Nicole Culver knows what it feels like to build a business the hard way.
Before she became a business coach and helped established experts scale to seven figures, Nicole ran a food business with her husband, Dan. They built an email list, ran Facebook ads, sold online, and worked with local retailers.
It was a lot of work for very little profit.
“We were making maybe $1 profit on a bag of granola, and that profit was going right back into the company,” Nicole says.
The food business taught Nicole how to market, sell, and build an audience. It also showed her what she didn’t want her next business to look like.
Today, Nicole and her team help established experts build scalable programs, grow their sales, and create businesses that support their lives. Since adopting ThriveCart in 2018, they’ve processed more than $4.3 million in revenue through the platform.
The secret isn’t a complicated sales funnel or a huge audience. It’s a simple sales system that lets Nicole, Dan, and their team create a branded, high-converting checkout in 60 minutes or less.
As Nicole puts it, “My favorite thing about ThriveCart is that it’s really easy to make sales and money.”
From teaching to building an online business
Nicole started her career as a teacher. She expected to stay in education for life, but after five years, she realized she wanted something different. That search led her into health coaching and eventually into baking. Nicole started a food business in 2011, while also learning how to market online.
She and Dan ran Facebook ads, built their email list, sold products online, and worked with businesses in their local community. At the time, selling online was much more difficult than it is today.
“You actually had to build a website and build checkout pages,” Nicole explains. “The way that I can build a funnel now in less than 60 minutes, that wasn’t the case back in 2011 or 2012.”
As Nicole and Dan became more successful at selling online, other business owners started asking for help. They wanted to know how the couple was running ads, building an audience, and making sales through the internet.
Those questions gradually turned into coaching and consulting work.
The shift became even more appealing when Nicole compared the economics of the two businesses. The food business involved physical products, low profit margins, retailers, and a lot of logistics. Coaching and consulting were more profitable and easier to scale.
While preparing for the birth of their third child, Nicole and Dan decided to close the food company and move into coaching full-time.
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Leaving the launch roller coaster behind
The business grew, but the sales model wasn’t always predictable.
In the early years, she relied heavily on launches. The team would prepare for a major sales period, invest in advertising, and expect to generate a large amount of revenue within a few days. The problem was what happened afterwards.
“I want to make sales and money every single day,” Nicole says. “I didn’t like that roller coaster, especially when you have a household where there’s no steady paycheck.”
The pressure reached a peak in 2020. Nicole and Dan were preparing for what they expected to be their first six-figure launch. At the same time, Dan’s father passed away, Nicole’s mother was going through cancer treatment, and their children were at home because schools had closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite everything happening personally, they continued with the launch. They spent $30,000 on Facebook ads to promote the offer… and made $30,000 in sales during the seven-day period.
“Breaking even was the turning point for us,” Nicole says. “We said, ‘You know what? We can’t do these launches anymore. We need to figure out what’s sustainable.’”
Nicole and Dan eventually reached their six-figure goal, but it took months instead of a week. The experience forced them to rethink the way they sold. They began moving toward an evergreen model, with sales happening regularly, instead of depending on occasional launch events.
→ THE POWER OF PREDICTABLE REVENUE | ‘From Passion Project to 7 Figures in a Year: How Chris Huntley Built a Recurring Revenue Empire With ThriveCart‘
A simple, evergreen system for consistent sales
Nicole’s new approach to customer discovery starts with content and a free resource.
Someone might discover her through Instagram or an ad, then download a free resource, such as her guide to the types of posts that help sell an offer. After signing up, they’re introduced to a low-cost offer with examples and prompts they can use in their own business.
From there, customers can move into a VIP day or Nicole’s six-month mentorship program.
The system gives people different ways to work with Nicole, depending on their goals, budget, and level of trust. Some customers are ready to invest in a higher-priced program immediately. Others want to start with a smaller offer and understand Nicole’s teaching style first.
Nicole believes that each price point has an important role.
“I’ve paid multiple thousands of dollars to work with someone for a VIP day,” she says. “And I’ve also bought a $22 offer just to see, ‘Do I actually like how you teach?’”
That’s why the team uses a mix of low-, mid-, high-, and recurring-revenue offers. Customers can begin with a small purchase, build trust, and then choose a deeper level of support when they’re ready.
ThriveCart helps connect those offers without making the customer journey feel complicated.
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Creating a high-converting checkout in under 60 minutes
For Nicole, one of the biggest benefits of using ThriveCart is speed.
Her team doesn’t need to start from scratch each time they want to sell something new. They’ve created templates for their offers, so launching a new product usually means duplicating an existing page, updating the copy, and adding the new details.
Recently, Nicole wanted to create a new offer called “30 Posts for Weekly High-Ticket Sales.” She needed to get it ready quickly so she could share it through Instagram.
“We just did it in 30 minutes because we duplicated a ThriveCart checkout page,” she says. “We have the template, we just drop the copy in, and it’s 30 minutes or less. It’s super fast for us to do.”
That speed makes it easier for Nicole and her team to act on good ideas instead of leaving them sitting in a notebook or on a list of future projects.
