From Local Word-of-Mouth to a Nationwide Waitlist of Ideal Clients

Kimberly Shires is a music producer based just outside Washington, DC. She's one of the only female music producers in her area, and the only one she knows of who is actively marketing her services.

When she joined the program, her business was already on a growth trajectory. She had started at $10K her first year, doubled to $20K the next, and was aiming to double again. But she could feel a ceiling approaching.

“I was doing word of mouth and I was doing some local efforts. Honestly, if I just kept doing that, I think it would've been a slog. I would've hit a wall for sure.”

Almost all of her clients came from her local community. People who already knew her, liked her, and trusted her. The sales process was easy because they had already decided to hire her before picking up the phone. But that meant she had never been truly challenged on selling to strangers, handling objections, or scaling beyond her personal network.

Kimberly came into the program with a strong sense of who she was. As a female producer, she had already leaned into serving female, non-binary, and gender-fluid artists. Her studio was a safe space where the artist's voice came first.

“I really leaned into that really hard. As a female producer, I am serving the female non-binary audience. It has a little bit of an empowerment bend to it. This is a safe place. This is a place where your voice is heard.”

But having a strong brand identity and having effective cold marketing messaging are two different things. Her initial ad messaging focused on the convenience of remote production and saving money on studio fees. It wasn't landing.

The breakthrough came when she shifted from aspirational messaging to problem-focused messaging. Instead of “don't you wish you could work with a woman producer,” the message became: you're creating music at home, but it doesn't sound the way you hear it in your head.

“When I started finding the problem that I'm actually solving, and we narrowed in on that messaging, that's when everything clicked. The brand and the empowerment piece became the 'and,' not the selling point. But it's what pushes them over the fence.”

Once the messaging clicked, the results came fast. Kimberly is now averaging about one new lead per day spending just $10 a day on Meta ads.

• One lead per day on average from Meta ads
• $10/day ad spend generating consistent deal flow
• Clients from across the country including California and Vermont
• 3 to 5 new Instagram followers daily of relevant female musicians
• Bigger projects coming in, including full EPs and albums instead of single songs
• A $4,800 mini EP with a prolific artist who has released nine albums, with potential to become an $11,000+ full album project

“I'm not really spending a lot of time trying to get leads. They're just coming. Every day it's like, oh, there's another one.”

She now has the numbers to scale intentionally. She knows exactly what it costs to get a lead, book a call, and acquire a client. If she needs more clients, she can simply spend more on ads, knowing the economics work.

One of the biggest shifts was in Kimberly's sales process. Before the program, she had never needed to sell. Her local community came pre-sold. But cold leads require a different approach.

The program taught her to lead the sales conversation instead of letting the prospect wander. The difference was dramatic.

“When they lead the conversation, it takes an hour. When I lead the conversation, it takes 25 minutes. And you're busy. You're doing back to back calls.”

She also learned to talk about money confidently, take deposits on calls, and close deals in a structured way. Each assignment built on the last, and the repetition turned discomfort into confidence.

“It helped in defining the brand, it helped in the confidence in talking with people. Leading the conversation rather than letting them lead the conversation. That was huge.”

The biggest transformation for Kimberly isn't just financial. It's freedom. She's no longer dependent on her local market to sustain her business. She can work with artists anywhere in the country, and eventually anywhere in the world.

“I'm working with people all over the country. Once you get to that point, you can start marketing in the UK or Germany or Australia. It's really limitless. Before, my world was a little bit smaller. I was dependent on my local community. I'm not dependent on that now.”

That means she can move without starting over. She can scale without geography being a bottleneck. And she has a system that runs whether she's actively networking or not.