Getting paid to stay overnight at casinos, eat at fancy restaurants, and tour apartments sounds too good to be true. That’s why many ads that highlight the perks of mystery shopping gigs can feel scammy.
But becoming a mystery shopper is a perfectly legitimate side hustle. Worldwide, it’s actually a billion-dollar industry!
That’s why I’m so excited about today’s Monday Members episode featuring the incredible Mercedes Eckert.
This woman is fun. This woman is savvy. This woman can teach us a lot about starting small and scaling a side hustle into a thriving business.
Her first mystery shop was a ten-minute stop at a gas station back in 2013. Now, she’s trained over 25,000 mystery shoppers and hosts a two-day conference in Vegas, complete with a snazzy gala and a Shopper of the Year award!
If you’re not sure how this works, listen in! Mercedes breaks it all down, from trying out a few easy shops to earning a solid monthly income.
We also dive into her business and community, her powerful webinar funnel, the pros and cons of running Meta ads, overcoming the fear of charging your worth, and a whole heck of a lot more.
Enjoy!
Today’s Guest
Mercedes Eckert
Mercedes Eckert is the founder and CEO of iShop, a seven-figure mystery shopping education company that has helped more than 25,000 people learn how to earn extra income through legitimate mystery shopping.
With over a decade of experience and thousands of mystery shops completed across the country, Mercedes has been paid to eat at restaurants, stay in hotels, test-drive cars, tour apartments, and even mystery shop while vacationing in Hawaii!
She’s passionate about showing everyday people that earning extra money doesn’t always mean getting a second job. Through iShop, Mercedes is on a mission to make mystery shopping accessible, helping people discover legitimate opportunities, avoid scams, and turn everyday experiences into income.
- Find out more at ishopagp.com
You’ll Learn
- First steps into mystery shopping and how to build a side hustle
- The fun perks of mystery shopping gigs
- What you can expect to earn as a beginner mystery shopper
- Finding legitimate resources about mystery shopping
- Running the same webinar funnel for twelve years straight
- Bringing people together and building a community
- Overcoming the fear of charging your worth
Resources
- Subscribe to Superfans Secrets—our weekly newsletter on the strategies behind building real relationships with your audience, delivered free, straight to your inbox
- Connect with me on Instagram
MM 006: The Mystery Side Hustle That Pays You to Shop with Mercedes Eckert
Liz Wilcox: Well, hello there. We meet again. Liz Wilcox here, Smart Passive Income Podcast. You know the drill. I am super thrilled for another Member Monday, where we feature members of the SPI community at large, people that are doing awesome, inspiring, and relatable things. I hope these episodes are really helping you understand what it takes to get things moving and grooving, and how you can apply what these people are doing to your own business.
But I told you last week that I wanted to share some fun facts about me as, you know, I’m a member of SPI community. I’m a new member, really. I’ve only been around six, seven months now. Six, seven. Anybody have kids? I know that’s corny anymore. I don’t know why I said that, but Paul, leave it in. We’re not gonna edit it out.
This is the process of podcasting. Sometimes we say cringe, stupid things, and get off topic in the first 58 seconds of the podcast. Anyway, fun fact about Liz Wilcox, ’cause I realize you don’t really know me that well. I actually started my business in my RV. So in my travel trailer, my fifth wheel, my camper, my, uh, caravan, depending on where you are at, all those words mean the same thing. Isn’t English fun?
I started it, and I didn’t even have internet on my business. So what you gotta know about me, and when you, when you join our SPI Community and you read my emails, and you’ll notice I’m a bit of a minimalist. Like, if you’re watching on YouTube, you will see that, like, my background doesn’t scream minimalist.
This is, like, the most busy… You know, I’ve got a calendar. I’ve got, like, a Black history poster, Will Smith in sync, got a lot of things in my background. But don’t let that fool you. I’m actually a minimalist, and so when I started my business, I didn’t even have internet on my phone because I wanted to live a really simple life, and I actually despised being on the internet.
Social media, all of that. I had deleted my Facebook account or deactivated it. I don’t think you can actually delete it. Deactivated it, deleted Snapchat, all of that, and I didn’t even have internet on my phone. But I saw this person on TV, and they were buying a brand-new RV, but they were like 25 years old, and I thought, “How the heck can that guy afford that RV? What is he doing?” And I Googled his name, ’cause he was on TV, and they put his first and last name. A guy named Heath Padgett, who, ironically enough, was the first person to introduce me to Pat Flynn. He had a blog. He had an RV travel blog, and I was like, “Oh, my gosh, that guy is making that much money off a blog?
