Ep39: How Tess Grew Her Membership from 50 to 175 Members in 8 Months (Without Burning Out)

What does it really take to sustainably grow a membership while keeping your life, energy, and wellbeing intact?

In this episode, Jada sits down with Tess Thompson, Pilates instructor and founder of Club Nest Online Pilates, a digital membership supporting women 50+ to feel stronger, more mobile, and more confident in their bodies so they can live life to the fullest.

Before working with Jada, Tess was doing all the “right things” - posting, supporting her existing members, showing up consistently - but behind the scenes, she felt overwhelmed and unsure what to focus on next. She deeply wanted to grow Club Nest Online Pilates, but didn’t know how to move forward.

Eight months later, Tess has grown her membership from ~50 to 175 members, while feeling more grounded, clear, and supported than ever.

This conversation is a transparent look at the real journey behind sustainable membership growth - what actually moves the needle, what doesn’t matter as much as you think, and why having the right support and structure is a game changer.

LISTEN NOW

You’ll hear:

• How Tess went from confusion and overwhelm → clear direction and confidence.
• The strategic shifts that expanded Nest Online Pilates to 175 members.
• How she grew without burning out or overdelivering.
• Why clarity and structure matter more than “doing more”.
  
  
• How she rebuilt her relationship with launching so it felt supportive instead of draining.
• The power of support, accountability, and having a container to grow in.

This is the truth behind what looks like “overnight success.”
 It’s clarity, alignment, and courageous leadership.

LISTEN IN NOW

If you had a takeaway or ‘aha’ from this episode and want to share it with your business besties and community, screenshot and share it on Instagram, tagging me at @jada.businessmentor. I’d love to shout out your takeaways and your support!

💬 Let’s connect!
Instagram: @jada.businessmentor
Email: jada@riseandshinecollective.com.au

✨ Connect with Tess:
Instagram: @nest.mildura
Website: www.nestmildura.com.au
Download her freebie - The #1 Reason You Wake Up Stiff and What To Do About It: https://nest-mildura.kit.com/freemobilityvideo

→ DM me on Instagram @jada.businessmentor or email me if you’re ready to grow your online offer in a more aligned, ease-filled, and sustainable way through Aligned Launch Coaching & Consulting.

And please hit follow, leave a review, and share this episode with a business bestie if you’ve found it helpful.

Transcript

Episode 39.

Jada De Goey Teatini-Climaco (00:03)
Welcome to the Aligned and Thriving podcast for female entrepreneurs where we align systems, strategies and self for sustainable success. My name is Jada. I'm your host. And today I am really excited because I am joined by one of my Aligned Launch Coaching and Consulting clients, Tess Thompson. We have been working together for

most of this year And I'm really excited to share her journey with you and have her share in her words what that journey has been like.

If you are growing an online offer, whether that's a course or a membership, this is an absolute must listen this is the real talk around real growth and what has gone into it that you can also experience. So make sure you've got a notebook, a pen, you're going to want to take some notes or maybe you'll even want to bookmark this one to come back to it.

So let's dive in together.

speaker-0 (01:09)
Hello Tess and welcome to the Aligned and Thriving podcast.

speaker-1 (01:13)
Hello Jada thanks so much for having me.

speaker-0 (01:15)
it is such a pleasure. I'm very excited to dive into our conversation today. Now introducing you to everybody listening, Tess is a Pilates instructor. She runs an online Pilates membership for women who are 50 plus, focused in that area. She has been running a physical reformer Pilates studio for many years, has been a myotherapist, a teacher.

many things. She is a mom of two gorgeous girls, a wife, a woman, all sorts of things, multifaceted as we all are. So we're coming on today to talk about her journey with live launching that we've been on together this year since March and to share her journey so that you can learn from it and be inspired by it. But Tess, could you share a little bit more about you?

what you do and how you help people.

speaker-1 (02:13)
Yeah, well, I think you pretty much summed up everything that I do. But yeah, with my background in myo therapy, I have a really big passion for, well, I don't do mio therapy anymore. And I just found that people got better results from doing Pilates than they did from my therapy treatments. And I just found that I would give my my  therapy clients things to do at home. But

they wouldn't really do it on their own. So I decided to make a platform where I could be at home with them and tell them what to do so that they could feel better in their bodies. I live in Mildura in Northwest Victoria. So just small town, but inside my Pilates membership online, I have people from right around Australia and in New Zealand as well. So very cool.

And it's been a super huge year for me and also looking forward to next year as well.

speaker-0 (03:04)
Yeah, so I reckon let's dive right in. So Tess and I met at the beginning of this year inside a mastermind, a business mastermind that we're both in as peers with Tracy Harris. And Tess was around one or two years into your online membership, two years or coming up on two years in May this year, 2020. We're recording in 2025.

speaker-1 (03:24)
Yes.

