way more advanced when it comes to purchasing products online. Um, especially like group coaching programs and things like that. And so you need several points of buy-in. Yeah. So again, when Cindy was like, I wanna play big, I was like, okay, then you're gonna need more than that open house. That's just not going to be enough buy-in, which is why we went from that one to like five–
00:20:54 R: All the things. And I think it's that reinforcement of not only clicking that opt-in button, but then like participating in the thing that you create, creating that trust factor that, authority building, all these things. And the other thing, I think people mistake a lot that I coach people or my clients, even while we're running campaigns on, is you want people, you wanna be growing your list while nurturing your list at the same time. Two things can be done simultaneously. And then that is who you end up selling to.
00:21:34 Cindy: Oh yeah. I can tell you my list growth.
00:21:37 Jess: Let's do it. Let's break it down. So what was your audience size when you hadn't even launched the wait list? Like what was the fractional fundraiser[inaudible] to the list.
00:21:48 Cindy: It was for all intents and purposes, like nothing. I had a consult. So I have two kind of lists. I have my nonprofit clients and my consulting clients, And the consulting side, which was like people who were on my nonprofit list, but like opted into consulting things that I had. So they've been tagged as interested in consulting was about 300 people. Okay. It grew over the course of this program to 1,146 through the--
00:22:24 Jess: Oh my gosh. So that's like 400, 500% increase.
00:22:28 Cindy: It's pretty significant.
00:22:30 Jess: And in how many days, what's the timeline? Like, do you remember when you launched the wait list.
00:22:35 Cindy: I have the-- I know when I launched the.. where are my milestones? So the quiz I launched early March, the wait list would've been in in February. And then the cart closed May 9th.
00:22:54 Jess: Okay. So another thing again, I just really wanna underscore you didn't like put this together in two to three weeks. This was a long period. I mean, by May 9th, I'm sure you were like..
00:23:07 Cindy: I'm done. But what I'll say, I had a enrollment period, so it was like the wait list people got a day early with some bonuses, and people were like before I opened the enrollment, people were like, I'm ready. Like I want in, I'm sold. You don't have to tell me anything. Just tell me where I can put my credit card information. That was priceless because I knew that it was resonating and that I was giving people enough information to be really confident about their decision, which is really important to me. And so there was a ton of information. I shared the podcast, we went into so many details, everything was transparent early on, including how much it costs. All of those things. And people were asking to buy, they're like "I'm ready now if you want." I've already said publicly that this is when enrollment opens. But that was just such a testament to nurturing that list. And I also think like treating people with I would say respect in terms of the transparency, giving them the information and really letting them make an informed decision, not a decision based on scarcity or like a countdown timer kind of thing.
00:24:43 Jess: I also want to like emphasize, Cindy said this at the beginning, but this was not her first rodeo when it comes to launching. She's had the experience of building and nurturing, putting out opt-ins, like going, turning up the dial as I like to call it, on her comms and all these things. So if you're sitting here thinking and you're like, oh my gosh, I've never done this and now I've gotta create five opt-in opportunities to build my list and I need to do all this stuff. It's like take a breath. maybe do one or two. Just for your first one, but also keep your goals realistic because we're just sharing publicly her numbers. She had an audience of 300 to 11.. 1200, right. And we'll get to her numbers at the end and her conversion rates and stuff. But it took several months and several opt-in opportunities to do that type of list growth.
00:25:40 Cindy: And a track record..
00:25:41 Jess: Totally
00:24:42 Cindy: I'll say, I've been doing this work, I have the case studies, I have the experience doing it. And I would say quieter, but like more publicly. Right. So it is something that if I were launching and I didn't have any of those existing people, my strategy would be very different. But I really have tested and proven this model, that I felt really comfortable going all in. I didn't go all in for my first time launching this.
00:26:13 Jess: Totally. Okay. So of the opt-ins, which one was the most successful for you? I'm just saying for you because for anyone listening, like yours might be something different. Yeah. But what were yours?
