Hey friends, it's your host, Ellen Yin. Welcome back to another bonus episode of Cubicle to CEO, the podcast where we ask successful founders the business questions you can't Google. I know we usually reserve our case study interviews with guests were our Monday episodes. But I thought it'd be fun today to take you behind the scenes of our own business with a mini bonus case study walking you through how I made $27,500 in 48 hours from one Instagram story.
So let me first setup the context of this offer, what was I selling? So for many years, I have been asked by different people at events or in my DMs, or I don't know, just people in general, I should say, friends, peers in the industry, past clients, asking if I would ever host a mastermind, or if I would ever teach brand partnerships. And I've always said no to both of those things, right. Like, I haven't really had a big interest in hosting any sort of ongoing container like a mastermind ever since I retired from coaching. And then on the brand partnership side, although brand partnerships are a huge part of what we do, as a media company in terms of our revenue model, and how we monetize as a business. It's not necessarily something that I feel particularly called to teach on a mass level it to create courses on and to create programs or anything of that sort.
However, I do realize that over the last few years, especially with brand partnerships, now being our primary revenue source, I have learned a lot right about working with brands, I have learned a lot about the paid media and media buying side of things, both from the stance of a publisher, like someone who has platforms that advertisers want to place ads on. But also on the flip side to like us sponsoring other people, other events, other organizations, like we've just learned a lot on both sides. And I love sharing the things that have worked well, whenever I can, because I feel like so much of this particular type of work is very shrouded in mystery, there's not a whole lot of transparency out there. And I want to be able to hand off my very best strategies and tips to a handful of individuals who I believe will really run with what I teach them and can create even greater impact with their business through brand partnerships.
So I've been marinating on it for a while, and I was like, Well, I think it'd be really fun to do a one day in person group retreat, where I could teach everything that I know about brand partnerships to a small group of individuals like 10 to 12 people, and kind of just offer it as a one off. But I also felt that because this wasn't something that I regularly teach on, I think the only time I've publicly done like a full on presentation about brand partnerships, and the more nitty gritty logistical things like negotiation tactics and pricing structures and packages. And, you know, strategy was really at Kajabi Hero Live where I was asked to do a presentation for their VIP group. That's the only time I've ever publicly presented on this topic. And I got amazing feedback. I mean, incredible, incredible feedback, there were people who had no audiences of millions who had not even heard of some of the strategies that I shared with them. And they, you know, they also primarily make their money from brand deals and sponsorships. But there were still new things even for that crowd. So I knew that I had some goals that I was sitting on, but I wanted to further refine the material that I would eventually teach at this future brand partnerships retreat.
And so I thought, you know, it's end of year. My calendars a little bit more spacious, and going into quarter one, I was like, I would love to do five, one on one VIP days. And use those VIP days as a testing ground to teach the material that I would eventually teach at this group retreat. But also have time to do individualized work with five individuals and you know, really help customize how they're using their brand assets to leverage those for brand partnerships, how they're specifically creating attractive brand partnership packages, if this is a revenue source that they want to add to their business. So I just thought it was a win win, you know, because I'm not planning to do these one on one VIP days as an ongoing offer. I just wanted to open up five spots to really help me refine the material.
And I've always been a believer that if you want to be really good at teaching something in a group setting whether it is a small group like 10 people, or whether you're teaching an online course that could potentially reach 1000s of people, if you have the opportunity to practice the framework or the knowledge in a one on one setting, I just think you're going to have a stronger product in the end. Because you get such great feedback, when you're working with someone in a one on one setting, it allows you to go a lot deeper, and really opens your eyes, I think, to the blind spots that you may not be aware of when you are an expert in something. So again, that's kind of the context for why I wanted to offer these one on one VIP days.