I always forget.

speaker-0 (03:29)
it's going to just be on the internet forever. Yes. In May 2025, you came up to two years of your online membership and we chatted about launches and opening up the doors into your membership back in March this year and then you decided that you wanted to get some help and work with me to really dive deep on being supported with live launches so that you could really reach

many people at once and bring them into your membership. So you, at that point, you were coming up to two years running your online membership. So can you kind of paint a picture as far as where that membership was at, kind of how many people were in there, what you'd been doing to grow it up until that point?

speaker-1 (04:14)
Yeah, so my business started well before it was even a membership was just me teaching Pilates online to the people who couldn't make it into the studio. Just people booking randomly and not randomly, but booking for set times each week. And I decided to change that into a membership and just slowly learning from little different courses that I was doing on the Internet. And.

Yeah, just trying to do the best I could with the information that I could gather. But at the start of this year and when I joined the mastermind with Tracy Harris and before I was working with Jada, I guess I was just trying to launch to my very small email list using just social media. Hadn't done any ads before. Hadn't run any proper launches. Just opening the doors and closing the doors.

I was kind of trying to crack 50 members at this time and yeah, I didn't have an email newsletter. didn't have anything. just had, you know, coming from a small town in Mildura I just had my social media, my clients who were also reformer clients and myo therapy clients as well. And yeah, that's basically all I had, I think.

speaker-0 (05:25)
which is such a great start. And so when we started working together, you also had, you're talking about your small email list. So we were chatting before we came on about numbers so we could make sure we remember all the numbers. So there's so many numbers. And you had around 200 people on your email list. You had your social media. And so what were you looking for? Like what was going on? What did you feel like was really stopping you from being able to grow?

the membership in the way that you wanted to, I guess, as we started working together or before we started working together.

speaker-1 (06:00)
I guess there's a couple of main things is just that I didn't know. I didn't know what I didn't know, which is a big thing for me. I have ADHD and the way that I learn best is not by reading things. I've since been diagnosed. I got diagnosed with ADHD this year and I've started medication. So I'm going better with reading things, but.

I'm not very good at reading information and then trying to implement it on my own. So what I really loved about the idea of working with you Jada is the one-on-one and the being able to talk to somebody and ask questions along the way in real time. That's how I learned best. And I've forgotten what the question was, but maybe I've answered it.

speaker-0 (06:43)
You have definitely, there might be some other things. So it's just around, I guess, what you were struggling with or what the challenges were blocking you from being able to move forward at the point of when you decided to start working together with me. So you have, but I'm not sure if there's anything else.

speaker-1 (06:59)
guess I just had just a very basic understanding of it all. now I know there's this there's even more to it that I could have ever could have ever imagined. So many layers, so many different things you can do, so many different ways you can do it. And I just only really had surface level knowledge about all of it. So, yeah, I was trying to do something that I didn't really know that much about.

speaker-0 (07:23)
and when we started working together, we sat down and we looked at what your goals were for the membership and what you really wanted to do was to grow the membership to 100, well that was your main goal, like 100 plus people, but going for that 100 by the end of this year. And fast forward to now, you now have a membership of, I think if I'm correct, 175, around about,

speaker-1 (07:46)
Yeah, or all of that, yep.

speaker-0 (07:48)
our current members. So you've grown from just under 50 to 175 members since March this year or between March and November this year in 2025. So let's talk about then, so that's where you were at when we started working together. And so we set those goals and we got to work and while we've worked together, we've done a bit of a combination to help you grow faster.

but also to help you set up.

more quickly with repeatable systems and the aspects of a launch that you would then be able to rely on. So we actually repeated the launch four times between March and November. And we also got you set up with a really launch specific lead magnet to help you also grow your email list.

So we mentioned that when we started in March, you had an email list of about 200. You started putting into place some great things from within the mastermind with your regular newsletter. And then throughout doing all of the launches and utilizing paid ads, going out to build the audience through ads, you've also grown your email list to 2,800.

So that's a very healthy, warm community that you've developed as well who you can now nurture, which is really exciting. So let's talk about the process that we went through, but I'd love to hear it. Of course, I could jump on here and I could share the process from my perspective, but I would really love for you to share from your perspective what the process has then been taking you from that point in March through till your last launch in October this year.

speaker-1 (09:34)
Yeah, so at the very start, when I was very confused, I guess the first thing was that Jada just sat down with me and explained everything to me. And I was able to ask questions and wrap my head around the whole thing. The way that I learned best is by like knowing the bigger picture first and then working back from there. So that was a really nice way to start off with Jada.

And from there we came up with a plan and we had a timeline and we just started nutting out each little bit of the launch along the way. I think we had ⁓ maybe a couple of months before the first launch and then the next launches after that were a bit quicker in time because most things were built out. So the first launch was really huge. A lot of work went into it, but each week

I'd sit down with Jada and she would give me, you know, we'd have a little chat and a rundown and she'd give me my tasks for the week, which was really good again for the way that my brain works and the accountability that we would just work on things and have a timeline of the things that we built out, which was sitting down and planning the, the live class, which was really like, I couldn't have done that on my own. And we'd just have this amazing

free live class that I run now and the people who come to it just love the class. And I just couldn't have done that on my own. And then working back from there, the lead magnet that matched in with the free class and the email sequences and the ads to go to it all and the opt-in pages and the sales page. And we just worked on all of that leading up to the first launch that we did this year. And again, just checking in with Jada each week. And I love that not only did Jada

check in with the work that I was doing, but she also checks in with me and how I'm going and how I'm feeling, which is also really important, especially with, you know, the year that I've had and working on myself and my mental health and my physical health. Like it's just a really holistic way to to work. And I've really appreciated that side of things as well. And then the launch debrief and going through everything after that and then making a plan for the next one. Everything's built.

