AI All Stars JV Debrief
From the A Week In The Life Of Kate April 20, 2026 diary.
What actually happened when I co-promoted an AI course with a peer — the real funnel numbers, what the emails did, where the money landed, and the lesson I should've handled before we opened cart.
The Setup
In early April 2026, I partnered with Gemma Bonham Carter to promote herAI All Stars course. I served as a JV affiliate, hosting a co-webinar on April 14 and running a promotional email campaign to my list.
The core structure:
- Offer: AI All Stars — $1,999.20 pay in full or 6 × $399.20 payment plan with my 20% discount code KATE20
- Commission structure: 35% on all sales (confirmed commission rate)
- Promo window: April 8–20, 2026
- Add-on offer: No commission attached (confirmed with Gemma mid-promo)
- Webinar date: April 14, 2026
- Cart close: April 20, 2026
The Funnel
How registrants moved through to buyers:
| 537Webinar Registrants | 209Attended Live | **38.9%**Show-Up Rate | 30Buyers | **5.6%**Reg-to-Buyer Rate | **14.4%**Attend-to-Buyer Rate |
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Interpretation: A 38.9% show-up rate is above industry average for a free webinar (typically 10–30%).
A 14.4% attendee-to-buyer rate is strong — people who showed up were genuinely interested.
The 5.6% registrant-to-buyer rate tells you the quality of the lead was good; the drop-off was almost entirely people who didn't attend, not people who watched and said no.
Sales by Day
| Date | Buyers | PIF @ $1,999.20 | PP @ $399.20/mo | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 14 | 4 | 3 | 1 | Strong opener; webinar day |
| Apr 15 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Post-webinar email #1 sent to entire list |
| Apr 16 | 5 | 3 | 2 | Biggest single day |
| Apr 17 | 2 | 2 | — | Follow-up window |
| Apr 18 | 4 | 2 | 2 | Email #3 sent; cart still open |
| Apr 19 | 8 | 4 | 4 | Final push; cart closed |
| Apr 20 | 5 | 5 | — | Bonus window / cart close day |
| TOTAL | 31 | 20 PIF | 11 PP | 64.5% paid in full |
Booked vs. Banked
First-payment cash collected vs. total expected if all payment plans complete:
| Type | Buyers | Per-Buyer Value | Banked (1st Pmt) | Fully Booked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay in Full (PIF) | 20 | $1,999.20 | $39,984.00 | $39,984.00 |
| Payment Plan (PP) × 6 | 11 | $399.20 × 6 | $4,391.20 | $26,347.20 |
| TOTAL | 30 | — | $44,375.20* | $66,331.20 |
*Banked figure: All 20 PIF payments ($39,984.00 gross) × 35% = $13,994.40 Kate's share, plus 11 PP first payments ($4,391.20 gross) × 35% = $1,536.92
= total Banked $15,531.32
Total Kate’s commission banked: ~$7,684.60
Full commission earned assuming all payment plans complete = $23,215.92
Commission Tracking: The Lesson I Learned the Hard Way
| **⚠ Lesson 1: Nail the commission rate BEFORE cart opens — not after.**I didn’t confirm the commission rate with Gemma until sales were already flowing. That was a major miss on my part as I was just assuming 50% since that’s industry standard for offers like this. When you’re already in a live promo, your negotiating leverage is essentially zero — walking away or renegotiating mid-cart creates awkwardness and could damage the relationship. The time to establish your rate (and get it in writing) is before the partnership is announced, before the webinar is scheduled, and definitely before the first sale comes in.What I’d do differently: Treat commission negotiation like a contract term — confirm it in writing before any promotional activity begins. 35% on digital products is reasonable; 50% is also common and worth asking for upfront when you’re bringing a warm, engaged audience and doing all the leg work I did like a bonus package and sales emails every day of the launch. |
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| **⚠ Lesson 2: ThriveCart commission rates get locked per order — wrong rates recur.**Because the commission wasn’t set to 35% from the start, plus TC had some tracking issues, 9 of my 30 orders processed at incorrect rates (30%–33%). That created a $583.02 shortfall. I invoiced Gemma for the difference. However, the deeper issue: two payment plan customers had wrong commission rates baked into their recurring charges. ThriveCart auto-bills at the original rate — which means if Gemma doesn’t fix those subscriptions, I will continue to be underpaid ~$180 per billing cycle. I flagged this urgently and she’s on it! |
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| **The 50% scenario (what we would have earned at the rate I originally wanted):**At 50% commission, total earnings on the 31 sales would have been $31,374 vs. approximately $21,961 at 35%. That’s a $9,413 difference from one negotiation conversation. Worth having early.The add-on offer (a membership/bonus product Gemma was selling alongside AIAS) carried no affiliate commission — confirmed mid-promo. Not necessarily wrong, but worth knowing going in. |
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Our Email Promotion Strategy
Kartra Broadcasts to Full List (~10,600 subscribers)
I sent 6 emails to my main list promoting the webinar and then the offer. Here are the exact stats (click rate = clicks / total recipients, not clicks / opens — which I’d note makes the numbers look lower than they actually performed):
| Date Sent | Recipients | Open Rate | Click Rate* | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemma Claude Webinar #1 | Apr 8 | 10,592 | 42% | 2.7% |
| Gemma Claude Webinar #2 | Apr 9 | 10,612 | 42% | 1.4% |
| Gemma AI All Stars #1 | Apr 15 | 10,657 | 41% | 1.0% |
| Gemma AI All Stars #2 | Apr 16 | 10,707 | 39% | 0.5% |
| Gemma AI All Stars #3 | Apr 18 | 10,722 | 41% | 0.4% |
| Gemma AI All Stars Bonus | Apr 20 | 31 | 87% | 19.4% |
Notes:
- Open rates held strong at 39–42% across all 5 main broadcasts — well above industry averages and consistent with my list quality these days (I used to get 50%+ open rates but in the last 6 weeks, due to AI inboxes, open rates have dropped 10-15% across the board).
