the bossbabe podcast - 488: Maria Wendt on Building A $1M/Month Low-Ticket Business

Episode Date: May 5, 2026

Most coaches scaling past $300K hit a ceiling and assume they need a higher-ticket offer. Maria Wendt did the opposite and built an 8-figure business selling $24 products. In this conversation, Natalie sits down with Maria Wendt — the founder behind an 8-figure business built on low-ticket products. Maria breaks down how she scaled to near-$1M/months working ~10 hours a week, the front-page checkout architecture that turns $1 orders into $100+ carts at a 60% take rate, why she walked away from the $1M/year coaching model after her daughter was born, and how she scaled to 100K YouTube subscribers in seven months with a webcam and no editor. If you've ever wondered whether low-ticket can actually scale past seven figures — without a higher-ticket offer, a bigger team, or longer hours — this episode is the full operating system. Time Stamps: 01:15  -The low-ticket 8-figure model 07:35 - Maria's first two years: $63 → $350 13:18 - The single-mom pivot to low-ticket 16:24 - Pricing, AOV, and lifetime value 21:00 - Checkout architecture and front-page bumps 31:40 - Content strategy: three types 38:25 - The $850K/month math 43:20 - Hiring strategy for mom-founders 49:00 - A typical day in the business Resources and Links:  Follow Maria: @maria.wendt on Instagram Free tutorials, free guides, and the full $24 product library lives at mariawendt.com. Pre-Order The Freedom-Based Business Method. Sign Up For Our Free Weekly Newsletter & Get Insights From Natalie Every Single Week On All Things Strategy, Motherhood, Business Growth + More.  Drop Us A Review On The Podcast + Send Us A Screenshot & We’ll Send You Natalie’s 7-Figure Operating System Completely FREE (value $1,997).

Maria, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be with you. So for anyone that doesn't know about you, give us a little background on what you do. Yeah. So basically, I have a pretty big audience and I have built an eight figure business selling low ticket and just low ticket. So I always like to say, I don't want to help a few people make millions and millions of dollars. I want to help millions of people make a couple extra thousand dollars a month. So that's what I spend my time doing. And when did you start in this industry? Yeah, that's a great question. So I initially started doing freelance graphic design back in 2013. So this was before like ChatsyBT and Canva could design everything for us. And so I would get paid like $30 or $40 to design flyers for corporate companies or just like a little postcards, little business cards.

And so I did that for a while. And then I got better and better at getting clients to, you know, do logos and websites. And people would pay me in February. and be on a wait list for me to design the logo all the way in November. So I just got really good at positioning myself so people wanted the Maria Went logo. And eventually my graphic design friends

who are artists, not business people, they started coming to me asking, like, what are you doing to get clients? How are you doing this? You have so many people wanting to work with you. What are you doing? And so I started showing my friends the things I knew about business, about marketing.

And one day I looked up and I had more people wanting to work with me to help them get clients than I did the actual logo. and websites. And so that's when I fully pivoted in 2016. And I've basically been doing the same thing since 2016, which is just showing people how to make money online, how to get clients online, how to grow their business and social media online. And did sales come naturally to you? Or did you just decide, you know what? I'm going to dive in and study marketing. I don't think, I don't think sales comes

naturally to anyone. I at least I think for most of us, it's a skill we learn. But you put the practice in. There was a very long period of my business where I was taking over 100 sales calls a month. And so, like, I put the time in and that's how I got better at it. But eventually, I wanted something more leverage, right? I was working all the time. I was doing high ticket where I was selling, you know, like $10,000, $72,000 coaching packages. And it's a lot of work. And I had just gotten pregnant with my baby and I was like, I want something a little bit more hands off. And that's when I pivoted to solely doing low ticket. And that was about three years ago. And it became very scalable for me because of that. Is that when your business really started to explode? Yeah. Talk to me about that. What

happened in terms of your audience growth and revenue growth in that period. Yeah, it's really interesting. I didn't really have an audience at all until 2023, which was two years ago. So I was very good at monetizing the little audience that I did have and monetizing other people's Facebook groups. That's where I got clients for a very long time. But two years ago, I just knew that the model that I wanted, which was making millions of dollars with a little $27 product, I knew that you needed volume to do that. You needed eyeballs. You needed traffic. And so I was like, okay, how do I do that?

Obviously, I need to start building an audience. And, you know, it's so funny. We can go into the strategy, and there is some strategy to growing on social media. But honestly, so much of it is just showing up consistently. Like, it's so simple in theory. I think the execution of it is where people, like, fall off the bandwagon. And so I just started posting consistently and I grow one platform at a time. So I focus on going all in on one platform, getting that up to 100,000 and then I move on to the next one.

I'm going to pause. Should I pull up or you think it's okay? Okay. All right. You'll tell me if I need to. Okay. Sorry. Okay.

Okay. Okay. It's funny. I know when we talk about there's a bit of a strategy. There is. And I was talking to a friend the other day and she said this to me and this kind of encapsulate how I think a lot of people who are struggling to grow online feel. She had done a social media course that she absolutely.

loved and she was promoting her affiliate link where people can get $500 off if they sign up through her. And someone messaged her saying, oh, I did the course. I didn't really get that much out of it. And she wrote them a really thoughtful response. She's like, oh, that's really interesting. I feel like it taught me how to think in terms of content and it got me going really consistent. And this person replied and they were like, well, I feel like they were just teaching, you know, how to copy other people's content and it just wasn't for me. And it was so interesting because it's the same course, but two completely different perspectives. So my friend had the perspective of, I'm going to learn how to think in terms of creating content that resonates. So guess what I'm going to do?

Like anyone else would do, I'm going to go look for clues, success leaves clues. And then I'm just going to consistently post. Then we looked at this other person's page and no shade, but they weren't posting consistently. They weren't following any kind of formula. And what I think they were looking for was a secret. What's the secret that these people who are growing have, that I don't have. That's going to mean I can shortcut all the really uncomfortable stuff. Exactly. And I hate to break it to anyone, but that secret doesn't exist.

