I Made $44K in 18 Days Selling a $15 Product (No Ads or Calls)
In my latest video, I break down exactly how I generated $44,000 in just 18 days by selling a $14.97 product through my Skool community without any sales calls or paid advertising. This step-by-step guide will show you how to set up your community, build a simple funnel, generate massive organic traffic, and create the exact posts that convert members into buyers.
I’ll walk you through my entire system, including the content engine database I use to publish over 100 pieces of content per week, plus the specific email and post that drove those sales.
In my video, I explain everything you need to replicate this model for your own business.
Setting Up Your Skool Community the Right Way
The first critical insight I share in my video is to avoid overthinking your launch. Everyone starts with zero members and no engagement, and the fastest way to change that is simply to launch and start interacting with real people. When you see communities with dozens of courses and tons of content, most didn’t start that way, and neither did mine.
I started with just one course, which was enough to get going. Now I recommend having three different courses, but they’re simple to implement and shouldn’t delay your launch. The key is to get your community live so you can learn what problems your members have and help them solve those issues in real time.
Public vs. Private: Choose Wisely
The first decision you’ll face is whether to make your community public or private. Unless you’re an established business with multiple successful products that need separate communities for segmentation, I strongly recommend going with a public community that people can join for free. In my video, I demonstrate how visitors can see posts, watch group call recordings, and access classroom content without even logging in.
This transparency is powerful. I’ve had people watch my group calls as guests and then become paying clients because they could interact with the content freely. They can browse the classroom, check the calendar, and experience the value immediately before making any commitment. The more people you help and the more who talk about you, the faster your brand grows and the more sales you’ll generate.
Your Purpose Statement Must Be Crystal Clear
Next, you need a simple, direct purpose statement that explains how you help people. Mine is straightforward: I help people get clients with video and put their content on autopilot. You want a clear message so visitors can instantly determine if your community is right for them. Avoid jargon and complexity—just tell people exactly what transformation you provide.
The Essential Introduction Post
I explain in my video how to create a pinned introduction post that gives new members a template for introducing themselves. The easier you make it for people to engage, the better your results will be. There are countless distractions competing for attention, so remove friction wherever possible. I show members exactly how to copy and paste a template and answer simple questions to get started.
This introduction post also includes information about best practices, a poll for engagement, and links to classroom resources that explain how the community works, how points and gamification function, and how members can unlock additional courses by gaining points. Everything should be dead simple so people can immediately engage.
Start With Three Strategic Courses
In my video, I walk through the three courses I recommend you start with, and they’re easier to create than you might think. My first course, “Unlock Everything,” simply provides basic instructions on how to use the community. It has only three pages and introduces members to my paid programs with direct purchase links. This course is really just an onboarding guide that connects posts to courses seamlessly.
The second course focuses specifically on the paid programs. It’s intentionally repetitive—another place where people can learn about products, see what they do, and access testimonials for social proof. There’s nothing in this course except product descriptions and testimonials, but that’s exactly what it needs to be.
The third course is where I deliver a real freebie—a content machine training that helps people build their own sales-generating content system. I created this course by taking YouTube videos I’d already made and organizing them in a specific sequence. If you don’t have existing content, just record one valuable video and pair it with a downloadable template or worksheet. Keep it simple: one video, one resource, and you’re ready to launch.
Set Up Your Calendar and Initial Posts
The calendar feature is another excellent way to interact with members. It can link to free calls or directly to your paid programs. When someone views my calendar, they see my two paid programs with times and dates. Non-members see disabled booking buttons but can click to learn more about the product, view testimonials, and ultimately purchase.
What you should notice from this setup is that the community provides tremendous value through questions and interactions, but there are multiple touchpoints introducing the paid programs. No matter how someone enters the community, if they’re engaged, they’ll be introduced to purchase opportunities quickly and naturally—all without requiring a sales call.
Before you invite anyone, write three posts. Maybe one introduces the freebie in your course section, but just ensure the community isn’t completely empty when the first members arrive. Once you have these elements in place, you’re ready to launch.
