Zero Sign-Ups, $10K Anyway, and Why I'm Not Spiraling

Zero people signed up for my most recent SheEO launch. Not one. And I'm a business coach. I'm talking about all of it here, the gut-wrenching moment when reality set in, the clarity that came after, and the unexpected $10K that showed up the very next day from a completely different direction.

This episode is also a bit of a homecoming. I've been too polished, too strategic, too far from the raw, honest version of this podcast that I started it as. So this one's off the cuff, unscripted, recorded from my parents' guest bedroom in California with zero agenda. Just me, the truth, and a whole lot of excitement about what's coming next.

If you've ever had a launch flop, felt like you had to perform perfection online, or wondered if being honest about the messy parts would cost you, this one's for you.

Transcript

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Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of the Building Her Podcast. I'm your host, Katia Lillian. If you've been loving this podcast, go ahead and rate the podcast five stars and DM me on Instagram when you do that because I want to connect and personally thank you. If you are new here, hit that subscribe button. It really helps the podcast grow, and that way you will never miss an episode. So let's dive in Hey, my name is Katia Lilian, and I am obsessed with all things mindset, personal development, and helping you build the best version of yourself. I'm a women's life and mindset coach and an entrepreneur who started a fun hobby of posting #sweatyselfies, grew a successful side hustle, and now I run a six-figure coaching business. I teach you the secret of building a life that aligns with your deepest values and one that you wake up excited for. This podcast is designed to expand your mind and challenge the status quo. So get ready to uplevel your life and let's start building her Okay, fair warning. Either I'm really caffeinated Or I'm just on cloud motherfucking nine. Okay? Literally, I'm sitting here in front of my microphone in my parents' guest bedroom, looking out on their gorgeous mountain tree-filled backyard with not a fucking clue of what I'm gonna talk about today. And there's something so fun and zero pressure about that. The fact that I'm just gonna show up and, what is it? Riff off the cuff? Is that the phrase? And rant and yap to the people that listen to me yap into my microphone. I think there's something so cool about that because for the longest time, I have been very strategic, and I have been very planned and prepared and scripted and And yes, there's, like, an element of that that I need in order to just keep the business going. However, I think lately I have been leaning into that too much, and I have been missing the raw authenticity, vulnerability piece to everything that I create. All of my content, not just the podcast, but also my reels and Instagram and TikTok. I, I feel like I have missed some of what makes Katia Katia, and the human behind Katia Lillian LLC, the brand. And I'm really excited to lean back into not really knowing what I'm doing or what I'm talking about, and really even having an idea of why I'm saying what I'm saying and, and less strategy involved because you know what? The strategy wasn't working. So if you're down to listen to this episode, it's just gonna be more real and honest and vulnerable, and not really caring, like, what I'm selling or what I'm doing or building. It, it's just gonna be an authentic Think of, like, coffee chat with a best friend or a glass of wine and, and just, like, shooting the shit. That's the vibe and w- the energy that I originally started this podcast in, right? Like, I always wanted Building Her to sound like that. I want you to feel like you're sitting here with me- over a nice beverage just talking heart to heart, honest truth, tears, all of it, so that you feel less alone, so that you feel like you don't have to perform and know all the bells and whistles of building a business in order to be successful or happy. That's n- that was never my intention. And quite honestly, I think I lost that a little bit here recently. And so I'm just excited to come back and be more Katja. And maybe you haven't even noticed, maybe you have, um, but I have noticed. And I've been in, like, deep reflection, and I'm just so damn excited. That's why I'm on cloud motherfucking nine. So let me give you an update of where I am, what I'm doing, why I feel this way, and that's it. If you have questions, comments, feedback, like, "Oh my God, Katja's back," or something, I don't know, feel free to slide into my DMs on Instagram @katja.lillian because I would love to chat and hear how you heard it all on the receiving end Okay, so Bring you up to speed. Um, I am sitting here in California, and I am staying with my parents, and we are here for the summer. So if you follow me on Instagram, I mention it there as well. But we left May tw- May 23rd, and, um, it was in time for my mom's birthday, which is May 29th. And then we had a wedding the very next day, May 30th, in Laguna Beach, so about two hours south of where they live. Um, and then we were th- there in Laguna Beach for the whole weekend, and then we came back, and now I'm at my parents' house again. Then we have another wedding June 20th, and then we have Bert's birthday June 24th. And we wanna do, like, a up-the-coast Cali road trip because we're, we'll already be in Pismo, and it's always been on Bert's bucket list to go to Big Sur. And then we have friends, and I have clients in Aptos and Sacramento area, which is north. And then we wanna loop down through Yosemite back here to my parents' house. So, really exciting trip, and love that my husband is out here as well, and that we even have the freedom to do this 'cause he works remote, and I obviously work remote. I'm self-employed. I've built my business so that I can do these things because it's really important for me, um, to have freedom of time, money, and location. Those have always been my values. Um, I just talked to a client today on our one-on-one call, and she, um, wants to do coaching. She's super successful currently with what she does, but she wants to pivot, and she wants to dabble into coaching and consulting and... 