The Get Paid Podcast: The Stark Reality of Entrepreneurship and Being Your Own Boss

In May 2014, I made an ads-related mistake that literally cost me my job 72 hours later. It taught me the most expensive lesson of my career, and it's the one I still see business owners miss every day.

In this solo episode, I talk about what that lesson taught me and how it ties directly into the job you're probably already doing in your business that you were never trained to do. Mentioned in this episode:

• Get Paid Marketing open houses: Monday, October 26 and Monday, November 2, both at 1pm ET. Sign up at clairepells.com/gpm
• 📅 Applications for Get Paid Marketing close Friday, November 6
• Book a call or learn more about Get Paid Marketing: clairepells.com/gpm
• DM me on Instagram: instagram.com/clairepells

It's the final countdown! We're wrapping up registration for the Philly Funnel Sprint at midnight on Thursday, September 17th.

If you're still unsure if this 2-day in-person event is right for you, listen in to this quick episode and then send any additional questions to Claire directly at https://www.instagram.com/clairepells !

Here are the details again if you need them:

• 📅 Dates: October 19–20 (9am–5pm both days), with optional coffee & coaching Wednesday, October 21, 8–11am
• 📍 Venue: Ironworks in Bala Cynwyd, PA (just across the border from Philadelphia, across the river from Manayunk)
• 🏨 On-site hotel: Residence Inn at Ironworks, $229/night with the room block (15 rooms only)
• 💰 Investment: $497 for both days, or a payment plan of two payments of $277
• 📞 Pre-event call: Friday, October 2nd
• ⏰ Deadline: Thursday, September 17th, for the payment plan and to stay inside the hotel block cutoff
• 🎟️ Seats: 20 max, down to the final few as of this recording

Grab your ticket at https://clairepells.com/sprint

We're less than three weeks out from the September 17 deadline to grab your ticket for the Philly Funnel Sprint (the event itself is October 19–20). Questions have been coming in, so Claire is doing a rapid-fire FAQ episode to answer everything you might be wondering about before you book — from what time the workshop actually starts to what you need to have decided about your offer before you sit down on Monday morning.

If you've been thinking about coming but sitting on the fence, this is the episode that answers everything. And if you know you're coming, this is where you get all the logistics in one place.

• 📅 Dates: October 19–20 (9am–5pm both days), with optional coffee & coaching on Wednesday morning, October 21

• 📍 Venue: Ironworks in Bala Cynwyd, PA (right across City Line Ave from Philadelphia, across the river from Manayunk)

• 🏨 On-site hotel: Residence Inn at Ironworks, $229/night with our room block (only 15 rooms in the block)

• 💰 Investment: $497 for both days, or a payment plan of two payments of $277

• ⏰ Deadline: September 17th to book with the payment plan and stay inside the hotel room block cutoff

• 🎟️ Seats: 20 max. 10 already claimed as of this recording.

• What time does the workshop start and end each day?

• What's happening on Wednesday morning if I stay?

• Where exactly is the venue and what neighborhood is it in?

• Which airport should I fly into?

• Should I book the hotel block, an Airbnb, or something else?

• Which restaurants should I hit while I'm there?

• Is food included? What meals?

• What do I need to bring?

• Do I need a paid Claude account? Can I use ChatGPT instead?

• Is there a pre-event call — and what happens if I can't make it live?

• What if I have questions that are outside the scope of building a funnel?

• What's the refund and cancellation policy? Can I transfer my seat?

• How does the payment plan work?

• Do I need experience with ads?

• Do I need to have my offer built already before I come?

Register for the Philly Funnel Sprint →

Deadline for the payment plan and hotel block cutoff: September 17th.

Still have questions? DM Claire on Instagram @clairepells or email [email protected].

Now it's time to GET PAID.

This is part three of a three-part series. All three episodes are live now — listen in order.

Claire saved this one for last because she thinks it's the actual answer — for funnels, and for every other thing that's been sitting unfinished on your list. It's also the one nobody wants to admit.

This Week on the Get Paid Podcast:

• The reason your funnel is still sitting there — and it isn't time

• The exact point in every build where things quietly stop moving

• Why the last 10% is the part that never gets done

• What Claire finally changed after years of doing it the hard way

🎟️ Philly Funnel Sprint — October 19th & 20th

Two days, in person, in Philadelphia. You bring your actual business and your actual offer, and you leave with a finished funnel — not a template to customize later, not another video to watch. You build yours live in the room with Claire and Claude. Capped at 20 seats. Grab your ticket.

