03/04/2026
Most people know me as the "$5 ads" girl.
And yeah … I've built my entire business teaching entrepreneurs how to turn $5 into customers.
I wrote the book on it. Literally.
But here's something most people don't realize about how I actually work with my Lean on Laurel clients:
>>> Some of the fastest cash injections I've ever generated for a clients didn't involve a single dollar in ad spend.
Not five dollars. Not one dollar. Zero.
And until you hear Diana's story, you probably won't understand why that matters … or what it reveals about what's actually broken in most businesses.
Diana owns a gym.
Not an online business …. a real, physical gym surrounded by a sea of corporate offices within a 2-mile radius. Her ideal clients literally work next door.
She came to me frustrated. Not because she couldn't get leads.
Because she was DROWNING in them.
100+ inquiries every single week. Women scanning QR codes off flyers posted in their office buildings, filling out the form, booking a free session. A hundred people per week raising their hand saying "I want this."
And 10-15 of them were actually walking through the door.
Let that land for a second. 100 inquiries. 10-15 show up. She was losing 85-90% of her leads between "I'm interested" and "I'm here."
These leads cost her nothing to generate.
Flyers and QR codes. And she was watching them evaporate every single week.
Of the women who DID show up, about 30% joined her $300/month personal training program.
Another 60% grabbed her $29/month spin membership. Diana closes well. Her offer is solid. Her training is excellent. Her clients love her.
The problem was never the front end.
The problem was never the back end. The problem was the invisible middle …. the space between someone saying "yes" and someone showing up.
So what does everyone tell Diana? "Run Facebook ads." "Build a funnel." "You need to build a brand."
More leads? She had a HUNDRED A WEEK. For free.
That advice would have been like handing someone a bigger bucket while their bathtub drain is wide open. More water doesn't fix the hole.
Here's what I did instead.
I didn't suggest ads. I didn't build a funnel. I didn't redesign her website.
I looked at what happened AFTER someone scanned that QR code and booked a session.
And what I found was… almost nothing.
A confirmation email. Then silence. Maybe a reminder text the day before. That's it.
A woman in a busy office fills out a form on her lunch break, feels excited for about 90 seconds, and then goes back to putting out fires at work.
By the time her free session rolls around three days later, she's forgotten she booked it.
Or she's talked herself out of it. Or she feels weird showing up to a gym where she doesn't know anyone. Or she just… doesn't feel like it anymore.
That's not a lead quality problem. That's a human nature problem. And Diana had no system to address it.
So we built one.
I call it the Show-Up Engine.
It's a sequence of 8 strategic touchpoints that fire between the moment someone books and the moment they walk through the door.
And every single touchpoint addresses a specific psychological barrier that causes ghosting.
Not generic "just checking in!" reminders.
Not "don't forget about your appointment!" spam.
INTENTIONAL communication designed around why people actually ghost.
>>> A confirmation that sets clear expectations so the session feels like a smart use of their time , NOT a mystery they're dreading.
>>> A personal video from Diana putting her face to the name …. because people don't ghost humans, they ghost faceless businesses.
>>> A social media follow that creates a real human connection outside the sales process ….no pitch, just Diana liking a photo of their kid's soccer game.
>>,, A value-drop email that gives them a quick win BEFORE they show up ….so they walk in already experiencing the expertise, not wondering if it's worth their lunch hour.
>>> A war story that shows the real cost of waiting … because Diana's biggest competitor isn't the gym down the road, it's "I'll start next month."
>>>> AND strategic reminders that remove every last scrap of friction so showing up feels like the easiest decision they've made all week.
8 touchpoints.
9 psychological barriers addressed.
Zero ad spend.
Week one … Diana had over 60 women walk through the door.
From 10-15 to 60. Same flyers. Same QR codes. Same offer.
Same gym.
At her close rates, that's roughly 18 women joining at $300/month and another 36 grabbing spin memberships at $29/month. That's over $6,400 in new monthly recurring revenue. In one week.
From leads that were already showing up in her inbox and disappearing.
And we weren't done.
After the Show-Up Engine was running, we deployed what I call the Silver Bullet campaign … a re-engagement sequence that went back into Diana's CRM and woke up over 150 leads from the last 90 days who had inquired and never came in.
People who raised their hand, got silence, and drifted away.
Those people didn't need a new ad.
They didn't need a new offer. They needed someone to actually follow up with them like a human being with a system behind it.
I'll break down the Silver Bullet in another post.
But just know … those 150 leads were already sitting in Diana's business, costing her nothing, waiting for someone to build the bridge between "I was interested" and "I'm ready."
Here's why I'm telling you this.
Most people come to me thinking they have a lead problem. "I need more traffic." "My ads aren't working." "I need a bigger audience."
And sometimes that's true.
But more often than not … way more often … the leads are already there.
The demand already exists. The people have already raised their hand.
The money is sitting in the gaps between your marketing pieces. The space between the inquiry and the follow-up. The space between the booking and the show-up. The space between the first conversation and the close.
That's where revenue goes to die.
And nobody's looking there because everyone's obsessed with the front end.
Your flyers could be working. Your ads could be perfect. Your content could be exceptional. And you could still be leaving thousands on the table every single week because the connective tissue between those pieces has holes in it.
That's not a tactic problem.
That's an ecosystem problem. And you cannot see it when you're inside it.
This is what Lean on Laurel exists for.
It's not an agency. Agencies would have told Diana to run ads she didn't need. It's not a course.
A course would have taught Diana about funnels while her real problem was follow-up timing. It's not coaching where I answer questions on a group call and send you on your way.
It's a tag team.
You and me. Inside YOUR business, looking at YOUR numbers, YOUR follow-up, YOUR ecosystem. Finding the broken connection that's costing you money right now … BEFORE we ever talk about ad spend.
Because here's what most people don't know about working with me: the fastest wins almost never come from ads.
They come from fixing the system you already have. The ads come later … and when they do, they pour into an ecosystem that's already converting.
That's when $5 ads become dangerous.
But first? We fix the holes. We build the engine. We turn the leads you already have into the revenue you're currently losing.
Drop "TAG TEAM" below.
I'll personally reach out and we can look at what's actually going on in your business.
FAIR WARNING >> I'm going to ask you some questions first. I need to know you're ready to do the work.
I don't build Show-Up Engines for people who won't show up themselves.
