2k Ad Spend Turned $42k in Sales! (The ROI Secret for Coaches) | Sarah Greener

This episode is best for:

• Coaches drowning in inconsistency
• People who dream of running a business from anywhere 
• Moms rebuilding after burnout
• Those who hate vague marketing advice
• Anyone sick of trading time for money

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This week, I sat down with Sarah Greener—a New Zealand-born, Thailand-based business coach who helps mompreneurs claw back their time and profits.

We dug into her wild journey from running 9 businesses (and failing at most!) to scaling a coaching empire that lets her work less while earning more.

Sarah’s “boring” systems let her work 3 days a week while her business earns cash. If you’re still “hoping” your content works, her $42K ad ROI story will hurt (in the best way).

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Key takeaways:

• Effective Content Marketing: How Sarah 40X’d her Instagram DMs.
• ROI or GTFO: The investment that turned $2k in ads into $42k in sales by using a simple system
• Trust ≠ AI Avatars: Sarah’s techniques in filming content that 5X’d her engagement.
  
  

Follow Sarah Greener at:

https://www.instagram.com/sarahgreenercoach/
https://www.facebook.com/sarah.greener.125
https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahgreener/
https://www.tiktok.com/@themoxiemovement
https://themoxiemovement.com/ 

#worklifebalance #mompreneurs #timemanagement #passiveincome #businessmoms

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Time Stamps:

00:00 Welcome to The Content Capitalists Podcast
00:34 The Secret Struggle of Coaching That No One Talks About
01:00 Chaos to System - How Did Sarah Do It?
01:17 Her Coaching Story is UNEXPECTED
04:30 Sarah’s Christmas Day Realization That Led to a Breakthrough
06:44 The Trap Most Coaches Fall Into and How to Escape It
10:00 Content Creation Overwhelm? This Simple Fix Changed EVERYTHING
14:32 These Results Were Unbelievable Until I Saw It Myself
20:38 The Future of Coaching is Here
22:43 Overwhelmed? Here’s The One Thing You MUST Do

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About Ken Okazaki

Ken Okazaki is the CEO of 20x Agency, a full-service video marketing agency that specializes in A-Z content creation for platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Their services help clients build authority, engage leads, and convert sales through high-quality content. With a global team across five countries, Ken serves clients in the US, Canada, Australia, and 15 other countries.

Ken is also the inventor and CEO of GoBox Studio, a portable all-in-one podcasting and content creation studio that fits into a carry-on-sized case.

Ken hosts the Content Capitalists Podcast, interviewing million-dollar earners about their success and strategies. He offers free courses on home studio setups, video marketing, and content creation.

If you need top-tier marketing content or a portable studio, Ken can help you take your business to the next level.

Follow Ken Okazaki at: 

https://www.instagram.com/kenokazaki/
https://www.youtube.com/c/KenOkazaki
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-content-capitalists-with-ken-okazaki/id1634328251
https://open.spotify.com/show/09IzKghscecbI7jPDVBJTw

Content Capitalists YouTube 

Transcript

So I was working about 60 to 100 hours a week, running a couple of restaurants, the tourism business, my coaching business on the side. So doing all of the things all at once. It probably looked really successful from the outside, in fact. I was literally trying to do it all and failing at most of it. If you were to imagine what moved the needle the most.

Having someone else's eyes on my content because when you're in it and you're really close to it, it's hard to see what's working and what's not. And lastly, finding all the different ways to say the same things because I get bored really quickly. Coaches. Let's get real. Marketing can feel like a full time job. And on top of that, you're actually coaching people in your businesses. So if you ever feel like you're just throwing content on the wall and just hoping something sticks or wondering why your message isn't landing well today, we're talking with Sarah and she's been exactly where you are.

She went from stressful sporadic marketing to a system that actually brings in new clients, not just likes, not just comments. So if you feel like you're just winging it, stick around. This one is for you.

Ken Okazaki: Hey Sarah, thanks for coming on this call. And I just wanted to have a conversation with you about You, Syndicated. 

Specifically designed to help coaches to get the organic and paid marketing up and running. 

So, uh, first of all, could you give us a quick overview? Like, what is it you do as a coach? Who do you help? How long have you been doing it?