There is no shortcut. There are so many things you and I do that we know we'll take our engagement from, you know, one out of 10 to 10 out of 10 or we'll boost the follower growth from one out of 10 to 10. We know those things. But guess what? Only because we've studied what works. It's not like we are inventing a roadmap. We're studying.

We're iterating. We're putting our own spin on it from where. what we've learned, but there's no magic bullet. Yeah, I think about that a lot. Why do people want a secret? And I do think it's because if there isn't a secret, then they just have to do the hard work. And so they almost create a much harder path for themselves because they're constantly chasing that secret and they're constantly like resetting their momentum from zero because, oh, I'm going to try this shiny object and then I'm going to try. And so it's constantly, it actually makes it harder. But I think what they're doing is they're looking for proof that there is that magic bullet

because that's what we want. But yet look around at the people who have sort of arrived. We're all saying the same thing. We're saying it's showing up consistently. We're saying it's posting every day. We're saying it's doing the hard thing over and over again. And like you said, iterating and experimenting. But fundamentally, you can't iterate and you can't experiment if you haven't done the hard thing. Exactly. And I think, you know, every single one of us, we teach our own versions of market. We do, you know, you and I's marketing strategy is very different. But I also think there's not one way, but when someone is choosing who to learn from, I just say, pick one strategy and just stick with it. You know, you don't need to buy a million different courses. You don't need to follow a million different people's strategies. Just pick one. And I think that for me, I know we have very similar stories, but for me, I made my first million dollars through one funnel, one $29 product and one channel. And that was it. And at the time, I wasn't. like listening to a lot of external noise, I just decided, okay, if I'm going to make this work, I need to obsess on making this work. And it's so easy to want to jump ship when things

aren't working because that's the hardest place to be. It's so much harder to keep going when you're not seeing results. But it's just like, if you could just see around the corner of how quickly things can work, you would never stop. I think that's right. And I think, I don't know, someone said it once and it really stuck with me. It was if you could fast forward a few years, and see that there's definite proof that you would be successful at this, you wouldn't give up. And I think that that's something, if I can be really honest, I think that I always believe. I think that's something that I, you know, some things are taught. Some things are, you know, we learn.

But the belief that I would figure it out, that self-belief I always had. And I get asked by my students sometimes, like, how did you know what was going to work? How did you not quit? And I thought a lot about this because they're like, how did I not quit on myself? Because it's so tempting to, right? I made $63 in my first year, and then I made $350 in my second year. So, like, I wasn't doing very good in my first couple of years. And I realized it's because I kept my promises to myself in the little things in other areas.

If I said I was going to wake up at 5 a.m., I woke up at 5 a.m. If I said I was going to the gym, I went to the gym. And so when we keep our promises to ourselves in little things, we build self-trust. And that self-trust is what propels us and allows us to push forward through seasons of entrepreneurship. And I tell my girls, I'm like, look, if you think the hardest part of your business is that first 90 days when it doesn't take off, let me tell you, if someone that's been doing this for 13 years, there's so many bigger problems. And thank God, it's not working for you right now because you're building the resiliency muscle and the perseverance muscle that you're going to need way later on when the problems feel tempted to bring you to your knees. Like there's big girl problems later on down the road. And thank God, I built that perseverance muscle. I know we've talked about this before. Like, we all go through it. Yeah, it's so incredibly important. And I also think there's the mindset of, well, how did you know you were going to succeed? And for me, I just never give myself another option. It was never, what if I don't? It was, I will pivot. I will figure something else out. And it's that resourcefulness. You know, sometimes, you know, someone will tell me I want to have a $100,000 launch and they maybe get to $60,000. And they say, I'm not going to hit it. My cart closes tomorrow. And my response is says who. Why does your cart close tomorrow? because you decided that was the imaginary. If you won $100,000 launch,

and that's the commitment you made to yourself, dig deep. Yes. Extend the cut. Go find another way. And there's always another way. But I think it can be so easy to just think, I'm not capable of that. That success isn't meant for me.

So I'm just going to, you know, settle for this. Or not saying that that size launch is a barometer of good or bad. But if you set yourself a goal, there's nothing different about you. then there is about me, then there is about you, any of us. But if you set the goal, hit it. And I wonder about that. I think a little bit of it is our marketers brain though, because you and I both have like very marketing brain. Do you feel with your students, you can add to that? I feel like that's something like maybe you, I'm curious to know,

like, were you born with that? Do you think? Or how did you get to be that way? Where you like, no, this is my goal and I'm going to hit it? I don't think I was born with that. I think, I just have gotten really good at looking up the little tweaks that will get me where I want to go. Because we just live in an age of so much information where we all share so much online. There are so many nuggets to be had. And often if I feel like I set goals all the time, launch goals, and then I'm like, oh my God, I'm nowhere near close to hitting it. And I'll go listen to a podcast.

And I might have heard it all before, right? But if I did it, if I might have. heard it before but I might not know it. There's a big difference between like I've heard this and I really know this. And so I'll listen to a podcast where someone is teaching a simple funnel, right? I don't care if they are further ahead or less ahead than me. I don't care where they're at, but I think I can learn from everyone. So I'll listen and I'll hear, oh, they did this little tweak to their cart and it helped do this. Okay, let me try it. And I think I'm just willing to pivot and try things. And I think that's what's really important.

And that's what I push a lot of my students to do. I'm always here to give strategies and tactics. But I never want people to think they can only succeed if I give them a strategy or a tactic. I want them to know that they are succeeding because they are so good at what they do that, yeah, I can come in and give a little tweak, but they'd succeed with or without me. I think that's key. And you said something else that I think is very, very important, which is you learned a little thing and then you went and tried it, aka implementation. I swear, and I tell my students, says, look, if you watch the first video, and you go implement that and that's your gold nugget, good, like good.

