You keep telling yourself this is the month you finally turn on Facebook and Instagram ads, then you put it off again, because underneath it you’re waiting to feel ready.
I talk with Melissa Bauknight about how she knew it was really time, why she started by losing $500 before ads worked, and how she now spends $20 a day on a setup that pays for itself.
- Click here to apply for done-for-you ad management
- Click here for a free strategy session
- Come to Melissa’s free monthly Nova Experience
We get into the signal that told her it was time, and how it brought steady growth to her business.
Listen now and see what her small-budget start can teach you about turning ads on without the stress.
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- Check out on Melissa’s Website
Organic Sales But Ads Resistance
SPEAKER_02
You’re selling fine organically. Like people can find you. They show up to the things, your launches, all the things, and then they buy. And every few weeks you tell yourself, this month is finally the month that I’m gonna turn on Facebook and Instagram ads. And then, of course, like the things you really should be doing and want to do, uh, every few weeks, you put it off because, like, somewhere underneath, or let’s just say in your soul, yeah, you you’re waiting to feel ready. And here’s what today’s guest has already figured out that, like, ready it is not a feeling, it’s more like a signal. And and you, dear listener, probably already see yours, you just haven’t identified it or taken action on it yet. So you’ll hear and learn a lot about that in this episode. May I present to you Melissa Bach Knight, as she so kindly corrected me? It is pronounced Bach Knight, like the composer or Bok Choi. I lived in China for 12 years, I love Bok Choi. She is the founder and chief visionary of the Nova Global, which is a relationship-driven community for women that ran fully organic for its first two years before she ever spent a single dollar on ads. And uh she herself has been over a decade um at the top of corporate sales, and then she left in 2019 to build Nova. And I wanted her on the podcast because she brought in, well, actually, actually, we just met last year, at least at the time we’re recording this video, at a retreat in the woods in the middle of nowhere. Um, and she was cool, and we kept in touch, and that’s why I wanted her on the podcast because she runs Facebook and Instagram ads. But she has brought in paid um traffic like the way you might want to, dear listener, slowly on a small budget, paying attention to the numbers and scaling from there. And she did it like while protecting the most human parts of her business and not trading those away. If you cannot see her yet, click down in the uh audio show notes below over to the YouTube channel and watch this very same episode. And if you can see her, well, here she is, Melissa. How’s it going? Hello.
SPEAKER_01
Hello, thank you for that intro.
SPEAKER_02
You’re welcome. Thank you for being here.
SPEAKER_01
Welcome.
Two Years Organic Before Paid
SPEAKER_02
So, question number one is uh Nova ran fully organic for its first two years, right? So take me back to that stretch, and very specifically, I want to understand myself and the listener to understand too what was working well enough that like paid ads became or like came onto your radar.
SPEAKER_01
You know, it was always the plan from the beginning to have a paid strategy at some point. I also have been I bootstrapped this entire business. So this business has been funded through my savings, credit cards, stripe loans. And so when I decide to make a new investment, it is really well thought through because it’s not like I have a VC firm just giving me millions of dollars. And so I um I really what I wanted for our business was to figure out what we were doing first and to really get clear on our products and to have a back end that could handle scale. Because the last thing I want is to grow and then have the integrity of our brand diminished. So we worked really hard for the first two years to figure out, you know, what is our product? How do we scale it across markets? Because we have multiple chapters that grew organically. So we’ll have nine chapters at the time of this airing. You know, how do how do I I’ve never built a franchise before? So that’s the best um most relatable model that I could give to this is being able to have consistent outcomes and experiences across multiple markets. So there’s a lot that I wanted to figure out before we pressed go on a paid strategy which would bring in more volumes of people. I want to make sure our team, our systems, everything that we had could handle that.
Inside Nova Global Chapters Model
SPEAKER_02
Can you just let give give the listener a little more context because you’ve got an interesting business model? So share a little more about your offer about Nova.
SPEAKER_01
Correct. Yeah. So we have a membership community, and the best way to relate to it is that it is a women’s networking community. So think about a chapter-based networking community. However, with a twist, we I decided once I had spent years and years going to lots of different types of community events, lots of you know, hardcore business networking events, from that to chambers to coaching circles to masterminds, to spiritual circles, like you name it. I recognize that there was a gap in the market for one that could actually just bring your whole self to the table. And so we we work with um mid-life professional women who are more purpose-driven, that are want to make an impact in their life, that really want to live a life that feels in alignment with their own rules. So it’s less of a patriarchal model of tell us your title, the amount of money you earn, and then you can earn your, you can prove that you belong in this room. It’s a very different model as far as why we exist. And we have a 12-month commitment because it is such an investment in the relationships. It’s a very relationship-first business model. And um, so that has we have a virtual community that people can pay for if they don’t have um a local chapter near them. And then they can also belong to a local chapter, which includes the entire virtual product line. So that’s our main bread and butter as far as kind of what fuels the business. And then we have additional things like um retreats, larger, we’re doing a hundred, we actually the time that this airs will have just finished doing a hundred-person um event in the fall. Um, and so we’re just looking at layering on it additional value adds for our community that can really help enhance them in the ways that they’re looking to grow.
SPEAKER_02
Yes, that sounds so cool. I’m like what I thought on well, you’re welcome. It really does.
SPEAKER_01
Thank you. It feels it’s really needed. It’s really needed. I mean, people, yeah, go ahead.
SPEAKER_02
Oh, I was gonna say randomly, but now I’m just curious. Like, what would be some of the cities that have local chapters?