Sarah Greener: I help mums in business, uh, get back a day a week and, uh, increase the profit that they're keeping to six figures, at least, and also pay themselves a salary out of their business.

So I've been doing that for, uh, Really specifically, probably for the last four years, but I've been coaching for about nine.

Ken Okazaki: You've been doing this particular program for four years. You've been a coach for nine years. the Viewer, they might not realize, but you're in Thailand. You sound Australian tell me kind of what's going on geographically and like where you come from and stuff.

Sarah Greener: I am from New Zealand, um, married to an Englishman who I met in Thailand. Uh, and we've kind of gone full circle. So we're now living location free. Uh, and the first stop was Thailand. 

So we're here with our daughter who's 12. Uh, and the reason I sound slightly Australian is because I spend far too much time with an Englishman.

And so it kind of. Waters down both of our accents to Australian, not really strongly Kiwi and not really strongly English,

Ken Okazaki: Or maybe it's just me coming from the outside doesn't know the difference that's probably what it is.

Before you got into coaching and before you created this program that we have, if your life was a movie trailer. Could you describe what it was like? 

Sarah Greener: running lots of different businesses. So my husband and I still have one of them. So we have a tourism business in the Bay of Islands. Uh, we run overnight cruises in New Zealand and we had also been through a variety of different businesses. I think nine years ago, we had. Five businesses. So I was working about 60 to 100 hours a week running, uh, a couple of restaurants, a, the tourism business, my coaching business on the side is very much as a side hustle.

And then we had also, uh, in person booking agent and then an online business. component to that as well, so some e commerce stuff. So doing all of the things all at once, as well as trying to be a mum and a wife, and it probably looked really successful from the outside. In fact, people did ask often, how did I do it all?

And the truth was, I was literally trying to do it all and failing at most of it. We went, uh, very quickly from a team of nine to 90 when we expanded into and very quickly realize I didn't have the skills and tools to run a team of that size and so went away and learned to coach so that I could run the business better basically, uh, and that's how the coaching business started, kind of accidentally, because they required you to have some clients that you weren't paying their wages, um, because obviously that changes the dynamic and how you coach, how you show up.

So, um, That's how I ended up coaching was just a, you had to have, I think, six pro bono clients that were not your employees and they turned some of them, I think three of them turned into paid clients and That's where it started from there. So it was originally because I wanted another tool to my leadership about when I had a much bigger, uh, management team and team to manage as well.

And it was uh, not, uh, smooth or easy. I was definitely overworked, overwhelmed, and very underpaid at the time. 

Ken Okazaki: tell me about that wake up call you had. What was it that shifted you from being overworked, underpaid to what you're doing now?

Sarah Greener: I think there was a number of wake up calls and we always say if you don't listen to the first one the universe, God, whatever you believe in, keeps sending them until you listen. So I had a number, but the big one was Christmas Eve when Scarlet was five. Christmas Eve? Christmas Day in fact. 

So we had two restaurants, we'd set it all up, The team had been awesome up until this point, um, and we had 20 people on the front of house floor and by the time I got to an hour before opening, five of them had called in sick or someone had died in their family or something had happened that they couldn't come into work, um, 25 percent of my front of house team down.

So I ended up working Christmas day, uh, and then ended up calling my husband into work Christmas day and so Scarlett was with a babysitter. And by the time it got to seven, we got this phone call that Scarlett had called her dad to say, um, I don't want to go to bed without a story. If you don't come home, um, I can't, you know, I can't go to sleep.

And, and Johnny asked why, because it was quite normal for us to be at work on, at that time of night. And she said, well, it's Christmas Day and Christmas Day is for family. And you should have told me if you had to work on Christmas Day. Next time you have to tell me if you're going to work on Christmas Day.

Um. And my husband came and told me and went home and I stayed and worked until one o'clock in the morning and when I went home that night promised her never again. And I think we tell these stories like then we wake up magically the next day and it's fixed, which it's not. 

And so then it was just the unraveling of kind of the world that I'd created for us of too many businesses, too many employees, too many of everything, uh, and spent the next three, four years, you know, exiting all of those businesses until I could get back to a place where we had much more control and I was working in the right roles rather than trying to be everything to everyone. 

