Why I Turned My $5K Curriculum Into a $97 Workshop | Ep. 147

We’ve all been there. You buy the low ticket thing, a workshop, or a mini-course because it sounds so good in the moment…

…and then three months later, you’re doing your bookkeeping and realize you never even opened it?

 Same.

This is the problem I’ve been thinking about as I build the next evolution of my business. 
 
 It’s great when people buy your stuff. But more than that, you want them to actually EXPERIENCE it, understand it, and feel the magic of what’s possible when their story starts doing the trust-building for them.

 In this behind-the-scenes Empire Diaries episode, I’m sharing what’s been happening inside Brandmagnetic this year — from sunsetting the final cohort of Brand Video Accelerator, to building my new program Presold Clients, to packaging the Human Connection Video curriculum into a $97 workshop I’m calling The 3-Minute Trust Machine.

This is the system I’ve been using to help brilliant coaches, experts, and online business owners build trust faster, shorten their sales cycle, and create a top-of-funnel trust asset that helps dream clients feel connected before they ever get on a call.

I’m also sharing why I decided to make the workshop both instant-access and live once a month — because the goal isn’t just to make another sale. The goal is to get people in the room, teach the mechanism, answer questions, and give them a real peek inside the bigger Presold Clients ecosystem.

Inside this episode:

📌 Why I paused selling in Q2 to rethink the next evolution of my business
 📌 Why Brand Video Accelerator became Presold Clients
 📌 The difference between a “brand video” and a Human Connection Video
 📌 Why I packaged my signature curriculum into a $97 workshop
 📌 How The 3-Minute Trust Machine works as a trust-builder gateway offer
 📌 Why I’m keeping the live workshop component even though buyers get instant access
 📌 How I’m thinking about ads, low-ticket offers, and scaling the second half of the year

 If you’re brilliant at what you do but your magic still feels too hard to explain in a 15-second reel, this episode will show you the bigger trust ecosystem I’m building — and why I believe your story might be the most powerful sales asset you’re not fully using yet.

Sign up my 3-Minute Trust Machine workshop >>  https://brandmagnetic.com/trustmachine

If we haven't yet - let's connect on Instagram! Find me at http://instagram.com/brandmagnetic