And I actually already had a wait list. And when I say waitlist, nothing formal, like it was literally a note in my notes app that I had been keeping an ongoing list of a few names of individuals who over the years, like I said, had reached out or asked me at some point if I would ever teach on this topic. And when I said I didn't have anything for them, I asked, you know, would you like me to reach out to you first if something ever becomes available. So I had a list of, I think between six to eight, I can't remember the exact number as I'm recording this. But it's somewhere in that range of six to eight people whose names were on that list that I had had previous more concrete conversations with about this topic. So of course, those were the first people I reached out to before I even posted on stories, I reached out to all those individuals, and I said, Hey, here's what I'm thinking about doing. I want to offer five one on one VIP days, they're going to be 5500 each, so $5,500.
And to be honest, I think that this VIP day is such a good deal if you are serious about wanting to add brand partnerships to your business as a revenue stream, because the way we do brand partnerships, all of our partnerships are four to five figures. So, you know, minimum $1,000. Actually, for us, our minimum campaign fee for all of 2022 and 2023 is actually 2500. So we really don't even do any partnerships that are less than 2500. And then you know, we've closed deals on up to $40,000 for a campaign. So we really specialize in like four to five figure campaigns. So hypothetically speaking, right, anyone who invests in a VIP day who learns these strategies, and then implements should be able to make back their investment with one brand deal with one brand campaign. So I was really, really confident in the value that I was offering for the $5,500.
Take our business even, for example, this year, I took a quick look at our books, brand partnerships, specifically have accounted for more than a quarter of a million dollars in revenue for our business this year, just as a single revenue stream. So again, there's so much potential with this type of service and this type of work. But not a lot of people understand it or know how to do it well. So anyways, that's kind of the context around the pricing. And then I even told these people, the eventual group retreat that I'm planning to do probably in late 2024 is going to be a group setting, but the per seat ticket is actually going to be a larger investment, it's going to be I would assume $10,000. Of course, things could change between when I'm recording this at the end of 2023. And when I actually decided to offer this retreat, but I'm pretty certain that it's going to be an investment of $10,000. So there was a real, attractive opportunity for people who were interested and had already expressed their interest in wanting to learn this from me, for them to not only basically save 50% By doing a VIP day instead of waiting until the retreat and paying $10,000. But also they get me one on one, they get my individualized attention now, versus waiting until almost a whole year later and being in a group setting.
So again, a lot of reasons for why the VIP day would be more attractive than having to wait down the line for the next opportunity. So like I said, I reached out to the people that I had on my waitlist. And interestingly enough, out of the six to eight individuals that I reached out to again, I should have totally looked this up before I hit record, but we're rolling with it just know it's somewhere in that range of six to eight. I just can't remember exactly, all the conversations. But one I do know this number for certain only one of those people from the waitlist actually ended up purchasing everybody else. All of the other four spots, because all five spots did sell out. All the other four spots were from newer individuals that I was having conversations with, which I found to be really interesting.
I don't know exactly what the right conclusion to draw from that is, I think for a lot of the others who did not choose to buy the VIP day. I think timing was a big decision. I didn't factor in that. And I think that because all the individuals that I talked to, who didn't choose to go forward with a VIP day told me to keep them on the waitlist for the group retreat, and they knew that the group retreat would be a higher price point. And they knew they would also have to wait longer. But they all still said, I would like for you to reach back out to me, when that opportunity becomes available with the hope that the timing, whether it was financial timing, availability, timing, just the season of their business, and what they're prioritizing in terms of, you know, the offers that are working on or whatnot, they were just wanting to wait until a different moment.
So that was interesting, I thought I would share that finding that sometimes when people sign up for a waitlist, it's not your waitlist that is actually going to drive the majority of your sales. And I think that's something important especially for high ticket, I've always viewed a waitlist as a great way to test market interest to validate an idea to see if people have interest in something you're going to offer. But for any offer I've ever done, I have never banked on my waitlist as the primary source for where the sales are going to derive from because I found time and time again, that a lot of things can change between when someone signs up for a waitlist and when an offer or opportunity actually becomes available for purchase. And you can't control unfortunately, a lot of the factors around that. So I think waitlists are really great indicators of interest. But I never rely solely on selling to my wait list. That's just my personal opinion. I know some people build their entire launches around their waitlist. So you can have success both ways. But this is a behind the business case study of what is working for me in real time. So I thought I would share that layer of perspective.
