How to Go From Zero to 7 Figures Without Selling Your Time or Your Soul

I gave this talk at Olivier Roland’s event Travaillez Moins pour Gagner Plus at the Grand Rex in Paris in September 2024. It is the path I teach my clients to grow an online business to 7 figures without selling their time or their soul.

The Comment That Changed My Business

In my fourth year of online business I joined a new mastermind. I had just had my best launch ever. On the first call the coach asked who had something to celebrate, and I was hoping he would pick me first.

He did. I told the group I had just made $260,000 (about €230K) selling out all my group programs.

I was hoping for a pat on the back. Instead he said that now I had nothing else to sell for the rest of the year. It was January.

It was not the answer I wanted, but he was right. You cannot really scale if you sell out all your programs and have nothing else to sell.

So I took very fast action. A week later I hosted a webinar and sold my first scalable online course, and 50 people bought. In June I launched again and 100 people bought. In September 180 people bought. It was my first million-dollar year.

Sometimes it is just one thing you need to hear. But you need to hear it to make progress.

Scalable online courses also run without me. In 2021 both my parents were in hospital, I got sick, and I was away from my business for 3 months. The year after I was exhausted, and you can see a small dip in my numbers. It does not always have to go up, and that is fine.

Pick Your Potato

I use a potato for the problem you want to solve. One of my clients came up with it. She saw me draw a big circle with lots of dots in it and said, “That’s a potato.”

You have to pick a potato, and you can only pick one.

I tried to have lots of potatoes. I wanted to write travel books for families travelling around Iceland. I actually wrote one, and I never published it. I wrote business plans for startups. I had a very serious photography hobby, with professional cameras, lighting and a studio at home. And after 10 years as a CEO of small businesses, I wanted to give advice to women on how to build their business.

I put 2 of these things on one website: I can help you with your business, and I can also take pictures of you. That did not work very well.

Imagine you are looking for a new dentist. One dentist has half his website about his dental work and the other half selling his watercolour paintings. Another dentist only has dental work on his website. Which one do you go to?

Online marketing is that simple. You can only be known for one thing. As soon as you talk about more things, people get confused and go somewhere else.

Pick the potato that fits the life you want. I believe you should decide your lifestyle first and then design the business around it. Travel books meant one trip a year. Business plans bored me and did not pay well. Portraits meant people had to come to my studio, and I wanted to be location independent. So I picked an online business where I help people build their online business with online courses.

Pick One Ideal Client

You can help everybody, but you have to be known for something. To speak to someone’s heart, you have to speak to one person.

The day before this talk I saw a Facebook ad from a physiotherapist in Finland who runs ads in France. The ad described my posture problems so well that I felt they knew too much about me. If the ad had said “I can help you with any problem”, I would not have clicked.

Many people think the ideal client is a beginner exercise. I do it every year. Once a year I survey my audience. I send one survey to people who bought from me and one to people who did not, and I compare. I ask 5 to 10 questions: What is your biggest challenge right now? What would be your ideal outcome? What frustrates you? What are you struggling with?

Then I write 2 to 3 pages, in font size 11, about my ideal client. I even make up her story. Where was Anna 5 years ago, and how did she become the person she is today? ChatGPT helps me with this. When the answer is not good, I ask again and I get more specific.

What worries people this year is not what worried them last year. The economy and the news are on your ideal client’s mind, so they belong in your message.

Check That Your Ideal Client Really Exists

If you do this for the first time, what you wrote down is a guess, and you need to check it. If you already have clients and you survey and interview them, this is much easier.

Ask yourself:

• Does she exist? Post on social media about what you do and see if people react. If not, say it differently
• Do you have easy access to her? I would love billionaires as clients, but I do not have access to them
• Is she aware of her problem? Lots of people have a problem they do not admit
• Is she looking for a solution? Many people say they want to lose weight, but they are not looking to solve it
• Is she willing to pay?

The word client means she pays. If she does not pay, you have a very expensive hobby.

Pick an Eye: One Small, Pressing Problem

The dots on the potato are the eyes. Each one is an entry point for your client into your world.

