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In today's episode, we talk about how we helped Blair with a pricing change that resulted in $20,000.00 in recurring revenue. FULL TRANSCRIPT Jocelyn Sams: Hey y'all. On today's podcast, we talk about how taking one risk made Blair $20,000.00 in recurring revenue. Shane Sams: Welcome to the Flipped Lifestyle podcast, where life always comes before work. We're your hosts, Shane and Jocelyn Sams. We're a real family who figured out how to make our entire living online. Now, we help other families do the same. Are you ready to flip your life? All right, let's get started. Shane Sams: What is going on everybody? Welcome back to the Flipped Lifestyle podcast. It is great to be back with you again this week. And man, we have got an amazing success story for you guys. It is going to inspire you to take massive actions. Maybe to go in and take some of those risks that you've been avoiding, and just show you what is truly possible when you're all in, online. Shane Sams: I wanna welcome to the show today, Flip Your Life community member ... Oh wait, hold on. Pause. Blair, how do you pronounce your last name? Blair T.: Thielemier. The H is silent. Shane Sams: Okay. Thielemier. Blair T.: Yes. Jocelyn Sams: Yes. Jocelyn Sams: Tea, like I drink every morning. Tea. Shane Sams: Because I was about to say Thielemier. Blair T.: No. Jocelyn Sams: I can only imagine what you get called. Shane Sams: Wanna welcome to the show today, Flip Your Life member, Blair Thielemier. Blair, welcome. Blair T.: Thank you for having me. Jocelyn Sams: It's so exciting to have you on today. This is my favorite kinda show, as you know, if you listen to our show very often. I love it when we have people on that we have met in real life. And I have actually spent time with Blair a couple of different times. So, it's really cool to have you on today. Blair T.: Yeah, yeah, so I got to meet you last year in Southern California, at a Women's Leadership Conference. And then, again at Flipped Life Live. So that, was really exciting for me, too. Shane Sams: Yeah, Flip Your Life Live was incredible, because it was just this overwhelming emotional experience, meeting people who ... that weird feeling. It was like the Facebook affect, almost. You feel like you know each other in real life already, and then you're actually in the same place. And our brains have not evolved properly, to handle all these social media connections that we have, or these community connections that we have online, so then it's just a surreal experience, isn't it? To get in the same room with people you feel like you already know personally? Blair T.: And I really loved what you guys did with the Facebook group. Most conferences that you go to, once you buy your ticket, it's like, you don't get to meet anyone til you get there. But with Flipped Life Live, we had the Facebook group, and that, for me, 'cause I didn't know anyone, was really helpful to get to put names with faces, and not feel like I was going in, not knowing anyone. Shane Sams: Now, I really do feel like, that we knew you quite personally before the event, because we had worked together, and we had done some coaching calls. We had talked to you in the forums about some different things that you were doing online. And we kinda made some radical changes in your business. And we say radical changes, but it really was just changing one thing, right? We just kind of switched the way you were presenting an offer. And it led to this massive amount of success that we're gonna talk about in a few minutes. Shane Sams: But tell everybody a little bit more about you, your background, and your online business, leading up to that point where we had that coaching call. Blair T.: Okay, so by training, I am a Pharmacist. It was 2014, and I was pregnant with my daughter. And I got the news that the small hospital that I was working for was facing some budget cuts. And I essentially lost all my benefits and full-time status. So that, led me to scrambling, trying to pick up some different work at local community pharmacies. And through that, and because of my clinical background, they had asked me to do some clinical services for them in the pharmacies. Blair T.: So I did that for about a year. And then, in fall of 2015, I started working with a business coach to build my online business. I had people reaching out to me, asking for help, so that they could create these clinical services in their pharmacies. But I didn't know how to create a program around that. So we started with three one-on-one coaching clients, and then from there, I started building an email list, and building the website that was ... I was blogging about what I was working on, and so that was how people were finding out about MTM Consulting, which is what I'm known for. Shane Sams: And basically, this is just ... it's a way that Pharmacists can add more services to increase revenue. That's really what it is, right? Is that what it is? Blair T.: Right. So, pharmacy's typically seen as a product-based business. Retail pharmacy. And there's only so much you can do, as far