a level and then we just choose what are we going to work on the next time and we focus in on that and each time we've launched we've added something new or different in to make it even better to get better numbers

speaker-0 (11:59)
And I remember as you were speaking as well, I was thinking back to some of our first conversations. And yeah, I remember at that point, there was that confusion, which is so understandable and normal. There's so much jargon and so many different terms for things in this online space. And when you're moving from a bricks and mortar style of business,

or even from, you know, working in a specialized area and then starting your first business, there's so many different words for everything and then trying to understand, what is the difference between an opt-in page and a sales page and what's a nurture sequence, email sequence versus an open cart, email sequence versus a reminder sequence. you know, there's so many different moving parts and assets that are a part of it to wrap your head around and understand.

not only what they are, but actually what they need to do. And I feel like it's been really amazing watching you grow in all of those areas and do all of that work in building all of those foundational layers, but not just know what they are and be able to kind of implement them, but really your understanding growing of what each aspect actually does so that you can move forward confidently understanding

and not just relying on my opinions and my analysis of your launch, but also that learning as well, laid on top as to how to look at all that information, that data and those metrics, what to look for, why it's important, and then be able to actually analyze that for yourself so that you can see where the opportunity lies within your launch from those numbers.

so that we were able to work more and more towards that. So you feel comfortable, not just with every aspect of the launch itself, but also being able to analyze and know what to do and focus on next time.

speaker-1 (13:53)
Yeah, and going back to what you were saying, I remember I didn't even understand what is launch. What is the word launch? Like, is it a launch every time? Why is it always a launch? Isn't launch a new thing? And for the people listening on who don't know me and my background that well, I am one of those crazy people. And the people listening might resonate with this that has absolutely no business background whatsoever. Nobody in my family has ever run a business.

And I was a primary school teacher for 10 years. And then I got into my therapy, just one-on-one clients. That was pretty fine. But then when I got into running a reformer studio and online pilates and turning this into actually a business instead of a hobby, I went in blind, but now I know a lot thanks to Jada. So that's just a bit of background so you know where I'm coming from.

speaker-0 (14:46)
Thank you for sharing that because I would say that the majority of people are like that. Most people come into business and I feel like especially online business with a background in an area and a desire to help people with their knowledge but no actual business experience. And so I feel like that is really the majority of people and so I'm sure a lot of people listening will relate to that.

And I love that you have brought that up because it is so confusing. Why is it a launch? Why is it called a launch every time? Isn't a launch when you bring out something new? What does that even mean? And there is a lot of confusion around what a launch is and what it means when we talk about a launch and doing launches in the digital offer space. And it's because that actual name was coined by Jeff Walker, the product launch.

formula, which is the basis of the formula that all of the people use and that we've worked through, but personalised it all and interpreted it for you in a personalised kind of a way. And that's why it's called a launch. It's just kind of been adopted in the digital space. So I'm wondering if you Tess could share having been in that position where you're like, I'm hearing people talking about launching and launches and that I need to launch my offer and I need to do a launch and a live launch

to now obviously having nailed them. How would you describe then to the person who was you, you know, in March just this year going, what is a launch? And answering that question, how would you describe what they are?

speaker-1 (16:22)
⁓ gosh, do I even really still know? I'm not sure. Do I know now? I know that at the start I didn't know anything and I was just so confused because it's like learning another language, all these different terms. But a launch is, well for me, a launch is opening the doors to my membership is what a launch is for me because I do open closed doors. I know that a launch means kind of different things for different businesses, but a launch for me is

lots of different moving parts but essentially getting people in the doors all at the same time from a series of events that leads to all come in at that time.

speaker-0 (16:59)
I feel like there and lies the thing is the series of events. So a lot of people I know because I talk to a lot of people and I watch a lot of people doing quote unquote no one can see my air, quote fingers here, launches and not getting the results that they're after but feeling very busy that they're doing a lot of things and they are legitimately doing a lot of things but they're not necessarily doing all of the key things that make a

launch in this way that we're talking about work. And oftentimes it is thought that the launch is, we'll say we're talking about a live launch, which is what you're doing. And fundamentally the live launch is an events based one to many sales pipeline into your one to many container, course or membership.

When we're about a live launch, we're using some kind of live event where we're interacting with people. But a lot of people think that even if we're talking about a live launch, that it is the event and the period of time where you have your doors open.

So I guess if you were to shift, someone was thinking that that's what a launch is. And I mean, that's, guess, the kind of main pieces of it. But as you said, there's this sequence of events that kind of happen that lead to that. So if you were to talk about that, what would you say that that sequence of events kind of is? Because if we just put on the event and went, hey, everyone, we've got an event on, come along to it, which we do in part do that.

And then we said, okay great, the doors are open to my membership now, which we do do that. But there's a bit of other stuff that goes on.

speaker-1 (18:39)
Yeah, so well, we've got the lead magnet. We've got the ads to lead magnet. We've got an email nurture sequence to go with the lead magnet that leads into invitations to the live class, ads to the live class, nurture sequence with the live class, and then getting people to turn up to the live class, running the live class, and then inviting them into the membership from there.

