{"id":52979,"date":"2017-09-14T05:30:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-14T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com\/?p=46147"},"modified":"2025-04-04T10:32:25","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T14:32:25","slug":"how-i-made-one-million-luisa-zhou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com\/how-i-made-one-million-luisa-zhou\/","title":{"rendered":"Exactly how I made $1.1M in sales in 11 months"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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In this post, we\u2019ll be diving into the journey of Luisa Zhou, an aspiring entrepreneur who had launched several ventures but was searching for her big breakthrough.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Most aspiring entrepreneurs have the same dream: to build a profitable business as quickly as possible. Maybe it\u2019s so they can have greater control, or more freedom, or so that they can make a difference, but the dream is the same. Me? I was in it for the flexibility.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

When I started my business in 2014, I had been through the ringer. First with a tutoring company I had scaled to six figures. Then as the co-founder of a mobile payments startup in 2010 that reached a multimillion-dollar valuation before fizzling out. After those two adventures I was worn out by the entrepreneurial roller coaster, and I went back to the corporate world. (In between those two business ventures, I had held corporate jobs in both engineering and financial services.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But then, in late 2014, my father, mother, and sister all suffered life-threatening emergencies (heart surgery, cancer, and blindness), and because I didn\u2019t have enough vacation days, I wasn\u2019t able to be with them.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

At that time, my managerial job gave me a six-figure salary, yes, but, I realized that it meant nothing if I couldn\u2019t be there for the people I loved when they needed me. And so began my next entrepreneurial journey, one I took to maximize the control I\u2019d have over my own schedule.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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It wasn\u2019t flexibility and control alone that I was after though. After having spent years constantly stressed about finances, I knew that whatever I decided to do would have to be able to scale, to have relatively low overhead, and to be able to at the very least replace my salary. For all of these reasons, I decided to start an online business.<\/p>\n\n

11 months after my first online sale, I crossed over $1.1 million in sales.\"GL<\/p>\n\n

And now, nearly three years since then, I help ambitious men and women just like me make the journey from employee to entrepreneur. To date, over 500 students have used my digital courses to build their own online businesses. But I didn\u2019t start there. There were a few successful (and failed) attempts along the way…in addition to the five years I\u2019d already spent in my previous two businesses.<\/p>\n\n

My path to a million can be broken into a few key decisions:<\/p>\n\n

Phase I: Finding the right business idea<\/a>
Phase II: Jump-starting my business with 1-on-1 clients<\/a>
Phase III: Creating leveraged income with my first course<\/a>
Phase IV: Increasing momentum with my second course<\/a>
Phase V: Scaling to $1 million plus<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Let\u2019s dive in.<\/p>\n\n

Phase I: Finding the right business idea<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n

Getting started and finding my business idea was actually the hardest part, as I wasn\u2019t sure what I could sell and it took a few tries before I found the \u201cright\u201d idea.<\/p>\n\n

Attempt #1: Choosing a business idea because it seemed easy<\/h3>\n\n

My goal was to get out of my job as quickly as possible, so it seemed like a smart move to choose the \u201ceasiest\u201d business idea. (Spoiler: this was definitely not<\/em> smart.)<\/p>\n\n

For me, that was teaching people how to use Microsoft Excel. I knew there were quite a few six- and seven-figure businesses that sold consulting or courses on how to use Microsoft Excel, so I thought — \u201cI do this daily in my job and I\u2019m good at it. If they can do it I can too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

\"Making<\/a>\n
I\u2019m embarrassed to say that I simply saw this guy making seven figures
teaching Microsoft Excel and thought, \u201cI can do it too.\u201d<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n

Spoiler alert: There is no such thing as an \u201ceasy\u201d business idea.<\/p>\n\n

And because I was so focused on finding the fastest way out of my job instead of on actually building a business that helped solve a problem, I set myself up for failure by not bothering to research my market and my customer. And, since I was expecting immediate success, I was unprepared for the inevitable setbacks that are a part of every business.<\/p>\n\n

I had no plan, no idea how to speak to my audience (or even who they were), or what products they would want. As a result, when I tried to pitch writing guest post articles about my topic to other sites, I got zero responses.<\/p>\n\n

\"Guest<\/a>\n
This is a guest post pitch I sent to a Lifehacker contributor, which I (unsurprisingly) never got a response to.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n

I also couldn\u2019t find a single potential client, because I didn\u2019t know who my potential clients were!<\/p>\n\n