00:26:25 Cindy: Okay. Hands down the quiz and the podcast, in terms of numbers, but also engagement. So the quiz was an amazing lead magnet, like almost entirely organic, just hugely successful. I had 572 people take it and take the free, the ones I didn't run ads to. I also ran ads. And then the podcast, I had about 281 subscribers. But people listened. They listened, they referenced it in calls with me like they, that was hugely successful in building, that no like, and trust and sharing again, that information transparency. People could just like dig into all the things and a lot of their questions were answered there.
00:27:22 Jess: Okay. So roughly half, a little less than half came from the quiz. And then another 250, 260, something like that came from the podcast. Now you also said you ran ads. How many?
00:27:35 Cindy: Yes. So I will say like people did multiple things. Of course, I will say like a lot of people actually did the quiz and the podcast and the budget and the open house, which is great. I ran ads to the quiz. I got 83 leads from that at a cost of $10 and 63 cents a lead I also ran ads to the open house. I tried calling it an open house in the ads that didn't resonate. So I did go back to that like training language. and I had 84 people sign up for that at $6 and 77 cents a lead. Okay. Now the big caveat is none of the people who bought in the end came through the ads. Fascinating. Yes. But I am not losing hope in that I no think there's still a lot of potential for those people. I am gonna be continuing to run ads because I feel like they were really targeted and like good quality leads, but for this launch, none of them converted into sales.
00:28:51 Jess: Okay, cool. Which maybe a testament to and this is for everyone in our world, especially if you're someone that's a consultant selling to nonprofits, the getting on your email list, the nurturing time. can often be quite long, I mean like years sometimes. And so I'm actually, this is so exciting for me listening cuz I'm like, your next launch is gonna be so smooth and so wonderful because you've got now this even bigger pool. You started with 300, now you have 1200 or whatever. And you're just nurturing those people and they're gonna be. So ready the next Oh, so exciting. shout out for the folks listening in 'cuz you, did you work with a team or a program for your ads? Yeah. I know you run them, but who is that?
00:29:40 Cindy: Yeah, so Jackie, and I'm gonna forget her last name right now, but they're called Agency in Your Pocket and we're gonna have Jackie on the podcast as well. Jackie Muscat is her name. And shout out to Dana Snyder who made the introduction. That was really helpful. I did. So I can tell you some of my costs 'cuz I think this is relevant. The things that I outsourced or invested in, so working with that Ads manager program was about $3,500. I hired you Jess to do a bunch of copywriting. Was about 4,200 Canadian.. These are all Canadian dollars. I spent about $2,600 in ads and I also include my A F P icon costs in this launch because it kind of was part of that, which was about, $8,500. And then my affiliates, which we can talk about later, were ended up being about $6,300 in I guess commission. So altogether I spent about $25,000 on this launch, which is bonkers.
00:31:04 Jess: I know, but when you, when we get to the end and we hear about the ROI, Okay, cool. Let's keep talking about your pre-launch phase. I'm such an a staunch pre-launch phase girly. So talk to me about like social media. Where were you showing up? What were you doing? Talk to us about how social media played a role into this launch.
00:31:31 Cindy: So I showed up on LinkedIn, that was huge for the quiz and just building buzz. It was not super well organized in advance, but I cut.. like if I had an email that I loved, I would put that on social. I don't actually think we did much on any other social media platform except for the Facebook Instagram ads. Right. It was all LinkedIn and it was definitely like a combination in terms of like celebrating the success of the people who'd been fractional fundraisers, educating people, calls to action. All that, all that. But just Instagram and very organic.
00:32:20 Jess: And you mean just LinkedIn?
00:32:21 Cindy: LinkedIn, yes. Sorry, just LinkedIn.
00:32:23 Jess: I'm like, wait, wait, wait. No, no, no. Okay. And then talk to me about emails. Yes. I wrote all your.. not all of 'em. I wrote a vast, vast majority of your emails, but--
00:32:33 Cindy: I had a lot of emails.
00:32:34 Jess: You had a lot of emails.