I have worked with Sif for many years. She is from Iceland like me, she studied veterinary and became a dog behaviourist. She marketed herself as someone who solves anxiety in dogs, and it was not working.

So I asked her to survey her email list. People did not talk about anxiety. That is not the word a dog owner uses. They wanted their dog to stop barking. As soon as Sif offered to help people stop their dog from barking, people were eager to join her email list and work with her.

That is your eye: a small, pressing problem. You cannot solve a big problem in one go.

The problem should be small enough to solve in 4 weeks. Sif told me she could solve barking in an hour. But behaviour change takes about 21 days, so let us make it 28. And most of the time it is the dog parent who needs to change, not the dog.

Your First or Next Online Course Is 4 Weeks and Free

The smallest course you can create is 4 weeks. Anything shorter is called a challenge, a boot camp or a workshop, and people expect it to be free. When it is 4 weeks, people are much more willing to pay for it.

And yet your first run is free. You want lots of people to sign up, so you get an email list full of ideal clients who can buy from you later. You check that the course is what they want. And they give you testimonials.

Testimonials are what really sells. People are more sceptical today than a few years ago, and without testimonials it is very hard to sell anything. The course is only free once, while you test your idea.

You do not need an email list or a following on social media. At the end of 2022 I asked Sif if she really wanted to work as a dog behaviourist. She had been my client for years and knew everything she needed to do, but she had not done it. I wanted to give her a wake-up call, like my coach gave me in my fourth year.

2 weeks later she came back and said I was right. She thought that because she had studied it, she had to do it for the rest of her life. Her passion was writing fiction books.

In January 2023 she closed her old business and started teaching people how to write fiction books. She had written only one fiction book herself, with no certificate in it. She had no email list and no social media following, and 120 people signed up for her free 4-week online course.

She reached out on social media, emailed friends and family, and told everyone what she was going to do. People want to help you, especially when it is free.

Create Your Course While You Run It

I know this sounds a bit scary, but it is the best way. You only need the first module ready when you start. If your course starts on Monday, you sit down on Sunday and create the first module. It is a simple, free course, so 2 to 3 hours is enough. You create some slides and teach it live or pre-recorded.

Every week you send a short survey and ask:

• What questions do you still have about this week’s module?
• What questions do you have about next week’s module?
• Do you have any other feedback for me?

You will get feedback, and sometimes feedback you do not want. Most of it is positive, and it helps you create the best online course you could create.

Celebrate and Make Your Offer

After 4 weeks you invite everyone to a celebration call. You celebrate that the dog is no longer barking, or whatever you helped them do.

On this call you tell them their natural next step. You did not make it up: they told you in their 4 feedback forms. If my dog no longer barks, can you help me stop him pulling on the leash? Ask people what they want and give it to them. That is the best way to sell.

This offer is paid. From a free course I see anything from 3% buying, and we have seen 10, 15 and 20%. Some people sign up and never show up, and some leave after week 1. That is normal. The people who follow through to the end are your people.

Your Signature Program

Now you do the same thing again, but the course is 8, 10 or 12 weeks, and it is paid. It solves the next eye in your potato. The length of the program fits the problem, because people buy the outcome. They buy a future version of themselves. I want to be a great dog parent, so sell me that.

The Next Step: Mastermind or 1-on-1

At the end of the signature program you celebrate again and make the next offer. Now fewer people are left. If it is a handful of people, the next step can be 1-on-1. If there are enough, it can be a group coaching program or a mastermind. Again, they tell you what they want next.

Conversion rates go up at every step. The average from a webinar or free training is 3%. From a free 4-week course it is a bit higher. When people have paid you, you did a great job, and you have the perfect next step for them, we see 10 to 50%.

Your Ascension Model

Within 6 to 12 months your potato becomes a pyramid with 3 steps. Some people have 4 or 5, but do not make too many.

The best last step is one your clients can renew, with no fixed end. I have clients who have been with me for 6 years, because they keep growing in my top program.

