Laura Phillips made the same money in two hours that used to take her six weeks of building websites for clients, and she didn't raise her rates to do it. She expected maybe two or three people to say yes, and 42 did.
She's from the UK, and she's been in business for 12 years. She started out designing and building websites, then ran launches for big clients, then built launch software called ProperPlan, and now she's back to teaching. And she says that over 10 years of changing what she sells, she's "never ever been without money."
So how did one workshop start all of that? It began with a free Facebook group, and people asking her the same questions over and over.
And then we dig into the rest. The first membership she closed, the data from her own course that horrified her, the line she uses so the ask feels like an invitation, and the brand-new membership she decided to start about four weeks before we talked, which got 48 members in its founding launch.
In this conversation, Laura and I get into:
* How one £49 workshop paid her what six weeks of website work did
* Why making something new to sell every month stopped making sense
* The first membership she closed, and why it was "too broad, everything for everyone"
* What her own course data showed her, and why she couldn't keep selling that course
* The one line she uses so the ask feels like an invitation
* Why "we've all got bills" led her to start a new membership, and how its founding launch got 48 members in
* Whether launches still work right now, and what "show up as you" really means
FREE RESOURCE: The three plays from this episode, written up for you in the free resource kit: Sell What They Ask For, Invite, Don't Pitch, and Show Up As You.
→ https://podcast.stu.me
CONNECT WITH LAURA:
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauraphillipshq/
* Code Anything Club (her new membership): https://codeanything.club/
* ProperPlan (her software): https://www.properplan.com/
CONNECT WITH STU:
* Website: https://stu.me
* Book "Predictable Profits": https://a.co/d/4GIi1uz
* Instagram: https://instagram.com/stumclaren
* Podcast: https://podcast.stu.me
* Membership.io: https://membership.io
Subscribe if you want income that doesn't depend on your next launch. That's what we dig into here every week.
TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Never Without Money
0:28 - Meet Laura Phillips
0:51 - From Websites to Software and Back to Teaching
1:26 - The Thread That Carries Every Pivot
3:02 - Bad Advice Made Her Start a Group
4:17 - How a Free Group Grew to 2,000
5:17 - The Day Her Whole Life Changed
5:58 - Why It Worked
7:16 - She Just Wanted More Ease
8:08 - Why One-Off Products Stopped Making Sense
9:11 - Too Nervous to Go Off Script
10:59 - There's a Human on the Other Side
12:12 - Stu's Nerves Before Brazil
14:25 - The Messy First Membership She Closed
16:11 - What Her Course Data Showed Her
17:19 - When the Tool She Needed Didn't Exist
18:29 - Her First Big Ask
20:23 - Pitching Software That Didn't Exist Yet
21:41 - How She Asks for the Sale
22:41 - Burnt Out, Then Three Weeks to Raise
23:46 - Why Taking Herself Out Was the Mistake
26:08 - Why She Started a New Membership
26:58 - "We've All Got Bills"
28:09 - "I Should Do a Membership"
29:05 - 48 Members in a Founding Launch
29:40 - You Just Need One Happy Member
31:07 - Why She Doesn't Want 10,000 Members
32:28 - Being Open About How She Uses AI
33:03 - Do Launches Still Work?
34:12 - What "Show Up as You" Really Means
35:10 - Why Personality Does Matter
36:35 - Treat the Launch Like a Journey
37:34 - Over 10 Years of Pivots, Never Without Money
39:07 - Where to Find Laura
39:21 - Stu's Key Takeaways