Okay, so going back to the actual Instagram story. So like I said, I had five spots. And I felt so fortunate that all five spots actually sold out in 48 hours. So I posted the very first story right before 11am. It was like 10:45am or something on Tuesday morning. So that was November 28. And then by Thursday morning, the last spot had sold out. So all five spots sold during that 48 hour window. And I originally had actually planned on sending out this offer to my email list. But I honestly didn't even have a chance to because it also pulled out from stories. And the story series that I posted on Tuesday, it was a series of five story slides.
And basically just a quick rundown for those of you who missed it, maybe didn't see it on my stories. The first slide I was just explaining the context for you know why I was making this offer to help refine the material that I wanted to teach at the group retreat in 2024. So kind of like what I shared with you guys, at the beginning of this episode, obviously condensed into under 60 seconds. Then the second slide, I shared a little bit more about our own results, leveraging brand partnerships as a revenue stream in our business. So that was, you know, to show that we have walked the walk that we actively do this in our own business. And we've used our business as a testing ground to really fine tune, the best strategies, the best negotiation tactics for approaching brand partnerships.
Then the third slide was all about the VIP day details, the actual outline of exactly what someone would receive if they invested in this VIP day. I kept it super short and simple. It was a couple bullet points, I actually created a very rudimentary checkout page link on Kajabi. And I just screenshotted what I wrote on that checkout page. So there was no sales page, there was no email sequence, there was no, I mean, there was really no nothing else except for this checkout page link. And I did not offer the checkout page link on story. So I didn't tag it with a link sticker. I think this is really important, especially when you're selling high ticket is you want to have some layer of qualification, right. And I knew that for the five individuals that I'm working with, like I'm going to be sharing really sensitive information.
We're actually opening up our own contracts or own pitch decks or own emails that we've gone back and forth with brands on obviously we're redacting any sensitive information. So any identifying information in terms of the brands we've worked with in those documents would be removed, right to protect that sensitivity, but the actual numbers and the actual terms and those details are still there. So I knew I wanted to be sure that the five individuals I work with are people that a are qualified to utilize this information, but be also our trustworthy individuals because we are sharing so transparently. And so I knew that I wanted to use stories as a way to drive the conversation into DMS. So basically, when I shared all the details of the VIP day, I asked people to simply reply VIP to the story, if they wanted to have this conversation further and get the checkout link to book their spots, so the link was not out there anywhere for someone to just click and purchase, they had to have some sort of interaction with me first before receiving that link. So that was what the third slide was about.
And then the fourth slide, it was designed for more credibility building. So we, one of the final bullet points of the VIP day details is that included with your VIP day is an opportunity for two strategic introductions to anyone in my network. So whether that's a brand we've worked with before, whether that is a peer or collaborator in my circle that you would really like to get in touch with whether that is an ad agency, a podcast network, you know, any of our contacts that we have built relationships with over many years, the best way to expedite that relationship runway is to get a warm introduction from a mutual contact that that person or that brand, or that organization, already trusts, right? So I wanted to open up like my black book, my rolodex of contacts and say, Hey, pick any two. And I'll make it happen for you. I'll introduce you. So I thought that I mean, that alone, I feel like is priceless. That is probably one of my favorite things that I offered with this VIP day. And so I really wanted to highlight the value of that particular feature. So I did so in that fourth slide.