Mentioned in this podcast:

• Philly Funnel Sprint — clairepells.com/sprint

• Claire on Instagram — @clairepells

Now it's time to GET PAID

Thanks for tuning into the Get Paid Podcast! If you enjoyed today's episode, head over to and subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review. Connect with me on Instagram, visit my website at clairepells.com for even more detailed strategies, and be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media. Now, it's time to go get yourself paid.

This is part two of a three-part series. All three episodes are live now — listen in order.

Reason number two is the one Claire has thrown the most money at trying to solve. It worked, sort of. It also cost her months she's not getting back.

This Week on the Get Paid Podcast:

• The reason your funnel is still sitting there — and it isn't time

• The exact point in every build where things quietly stop moving

• Why the last 10% is the part that never gets done

• What Claire finally changed after years of doing it the hard way

🎟️ Philly Funnel Sprint — October 19th & 20th

Two days, in person, in Philadelphia. You bring your actual business and your actual offer, and you leave with a finished funnel — not a template to customize later, not another video to watch. You build yours live in the room with Claire and Claude. Capped at 20 seats. Grab your ticket.

Mentioned in this podcast:

• Philly Funnel Sprint — clairepells.com/sprint

• Claire on Instagram — @clairepells

Now it's time to GET PAID

Thanks for tuning into the Get Paid Podcast! If you enjoyed today's episode, head over to and subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review. Connect with me on Instagram, visit my website at clairepells.com for even more detailed strategies, and be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media. Now, it's time to go get yourself paid.

This is part one of a three-part series. All three episodes are live now — listen in order.

There are three reasons funnels don't get finished. Claire starts with the one she hears most — the one people say out loud, right before they say "I'll get to it next month."

This Week on the Get Paid Podcast:

• The reason your funnel is still sitting there — and it isn't time

• The exact point in every build where things quietly stop moving

• Why the last 10% is the part that never gets done

• What Claire finally changed after years of doing it the hard way

🎟️ Philly Funnel Sprint — October 19th & 20th

Two days, in person, in Philadelphia. You bring your actual business and your actual offer, and you leave with a finished funnel — not a template to customize later, not another video to watch. You build yours live in the room with Claire and Claude. Capped at 20 seats. Grab your ticket.

Mentioned in this podcast:

• Philly Funnel Sprint — clairepells.com/sprint

• Claire on Instagram — @clairepells

Now it's time to GET PAID

Thanks for tuning into the Get Paid Podcast! If you enjoyed today's episode, head over to and subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review. Connect with me on Instagram, visit my website at clairepells.com for even more detailed strategies, and be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media. Now, it's time to go get yourself paid.

Claire's back on the mic solo — no guest, no script, just real talk about what's actually been happening this summer.

She's been running a very specific marketing experiment for the last 10 weeks that she hasn't been talking about publicly. In this episode, she finally opens up about it — what she's testing, what she's learning, and the emotional ride of doing something week after week without knowing if it's going to work.

AND — she has an announcement she's dropping here on the podcast before she tells her list. It's brand new, it has a hard 20-seat cap, and if you're listening in real time, you get first dibs.

• The 10-week marketing experiment Claire has been running to cold traffic only — and why she's finally ready to talk about it

• The unexpected thing that shifted for Claire this year that made her rethink one of her biggest business goals

• The behind-the-scenes weekly email series Claire has been sending to her subscribers (and how to get on it)

• The brand-new offer she's launching with this episode — capped at 20 seats and podcast-first booking

• The exact skill Claire is teaching in this offer— and why it can change how fast you launch offers in the next 12 months

• The one conversation that finally made Claire say yes to moving forward with something new

🔥 NEW OFFER: Not gonna spoiler it for you here. You'll have to listen or click to learn more and grab one of 20 seats.

📬 Claire's Weekly Behind-the-Scenes Email Series Every week Claire is sending a detailed breakdown of what's happening inside her weekly marketing experiment — the numbers, the ad spend, the mindset moments, what's working and what isn't. When you sign up, you get links to all the past emails too. Get on the series here.

🎙️ Join Claire LIVE — Free Ads Training Sell Out Your Group Program with One Simple Ad. No fluff, no scare tactics, no marketing-bro nonsense — just the one simple ad Claire uses with her private clients (and the video script she normally only shares inside her $15K mastermind, which you'll get if you show up live). Save your seat here.