00:32:35 Cindy: So let me break this down. So I had like the warmup emails, which was the wait list. So like I had three call to apply get on the wait list. Then I had like all the warmup, check out the quiz, do the podcast, blah, blah, blah. I can't even count how many emails there are. Like at least 15 probably in the warmup phase. And then so I had a lot of sequences kind of like running simultaneously. So I had like the wait, the open house, emails like promoting the open house, which was about six, hold on. How many were in there? Open house, seven emails to promote the open house. But at the same time I had the flash sale for people who were pre-applied. I'm pre-approved on like from the wait list to the application in advance.
00:33:39 Cindy: And so there were six emails for the flash sale and then the sales emails. So once I launched after the open house, I had a few emails getting people to like a call to apply. Then I had an automation. So if I did a call with them, there were a couple emails follow up after that. And then there were a couple cart close emails. There were lots of emails like out the wazoo, It was a lot. And it was at times I would say that's a one thing that I found overwhelming because, keeping in my head, and I wrote this down, like I have charts and like things, but like who gets what email when segmenting my list, I understand that like some people might get multiple things or like multiple messages, but I really wanted to avoid that just because I'm like, we have the technology to segment and customize that experience. And so I tried to do that as much as possible.
00:34:39 Jess: It's tough sometimes though.
00:34:40 Cindy: Yeah. But I feel pretty good actually. Like if you Yeah. If you subscribe to the podcast, like hopefully no other place when you get a message that says subscribe to the podcast, you know? Right. So but there were lots of emails and lots of moving parts in the backend of the emails. Like lots of filtering and and stuff like that.
00:35:03 Jess: And for folks listening, what email service provider do you use?
00:35:06 Cindy: I use Convert Kit.
00:35:07 Jess: Yes–
00:35:08 Cindy: Which she just switched to during the switched launch. I was like, oh my gosh, here's here–
00:35:12 Jess: I just add it to your plate. Okay, cool. And I mean, can you tell us a little bit about the emails? Like how are they performing? What were the open rates like?
00:35:24 Cindy: Hold on. Actually have to open. I mean they were, some of them were a little all over the place, um, in terms of open rates and stuff like that. Cuz it depended on what, so I would say like the budget piece did really well. The sale.. hold on, I'm looking. So for example my Flash sale ones actually did pretty well because people were primed. So for example, the first first flash sale email only went out to like 26 people, but I had a 30%, 30.8% clickthrough rate. Right. Like, it just, so it was all over the place. but I like, whereas some were lower, around 1.6% click through. So it depended on. And then I had like my broader emails, which was, you know, everyone, anyone on my list. So that had lower engagement versus my launch list, which was people who actually engage with a piece of the launch and then the wait list, which was a more even warmer segment of that. So that part was a little all over the place.
00:36:44 Jess: Yeah, it's a lot. And again, for anyone thinking like, I don't even know what these girls are talking about. I would maybe recommend talking to someone who has done this before. So can help you think through like segments and automation and workflows and timing and all that stuff. Cuz it's can be a bit of a beast. I'll actually say I am on one of my favorite coaches. I'm on her email list and she's going through a launch right now. I've actually purchased her product a long time ago and somehow some way I'm getting like double emails for her sales emails for a product I've buttoned like so long ago. So like, it happens to people who've been doing this and who have a lot of resources and team members and yeah. Things like that. Yeah okay, cool. Let's keep going. So we talked about social, we talked about emails, let's talk about some results.
00:37:40 Jess: Okay. So we talked about the audience size, like booming–
00:37:45 Cindy: Yes.
00:37:46 Jess: Let's talk about those sales.
00:37:48 Cindy: Okay. So at the end, I feel like there's a drum roll here.
00:37:54 Jess: I Know!
00:37:56 Cindy: We had 17 people sign up, which like I said, I'm pretty stoked about. I feel like that's--
00:38:04 Jess: I mean from 4 to 17, get outta here.
00:38:07 Cindy: Yeah, yeah amazing. And what that breaks down, it's a $9,000 program. So overall, like gross revenue was 153, like 153,000, which was like–
00:38:17 Jess: I'm so proud of you!
00:38:19 Cindy: My first six figure launch. and I could not be happier. So, I did not have anyone paying full. and I had which–
00:38:31 Jess: You didn't want, you really pushed the monthly.