And then I also share kind of gave people an idea of some of the brands that we've worked with in the past so that, again, people could really better visualize how this could apply to their own business, as well as again, to build credibility for the offer. And then that final slide was simply an invitation telling people again, reply to this story VIP. And this part is so key. I know a lot of people do it. Now these days, which is great. I'm glad more and more people are utilizing this strategy. But this is actually a strategy that I've been using, since like 2018, like very, very beginning of my business. And it's so important for helping people inquire about something when maybe they're not sure what to say, it's a really easy way to get people to raise their hands virtually and show they have interest in something if you give them a word or a phrase or a sentence to DM you. And then you can kind of take on that responsibility of guiding the conversation.
Sometimes people are interested in things you have to offer or what you're sharing about, but they may not know the right questions to ask or what to even say to you in an opening DM. And so they shy away from contacting you at all. So I've just found that it's much easier when you give someone a kind of like an automated thing to say to you. And then based on whatever the key word is, you automatically already have established that connection, you know what they're referring to. So then you can kind of pick up the ball and say, Okay, awesome. I'm glad you're interested in that. Let's talk about XYZ, right. So again, it just kind of places that responsibility of guiding the conversation back on you, rather than putting the pressure on them. And so I have found that can be a really, really effective and simple strategy for getting more interest in DM. So I'm assuming most of you listening to this podcast probably already do this. But just in case, it's newer to some of you, I always, always like to throw that piece out there.
So anyways, that was the story series, five simple stories. You could watch all of them in like two to three minutes, right. Some of them were like 60 seconds long. Some of them were 10 to 15 seconds. Some of them were just text slides. So you could just hold and read for however long it took you to hold and read. So very short, very sweet, very simple. That went live, like I said Tuesday morning, within that first day, like before I went to bed that night, three people had already booked their spots. Wednesday morning when I woke up. I'm on Pacific time. So depending on where you live in the world, I'm usually behind most people in time zones. So by the time I woke up, another spot had already been filled. And then I had a couple more conversations that day. And that evening, and then again, Thursday morning, that final spot sold by the time I woke up. So five spots, 48 hours.
And I'm not going to reveal the individuals who took these spots for you know, their privacy, but I thought it would be interesting to kind of share how I knew these individuals because that's the other thing about high ticket sales that I feel like is very shrouded in mystery. People often wonder where do you actually find the type of clients who are willing to invest? Those four, five who even know six figure rates right in whether you're an agency providing a service or whether you're a coach, providing high ticket coach doing services. Or even if you're selling a really high ticket product that can be kind of, I don't know, it's just not talked about very much like, Who are these clients? And how do you form those types of connections, where people do already have that trust with you and are willing to invest even without, you know, a sales call or a landing page and a fully built out sales launch? Like how do you simply sell through a story. So anyways, here's the context for those five individuals.
So like I said, one of them came from the actual waitlist. And this was an individual who I had met at an in person event that I spoke at, there were actually now that I'm looking through the list of five, three of the five were individuals who I first made contact with in any form through an event. And it didn't necessarily have to be an event that happened recently. In fact, the first person who booked a spot I had met at an event over a year ago. So I think I've said this before in the podcast, but it's worth repeating. There is nothing that nurtures relationships in a deeper way, or in a faster way than meeting someone in person. I think that if you are really looking to grow your network to really build quality relationships, or to maybe get in front of someone that you've been wanting to get in contact with for a long time, but it's been hard to reach them online, get in the room with him, do whatever you can to prioritize investing, and getting in the right rooms, because that really, really can totally change the trajectory of the growth and success of your business.
So you know how much I believe in events, I love speaking at events, but for many years, I attended events where I was not the speaker, and there's just as much value in the peers that you meet sitting next to you, as you get from networking or engaging with the people who are on stage. That's really important. And if you're interested in learning more about researching events, and trying to figure out what the best events for you to go to might be, I actually recorded a bonus episode with my friend Laylee Emadi where we talked about her conference that she's hosting in Dallas in January, the Creative Educator Conference. But we also kind of walk through a series of points that you should think on when you're looking at which events to attend just factors to consider things you might want to ask or research on your own to determine whether or not an event is worth attending to you. So anyways, if you're interested in that side of things, I'll make sure to link that bonus episode for you guys in the show notes so you can check it out.