That don't feel the need to watch the whole course if you got what you needed from the first video. The key is getting what you need and actually implementing it, which again, we could do a whole episode just on that, I feel like. I think that's a huge thing. And it's scary to implement. And I get it. And for, you know, people that have been trying this for a long time, they might be saying, well, I've implemented it for so long and I haven't seen results. And I think that's, that's what's hard is getting up every single day and continuing to implement when you're not seeing that. But like you said, often it's just one little thing. Like I'll look at someone's funnel and they'll be like, this sucks. It just isn't

working. And I'll look. I'm like, oh, God, if I had those conversion rates, I'd be pushing. I'm like, it's just that you haven't got enough traffic. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, you've got tons of traffic. But it's just that this page is really unclear. Let's make the tweak. And I just, I never want people to feel like they are the problem. Like, I want them to know I am going to succeed with or without. this new strategy with or without this. I might do it a little bit faster with their help, but I always want them to be able to come around to that mindset of, I already have everything I need. If I'm just willing to execute and fail and test a few things, it's going to happen. I completely agree. So let's dive into your, I want to dive into your business ecosystem because

I really love what you said about. You build one channel at a time. I think you really have demonstrated how powerful focus is. I just saw you celebrating a YouTube milestone. Thank you. Thank you. So explain to me first, before we dive into the channel piece, explain to me first what your product ecosystem looks like. And I'd love to step back and talk about your content ecosystem. Yeah. Yeah. So I'll take us two years back. That's when I first decided to do low ticket. I had just had Ellie, my daughter, and I wanted the hands off. I was so, I was on Zoom calls like eight hours a day. And Ellie was four months old. I had just become a single mom very unexpectedly and I had to take her to a daycare. Like I was dropping her off at a daycare and every day

was horrible. And I would drop her off. I would go have my meetings and then I would come back because I was doing like high ticket coaching and stuff. And so I would come back and pick her up and it was just day in and day awful. I just like couldn't do that anymore. And so I told, I like promised myself, I'm going to find a way to make good money. And I wasn't even, because I was making million dollars for several years, but it was all high ticket. I wanted to just not even go back. And I'm not even go back to the million-dollar years, I was just trying to make enough to pay my bills with low-ticket stuff so I could just be with my baby. I'm like, okay, if I just make whatever it was, like $10,000 a month or whatever it was, and just be with her and I'll be happy. And so little did

I know that that was actually going to unlock a massive multimillion-dollar scaling ability in that first year and then go on to do, we're very close to a million-dollar months now with this. And so that first year, I launched the first low-ticket digital product. So I launched one, low-ticket, digital product. And it was for like almost $200, so very low-ticket. And then the next year, we did three products that were launched. Last year, this year, 2025, we did 12 products launched. In 26, we're launching 50 products. So I'm excited. If you're interested, I'll tell them more about what we're doing, because I'm very excited about the 50 products. And so we, what we do, how we launch our products is we really let our customers tell us

what they want to learn from us. Like you mentioned, I just hit 100,000 subscribers on YouTube. I did it in seven months with a webcam, no editor. People want to know how I did that. They want to know I grew very quickly on a platform that typically traditionally takes a very long time to grow. And I did it without any of the things we think we need for a platform growth. And so I like the way I teach things. I think I keep it very practical.

I keep it very tutorial style. Like step one, you're going to do this. Then step two, you're going to do that. Then step three, you're going to do that. And I think they're very valuable. Our customers, we have a 60% repeat customer rate, which is very high for our industry. 15 to 30% is like the average. So we're anywhere from twice as good to four times as good. And then in terms of our content, I grow, like you said, one platform at a time, which is very different than how a

lot of people grow. A lot of people think they need to repurpose. And so they take all the energy that should be going into one platform and they spread it over five platforms and they're getting mediocre traction on each. I say go all in full-ass one platform and build that up to by 100,000 followers, and then you go on to the second platform. And then on the third one, I've just downloaded TikTok for the first time. So we'll see how that goes for me. I never even had the app before. So I got to figure out, like, I don't know anything about TikTok growth, but that's my third platform. And so it keeps, like you said, it's a focus. It's drilling down and saying no to a lot of things that could be good to be great at one or

two things. And so what is the price point that someone typically comes into your business at? we mean when they first buy, like a $24 offer. So 24 and then I'm sure you've got your order bumps, upsales, all of that. Yeah. So I'll share numbers I think you think would be very interesting. So my average order value, and for those of who are newer to this, it's the average amount I get per order, right? If we look at all my, I get like two or three hundred orders a day.

So if we average that out over all them, the average order value is about $80. And that's from my, that's all the products average out $80 as the average order value. and then my lifetime value of my customer. So the total amount my average customer pays over the lifetime of that customer is like $175. So not a lot at all. It's very low LTV compared to a lot of businesses. It's just full volume. Like we're just, like I said, we do 200 to 300 orders a day. So it's a lot. We're volume. And then are you doing sales calls on the back end? We just started doing that a couple of months ago. It's going very well. People obviously want more Maria. They want my eyeballs on their stuff. Our bottleneck,

is we have one sales girl and her calendar is so full with quote, like, we need to bring on like five or six more sales people. I'm just like out of capacity to do that right now. But that would probably, I mean, if we just did that, that would explode our business. But I'm also very careful with the high ticket stuff because I got pretty burnt out from that before. So I'm not in a huge rush to go build out a big mastermind right now. I think about it like this, you know, let's say I can send one email and make $30,000 to $100,000. Like, I'm, I can send you a hundred thousand dollars. Right. Right now, my time is being very well leveraged with the things I'm currently doing. But Alex Ramosi said at best, he's like, if you have a low ticket business, you can always have a high ticket

business later. Totally. And I'm really curious too, because you run your business in such a different way to me. And I find that so interesting. How with ads, have you found it easy to be really profitable at that price point with a cold audience? No. So it's interesting. you say that there's some products that we run ads to and then there's some products we don't run ads to a product that's priced higher than $50. Teach me because I'm going to start ads next year. We don't do ads. Oh, I was going to ask you. Okay. Yeah. But I'm going to start. So we're sending about $300,000 a month on ads almost. Once, so my sister Rose runs the ads and I told her once we hit $10,000 a day profitably, which we're very close. We're like $9,000. She's going to get her range rover. So I'm going to buy her

range rover. We're very excited for that. With ads, we keep it very, very, simple are two, well, two things. One, the order bumps and the upsells are a really important part of an ad funnel, right? You have to have that. But we have found that we will profitably make ads via sales with a product that's priced anything less than $50. Above that, it's harder to get a profit because of the impulse purchase. And so the thing that is really key that we found is running ads directly to a checkout page. And then with the checkout page, it's basic stuff, Natalie. But it's like, we try to like make it feel like it's a product that we could charge $5,000 for, but we're charging $50 for. So bundles, like 24 courses for $24, $1 a course.