📚 Absolute FB Ads (AFA) — Open Now Self-paced training + lifetime access + monthly Q&A calls with Claire + async feedback on your actual ads through our support system whenever you need it. Basically, it's a course with a coach attached — for life. Enroll here.

🚀 Get Paid Marketing (GPM) — Waitlist Claire's 12-month hybrid coaching + consulting program where she helps coaches and course creators build a custom $50K funnel for their main offer. Cohort-based. Get on the waitlist.

• The new offer — clairepells.com/sprint

• Weekly behind-the-scenes email series — clairepells.com/series

• Entrepreneurs' Organization (EO) — eonetwork.org

• EO Accelerator (EOA) — eonetwork.org/accelerator

Now it's time to GET PAID.

Back in Part 1, Jason Zook left us on a cliffhanger — week one of vibe coding his first app felt like "we're going to be millionaires this year," week two was "this is hell." This week, Jason picks up exactly where we left off and walks Claire through everything that happened next: the rescue that came from inside his old Wandering Aimfully community, the pricing experiment Claude mapped in fifteen minutes, the first launch that taught him the hard math of credit-based products, and the pivot to a second app that did over 3X the revenue in the same window.

Plus: Jason gets honest about the marketing knives he's let go dull, why he keeps resisting webinars even though he knows they'd work, and the discount offer he extended to Claire's listeners on the spot during this recording.

A quick note from Claire: the long gap between Part 1 and Part 2 wasn't strategic! We genuinely lost the second half of the original conversation and had to bring Jason back to re-record. The cliffhanger was an accident. Thank you to everyone who DM'd asking where the rest was — this one's for you. :)

• The pricing mechanic Claude coined in fifteen minutes — and the math behind why Jason would absolutely use it again

• What Jason's first vibe-coded app actually earned in two weeks — and the brutal customer-volume reality check it gave him

• The pivot to his second app, Solo Content Studio — and the cohort launch that came right after

• The marketing pattern Jason and Caroline are leaning into now (and the one tactic he STILL resists, even though he knows it would work)

• Why Jason says his "knives have gotten dull" — and what he's doing about it

• The exclusive discount Jason offered Claire's listeners live on the show

Jason Zook has been building businesses online for nearly 20 years. He's the co-founder of Wandering Aimfully (a retired coaching program that brought in $2.5M in total revenue) and Teachery, a course platform that's done $1.5M as a side project while helping creators earn over $30 million. Jason and his wife Caroline are now full-time on two vibe-coded apps — SceneRoll and Solo Content Studio — and live in Portugal with their daughter Leon.

🎙️ Join Claire LIVE — Free Ads Training Sell Out Your Group Program with One Simple Ad. No fluff, no scare tactics, no marketing-bro nonsense — just the one simple ad Claire uses with her private clients (and the video script she normally only shares inside her $15K mastermind, which you'll get if you show up live). Limited seats. Save your seat here.

📚 Absolute FB Ads (AFA) — Open Now This isn't just a course. It's the whole thing: self-paced training + lifetime access + monthly Q&A calls with Claire + async feedback on your actual ads through our support system whenever you need it. Basically, it's a course with a coach attached — for life. If you've been ready to stop guessing and start running ads that actually convert, this is the move. Enroll here.

🚀 Get Paid Marketing (GPM) — Waitlist Claire's 12-month hybrid coaching + consulting program where she helps coaches and course creators build a custom $50K funnel for their main offer. Cohort-based, opens for enrollment a few times a year. Get on the waitlist.

• Solo Content Studio — solocontent.studio

• SceneRoll — sceneroll.com

• Wandering Aimfully Enough Number breakdown — wanderingaimfully.com/330

• Get Paid Podcast Part 1 with Jason Zook (GPP 366) clairepells.com/366

Now it's time to GET PAID.

Thanks for tuning into the Get Paid Podcast! If you enjoyed today's episode, head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review. Connect with me on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, visit my website at clairepells.com for even more detailed strategies, and be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media. Now, it's time to go get yourself paid.

Cathy Mazak just had the biggest launch of her career — $96,000 in two weeks, with 75 students enrolled. But until then, she had been stuck. Same email list. Same launches. Same program. The same 20-to-25 enrollments every time. Whatever you sell, if you've ever felt that flatline-launch frustration where the math just won't math, this episode is for you.