I have got to start a blog.” And so I started my business, didn’t have internet on my phone. I went to… I call them the three Ls. I went to libraries for Wi-Fi, Lowe’s parking lots. If you, if you don’t know where Lowe’s is, Lowe’s is like a home improvement store, okay? They have excellent Wi-Fi if you ever need it, and it, it goes out to the parking lot.
You would not believe it, but I’m telling you it’s true. So libraries, Lowe’s parking lots, and laundromats that had Wi-Fi, and that’s how I would write my blog posts and get started. So that’s a fun little fact about me. Now I wanna talk about our guest. Her name is Mercedes Eckert, and whoa. Whoa, I am absolutely blown away by how this woman has moved me into action just by telling me her story.
Like, I am ready to go. She teaches people how to be mystery shoppers, and the incredible part is she started at zero, like getting her first mystery shop job and learning for herself how to get more and more and then becoming the teacher. This woman has gone from zero to 100 real quick in her business, and she’s built a funnel that has worked for the last 12 years. And now she even has a large community of 25,000 mystery shoppers where she hosts a two-day convention in Vegas for them and crowns a Shopper of the Year award.
This woman is fun. This woman is savvy. This woman can teach you a lot about if you’re trying to make quick side hustle money right now, maybe you wanna be a mystery shopper, or how to build your business with something that lasts. So we talk about both, and I’m just super, super jazzed. Yeah, let’s just get into it.
So Mercedes, we met, of all places, on what I would lovingly refer to as a dead Facebook page. So as I, I took over SPI and I, I didn’t get Pat Flynn’s, like, YouTube channel or Pat Flynn’s Instagram, right? That’s, like, @patflynn. But for some reason he decided, “Oh, well, I’ll give you my Facebook page.” And at first I was like, “Oh my gosh, 180,000 followers. This is amazing. This is incredible. I’m gonna be rich.” And then I promptly realized as I started posting it was maybe a ghost town, maybe not dead. It was a ghost town. It hadn’t been posted or really, like, strategized in a while. But we start… You know, we’re trying, right? We’re trying to revive it. We wanna help people.
We’re excited. And from my perspective, I get this little comment. I can’t remember what you said, but you w- commented on the post and I was so flipping excited. I was like, “Oh my gosh, there’s s- signs of life. Signs of life over here.” Y’all, I’m nothing if not transparent. I’m just gonna keep it real, and I hope that resonates.
But I click, ’cause I was like, “Who is this person?” And so I click on Mercedes. I probably didn’t even read the comment, I was just excited that’s why I don’t remember what she said. But I click, and I’m like, “Oh my gosh, this is something… not something I’ve never heard of, but I’ve never really seen advertised on the internet in a reputable way.”
And I was like, “Oh my goodness, I need to be best friends with this person. I need to know everything about them.” Immediately signed up for the webinar, watched, DM’d, was like, “Can you please come on the podcast? This is it for our people.” So that’s my story with Mercedes. I’d love for you to introduce yourself.
Tell us what is the thing I’m talking about, and how the heck did you get into it?
Mercedes: My gosh. Well, hello. Thanks for having me. Listen, could I just say, that random comment I made, I was just scrolling. I didn’t even realize I was like… Like, that page was new. ‘Cause funny enough, I inherited that page. That’s a long story. So we, we’re in that same type of just trying to, like, get the pages back up and, and running, right?
So I’m glad you saw my comment. I’m glad I commented. Listen, my name is Mercedes. I am the owner and founder of a mystery shopping organization. So lot of people have heard of it. Like you said, you’ve heard of it, but you just didn’t… You never seen it, like, advertised in a reputable way. Me either. Me either.
But I, uh, I started mystery shopping in 2013, so literally it’s been… It’ll be 14 years in January. I found out a- about it, like, I was on a double date with my, my husband, who was then my boyfriend, and we were on a double date, and the girl looks over at me and she’s like, “Hey, would you be interested in, in mystery shopping some gas stations?”
And I’m like, “That’s real?” I’m like, “I thought that was, like, fake.” She’s like, “No, no, it’s real.” And so that is literally how I got my start.
Liz Wilcox: Okay, you know what’s so funny is when it comes to mystery shopping, how I heard about it was through gas stations. I used to work, y’all, my last job, I’m a new host so y’all are still getting to know me. My last job that I ever had, I was early 20s, and I worked at a gas station called The Dodge Store, and we slung some fried chicken up in there.