That's selling really well. We tested a new thing. It's crazy, but it's going really well. We did these like marketing worksheets for a dollar. And our cost per, like our KAC is so low for a dollar product. And if we know we have a 60% repeat customer rate, we know our numbers. we know what our LTV is for our customers that come through ads. We know that if you come into our world, we're going to take really good care of you,

and eventually you are going to buy from us again and again and again. And remember that LTV is just over the last two years. That's the thing is like that LTV number is just going to keep going up and up. So we keep things really simple. I'll tell you what, the thing that people mess up with ads in general is one, they don't run them. That's the first mistake. It's just not running them because it's not very hard.

There's a lot of, it feels very intimidating, especially for my girls. Like my boys, the guys in my audience seem to run ads a lot faster than the girls. And I'm like on a mission to change. I'm like, girls, that's not that hard. And then the other thing is people don't do near enough creative testing. So like we put out a ton of creatives about as much as we post to Instagram. If not more, we do. And so we just, we now have two people to help us pretty much full time just with the ad creative side of things. Like a ton. We're testing a ton like dozens and dozens a week, if not hundreds a week at this point. Yeah. That's so important to hear. Because I think there is that idea of, okay, I put this out and it didn't work. Yeah. No. Yeah. Mm-mm. Yeah. So are you guys, let's say you're putting the marketing worksheets out for a dollar. I'm assuming you're like, you know what? I'm happy to lose money on the front end because I know I'm going to make money on the back end. Yeah, but sometimes we don't because we've really got our up our order bumps and our, like, you should look at my checkout pages. We're doing something really new that I was talking to the guy who founded Sam Cart. Yeah. Because, you know, Brian and I are friends. And I was showing him what we did with our order bumps. He's like, no one's ever done this before. And so we figured out something new where, you know, like, a typical upsell funnel is like you have your one order bump. And then you go through like five pages of ups. And then. And then you go through like five pages of ups. And. sales. And it can be frustrating for the customer. They just want to complete their checkout page. And we're like, here's an upsell. Here's an upsell. And it's kind of annoying. And it also doesn't have the take rate in the world. So what we did is we put all, and it's kind of counterintuitive. I don't know

what made us think to do it. We put all the upsells on the front page as order bumps. So when you go to our checkout page, instead of having one order bump, there's five order bums. Yeah. And then you have the option to bundle all the order bums together and get a really good discount. And so everyone's Yes, everyone's taking it. And so you have, you might take a dollar. we're taking the dollar order and turning into orders over $100 by doing that right away. And the take rate, because of the way it's anchored with all the other order bumps right there, the bundle deal seems insane. They got to see and read the description of every order bump.

And then at the very end, they get like, say, safe 75% off bundled and saved. And that's working so well for us. We just started doing that with our last two products. And it's having take rates of like 60% or even higher on some of our products because of that. That's really good. that means you're turning 60 to 70% of the time, you're turning a dollar order into a $100 order. Right.

There's your profit. So, yeah. And I also just want to pause this to say, this is why you're successful. Okay, the numbers are impressive. The way that you know your business is impressive, but it's your mindset of abundance. Yeah. And I notice that in anyone that really succeeds, they have that. Thank you.

And, you know, what you're sharing, a lot of people wouldn't share. You're such an open book and you're so generous with your knowledge. that that is why you're successful. Like the karma is real. And I just really want to say that. Thank you. That is incredible that you are such an open book like that. That's the pleasure of this business for me is in the sharing.

I really, I do believe that I was put on this earth to help people make money. I actually really do. I'm going to do this until I'm a little little lady in a hologram somewhere, just like talking about making money online. I love it. And I think we all are put on this earth for a reason. And it's a joy to find your purpose. And I do believe, like I said, like I said, I don't.

I don't want to help, you know, a few people make millions and millions of dollars. I want to help millions of people make a few extra, very reasonable, very reasonable, two to three thousand dollars a month. That's a reasonable goal. I truly believe anyone can do it. My students are doing it. And that's the joy. The being that open and the sharing what I figured out and saving you a step or five or seven

is the pleasure of the business for me. I really love it. And so I appreciate that. I receive that. And also just know that, like, even in doing that, I receive more abundance and more joy because I love it. like it's this beautiful cycle of abundance and gratitude. Yeah.

Yeah. And I just love, I love, love, love to see women doing something that they absolutely love and that they're such masters. Thank you. I find it so fascinating and inspiring. And so as you're talking, I'm like, this is why she's successful. Yes, you're a genius.

No, I'm really not, though. Like your heart, this is why. And this is why people come to you and keep buying from you, why they stay in your ecosystem because they feel that. I just did a post that when, mega viral this week on Taylor Swift. And I was sharing behind the scenes of her tour. You know, it was this $2 billion tour. And I went and dissected a lot of the stuff she did behind the scenes that I think have really contributed to her success. And it was the way she treats

her clients. It's the way that she treats her team. And I think it blew up because that's what people want. They want to buy from people that take care of people. They want to buy from people that use that money for good. So I just, I had to call that out. I know that's a tangent. Thank you. No. And you said something I think really important there, which is they want to buy people who take care of them.

And I think it's so interesting that you use that phrase take care because I talk so much in my company and I think so much personally about how can I demonstrate, how can I show that I am someone who's going to take care of you. That's why I share the vulnerable post that I do about my divorce, about being a single mom. I'm like I, about all the struggles I have, my failures as a leader, I put it all out there on the table very vulnerably. And I do it very strategically because I want you to come into my. world and trust me and know that I am going to take care of you. That's such an important phrase for me.