What\u2019s more, in my rush I had failed to take into account that I spent all day working in Excel and didn\u2019t want to spend my spare time also\u2026 thinking about Excel. Without realizing it, I set up my life to work on the most boring part of my day job all the time. This is known on the internet as \u201cplaying yourself<\/a>.\u201d https:\/\/vine.co\/v\/ePVaVE6K773\/embed\/simple<\/p>\n\n

Working on my business felt like a chore that I would put off for as long as possible, to the point that it took me over three weeks to write a single blog post for my personal blog.<\/p>\n\n

About a month after resolving to create a massively profitable Excel tutoring business, I realized it wasn\u2019t going to work because of all the above reasons and started searching for my next idea.<\/p>\n\n

Fortunately, I had learned from my first attempt and did research on my market and customer for my next idea. Unfortunately, despite that, my second attempt was also destined for failure…<\/p>\n\n

Attempt #2: Choosing a business idea I hated because I was good at it<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

Your business idea does not<\/em> have to be your life\u2019s passion, but it should be something you enjoy doing. That\u2019s something I forgot to take into account for my next business attempt.<\/p>\n\n

Going back to the drawing board for what I could sell, I realized that I was frequently asked about how I had managed my career so well — from switching industries to negotiating a six-figure salary to getting a managerial position at such a young age.<\/p>\n\n

And so business idea #2 \u2014 career coaching \u2014 was born.<\/p>\n\n

This time, I did<\/em> do my market research, speaking to the same people who\u2019d been asking me for career advice so that I could understand what challenges they were facing and what their goals were related to their careers. At the end of each research interview, I asked one simple question: \u201cWould you be willing to pay for help to get a better job\/salary?\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Out of the five people I asked this question to, two of them said yes. I offered to help them for a small fee, asking only $300 for a month\u2019s coaching featuring four weekly calls, because I felt uncomfortable charging people I knew. (I seriously undercharged, but still, I was in business!)<\/p>\n\n

Because I actually understood my audience this time around, I was able to pitch more relevant guest-post ideas and was quickly accepted to write my first ever guest-post article, for the career guidance site AfterCollege.com.<\/p>\n\n

\"My<\/a>\n
My first guest post, talking about how to land a job at a startup even if you\u2019re not a computer programmer<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n\n

Things were going well, but I soon ran into a problem.<\/p>\n\n

I realized that I hated giving career advice! All I could think about when helping my clients was wanting to tell them, \u201cStop trying to pursue your career. In a few years, you\u2019ll be like me and want to do your own thing.\u201d It didn\u2019t feel right, and I knew I couldn\u2019t spend my time offering further career advice.<\/p>\n\n

Attempt #3: Third time\u2019s the charm<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n

After two attempts, I was discouraged and wondering if I\u2019d ever be able to find a business idea that would work for me. I also didn\u2019t know if I had any other \u201csellable\u201d skills in my arsenal. That\u2019s when I got a lucky break that proved me wrong.<\/p>\n\n

I had hired a copywriter to help me write content for my career coaching site and when out of curiosity I asked her where she got most of her clients from, she casually answered, \u201cFacebook groups.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

I was completely thrown \u2014 as I didn\u2019t even know that Facebook groups were a thing! I asked her for her top Facebook group and instantly joined it to check it out. It was a group called \u201cEntrepreneur Incubator\u201d with thousands of members, mostly female entrepreneurs.<\/p>\n\n

Browsing over the posts in the group, I realized something — there were a lot of questions about how to set up and run Facebook ads. (This was back when Facebook ads were relatively new and people were still trying to figure them out.)<\/p>\n\n

I was in luck. My job at the time was in digital advertising, and I spent my days managing and analyzing advertising campaigns, especially Facebook campaigns. And so, my third business idea was born \u2014 digital advertising consulting.<\/p>\n\n

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\u2026but you don\u2019t have to take the same path as everyone else. How would it look if you designed a Rich Life on your own terms? Take our quiz and find out: <\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Phase II: Jump-starting my business with 1-on-1 clients<\/strong><\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

When I started my business, I was literally starting from zero. I didn\u2019t have a following, any brand recognition, or any social proof. (In other words, I didn\u2019t have endorsements, client success stories, or any proof that I was \u201clegit\u201d to convince potential clients that they should buy from me.)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Because of that, I knew that whatever I sold first had to help me do two things:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Create social proof for my business<\/li>\n
  2. Generate as much upfront revenue as possible so that I could invest back in my business and grow it even faster (more on this below)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    <\/p>\n