- The click rate decline across the sequence (2.7% → 0.4%) is normal and expected for a multi-email promotional sequence.
- The "Bonus" email sent to just 31 people were all the buyers who earned my bonus suite, so no surprise it had an 87% open rate and 19.4% click rate.
- I did send a few other emails about AI All Stars and the webinar, but they were P.S. or blurbs in other roundups so I don’t have those tracked here.
MailMeteor Outreach to Webinar Registrants
Separately from my main Kartra broadcasts, I ran a direct outreach campaign via MailMeteor specifically targeting webinar registrants — people who had already raised their hand for the webinar.
| MailMeteor Campaign Summary****Unique recipients: 518 registrantsTotal emails sent: 999 (includes follow-up messages to the same people)Individual-level attribution: Not yet pulled (would require raw MailMeteor export to cross-reference buyers vs. clickers vs. responders)Directional conclusion: The outreach clearly contributed — multiple same-day purchases, warm leads responding, and strong positive sentiment qualitatively. But I can’t yet put a hard number on the MailMeteor lift vs. the Kartra broadcast lift. |
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Mid-Promo Sentiment Report I Sent to Gemma
Midway through the open cart window, I shared this qualitative update with Gemma:
| *Overall sentiment is really positive. Multiple people purchased same-day or within 24 hours, and we’ve got several warm leads still considering it.*What people loved: The done-for-you skills/projects concept resonated hugely. Several people said they were inspired by how much you’re personally getting out of Claude and want that for themselves. You and I both got a lot of “you two feel genuine in a sea of people who don’t.”Main objection: Price. $2,000 feels like a big leap for people who are earlier-stage or coming off a rough financial stretch. The payment plan is helping, but a few still found even that steep — one person specifically asked if there’s a 10-month option or something like Affirm/Klarna. Interesting pattern: A handful said the pace felt fast/overwhelming, but they’re still excited and planning to come back. Not lost — just need more time.Overall: Really strong showing. The audience responded to authenticity. |
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What Worked
1. The audience fit was real.
AI tools for online business owners is squarely in my lane. My audience trusted my recommendation because it aligned with what they already know me to talk about.
Lesson: JV partners work best when the offer is something you’d personally use or recommend regardless of commission.
2. Authenticity was a competitive advantage.
The feedback that came back repeatedly — how authentic and likeable/trustworthy we both are — is not an accident. In a market drowning in AI hype, two real practitioners talking about real results stands out immediately. This is the brand moat.
3. Webinar conversions were strong.
A 14.4% conversion rate from live attendees is a genuinely good number. Warm leads who show up to a live event and hear a good pitch convert well. The show-up rate (38.9%) held, which means the registration promise matched the content promise.
4. Email consistency paid off.
Holding 39–42% open rates across a 6-email sequence is strong. My list didn’t tune out across the promo — they stayed engaged. That’s a signal about list quality and trust, not just subject lines.
4. My bonus suite was juicy.
We got a lot of comments from people that they wanted to join just to get my bonus suite, and I think we picked some really juicy stuff that made people excited to buy through my link. I'll definitely do that again for future JV partnerships.
What I’d Do Differently
- Confirm commission rate and get it in writing before any promotion begins — ideally before the webinar date is set. More leverage, cleaner execution.
- Ensure ThriveCart is configured with the correct commission rate on DAY ONE before the cart goes live. Don’t rely on fixing it mid-promo.
- Ask about commission on all offer components (including add-ons and upsells) at the negotiation stage, not after sales are in.
- Pull individual-level MailMeteor data after the promo to close the attribution loop — which of my registrant outreach emails led to purchases.
- For a $2k offer to a financially-stretched audience, consider offering or negotiating a longer payment plan option (10-month, for example) as part of the partner deal — it removes a real objection and increases conversion without discounting.
Key Takeaways for Future JVs
- Commission negotiation happens before cart opens. Full stop. The conversation you avoid before promo costs more than the awkwardness of having it early.
- A warm, engaged list outperforms a large list. My ~10,600 subscribers behaved like a much bigger list because the trust foundation was there.
- Audience-offer alignment is a multiplier. When your list already believes in what you’re selling, you don’t have to work as hard to convince — they’re pre-sold on the category.
- Webinars still convert when they’re genuine. The skepticism around webinars is about bad webinars, not the format. Real conversations with real results still work. And Gemma’s demo format is worth noting too!
- Booked ≠ banked. Know the difference going in. Payment plan revenue has risk attached — churn, failed payments, wrong commission rates. Model both scenarios before you celebrate.