And so I love that you pointed that out. I think it's such an important one. And I think to your point, people do feel that. I don't think you can fake that love of your customer. I think they really do feel that. So thank you. Yeah, none of this is fake. This is so real. So I love that. Thank you for explaining that whole ecosystem. That's so helpful. And so you did three products and then 15. And then 12. 12. And now we're doing 50. Okay. Amazing. We'll get into that. Yeah. So then, okay, great, we've got your product ecosystem now pulling back even more. Talk to me about your content slash channel ecosystem. Yeah. So right now we have a couple of channels, right? I grow one at a time. So we have a pretty big Facebook group that has about 400,000 people in it.

And then so I built that up. That was my first platform. And then I posted my first ever reel. That was in 2023. My Instagram is close to 700,000. I definitely is going to be at a million in 2020. So this upcoming year, which is exciting. I can't even because I was at like nothing a couple of years ago. So that's my big, that's my big explosion. But that's also the one I put the most time and energy towards. And then in April of this year, so about seven months ago, that's when I started posting on YouTube. And I just crossed over. I just applied for my plaque, you guys. I got my flag. I'm so excited. Apparently they were like, I'm kind of worried when it's going to come in, though, because they're like, note, it's much lighter and smaller. So I'm like, I don't know.

I think they like downgraded the plaque. So we'll see what comes in the middle. I'm like a little one. I'm like, I'm like, they gave me three warnings between the different. I'm like, key chain. I don't know. I'm just scared. I'm like I got to like blow this baby up. I don't know. We'll see. I'll get something in the mail. And now like I said it, well, I have also a huge email list of like 700,000. We get like two or three thousand email subscribers a day and I'm happy to talk about how we do that because we do it very profitably, very cheaply. And then yeah, now I'm on TikTok. And then, you know, it's very interesting. I'm I just brought on a girl full time to drive traffic to the website through SEO, which I was doing a lot of research. And it's actually a really good time to be doing SEO, but also like, it's called

like chat optimized, like AI optimize search and stuff. So that's kind of a new one for me. But growing on two platforms at once is news. But I feel like I have more, we brought on like eight people in the last couple of months. So we're in a big growth season. And so between Caroline with the website and then me on TikTok, we're going to try to do two platforms at once, which will be new interesting. But now, now, it's about to be really, it's good, TikTok's scary to me, but I'm excited to like learn about it and conquer it. And I love this. And so would you say that your revenue split is like 50% paid, 50% organic? Yes. So for a very long time, it was exactly that. It was 50% paid, 50% organic. Now it's about 60% paid, 40% organic. And that's just because it is a

little bit faster to scale ads because the metric behind it is money versus like blood, sweat, and tears with organic. So it's so, yeah, like, you know how, you know. how it goes. And so we're scaling a little bit. I shared with you. We're almost at 300,000 per month in ad spend. I want to, you know, the next big goal after that is $100,000 a day in ad spend, which is like, oh, just a whole nother level. People do it in our industry all the time. Those credit card points? You're going to be living your best life. I literally had to switch it because I used to get checks mailed to me. And now I'm like, I can't even cash the checks. I know it sounds so silly, but they mail them every like $1,500. And I'm like, this is a pain. I don't even want to be depositing these. So I'm switching it to points, which is also better, apparently. So I'm learning about that. Yeah. I'm learning about that. That's exciting. Yeah. Okay, great. So 60% paid. Yes. 40% organic. And you would say that's primarily your Instagram and then you're seeing it now from YouTube and Facebook. It's interesting. It's 50% Instagram, 50% email. And then it's as YouTube. YouTube's been a great platform. I was actually, we did, we just went over the numbers. I was really surprised by how much money I made from YouTube per month with, you know, not that. Like it's still a new platform. It's still my baby platform. But it's quickly catching. up to Instagram in terms of revenue. And it's really surprising to me because YouTube has been

my most skeptical platform by far. Like the comments are not for the week on YouTube. It's very rude. It's a male-dominated thing. So I think that contributes partially to it. Very rude comments, very skeptical comments, not the soft place to land like my Instagram is at all. But do you know what I realize, Natalie? It's like those are my, those people push me to be greater. If something I said causes them to be skeptical, that's my, I say it as that's my fault. What do I need to do to come back to again, like make you trust me so I can take care of you. So I started doing things like I share my business revenue, my business expenses and what I spent on everything down to the penny. I also share what I take

home personally and what I spend in my personal life. So you can go online and see how much I spent on beauty last month. You can see how much I spent on restaurants. And when someone's like, you didn't actually make that, I'm like, hey, go to maria went.com slash proof. And you can see how where I spent every penny. That helps with the skepticism. So yeah, I think by me working so hard to like win over my YouTube critics, it's making me money. Like it's working. It's an effective strategy. I love this. Yeah. Yeah. And are you using high roast to track? Yes. Yeah. Okay. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah. So high roast is something we installed a couple of, about I think a year and a half ago, maybe two years ago at this point. And it tracks, it's a pain to set up, I think. But it is worth it. It lets you know,

like I know how much a specific reel makes me. I know how much a specific Instagram story makes me. I know how much a specific YouTube makes me. We know that every single ad creative, we know how much it makes us. So it tracks things down to the very, very molecular level, every piece of content. So if I have one piece of content that maybe only got 20,000 views, but made me $10,000, obviously I need to be making more reels like that. I'm in the business to make money. Like I like the followers. I like the audience, but I'm in the business to make money. And so I don't mind if a piece of content I make typically traditionally gets less views because on the back end, I know that those are my money maker reels. And so it's the same thing with YouTube videos. Certain topics might not get as many

views, but they monetize three times better. And so we track things like dollar per view on YouTube. So this, you know, Yidio got 5,000 views, but 50 new customers. That's really good. versus this one, it got 70,000 views, but it only got 20 customers. So let's make more of the videos that make us money. It helps us. It makes you a better marketer and a better business owner and a better content creator, honestly. Yeah. Speaking of content, so whenever I talk about content, I talk about the three types.