So, that was the big kick up my butt that I needed to change some things that my daughter was aware at five that we were missing out on special days versus being with her.

Ken Okazaki: Yeah, that, that hits home, especially for coaches, anybody that's got kids. I'm curious about how you're doing in your coaching business before we got in contact with each other. 

Sarah Greener: Yeah, so, um, had got to the point where, you know, when you're coaching, you start off one to one and you tap that out pretty quickly, uh, and then you have to look for another model. And so I'd gotten to a group coaching reasonably early on in my career. because I got tapped out early on in that one to one space, uh, and just always hit that ceiling of like, you get a certain number of clients and they're coming in through a referral, but it doesn't really grow from that point, you know, referral only gets you so far, and at some point you have to go out and grow wider audience.

So, Business was going pretty well. Um, again, it was sporadic. So when I run a workshop, when I talk in front of people, I would get great calls coming in, uh, and people joining the program. If I wasn't doing those things, I wasn't getting calls booked. 

And so I knew somewhere at the front end of my business, there was a problem in terms of the audience, my database, the way that I was talking to them, the things that I was saying in terms of my messaging.

And I knew that I needed some help on how that was showing up. It was kind of. Just winging it, kind of throwing some stuff at the wall and hoping that it stuck, uh, and it was stressful because it was never consistent. There was always like, oh god, what am I going to post this week? What am I going to say?

On top of the fact that I would get very bored with, because it feels like you're saying the same thing over and over again as a coach to people. 

Ken Okazaki: could you tell me what methods you're using in terms of client acquisition?

Sarah Greener: Yeah, so we had some ads running in terms of, uh, lead magnet they were downloading, uh, and people would download the lead magnet, take all the free resources, and then disappear into the ether. Uh, even if they'd originally raised their hand to say, hey, I want to talk to you about some help, you would, they would just disappear.

Um, we have a podcast running, which was definitely working, because when people got on the calls, they would say that it was happening, but I'd run out of juice in terms of what to say on that. Uh, And the way that we were using that was just shooting a podcast and then chopping it up with a AI tool and sticking it out into the world and hoping that it worked.

Um, but there was no strategy behind it and just a lot of hope, really.

Ken Okazaki: Got it. And was it just you doing it or did you have some help with? That operation.

Sarah Greener: Uh, so mostly myself and one BA. So my whole business is two of us.

Ken Okazaki: Well, it sounds like you learned from your lesson previously not to create a, you know, a huge team based on that experience

Yeah, and what's the reason you almost didn't join?

Sarah Greener: Investment money, probably. Hmm. anything else.

Ken Okazaki: Got it.

Sarah Greener: Trying to go, if I do this, is it going to get a return on investment? You know, what's going to, is this going to be the thing that goes, yep, this actually changes because there's lots of people out there telling you what to do from a marketing point of view, but for me anyway.

It's been able to execute systemized way. That means I can repeat it over and over again on my own. Um, because what I can see, so much of picking the right marketing message and the right stories is often the nuance of like years and years of experience. And so how am I going to get that in a really short space of time?

So if I make this investment, am I actually going to get the return that I need for it? So that was probably the thing that was stopping me,

Ken Okazaki: got it. as we went through the program, could you think of one thing that stood out to you as a light bulb moment?

Sarah Greener: or that you actually had to plan your content. That there was a structure to how we thought about the month and, uh, that there were some, um, Key components that you could pull together that then made it easier to pull the other pieces out. Because I think, um, when I was doing it on my own, I was like, oh, what am I gonna say?

Who am I gonna talk about? Like, just making it up on the spot almost, versus. There was a really clear thought process that we went into. Well, what's the overarching way that we're going to roll out the messaging, the content over the next four weeks, and what's the end goal? Like what are we trying to get people to do off the basis of that content?

Which I've never done. I just, you know, created and hoped, basically.

Ken Okazaki: Was it easier than you expected, about what you expected, harder than you expected? 

Sarah Greener: Yeah, I think it was easier than I expected. Uh, the hardest, I always just showed up and talked to camera, so sticking to topic and being brief is my problem, uh, and so that's probably the thing I found really hard, but the overarching, once you see all the pieces start to come together and how they work, you kind of end up with this really simple flywheel of, um, here's how we take the information that we've got, the data that you've got about your, marketing, and plug it into a system that allows you to create better and better content and better results every time without, uh, I don't know, without it being stressful.