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it’s it’s so when I say them, you’re gonna think that I planned this all on purpose. And I want to say I did not. Um people who have come to me. Well, we’re in the North Shore Boston, so Boston, DC area, Greater New York City, Phoenix, Denver, Boulder, Virginia Beach, East Bay, California, and Northwest Chicago. So it sounds like we’re like, oh, San Francisco, Chicago, DC, New York, Boston. That sounds like a very strategic business plan to hit up these major metropolitan areas. It happened. Um, and that was the beautiful thing about our organic growth, is those were all people who either found us, were referred to us, that noticed that we were doing something very different than any other community that they had access to locally. And these people wanted to bring it to their local market. So yeah, it’s pretty exciting.
SPEAKER_02
It is really exciting. And I also am quite intrigued because, and this is neither here nor there, but it is there in my history. I used to a long time ago run a window cleaning business. And one of the best times I had, and also fruitful, lucrative times, was I don’t know if you like this one or not, but I found this. It was called uh B and I Business Networking International. I’m guessing you’ve heard of that before.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah, I participated in it.
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, for me it was really good because it was like there was one person from every niche or industry at the table, and we just all were there to refer business to each other, and it was really fun doing that for me.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
We are kind of the exact opposite of BI. Well, this is not a knock on BI, but um, it’s set up as less of a I don’t you can have as many people in an industry as we want. Um we because it’s more of a collaboration over competition model. And we have a lot of built-in touch points to encourage people to refer one another. But the goal is that you do it because you’ve you trust each other, you’ve built relationships with one another. And so, you know, we we talk about Nova Connection moments at every single event, like who’s collaborating with who, who’s doing what. We talk about it every single thing. We’re really, we’re really invested in people referring one another, but it’s less of a have to, and it’s they’re not like graded on it. And we believe that there’s room for everybody at the table. So it’s just a different, it’s a different model. And B and I has worked, I mean, it’s obviously a very successful organization. This is just um different difference in preference for people.
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, cool. Yeah, well then elaborate a little more before I I’m trying to ask good questions and not just jump to how well your ads are working, even though I’m super interested as an ads person. But like take take me back to what was really working well though, um, that brought ads onto your onto your radar.
Predictability Problem And Black Friday Fail
SPEAKER_01
What was working well was our chapter expansion, our community engagement and growth was happening, but it was happening. Um, well, everything happened slower than I would like, just blanket statement across the board in life. I love to move quickly and I’ve really had to learn patience. But um, yeah, the the foundation was working really well. The trust that the people had in each other, in us, the brand recognition was going really well. Our chapter expansion was happening, and what I wanted was predictability. I felt this is going to be the opposite of what you asked me, but there was a lot of chaos behind the scenes. And so what wasn’t going well was a predictable growth model. It was a lot of variability, and which is normal for a new business, but I recognized that we needed a more predictable acquisition model than what we had. And um, and so that was one of the driving factors for us wanting to start to do ads.
SPEAKER_02
Okay. All right. But that to me feels like a feeling, right? Or a very real, a feeling attached to a very real like series of events, like as you said, chaos going behind the scenes, and you wanted predictability in growth because you were growing, you just felt like it was a bit chaotic. Um was there anything like let’s say specific that said, oh, I should run ads to a certain event or a certain, let’s call it launch mechanism, or a certain lead magnet?
SPEAKER_01
Yes. And I’m actually I feel like I can’t even remember what we decided, but we decided to do it in the worst time, um, which was like Black Friday time. Oh and um, which I didn’t I didn’t know any different. Um, but we I literally cannot even remember what we decided to put ads behind, which is I don’t know. It’s it’s okay because we took a break. It didn’t actually work, was which is why. So we decided to go for it. Um it was going to be around Black Friday. We didn’t basically Meta did every possible roadblock that we could have, we got. It was like the universe being like, no, absolutely not. You will not do this right now. It didn’t matter what we tried or who we called or what setting we changed or what, I mean, it it would not let us do it. And we didn’t start far enough in advance to have time for the 500 roadblocks that Meta threw at us. And so I love to try to force things, but this was definitely one of those times where it was like, it’s it’s not the right time. Um, there needs to be some other things that shift in the business before this happens. And so we actually ended up rebuilding our entire back end from that point. We transitioned a majority of our team members and went through a complete overhaul over the course of the next three months. And then we turned our ads on. And at that point, everything felt like my more regulated and grounded. And so it was a blessing that it didn’t happen. I was so frustrated and annoyed because I was like, I’m ready to do this. And it wasn’t my journey at that time.
SPEAKER_02
Hey, you know, the more people I interview, and I guess I could say the more books I read, since this is not my quote or my idea, but um I’m sure you’ve heard of it before. The path to success is paved with failure. So had you not had that experience, or actually, that’s not what I want to say. What I want to say specifically is the first time sucked, and you didn’t give up, but you did eventually revisit ads, otherwise, we wouldn’t be talking on this episode. Um before we jump to what you began running running ads to successfully, I am very curious. What in the heck made you turn on Facebook ads again if it just was such a hard go? And Meta threw all the obstacles at you, which meta can. You gotta love Meta. Like, what made you try ads again to a different thing?
SPEAKER_01
Well, I’m really stubborn and I don’t like to um be defeated. So I I’m incredibly resilient and I don’t give up.
unknown
Okay.
SPEAKER_02
What are you, a successful entrepreneur?