Mercedes sounds like she’s from the South, so she knows what I’m talking about. And we, we sold fried chicken, we cashed your checks, we sent your Western Unions, and we sold you a lot of Coca-Cola products and a lot of gas. And we used to have these mystery shoppers that would come in to make sure that we were doing our due diligence, and especially make sure we were checking IDs.
And when I tell you I made so much money off those mystery shoppers, because y’all, I love a process. I’m nothing if not a rule follower. Don’t let the rainbow glasses fool you. I love a system, I love a process. And yeah, we would get, like, $75 if we passed the mystery shoppers exams, so to speak. And so that is so, so funny.
I love this. So you heard about it, and, and then what happened? Like, how did you really get into it?
Mercedes: Yeah. So it’s funny that you say gas stations, ’cause literally that was the first shop I did. The, the whole point of it was to see if the cashier was gonna ask to see my ID. I was 23 years old, and okay, mind you, I, I don’t smoke, I, I, I don’t drink. So I’m like… They’re like, “Hey, go into this gas station and try to buy tobacco.”
Well, I’m like, “Oh my gosh, what kind of tobacco do I buy?” Like, I didn’t know nothing. I’m like Googling, like, what do I ask for? So I, I, I end up figuring it out, like I asked for like a pack of Pall Malls or something. And so that was literally why I was getting paid, was to make sure that they were doing their job.
So that’s so funny that you were on the other end of that. So this makes this like, it comes full circle. So listen, I did that first mystery shop, and then my brain, I, I’m just like, holy crap, like that took me 10 minutes and I made, made money. I got free gas and free tobacco. How do I do more of these? And so I, I ended up asking the girl who initially got me started like, “Hey, how do I do more?”
And, and literally her answer was like, “I don’t know.” And I’m like, “What? There has to be more.” It was one of those things that I had to do a deep dive and, and figured out this industry, because like you said, you really don’t see advertisements unless it’s some type of like scam, and it’s all weird and, you know, you just click out of it because you don’t want your computer to have a virus, you know?
Liz Wilcox: Shout out Craigslist. Shout out Craigslist.
Mercedes: Yes, Craigslist, yes. So I did my research and found out that this was like a billion-dollar industry, and that there are mystery shops all over the freaking globe, okay? Not just the US, not just Canada. I mean, you can go across the pond and there are mystery shops, and it, it just, my world blew up in a good way.
I was like, “This is crazy.” And so I started doing mystery shops at apartments and restaurants and hotels and casinos. It just became like this thing to where I was addicted, and not only was it fun, but obviously I was making money. I actually went on to, like, make just as much money, if not more, than I was at my day job and my husband’s job.
And so it was like we literally had three incomes coming in, and we were getting, like, free food. We’d take the kids out and it’s a free family meal. We were going to fancy restaurants. We were getting paid to gamble at casinos. I mean, it’s pretty crazy, but it is the best side hustle that I personally have ever tried.
Liz Wilcox: Okay. Getting paid to gamble. I mean, have you ever? That’s, that’s crazy. That’s so awesome. I hear a billion-dollar industry, global opportunity. A lot of our listeners, you know, are just looking for a little bit of extra cash while they figure out what the heck it is they are gonna do, what is their passion, what is their niche, their industry, whatever.
But this sounds like an amazing opportunity, an amazing little side hustle for somebody who already has a job or is… I’m thinking, y- I mean, y’all, I just bought SPI. I have about 10 jobs right now. But I’m like, “Well, I could go to a restaurant. I could take my kids to the Dodge store.” I literally live, like, a block from the Dodge store, my last job.
I’ve traveled all around. I came right back to the neighborhood. Um, so I- a billion-dollar industry. You mentioned apartments. How do you mystery shop an apartment? ‘Cause now I’m just curious.
Mercedes: Yeah. I actually just got back from mystery shopping an apartment community, so this is great. I went in and I said, “Hey, I need to move. I’m looking for, you know, a two bedroom. Do y’all have anything coming available in two weeks?” And so at that point, I let them do their job. So I’m evaluating, are they friendly? Are they greeting me? Do they ask to take me on a tour? How do they treat me, and what is my customer experience like? And so I literally went. She gave me a tour of the apartment, gave me a brochure, sent me home with some refreshments, and that was it. So now I just have to report back on how my experience went, and that will pay me 140 bucks, and it took me, like, 20 minutes. Yeah, it was about 18 minutes away from my house, and then I was inside, like, 15 minutes. So if you count drive time, we’re looking at about an hour or so.