There's just kind of really logical way that you can roll your messaging through the wheel and come out with something better each month as it were.

Ken Okazaki: Using that system, um, could you tell me a little bit about what your content creation looks like right now?

Sarah Greener: Yep. Uh, so it 

Ken Okazaki: It's not a test, it's not right wrong answer.

Sarah Greener: it feels a little like a test. Um, 

Ken Okazaki: Well, let's put it this way. You know, I, the way we, we share things is, I think it's really helpful, but then everybody's going to adapt it in one way or another to fit their unique coaching business. So it doesn't have to be exactly what's in the program. I'm curious how you implemented it.

Sarah Greener: pretty much took what, um, your team did for us first time round and put it into almost a standard SOP. So these are the templates that we're going to use. This is how we're going to create it. we use your conversion compass tool.

And we use that every month. So we get in and we think about what are the core five that we need to create for our business. Uh, we punch it into the system. 

We have it spit out some ideas, some options, then we adjust it to sound really like me. And then from there, we go and create all the pieces of content for all of the four weeks under each of the the topics and the things that it came up with.

And once that's done, uh, then it goes to my contractor who goes through it and creates the Canva files. And, and then I'm supposed to go away and shoot the reels. That's probably the hardest bit because that's reliant on me to go and shoot the content. And then. Give that to her as well to edit the videos.

Uh, and then that all comes back to me for an approval process, which was something I wasn't doing before. So we were losing, uh, my eyes over it. And therefore, I think sometimes losing my voice and my message that I was trying to get through. So me going through and approving it and adjusting things means it sounds more like me, um, than it has before.

Uh, and then once I've approved it, they go through and. And then each week we've got my VA who goes through and she takes all of the data from all of the platforms and punches it into a tracking sheet and then we're just using that to go, okay, what's working? What's not? What do we need to do more of?

What do we need to do less of? And it enables us to kind of not waste our energy on stuff that hasn't worked and lean more strongly into the things that has 

Ken Okazaki: It sounds like your team is doing their bit and hopefully you're doing as little as possible, which is great. I think the only thing that's irreplaceable is your face in front of the camera for now. And I've seen some people try to fake it with these AI talking heads. And I'm not a fan of that.

I really am not. Because the moment people realize what it is, it just kind of, people feel different about your brand for, from then on forever. It's like, what else are they faking? Right? 

That's just my, my gut on it. that's it. 

Sarah Greener: I think it breaks a lot of trust when you're like, is it you or is it not you? Like, how do I know whether I'm talking to you or someone else?

Ken Okazaki: Exactly I'm curious, could you share some stats on what's been going on in terms of, engagement on your content, sales, conversations you're having with prospects and things like that.

Sarah Greener: Yeah, so I think the big shift has been we're actually making sales off where people have gone directly come from, mostly Instagram in my case. So Instagram, having a conversation in the chats and then booking calls and going through to buying either our, our big program or our entry level HERO program.

so I think, in the first 30 days, we went from having no sales that way to having two, into the big program and three people into the HERO program. So that was a massive shift. That's something that's kind of been. the whole of my pipeline since the day I started actively going out and marketing in my business.

Also, getting in front of the right people. So one of the challenges we were having before was how are we getting in front of mums who are in business, and getting them to raise their hands and go, I'm interested in that. And being far more direct about calling out who I work with has been super helpful.

So people really identify with that. 

I would say we're probably getting more like 70 percent of people that are raising their hands up, mums in business or mums who are like, I'd really like to start something, which is okay but we just got to tweak that content up just a little bit so that they are actually started their business. 

We know now, we didn't know before who they were or why they were raising their hands. In terms of reels and reach, it's gone up about 400 percent like in terms of people seeing and watching the content. 

Engagement in terms of people engaging on the posts themselves is still really low. And again, I think that's a something that mine are far more likely now to have a. Big chat in the chats, uh, and so we've seen a massive increase in that.

So off our profile visits and people actually responding to our chat starts has gone up hugely. 

