Early to Rise
Craig Ballantyne started in the fitness industry in 1999, selling his Turbulence Training workout programs online in the style of Beachbody and P90X. In 2011 he bought Early to Rise, a success and wealth-building newsletter, and began combining the two audiences. He described his own path as one that began with crippling anxiety attacks, which he overcame using the five pillars of transformation that now anchor his products.
The flagship offer is the Perfect Day Formula, launched in early January 2016. Ballantyne calls it "coaching in a box": a physical orange box containing a book and success tools, with digital access included. It sells for $200, and the production and shipping cost is $21 in the United States. Above it sit high-end one-on-one coaching at $25,000 and Early to Rise University, which uses courses modeled after Cartoneuniversity.com. The membership side is a low-cost monthly offer at $7, with subscribers staying about three months on average.
Ballantyne's customer acquisition relies on three channels: his own email list, affiliate promotion, and Facebook advertising. By October 2016 the kit had sold 3,500 units. Affiliates accounted for roughly 20% of sales at most, and paid advertising had been running only a couple of months and had generated under $10,000 in spend with few sales. His answer to the launch-cycle problem is to drive steady Facebook traffic to a free-plus-shipping book offer, which feeds the kit and avoids depending on affiliate launches.
The business reached about $6 million in 2015, split roughly $3 million from fitness and $3 million from Early to Rise. Ballantyne targeted $8 million for 2016 but admitted in October that the company was not on track, pointing to upcoming product launches as the way to close the gap. Retention was the weak point: membership churn was high, and he had not tested a one-time pricing model that might fit subscribers who stay only about three months.
As of September 2016, membership monthly recurring revenue was about $100,000. Ballantyne planned to shift focus from fitness toward the Perfect Day Formula and Early to Rise principles-based content, while keeping the business at roughly a 50/50 split between fitness and Early to Rise.
- •A large, engaged email list gives the business a repeatable distribution channel that does not depend on paid traffic or one-off launches.
- •Shipping a physical kit with a high perceived value supports a $200 price point and a gross margin that leaves room for affiliate payouts and marketing.
- •Selling a product for one-time purchase while running a cheap membership layer diversifies revenue and reduces dependence on any single offer.
- •Pivoting from workout content toward habit and mindset systems moves the business into a category with broader appeal and a longer shelf life.
- 1.Build and maintain your own email list first, then use it as the primary sales channel for each new offer.
- 2.Package your core teaching into a tangible, high-perceived-value product and price it around $200 with a clear margin after production and shipping.
- 3.Drive steady paid traffic to a low-cost front-end offer, such as a free book plus shipping, that feeds into the core product.
- 4.Use detailed product walkthroughs and specific social proof from varied customers on the sales page to overcome buyer objections.
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