Find Your Core Members
As I explain in my video, the next critical step is finding your core members. As people join, engage with them deeply. Learn about their interests, goals, and problems, then help them solve those challenges. Focus on building strong connections with the five to ten most active people because they’ll help you build a thriving community.
I have a thousand members in my community, with metrics showing about 48% are active. But I estimate only 5-10% post and comment regularly. It’s not about total member count—it’s about actively engaged contributors who give your community momentum. Find those core members and provide them exceptional value so they become advocates who help you grow.
How My Sales Funnel Actually Works
In my video, I show you my funnel diagram and explain that you shouldn’t try to perfect everything before launching. Even my own funnel has exclamation marks everywhere indicating pieces that aren’t finalized or could be improved. I want to run weekly workshops but haven’t. I want better social media DM tracking but haven’t implemented it. I want discovery calls for a potential high-ticket program, but that’s not in place yet.
None of these gaps prevented me from generating significant income in a short time. You need to build your ideal funnel and map it out, but you don’t need every piece operational before you start making sales.
Traffic Generation: Organic Over Paid
All funnels start with traffic—either organic or paid. I prefer organic traffic because it’s free and works exceptionally well when you create quality content. As I demonstrate in my video, you can grow a community solely on organic traffic and generate substantial volume quickly.
My traffic comes primarily from posting content, commenting on others’ posts, and DM interactions. The majority flows from my YouTube channel with about 2,700 subscribers and my TikTok account with roughly 45,000 followers. I also generate traffic from LinkedIn and Instagram, and I plan to double my content production over the coming months because I’ve discovered a simple truth: the more content I create, the more money I make.
The Freebie Funnel
From my social media profiles, I make it extremely easy for people to access a free automated system that helps them generate content at scale. On my TikTok page, there’s a link offering two choices. When clicked, visitors can access an automated system by filling out a simple form that I built in Typeform.
This form captures their name, email, and how they heard about me. Once submitted, they receive a simplified version of my content engine database via email. If they don’t want to wait for the email, they can click directly through to my Skool community and access the free course immediately.
Inside that free course, they can watch training videos and download free automations. But I also strategically include a link where they can see the paid version of the same system they just accessed for free. This creates a natural upgrade path.
Email Nurture and Automated Follow-Up
When someone opts into the freebie, they’re added to my email list where I send helpful videos, testimonials, and educational content. Eventually, I introduce workshops through both email and Skool community announcements.
Once people join the Skool community, an automated DM reaches out to understand their goals and start a conversation. I also send an email to open additional dialogue channels. For customers with questions in DMs or email, there’s an opportunity to schedule a quick 15-minute call with me. This same booking link appears in the classroom and product pages.
Most people don’t book a call, but for those who do, fifteen minutes is usually enough to describe what the product does and answer remaining questions. From there, people can purchase one of my two products. If you’re just starting, I strongly recommend releasing just one product at a time. It’s extremely difficult to build two products simultaneously and have both succeed.
As I show in my video, I’m building a high-ticket offering that will create an upsell path for members who’ve purchased my lower-ticket products. But this piece isn’t complete yet, which illustrates my point: your funnel doesn’t need to be perfect to generate revenue.
The Two Essential Automations
I use just two Zapier automations to make this funnel work. The first triggers when someone submits the Typeform requesting the freebie. It validates their email, grabs their name, adds tags to my ConvertKit subscriber list, invites them to Skool with access to the free course, and sends a Slack notification to my team.
The second automation triggers when someone purchases. When a member finds one of the numerous purchase links throughout the community and completes checkout on my ThriveCart landing page, the automation finds or creates the lead in Close.io, sends next-step emails, offers an upsell for installation services, tags them properly in ConvertKit, creates an opportunity in Close.io, and adds a record to Airtable for customer success tracking.
That’s it—just two automations to handle the entire customer journey from freebie to purchase.
Strategic Funnel Optimization
In my video, I explain how I review my funnel weekly to identify what’s subpar or missing entirely, like those workshops. Then I determine the single most important thing to fix and focus exclusively on that. I’ve wanted workshops for a long time, but I haven’t launched them because there’s more impactful work on the traffic generation side that delivers better ROI.