So like I said, three of the five I met initially through some sort of event, but only one of them was from the waitlist. The second person who enrolled, again, was an event contact in the sense that I first met them in person at an event but they also were a previous client of mine. So they had invested in something I offered of a higher ticket amount previously, so there was that history with them. The third person is actually a local friend of mine, like our in real life friend, that I've you know, we've hung out in person, been to his house, we've gone to events together. So this was definitely more of a unique situation where we truly have established a friendship over a long period of time. But the timing of this offer was perfect for the transition that he was making professionally, in his business. And so that just worked out perfectly that he was looking for more support in this area, and then I happen to offer it.
And on that note, I think it's important to to mention that two of these five spots were people that I directly so like I said, the first person was on the waitlist. But if we remove the waitlist person, two of the other people who bought VIP spots who were not on the waitlist, I sent a direct invite to you and said, "Hey, I think that you would be a great fit for this. And you should really consider this like from knowing you, from following what's going on in your business, from chatting with you. I believe that this VIP day is something that would be perfect for you and I would love for you to give it a look and see if you feel the same way." So don't be afraid to make those direct invitations. I think so often we take a passive approach to business where we put an offer out there and we just hope that the right people see it that the right people find it and truth is a lot of times there are people who very well may be interested that just don't see your offer.
And I was even you know scrolling Facebook earlier this week and a friend of mine in the in the industry had just put out this poll asking you know how many people saw my reels that I posted over Black Friday weekend and I think she had posted like 16 or something like a lot a quite a quite a large volume. And it was so fascinating to see the comments pour in so many people were saying I didn't see any or I only saw one or two. And again, I just think we often forget that we forget how few people actually see something that we share. And I'll be honest, like my story views for the size of my account, is I would consider on the lower side just working in social media for many years, like from standard metrics, I would not say that my story views are anything to write home about, it's not impressive. But that's not the point. I think that's why you have to be so intentional with a curating the right audience who is following you, but also be taking the initiative to directly DM someone and say, Hey, I think this is for you. And here's why I believe that. And I would love to invite you to take one of these spots, don't be afraid to make that direct ask.
So anyways, this local friend of mine that I know in real life, I made that direct invite and I said, "Hey, I really think that you would be perfect for this. We've talked about, you know, you you're getting more into brand partnerships before and I think now's the time for you to act." And so I made that direct invitation. Now, the fourth person that enrolled We met through, I don't know if met is the right word, we found each other in each other's worlds, through mutual friends, she started following me. And then we started having Instagram conversations. And then we kind of became quick friends, because we realized we had a lot in common, but very much a newer contact like someone that I've really only had conversations with in the last 30 to 60 days, right? Very, very new friendship, amazing person, incredible, human, very seasoned entrepreneur, and someone that I really respect in this industry. And again, was a direct invite, I don't even know if she would have saw my stories had I not reached out to her and said, Hey, go watch like I told her I like directed her go watch my stories today, there's something that I'm talking about and sharing that I think you would be perfect for.
And then the fifth person who joined again, was someone that I met through an event setting this one was actually virtual, not in person, it was actually her event that she invited me to be a speaker at. So again, a very new relationship, a very new friendship. But that event was kind of the the starting point of us being in each other spheres. So out of all five, there were two inbound inquiries, and then three, either direct invites and or someone who was on the waitlist.
