Eight places sold. Then three. What changed?
In late 2021, I launched my first high-ticket group coaching programme, Lost to Found(er), at around £3,000 and sold all eight places.
EIGHT!
I was amazed. And delighted. Clearly I'd created something people wanted, with an audience willing to pay for it.
Naturally, I assumed I'd cracked it.
Except the next time I launched, I sold three places. 🫣
Same coach. Same expertise. Same proven programme. My income hadn't quite got the memo.
The frustrating thing was that people were still circling my work. Reading my emails. Engaging with my content. Coming to workshops. Making all the right noises.
Somehow, lots of that interest never became an enquiry.
So I created more. More content, more workshops, more lead magnets. Surely reaching more people would help?
Over time, I began paying much closer attention to how those pieces connected. That became the foundation of my Garden Path™: the offer, marketing and sales ecosystem that helps people find their way to my work.
What happens after someone discovers you?
You might already have a brilliant freebie, a welcome sequence, an email list and a signature coaching programme that gets lovely results.
But imagine following the journey as a potential client.
She downloads your freebie. It helps. She reads a few emails. They help too. She thinks you're bloody good at what you do.
Does she understand which problem your paid work helps her solve? Can she see why your approach is relevant to her? Is there an invitation she feels ready to act on?
“She's really good” and “I want to work with her” are different decisions.
Your marketing can help her make that connection while giving her the information and space to decide for herself.
The six steps of your Garden Path™
Think of these as connected parts of an ecosystem. People can enter in different places and take different amounts of time.
1. Attract. Your Fabulous Freebie or Garden Gate Offer gives your Goldilocks Ideal Client™ a relevant reason to explore your world. Its topic should connect to the problem your paid work helps her address.
2. Engage. Your content helps her recognise her situation and get to know your perspective. Specific examples make it easier for her to think, “She understands what this is like.”
3. Nurture. Your welcome sequence and regular emails deepen that understanding. They can introduce your philosophy, answer questions and show how your approach works.
4. Connect. Workshops, events and conversations give people an experience of you. They have an opportunity to explore your ideas and assess whether your way of working feels right for them.
5. Convert. A clear signature offer, or an appropriate smaller bridging offer, makes the next step understandable. What will you work on together? What could change? Who is it for? What does it involve?
6. Continue. Existing clients may want support with what comes next. A relevant continuation offer gives them that option, with a clear purpose and a fresh choice about whether to continue.
Start with the assets you already have
Before you make another freebie, try this.
Choose one paid offer you'd love more of your right people to buy. Then trace the routes that currently lead towards it.
Which content or freebie introduces the problem it addresses?
What does your welcome sequence help someone understand about that problem?
Where can she experience your approach?
Where do you explain the paid offer and invite her to explore it?
What happens if she's interested but needs more time?
You may find a missing invitation. A freebie aimed at someone who isn't a good fit for your offer. Or emails that are useful individually but never help someone see the bigger transformation available to her.
That's a much more focused job than deciding you need to create 47 new things. 🙃
Give people room to choose their timing
Someone might discover you today and enquire next week. Someone else might read your emails for a year.
Your Garden Path™ gives both people ways to learn, connect and take a next step when it makes sense for them.
Clear information, relevant invitations and honest communication all matter. So does respecting a “not now” or a “no”.
For me, the ambition is a business where my best work is easier to find and understand, and where my existing marketing keeps doing a useful job while I'm coaching or spending time with my girls.
Your next step could be sitting inside something you've already created. Follow the path and see where it leads.
Want support joining up your signature offer, messaging and marketing? Explore Fruitful Founder™.