Transcript

0:00

Hello, my dear friends. Welcome back to another episode of Empire Secrets. I'm Mariana Henninger. I'm the founder of brandmagnetic.com. I'm an Emmy award-winning documentary filmmaker turned entrepreneur. I work with brilliant people who sell their expertise online, whether it is through a course, a coaching program, a mastermind, a membership, and I help them not only stand out, but build trust faster through human connection so they can shorten their sales cycle. So if that interests you remotely or if you're a listener coming back, uh, welcome back. And today I wanted to give you an update on what's been going on in my business. I have been working on a ton of things behind the scenes. I feel like this year of 2026 has been incredibly different from all the other years. First half of the year, I ran the very, very final cohort of the quote Brand Video Accelerator, and I spent a couple of months there. For any of you who have ever spent time in their business just restructuring their offer, repositioning their marketing, and really thinking about everything from scratch and thinking of, "Okay, what is the best way to accelerate sales from here on out?" You know what I mean. Because it can get a, I mean, a little scary. I don't know if I'd use the word scary, but it's definitely different. And the reason being, I wasn't actively selling for most of Q1 and Q2. Q1, I did have a launch, and that was great. That was like a massive revenue spike. But then starting in mid-March, right after that launch, I knew I needed to step aside and look at what I was doing. The reason being, it's not that it wasn't working. The reason was that I built my business on a model that I knew was only temporary. People coming into my world to create what at the time I called a brand video, and if you're new to my world, it's now called a human connection video. It's basically a two to three-minute trailer of who you are so that your ideal prospect, your ideal... Your dreamiest client when they're meeting you online for the first time can know, like, and trust you a whole lot faster because they've experienced your story in a way that builds trust that activates what I call the trust triggers. You get them, you care about them, you are the expert, so you've got them, and finally, your vibes and your values align. And so I had built my business on a model whereby people came into my world, I helped them create this video, and I helped them install this trust acceleration system into their business. But I knew that it was just a temporary way to run my business because I would bring people in, I would launch, I would bring people in, and then once they were done, I had nothing else to offer them. And that was okay for the longest time Simply because I wanted to perfect that. What I do does not exist in the marketplace, and so I needed time to battle test this curriculum, to really figure out what was the best way that people would learn to do this. How could I simplify this to the max? And so today, I'm incredibly proud of the curriculum, if you will, that I built because it's been really tested and tried, and it's, again, simplified to the max. And so anyway, so that's the backstory of why in Q2, I decided to spend time really pausing my sales and really looking at, okay, what do I want to build next? What is the next evolution of this business? And so I don't call it a pivot. I call it, again, the next evolution of what I was already doing, which gave birth to my new program called Presold Clients. This is the entire essence of what I have been doing with my own clients, is helping them not only attract, but really pre-sell their dreamiest client, or premium clients, high-ticket clients, before they ever get on a call. In fact, my entire sales engine does not rely on phone calls. I don't do sales calls. You know, would I get on the phone if you really needed to chat? I'd probably do it over voice notes back and forth. But the reality is, I don't want to objection handle you on a call. I don't want to force you into a sale, God forbid. I really don't want that. I have created, an ecosystem and an engine whereby my dreamiest clients are immediately connected to me, so there's trust that's built in the first instant that they meet me online. And then the second part of that is handling the objections that they might have in order to actually take the next step. What's actually preventing them from working with me? So once they trust me, we're halfway there. For some people, we're all the way there. That's all they need to see. I have definitely had high-ticket clients come into my business where all they did was watch my human connection video. Great. Then there are people who watch it and they're like, "This is awesome, but..." Right? "I would love to work with Mariana, but..." And so what I do now inside of Presold Clients is I help you not only figure out the trust piece that happens top of funnel, that happens when people meet you for the first time, but the second half of the equation where people are now Doing the but, right? Where sorry, that, let me rephrase that. Where they're saying objection A, objection B, objection C, like what's holding them back from the sale? And so inside of Presold Clients, those are the two big parts of the system that we help people with. How to build trust right at the top of funnel, we do a trust audit. We help them create their human connection video. We install that, and then the second and third part of the puzzle, of the triangle really, if, you know, if you've ever watched my YouTube videos, you see me draw this out. The second and third part is secondly, we build the right trust assets. So how do we shift beliefs with the right stories inside of each of those pieces of content? And then we recirculate that over and over and over again in front of our ideal clients, our warmest audience. And so with that, I not only have a different positioning that I had before. We're not calling it brand video, we're calling it human connection video. It's not