There might be bonuses, might be a waitlist, there might be an early bird waitlist, social media around this whole thing, emails around this whole thing as well, ⁓ so many moving parts.

speaker-0 (19:16)
Yes, so many moving parts and I feel like that is where a lot of people listen to that and they're like, my gosh, like I don't want to use live launches to grow my course or my membership because it just sounds like way too much work, way too many moving parts. But at the crux of things, the parts that help this really work versus like not doing an event, for example, is exactly that kind of build up, that excitement, that fact that there is something to look

forward to and I know for you that has been a part of your success because your current members get really excited about the fact that you have these free classes going on. Do you want to speak to that at all?

speaker-1 (19:56)
⁓ about my current members and the free classes.

speaker-0 (20:00)
Yeah, like how it kind of creates that sense of community and being a part of something and your members being excited to invite their friends along and that kind of side of running a live event as part of selling into your offer.

speaker-1 (20:14)
Yeah, a lot of my members are super happy to share and invite their friends and family and whoever to come into the membership and they'll see my little ads or my social media and they'll share that to invite people to come into the free class and even some of the members will come along to the free class because that's not something that I've always had. It's something new this year and some of the members have already been in the club for two years.

So they've come along to the free class and been re-inspired on their movement journey as well. it's been helpful for the new people and for the current people as well.

speaker-0 (20:52)
exciting. And so is there something that you really enjoy about the fact that you're able to have this open and closed period for your membership and have a system where you know that you can bring in a lot of people all at once, even though, yes, it is a lot of work and there's a lot of energy that goes into it. Is there a reason that you chose that way rather than just kind of always promoting your membership?

and having it open all the time? Is there something you like specifically about doing it that way?

speaker-1 (21:24)
Yeah, and that reminds me about something else that I haven't spoken about yet that we also created this year, but I love that I can just focus in on one thing, which is getting people to sign up and letting them know about the membership and getting everybody in together. Because also this year we created my signature Strong Start series, which is bit of a it's like an onboarding into the membership, but because.

It's a Pilates membership. It's a three week onboarding. So we have everybody coming for three weeks to get together or they get the recording if they can't come live. And then they get this really nice. They might come to the free class and then the next three weeks they're in the Strong Start series, which isn't all exercise. It's showing them how to use the membership, having some connection with me and some connection with the other members. And that's something that we've sort of

created from scratch and then fine tuned this year as well, which I just really love because I get to know the members. so when this live launch is happening, we get everybody in together and then everybody goes through the Strong Start series together. And then it just means that I'm not trying to do 600 things at once. It means I can focus on the live launch, then I can focus on the Strong Start series, then I might focus on something else in my membership like I run challenges throughout the year.

or just keeping up with the regular ins and outs of the week. So it's really nice to go all in on the launch, but then just go back to regular business in between.

speaker-0 (22:52)
really nice. And that's true. I'm glad you brought that up because that onboarding is so important. We've got, the launch and getting people in, but then that onboarding side and that retention side of things so that you have a really good lifetime connection and obviously value of people coming in and they can get the most out of your offering by actually staying because they've been onboarded and supported in a way that is.

helpful to them so that they feel comfortable and that they're staying there and getting what they actually need from the membership. And obviously for you, then your effort of marketing to them and bringing them in is also really valuable because then they're more likely to stay, which is such an important aspect as well. So we've kind of talked through what the launch is, some of those parts, and you were mentioning how that first launch, which was a

We refer to them as being a warm and cold launch in that you promote it out to your full current community across email and social media as well as doing ads out to reach a brand new audience. So when we talk about a cold launch, it's when it's out to only new people via advertising and the launch event is not advertised to.

current organic social media or email lists. So that first launch was in May. So we spent a couple of months really getting all of the assets built, working on all of the funnel if you like. So how we're moving people through, starting as you said with what that event would be, creating your lead magnet, doing all of that really foundational setup. So it's almost like really slowing down to set up all of that.

And in that first launch, like you mentioned, it's a lot of building. It's a lot of new things to create. So it feels very busy and it's a lot of brain work because you're having to think about every new email from a blank page and what exactly is the basis of your class and what is going to go into the opt-in page? What's your hook going to be? What is the whole concept of everything? So that was a really big...

build and I know at the time it felt like a lot and we just broke it down week by week as to what you needed to focus on. And then in May we had that first launch together which was to the warm and cold audience and if I'm remembering correctly I believe you brought in around 16 or so new members. Yes. the which was kind of matching I think

the very first time you'd opened your doors, like with your founding member launch, and then it was bigger than any other time you'd opened your doors since then. So that was great. Like, okay, cool. We've matched the biggest launch. We've done a lot of work. Let's have a look at this. And so we've mentioned already that you've done four launches this year. So from there, do you wanna talk people through kind of what we did from there and also what it was like then going into

that next launch compared to the first one.

speaker-1 (25:45)
Yeah. So the first launch was just absolutely huge for me. so much work. I really enjoyed teaching the live classes. I think that's, you know, the teacher background coming out of me. And also that I teach Pilates online anyway, in front of the camera. So that wasn't new to me, but the class that I taught was new because it had selling in it. And selling was a big one. Trying to sell people on the call was really huge. And Jada.

came along and watched, my very first one, I think, and gave me feedback so that I can improve on the next one. So that was super nerve wracking, but also cool. So I think something that I want to say about it was that my results were actually pretty good. And I was really happy with the results from the launch. I've got my stats in front of me. And from that first launch, the very first class that I ran,

the amount of people who turned up live to that very first class was two. Yeah, it was two people and and I don't think I don't know. I don't care. Like I don't care that it was only two. It was all learning and building. And when I I don't think I wrote down how many people came to the classes at the end, but I'll have a rough amount. But out of those two people, one person signed up. So that was a 50 percent conversion from that class, which is really awesome.

