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

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.

Claire met Ellen Yin at a conference last year — and despite Ellen's podcast Cubicle to CEO crossing over a million downloads, Claire had never heard of her. Months later, Claire stumbled onto one of Ellen's offers on Instagram and bought it without thinking twice. "Take my money," she said!

In this episode, Ellen shares how she built Cubicle to CEO into a media company, the brand partnership structure that has her landing campaigns with Fortune 500 names like Uber and Amazon, and the bespoke offer she launched right before Black Friday that brought in 28 partners.

• The decision Ellen made in 2022 that completely changed how her business makes money

• What it actually means when Ellen says her podcast IS the product (not a marketing channel)

• The minimum budget Ellen requires to even consider a brand partnership — and what brands get at the higher end

• Why Ellen stopped publicly sharing her annual revenue after five years — and the number she tracks instead now

Ellen Yin is the founder of Cubicle to CEO, a media and education company best known for its top-ranked podcast of the same name. Cubicle to CEO has served over 14,000 students, partnered with Fortune 500 brands like Uber, Amazon, ADP, and Indeed, and crossed over a million downloads on the show. Ellen is also a speaker and one of the most financially transparent founders in the online business space.

• Cubicle to CEO

• Cubicle to CEO Podcast (premium subscription)

• Revenue Report Files (Ellen's private podcast feed of five years of public income reports)

• Dielle McMillan — forthe23percent.com

Now it's time to GET PAID.

Claire just got back from Miami, where she sponsored Dielle Charon''s Millionaires of Color conference for the first time — and she's sharing the WHOLE story. The stress spiral, the question she asked Dielle that completely changed how she showed up, and the unexpected moment that made every dollar worth it.

Plus: her best tips for getting an actual ROI out of any in-person event — whether you're a sponsor, going solo, or still on the fence about live events.

• Why Claire said "I'm never doing this again" at least three times before she even got to the airport

• What sponsoring gave her that two years of attending never did

• Claire's exact tip for making networking feel effortless at any event (she's been using this one since 2014)

• The two women at the conference who met as strangers last year and are now besties with businesses that took off

• Dielle Charon — forthe23percent.com

• Everything Sales and Money (Dielle's membership)

• Craft + Commerce by Kit — kit.com/conference (June 10–13, Boise, Idaho)

• Episode: How My Brain Sabotaged My Business for Eight Plus Years (for more conference tips!)

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.

Vix Meldrew is one of those people who has actually lived multiple internet lives — and somehow turned all of it into a business that sells memberships and group programs at scale.

In this episode, Vix breaks down how she went from being a sex + dating blogger (while teaching primary school!) to building a membership with hundreds of members… and then making the decision to close it when Reels changed everything.

We talk audience growth, offer evolution, what happened during a launch that started as a total flop (two sales on day one) and how she turned it around, and the real behind-the-scenes of building a business while going through IVF, pregnancy, and postpartum.

• The unexpected origin story behind Vix's business (and why she had a pseudonym)

• How she grew a membership fast — and what made her community so hot early on

• How Reels changed everything (and why she shut down recurring revenue)

• The launch that started with a faceplant… and the pivot that saved it

• The organic growth strategy she's using now (and why it's not "post more")

• What motherhood + postpartum actually did to her business ambition and capacity

Vix Meldrew helps course creators, coaches, and membership owners grow their audience and sell their offers through organic marketing and launches. She's the creator of Volume (focused on audience growth) and Sales Spice (focused on scaling courses, memberships, and group programs through launches and organic funnels).

• Get Paid Marketing (GPM)

• Instagram: @vixmeldrew

• Website: vixmeldrew.com

• Volume: vixmeldrew.com/volume

• Sales Spice: vixmeldrew.com/sales-spice

Joe Sanok started a podcast in 2013, when almost nobody in his niche was doing it. Today, Practice of the Practice generates close to a million dollars a year through podcast sponsorships, a membership community, consulting, and done-for-you podcast launch services. In this episode, Joe breaks down how he validated one of his highest-ticket offers by asking 15 people three questions, then sending a single email that brought in nearly $80,000 in signed contracts within 24 hours—before he had even built the delivery team.