as profit margins for medications, because there's laws, and insurance companies, and all that. So what we're seeing now is, more pharmacies adding in services, and becoming a little bit more service-based, like you would have in a physicians office. And these could be weight management courses, they could be ... like, I do genetic testing on people, to tell them which medications and supplements are best for their genetic makeup. Blair T.: So this, is what I've became known for, was people were wanting my advice on how to create these services, and then also, create consulting businesses around these services for themselves. Shane Sams: Interesting. Blair T.: So, yeah. I began by building an email list. And I said, "When I get to 100 members, I'm going to create a course for these people." So, that's what I ... sorry, 100 email subscribers. So, I had a very small list, and- Shane Sams: What year was that? Blair T.: It was December of 2015, when I launched the course for the first time. So, out of the hundred email subscribers, eight people took me up on the beta offer for the equal- Shane Sams: How much was that? Blair T.: $197. Shane Sams: That's awesome. Jocelyn Sams: Wow! Blair T.: Isn't that full circle? Shane Sams: I know, right? I know, that's a great trailer for what's to come. I like what you said there. Everyone remember, $197. This is gonna be a magic number, when we get to it later, okay? How did you feel when you got eight people to buy something for $200 ... that's $1,600.00. And for everybody listening, that's just 100 people on an email list. That's not a 10,000 person email list, right? Blair T.: Right, right. You gotta start somewhere, so it's funny, my web developer actually charged me $1,500.00 to build the course, so I actually kind of pre-sold it. And so profitability wise, I only made about $100.00 off of it the first time. Shane Sams: Hey listen, it's revenue. That's a start, right? Blair T.: That's right. But that was the first, the beta test. And then, I created each lesson, each week. It was like a dripped course. And each week, I would create it. I would send it out to them. I would ask for their feedback. And then, by the end of February, we had all six lessons created, and I launched it again. And I got, I think 15 more members join in the course. Shane Sams: Wow, that's amazing. Jocelyn Sams: Yeah, that's awesome, because it just says, "Okay, these people do want this. People do want this product." Shane Sams: Yeah. And it's amazing, I love what you said, too, you're like, "Well, I made $1,600, but I only profited $100 off that first beta, right? Blair T.: Right. Shane Sams: But now, you've got a course that you can sell over, and over, and over again with the same infrastructure, so when you get the next 15 people, it's all profit. And the next 15 people, you might buy some ads or something, but it starts stacking 'cause you've created something you can sell for two or three years without even worrying about it, right? Blair T.: Right. And then, so these people that had bought the course, really enjoyed it, but they wanted more. The course was very basic about starting a business. So we started from LLC versus sole proprietorship. I mean, we started from the very beginning. And as people went through the course, they wanted more and more specific information about billing for the services, like if the Pharmacist was gonna work in a Physician's office, there's certain billing codes we could use. Blair T.: And so, I thought, "I'm not going to create lesson seven, and then charge them for that. So how do I do this in a way that continues to pay me for my time, in creating these new products?" So, I was working with Natalie E., and she turned me onto the Flipped Life podcast. And she said, "There's these people, they do membership sites. I think this might be the right direction for you to go." Blair T.: And that's how I got introduced to you guys, probably in April of 2016. And we went ahead probably April, May, June, that was the transition into the membership site, so then after that, it was still $197 to join the course, and then after three months, it would roll over to a recurring membership of $27.00 per month. Shane Sams: Now, things ... how did that go, when you first did that? How did it go when you started saying, "Here's the course, and then you get the membership." And then, later on, you raised the price. Didn't you ... you did something radically different. You had a big join fee, or something like that? Blair T.: Yeah, so as we kept building, now we're at 11 lessons in the course. And then, we had forums, and we had monthly member calls. And so, each thing I added, changed the price a little bit, so we worked our way up. By 2018, we were at $997 to join the course, and then $97 a month in recurring, to continue the membership. Shane Sams: So, this was interesting, because this is, kind of, where ... Jocelyn and I, earlier in the year, starting doing more one-and-one work. Right? Where we had some times open in our calendar, where we could come in and really take people ... Jocelyn and I are always on the look for somebody