I helped Katalin, a fantastic Hungarian art therapist to increase her revenue +80% while reducing CAC to basically 0.

This project is especially close to my heart: Kati and I have been working together for years. Sometimes it's an adventurous journey, sometimes it feels like we're jumping with a parachute, but there was also a time when we quietly waited for the ship to sink, then swam to shore side by side.

Right now we were working on patching the gaps in her lead generation and monetization.

Turning a helping profession like therapy into money is delicate territory. I've never had a problem with it, but then again I'm not the one sitting across from people who reveal their deepest wounds, traumas, and often hopeless financial situations to me. Asking for money in such an intimate setting can feel almost like it triggers guilt.

Reality, though, is unforgiving: if you don't charge a fair amount from those who can afford it, you won't have anything left to give for free to those who need it most. That's the rule of the game. If you go broke, you won't be able to help anyone.

So we picked a completely new strategy.

Kati developed a therapy series that filled a real gap: aimed at women over 30 who are either about to start a family or are already raising children, and who feel something is off in their relationship with their mother. People-pleasing, generational baggage, and the burning desire to stop passing that pattern on to their own kids.

The paid group was strictly limited: we planned just two groups of 8, over 3 sessions, with deep commitment.

Instead of starting to advertise this premium program directly, though, we built a free lead magnet. An experience after which participants would ask themselves on their own: "If this gave so much for free, what must the paid program be like?"

We put together an online, "lite mode" fairy-tale therapy evening: a shared story reading, relaxation, and a simple drawing exercise. Kati had had bad experiences with online events before — complicated software and missing technical support meant constant stress. This time, though, she had solid ground under her feet: we built a dead-simple interface where participants could upload their drawings with a short description, in one click, completely anonymously. Kati picked a few live and analyzed them in front of the group, without revealing who drew them.

The paid, small-group series was only mentioned gently, as a natural continuation of the program.

But how do you fill an event like this with no ad budget? In three steps:

The Facebook event hack: Even though the event was online, we created a separate Facebook event for every major Hungarian city. Since the algorithm loves local activity, it pushed it into locals' feeds as an organic ad — zero forints spent, multiplied reach.

Reactivating existing relationships: We gathered the list of previous participants and sent them a personal message: prices would be going up soon, but they could still join the premium group at the old price. We also invited them to the free evening and asked them to bring a friend.

Themed content production: We launched a targeted post series on Kati's page. Every third to fifth post was directly about the event's topic, with the registration link discreetly dropped into the comments.

Everyone who registered was greeted by a 3-part automated email sequence: the first clarified the framework and expectations; the second addressed the most common fears and objections (saving Kati from having to chat with everyone individually); the third confidently prepared them for the final decision.

After registering, we routed them to a dedicated conversion page where every question got an instant answer, and ticket purchases and invoicing happened fully automatically — replacing the old chaos of manual bank transfers and cash.

The results? Two days after the lead magnet launched, we already had 108 participants and 31 people on the waitlist. Two more days later, the list hit 579 subscribers. By day five, we crossed 800.

Spots in the premium, in-person small-group series sold out within minutes.

Kati hasn't struggled with low turnout since: when she launches a new program, she just sends a single newsletter to this list.