🚀 From Apple engineer to creative coach: How Emily Kim generated 1,200+ leads in 24 hours

Emily Kim success story cover for systeme.io, showing her transition from an Apple software engineer to the founder of a profitable creative business

💼 Meet Emily Kim

Emily’s background is unique. She went to school for software engineering and worked at Apple, giving her a deep understanding of tech requirements. When she pivoted to brand photography, she spent three and a half years building her portfolio

But soon, other photographers started asking her for mentorship. They wanted to know how she ran her business so efficiently. Emily, a natural teacher, realized she could help them. She decided to launch an online education business, but she needed a platform that met her high standards: it had to have everything she needed, but it also had to be simple

After hours of research, she landed on systeme.io

😫 The challenge: "Iteration Over Perfection"

Emily operates on a powerful motto:

❝Iteration over perfection because you don’t get better until you do something. Go out, publish something, and you’ll eventually come to what it’s supposed to be❞

— Emily Kim, Founder of the Profitable Creatives Club

Many creatives get stuck in "analysis paralysis," trying to build the perfect website or choose the perfect business name before they ever make a sale. Emily saw her peers wasting months on administrative tasks instead of "doing the thing"

She needed a way to launch fast without getting bogged down by complex tech stacks. She wanted to host a virtual summit, launch a course, and build a membership all at the same time, a logistical nightmare if she had to stitch together five different software tools

💡 Finding the all-in-one solution

Emily’s engineering background made her picky, but systeme.io checked every box

"I started out with the free plan just to test it out, and I was like, 'Oh yeah, this is great,'" she says

She moved fast. Within a couple of weeks, she had her sales pages, email sequences, and automations set up. Unlike other platforms that require a steep learning curve, systeme.io allowed her to execute her ideas immediately

"It’s so easy to use. Everything is in one place. I love being able to see where my members signed up from and reverse engineer my success"

🗺️ Their blueprint: The Summit & Membership Model

Emily’s strategy is a masterclass in community building and simple automation

1. The virtual summit strategy
To kickstart her community, Emily hosted a virtual summit entirely on systeme.io

The setup: She used a dedicated funnel for registrations
The affiliate army: Speakers were given systeme.io affiliate links to track their referrals easily
The "24-hour" timer: She used the built-in countdown timer to make speaker sessions free for 24 hours, then automatically redirect to a paid "all-access pass" upgrade page
The result: She added 1,200 new leads to her email list in one go

A 4-step virtual summit strategy blueprint by Emily Kim on systeme.io, showing the flow from funnel setup and affiliate army to the 24-hour timer and email list growth

2. The profitable creatives club
Emily’s membership is the core of her business

Evergreen enrollment: Members can join anytime via a simple sales funnel
Retention: Her average member stays for 14 months, thanks to monthly "Implementation Challenges" hosted inside the course portal
Bonus content: Because all her products are in systeme.io, she can grant members access to bonus courses with just "three clicks"

Emily Kim's membership growth blueprint on systeme.io, illustrating the cycle of evergreen enrollment, member retention, and bonus content delivery

🚀 The results: Simplicity at Scale

By using systeme.io, Emily has built a robust ecosystem that includes a podcast, a YouTube channel, courses, and a thriving membership

Fast list growth: Her summit strategy brought in 1,200 warm leads who were ready to buy her course
High retention: By using systeme.io to host challenges (like "email list glow-up"), she keeps members engaged for over a year
Brand flexibility: She is currently transitioning from a personal brand to "Profitable Creatives," using systeme.io’s easy domain switching to migrate her funnels without a tech headache
Streamlined operations: She runs her entire empire without a complex website, relying solely on high-converting funnels

✨ Want to build your own success story?

Emily’s advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is to stop waiting for the perfect moment

"You only have to take the first step. All you have to do is have one person say yes. And then surprise, you have a business! Then you just do it again"

Whether you are a photographer, a designer, or a coach, you don't need a perfect website to start. You need a system that lets you iterate and grow

Get your free account with systeme.io NOW!