And the conversion rates for the other two classes had 13 people turn up live 15 and 17 percent conversion, which was really good. And the ad spend I haven't got written in front of me, but it might have been it might have been like a thousand dollars. I don't think it was a thousand dollars. I less. I think it was way less than that. Yeah. Like less than five hundred dollars, I think. But in comparison with the most recent live launch.

warm launch in October, we had 1,904 people registered to come to the live class. We implemented text messages to try and get more people to turn up live. For the three classes, each class, they all had over 100 people turn up live, which was super cool. This time I had

My virtual assistant who didn't exist at the start of all this, my virtual assistant assisted me live to talk in the chat so I could concentrate on the class. That was huge. Thank goodness she was available to do that because the people were just super engaged in chatting and asking questions, which was really good. And in the three classes, The live conversion was 16%, 17 % and 10%. And overall in the launch,

the October launch, had 106 members sign up which was really, really cool. yeah. Again, I can't remember what the question was, but hopefully I answered it. ⁓

speaker-0 (28:25)
Yeah.

was really great and I love where you went with that. And I really, really love that you have highlighted that you had two people come along to your first ever live launch event and that you were okay with that because a lot of people would not be or feel like make that mean something. And the fact that you have also shared that one person signed up. So that gives you a 50 % live sales conversion, which is

way above average. So, you know, then we can look at, well, all right, if we get more people in, can we keep that kind of conversion? And as you've shared, like it went down, but it still was holding at that kind of 17 % conversion, which is still very good, even on those other classes. And you had more people come to the other classes when you ran the first launch. So just to be clear, you ran three live classes within each of your launches.

And we've obviously skipped over two launches in between to go from the first live launch this year to the last one, which is cool because we can really see that comparison and how we've kind of built towards that and for people to see, yes, my friends, it's real, like real people. Tess right here, she did it. The exact thing that so many I know of people who are listening are wanting to do and kind of hoping to be able to put into place.

is to create those kinds of conversions where they're growing and that effort the I guess the return on the effort is there which has happened layer by layer as you've shared so that was all really great and so if you talk

speaker-1 (30:09)
Can I add something else in while I think of it? I just wanted to say also that the ad spend. So when we got to that fourth launch, so I'd done one warm launch and two cold launches already and got all the numbers from those and then felt confident enough to then put more money into my ads. So I spent maybe like $5,000 on the last warm launch.

so the numbers were still good and put the money in and obviously got all the money back because I had a hundred and six people sign up. It's something else that I implemented this year with the help of Jada is that while we have monthly membership options still, but added in quarterly and annual membership options. So a bunch of those people who have signed up for annual, memberships as well. So I know that I've got them for 12 months, which is.

really good peace of mind as well. So I just want to add that in.

speaker-0 (31:00)
absolutely. And the pricing is really, important. And it's all of the details that we look to implement within your launches. And as we've gone, we've been able to focus on more and more little aspects that help you to convert. know that pricing was one of the things we looked at in the first launch and things like, you know, if people are in this digital online space, you'll see people using bonuses and live show up bonuses and secret sessions and

live sign up bonuses and, annual bonuses. And I remember that was one of the, things right at the beginning in that first launch. You know, we're kind of talking about the different bonuses and I always look to just see how much capacity, that you have each time because we don't need to implement everything at once. And I remember in that first launch, talking about bonuses, you were just like looking at me with these big

big eyes almost cross-eyed like I can't, I don't have any more brain space Jada to try and think of a bonus. And we didn't put all of the, you know, we didn't have text messaging in that first launch. We didn't have extra bonuses. We had just the base, well, we had more than the base base foundations because we were working together and I was able to help you implement, but we put all of the base things into place and then over those next launches, we're able to focus on

layers where they would be most impactful. So let's talk just a little bit, obviously not all of the details, but between what you've shared with that data from the first launch and then this last launch where it's all kind of come to fruition, all of those layers have paid off and all of that work of implementation has created that really larger launch with over 100 people coming in from those three classes. What we did to help

help you grow faster was to do those cold launches in between your warm launches. And that meant that you were able to practice each of the elements like your live class, like the selling in your live class and improve the way that you did that. And we were able to layer in and create more space. I just, think that's one of the things I remember the second time that we did the launch together and we did the cold launch. There were two really big things. One,

You had all of the core assets built, so you didn't have to build them from scratch. So all of a sudden you had more brain space for things like bonuses looking at those different areas or refining the emails and all that kind of thing. And also because it was a cold launch going only out to a cold audience, you didn't have all of your current email list or your social media aspects.

to do as well. Is there anything around that that you want to share in relation to doing that as a process?

speaker-1 (33:50)
Yeah, I really loved doing that as a process and I got good results from a cold launch, just as good as a warm launch, which is really good. Yeah, a warm launch is huge. It's huge brain capacity. Not crazy, not like I should never be doing it, but it's just a huge amount of energy to put into a warm launch because if you're going to do it, you want to try and do your best with it.