    Plus, it had to do so quickly, without having to spend months building an audience or spend a lot of money upfront before I made any sales.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    So, out of necessity, my first \u201cproduct\u201d was born: coaching<\/a>. I knew that offering coaching would not only allow me to help my clients get the fastest and best results \u2014 and thus social proof for my business \u2014 through my personal support, but that it would also help me maximize my revenue upfront because of the premium I could charge for one-on-one attention.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    I started spending all my free time hanging out where my potential clients were online (free Facebook groups) and directly engaging with them by sharing valuable content and answering any questions I could about advertising.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    That\u2019s how I got my first client. A woman I\u2019d been helping for free \u2014 answering her questions about how to set up a basic advertising campaign \u2014 asked me how she could work with me, and when I told her the price \u2014 $5,000 for six months (calculated based on my hourly salary) \u2014 she said, without missing a beat, \u201cI\u2019m in.\u201d<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    \"PayPal<\/a>\n
    PayPal receipt of the first installment from my first client<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

    <\/p>\n

    On a high off that first sale, I started to pitch my offer more\u2026only to repeatedly hear, \u201cYou\u2019re too expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    \""I<\/a>\n
    I repeatedly got responses similar to this \u201cI can\u2019t afford it\u201d message.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

    <\/p>\n

    I quickly deduced that the reason I\u2019d been able to get my first client so easily was because I\u2019d spent so much time and effort helping her first, so that when I shared my price, she already knew how much value she would get compared to the investment.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    Whereas once I started pitching without first giving value, my audience had no idea how valuable my advice was and so couldn\u2019t get past the price. So I went back to doing what had worked originally: offering free guidance before pitching my offer.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    I knew though that I couldn\u2019t sustain working for free for weeks before seeing if a potential client would be willing to pay, so I tested offering one-time 30-minute free sessions where I\u2019d answer someone\u2019s questions about advertising or look over their campaigns for 30 minutes.<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    I posted these offers in the free Facebook groups that I was in, using a template like this:<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Start with attention-grabber, such as a question that speaks to the pain\/dream.<\/li>\n
    2. Get to the point right away and introduce the free 30-minute offer. Note that spots are limited and are first come first served.<\/li>\n
    3. Describe the top two to three challenges your clients are facing and how you can help.<\/li>\n
    4. Give a very clear call to action (\u201cComment or PM to schedule your call\u201d).<\/li>\n
    5. Introduce yourself briefly to establish credibility.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      <\/p>\n

      At the beginning of each call, I would say, \u201cThe goal of this call is to make sure we answer your #1 question about your advertising campaign. If you get value out of it and if it feels like a good fit, at the end of the call I\u2019d love to discuss how I can continue helping you get even better results through working together. Does that sound good?\u201d This way, we were both clear on the goals for the call.<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      After I had delivered on the free guidance I\u2019d promised, I would wrap up the call by asking, \u201cDo you feel that you got a lot of value out of this call? If so, what did you get out of it? I know your goals are to … and considering how much we accomplished in just 30 minutes, I would love to help you more. Would you like to hear about how we could do that?\u201d If they said yes, I would then share my one-on-one offer.<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      In addition to offering free sessions, here\u2019s what helped to quickly build momentum at this stage:<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      1. Start with what you know.<\/strong> I still see so many new entrepreneurs trying to start businesses that they don\u2019t know anything about just because they want to build a business around their \u201cpassion.\u201d<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      Don\u2019t get me wrong. I\u2019m all for doing what you love, but I also firmly believe in starting with what you know and building from there<\/a>.<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      The reason I was able to quickly build trust with my audience through my free work, and thus grow my business quickly, was because of my ability to deliver real results for their Facebook ad campaigns, developed from my job experience.<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      2. Be consistent. <\/strong>I was often in Facebook groups multiple times per day, giving value, answering questions, and when appropriate, offering paid coaching on advertising.<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      \"I<\/a>\n
      I scheduled my \u201cFacebook time\u201d to hold myself accountable.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

      <\/p>\n

      Being so consistent kept me top of mind for my potential clients, and often on those free 30-minute sessions, I would hear from someone that they had requested a call with me because they had seen my posts and could tell that I \u201cknew my stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      3. Be human.<\/strong> When I first started sharing content online, I thought that the more information I shared, the better received my posts would be. Which is why I shared long and dry posts like this one:<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      \"Facebook<\/a>\n
      As you can see, only a handful of people responded to this post.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

      <\/p>\n

      As I started testing different types of content though, I realized that it\u2019s not just information your audience craves. They want entertainment and human connection.<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      So I started adding stories and pop culture references to my posts, as well as making them shorter and easier to read:<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      \"Facebook<\/a>\n
      My new posts generated a lot more engagement, which helped me build brand recognition much faster.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

