Building Wings on the Way Down: an All-Access Pass Success Story

Katy Widrick poses in a blue dress and cowboy boots in the doorway of a brightly-lit glass room with plants.

For many entrepreneurs, the first step towards working for yourself full-time comes from necessity — more than just a light shove from the universe. And often — as in Katy’s case — the end results are more than worth the initial uncertainty and challenge.

Katy Widrick serves high-growth founders as a funnel fixer, recovering the biggest expenses in their businesses — lost sales — by using simple, effective systems to increase conversions and decrease top-of-funnel costs.

An EMMY-nominated journalist and multimedia producer, Katy has worked in marketing and revenue expansion for more than 20 years, strategizing and implementing profit-first funnels that help visionary leaders maximize their impact, grow their top-line revenue, and scale their product and service lines to seven, eight, and nine figures.

Katy joined SPI’s All-Access Pass in March of 2023, and it was a turning point in her career.

“Pushed Off a Cliff”

Here’s how Katy describes her entrepreneurial leap:

“In November 2021, I suddenly and unexpectedly ended my corporate career. I’d been working at an extremely fast-growing company for three years, as a member of the executive team. While it was an experience that taught me so much about growth marketing, profitability, external and internal marketing, leadership, and more, it also left me severely burned out and, if I’m honest, fairly uncertain about my next steps.

I took a sabbatical from the job and only a few weeks into the break, was notified that my position was being eliminated… so now instead of taking a leap, it felt as though I was being pushed off a cliff.”

It turns out, though, that the push was exactly what Katy needed to “build wings on the way down,” as she put it.

Between November 2021 and March 2023, Katy re-entered the workforce but this time as her own boss. She had previously founded a company called Make Media Over, where she offered online business management, email marketing, and sales funnel designs.

When Katy closed Make Media Over to pursue her corporate career, she thought it would be for good.

“I never imagined that I would go back to entrepreneurship. I truly dismantled the business — I shuttered the website, let all of my software subscriptions lapse, notified all of my clients that I was unavailable, and went all-in on the traditional corporate experience,” Katy tells SPI.

But when her corporate career didn’t pan out, Katy turned to the one asset she’d held onto for all those years: her LLC. It was still active, and Katy decided to go back to self-employment with some big, bold goals.

A Bold Pivot: Enter the All-Acess Pass

After 14 months, Katy made another bold choice. To empower herself with even more education and skill-building — and to take her business to the next level — she decided to invest in SPI’s All-Access Pass.

“I initially joined so that I could take advantage of the Podcasting Pathway. I’d started my own podcast during those 14 months, and it was fun… but I knew it wasn’t quite what I wanted to bring to my audience. There’s nobody I trust more as a teacher than Pat Flynn, and for that pathway alone, I knew the investment would be worth it.”

Katy had been podcasting and blogging under the brand “Rising Tide Talents,” a nod to her mantra that a rising tide lifts all boats. Her podcast episodes were solo-hosted and focused on marketing funnels and leadership.

A good start, but it wasn’t nearly the show she knew it could be. All-Access Pass gave her the clarity and the confidence to pivot her podcast and take advantage of all of the other materials in AAP.

Katy Widrick Hard Costs podcast cover art. — Katy Widrick's Hard Costs podcast cover art.

“I decided to significantly shift everything — from the format of the show to the platform I hosted it on. Once I mapped it out using All-Access Pass’ guides, I immediately felt a sense of alignment and purpose. The first time I interviewed a founder on Hard Costs, I felt magic in the air. Since then, it’s been one improvement after another: I optimized the podcast for advertising, used the email marketing course to amplify my listenership, and much more.”

Part Mastermind, Part MBA, Part Accountability Group

Katy has been very successful at helping visionaries through their own blind spots, even as she continues to lean on the support of the All-Access Pass for help with her own.

“What’s that saying? A cobbler’s kid has no shoes? That’s absolutely been my experience: what I’m very good at doing for others, I’m quite terrible at doing for myself! Joining All-Acess Pass and being part of the community has been part mastermind, part MBA, and part accountability group — and I’m so thankful for my membership.”