00:38:32 Cindy: I like monthly. Yeah but I had nine people do the six month payment plan. I did introduce a 12 month payment plan a little bit later on, because our sector is just so funny about money. So I had eight people do the 12 month payment plan and yes, it is a six month program with a 12 month program plan, payment plan. I'm fine with that. I feel like I build a relationship with these people. Hopefully none of them are gonna ghost me. If I get to like having a hundred people in the program, I'll figure that out. But for now, I felt pretty comfortable with that. So what else can I tell you? So at the end, the net profit, like I told you all the expenses, it was 127,000 and change.
00:39:18 Jess: Yeah. Girl. Yeah. Okay. And so do you have any idea what like that conversion rate was? on your audience list size to that?
00:39:28 Cindy: Hold on. I have like, what do I look at? I don't think I have for the whole whole list. I have like, hold on, application conversion. I have so many numbers, but it kind whittles down. So like I don't have as a percentage. I'm sure it can calculate it pretty quickly.
00:39:52 Jess: What, how many people applied?
00:39:54 Cindy: I received 50 applications. I rejected a few of them. I accepted 46 of them. So out of the 46 that applied there were hold on cue. Out of 40. I was like 37% of people who applied ended up joining.
00:40:21 Jess: Which is out of control. I mean out of kind of–
00:40:26 Cindy: It was amazing.
00:40:27 Jess: I'm even curious what's 46 over? Like I'm just gonna use 1200. I mean even 46 people applying out of your larger audience of roughly 1200 people is 4%, which is also incredible.
00:40:41 Cindy: And that's my like fullest size of consultants. The actual launch list was 852. So that's the segment. Let's do within the big launch.
00:40:50 Jess: That is, oops, hold on. Oops. Why is it 17 8 52?
00:40:57 Cindy: Yeah..
00:40:59 Jess: That's 2%. Is that right? 17 divide.
00:41:04 Cindy:Yeah, 2%
00:41:05 Jess: Which is great and on track, I talk about this all the time. I have yet to break a 1% threshold for my audience and my audience is engaged. And the reason why I'm like honing in on this point is because there's all these people out there that are like, you know, you should expect a two to 5% conversion rate. I'm like, in what world? Like, not when you're selling to nonprofits and apparently not when you're selling to nonprofit consultants or wanna be nonprofit consultants. But so yours are great.
00:41:35 Cindy: I mean, also it's a high priced program, right? Yeah. Like it's not like a $500 thing. This is a big commitment for people. Totally. Like I said, super happy with with those results.
00:41:49 Jess: Totally! Okay, let's go back to just the last couple questions. I feel like we should talk about if you could think through like what's one thing that you just thought worked really well with this launch?
00:42:06 Cindy: Showing up like a hundred percent was just like if yeah, it was me, it was how I played in this game. That is what worked. I had full confidence in what I was selling, I am in love with this program. And having the people around me to nudge me to let go of some of my fears and showing up in a way that like, I just left no nothing on the table. I went all in. And in the truest sense like that is what, what I think made all the difference.
00:42:48 Jess: Totally.
00:42:50 Cindy: That's what worked.
00:42:50: Jess: If you were to do just anything differently, anything you'd let go of, anything you'd go harder on? Like anything at all that you would do differently? What would that be?
00:43:02 Cindy: So there's a couple little things. So for example, my notes are like, change the affiliate settings. So I was my first time doing affiliates through Thrive Cart. I would play around with some of the settings, resend. Okay. So when I did the sales emails, I sent people to the checkout page, I would send them to the full sales page instead because I just want, I think some people need to see that I would tighten up the webinar. So I did a completely new webinar, open house, that I would just tighten up and doing icon again or some sort of a booth. I would be more targeted around my messaging. So that's my list.
00:43:52 Jess: One of the things, we didn't really talk about that I wanted to sneak in quickly is affiliates. Because in addition to ads you did lean on other people's audiences. Like what was that experience like? What would you do differently? Keep the same, all that.