      <\/p>\n

      4. Adapt to market demand.<\/strong> After repeatedly hearing \u201cYou\u2019re too expensive,\u201d I knew that I had two options: I could either continue to pitch my current price until eventually my next client said \u201cyes,\u201d or I could lower my price.<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      Even though lowering my coaching price meant that I would be making less per hour for consulting than I did in my 9-to-5, I knew that doing so would help me get more clients, and thus more social proof, much faster. Sometimes in business it\u2019s hard to keep your eye on the larger goal. And for me, that was getting as much information and social proof as possible for a larger effort down the road.<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      So, despite popular advice to never lower your price, I decided to sacrifice short-term profit for long-term gain, and offered a new three-month, one-on-one package at $1,500 (down from $5,000). Almost immediately, I got my next two clients.<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      Afterwards, I was able to raise my price back up to $5,000 and never had to drop it again.<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      Phase III: Creating leveraged income with my first online course<\/strong><\/h2>\n

      <\/p>\n

      After getting 10 one-on-one clients, I knew it was time for a change.<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      I was maxed out and had no more time or energy to give. What\u2019s more, my business had begun to naturally evolve: As it had grown I had begun to attract aspiring entrepreneurs who wanted my advice for building their own businesses.<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      \"Skype<\/a>\n
      I frequently got messages and emails like this one asking for business advice.<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

      <\/p>\n

      So I took the logical next step. Taking everything I\u2019d learned from my two previous business ventures as well as what I\u2019d learned about the online business world over the past year, I created a product that would allow me to work with more people in the same amount of time: a seven-week course called Your First Paying Clients<\/em>.<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      Here\u2019s the process I used to successfully launch my first course.<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

      1. Create the smallest first course possible.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

      <\/p>\n

      Many new entrepreneurs try to start with a massive \u201csignature\u201d course that includes everything they can teach on their subject. Instead, creating a smaller course that only teaches a portion of what your \u201csignature\u201d course would contain creates a triple-win situation because:<\/p>\n

      <\/p>\n

        \n
      1. It\u2019s easier to sell<\/li>\n
      2. It\u2019s easier to create<\/li>\n
      3. It\u2019s easier for students to implement (which means more testimonials for you)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        <\/p>\n

        My first course was a simple, seven-week program designed to get my students a quick but powerful win: their first paying clients as a coach or consultant based on their own sellable skills.<\/p>\n

        <\/p>\n

        I didn\u2019t know a lot about pricing courses but after a few minutes of Googling \u201conline courses,\u201d I saw that there were four general pricing tiers: $500 or less, $1,000, $2,000, and $2,000+.<\/p>\n

        <\/p>\n

        I decided to go with the lowest tier to make my course as easy to sell as possible, but to go with the highest pricing possible in that tier to maximize my revenue. And that\u2019s how I decided \u2014 in less than 10 minutes \u2014 to price my course at $497.<\/p>\n

        <\/p>\n

        2. Directly engage with your potential customers.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

        <\/p>\n

        I had less than 300 subscribers on my email list at that point, and in theory, I should have failed.<\/p>\n

        <\/p>\n

        But I had an ace up my sleeve: Having experienced the power of Facebook groups for building customer relationships, I decided to create my own group and use it to sell my course. What\u2019s more, I was very strategic about how I used my group:<\/p>\n

        <\/p>\n

        First, I created a live five-day challenge. There participants had to complete daily prompts related to helping them get their first paying clients. The prompts were simple and fun, which made participation easy. In addition, I also used a points system where participants got a set number of points for completing each day\u2019s prompt. This provided further motivation to complete all five days of the challenge.<\/p>\n

        <\/p>\n

        Here\u2019s an example of one of the day\u2019s prompts:<\/p>\n

        <\/p>\n

        \"Daily<\/a>\n
        Example prompt from my challenge<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

        <\/p>\n

        During the challenge, I responded to every single post and comment in the Facebook group. My leading by example encouraged others to engage with the group as well, and as a result, by the end of the challenge I had a very engaged group of people who had gotten a lot of value from the challenge and who appreciated what I had to share.<\/p>\n

        <\/p>\n

        \"Appreciative<\/a>\n
        Challenge participants shared their appreciation with posts like this one<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

        <\/p>\n

        At the end of the challenge, I announced the link to my course sales page and told everyone in my group that it would be available for purchase for two weeks.<\/p>\n

        <\/p>\n

        During those two weeks, I was in the group every day, promoting the course in one way or another:<\/p>\n

        <\/p>\n