In this episode, I share a fun but surprisingly powerful story about how getting my six-month-old golden retriever puppy, Nelly Mae, turned into a real-life lesson in online selling. Within just three hours of discovering a dog trainer on YouTube, I found myself not only binge-watching his content but also purchasing his £250 “Perfect Puppy” course. That experience made me stop and reflect on exactly what worked—and how those same strategies apply directly to our own businesses.
I walk through five key selling lessons I took from that journey, including the importance of creating bingeable, easy-to-find content that builds trust quickly, offering a lead magnet that truly matches what your audience is already looking for, and tapping into your audience’s pain and urgency at the exact moment they’re searching for a solution. I also talk about how powerful it is to build trust through proof—like testimonials, results, and visible expertise—and why presenting your offer at the right time, especially for lower-cost products, can make all the difference. By the end, I encourage you to look at your own business and spot where you might be missing opportunities to convert ready-to-buy customers.
3 Key Takeaways:
Bingeable Content Builds Trust Fast
When your content is easy to find and naturally leads from one piece to another, people stay longer, trust you more, and move quicker toward a buying decision.
Alignment with Buyer Intent Is Everything
Your lead magnets and offers need to match what your audience is actively searching for. When the timing and message align, conversions feel effortless.
Timing and Trust Drive Sales
When someone is already feeling the urgency of their problem, and you show up with proof and a clear solution at the right moment, the decision to buy becomes easy.
If you’ve ever wondered why some people can turn viewers into buyers so quickly—or how to make your own content work harder for you—this episode will give you practical insights you can apply right away.
LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE
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Transcript
This is a picture of my six month old puppy Nelly Mae, and in today's episode, I'm gonna be sharing with you what getting my puppy taught me about the online space and how I went from not knowing someone to three hours later spending money with them online because they could fix my problem.
If we have not met, my name is Teresa Heath Wareing and I work with course creators, membership owners and coaches, and I help them grow online businesses in a way that feels aligned with them, their offer and their customers. And in today's episode, I'm gonna be sharing with you how an unlikely story of getting a puppy taunt me stuff about the online business and what it can teach you to.
Let me start by just telling you a little bit about this story. So I have two dogs. I have two caucus Spaniels, Woody and Teddy. If you're on YouTube, here's a picture of them. Anyway, in summer last year, we decided to bite the bullet and get a golden retriever. So. My husband was away for [00:01:00] three months and I was getting the dog on my own, and I had never actually trained a puppy or dealt with a puppy because my husband always dealt with the boys as puppies, and we had had them from four months old, whereas I was getting her from eight weeks and I was honestly freaking out.
I was like, how do I manage this? What do I do? How do we do this? And I was taking it really seriously as one would hope you do when you get a puppy. So she came along and I was like, I'm gonna need some help. So I started watching or looking for some content, and I went to my favorite place, which is YouTube, where I watch a lot of content.
I started searching for, how should I look after my puppy? What do you do in the first 24 hours of bringing a puppy home? Like all the things. And I searched all these questions and then of course, the minute I started searching the algorithm on YouTube started throwing up more videos I might like, and I stumbled across this guy called Will Atherton.
And Will had got loads of [00:02:00] videos on how to deal with a puppy and what a puppy should do and how to basically train it. And he also talked about the fact that if you didn't train your puppy, the problem you were going to get down the line is you were going to get a really unruly dog. And one of the considerations I had was I had got this puppy who was a golden retriever, and she was going to be a big dog.
So how on earth would I make sure that I didn't have this big, massive dog on my hands that I couldn't control? So after watching. Video after video, after video. I was there for a few hours watching all these different videos. At the end of every video will talked about a program, a perfect puppy course, and obviously being a marketer for one, but someone who had the problem.
The pain of, I've got a puppy. I don't want it to be unruly, and I also don't want a big grown dog that I can't control. I went and had a look at the Perfect Puppy course while I was there, and while I was in his content, I managed to find a free mini [00:03:00] course that he had about training your puppy. And I opted in for that.
I watched it and basically that, and the videos gave me enough confidence that this guy knew what he was talking about and. I went and bought the Perfect puppy course. Now, when I bought it, it was about 250 pounds, and within the space of about three hours, I'd gone from not knowing who this guy was to giving him about 250 pounds.
And the reason I'm telling you this story is because there are five key things that he did that I think you can take away and learn from this when you are selling online. Step number one, he had bingeable content that built my trust. So when I found his first video, I was able to then go and see. He had loads of other videos, and then I went down a rabbit hole of watching these videos, and then I went and found him on social media and saw he was all over social media.
So for me. I was able to really get to know this guy really quickly because he had [00:04:00] content. Now, someone might not buy after watching one video, but after watching video, after video, after video, after going down a rabbit hole and looking at someone's social media, after seeing that there is lots of content out there and binging the content, they are much more likely to buy.
So step one, have that bingeable content. So if you do not have bingeable content, IE. If I can't find you online and watch what you do and how you do it, then you are gonna make it very difficult for me to even engage with you, let alone buy from you. Number two, he had a lead magnet that captured the intent to buy.