Liz Wilcox: Okay. Well, that’s a great rate. I live in Florida, y’all, and we just raised the rate minimum wage to $15 an hour. So 140 is actually incredible. I love this so, so much. Are there more? Well, let me ask you this. If I’m getting started, and we’re kinda gonna go into your business too, but let’s, I’m just hyper-fixated on this mystery shopping right now.
So if I’m just getting started, are there certain industries or, like apartments versus casinos versus grocery stores, et cetera, that are easier to get started for somebody brand new?
Mercedes: Yeah, so that’s a good question. So I tell, like, people that are brand new, like, you’re gonna go for the shops that are, like you said, like a gas station’s a really good one to start with, or a fast food place is really good to start with, maybe like a grocery store shop. When it gets a little bit more intricate and, and complex is when you start getting into fancier places.
So, like, my first… I would say maybe my first really the, the shop that kind of intimidated me a little bit back then was, like, this fine dining restaurant where you don’t walk out of the door without spending several hundred dollars. And at the time, that was not, like, we did not do that, right? We had never been, or I had never been to a restaurant that nice.
I was a little intimidated. It was a little bit more work, ’cause you, they wanted you to have, like, five courses and, I mean, there was a lot that you had to observe. But the more you do those, the easier they become. But I don’t recommend, like, new shoppers starting with something super fancy, like a casino.
Honey, like, those are very involved. My husband does them with me, so we, we’re a team, but they’re so fun. But it’s a lot of work involved, but you do get paid for it, and you’re getting, like… Usually we’ll do a two-night stay. The last one we did, we stayed two nights, three days. We were able to go to the spa and get facials.
We gambled. We played poker. We played blackjack. We did the slots. We won money. We got to keep it, and even if we hadn’t, if we had lost money, they would’ve given it back to us, ’cause we were on the job.
Liz Wilcox: Oh, I’m just gonna pause right there. Do y’all hear what she’s saying? We need to get in those starter shops so we can make it to the casino one day. Keep the winnings. Wow. That’s really amazing, and I, you know, I think of it from the business owner perspective. I’m thinking like, “How can I hire a mystery shopper?”
I would love that as the business owner to be able to really see what I can see. So I’m assuming the client that’s hiring you is giving you a sort of rubric, right? I need you to check on this and score it this way. Is that, like, pretty… Would you say, like, the rubric or the grading system is pretty standard, or is it, like, super specialized for each one?
Like, is there a learning curve each time you have to go out?
Mercedes: So the thing about my company is we actually, we do the recruiting for the companies. So that isn’t a part of what we do, but I can say we partner with the mystery shopping companies that, that provide the jobs. And so some of… Like, everything is customized, but also a lot of things are standard, too. So it’s, it’s a little bit of both.
And, like, I can go do an apartment, like the apartment shop I did today, very similar to another apartment shop I’ve done in the past. So a lot of it is standard. So across the board, if you’re doing a type of shops, you’ll see the same type of questions and various aspects that you’re going to be asked to look at for that type of shop, ’cause a lot of times they’re looking for the same thing, whether it’s, you know, at McDonald’s or Burger King.
Liz Wilcox: Gotcha. So you mentioned this is sort of like the third income of the family. So if I’m, and I think there’s a lot of us out there today that are looking for that supplemental income, if I wanted to work, well, I guess how many hours would I have to work or how many jobs would I have to do to, let’s say, like make about $1,000 a month?
Mercedes: Oh, yeah. Okay, cool. N- s- here’s the thing about mystery shopping. Y- it’s not paid per hour, so you’re paid per shop you do.
Liz Wilcox: Okay, so per how many shops?
Mercedes: Yeah, it varies. So a thou- $1,000, I mean, if you did 10 shops that were $100 apiece, there’s $1,000. If you did 20 shops that were $50 apiece, there’s 1,000. So it really just varies on how much the shop pays.
But I will tell you, when you… The first question you asked about hourly, honestly, making $1,000 a month, a lot of our shoppers are doing that. And so they’re literally maybe going out and shopping two days a week, and most people do this on top of their full-time jobs, just like I did when I first started out.
So it’s not like you’re getting off of work and going, doing a side hustle for eight hours. You might get off of work and do what I just did. Go do two apartments, and then the next day do another two, and it adds up very quickly. So it really varies by the shop and your location. So you said that you were in Florida.
If you’re in a big city in Florida, the bigger the city, the more shopping opportunities you have. And then like me, I’m in a small town, so I do have opportunities here, but I’ll drive a little bit further out, especially when it makes sense monetarily. But yeah, I’ve made $600 in a day in less than eight hours.