So I would say we were probably getting 10 percent responding before. We're probably getting 70 percent responding to our chat starts now. That's substantial, which means we can actually move them through the pipeline and if they're not really in a far more useful way, which we weren't able to do.

Ken Okazaki: That's really exciting for me to hear, like truly, really exciting. 

Sarah Greener: that's probably the one thing, that one there that's changed the most, has been the most to see happen.

Ken Okazaki: there's a lot of things that go into making that happen from ideation to planning, to some AI tools, to shooting video, to posting and hashtags. And I think they all touch it just a little bit, but if you were to imagine what moved the needle the most, what do you think it is?

Sarah Greener: I think the, the thing that moved the needles the most was having someone else's eyes on my content. Because, uh, when you're in it and you're really close to it, it's hard to see, uh, what's working and what's not. What's valuable and what's not and I think being explicit about calling out who I was working with and not just in like Hey mums and business like saying it but also there's so many other nuanced ways that Through your content you can call out that I didn't know existed so understanding that and Finding and lastly finding all the different ways to say the same things because I get bored really quickly of saying same thing And so looking for and being creative with finding all the ways to say put the same message across because it lands differently for different people.

So I think the external set of eyes looking at your content and going, Hey, here's what needs adjusting and changing. And here's how you can do it differently that I didn't have before.

Ken Okazaki: That's such a good point. Yesterday, uh, it's Monday by the way, and on Sunday in the weekend, I was watching the Apple documentary about Steve Martin, arguably the most successful stand up comedian in world history. he was just playing around with ideas and repeating the same jokes for 12 years before he did one hit. Like where he actually got his routine dialed in. 12 years of, of failing and being fired and just, just almost succeeding. And that guy just kept hammering the same, same routine, the same gags. And I don't think I'm that patient yet. I don't actually, I haven't proven it, but when you get it right. You get it right. And when people start repeating your stuff, then you realize, you know what, there's, there's a few billion people in the world, and not everybody's heard it. So it's okay to keep repeating the same damn thing.

Sarah Greener: Absolutely. And it's you that gets bored with it. your marketing will impact far more people than your programs ever will. So your marketing needs to be good too, right? Like if you're, you're here to make an impact, which I certainly am, um, then I need to do a good job of my marketing because there'll be plenty of women that will never work with me directly and I can still make an impact in how they're doing things and why they're doing things.

Ken Okazaki: If you could go back to when you first started coaching, and do something differently based on what you learn now. What would you tell your younger self?

Sarah Greener: document, document, document. Because when someone asks me what my stories are, I'm like, Oh, I've been doing this for been in business for over 20 years. I don't know. Like it just becomes, your life and the way that you do things is just normal. And then when I talk to other people about what I've done in my 40 odd years, people are like, well, no, that's not, it's not really normal, Sarah. Like, it's not how most people would live. 

And you think, oh, it's so normal to me. And so you forget to retain it as a story, as something you can share with other people. And I think. that document, uh, document it on videos, even if you don't feel comfortable to share it in the moment, um, document and writing it down, just keep the stories because they're going to be so valuable as you go through the journey. And sharing them ultimately, like if I could have gone back to 25 year old Sarah and said, share your story and document it, um, that would have changed the game. And then obviously the messaging comes later, but that piece is the piece that probably stands out to me the most.

Ken Okazaki: Tell me about what's next for you. What are you thinking of in terms of taking your coaching to the next level?

Sarah Greener: I think more of the same. So I really want to consolidate. So I know what works inside the program. I love coaching. I love showing up for that. Uh, so for me, it's about getting the front end to my business, the marketing and sales piece to a point where it requires basically just my face and my voice.

Uh, and I can have a Uh, a couple of people helped me with that, you know, that would be amazing. and welcoming more women into the program, really, because when you know that your stuff works, uh, your frustration becomes, why can't I have more people in it? So that's really the next bit for me is dialing up how many women we're helping and helping them get that juggle to a place where it's like, oh, it doesn't feel overwhelming.

And, and I'm actually making a success of my business instead of feeling like I'm struggling all the time.

Ken Okazaki: Could you describe the type of person who you think would benefit the most from this program?

Sarah Greener: I think it's the people that are great coaches and have a huge amount of impact, for the people that they're already serving and are struggling to understand how to find more of the right people. I think it's perfect for them. 