So having the cold launches in between is just like a little breath of fresh air. Most things are already ready to go and I just have to kind of turn up to the live class and teach it and everything else. Well, it needs to be put in place and set up, but everything else is sort of ready to go, which is really, really good.

speaker-0 (34:31)
Yes. And so one of the core things that we identified early for Tess was that what was letting her down with her overall sign up numbers was her live show up rate. So she was getting, you know, obviously we increased the number of people who signed up over time as she got confident with knowing what kind of overall sales conversion she was going to get each time she put a bit more money on the ads, obviously going from that.

It was around a $500 spend the first time to the $5,000 ad spend in the last launch. And that was kind of built up to, although I'm pretty sure that that last launch was like a triple on whatever you spent the time before. So it was a big leap. And you were confident with that because you knew how your opt-in page performed. You knew what your live show up rate, how that was going to put, well, we were still working on improvements for that actually.

but we had a lot of things in place to focus on improving your live show up rate and we had been working on that specifically because we could see it was an area that would make a big difference through those two cold launches that you did. And then you knew what your live sales conversion was likely to be even when we were obviously each time looking to improve particular areas. And you also knew kind of how your open cart emails would perform.

because we'd been testing that all the way through. And that's what doing that repetition instead of kind of wearing out your warm audience, you're able to go out to new people and also build that list so that they could attend a couple of times and get to know you and be nurtured on your email list in between so that when you then open the doors back up in October,

right out to your wider audience you had a bigger audience to talk to and you knew exactly what all of your conversion would be and so you could kind of really go in confidently across your organic energy like that expensive energy right when you're more clear it's not just like the money on your ads but when you know what kind of outcome you're likely to get does it feel different in expending that energy as well?

speaker-1 (36:38)
It feels a little bit more exciting than a little bit nerve wracking as well. It's always a bit of a risk, it? But it feels a bit exciting that you know that something good is going to happen. And not just for me, but for all the people who I'm finding, who are finding me, I'm literally...

changing their lives. They've told me that even the people who just come to the free class and don't sign up and they stay on my email list like all these people that have found me because of the process that I have gone on with Jada this year is just ⁓ it's life-changing people who are like this is exactly what I've been looking for. just hadn't you know I'm so glad I came across your ads. I'm so glad this has happened and everything like it's exciting.

me, but I'm excited for them because I get to help them in their life and they are going to feel better. And it's just really exciting to have that impact in the world, I guess.

speaker-0 (37:39)
I love where that's led because I really wanted to talk about meeting, like reaching these goals. Obviously you had the goal of reaching 100 members and then I know before we went, I can't remember if it's before you went into your third launch or this last fourth launch I think before this fourth launch this year you were talking about your new goal was to reach 200 members.

because that would mean that you would feel really financially stable for your family. It would mean that you're able to make changes to your other work. You could let go of your reformer Pilates studio, your in-person reformer Pilates studio, which you love as well, which you were sad about as well. However, it would free up that space for the lifestyle with your family to be able to then focus fully on the online.

business to create the kind of lifestyle that you're looking for and also to be able to put more infrastructure into that online membership to support more people. And so I did really want to talk about, yes, of course, the numbers are exciting, reaching 175 new members. You're so close to that 200 member point, which was that goal for that financial stability for you to be able to make some of those changes.

And that really is exciting. And like you're saying, the infrastructure and your ability to invest in those ads, $5,000 plus dollars in ads to go out and reach new people and have hundreds of people come and experience your classes and have that help them in their lives. That certainly, I know that it excites you and it excites me so much. So it's like, well, what do these numbers really mean for you?

speaker-1 (39:23)
Yeah. So yeah, as Jada just said that, I get to close, I get to, I get to close my reformer studio down. is a choice. and. You know, the reformer studio requires so much of me and I just can't give it all with my family and with the online Pilates business that I'm running. So yeah, I get to close the reformer studio down, even though that's what was making me the most money before.

And online pilates now is, you know, it's not a side hustle. It's not a hobby. It's a full blown business now. And just because it's a full blown business, so that doesn't mean it's going to take up my whole week. It's going to be a business in a way that really suits me and how I want to live my life. So I'll be able to be there for all my kids stuff. I'll be able to implement.

having people work online from me from anywhere to run all of the back end or run some classes for me and something else that I love about the online side of things is because Mildura is not a really huge place. So it's not always that easy to find the right people to fit your business and work with you. So now that I'm working online, I have the opportunity to find people from anywhere really to work for me and work with me.

and I can work from anywhere as well. So I can literally work from anywhere and I can help people from, well, at the moment all over Australia and New Zealand, maybe one day the whole world, and have that beautiful impact on the world and on people's lives and feel good about what I'm doing, but also, you know, have time to have a life for myself at the same time.

speaker-0 (41:08)
have the time and have the finances to support your family and live the life you choose to live and make this amazing, beautiful impact on all these people's lives.

huge. And so let's talk about then you've had the growth and this year has really been about setting up the systems that are now you can rely on them. You know exactly how your launch is going to work. If you spend this much money and you get this many people in registered, you know how many people you're likely to have sign up. And so you have this repeatable system and strategy in place that you can rely on. So you can confidently go into next year.

knowing that you have that, planning when you'd like to utilize it, when you want to open the doors, when you want to do that with more energy to your full list and your community, when you want to do that just out to new people with a cold launch. And you're also now set up in a place where you're putting infrastructure in place because the membership is also now earning to be able to support that. And so...