00:44:08 Cindy: Yes. I really enjoyed that. We had great engagement from people who were already in our program. Like who'd been through it before already in our network. Um, I'd like a small group of like really qualified affiliates. Jess, you were an affiliate. Kishshana Palmer was an affiliate really successfully. and mostly people in my network. And so I would definitely do that. Again, I think it's just keeping it really tight and making sure that those affiliates are willing to promote.
00:44:45 Jess: Yeah for sure.
00:44:48 Cindy: And I have some friends who are like, oh, well I'll affiliate. Like, I knew they weren't gonna promote it much and that's totally fine and happy that they were participating. But the ones like you can really see a difference in terms of who promoted. The one thing I'll say is there were affiliates like you who had a lot of volume in terms of, you have a big list, you have engagement, and then there were people who are in my network of fractional fundraisers who don't have big audiences, but they're speaking from their experience. And so, you know, they post on LinkedIn, the people they're, they're sending our way are like highly qualified. So both were really good.
00:45:28 Jess: Totally. So for anyone who's like one to many curious what's just like your Diana Hill advice for them. If they're maybe even not doing this a long time but have not been successful or they're wanting to give this style of selling or program a try. What's the one thing you would advise?
00:45:51 Cindy: So I would start with your MVP. So MVP is minimal viable product. And that's what I did a year and a half ago. And I don't think I would've had the launch that I just had had I not gone through those like very soft, very organic launches, really testing like going back to like what I think worked really well, which is how I showed up. I don't think I would've had that confidence to be like, this is the best program ever. Had I not done those soft launches, Had I not spent the time really understanding the audience, understanding what works, how to I can help them be successful. And so I think don't look at this launch as like the first time I've done this or like a first step. This is a mid step in a long journey and most people have not been doing this, I don't wanna say as long as I have, but like I've spent years building an audience, I've spent testing the product, all those things. So start where you are and don't be afraid to put yourself out there and take calculated risks.
00:47:09 Jess: Absolutely. We are so grateful to you for being such an open book on all of these numbers to be the case study so we can all learn from you. And I'm so proud of you and this program and everything. It's like Chef's Kiss so good.
00:47:26 Cindy: Thank you.
00:47:27 Jess: You're welcome. If anyone has any follow up questions for Cindy, hit her up on LinkedIn, send her an email, as you can tell, like she's not gonna hold back.
00:47:38 Cindy: Not at all.
00:47:39 Jess: And if you're interested in being a fractional fundraiser at some point or another, where can people get on the waitlist?
00:47:48 Cindy: Yeah, so I think it's.. we can go to my website, thegoodpartnership.com, I'm pretty sure. I also have url: beafractionalfundraiser.com or becomeafractionalfundraiser.com.
00:47:58 Jess: We'll put it in the show notes.
00:47:59 Cindy: But definitely, the other thing that this has shifted for me is the, the rest of my business and how I show up in my coaching with other consultants. And so we didn't talk about that, but also it has drummed up other coaching business. So you can also go to cindy wagman.com if you're just like, oh, cool. That's someone I wanna learn from.
00:48:21 Jess: Yeah. Okay. Cool. Thank you friend for sharing all the nitty gritty numbers. You know, I love this. and it's been so fun sharing you along the way. And for everyone else, we'll catch you next time.
00:48:36 Cindy: Thank you again for listening to the Confessions Podcast for nonprofit coaches and consultants. If you enjoyed today's episode, which I sure hope you did, you can show your support in one of three ways.-
00:48:47 Jess: Number one, post the screenshot of this episode to your Instagram stories or LinkedIn profile and tag Cindy enough so we can repost you.
00:48:55 Cindy: Number two, share this podcast with a fellow nonprofit culture consultant.
00:49:00 Jess: And number three, leave a positive review on Apple Podcasts so that we can continue to grow and reach new listeners.
00:49:06 Cindy: And of course, make sure you subscribe so you can get the latest and greatest interviews as they drop every Thursday.
00:49:13 Jess: And to our fellow non-profit coaching and consulting friends, remember we're an open book and here to answer your burning biz questions.
00:49:20 Cindy: See you next time.