the Brand Video Accelerator, it's Presold Clients, my bigger program. But now this program is a continuation of our work together, meaning we do the first part and the second part, and you can continue to stay in my orbit and get coached by me as we progress, right? As you progress in your business. I've always wanted to be a, like a broader business coach, and honestly, I don't market myself as that. I'm very specific in how I help people. However, once they're in my world, I answer all sorts of questions. In fact, I just had a client that put a message in our community and was like, "Marianna, I am going into groups, and I'm finding that I'm wasting a lot of time sifting through a bunch of interesting pieces or in- interesting posts, but how do I find the exact posts that kind of speak to my expertise?" And that I can, like, spend less time inside of this group and more time providing value. And so that's what I'm helping her with right now. I'm helping her with pre-launch. I'm helping her, um, reposition her own program. And so these are all the things that happen in the continuity of the space that I've built inside of Presold Client. So I wanted to, like, give you this massive preamble to what has happened so far in my year, and then a quick, catch-up on what's happening next. Right? So what I'm working on right now is really exciting. I made this decision probably, I think, wanna say, like, end of May, and I started promoting it... I'm sorry, no, end of June, and I started promoting it in July, to package my entire curriculum for the human connection video into something that is a lot more, for lack of a better word, affordable. It's a lot more easy access in terms of pricing. And the reason being that I felt like, as it was, there weren't a ton of ways to ascend into my world. It was, you know, you could consume my emails, you could consume my content, you could hear me speak on a podcast Or you could buy The Instant Yes Machine. That was the one low-ticket thing I had. And I felt like, you know what? I know that the true value is... I mean, there's a ton of value in the system, don't get me wrong. But I wanna attract people that will get a peek inside the system, will be wowed by it, will be totally mesmerized and sold on it and just, like, completely gung ho about it but will want my help to actually implement it. And one of the important pieces of that is not only to get my eyes on your script and my ideas for what should you film for this video, like, I work with my clients really when I'm... Like, I know their businesses in and out during this process, but also then to have my team edit it for you. Like, I always say this, no CEO should ever spend time editing a video unless it's, like, a talking head, and you're using Descript, and you can do it pretty quickly. But otherwise, no. If it involves B-roll and if it, you know, what we call emotional visuals, if it involves anything that's slightly sophisticated, work with an editor. It can take so much time to actually get it right. And unless you're a professional editor and you enjoy doing that, everyone else, which is most of the coaches and experts that I work with, should not be touching an editing software. And so that is part of what we offer our clients as well. And my dreamiest clients can come into my world, understand my whole philosophy and the inside of this mechanism and how it works and, and honestly, like here's the blueprint. If you do wanna do it by yourself, great. Go ahead, do it by yourself. That's fine, and not only fine, I really think you should have one, and this is why. And so I show you how we use it and how our clients have benefited from having one. And so with all that said, having that built and installed in your business is incredibly important, but I know that my dreamiest clients will get a taste of that and be like, This is amazing. I want this. I want inside your world right now." So with that said, I packaged my entire curriculum, if you will, for the Human Connection video, and I decided to run it in a live workshop for $97. Wow. So previously, to get into my world, it was 5K, and now you can get the entire thing for 97 bucks. If you're curious to take a look at what I'm talking about, you can just easily go to brandmagnetic.com/trustmachine. And by the way, one of the things that I did, and this happened, like, in the course of July as I was promoting this workshop, is I decided to call it the Three Minute Trust Machine because, A, people don't know what a Human Connection video is, even if they could stop and think about it, but you confuse, you lose. Trust Machine is not that clear either. However, it's a lot more sexy, right? It's... I mean, to some people it's just as sexy, but the idea being that I'm intrigued if I hear about a trust machine, a Three Minute Trust Machine. If you tell me about a Three Minute Connection video, I'm just thinking like, "Okay, this is just about a video." When in reality, inside of this workshop, I teach a whole lot more. I teach about how to build trust and accelerate your sales, like, from a global perspective, and then we go into how to create the specific sort of cornerstone piece of the way that we do it. So check it out. I'm so curious to get your thoughts. Come inside. Now we have the recorded version of the workshop that I just did. But one of the things I wanted to share, because this is a behind-the-scenes episode, is that not only do I now have this packaged curriculum that people can literally just buy at the click of a button and have forever, or to own, you know, for the lifetime of the course, but also I am going to not lose the live component. So the reason being, I know that, A, people can buy stuff all the time and never actually open it, never actually consume it. And if they don't do that, I've made a sale, but I've not really gained a fan, right? And so what, what I've decided to do, and I don't think I've seen anybody else in this space do this, is to basically have a hybrid model for this. Lo- quote, "low ticket trust builder