We are well into 2024 and the landscape of launching products has changed DRASTICALLY since 2022. Many entrepreneurs have seen a decline in potential client inquiries/ discovery calls and long gone are the days of just throwing a product out into the World and having people buy it.

As a mom of 2 under 3 (and someone who hates live launching) I decided to invest in a $4,000 course that was all about creating a recurring profit with your course on evergreen. Ahhhh the beauty of a truly passive income product… but can that REALLY be so? Let’s dive in…

What drew me in to the course

Honestly? A whole lot of big fancy jargon and a promise that they did the research in a marketing lab. There are 2 coaches (who are both very sweet!) Haley Burkhead and Katie Read.

Haley talks a lot about “Conversion Sales Psychology” and how if you nail that, you can easily sell your product to cold leads. They did all the marketing research in 2023 and launched this funnel BETA course/ program in the beginning of 2024 as a program that helps you automate your funnel and make sales on your course. That was exactly what I was looking for!

My honest review of the course/ membership – The Truth about Scaling on Autopilot

I felt the deliverables of this program were GREAT, but I wish that was how it had been sold to me. I feel I was sold a promise that couldn’t be fulfilled with someone as small as an audience as I have (email list size of 1,000) in 6 months.

Some of the deliverables I walked away with:

1. A better understanding my audience and how they speak through their strategic mind mapping system
2. Microcast (their version of a webinar) slides pre-created in Canva
3. Installing the tech of the email sequence into Flodesk (although I had to go in and edit all the emails obviously)
4. A sales page I could copy the design of (I still had to design it)
5. Coaching where they went into my Microcast and let me know how to improve it

Did I take advantage of everything?

I sure did! I am one of the few people that over-analyzes every purchase and then does everything to a T (sometimes at the detriment of not trusting myself) to make sure I get the most from the program.

I spent probably between 40-80 hours (total) implementing everything they taught in the course and took the coaching they gave me and implemented it.

Integrity needs to be a priority in the online world

So many people launch courses because they hear the quote “you just need to be 10% better or further along than your student”. Although I believe this to be true, I also believe in honest marketing.

I absolutely do NOT want to talk poorly about any entrepreneur (especially a fellow mom and kind business woman) so I am doing my best to be honest about my experience, while also being kind.

I felt I was lied to a bit. In a message from one of the coaches (via Instagram before purchase) she said “we are capping spots so since you’re on the beta list you get until this Friday to secure your spot.” People trickled into the program throughout, it wasn’t capped, and the price didn’t increase. I get that the urgency factor is a great marketing tactic, but I feel it needs to be done ethically.

Also I had a goal of making 20 sales for my SEO course or 6 sales for my Squarespace course. The coach was encouraging saying “how can I come inside and use this funnel to get 30-50 sales a month… and then you’ll have a very dependable revenue stream coming in in an automated way.”

I appreciated her challenging my mindset, but again I think that was a bit of an empty promise for someone with such a small list, social media following, etc to do in 6 months.

So why did you purchase the course?

The main reason I purchased the course was because the instructors said they had the data to back all their decisions (short sales page, microcast converting, etc.) I really want to believe that to be true, but based on my experience and other people who I have talked to, I’m struggling believing it.

What’s next for my business?

I was taught to “Live Launch” first and THEN (if the webinar converts at 10% or higher), you can turn it into an evergreen offer. I am going back to the basics. Creating a pre-launch runway and launching via a webinar. I am working with an amazing integrator (Dolly DeLong) to create a fire launch plan. (SEE BELOW ABOUT HOW IT CONVERTED).

Based on what I was told in the course, I should have been able to make about 6 sales. Since that didn’t happen, I am going to pivot to a live training, offer an AMAZING bonus JUST for those who enter, and hope to make those 6 sales.

Update on the Live Launch

Dolly helped me with my top of funnel for the launch (if I could have paid her to do it all, I would have saved 37 hours, but unfortunately couldn’t pay her at the time).

Here’s the STATS:

Dolly encouraged and helped me to get affiliates. This got 100+ people into the webinar and grew my email list by about 50 subscribers. Prior to this, I had 183 opt-in to the evergreen funnel of the class, but it had been up for 4 months and no conversions.

In my 1st replay email I had a 69% open rate and 21% click rate which I attribute to Dolly encouraging me to prime my audience.

My conversion show up rate was 27.8% to the webinar (which she tells me is good). I think adding “show up live” bonus really helped!

I HAD A 3% CONVERSION (industry standard) and welcomed 3 solopreneurs into my course Beyond The Template! I am SO grateful.

What I would do differently – I spent 37 hours planning the Launch, so next time I’m just hiring Dolly to do it all!

Do you feel the big course was a waste of your time and money?

Ask me in 6 months when I have less emotion attached 😂 That being said, I spent 250+ hours working through Scaling on Autopilot, made zero sales, and it took away from me promoting my normal services (Website in a Day and Week), so I ended up cutting my monthly revenue in a third.

Read More: Getting Real About My Inconsistent Income in My Business

Although that hurt, I did learn a different approach to marketing and business, I made a really good friend, and I truly believe I walked away with a BETTER product (Squarespace With Confidence got a FACELIFT y’all!)

I am excited to truly stand behind and promote the socks off of Beyond The Template and hopefully I make a sale or two.

Is Scaling on Autopilot right for me?

I think this is a great program for someone who has a product (course or membership). There is NO WAY you can create your course from scratch, go through all the trainings, market your product, and get the coaches feedback in just 6 months. So I definitely think you should at least have an outline of your product.

I also think you really need to have some type of following. Whether that is a large social media following, large email list, etc. I just haven’t seen it converting for people with smaller audiences and $4,000+ is a lot to fork out if you are new in business (in my humble opinion).

Another thing to consider is if you currently have THEIR tech stack. They will install things like the sales page, email templates, check out pages, etc. for you IF you are using their systems (Kartra and Kajabi). If you aren’t, they provide you with what it looks like on Canva and then you can rebuild everything in your programs (I personally use Showit, Flodesk, and ThriveCart and love them all so I didn’t want to switch).

So what did you create?

I created a free Microcast training (see below) and then improved my course. You can have a BTS look into their process by opting in to the Microcast, watching it, seeing the sales page, and then receiving the 7-day email sequence and the double funnel emails. Enjoy!

Watch the Free Training