This Week on the Get Paid Podcast:

• How Joe used 3 questions to validate a high-ticket offer and sell nearly $80K before building it

• How Practice of the Practice grew into a near-million-dollar business through sponsorships, membership, and consulting

• Why Joe's membership model removes extra buying decisions and lets clients level up without friction

• How Joe built a podcast system that lets him record and walk away while his team handles the rest

• Why he tracks positive exits and negative exits inside his membership

• How Joe structures his schedule so he mostly works Tuesday through Thursday

About Joe Sanok:

Joe Sanok is the founder of Practice of the Practice, a business that helps therapists in private practice grow through community, consulting, and education. He's a former marriage counselor, the host of a podcast with more than 1,300 episodes, and the author of Thursday Is the New Friday and Dating After Betrayal. Joe lives in northern Michigan and leads a team based across the U.S. and South Africa.

Mentioned in this podcast:

• Practice of the Practice https://practiceofthepractice.com/

• Podcast Launch School https://podcastlaunchschool.com/

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.

What if the reason your business still feels harder than it should… is that you're still relying on launches to do all the heavy lifting?

In this special training replay, Claire breaks down the $50K 4-Part Funnel — the framework she teaches inside Get Paid Marketing to help course creators and online business owners build a more reliable system for leads and sales.

In this episode, Claire walks through the 4 funnel types she recommends, how ads fit into the bigger picture, why evergreen usually comes first, and the messaging issue that keeps a lot of funnels from converting.

She also shares what's inside Get Paid Marketing, who it's for, and how to apply for the April 2026 cohort.

• the 4-part funnel Claire teaches inside GPM
• why launches alone can create a revenue ceiling
• how evergreen, launch, and list-growth funnels work together
• the messaging issue that hurts cold traffic conversions
• what's included inside Get Paid Marketing
• the early enrollment bonus and pay-in-full bonus

Apply for Get Paid Marketing here: clairepells.com/getpaid

If you officially claim your spot in the April 2026 cohort and make a payment before end of day Monday, March 23rd, you'll get the Early Enrollment Bonus: a 60-Minute Funnel Content Intensive.

This is a private call with the team to help you build out the content for your next funnel in just 60 minutes, so you can get unstuck and map out what goes where in real time.

If you choose the pay-in-full option, you'll also get the Pay-in-Full Bonus: Launch Voxer Coaching — 2 weeks of private Voxer access with Claire, available twice during your 12 months in GPM:

• Week 1: the 7 days before your next launch
• Week 2: the 7 days after cart close

This is real-time support for mindset, strategy, and feedback during some of the most crucial moments in your business.

What if the reason your business still feels harder than it should… is that you're still relying on launches to do all the heavy lifting?

In this special training replay, Claire breaks down the $50K 4-Part Funnel — the framework she teaches inside Get Paid Marketing to help course creators and online business owners build a more reliable system for leads and sales.

In this episode, Claire walks through the 4 funnel types she recommends, how ads fit into the bigger picture, why evergreen usually comes first, and the messaging issue that keeps a lot of funnels from converting.

She also shares what's inside Get Paid Marketing, who it's for, and how to apply for the April 2026 cohort.

• the 4-part funnel Claire teaches inside GPM
• why launches alone can create a revenue ceiling
• how evergreen, launch, and list-growth funnels work together
• the messaging issue that hurts cold traffic conversions
• what's included inside Get Paid Marketing
• the early enrollment bonus and pay-in-full bonus

Apply for Get Paid Marketing here: clairepells.com/getpaid

If you officially claim your spot in the April 2026 cohort and make a payment before end of day Monday, March 23rd, you'll get the Early Enrollment Bonus: a 60-Minute Funnel Content Intensive.

This is a private call with the team to help you build out the content for your next funnel in just 60 minutes, so you can get unstuck and map out what goes where in real time.

If you choose the pay-in-full option, you'll also get the Pay-in-Full Bonus: Launch Voxer Coaching — 2 weeks of private Voxer access with Claire, available twice during your 12 months in GPM:

• Week 1: the 7 days before your next launch
• Week 2: the 7 days after cart close

This is real-time support for mindset, strategy, and feedback during some of the most crucial moments in your business.