Success Society

Stephanie Nicolich launched Success Society in August 2015, driven by a deeply personal need. While building her first business, she felt "a lot of resistance" and noticed "a lack of community amongst women in business." She describes it as the universe "speaking to me and telling me that I really needed to do something about this." Despite warnings from her long-term mentor Rick (a California-based corporate consultant), who questioned why she was "jumping ship," Stephanie trusted her instincts and went all-in, putting "all my eggs in one basket."

Stephanie's vision was different from typical online communities. She created what she calls "a business co-op"—a platform where women could join for free and access resources, tools, training, and education. Rather than being the sole expert, she assembled seven "sophisticated CEOs," each contributing content in their area of expertise: financial specialists, digital marketing strategists, and life coaches. "We're all very, very, very, very different," she explains, but that diversity became the platform's strength. The free membership model lowered barriers to entry while allowing her to build a large base of engaged users.

Stephanie's funnel strategy centered on email marketing and lead magnets. She created a free downloadable resource called "Seven Steps to a Seven Figure Brand" (available at styleyoursuccess.com/seven-figures), which became "one of our most significant downloads." In a single four-week period in July, 4,000 people opted in. She also used pop-ups and email opt-in forms throughout the platform to build her list, eventually growing it to between 6,000 and 10,000 engaged subscribers. This email-focused funnel became her primary acquisition channel.

Success Society operates on a freemium model with multiple revenue streams. The free membership tier (with over 500 fully profiled members and tens of thousands of monthly visitors) serves as a funnel into paid offerings. The $97/month e-course membership—where the seven CEOs each contribute an hour of exclusive content monthly—targets budget-conscious entrepreneurs just starting out. She even offers a $1 trial for the first month to lower friction. The real revenue driver is her eight-week intensive bootcamp at $1,997 per person, run quarterly. When asked if she was hitting more or less than 30 attendees per quarter, Stephanie revealed her current goal is 20 with plans to scale to 40 next quarter. At that level, each bootcamp cohort generates roughly $12,000–$23,000 in revenue. Critically, Stephanie maintains intimate group sizes intentionally: "even though it is a group program, they're getting a lot from me." She also practices disciplined list hygiene, regularly cleaning her email list to prioritize quality over vanity metrics. "Quality is so much more important than quantity," she emphasizes, noting her conversions on ads are "really high" because she studies data obsessively.

By the time of this interview (early 2016), Success Society had grown to tens of thousands of active members across a free community. Stephanie had built an eight-person team to support operations—critical for scaling beyond her personal capacity. She's clear about the operational side: "We have goals. We study what's going on in our business every day from all different perspectives. We have a team of people behind me. It's not just me doing this." Looking ahead to 2016, she projected bootcamp revenue would increase further. Despite her mentor's initial skepticism, Stephanie's instinct to build a community for women entrepreneurs proved right—she'd transformed her own pain point into a thriving platform.