There's only three types. There's content that's going to grow your following, content that's going to make you money, and content that's going to build your brand. So I'm assuming those reels, educational kind of reels, are those the ones that make you money? Sometimes, yeah. You know, I think of it very similarly. I think of it as like some people, some content gets me followers, some content gets me money. Like very, very similar. And so the aspirational rails where I'm doing things that look cool or I'm

talking about my income, those get me followers. Interesting. Okay. Yeah, those get me followers. And then the talking heads, those get me buyers. And then your vulnerable ones, I'm assuming. Build trust. Yeah, I don't ever pitch. Yeah. Yeah. I never ever pitch in a vulnerable piece of content. I think a lot of people do that incorrectly where they actually do a good job creating the emotion and boaking the trust. I think about like this balloon. So you're building this bigger and bigger balloon.

And then the pitch at the end just pops the balloon. You got to let that balloon just be big and let that trust sit on their chest and then you pitch the next time or whatever it is. Yeah. I love that. I was just talking to my team this morning about email strategy. And I was saying I don't love the, they were talking about maybe sending a bunch of emails, giving a bunch of freebies. And I was saying I don't love that. I think that's a reason for them to sign up to the list.

But I think our job is to really deliver thought leadership and trust so that we're. whenever we make a pitch, we are the choice. We are the buyer's choice. Whereas if we're just giving freebies away, we're not teaching someone how to buy from us. We're not delivering value because just downloading a freebie isn't value. Whereas if I can disrupt the way you think, just the way you were talking to me about Holmes' email this morning,

if I could disrupt the way you think or if I can introduce you a new idea, then probably when you think about doing something in your business, I'll be your buyer's choice. And I think that's really important. And people often miss that step. And I think it's very hard to do. like think about what that requires. That requires us to get away from the business, to get away from what, especially for us as mamas, right? Like to get away from the small children

and to be a thought leader, it means to think. Like you literally have to think. And I think that's why so few new ideas are introduced into our spaces because people aren't taking that time to think about the industry. And one of the ways I've done that, it's silly, but I'm reading books on like formulas and diagrams. And that's been so helpful. because it's helping you create visuals for ideas you're familiar with. And by doing that, you can essentially do exactly what you said. You can create a new thought. It's very valuable to do that.

I think it's very wise of you to be doing that. Hard to do. But when you do it, it's exactly like you said, you become top of mind and you become the first choice. Yeah. So speaking of that, and this kind of segues into mum life, how much time would you say you actually spend sitting at a desk working versus time spent thinking. Oh, I don't think at all. Okay. So talk to me about that. It's a big gap in my,

it's what I want to do more of. Okay. If I'm thinking, it's when I'm talking Elian at night or I'm at the beach with her, like I'm away from the computer. But to have focused thought or I'm not with it, I don't have any time in my life for that. I wish I did. But isn't that a superpower? Because I right now, I'm with my baby 24-7. I've never thought more than I'm thinking. I mean, and that's true. I guess maybe that's a better way for me to think about how I do it. Because I guess I'm thinking all the time when I'm with the babies. But it's in between stirring macaroni and cheese and it's in between, like, I'm potty training now. God help me. I'm in the potty training stage. Every 20 minutes, I'm taking that kid to her mini mouse potty. Oh, it's the worst and the best.

So, yeah, I mean, like, that's, that. If you think about it that way, then I think a lot, I think. But, and maybe what is coming up for me is the idea that we have to think the way male leaders would think, where they can be away from the kids and they can just put themselves in the room. I think you're right. I think it is a superpower because I'm thinking all the time, just not in the way maybe Bill Gates would, you know, where he's taking a walk. That's what I think. Yeah. Yeah. Because I mean, listen, if I get time away from work and the kids, I'm not going to sit and think. Yeah. I'm going to just like take a bath or do my skincare or take the quicker shower or go to the loo. Yeah. But when I'm like, I'm breastfeeding around the clock right now. So I'm sitting,

feeding, all I'm doing is thinking. Yeah. And having ideas or I don't get a lot of time to read right now, but I'm still in that slowing down thinking. And I think that is a little, like I like, I like, okay, I know I'm time constrained, but what are my superpowers right now? And as a mom of young kids, one of my superpowers is that I am locked in and present with kids. But my mind, listen, I'm not, I don't love play. That's me. I'll play, but I've got to keep my mind busy with something.

So I'll be thinking about things. I'll be playing, but I'll be having ideas. And so I just wonder if that's the same for you. I think it is. Now that we've taken the time to really like unlock my own limiting beliefs about what thinking time is, I do that all the time. In terms of work on the computer, it's maybe 10 hours a week. So I'm not working a ton.

And then occasionally I have what I call leverage days where I'll be away from Ellie for about a day, maybe a day and a half. I don't like to do more than that. And I'll come and do a podcast. But even those are so strategic. Like I have back-to-back podcasts. And I call it like my press tour. I go on my little press tours for a day and a half. Or I'll speak on stage and do a couple of podcasts.

podcast, those kinds of things. I do those a few times a month. In my week to week, I'm working a few hours every week. And then I'm with Ellie. We'll go to the beach in California. We'll go to the library. Like if you want to know what my life looks like, imagine a stay-at-home mama's life with like 10 hours of admin work on top of that. That's what my day-to-day looks like. Yeah. Yeah. And I love that you're sharing that too because there's probably a lot of women listening who are wondering, oh, I would love to, I'm so ambitious and I'd love to do that. But is this season of life I'm in really supportive of it. Yeah. Yeah. I think it is, but you have to understand a lot of other things I don't have and don't do because I prioritize those two things. The business is the priority

and Ellie is the priority. My friendship group, although I love them, they are not the priority. My health, you know, I do my best, but only a few things can be a priority. Like if something gets shoved, it's my workout. You know, reading, watching Netflix, those kinds of things. They're not the priority because by the time I'm like done with Ellie and I go to bed. Like I do prioritize my sleep. I sleep at least eight hours every single day. Like that's an important one for me. So I stay sane throughout the day. But yeah, I think that you absolutely can. And I think that you should honor that desire. But you can't, it's unreasonable to think then you also have full social weekends. And you have, you know, you just, something does have to give. But I think that if you do the

business model the way you and I do where it's very low ticket and it's like, it's actually a fairly hands off business. Like they buy the product and then they go about their business. And I've, you know, sold many different things. I used to design logos and websites and then I did high ticket coaching. And this is by far the most hands off model for me. And it also is the most scalable. I mean, the fact that I'm pulling in $850,000 per month, close to a million dollars a month, and I'm only working a few hours a week, that's a good trade. That's a good thing I'm focusing on. It's the right priority. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's so true. Like what they say, you could have it all, but not at the same time. Yeah, exactly. And I think that's really important. And it's been

huge for me. You know, we lived in California and we consciously made the decision to move out to Texas because we knew what our focus was going to look like in a certain season of life. And we decided we are all in on family in this season of life. And if I don't have friends that I can walk to right now, then I'm not going to be investing in my friendships. You know, I'm not at all the mastermind groups. I'm not doing the networking. You know, I'm speaking in Dubai next month. And I'm in and out. And my husband's like, oh, you should network. You should do X, Y, Z. And I'd said to him, I'm taking the baby, but I'm leaving my toddler at home. I'm still not going to leave my toddler for that long.