SPEAKER_01
These are fun things to know about me. I mean, I was a competitive athlete, you know, collegiate athlete back in the day. I just feel like there’s I just learned throughout my life that it’s like try again later or try again differently. Or, you know, it’s not like I’ll never try things once and then it not work and be like, ho hum, I guess we’re not gonna do that. Like I’m like, okay, well, that was awful, but now we need to, we need to pivot, we need to do some other things. And then I wanted a different kind of um, I wanted a new funnel.
Small Budget Challenge Funnel That Worked
SPEAKER_01
We needed a new type of funnel. And so we decided to do a challenge in March. And I had a new team, a new CMO, a new person running ads for us. And it was, it’s just like anything. You still need to work hard, but when there’s ease and there’s less resistance, there’s usually alignment. And this time around, we we were ready way ahead of time. We were launching a five-day challenge called Build Your Dream Network. And we started off with a really small budget and everything got set up and approved, no hiccups whatsoever, probably because we’d already done all the hiccups early on. And it was easy the second time around. And so for me, uh that made me feel like, okay, this is the right, this is the right time. It was not supposed to happen before.
SPEAKER_02
I really do want to hear about your ad. So then tell me more about Build Your Dream Network. It’s a challenge. I know because you filled out the guest form, but it’s a challenge that you that you ran. And you put that you ran it on $500 to bring in over 100 registrations. Walk me, walk me through about what changed um from that point to now and how it went and those first numbers.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so we have kept a pretty small budget for everything that we’ve run so far, honestly, because we’re still making sure that it works. We’re still we’re still working on the rinse and repeat to make sure that we have something that has the ROI that we need to keep dialing up the budget. Uh so we started, and I have somebody on my team that handles all of the ads. So she creates all the graphics, she handles all the metrics, handles all of the um, like if she’s looking at how they’re performing and deciding if we need to change things up. So she’s she does all the copy, all the visuals, all of it. Um, and really helps guide me on budget. Because what I found is people were like, well, what’s our budget? And I’m like, I don’t know what is possible. So you tell me what you think and let’s have a conversation about it because I don’t know what $20 a day versus $100 a day versus $500 a day can do. I’m brand new to ads, so I need some hand holding. So that’s why we started one of the many reasons we started small was A, to figure out like, do people like this challenge? Is this a good funnel for us? Um, is it converting well? And so we did $500 for the first one and we ran it just a couple weeks leading up to the challenge. And we paired it with we have an affiliate strategy as well. And so I can’t remember recall the exact numbers at this point, but it was about um 50-50 as far as organic versus paid traffic that came into that. And then we looked at like what converted, where did they come from, et cetera. And we decided that it did work well and it was something that we wanted to run again. I mean, we had um, I think 25 new members came in that month, which was our biggest month so far. And then we decided to do the challenge again in May. And so we added just a little, like a couple hundred dollars more to the ad’s budget, and it brought in about the same amount of people from the ad’s perspective. It didn’t, it didn’t make a huge difference with just like nominally increasing it. But what we found was that you know, the it was bringing in really aligned people, the the right people were finding us. It was increasing our brand presence and and awareness and exposure because we’re still a new company. And um and the members that converted from it were so devoted to our brand. They were like, I’m so glad this ad found me. I have been looking for something like this and I didn’t even know it existed. And so I feel like the devotion to our brand has actually increased pretty a lot because of the exposure that ads have given us as well. Which to me is like the most. I mean, I want to drive revenue, obviously, but I want the kinds of people coming into our community to really get it, to participate in our community, to be so grateful that to like really understand like this is something totally different. And that is a big part of what ads has helped us to have and to do. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02
Yay. And so that that one was how many iterations ago? The Build Your Dream challenge, because you talked about the first time, then you ran it again in May.
SPEAKER_01
Like we’ve done two, and then we are going to do it again um in November. So, like the beginning of November. So, right after this airs, we’re gonna do it again.
Quick Break Ads Management Offer
SPEAKER_02
Very cool. We’ll get right back to the episode in a moment. But if you’re the kind of course creator who has already ads that’s working at some level, running to your offer that’s already converting well, and you understand what well means. You’re making profit. Um, and you would like to hire ads management out. So, like you heard Mo talking about, you can focus on the other areas of your business that you only you can uniquely grow, then head down to the show notes below and click on that link, fill out an intake form, and you and I can hop on a call and see just how Facebook and Instagram ads management would make sense for your business. All right, back to the episode.
Hiring Support And Delegating Early
SPEAKER_02
Mindset time, please, because you casually mentioned that somebody runs your ads. And so I know because I’ve heard this a lot, that the listener is probably thinking, so in order to run Facebook and Instagram ads, I have to go hire an ad manager. So I would love for you, Mo, to share um what was this the decision that went into hiring an ad manager uh from the get-go, right? Because from the very first time you ran ads, you had an ad manager.
unknown
Yeah.
SPEAKER_02
So tell me a bit about that.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I’ve always I like to live by um um my values and our community values. And so from day one, from the moment we launched, I actually had a fractional team. And um, I’m just a really big believer in being supported in our businesses. And I have a huge vision for this community. So this was not me as like a solo coach trying to have a coaching community. Like I have visions for this being tens of thousand people and all over the world. And so I’m not, I’m not messing around. And I want to have really good people who know what they’re doing. And I don’t know everything. That is going to surprise everybody. But I only know what I know. And I’m not the best at tech and I’m not the best at marketing. And I don’t know how to do ads. And I didn’t know how to run an affiliate program. And I’ve never been a member concierge before. There’s a lot of parts of my business that I have had no experience doing. Now what I do know I’m very good at, but those things I don’t have experience in, nor do I want to be the expert. I have no desire to know everything about everything. I know enough to be dangerous. I know enough to have oversight inside of my company, but I’m I’m not trying to burn myself out. Like I’m trying to really enjoy my business and I’m trying to be able to be in my joy and in my gifts as much as humanly possible. And turns out that involves having the experts do the things that I am not an expert in. And I highly 10 out of 10 recommend it.