You've got the 175, you're so close to your 200, you've already now made the choice to close down your Reforma Studio by the end of this year because you have that confidence in continuing to grow. It's not a hopefully like cross your fingers and toes, you know it's going to happen. And so can you share from this point now where you're at what your focus is for next year going into 2026, your goals and focus from here? Because for me, that's kind of

You've done the growth piece and now it's really setting up to scale. But what does that look like? You know, that's cool. Everyone uses the word scale and grow and things like that. What does that mean for you?

speaker-1 (42:52)
So what that looks like for me is that I really want the back end of my business to be running super smoothly. So I want all our processes. I want our staff trained up to be doing more. I want the business to be able to run without me. Not that I'm going to leave the business, but that if I want to have one, two weeks off or one, two months off that I know that

it will be fine and it will run without me and everybody knows what to do. That is like for anybody who runs a business, you would know that if you can take time off without having to even check in on your business, that is like ultimate goals. So that's one of the main goals for next year. And then the goal to get 800 people in the membership, but 800 people who feel like they're really supported and connected and

that everything's running smoothly. So they're the two main goals for next year.

speaker-0 (43:47)
which is really exciting because it's all the way through when we've worked together. And of course, we are very much in that space within our mastermind that we're a part of. And we're very much in that same line of thought where we want to create a successful business. We want to be earning well financially. We want to be living a good life that we love, whatever that looks like for each of us.

And so that's been really important as well throughout this whole process of like, yes, we've talked about it being a lot of work, a lot of things to build, a lot of energy output, but always as we've set goals and also focus points for your launches and then obviously looking into next year, which you've beautifully shared there, it's that aspect of setting your business up in a way so that it supports your desired life and it supports really well the people inside your membership.

and you're reaching financial goals as well and impact goals around reaching all of those people to change so many people's lives. And so, I wanted to highlight that with many of your launches, you've done things like be away with your family within OpenCart, you know, having, three, four days off directly after closing the doors and having that downtime.

we've always made sure that we plan in, well, how are you looking after your wellbeing and your energy throughout that time? And, it hasn't been that you've been working late nights and weekends to do all of this as well. So you've been able to actually do that big output, but still be there for your kids and school pick up and make pancakes in the mornings. And I know we've had all these conversations about those different things.

which is also so important.

speaker-1 (45:26)
Yes. And you know, every now and then when things don't go to plan, of course, I'm chasing my tail a little bit. So I'm not totally, you know, selling the dream here. Things do go wrong sometimes. And I did actually for every launch that at least something went wrong. That was very annoying. But.

speaker-0 (45:43)
like a Murphy's Law thing. feel like every launch something random happens. It might be personal or it might be in the business. Like a kid gets sick or a platform decides to upgrade in the middle of a launch which happens to Tess and change their payment

speaker-1 (45:58)
settings,

let's keep people in for free. So, you know, there are times of chasing my tail, but I guess, the ultimate goal is that I can do this during the week. I don't need to be working on the weekends. Just because your business is online doesn't mean it has to be open 24 seven. I think that's really important. You need to be able to switch off working on my mental health this year and working on switching off is just a huge thing that I'm still working on.

and yes, I definitely went away a couple of times when I was in the middle of open cart and different things and you know, I can, so I did.

speaker-0 (46:34)
Absolutely. And I think it's that really important thing of like, it's not that it's not hard work. It's not that sometimes, yeah, something might break and yeah, every now and again, you're have to sit and try and figure it out one evening. But it's not working every night and having your launches completely take over your life or, ending up so exhausted. Are you tired at the end of the launch? Yeah, probably. It's a lot of energy output. Do we put things in place to support that so you know it's going to happen?

You can kind of counteract it. Yes, we do. It doesn't have to leave you burnt out. And that's been really beautiful to watch you really implementing all of those things and taking all of that on board as well. As we planned each launch of the focus of yes, what are the levers that we need to focus on to grow the outcomes of signups, but also how can we do that so that you're offloading more to your VA?

or bringing that VA ⁓ on and offloading some of those things to your VA and planning how you can look after your energy And what's been really amazing with you Tess and cool to watch is how you have just done all the things. You've done the work step by step, you've built that thing, you've figured out this, you've done it. Like each week when there was everything on your to-do list, you would get through it, you'd do the thing and then next time we'd layer on the next thing.

