The Day My $23 Funnel Made $920 While I Was Covered in Applesauce (And What It Taught Me About Selling with Stories)

It was 10:42 AM.

I had oatmeal in my hair. My toddler had applesauce everywhere but his mouth. My newborn had just fallen asleep in the wrap after 45 minutes of bouncing on a yoga ball that’s probably older than my marriage.

Then my phone buzzed. It was this weeks' Stripe notifications. Then my Paypal one. I blinked. Smiled. Forgot the applesauce for a second.

Those sales came from a tiny $23 digital product I had built during nap time. A funnel I set up once, then let it do its thing.

And the wild part?

It wasn’t the offer that sold it. It was the story. My dad, raised in Hawaii , always says, "let's talk story", and this is what the people want. :)

I had shared a quiet moment from my life in a DM system—messy, human, honest—and some fans out there read it and thought:

“This person gets me. I want what she's created.”

That’s when it clicked:

✨ People don’t want more content. They want connection.

✨ They don’t want a product. They want your transformation.

✨ They don’t want a pitch. They want a story they see themselves in.

Remember: we speak to one, but sell to many.

So here are 3 of the biggest lessons I’ve learned about selling with stories—and how you just experienced all 3 in this post 👇

1. Start with a moment, not a pitch.

Notice how this blog didn’t open with “Hi, I’m here to teach you about story-based sales strategies.”

Boring. Skimmable. Delete.

Instead, I dropped you into a specific moment in my life: Oatmeal. Yoga ball. Stripe ping.

You didn’t need context. You felt it.

That’s how you hook a reader emotionally before you ever ask them to care about your offer (or what you're teaching).

2. Make your reader the main character.

Even though I shared my story, every line was written with you in mind. If you’re reading this, chances are…

✅ You’ve juggled toddlers and inboxes

✅ You’ve dreamed of passive income but don’t know where to start

✅ You want to work less, but still make money from what you already know

Every piece of my story was chosen to reflect you back to yourself.

Because your audience doesn’t care about your six-figure month… They care about whether you can help them create time, income, or peace in their own life.

3. Sell the transformation, not the tool.

Let’s be honest—no one woke up craving a funnel. But waking up to sales while doing normal life stuff? Yes, please.

That’s why I didn’t explain every detail of my funnel setup. I showed you what it made possible.

Freedom. Flexibility. Focused motherhood. The feeling is what sells.

Let’s break the fourth wall for a sec:

You didn’t just read those 3 story-selling lessons. You experienced them. I built them right into this blog. And now? You can do the exact same thing. Your people don’t need perfect copy. They need your truth. Told with heart. Built into a system that sells while you loving (and living) your life.

Want to steal my story-selling templates? You can get The Playbook to help you sell passively with stories that feel like real life (with heart), not a sales pitch. Because if I can make $920 in apple sauce-stained leggings, so can you. 😉