Let us put prices on it. The starter course is no longer free, it is $297. The signature program is $1,997, and the mastermind or 1-on-1 is $4,997. Your prices may be different, and they usually go up over time.

When you set a price, ask yourself if you price it for yourself or for your ideal client. Asking people what they would pay never works. Go out with a slightly lower price and increase it. The market will tell you if the price is right.

Automate and Launch Twice a Year

Now you run these programs throughout the year. You are not selling your time and you are not selling your soul.

Automate the starter course. Automation is not easy. You need to learn it, tweak it and make it better, and you do not set it up overnight. But when it works, it really makes money while you sleep.

Launch your signature program twice a year, at the times you choose. When I plan my calendar, I put in my holidays first. Then my commitments, like mastermind dates, then important birthdays and weddings. Only then do I put in my courses. I want my courses finished before Christmas, say by December 15. If the course is 8 weeks, I work backwards to the start date and the marketing dates. You could launch in January, March or May, and again in September, October or November.

A mastermind is not something you start in year 1. Until your audience is big enough, you can offer 1-on-1, or you can skip it because you do not want to sell your time.

Year 1 to Year 5: The Road to 7 Figures

I have used this plan for 10 years.

In year 1 you run your free course, so for the first 3 months you make no money. Then you sell your signature program and 10 people buy. You automate the starter course and sell 1 spot in May, 2 in June, 3 in July, and slowly more until you sell 8 in December. In the autumn you launch the signature program again and 15 people buy. Year 1 is over 6 figures.

In year 2 the automation keeps growing. You launch in February and 25 people buy, because you got better at launching. You launch in September and 40 people buy. You sell a mastermind with 10 people at the end of the year. You are almost at 250,000.

In year 3, 60 people buy in the first launch and 80 in the second. You are getting close to half a million.

In year 4, 120 people buy in the first launch and 150 in the second. You are almost at 750,000. These are realistic numbers. In my own fourth year, 50, then 100, then 180 people bought.

In year 5 you cross a million. You are not doing more work. You have hired people, your courses are recorded, and someone else can run the Q&As. All my online courses can run without me, and yours can too.

Do you already have an online business and want to grow it to 7 figures? Join the Advantage waitlist.

Client Stories: Agnieszka, Ingrid and Claudia

Many of my clients have done this. Here are 3 of them.

Agnieszka is an architect, like me, and she works as one. Her passion is zero-energy houses, and she can design 10 houses a year. It became harder for her to get those 10 clients. So she ran a free 4-week course about zero-energy houses for people who wanted one designed for them. Hundreds signed up, and half of them were architects. So she made her signature course for architects, and she scaled to 6 figures in 12 months. She still has a 4-week course for homeowners, and that is how she gets her clients. She has raised her prices in her offline business too.

Ingrid lives in the Czech Republic, has 3 kids and a PhD. A scientific career and 3 young children did not work together, so she wrote copy for small businesses. She made about 20,000 a year, she was exhausted, and she was selling her time. She ran a free 4-week course on how to write your own copy. Hundreds signed up, she made €9,000 right away with her signature program, 120,000 in her first year of online business and 400,000 in her second. She retired her husband. I did that too: my husband stopped working at the end of 2016.

Claudia is a nutritionist with a PhD. She had a cooking studio and wrote recipe books. She made 100,000 a year and her costs were 90,000, so nothing was left for her. She closed her cooking studio, stopped writing recipe books and offered a free 4-week online course. 900 people signed up, and her online business grew to €850K a year.

Decide the Life You Want

You do not need to sell your time or your soul to make 6 or 7 figures. Ingrid homeschools her kids and spends a lot of time with them, and she now has a small vineyard in her garden. Claudia travels a lot. In 2024 alone she was in Vietnam, Iceland and the Canary Islands.

Decide what kind of life you want and what you do not want. I did not want to be tied to a desk, and I do not want to travel all the time either. I live in 2 places, with 2 homes and 2 home offices. I like to sit at my desk and work, and when I travel, I like not to work.

But you need to start. Start with your potato.