gateway" thing that I've created, which is the Three Minute Trust Machine. And that is when you buy this offer, when you buy this workshop, you get instant access. So if you wanna consume it right then and there, great, there it is. On the thank you page of that funnel, you have the opportunity to sign up for the next live teaching of the same workshop. And the reason I've offered this is because, sort of like the copy that I'm gonna put on this thank you page, but I'm building it like literally today. The copy that I'm gonna put on there is basically speaking to that pain point of you buy something but you never open it. I get it. Like, I do it all the time. And honestly, when I'm doing my bookkeeping, which I do it myself 'cause I like to. I like to know exactly what's going in and out. When I do that, I was like, "Oh, snap. I forgot about that thing. Oh, snap. I forgot about this like small thing I bought." So I don't want that to happen to people. This is like incredibly valuable. And so for that reason, I'm gonna keep teaching it live. By the way, I love teaching it live. I love having people in the room. I love answering their questions. And that's also a second benefit to teaching it live, is I give them a Q&A, a live Q&A at the end. Plus, I wanna get better and better and better at teaching this. And so for that reason- that's how I'm offering it. You buy it instant access, and then you get to sign up for the next live workshop, and I'm gonna do it once a month. And I am very, very excited to have this trust builder gateway offer. I'm calling it a gateway 'cause it's literally meant to work as a gateway drug. A, you get blown away by value. I have amazing testimonials for the people that came live last week for this workshop, which honestly feels like way longer than last week. It was exactly a week ago when I taught this. But also, not only that, I feel like I can finally share my gift with the world at a much more affordable price point, at a price point that's, like, an absolute no-brainer. And so for that reason, I'm so excited. And so my plan moving forward is to run ads like a madwoman to this offer. Now, I'm gonna test this one first. The whole point is, what does it look like to convert cold audiences into this offer? Retarget them obviously. And then the second thing I'm gonna do in terms of, as I'm building these, like, low-hanging fruit, I don't wanna have a ton of them. I'm gonna have this workshop. The other thing that I do have that's really valuable is the Instant Yes Machine. And so I might reduce the price of that. I'm not sure. But I wanna work with a copywriter to really find a fantastic way to sell the Instant Yes Machine because I think that's also a massive trust builder. And so what probably will happen is I'll have the Instant Yes Machine, and then I'll tack on this workshop. So right now, I have Brand Stories That Convert, which I honestly don't wanna sell anymore. I probably should shut that offer down because the offer that people really should be into is the Three Minute Trust Machine. That's... Like, all roads are gonna point to that. And then within that workshop, the really awesome thing is that I'm not pitching at all. There's no value stack. There's no, like, limited time, blah, blah, blah. There's none of that. But I'm seeding my program. I talk about the bigger program of pre-sold clients because I have to. I have to paint the picture of how we look at trust and all the different ways that we accelerate sales and pre-sell. So that you can understand how the human connection video really fits into that. And so it's educational, but it's also revealing of my entire system. So wanted to share that nugget. I'm so excited. If you're curious about it, check out, brandmagnetic.com/trustmachine. Sign up for the workshop, get instant access, and then come to the live workshop 'cause that's really where the magic happens. A, because you actually watch it. B, because you're in a room full of really other amazing women typically. Men are also invited, but you're an amazing room of heart-driven, if you... I, I don't know how to call you guys. You're brilliant people who have a hard time marketing yourselves and want to attract, like, values-aligned clients that are your dreamiest clients that you would hang out with for free, that, that have the highest lifetime value, that get the best results from you, that you would, again, hang out with for free 'cause they're so awesome. You wanna attract more of those people, and you don't want to sell them. You don't want to bang them over the head, and you don't want to produce a million pieces of content hoping that they see it before your content disappears. And you can't get a, your magic across in 15 seconds anyway. So if that feels like you, come to my next workshop. Sign up at brandmagnetic.com/trustmachine. So excited to see you there, and I hope this was an awesome way to kind of get a peek at what has been happening in my world. It's August now, and I felt like it was just time to do a recap of what's happened so far this year. I have some really big goals for the second half of the year we're really, like, really into the second half now 'cause it started beginning of July. But I have some pretty lofty goals of scaling my ads, scaling my revenue, and obviously profit margin within it. I do have an awesome profit margin, but I just want to get this workshop in the hands of more people. And if I'm close to breaking even at first, that's totally fine. I do want to make money on it. At some point I wanna have my ads be, like, at least 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 ROAS. That would be amazing if we can at least hit that mark. So that is my goal so that I can increase my budget over time. But with that, I'm gonna have to keep testing new angles for how to sell this thing that people don't know about, right? Like, people have never heard about it. So thank you for coming to my TED Talk. It was awesome having you on this episode of Empire Secrets. I will see you next week, and bye for now.