SPEAKER_02
That is very enlightening. Thank you for sharing that.
SPEAKER_00
Yeah you’re welcome.
SPEAKER_02
It’s something we get caught up in let’s say like this belief that we absolutely like we all start from zero, right? Well I maybe some of us have venture capital I I don’t actually I don’t think I know anybody. I I everyone I know has literally bootstrap their business. Right? You included is what you had said, right? Yeah here I am in a Matt Kitts conference in Boise talking to this guy who has this software as a service business and I asked the most well it wasn’t a super silly question but I know inside it came from like a limiting belief. I was like how have you grown your business like so much? It just doesn’t make sense. I’m super curious and he looked at me and he said well from the beginning I hired a sales team and I’m like oh duh of course yeah right you can literally have very good growth if you hire a sales team like yeah you know like which makes sense exactly what you were saying.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah yeah and that’s one of our next things that we’re going to do too um and and I think that there is um I mean you can there’s a range for what you can pay for these things right and and so it depends on your budget it depends on your beliefs it depends on the resources that you have and there are there are scrappy ways to get started with having support that are not going to destroy you or your business. I think I hired I don’t even know I was run doing I had a very successful network marketing business with Beauty Counter and I was also working full time and I had a a newborn baby and I was growing this business on the side and I was like I’ve got to hire somebody this is bananas. I never had done it before I didn’t know how to do it and I hired a VA and I hired I don’t know like a mom from the neighborhood who helped me and I had to learn how to delegate. I had to learn like what could I even get off of my plate? What don’t I want to be doing and so I I do have a lot of compassion for people that are afraid to hire um but if you can start small with anything just start to learn how to let go of control and realize that other people can do things way better than you that are outside of your skill set.
SPEAKER_02
That’s good. That’s that’s good. And we are I dear listener you thought maybe you heard about the ads part of this episode but no there’s actually some even better Facebook and Instagram ads goodness coming up soon.
Network Marketing Lessons And Inner Work
SPEAKER_02
So stick around we’re about to take a tangent because I feel like network marketing is the thing that so many of us online entrepreneurs have in common. Like somewhere in our history like we all spent time doing network marketing to varying levels of success. And so when you said I wasn’t surprised um I actually so completely random but identify there I moved to China. We spent 12 years there before we came to Mexico when we got stuck here on a vacation but the reason I moved to China was because I had a window cleaning business like I mentioned and I ended up cleaning windows for somebody who was I didn’t know initially but they’re like way high up in uh Amway like dishwashing and this kind of deal dishwashing like I don’t know home supplies and network marketing. And I just knew that something about their house was like different. And so after spending like seven hours there because it was quite a large home with a lot of windows then I was like hey what do you do? And long story short I ended up joining their network and I had wanted to go back to China and China was like the biggest market for family. So I was like told my wife and she’s like cool well I know you want to go back to China. Let’s go and there we were she actually learned Mandarin like doing facials for like Chinese women and going to like business meetings twice a week and seeing like the business plan drawn out. And so that is um completely random but also completely cool that you spent time doing that also.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah I think well it’s it’s entrepreneurship with training wheels and I think for a lot of people it’s the first time or that they get exposure to possibility beyond the boxes that we’ve existed in, beyond maybe a traditional pathway. And it’s it does it can provide extra income it can provide more freedom if done a certain way. And so I think that it’s it’s accessible for people who maybe have an entrepreneurial dream but aren’t quite ready to or maybe aren’t cut out to be a full because it it takes a level of insanity to be a founder. And I don’t recommend it for most people. And so I think that network marketing if you find a company that has high integrity is a beautiful accessible way to be able to like dip your toe into that world without being responsible for product development and PR and all I mean building out the systems that I mean you only have to do the easy part. You just have to sell it’s the easiest part of a of owning a business I think and so I love that that so many people try it out. And I know it gets a bad rap and that’s fine and any industry is going to have scummy examples. But I I mean I it is so much of what I’m doing today is because of that experience. I mean I worked with Beauty Counter which was they were the pioneer of the clean beauty movement and they had a whole public policy arm. They were literally fighting for more health protective laws for all of us. So we weren’t exposed to garbage in our products and they I just loved the the social impact side of it. I loved that it was a grassroots movement. I loved watching the power of people all centered around a centralized like mission just and people that were drawn to that company a lot of them had never done anything like it but they were just like the mission spoke to them so deeply. And so I pull a lot of the things that I that I learned from from watching that because I joined when they were two years in to getting a 10 billion or $1 billion valuation 10 years in. And so being on that journey with them, I was like damn there’s something to this so it’s you know I don’t run a network marketing company but it’s a lot of the same principles of like yes please refer your friends to my business to our business and we will pay you for it you know a lot of crossover.