It also means they can test offers without committing to a long, complicated build process. When an idea comes up, they can create a checkout and start selling while the idea is still fresh.
The result is a business that moves quickly without making every new offer feel like a major technical project.
→ ANOTHER SUCCESS STORY | ‘6 Years, Many Offers, 1 Backbone: How Melissa Guller Built a More Stable Online Business With ThriveCart‘
Using order bumps and upsells to make every sale go further
Nicole uses order bumps and upsells across her low-ticket offers.
The strategy is simple. When someone is already making a purchase, they can choose to add another relevant offer that helps them get a better result. This gives customers more value while increasing the revenue generated from each transaction.
“We do order bumps and upsells on all of our low-ticket offers,” Nicole says. “Anything around $1,000 and under, we do.”
The team doesn’t use the same approach for every offer. Their signature six-month program, Elevated, is a higher-ticket offer and doesn’t have the same checkout structure. Instead, customers can move into the program through a longer relationship that includes lower-priced products, content, and other experiences.
For the team’s smaller offers, though, bumps and upsells are a standard part of the buying journey.
“They’ve definitely increased our average order value,” Nicole says. “The bumps typically convert at around 10% and upsells at 2%.”
Because these offers are built directly into the checkout experience, the customer doesn’t need to search through the website or wait for another sales email. The next useful offer appears at the right point in the journey.
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Making it easier for a small team to sell
Nicole and Dan now work as part of a core leadership team of four.
Dan focuses on sales, funnel building, and marketing. Jess leads client success and makes sure customers receive the support they need. Nicole is the visionary, while Katie, the COO, is the integrator who turns those ideas into working systems, alongside managing technology and the wider teams.
That structure allows the team to grow without requiring Nicole to personally manage every technical detail. ThriveCart is part of that process because it gives the team a repeatable way to create checkouts, connect offers, and manage sales.
The platform also supports the team’s evergreen approach. Their ads can continue bringing people into the business, while their email list provides a reliable source of sales and customer relationships.
Nicole’s email list has around 11,000 people. It isn’t enormous, but it’s engaged and valuable because it’s an audience the team owns.
“Our email list is our home base,” Nicole says. “The first thing I do every single day is send an email to our list. I don’t do anything else until I do that. That’s our main sales generator.”
Social media is still part of the strategy, but it isn’t the foundation. “Social media is like icing on the cake,” she says. “We run our ads, we have our email list, and anything that comes in from Instagram or Threads is just extra.”
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Building a business that supports real life
For Nicole, revenue is important, but it isn’t the only measure of success.
She has three children aged 9 to 14, and one of the main reasons she built an evergreen business was to create more flexibility for her family.
She describes success as being able to work while her children are at home, take a walk with one of them during the day, or go to a coffee shop together without needing to arrange childcare.
“That is success to me,” Nicole says. “I don’t need to get a babysitter. I don’t need to ask for any help. I can just live my life.”
That freedom also shapes the way she works with clients. Nicole and her team aren’t focused only on quick sales or short-term results. They want to work with customers for years.
“We want to be with people for many, many years because that’s where you can make the most changes,” Nicole explains. “I want to get deep with people. I want to be with you for three to five years so we can help you build a company.”
A simple checkout might seem like a small part of that bigger picture. But when a team can create and launch offers quickly, sell them consistently, and move customers toward the right next step, it creates more time and capacity for the work that matters most.
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Nicole’s advice for entrepreneurs and coaches
Nicole has built her business by testing ideas, learning from mistakes, and making decisions quickly. Her advice to other entrepreneurs is to stop waiting for everything to be perfect.
“Move faster,” she says. “So many people are moving so slowly because they either choose to or they have so much mind drama going on.”
She also wants business owners to remember that most people aren’t watching as closely as they think.
“No one is watching you as closely as you think they are,” Nicole says. “The faster you can move, the faster you get the results or the lesson that you need.”
That doesn’t mean every idea will work. Nicole’s own break-even launch became one of the most valuable experiences in her business because it showed her that the launch model wasn’t sustainable.
Her approach is to make the best decision she can, take action, and adjust based on what happens next.
“Rarely is there anything in your business that can break your business,” she says. “One decision in your business is not going to determine the success of your business. I fully believe that I can always figure it out, and that allows me to move a lot faster.”
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Making sales simple
Nicole Culver’s story is a reminder that a large audience and complicated technology aren’t requirements for building a successful online business.
Her team has built a seven-figure business by focusing on useful content, consistent email marketing, evergreen sales, and long-term customer relationships. ThriveCart gives them a simple, reliable way to turn those ideas into working checkouts and offers.
Whether they’re launching a new low-ticket product or creating a funnel for an existing offer, they can get a checkout live in 60 minutes or less. With templates, order bumps, upsells, and a clear customer journey, the team can keep selling without recreating the same systems from scratch.
For Nicole, that simplicity is what makes the biggest difference. And after more than $4.3 million in revenue processed through ThriveCart, the results speak for themselves.