So if you're already a guru at marketing and all of that stuff, and that's the space that you've come from into coaching, um, that's maybe not so necessary for you, but if you're not someone that comes from that marketing background and want someone who is able to. break it down into small pieces and give you all the components that you need to create really consistent messaging and content that speaks to the right people for you. You know, it's easy to write something that talks to everyone, but it's much, much harder to talk to the ideal person that you want to work with.

Um, then I think this is the right thing. And I think it very quickly gets you in a place where you can create content that does what you need it to do for your business and also speaks to the right people. So because there's two. People involved in this, right? The person that's watching it and the person that's creating it.

And so finding a framework that helps you to do that quickly. Uh, I think that's really useful.

Ken Okazaki: I think I agree with that. It makes a lot of sense. Do you have anything that you want to add yourself that I may have forgotten to cover?

Sarah Greener: Trust the process. When I first got in, I was like, there's so much to do and I have no idea how we're going to get all of this done. Um, trust the process. It all comes together. They've got really a clear plan, but they can see how the dots join together. Even if you can't see it, um, you have to trust the process.

Ken Okazaki: I think what I learned the most is simplify, simplify, simplify and clarify, because when you have a team of full time, you know, we have a full time team that's running these systems for you, then that's all they do all day, every day. 

And laying out a more complex structure for them to run. That makes sense. But I realized when you have people who come in for an hour or maybe two a week, then just to absorb the information, much less execute on the tasks. I think that we could have done better in making it clear from the beginning so that people don't feel overwhelmed too much right in the front.

So. maybe I'll run the new, uh, structure by you and you can tell me if, if it's easier to understand than, than version one of this. Uh, thank you for that. I got that same feedback from, from a lot of you. I appreciate it.

Sarah Greener: I think, and you can't often get to that simple version until you've gone through the complex version. And I think the other thing you have to recognize is that when you're really good at it, and you've got a team of people that are really good at it, it's unconscious to them. They just do it without thinking.

And so then asking them to come back and be consciously confident about it and go, Oh, here are the steps I have to go through. Um, versus, you know, I just do it without thinking. It's quite hard to. Slow yourself down and go, oh, actually how do I, what are the steps that make that valuable later on? So I think I've done really well, you and the team.

Ken Okazaki: Thank you for that. I appreciate it. I'm curious, do you have a rough number on how much you've put into spending on ads versus how many sales that you've gotten out of this in terms of dollars?

Sarah Greener: well. If I was to just go just to the ads that we were running, I would say it was about 2, 000 for the month and like the sale value of them, uh, about 42, 000.

Ken Okazaki: Hmm, that's very very decent return.

Sarah Greener: I mean obviously there's some stuff that has to happen in the back end, I have to retain but yeah. 

Ken Okazaki: we're just looking at the in and the out because once you get the system working, you can, you can usually just keep self replicating. 

I use this analogy all the time because when I was a teenager, my thing was building custom PCs and I'd buy some used stuff and get some new stuff.

I'd try to, Overclock my CPU that used to be a thing, and I'd put everything together and like I'd cross my fingers and close my eyes and flip on the power switch. And then if it works, I'd be just like, yes, it worked, you know. And then of course there'd be a bunch of other troubleshooting that go in and and then like. and work on to make it work better. But that first moment when the math works, then you know, you've got something. And then now it's about fine tuning, tweaking, improving incrementally. But if you got the machine working, then that's exciting.

And you know that you've got something that could start working better, faster, easier, and get you even, more of the kind of results that you built the machine for in the first place.

Sarah Greener: absolutely. It's, the machine definitely exists, and you are correct, it is now to tweak and adjust it to make it work the way we want it.

Ken Okazaki: All right, Sarah, thank you so much for your time.

And, for anybody who's watching this, please know that, she recently came through the program and we spent a few months together. between some one on ones, between some live programs and her working her butt off, shooting video, creating content, following the plan, uh, it's, it's been such a pleasure working with, with Sarah, especially, I think, I think you're such a go getter.

And for me to say something and then. A couple of days later, see you saying, I'm done. That that's exciting. So thank you.

Sarah Greener: Pleasure.

Ken Okazaki: All right. Well, that's it for today.