SPEAKER_02
I didn’t know how foundational uh my time with Amway would be for so many other things in your life but absolutely yeah I remember it really hit me. So I was part of like an organization that was heavy on reading and I was not a reader before and they’re like look you want to have people who you do business with you need to become the kind of person that attracts those people therefore you need to be changing. Therefore you need to be reading and so like my wife and I were reading tons and it never hit me how well it affected like one of the positive effects on our life until I remember we had um we were teaching in China or like a network of schools actually but at one school and leadership I think had had us or like somebody had come over to our house maybe our house maybe it was like head of school or something. But this gentleman made one comment he looked at our bookshelf because we had a lot of books there and actually a lot of them were marriage books. And he looked at our bookshelf and he was like huh you guys must have had a lot of problems and I was like in a non-defensive way I was like oh no actually all these books are the reason that we don’t have a lot of problems. And I told him about like Amway and the network marketing thing and what I had said to him was that we kind of skipped past so many problems because we read so many books and then like approached or talked about like issues before they even kind of became an issue. And so like then when it comes up later on in marriage it’s like well we’ve already talked about well how we would handle it what we really want you know all the things that tend to like throw up a I don’t know not roadblock but you know all the things that could cause issues in marriage you know like usually it’s just like in-laws sex personal finances these things tend to like blow up a lot of marriages and we’ve read a lot about that and talked like like really talked um yeah but yeah you’re right totally like being able to learn sales came from network marketing and and the work habit and taking rejection like these things every business is built on and um totally yeah yeah and I think what you’re speaking to even just the reading is like the the investment in the inner work is never a waste of time.
SPEAKER_01
Yes. And you know businesses although although the strategy and the ads and the market all those things are really important but they’re kind of garbage if you’re not doing the inner work to pair with it and um you know investing in myself investing in my growth investing in understanding humanity and like why are we the way that we are and what are the beliefs that belong to me. Like when you’re talking about the mindset around ads, I’m like, this is like the least big deal in my life is ads not working. Like we’ll figure it out another time. You know, it’s so I think you learn to be able to regulate your nervous system and roll with the punches and understand and not be so dramatic about everything. And that’s not to say I’m never dramatic, but it gives you a lot of perspective and ability to take personal responsibility and there’s just so much that you get from from doing the inner work. So then you can make bold business decisions, you can take bigger risks, you can like invest in things that maybe feel scary for you like hiring help or getting an ads manager or doing a paid strategy. It’s like you can do all those things because you’ve got this really solid inner foundation and this trust in yourself to make good choices and to learn and pivot when they don’t go the way you thought that they should. But it’s it’s like the number one thing to do is you know maybe hire an ads manager and do some inner work.
SPEAKER_02
There we go. There we go. There we go I love the passion I can hear coming from because you’ve lived it been there pushed so much you know yeah yeah and so it’s like well how can I make these choices well I’ve made a lot that didn’t go well and I’ve learned I’ve really learned how to trust myself there you go deeply yeah spoken like an entrepreneur who has persevered through some stuff and come out on the other side. Yeah I don’t know if I’m on the other side I’m still somewhere swimming in the middle okay all right very very there there lies something that not many entrepreneurs tell you like you know maybe there is success looks like success but then on the inside like we’re still pushing through like we like we like figuring out hard problems and that’s why we are business owners.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah and that’s why I run the community that I the way that I do because I’m not over here on a pedestal being like hey everybody I figured it all out look at me it’s like I’m on the court with you I’m figuring things out I’m sharing very transparently my journey with my community and you know if you’re actually if you get in any honest room with anybody everyone’s still figuring it out. You may have mastered a thing or two it that doesn’t mean you don’t know what you’re doing but it also can mean that if if we don’t have to perform and we don’t have to pretend then we can actually be really honest and say like hey I’m struggling with this or this thing was going well but now it’s not or I’m coming up against this shame or this thing’s bringing up a lot of fear for me. Like have you navigated that am I alone in this never but we have to have spaces where we can be deeply honest about the experience especially as an entrepreneur because everyone’s building the plane as we fly it.
SPEAKER_02
No one no one everyone’s lying if they’re not they’re telling you that they’re not like we are all figuring it out especially if you’re growth oriented especially if you’re committed to you know trying new things like well we all are a beginner at some point very true you know yeah very very true so I’ve gotten I’ve gotten off topic with my TED talk over here but but that’s okay because I’m gonna bring us and the listener right back where they need to be which is in an environment with people who are thinking like you have just shared with us over the past number of minutes,
The Nova Experience Webinar Funnel
SPEAKER_02
right? And what I specifically mean by that is is you’re running ads to something called the Nova experience and that literally is let’s say a launch mechanism a launch method that introduces people to you and then eventually to the um I’m I’m trying to think the word for it the Nova community but that’s not the actual thing. Yeah that’s right the Nova Global but yeah it’s a community exactly right okay so this is the thing that I really want to hear about your ads since you run ads to it regularly and then the listener who feels like they want to learn more about you and this community because they want to be around women who think like you do uh because wow I mean we just kind of had a miniature mindset masterclass over the past 15 minutes but that was very powerful like dear listener I encourage you to scrub back and if you’re going through some stuff or you just want to know about like what business like truly is about or made up of like you got to go back and listen to that.