And no shade to anyone, but that just isn't the season of life I'm in. And I know in my 40s and 50s, listen, I'll be at every event. I'll be having the best. But that's not for me. And I have to consciously choose it because if I don't choose it, I can end up telling myself I'm not doing good job. Like, oh, you're not a good network. You're not good at.

Actually, I just choose what I'm going to be good at. And I'm fine with the rest. and it's meant, you know, letting friends down. It's meant not being the person that texts you back right away. It's meant lots of different things. But if I'm at peace with it, I don't feel like I feel the pull or the guilt as much. You know what I mean? I think that I couldn't have said it better.

I think that you were so right. I think the exact same thing. When I'm 40 and 50 and my babies have their own life, cool. That's and I'll be doing that. Life is so long, Natalie. It's so long. And I'm going to get like our babies are so little for only a short time. and I don't want to miss a moment. So I'm just like you. Like I go in, I get my podcast and I go straight

home. I even like today move my flight forward by three hours. I paid like $500 to come home three hours earlier because I don't, at those three hours of LA I want. Like that's so important to me. And we will never regret that. There's always more business. There's always more opportunities. But the time with our babies is ones. And that's why like so many moms come to me. They want to learn how to have the business we do because right now they do have to put their babies in daycare. And if that's the season of life, like I get it. That was me. And that's why I started the business I have. But they want more time with their babies. And I think it's so important that you and I are talking about this. And we are modeling, hey, you do get to have a very successful

career and be very present to your family. But maybe not all everything else right now. Like maybe it's just those two things. And I like you said, I have peace with that. I think that's the right choice. It's the right priority. And I'm never going to regret that. Yeah, I agree. And I think sometimes it takes a mindset of good enough. Like I'm willing to be good enough in these different areas. I know for me, this year with taking my mat leave, I knew this wasn't going to be my growth year. And I was so content with that because then when it wasn't my growth year in business, I was like, great. Guess what? I had a baby and stayed home with her. I won. I hit my goals this year. And I think we have to, we have to set those goals intentionally. Otherwise, the talk could come in as, oh well your business went down this year like okay great like I'm going to celebrate that this is getting down on myself about that and I think good enough is exactly right you know my health and my fitness is good enough I'm happy if I get two workouts in a week it's good enough and it is what it is and and like and I'll build more muscle in my 40s like it's fine like I'm I eat what

I'm very conscious of what I put in my body because that's something that doesn't take time to control right so time is the constraint for people like us right now and so um I can choose when I'm putting in my body but I might not have the time to go and do I used to work out five to six times a week for an hour and a half a day. Same how. How? What was I doing? I was also younger and had a lot more energy. I was pre-kid, right? Sleeping through the night. Yeah. It's good enough and that's okay. Yeah, which can be hard for people like you and I who are ambitious. We want to be excellent five stars and everything. So I know that for me, it does take a shift, but it comes down to doing one or two things very well, which I feel like I have done. Yeah, and I think for me,

too, what really helps is playing the long game. I see. it all is the long game, you know. We were just talking before the podcast started about how a lot of people in the industry can burn out. And I don't want to be one of those people. I don't want to burn out. I want to be here for the long run, which means I'm going to make long term decisions. That's right. Yeah. And I think understanding the season of life that you're in, which you do a really good job of sometimes I'll see my students who are like, we're in the middle of selling her house and my mother's in the hospital and my baby had to be home because the XYZ reason. And I also want to start three businesses. I'm like, this is not the right time for you. You should maybe do one,

but also look in your personal life and see what you can clear up. And that, by the way, is a tip I give everybody who wants to hire. Hire out the personal life stuff first. The ROI of hiring like a laundry person, a food person, a chauffeur, those kind of things. People don't think to hire that out first. They think to bring on people in the business. But you are actually the business's biggest asset right now. So free up your personal time and give yourself more time in the business.

And then eventually you learn how to properly hire for the business. Way easy to hire someone to do your laundry. I could not agree with that more. That is the unlock. That's the unlock for me being able to have my kids at home with me and be on my laptop very rarely is because I've hired out of the personal stuff. Yeah. Because that's what takes so much time.

And then when you get really behind on the personal stuff, it feels like your life's a mess. Yes, exactly. And I couldn't agree with that more. And I think a lot of things too, it's actually way easier to hire personal. Like our culture, like, it's way easy to find a good person to do your laundry than a good person to handle your ads or a good, like, there's so much less. trial and error and lost money. But people have to work through the mindset worthiness issue of having someone come in and be an assistant to you or doing your laundry or cooking for you. There's a lot of

weird stigma, especially here in America about having help like that that you have to work through. But once you do that, good. Yeah. I had to work through all of that. Like that was such a huge thing. And now I have people in my house full time all the time. All the time. It's a circus in my house too. People are always coming in and out. And I never know. Ellie will come home. And again, like, it's such a funny place to be sure. she'd be like, oh, it's so clean. Who clean today? Was it Kelly? I'm like, you know, that's a great question. So, like, it normalizes it for her. But there's a flip side to that too, which is making sure we're raising our children to, like, be well-adjusted, normal productive members of society.