You'd bring that VA in, you'd learn how to delegate this. You kind of did all of those steps, which is what needs to happen. You made all of those moves, which has been super cool to be front row seat on all of that. just congratulations on all of the huge moves that you made this year and all of the progress and also just your... ⁓

Yeah, your goals and the way that you just move forward and create this life and this business that is a fit for your dream.

speaker-1 (48:22)
thank you. I think it's also, you know, I really love that along the way I was doing a lot of work, but you'd also give me options for what I did. Do you have capacity for this? And I just straight out, no, I don't have capacity for that right now. But I don't I don't mind that I say no to things. And I know you don't mind because, know, you just do whatever that well, you tell me what to do and I can choose.

But I don't mind that I have to say no to things because of my capacity, because I'm not here for a week. I'm not here for a month. Like I'm building this business to for, you know, however many years ahead, it's not like a six month little thing. So we're just slowly building up within my capacity. Just keep adding on over time. And it's amazing how much you actually can achieve when you just keep chipping away and you can keep going instead of burning out. So.

It's been really good. And I'm super excited again to work with you again next year so that we can just keep chipping away together. Because even though I've done so, so, so, so much this year, I know that Jada has so much more knowledge and so many ideas. She just keeping in the back of her mind to ready for when she's going to ask me, can we do this or can we do that? I know Jada has so much knowledge and we'll just keep chipping away and the accountability and the support.

along the way has just been really great.

speaker-0 (49:44)
thank you. It's been such a pleasure and I'm very excited to keep going and scaling with you next year. To round out, is there anything that you would, I guess, any advice or takeaway or inspirational thought that you would share with someone who was, say, in that position where they're a bit stuck maybe at that, whatever it might be.

30, 40, 50, know, under 100 members and they really, it's at that point where they're, well, members all courses, I guess, but their online offer is not big enough yet to be supporting them financially. You know, it's got some rungs on the board, it's been going for a little bit, I guess kind of where you were at, you know, earlier this year and they feel stuck as to how to grow. there anything that you would specifically share with them?

speaker-1 (50:40)
I just am a really firm believer in you just can't, absolutely cannot do it alone. You need to find somebody who you think sounds like the right fit for you. And you just need to invest in it because it will pay you back tenfold. And if this is really a business for you and this is, if this is really what you see yourself doing in six months, 12 months, three years time, then the sooner you decide to get help.

the faster you're gonna move.

speaker-0 (51:10)
I'm a firm believer in that too. It's always what I've done. And you have invested big time this year. You've likely invested, not likely, you've invested ahead in a big, big way in various sides, bringing on a VA, working with me, being in the mastermind with Tracey Harris, investing ahead in that future to move you forward faster. And it's paid off.

speaker-1 (51:33)
Yeah, it's paid off. It's going to pay off. It's paying off. And at the end of it all, it just means that my beautiful members get the experience to feel better as they get older. And that's that's what it's all about. There's so many people at home doing nothing. And I just want people to keep moving their bodies. Yes.

speaker-0 (51:50)
So can you tell people if you are a woman who is 50 plus or heading towards that time and you want to feel good in your body, you want to feel strong, you want to be able to have a body that supports you living the life that you want to be living, Tess, how can you help these women?

speaker-1 (52:10)
It doesn't have to be hard. just have to keep moving your body in a beautiful, supportive way. Strengthening is the most important thing you will do as you get older, but strengthening doesn't have to be hard. Nice Pilates, gentle flows will strengthen your body and support your body. So I run online mat Pilates classes. have live classes. have recordings. You can do it from home. You don't, we don't have to be able to see you on the camera if you don't want to, but

You do need to keep moving your body. It is very important. If you can't stand on one leg and put your knickers on or your jeans on, you really need to be moving your body and getting stronger. And the more you do, the more you'll be able to do the less you do, the less you'll be able to do. So you can jump on my website and depending on, you know, when you're listening to this, there might be a wait list on there. There might be

a little free video on there. There might be you can sign up to my newsletter list. My website is www.nestmildura.com.au or you can check out my socials at Instagram at nest.mildura and get in touch and jump on my list and find out. Come to my free class. Come and experience. Come and experience the funnel.

mine and come to the free class.

speaker-0 (53:33)
Yes, so come along to the free class for the Pilates and get into Tess's community if that is something, if you're a match for that community, you're looking for that support. And also, if you are building a business, you should be watching other people's launches that are working so that you can learn from them as well. I will put those links into the show notes so that you can connect with Tess.

And yeah, keep an eye out for her free classes. I have attended them and they are wonderful. And she does have a freebie. So I will put the link to that in the show notes as well, which is all about getting your spine, getting that spine mobility. I think if I'm remembering correctly, which is really helpful. I do some of her really great exercises now when I sit up from bed in the morning and I do some of them by a little mermaid and stuff. So it feels good.

All right, well thank you Tess so much and I'm sure if people have got questions, obviously you can reach out to me on Instagram, DM me if you've got questions about launching, about working together and I'm sure Tess would be open to asking her some questions if you've got some. thank you so much for joining me today for this episode Tess and sharing some of your journey this year and I cannot wait to see where things go for you and for your beautiful new members next

year as well.

speaker-1 (54:51)
thank you so much. Very exciting. Thanks for having me.

speaker-0 (54:54)
You're welcome.