SPEAKER_01
So also this will be linked in the show notes below let’s talk about the Nova experience shall we yeah and I’ll give I’ll give a little backstory because we really worked we try to figure out how do we get people to not only join our local chapters but our virtual community and so we we in before we found figured this Nova experience out in our Build Your Dream Network, we actually had a guest come in every single month and do a workshop for our community where they can invite their network in and we thought like well this will be I mean it did give us a lot of brand credibility we brought in a lot of big names people that have influence but it didn’t convert hardly at all and so it was like a really nice thing to build brand awareness but it it didn’t actually translate to revenue. And so that we that’s why we went to back to the drawing board and we’re like okay people need a time sensitive offer generally speaking if you’re just like like and our doors are always open but you need a deadline otherwise you just kick the can down whatever it is you need a deadline. And so we that’s why we figured out the challenge and started running ads to that because we’re like we need to do more of a launch model to actually have people convert because then there’s a lot of excitement and then there’s a deadline and people respond really well to that. And then we also were looking at how do we scale sustainably? So me doing one-on-one calls although it’s deeply nourishing and fun to build relationships, that’s not sustainable for growth. And so we needed a model where people had access to me, but not necessarily one-on-one. And so we created um a live webinar that I do once a month called the Nova Experience and we we ran ads to it last month we actually, which felt a magical if you love number like angel numbers, we had 111 people sign up for this Nova experience. It was actually the first time we’d run um a full month of ads to it. Now we had run ads to it the month before but just for a couple of weeks and this we did a full month $20 a day every day we had like three to four people signing up for it. So I loved the dopamine hit that that gives you when you’re like yes somebody else is coming in. You know it’s like very satisfying to see like gradual progress and we just again we started small to see okay is this does this convert? And it was amazing. And so now we all we can turn that lever on or off we can increase the budget for it when we want and we know that this as we’ve been working even on our content to make sure that this content is landing this is like the kind of experience people want to be having to learn so this is a really an informational session only for them. And so there’s also we’re kind of doing this dance at the same time where we’re working out the content and we’re working out the ad strategy at the same time to make sure that we can just continue to like elevate and refine and elevate like refine and elevate as we go. So you know the goal would be I mean I don’t know how many people we would want in that room eventually but if we had a thousand it would be great. So it’s just the it’s the the point of it is it’s starting somewhere, right? Like we got to start somewhere and that’s a very you probably spend that much on like coffee at Starbucks, you know, twice a week is 20 bucks a day. So it’s just it’s like re reallocation of funds but it’s a great way for people to learn about our community and it’s a great way for us to be able to turn on the lever that we can count on and be like great this is instead of relying upon our community and constantly asking them to share the Nova like we can we can do it ourselves and then whatever they decide to refer is is a bonus for us.
SPEAKER_02
I mean I can’t add anything there that’s that’s all really well said and good. So this is yeah you figured it out so tell me this is once a month but it’s evergreen correct yes yeah okay um what does evergreen mean for you? Because it can mean so many different things as far as the the the setup of it so for you evergreen means well I think probably not what it technically means because there still are things like it’s not it’s not a recording.
SPEAKER_01
So it’s not like it just runs all the time and people sign up and then they get a pop-up that’s like sign up for the next one. It’s actually me I’m live we bring in two members every month but as far as our um the ads we all so there’s just a list of things that we need to change a date on essentially is all that it is the topics are the same the nurture sequences are the same the landing page is the same the ads are the same um so we we basically created it in a way where 95% of it is the same and then that 5% is me teaching live our members coming on and sharing their stories and then changing the date on some things. So it’s about as easy button as it can get to and still what you said in the beginning is still having that because I always want to um prioritize the relational side of our business I always want people to feel the human side of me to get to experience who I am and not just I mean a video is great but in this era where it’s I and I’m I’m a huge AI fan. Like we’ve fully AI optimized our entire organization. But in this era of AI, people want to know what they can trust and relationships are more valuable than ever. Getting that face-to-face time having people experience you is even more important than ever because who knows I mean I could be an AI recording of not even me with not even my voice, you know, like that’s what we’re in the era of so people need to be able to see like to touch and feel and be like is this real? Can I trust this thing? And so the parts that we have kept are the parts that that give that and the parts that we have automated it doesn’t matter like changing a date on something having the same landing page like that’s not going to impact the human side of things. So um so that’s why we’ve set it up and and that’s as evergreen as I want to get for this particular kind of experience at this stage.
SPEAKER_02
Okay.
Evergreen Without Losing The Human Touch
SPEAKER_02
So I think we’re gonna talk about only a couple of numbers We’re not gonna get super in the weeds as far as ads numbers. Cool.
SPEAKER_01
Okay. Because do I know the numbers you’re about to ask me?
SPEAKER_02
I you might. And if not, that’s okay because it also does prove a point. And what’s something I’ll share like personally, I am a Facebook and Instagram ads manager, obviously. And some of the folks who pay me to run their ads, although I report, you know, all the stats to them every like two weeks, they can’t quote numbers either. What they can tell is, is it working? And are they making enough money back to like have it make sense? And to the point that you had made earlier, way earlier in our conversation, like when somebody’s growing a business, they do have to let go of the roles that don’t like um that aren’t worth their time. Ads is worth somebody’s time, but what I mean is is like nobody, I don’t know, zoom out. Let’s talk about uh, I don’t know, the owner of Amazon, right? Or maybe somebody else, the owner of a big company that maybe has like, I don’t know, 600 employees. So maybe they’re on just the other side of a small business land, right? But do you think that they’re looking at like what their HR department’s doing, you know, or do they expect good hires to be made? Do you think they’re literally tearing in and micromanaging their advertising and marketing department, you know, that has like 50 people in it? Or do they just expect a certain result, which is that they’re bringing people into their business ecosphere profitably and people are ending up buying stuff, you know?