on the verge. They're stuck, right? And there was this moment where you were kinda stuck. And the membership got to a certain point, got to a certain number, and you were only getting a couple people a month, right? Blair T.: Right. Shane Sams: So that's what we talked about on our member call. What made you charge a thousand dollar join fee. When did it go from your mind, like, that's what you called it, when we first talked, to a join fee, compared to buying the course. Right? Because that's a huge amount of money for someone to come out, just to walk in the door, let alone, what they're gonna pay monthly, after. What was the thought process behind that? Where did you get that from? Blair T.: I mean, you know, the gurus say, "If you do an online course, $997." Jocelyn Sams: They have to be right. I mean, hello? Blair T.: And that was essentially the reason. I mean, Jocelyn, when I talked to you last November, at the conference, you kinda said, "That's interesting that you're doing it that way." And I was like, "Yeah, eventually, I'd like to transfer to just doing a monthly membership." Shane Sams: What kept you from doing that? That's interesting you said ... So, you talked to her in November. You talked to us in the summer of next year. What was the delay? What was the fear of taking the join fee off? What was keeping you from doing that? Blair T.: So, to me, these people that were my current members, they had paid the $997. And to me, it was almost unfair to take that away, and then, to offer it to other people at just a monthly price. And to do away with that join fee. And I drug my feet on changing that price from November 2017, until September 3rd of 2018, when you and I had the one-on-one conversation on Labor Day. Shane Sams: And it's amazing you say that, because we all get these things in our head. Right? One, that everybody's paying attention. Two, that it's not fair. Three, that, "Well, I can't change anything, 'cause everyone in the past got it one way, and no one in the future will ever get it differently." Right? 'Cause we struggle with that, too. Jocelyn and I just had a conversation this morning about some changes that we're throwing around, for our membership. And we had that same conversation. "Well, what about everyone that's paid this? What about everybody that's done that? What if we make this available in this tier, and we don't make it available, and it's been available for everybody else, what's the incentive to keep moving forward?" These are always conversations that we have in our head, and it's almost like we're afraid we're gonna break something. Shane Sams: But your case is very interesting, because when we went through the numbers, your membership was stagnating, literally. It was like, no one was joining. What was it? Like, single digits, right? A month, or something like that. And we said to ourselves, when we look at these numbers, we're like, "Man, this massive wall that you have built around your castle, is literally preventing," ... you dug a moat. That's what I told you, on the call, around your castle. You're like, "Man, look at this city on the hill. Look how awesome this is. But now, no one's allowed in." Right? Blair T.: Right. Shane Sams: And we keep adding value, over time, which is just a natural evolution of all of our products and membership, and we feel like we've gotta keep charging more, and keeping more people out, when really, the more awesome your stuff gets, it's almost like it should get more accessible. Right? And that's kind of what we talked about on our call, is how do we make Blair's membership more accessible? So I told you, I said, "What if we just dropped the join fee, all together?" And I remember, you gasped, on the call. But there was a catch, 'cause I wanted to address that real fear you had about people who had paid more. Right? Shane Sams: So what we decided was, this thing was really valuable. It was an amazing opportunity for pharmacies to make more money, and it really was worth a lot of money, so we were gonna double your monthly price, right? So all the old people, who ended up paying the join fee, that's fine, but they were paying a little bit lower price, because they've been with you longer. They deserve a lower price for being loyal, right? But now, the new people get in cheaper, up front, but it's actually charging what it's worth, $197. So, go back to that call, how did you feel about that, after we worked out this ... it's not really a compromise, but a solution to that problem? Blair T.: So, I knew I wanted to talk to you before Flipped Life Live, 'cause there was definitely some shifts that I felt like, it wasn't working. We were stuck on 40 members, and I felt like the whole year, we were, like you said, we were stagnating. And, it was that mindset, exactly what you said, that I felt like I was, somehow, taking value away from the other members, if I was technically decreasing the price to join, but increasing it, if you look at it over, say, a year. And when you reframed that, and made that shift for me, you said, "Now you ha…
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