Similarly, rolling out an entirely new high-ticket product requires significant effort, so it’s been sitting undone. You need to map out your complete funnel with everything you envision, but you must have the discipline to work only on what matters most for generating revenue first. If I tried to do everything at once, I’d be overwhelmed, do mediocre work on all fronts, and the funnel would produce less revenue than my simplified approach.
Generating 100+ Pieces of Content Per Week
I generate over 100 pieces of content weekly, and I’m scaling to 250 pieces per week soon. Most of my traffic comes from YouTube and TikTok, but I also use LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, and Threads as secondary channels. There’s so much free attention available on these platforms that you can genuinely build a business from scratch quite rapidly.
To produce this volume of content without losing my mind, I developed a system using Airtable, which is essentially a spreadsheet on steroids. I have several automations connecting Airtable with Google Drive, allowing me to store every piece of content with a unique ID and extensive metadata about publishing status, brand, workflow, assignment to specific video editors, and direct links to review content.
The Content Engine Database
As I demonstrate in my video, I can click any link in my Airtable database and go directly to Frame.io, where I interact with video editors by leaving timestamped comments on content they’re creating. I can control status indicators that sync back to Airtable, giving me a high-level overview of all content across different workflows, YouTube videos, thumbnails, and other assets.
This system helps me control chaos, gain visibility across all content and team members, and integrate with Slack for notifications. I get alerts when content is published, and my team receives notifications when content is ready for editing or needs my review and approval.
I can see every piece of content I’m working on, its status, what needs copy or a title or an image. Direct links take me instantly to relevant files. All folders in Frame.io and Google Drive are automatically created for original assets, recorded content, final exports, and thumbnails. The entire organizational structure of my content system is automated so I can focus purely on producing content and helping my team execute efficiently.
I can even publish directly from Airtable using scheduling platforms like Metricool, eliminating the need to download and re-upload content. Everything flows seamlessly from creation to distribution.
Content Strategy: Problems, Agitation, Solutions
In my video, I explain that I focus on specific content types. First, I create content addressing problems my customers face and the symptoms they experience daily, helping them navigate these situations. Second, I produce agitation content discussing what they’re doing wrong and what they should do instead. Third, I create solution-based content featuring client results and behind-the-scenes looks that prove my solutions work for their day-to-day problems.
The content engine database with all its automations and integrations with Frame.io, Slack, and Google Drive allows me to scale to this volume without chaos, using a very small, cost-effective team.
The $44,000 Email and Post
In my video, I show you the exact email and Skool post I used to generate that $44,000. The email was remarkably basic—I don’t claim to use sophisticated persuasion tactics. I simply informed my list that a new version of my content engine database was coming, and if they acted immediately, they could save $1,000 (40% off) and receive the updated version when it launched on August 16th.
I discussed what I’d learned over the past couple of years producing massive amounts of content and distributing it through my automations. I highlighted specific features: quicker and easier installation, better support for ChatGPT, enhanced image and graphic capabilities, and support for additional platforms like Twitter plus written content for blog posts and text updates.
I strategically included a testimonial from a client who went from posting one to three pieces daily with two fewer video editors in just a month. All the links went directly to my ThriveCart landing page where people could purchase immediately. Then I emphasized the price increase and the limited-time opportunity to lock in the lower rate.
Inside the Skool community, I essentially copied and pasted this same message, adjusting the tone slightly to feel more personal and appropriate for the community context. That’s it—one email and one community post.
This simplicity worked because of all the foundational work I’d done previously. I had already built the community, educated members about what I do and why it’s valuable, and established trust. Once that groundwork was in place, it didn’t take elaborate messaging to drive action. With those two simple communications, I generated the $44,000.
I probably could have made even more by DMing individual community members, but I tend not to enjoy that approach. I prefer creating content and building community to get customers, and I focus my energy there. If you create quality content, build genuine community, develop excellent products, and produce enough volume on social media, you’ll generate sufficient traffic to grow your community and drive product sales without aggressive outreach tactics.