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah. Well, and that it that’s such a um it’s a challenging part about being a founder because you’re gradually or if you want to scale, you know, this is different. If you’re a solopreneur and you want to stay just the sole provider of your services, and you know, it just depends on your goals. It’s not right or wrong, it just depends on your goals. And so I’m I’m a founder who wants to scale big time. And so I’m constantly looking at how do I do less of the stuff that is not mine to do? I literally even have a Claude auto-scheduled thing every morning that helps me. It looks at all of everything that’s on my plate to do, but then I also gave it the extra prompt of is there anything that I am doing that I need to be delegating to keep me more in my visionary role? Like I literally have Claude helping audit me because I love to take things back over. But it’s not in the highest and best interest of my time to do that because my skill sets are best used elsewhere. But I need I need checks and balances on that. So you can certainly ask me about numbers. And it’s like sometimes at some points I remember them and then like we move on, and then the information is gone. But you know, like I the to your point, it’s like, is there an ROI here? Are you hitting your metrics? Yes or no? Great, then like let’s keep going. Did that work? Would you recommend it? Do you think we should increase the budget? Okay, great, let’s go.
SPEAKER_02
Like, you know, this is so good. This is so good, dear listener. You thought you thought you started listening to an ads episode, but this has turned into a business mindset episode and a very good one at that, you know. Um, and also I will say, I do that with Claude too. It looks a little different, but on Mondays, it runs this audit of my time. And I have to, I track what I do uh with like, you know, a little button in the browser and I type what I’m doing. And so, like after I have a week’s worth of my hours spent, you know, like Claude ran on Mondays and it asks asked me to set it that thing so it can see what I’ve been spending my time doing, and then it takes all that and it cross-references with like my master, what it knows about me and my goals and what I’m trying to achieve here, and it tells me in sometimes not so nice terms that like I’m spending time on this, but this is something I should end up hiring out, or this is not actually getting me closer to my goals. And I’m like, that’s what I told you to do, Claude. Thanks.
SPEAKER_01
It’s so good. I know. I love it. It’ll be like, so Icra does our tech, and it’ll be like, You need to give this to Icra. Like when I’m like in there trying to figure something out, it’s like, would you like me to get it give a debrief or a Slack message or an asana task for Icra to do this? So you can go, you know, stay in your lane. And I’m like, I would actually, thank you.
unknown
Right.
SPEAKER_02
But I mean, what did people do? That really does make me respect the business owner that like built these things um before we had like an eye to be our business strategist, or even before we had like all this knowledge at our fingertips, like business coaches and YouTube. And you know, like how did people do it back in the day?
SPEAKER_01
Like, I don’t know. I literally couldn’t have, I I probably would be working for corporate back then.
SPEAKER_02
Right, right. The ad number, less we less less we get into all this good stuff that is really good.
Lead Costs ROI And Member Value
SPEAKER_02
But the ad number that I was curious about is so you’re running ads at around 20 $20 a day uh to the Evergreen Nova experience. Um and you’re bringing in a lead. Do you know roughly how much each lead costs?
SPEAKER_01
We were around $4.50. It was a little less than that in this past one.
SPEAKER_02
Okay, cool. And then my other number I’m gonna get to is how much are those leads worth? And either this is a super dreamy scenario where the leads are profitable because of the first when you’re calculating the first purchase, or they or a much more regular scenario that I’ve seen, at least when running ads for membership owners, where the leads become profitable maybe two months into somebody renewing their membership. Like, what’s the situation for you?
SPEAKER_01
Well, a member, so if they join, um, we have an incentive on the back end of that call to pay in full for the year. And so annually, like I mean, our membership averages out to be between virtual and local, like about $85 a month is like the annual or the average per month. And it’s a 12-month commitment. So, you know, we could have somebody pay $850. So literally, to be profitable for what we are doing, I need one local member to sign up.
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
SPEAKER_01
That’s it. Two virtual members and one local member based on what our ad spend is today, which is literally nothing. You know, that’s like, okay, well, that’s a slam dunk. We know it’s going to be at least a watch, right? Like it’s the most low-risk thing we could choose. So that’s why it’s like as we continue to dial this in, you know, ideally we’ll have 10, 50, 100 people on the back end of this thing that will be registering as members. And then they go on to maybe come to our supernova live experience or a retreat or upgrade to our the Orbit Mastermind that we do, or any of the other offerings that we bring into the community. So that’s just like guaranteed revenue from just the membership conversion on the back end of it. So it’s kind of a no-brainer.
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, kind of a no-brainer. Speaking of no-brainers, um, and this is not a rah-rah-rah, rah-rah. I have my friend on the podcast go and buy her thing, but oh my gosh, at that price for an annual membership, that’s like a steal. Me having invested in various like masterminds or like events, like flying myself there, paying like the event fee to be around folks, and then knowing the power of like just getting one new idea and then having somebody in a very friendly, supportive manner, like kind of elbow me in the ribs and be like, bro, you should be doing this. Uh, and then I implement that idea. Like, wow.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it’s a real overgive.
SPEAKER_02
I’m just I’m just saying for the listener, like uh you would be doing yourself a favor to click down below the like this audio podcast and go sign up for that experience. And thank you. See, like, no, thank you though. They say like selling is serving, and in this case, it’s like, yes, somebody should do that, but at the same time, it sounds like you’re serving people really well. And I know the value of getting around people with ideas who are implementing and doing stuff, you know?
