Case Study: petra van der wal
Niching down to earn 2500 euros in a single launch!
Struggling with choosing a “niche” for your business? You’re not alone — this is one of the most common challenges I’ve had new entrepreneurs share with me.
For example, my student Petra did NOT want to niche down because she wanted to help anyone and everyone take great photos on their phones. What she didn’t realize at the time is that this very scarcity mindset is what was keeping her from launching a successful, money-making product!
Petra Van der Wal runs Instants Academy where she helps business owners grow their visibility and their income by teaching them how to take stunning, brand-aligned photos with nothing but their phones.
She had been working as a professional wedding and brand photographer for more than 14 years, and she discovered she loved teaching others how to take scroll-stopping photos. It dawned on her that she could take this knowledge and turn it into an online business.
But that’s where she got stuck.
She knew what she wanted to do, but she felt lost with the swarms of information on the Internet. She found me (Gillian) on YouTube and started to feel like she finally had a clear path to follow.
Once she heard about VALIDATE, she was sold! The only objection Petra could think of was finding the money to invest in the program. She KNEW it was a worthwhile investment and it was the program for her, BUT money was tight. She chose to use the emergency money she had set aside. There was no plan B.
This absolutely is not the right decision for everybody, but for Petra, she felt like this WAS an emergency, because she needed to know once and for all if she was on the right track with her idea. She was ready to make her online business start making money .
One day on YouTube she stumbled across Gillian Perkins when she was searching for videos on how to start a business. She landed on Gillian’s free business plan. She said, “I used that template and loved what I found, and so I started following her more on YouTube, and when VALIDATE was coming out, I knew that I needed it to help me set up my business on a firm foundation.”
Once Petra joined VALIDATE, I really pushed her to niche down even further, and showed her how to do that in a way she felt good about. I challenged Petra that she needed to get clear on exactly who her dream clients were.
What did she find? Niching was a GAME-CHANGER for her, and even though she had mixed feelings when I forced her to niche down, it absolutely helped Petra focus and get clear on who her dream clients were. She now could discover their desires and really hone in on their pain points. This aha-moment was worth its weight in gold (AND the emergency money she’d chosen to spend).
During her time in VALIDATE, Petra was able to successfully launch “From Snap to Stunning – Phone Photos for Your Biz”, her 6-week coaching course where her clients learn how to take brand-aligned phone photos that connect to help them grow their visibility and income.
Leading up to her 5-day live launch, she did a giveaway with a Christmas bundle that helped her gain more than 800 leads on her email list. Her live video trainings during the launch included a day focused on how to compose, one on product photography, and one on photography basics. Over the weekend those in her free challenge completed their exercises, and on the last day Petra gave them feedback on their assignments and did one final live training presenting her new signature course.
The results?!
She generated $2500 EU and more than validated her course idea, which was her main goal coming into VALIDATE.
“The results for my very first launch, I was quite happy with. I got over 120 people in my 5-day challenge, and when I launched my coaching course I made $2500 EUR, so with my first sales, I was very pleased with that, and I am rinsing and repeating the challenge to launch my coaching course again. My goals for the next launch are much higher than that, but I feel like, with the knowledge I have from VALIDATE and the knowledge I got from my very first challenge and the launch, which I really did too last minute, with the right preparations I’m doing right now, I’m sure the results will be much better.”
At first, she felt a bit overwhelmed as she started preparing for her first launch — but then she started using the copy bank she’d created from the market research she’d completed earlier in the program, and that brought a flood of relief. She used exact phrases and words her dream clients were saying, and it worked!
What was Petra’s big payoff joining VALIDATE?
“Now I am very focused. I know exactly who my dream clients are, and I know exactly how to speak to them and attract them into my business. I am quite confident that if I didn’t do VALIDATE, I’d still be struggling to attract everybody inside my course, and talking to everybody is just like talking to nobody.”
To learn more about Petra and her course: 6-week Coaching Course ‘ From Snap to Stunning' – Phone Photos for Your Biz. No more need to hire an expensive photographer for every shoot!