'cause she knows so much, and she wants to pay it forward. She's like, "But I don't want to build a business where I have the pressure of a staff that I have to pay on my shoulders because been there, done that, and that doesn't make me feel my best." And I had to tell her the story because in my investing career and journey, um, I hired Rob Dial when, oh, gosh, I think it was 2021, 2022. Uh, it was right after I moved to Florida. And I remember idolizing his business because of the money that he was making per year and all this stuff, and it wasn't until I saw the back end, right, of his business 'cause I ended up coaching for, um, him and his company for six months before I got pregnant. But I, um, saw the inner workings, right? And I saw the systems, and we had the, uh, team meetings, and everything was amazing, and I learned so much. Uh, but for myself, I then saw that he was on back-to-back meetings and training and, you know, he has so much staff that he has to take care of and make sure that they're doing their job and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was like, "I don't want to build a business in this way. I don't want to have a staff. I don't want to train. I don't want to be in back-to-back calls Monday through Friday in staff meetings and training new hires and talking about, you know, this system and this process and this new AI and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." Like, that did not appeal to me. And there is a reason why I've been in my business for six years. I got my first client October 2020. So in six years, there's a reason why I am still solo. And the only way I work with other people is on a contract project basis. So a graphic designer or, um, an assistant for a certain project. Um, it, it, it's very contractual. CPA during tax season, right? It's never like, "You are now my hire. You are my employee." One day maybe if that feels good, but all I know right now, that doesn't feel good for me. And I told my client that, like, you don't have to build a business that feels, you know, that heavy and daunting and pressure-y and holy shit, these people are dependent on the revenue that we generate and the profit margins and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's like, you can build... become a coach and build your own business, and that's it. Like, you have your call, and you serve them with text messages or whatever you decide to have in between the calls, and that's it. You don't have to hire any other people if you don't want to. You can have a six-figure, multi six-figure business a year with just you Alone. Like how cool is that? So I told her this story and that made her feel obviously 10 times better. But I share that because, um, I'm here in California and I get to do all of this amazing stuff with my daughter. Like we woke up, we slept in, and then I had coffee, and we went outside and, you know, we looked at ants and birds and flowers. And we had a delicious, healing, nourishing breakfast together. I love overnight oats if you don't know. I literally like every single morning, I do not get sick of it, I have overnight oats with like blueberries and raspberries and nuts and chocolate and mwah, so good. Anyways, and then we go on a walk, and then we come back. And then I do my Pilates with her, without her, depending on if she hangs out with Oma and Opa, which are German words for grandma and grandpa. That's how she knows them. And like that's the start of my day, and I love it so much. And then I had a beautiful one-on-one call with a private client who is working with me now for a year and a half. And then immediately after I had another one-on-one client who has been working with me now, by the way, for three years and just resigned, confirmed on the call another six months. So she is now my legacy client and I love her so much, and now I'm recording this podcast. And that's my workday. And then right after this in about 30 minutes, 45 minutes, we're gonna go head to my sister's house 'cause she has a pool and we're gonna go swim. And then we have the basketball game tonight because hello, finals game two. I don't pick a team, but I'll side with my mom, go Spurs. And that's my day. And like how... In my mind, that is fucking bliss. That is the fucking dream, truly. And that feels so good for me right now, and I don't know why I steered away. And let me give you some context when I say steer away I just had my SheEO launch. Um, if you, again, have been following me or if you're on my email list, I was talking about SheEO every fucking day, and I love it so much. This would be my fourth round, and I love helping early and aspiring coaches. And I had, um, a different feeling about SheEO earlier in the year 'cause I was gonna launch it in March, and then March came, and I was like, "I just don't feel the energy behind it." I had the old photos, the red lip, the blazer, the four-inch heels. I'm like, "This is not it. This is not me." And I knew there was, like, some change that I wanted to do, but I di- I just didn't know what. So I thought, "Okay, why don't I change the images? Um, so new photo shoot, and why don't I, like, change the wording on my landing page? Like, just give it some more energy, right? Like, different energy, new." And so my friend Amber, um, we took photos together in Tampa. Um, I had... I hired a graphic designer that I've been working with for