SPEAKER_01
Yep, yeah. And and the way that um the way that I’ve looked at our business is I wanted every single part of the business, so no matter how somebody chose to participate into it, that they would feel like they’re getting their value. So if they only went to their local chapter meetings and they did nothing else, they’d be like, this is totally worth it. If all they did was participate in our membership portal and get the interactions and have access to the member directory and our member marketplace where people are sharing ideas. And like if all they did was do that, they’d be getting, they’d be like, wow, this is really valuable. And then if they came to our virtual events only and only got to experience our weekly call and our once-a-month like network and growth workshop, that that alone. So I wanted it to look like as a standalone each lane that we offer that if all they did was that one particular lane, they’d be like, this is a no-brainer, you know? And and we’re a newer business too. So it’s like we, I don’t know where we’ll land on pricing. We’re gonna keep adding different, like elevated offerings to that because I want it to be accessible for people and then to be able to have a climb inside of our organization. So you’re not, I get bored real easily and I’m not trying to be bored in my own company. And so we want to have or we are creating opportunities where people can have more visibility, more leadership, so that as they grow, they can continue to grow inside of our company. But to to pull it back to ads, it’s why that’s why it’s like the value of a member joining our community is is it it just makes so much sense for us to have a paid ad strategy. It it just absolutely does because of all the different ways that we can serve them once they’re in.
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
Regulated Growth Over Business Chaos
SPEAKER_02
I I get it. Um to circle back to something you said in the beginning, and then we will say goodbye. You talked about part of the motivation to run ads was because although you were growing uh behind the scenes in the business, it felt or literally was chaos. Uh, and you used the word chaos. I would love for you to share with the listener how does it feel like now that you have ads running most of the time in your business?
SPEAKER_01
I mean, it’s it feels steady and reliable for a lot of reasons. Um, ads being one of them. You know, I I looked at every part of my business that felt like it was dysregulating to my nervous system and I did something about it, um, which was deeply uncomfortable. But I was like, I am not trying to be in my business and feel like this. Like when I’m in the room, when we’re serving the clients, everything’s awesome. But behind the scenes, the way the tech was set up, the way the marketing was going, like it was not, it was not reliable. And I don’t want to feel that way in my own business. Like I would rather shut it down than feel that way. And so I decided to boldly change every part of the business that didn’t feel like it was reliable and steady and regulated. And so having the ads and having a predictable funnel, knowing like this is when we’re gonna do it, this is why we’re gonna do it, this is these are the results that we can expect, this is the number of people that we can bring in, this is the cost per acquisition, this is like it, it’s it makes it feel like everything else is like a bonus or icing on the cake. When you can have your baseline covered, when we know that, okay, we’re gonna do these launch events and predictably bring in 10 to 30 new members a month. And then everything else is like crazy, you know. I so I the stress on everything else goes down because we have a predictable acquisition strategy set up now. And I don’t know any entrepreneur that wants to feel chaotic, dysregulated, and burned out in their business. So I feel like anything that we can do that’s the opposite of that, we should be running towards.
SPEAKER_02
Right. I I love I love how somebody gave, well, it’s not that they gave me permission, but I love how they said that uh if you want to sell, then you got to talk like a third grader because we all need simple words. Um, and we don’t want to talk over people’s heads. Like that validated me because I’ve been talking like a third grader ever since I left the third grade, practically. Um, and I used to get really hung up on it. And so all that is to say, I’m over here chuckling on the inside. When you say like disresc dysregulated, it makes it sound so it’s such a nice sounding word to all the things that just are jarring in a business, you know.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I mean, literally, it’s like our I I spent a lot, I’m not an expert at the nervous system, but I’ve spent a lot of time learning about mine and studying the nervous system and doing a lot of somatic, which is like of the body and um and just recognizing like how much of our world takes us out of our bodies, takes us out of our mind, takes us out of our ability to feel calm. It’s most of the world. And so if you’re not intentional about protecting that, you will not have that. And I had a lot of anxiety in my life. Like I was medicated for anxiety for, I don’t know, 10, 15 years, and I’m not anymore. And my life is the most stressful it’s ever been. But I’m able now, I understand it more and I can be my own anxiety medication. Um, but having come from a mind and a body that did not process stress very well, I really it’s it’s so important to me. And it’s important to me to create environments that that are adding to people’s ability to feel calm and seen and like they’re not alone. You know, like I just it’s it’s critical to it’s it’s as critical as oxygen is, I really think. Um, and so it’s very important to me.
SPEAKER_02
You know, as you were sharing that, I something came back up and I don’t know where I got it, but I’ll share it with you because you seem like what I would call a true leader. One of the marks of a true leader is someone who is able to inhale chaos, but they exhale peace into their organization. Um and as you were sharing that, that’s what I thought about. Like, I’m in the presence of a true leader.
SPEAKER_01
Thank you. Thank you for seeing me.
SPEAKER_02
Thank you for being here on this episode.
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, you’re welcome. And I’m like chaotic by nature as a human, so like I’ve really had to work hard at this.
SPEAKER_02
Right? Try not to add to our own business chaos.
SPEAKER_01
Oh, yeah. You know, I’ve really had to rein it in in a good way. But um, yeah, thank you for having me and for giving me a chance to share a little bit more behind the scenes.
SPEAKER_02
You’re absolutely welcome. The pleasure has been all mine and the listeners, by the way. So thank you for being here, Mo.
SPEAKER_01
You’re welcome.
Nova Experience Invite And Closing
SPEAKER_02
Dear listener, we’ve reached the end. Uh, if you haven’t already, you you just gotta go down to the link in the show notes below and get into her world via the Nova experience. Did I say that right? No, it is the Nova experience, right? That is linked up in the show notes below. And for now, it’s time to say goodbye. And so until the next time that you see or hear from me, take care. Be blessed, and uh, I’ll see you in the next one.