Yeah. Which I'm sure you're also thinking of and aware of it. Yeah. And it's what I think of is so true of when we see a lot of successful men, they have stay-at-home wives. And when I hired a full-time personal assistant at home, I was like, that's the closest I'm going to get, you know, someone that can keep my house running and she thinks about the things before I do. I'm like, this is what it must be like to have a wife. And they get sex and it's for free. And I can't even get started on this. And so think about you, you have a stay at home wife. She does all your cooking. She does all your cleaning. She does all your child care. She has sex with you. And she does it for free. And the world treats it like you were the catch that gave her a ring. Are you kidding me?

I am, I am in the wrong gender. It's insane. It's insane. And I have the same thing with my assistant Kelly, she's like my right hand and we make that exact joke. Like she's my stay-at-home wife. And she'll even tell that like when she goes shopping for her. But I'll be like, oh, you know, I have my friend. And she's amazing. And it's like, she's the husband and makes all the money. And I'm the one that spends it. Like she jokes with that. It's, but fundamentally, it's a privilege. Like, this is a privilege that we have. And I'm very grateful for that. On the flip side, we create incredible work environments. Like people want to come work with us because of the mission that we're the way we're helping people. But also, like, we just have fun.

Like, it's a fun team to be on. And I think when you start paying someone in your personal life, you start to realize, whoa, these stay-at-home wives and mothers should be getting paid so much money that it's mind-blowing. Yes, it's so true. So hopefully all the stay-at-home wives listening to this, send it to the husbands and they can watch this clip. Yeah, they should do. What's hard for you in your business right now? The time constraint. Okay, tell me about that.

It's really, it's a sacrifice for me. I want to be with Ellie. I want to be a good mother and I want to make those memories. But just like you said, play is not interesting. Like it's a real sacrifice. It's a very, I have to be so intentional because the temptation is always to do more. Like the temptation is always to satisfy what I want, which is more time to work and more time in peace and quiet. Let someone else do the potty training. Let someone else do that. And that's the battle I fight and win every day is no, I'm choosing her first, she's three and then she's going to be four, and that's the only time I'm a half where she's three and then four. And so

it's sacrificing the growth and the momentum that I know I could have. Think about what I'm making and what I'm doing with 10 hours a week. Imagine what I could do if I just worked 40 hours a week, like a normal person, or my competitors, peers, not like they're competitors, but like my peers who are working 60 to 80 hours a week. Can you imagine what I could do with that with that time? And so on a daily basis, and the day in and day out, it's easy to feel, I don't think resentful is the right word, but it's easy to feel like, you get to do this, you get to have this, and I don't. And that's what I'm thinking with my selfish heart and then when I'm thinking about what my wants and needs are. But when I step back and like you said, think about the long term

and the long game, I'm actually making the choice I'm not going to regret. When I'm on my deathbed and I look back to all those childhood moments where I took her to the beach and I did every day on potty training session and I did all of that, I will be so proud of that. I'm proud of it now, honestly. And so the hardest thing in my business is daily, making, trading what I want in the short term for what I want in the long term. And like, isn't that the lesson of entrepreneurship in general? So if I had more time and I would be, I would be getting to do more of what I want to do. But, you know, Ellen's going to school soon. Like I'm about to have full days again to work. So we're kind of rounding the corner a little bit. That's what's hard for me. I think that's what's

hard. Everything else I'm in a state of flow. I have more ideas that I know what to do with. I have more amazing team members. Like everything else is in. the state of flow. But I really struggle with that duality, especially as a single mama, I feel the need to make sure she knows that she's loved by me and that I'm there for her and that she has so much stability and she can count on me. And I don't ever want her to feel like she was, you know, shuttled between caregivers. I don't want that for her. And so it's very hard. It's a daily denying of what I want. But yeah, it's worth it for sure. And so what does the typical day look like for you? So Ellie sleeps in my bed.

And so I wake up, if I'm in like a, sometimes what I do is I give myself the gift. I know someone's not crazy, but like I'll wake up at 3 a.m. and start working because, let me explain why, sometimes, probably two or three times a week I do this, where I just, I'm done in mom mode. I just, maybe I had a rough day the day before and I'm just kind of over the whole thing. And I'm just like, I just need a few hours to work in peace and quiet where I'm not anxious about being interrupted. Like it's the anxiety about constantly being interrupted that I just really don't enjoy.

And I know she's not going to be interrupting me at three in the morning. And so I'll wake up at three in the morning. I do naturally. I wake up a lot of 3 a.m. And so I'll just like get out of bed instead of falling back asleep. I make my coffee. I usually pray for a few minutes. And then I just work for like four and a half hour straight. And that is, it's such a gift to me. Because by the time she wakes up, I've got four solid. That's like a month worth of emails or like what I like four. I can do a lot in four and a half uninterrupted hours these days. So I work for four and a half hours. Then she wakes up. We get breakfast together. Usually we'll have like a play date scheduled or we'll go to the library or

she has speech therapy or she has a swim lesson. So we'll usually do like some little activity. And then if it's nice, we go to the beach. She does car naps a lot. So I'll just like drive up and down the coast listening to my podcast while she naps. It's great. I get to drive and she gets to be buckled in the backseat and just kind of hang in. And then we usually do something with like our friends or family in the area at night. And then if I woke up at like, you know, three in the morning, I go to bed at 6.30 with her. So a little bit of work in the morning and then mostly just the whole day. And then about once a week I'll have like a leverage day where she spends time with her daddy that day. And then I will film all my content for the week pretty much. Like I'll bang

out YouTube videos and I'll bang out Instagram videos. And I'm just like, I might have time in the studio. Like I'm working every minute from that 8 a.m to 6 p.m. And then that day she'll come home and we get like pizza and then go to bed too. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. It's really chill. Yeah. That's amazing. Well, listen, thank you for being such an open book and thank you for everything that you do. I've learned so much on this episode. And I'm so fine. it up. Where can everyone find you? Yeah, I always say, like, you can go to my website, murray one.com, but I tell people don't buy for me right away. Start and implement my free content. People make thousands of dollars just implementing the little tutorials. Like, I have

marketing tutorials on Instagram. I have business new tutorials on Instagram. Just start there, actually implement them. And then if you want to dive deeper later on, you can. I love that so much. Well, thank you for being here. Thank you so much for having me, Natalie.