So that's kind of how it all broke down, I probably went into more detail than maybe you needed to know. But I feel like sometimes it is these little nuances that make all the difference. And I know that for myself, I love when people are actually able to find the origin point of where a sale happened, because we're not always the best at tracking that right? Like none of us have the time to sit around and have this giant database of like, every single entry point for every single person. So sometimes it's not easy to do, especially with lower ticket products and offers. But with high ticket services and high ticket offers, it's really, really helpful to actually take the time to look at that for yourself to do that analysis and see like, what were some of the common through lines? What were some of the common threads between the people who took action versus did it between how you got connected with someone because those are things that those are patterns, right that you can then track and repeat, and duplicate and do more of.
Alright, that is everything that I wanted to share with you guys in this mini case study. I hope this was helpful. Again, each of these seats were $5500. So times five, that's where you get the $27,500 in sales, and not a bad end of year cash injection for very minimal lift on the on the sales and marketing side. And I guess my takeaway for you today is to just encourage you and remind you that as you step into 2024 as you're wrapping up your year, keep in mind that not everything has to be big and splashy and complicated and have so many layers. Sometimes you can really just keep it as simple as a story. And some direct invites and looking within your own network of connections that you've already taken the time and invested into build. And the more you can simplify things, the more you can get ideas out there and just test them. I think the faster you're going to learn in 2024. So it's not always about waiting until every piece is perfect. Sometimes you really just got to get the request or the offer out there and see what the response is the data will tell you and inform you on how you should move forward next.
Thank you all for listening in to today's mini case study. As a reminder, if you love these type of episodes, me on a mic, solo walking you through our own business. Taking you behind the business with me and sharing what's going on in real time in our own business. These types of bonus episodes will only be accessible to our C suite members starting in 2024. So if you want to continue receiving access to behind the business bonus episodes like this, make sure you do me the word bonus by December 15. I think doors closed December 16, for early access, so just do it by December 15. To be safe, because I don't remember exactly when that link expires. But DM me the word 'BONUS', my instagram handle is @MissEllenYin. We'll also put all the information my Instagram link the word to say, in the shownotes so that you can reference that but make sure you DM me that word. If you want the link to join the C suite, which is going to be our flagship product in 2024 and beyond.
It's an annual membership. And you can get in at a 70% discount if you do it now versus waiting until we publicly launch in 2024. So the bonus episodes are a perk of being a member. This membership is all about providing you exclusive access to cash savings deals and discounts that we broker with our favorite brand partners whose services and offers and products support your growth as an entrepreneur and support your business. You also get access to exclusive content, including but not limited to these types of bonus episodes. And then also exclusive access to an off social community of small business CEOs. So we're not hosting this in a Facebook group. It's a private app that you can, you know download and access on your phone. You can also access it through a web browser super easy, but it's off of social media away from the distractions and it's a safe container and a safe space for you to meet other small business CEOs in all different stages of business in all different industries. And really learn and come together and collaborate and form the type of connections like the ones that I'm talking about in today's episode. So again, DM me the word 'BONUS' if you're interested in that.
And also if this topic just kind of strikes you as something that you want to learn more about brand partnerships. And you're actually interested in that retreat that I referenced for 2024, you can also DM me the word 'RETREAT', and I'll add you to the waitlist. So again, this is not a formal waitlist, I'm just putting your name and your email down or Instagram handle down in a Notes app on my phone. But when I do open seats for this future retreat, I'm thinking again, timing is probably going to be you know, second half of 2024. I don't know that for certain but that's kind of what I'm thinking. But whenever seats do become available, you'll be the first to know you can get first dibs since we're only opening 10 to 12 seats. So if you want to learn more about brand partnerships and add that as a revenue stream to your business, again, full transparency, this will be a higher ticket investment. It's $10,000 Is what I'm thinking for each seat. But again, if you're serious about wanting to add brand partnerships, as a revenue stream to your business, then it is more than worth the investment in my opinion. Knowing that you'll be able to have everything you need to go out and land consistent four to five figure campaigns and brand partnerships.
Alright, that is truly all I have for you today. I just wanted to make sure you had those last two announcements I will catch you all in the next bonus episode.
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