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#315: Breaking Down Our $101,666 Launch: The Mechanics And Lessons Learned From Our Virtual Summit

August 18, 2026 · 59 min

Show notes

Our first-ever 6-figure launch started with a cold email I didn’t respond to. Twice. The third time, I wrote back. A few months later, we ran a 3-day free virtual summit that drove $101,666 in revenue — with a $78,400 margin. This is the full breakdown of how it happened, what we’d do the same way again, and what we’d change.

Joining me for this behind-the-scenes recap is Anna Reich, the integrator here on the Creator Science team. This was Anna’s first launch — 3 and a half months into the job — and she was right in the middle of all of it. We ran this summit in partnership with a third-party team called After Harvest, who pitched us on the whole concept via cold email and worked on a 15% performance-based fee.

In this episode, we talk about:

  • The full mechanics: $101,666 in revenue, $23,300 in costs, and the exact offer stack that got us there
  • What we’d absolutely do the same — the VIP ticket, aggressive email volume, and the live pitch with a day-2 bonus
  • What we’d do differently — a simpler structure, a new webinar platform, and building the presentations before everything else
  • The 80/20 version: what a stripped-down, repeatable launch playbook actually looks like

By the end of this episode, you will have a clear-eyed view of how a virtual summit launch actually works from the inside — with all the numbers, the chaos, and the lessons on the table.

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Full transcript and show notes

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TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) Introduction: the first-ever 6-figure launch and what this episode covers

(03:44) Registration and attendance numbers: 3,145 registered, 1,000+ live on day 1

(04:34) Revenue breakdown: $63K cohort, $9K upsell, $17K downsell, $11K VIP tickets

(08:29) Cost breakdown: After Harvest’s 15% deal, $1,800 in affiliates, $7,800 domain

(10:01) Timeline: cold email in February to contract in April to summit in June

(13:56) Things we’d do the same: VIP ticket, compelling web work, full offer stack

(16:12) Why the $47 VIP ticket was the biggest surprise of the whole launch

(20:54) The live day-2 pitch — 30 minutes, almost no drop-off, and why the bonus mattered

(24:30) Things we’d do differently: simpler structure, drop WebinarJam, build launch capability in-house

(36:24) The core mistake: building all the assets before locking the presentation content

(42:10) The 80/20 version: what to lock in before you open registration

(52:28) Skipping affiliates for high-ticket offers, and why one-click opt-ins backfired

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RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE

#144: Bari Baumgardner – How to create the perfect 3-day event (IRL or virtually)
#191: Breaking down my $60,723 product launch

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