years, and she revamped the landing page, and I felt honestly good about the new look, the new image, the new vibe. I then created new content, and, um, some of my videos, by the way, popped off on Instagram which I'm so thankful for. And so, like, if I'm reflecting back and connecting the dots, and especially with historical launches that I've done for SheEO, um, I did everything the same if not better, uh, and more energetically charged because I felt so good about it. I went live. Um, I brought in Cassie, my somatic breathwork practitioner, who was gonna come in once a month. Um, again, the new photos, the new vibe, the new energy. Um, so everything was the same if not better and more. My, uh, doors closed. May 31st was the last day, and I was talking to some women, and I had great conversations. And some women said, "Oh my God, I've considered this, but not right now." And, you know, noth- noth- nothing is ever a no. It's always, like, a not right now or whatever, which I totally respect and understand. Regardless, w- not one person committed and signed up for this round of SheEO, and I'm shaking in my boots when I say that here on my podcast because I'm a fucking business coach. I am a fucking business coach, and I launched SheEO, the fourth round of my signature program for early and aspiring coaches to make their first 100K and beyond, and zero people signed up Let that sink in. Zero people signed up. So the first day I, of course, gut-wrenching. I didn't cry, but gut-wrenching. Like, holy shit, no one signed up. Like, is this real? Like, is the tech real? Do I need to keep refreshing? Like, what's happening? And, um, it was, like, a few days after where reality was setting in, and then I started to have some conversations with Bert and my mom and a few close friends and some people in my mastermind that I'm in. And not from a place of like, "Woe is me," and, "I'm shit," and, "Oh my God," like, you know? Like, I didn't make it mean a- anything about me. But it, uh, the conversations were purely coming from a place of curiosity. Like, what happened this round, right? Because the first time I ever launched She-E-O, full transparency, I made $20,000. $20,000. The second round I made between, I think it was like 15, $17,000. This last round I made $10,000. And so I can always kind of bank on having at least minimum a $10,000 launch. And this time zero. And I, and, and when I thought about bringing this to the podcast, I was like, "Ah, I don't know if I can because I'm a business coach, and in order to coach business you have to have successes only." And then I thought about that, I was like, "That's bullshit though," because part of being a business coach, I guess coaching aside, entrepreneur in general, this is going to happen. This is how you learn. And I'm so proud of myself for not making it mean anything about me, because in years past, in round, in past rounds, if zero people had signed up... Which by the way, this has never happened to me before. This is the first time. From The Big Shift, my other group program that I've launched, She-E-O that I've launched, this is the first time where zero people signed up. And I didn't make it mean anything about me, and my business, and the value that I bring to my clients. What it means is just this launch didn't work, so guess what that means? We're going back to the drawing board. And I find that so fucking cool. It's, it's actually a celebration. One, I just hope this story heals someone out there who has also had a launch where zero people have signed up. Two, I hope this helps someone feel seen, less alone, less like they gotta be perfect all the fucking time, because that's not what entrepreneurship is, and I really hope you value, and appreciate, and respect my authenticity and my vulnerability, which I said at the top of this episode, like, this is what I wanna bring more of. Because why be quiet about this? Like, you need to know the ups and the downs. That is entrepreneurship. We always say entrepreneurship is a rollercoaster, but why do we only share when we're at the top, right? We only share the wins. We only share when we're up. But more people need to share when they're down, when they're figuring it out, when they're in the thick of it. That is what I want to bring to my audience. That is what I want to bring more of. And I'm sorry that I haven't brought that before or maybe not as much or whatever, but it's like shame on me. You deserve to know because this will help you. I had to sit back and think about me being in the client's shoes. If my coach, for example, any coach that I've ever worked with or anyone that I look up to on social media and that I don't even work with, and if they were honest and said, "You know what? I launched this thing and my expectation was X, but it actually turned out to be Y," I would respect them that much more. And it actually makes me more brave to go out there and try shit because I'm not afraid of failing because I see someone else who still has a successful business and they're not crushed by this. They just pick up the pieces. They reflect what worked, what didn't work. Okay, what do we need to adjust and tweak moving forward? That is entrepreneurship. Welcome to the game of entrepreneurship. You know what I mean? So zero people signed up And I'm human. There were emotions. Yesterday, um, I cried. There, there were so many other things that came up for me. It w- it's not just zero people signed up for this launch, but it's also, you know, the bigger mission that I have in life and who I wanna take care of and how I wanna give back. Like, there's so much more than just a launch. And so I think that was also surfacing up to... Or that was bubbling up to the surface. But I cried, and I'm so happy I did because that emotion gets to move through me and out of me so that I can move on, and I