In this conversation, Cathy walks Claire through exactly what she changed — the offer restructure (she changed the length of her program), the pricing experiment), the lead gen play that worked, and the mindset shift she now says was the real unlock. Cathy has been a Get Paid Marketing client for years, and Claire had a front-row seat to this entire turnaround.

• How Cathy went from enrolling 25 students per launch to 75 in a single round — with the same audience and the same program

• The 3-tier pricing strategy she rolled out — including the re-enrollment price that brought back her highest-paying alumni

• Why Cathy ran THREE separate info sessions for one launch (one for each segment of her audience)

• The free workshop that did the heavy lifting on lead gen — and exactly how she used ads to fill it

• The mindset shift that snapped her out of "woe is me" thinking and into "what do I actually have to do?"

• The exact sentence Cathy said to herself one morning that changed how she ran the entire launch

Cathy Mazak is the founder of Scholar's Voice, where she helps university professors publish their backlog of academic papers through her signature program, Navigate. Before going full-time in her business, Cathy was a tenured full professor at the University of Puerto Rico for 15 years. Today, she's built Scholar's Voice into a multi-million dollar business, hosts the top-ranked podcast Academic Writing Amplified (300+ episodes), and is a long-time Get Paid Marketing client.

🎙️ Join Claire LIVE — Free Ads Training Sell Out Your Group Program with One Simple Ad. No fluff, no scare tactics, no marketing-bro nonsense — just the one simple ad Claire uses with her private clients (and the video script she normally only shares inside her $15K mastermind, which you'll get if you show up live). Save your seat here.

📚 Absolute FB Ads (AFA) — Open Now This isn't just a course. It's the whole thing: self-paced training + lifetime access + monthly Q&A calls with Claire + async feedback on your actual ads through our support system whenever you need it. Basically, it's a course with a coach attached — for life. If you've been ready to stop guessing and start running ads that actually convert, this is the move. Enroll here.

🚀 Get Paid Marketing (GPM) — Waitlist Claire's 12-month hybrid coaching + consulting program where she helps coaches and course creators build a custom $50K funnel for their main offer. This is the program Cathy is in. Cohort-based, opens for enrollment a few times a year. Get on the waitlist.

• Scholar's Voice — scholarsvoice.org

• Academic Writing Amplified podcast — scholarsvoice.org/podcast

• Stacey Boehman's Entrepreneur Coach Membership — staceyboehman.com/ec-membership

• Tara Mohr's The Coaching Way — taramohr.com/courses/the-coaching-way

Now it's time to GET PAID.

Thanks for tuning into the Get Paid Podcast! If you enjoyed today's episode, head over to Apple Podcasts to subscribe, rate, and leave your honest review. Connect with me on Facebook, YouTube, andInstagram, visit my website for even more detailed strategies, and be sure to share your favorite episodes on social media.

Jason Zook and his wife Caroline spent eight years building Wandering Aimfully into a coaching program doing over $30,000 a month in recurring revenue. Then they shut it down — on purpose — at the peak. In Part 1 of this conversation, Jason walks Claire through how he and Caroline started working together (it involves lion makeup), the pricing shift that took them from $5K to $30K a month, the "enough number" exercise that's been guiding their business for years, an important apology, and the decision to close it all.

This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation. Stay tuned for Part 2, where things get... messier.

• How Caroline pitched herself into Jason's business (and the lion makeup that started it all)

• The pricing model shift that more than doubled their recurring revenue and gave them a multi-year run

• Why they shut down a $30K+/month business at its peak — and the 20-month plan that gave them the runway to do it

• The "enough number" exercise Jason swears every business owner should do (and the link to his full breakdown)

• The side project that's quietly done $1.5M while helping course creators earn over $30 million

• A first taste of Jason and Caroline's experiments in vibe coding — including the $20 pre-launch vote that funded their newest app idea

Jason Zook has been building businesses online for nearly 20 years. He's the co-founder of Wandering Aimfully (a now-retired coaching program that brought in $2.5M in total revenue) and Teachery, a course platform that's done $1.5M as a side project while helping creators earn over $30 million. Jason and his wife Caroline recently launched two new vibe-coded apps and live in Portugal with their daughter Leon.

• Wandering Aimfully Enough Number breakdown — wanderingaimfully.com/330

• Teachery — Jason's course platform - https://www.teachery.co/

Now it's time to GET PAID.