Okay, so his lead magnet, his freebie, his mini course, was a perfect prerequisite for the thing I wanted to buy. It was an introduction for some of the basics that you need to know about getting started with your puppy, which was almost step zero. In the steps of wanting a trained puppy. Now, it's interesting.
Normally when I would talk about a lead magnet, [00:05:00] I would talk about getting them onto your list and then you nurture them on your list. However, in this particular case, I barely read an email that he sent me other than getting the email to actually log into the little mini course that I could take a look at.
I wasn't actually paying attention to his emails because quite honestly, he couldn't have sent me enough emails in time because I did it in such a short space of time. So he delivered a lead magnet that I could then also binge watch because I did. I went through it fairly quickly, and in fact, I don't even think I went through the whole thing.
I just got past some of the first couple of videos before I was like, yes, I absolutely need this, because the next thing he did in step three. Was he basically reconfirmed the pain and the urgency within the lead magnet. So within the lead magnet, within the video, he reconfirmed why I needed the course even more.
And it wasn't so direct as selling. It was talking about like he would [00:06:00] introduce a concept and then we'd talk about the fact of if we don't get this nailed now, or if we are not learning how to. Deal with this now, then down the line, this is gonna cause a bigger problem. So he was really addressing all of my fears.
My fears of, I've got a big golden retriever dog that basically is going to be so hard to deal with. I'm not gonna be able to walk because she's gonna be so big and she might pull, and I need her not to jump up because she's gonna be really big and it's gonna be really hard work. So during the videos I was watching in the first place.
And the free video mini course that he gave me as the lead magnet. He was basically reconfirming my problems and the urgency for the problem to be fixed at that point. The other thing that's good to know is at the point that someone is searching for that content is the point that they have for problem.
Now, if I'm thinking of getting a puppy, I'm not going to be searching what to do with a puppy when you bring them home. I'm not [00:07:00] gonna be searching how to help them sleep for the first few nights. At the point I'm getting, the puppy is at the point, I'm looking at the content, and he understood that really clearly.
And during the videos and the lead magnet, he really pushed that pain and he really pushed that urgency. Number four, he built trust the whole way through. He talked very much about the work he's done, the qualifications he's got, and the results he's got for his clients. The other thing that he did, which.
If you can do is great, but it's, this is just like a cherry on the top is he actually had remarketing ads. So in the very short space of time that I was looking at his content, I did actually get delivered an ad that was a testimonial. When I went onto his social media, I saw testimonials. So I saw other people like me who had not had experience with dogs or puppies before who were really concerned, who wanted to make sure [00:08:00] that they could train this puppy in a way that aligned with them and.
It had done it. It had fixed the problem. So he was confirming to me that I could trust him. He was confirming to me that he was the authority on this, and he was showing me in practice how he had done it for other people. And number five, he presented the offer at the perfect time. Now. I would be guilty of this, that sometimes in some instances you should wait to warm someone up and nurture them in order to make the offer.
Now, as you've heard me talk about before, my offers are much higher touch, they're much more personal, and therefore they are higher cost. So it isn't necessarily going to be a very quick decision. However, in his case, it wasn't a high touch. It wasn't a high cost offer. I paid roughly 250 pounds and I could make that decision fairly quick.
So therefore, the fact that he made the offers so quick and so often was key to me buying it meant that I didn't have to think about it too hard. He had presented all the details to [00:09:00] me. I had had some content from him that build trust. I'd watched videos that made me realize that I liked how he trained and I liked who he was.
He showed me authority. That I could make that decision very quickly and I needed to make it quickly because I was bringing my puppy home and I needed to know what to do with that puppy. If he had waited to make the offer, the chances are I either would've gone somewhere else or I wouldn't have bought it 'cause I wouldn't have thought I needed it.
So let me run through those five again. That led me to going from not knowing someone to giving them 250 pounds in a very short space of time. One. I had bingeable content that I could watch, and they were everywhere. I was able to find them. I was able to see what they were doing, and I was able to build trust that they were actually legit in what they were talking about.
Two, they had a lead magnet that captured my intent. So it was almost step zero of where I was. That basically said, well, if you are downloading this, then you are definitely wanting to get the course. Three. He. Made sure that he talked about the pain [00:10:00] and the urgency of fixing the pain a lot, which made me realize I need this thing more than ever.
Four. He built trust through everything that he did, through the quality of his videos, through him showing up through his testimonials through. Through his qualifications. I built trust very quickly and built authority with him very quickly. And number five, he made the offer. He didn't wait to give me an offer.
He gave me the offer, presented it when I needed it. So those five things you can now take away and look at your online business and see where maybe you've got some gaps that you can plug with some of these things. And by the way, the course was excellent and I was able to train my puppy. Now she is a puppy and she's six months old, and she is massive.
However, it really helped me understand how they needed to be trained and what to do. So I, for one, was very happy with the purchase I made. If you found this episode helpful or you know someone else who might find it useful, then please go ahead and share [00:11:00] that with them. I will be back next week with another episode.