feel so much lighter and brighter today. If nobody knows that, by the way, you need to cry. Crying is good. It's nervous system regulation, an element of it. Anyways, um, and with that, there was so much clarity that came up. And I think the feeling that I had, um, in March was, again, this feeling of uneasiness and heaviness thinking about launching She-E-O. So that already happened. And then I thought, "Well, maybe it's just because this new energy, like the, the photos and stuff, like, doesn't really vibe with me anymore," hence why I got the new photos and a little bit of a rebrand and added Cassy in and all this stuff. But now the fact that it didn't work, it's like the universe is showing me, "This wasn't it, Katya," right? Like, "There's maybe something bigger and greater for you. But She-E-O right now in this moment, the way you were launching it, is not the right way. Maybe She-E-O will come back and it's a different structure. You know, is it membership style? Is it lower ticket? Is it... I don't know. I don't know. Um, or maybe is it self-paced? Is it a digital course because the business trainings, 16 of them are fucking value-packed. But the way you did it and the way it is right now, it just didn't... It, it fell short. And you were meant to birth something else and something new and something different," right? And it's so wild because That was yesterday, okay? So the doors close May 31st, and then gut-wrenching as it was and all this stuff. And then, um, fast-forward to today, and I had a renewal conversation with one of my private clients. She's been a client of mine for three years. I love her. We could be best friends outside of this coaching client container. I told her that today. And, um, she's been with me for three years, and so I said, "You know what? For six months, I want to lock you in at the same rate that you paid last time." And to be transparent, it's $10,000. And I was like, "That's it. Like, you're locked in every six months. That's your rate. It's not gonna go down. It's not gonna go up. Like, that's it." It's called the grandmother clause. If you're familiar with the grandfather clause, we renamed it over here to the grandmother clause 'cause I only work with women. Yay, female empowerment. And so I told her this, and she was like, "Oh my God, I wanna cry. Like, I also... This gives me so much peace knowing exactly what I'm getting, exactly the rate forever. Like, if I wanted to just be a lifetime client of Katia, I know it's there for me." And it was just such a beautiful conversation. I didn't script. I didn't prepare. This just oozed out of me like word vomit, and she signed She signed. So how crazy is that? You get this, quote-unquote, "failed She-E-O launch," and then I make $10,000 but from a private client. Like, the universe, God, knowing, whatever you subscribe to just works in mysterious ways, and there is always a bigger plan, better plan for you. And I thought it was this way with She-E-O, but it wasn't, at least at this time in my life. And so I just feel so good about it, and I feel like it's already a full circle moment after today's conversation with my private client. And there's just always something bigger and better and more aligned for you. And so my hope in this conversation and pretty much in all my content moving forward, every episode, every Instagram Reel, every TikTok, eventually when YouTube comes around and I can be consistent with it, I want to be honest. I want to be open. I want to be transparent. I want to be vulnerable because that feels good to me. That is the content I like to share. That is what gives me permission as a client seeing that from someone else to do the same, to try, to fail, to hope, to think abundantly, to think the work, the world and universe is working for me truly. So I hope my intention came across. I hope you appreciate the transparency in the numbers that I just offered you. And I really hope it gives you permission to try and, and do something. And even if the result is not the result that you had expected or anticipated and zero people sign up, it just means that you needed to go through that to learn and to get to your next stepping stone. I, I genuinely believe that. So that's the... That's all. That's all that I have for you today. I really, really hope you found this helpful. And again, let me know. Slide into my DMs. Let me know if you appreciated this episode, if you loved it, if you want more transparency, if you want more vulnerability, 'cause if you're like me, I'm kinda sick of the, the noise. I'm sick of the performance. I'm sick of the faking it. I'm s- I'm sick of the desire marketing, as they call it, where it's like, "Look at me and my life." And, and, and yes, like, you can have a beautiful life, and all your dreams can come true, but also the, the marketing exaggerated element to it, I'm so over it. It's... I, I just think it's so out of touch, and I've been feeling that way since becoming a mom because My life does not match the marketing and social media world that I see in my everyday content, right? And I didn't know how to show up in that way. And now it's like I finally have clarity, and I finally have peace, and I finally am just, like, ready to own it and be more me i- in the raw, in the vulnerable, in the honesty, because what else am I doing here? That was my original intention, and I think I got away from that a little bit, and I'm just excited to be back, and it feels so fucking good. And I really, really hope I can connect with you, and align with you, and just make some fucking magic together, honestly. Like, I am here to empower women, and lift women up, and be raw and real and honest in the shit, and we just don't stop, you know? So anyways, my rant is over. I love you so much if you made it this far and, um, yeah, I'll see you next episode. See you next week.