So it really just varies.
Liz Wilcox: Booyah. So, but you, well, you mentioned small town, and I actually was just out hiking with a couple friends, and we were trying to see, like, what do people, how do people define a small town? ‘Cause I live in a town of about, I don’t know, maybe, like, 25,000 people, and people call it a, call it a small town.
But I grew up in a town of 200. So to me, it’s-
Mercedes: Oh, wow.
Liz Wilcox: It’s like, I mean, yeah, I guess nowadays it’s a small town, but when I first moved here I was like, “Whoa, this is a big city.” So how many people are in your small town?
Mercedes: In New Albany, it’s got about like 40,000 people.
Liz Wilcox: Okay. Okay. So that’s, I mean, I would say, yeah, most people live in places that are, like, 20,000 to 60,000. So, all right, I just wanna make sure, ’cause somebody might be listening in the middle of nowhere Mississippi, a small town, all right, I’m gonna make $600. So I just wanna make sure we are all on the same page.
So I’m really excited about this. I’m literally picturing everybody signing up. I’m literally picturing it. ‘Cause, yeah, I mean, what a more simple way of jump-starting that, that side hustle income. So when it comes to after, what happens after the shop? Like, you just did this apartment, you had to come back.
How do, how do we record what happened at the shop?
Mercedes: Yeah, so you fill out a questionnaire. So we call it a report, but it’s really a questionnaire, right? It’s what day did you go? You know, what time did you go in? What time did you leave? It’ll ask you yes and no questions, short answer questions, and then sometimes they’ll have you put in, like, a narrative.
Like, “Hey, what happened from the time you walked in to the time you left?” And then you just give, like, a report that’s factual, straight to the facts. You don’t have to give, like, your opinion. Matter of fact, they don’t want your opinion. They just wanna know what happened. So you just fill that out, and you submit it, and there you go.
That completes a shop, and then you just wait for payment.
Liz Wilcox: How long did that take you in the beginning and how long does it take you now?
Mercedes: So an apartment shop starting out, I would say some people are faster than others. I have seen that. But on average, like to do the report, maybe 30 minutes, 30, 45 minutes when you’re new and you’re… like if it’s your first or second time doing it. But now, like for me personally, I can do it in about 18 to 20 minutes.
I’ve, I’ve got it down cre- down pat because what happens is once you’ve done a certain shop a lot, you know the questions, so you just can kind of fly through them pretty quick.
Liz Wilcox: Right, and I’m sure, like, even walking into the apartment, that’s filed in your brain. “Oh, check. She said that. Check. Oh, that, that didn’t happen. Check.” You know? Uh, so love that. Okay, let’s switch gears a little bit because I wanna talk about your business. You sort of mentioned you kind of match shoppers. So talk to us about what it is you do and how you switched from mystery shopper to now I help aspiring mystery shoppers.
Mercedes: Yeah, absolutely. So you kinda spoke on it a little bit when, uh, you said there were no reputable advertisements for… You, you know, you don’t see that with mystery shopping, and that is exactly the gap that I saw in the industry, and that is what I decided to fix. So when I got started, I didn’t even know that there…
I didn’t know it existed, and then I got started, then I didn’t know how to get more shops, how to do A, B, and C. And so that kind of opened up doors for me because when I started figuring it out, I would just talk about it to people. Like, “Oh my gosh, I just did a mystery shop here and, and got paid this much.”
And people started asking me, “Well, oh my gosh, this is crazy. How do I get started?” And so that is kind of how it all formed and, and came together. And so I started teaching classes way back in… I mean, honestly, it was like 2014. I don’t even think webinars were a thing back then, and if they were, I did not know about them.
So I don’t know if you remember this, but they had like a 1-800 freeconferencecall.com. Do you remember that? So I would get, I would get on there and get a phone number and give it to the people who wanted to learn, and we would literally get on a 45-minute phone call, and I would teach them over the phone.
And so that’s how that started, just i- in, in my, uh, bedroom in a small… Well, there we go with small towns again. But in a small town in Kentucky. That’s where I started, and it kinda… It just, it, it snowballed. And today we’re sitting at over 25,000 people that we’ve been able to, uh, bring into the industry and, and get them trained and started.
And so yeah, it’s been a crazy journey, but that’s what we do. We recruit the shoppers for companies, and then we train them and connect them with the jobs. And so I love what I do. It’s, it’s great being able to see, like, people like you. You’re like, “Oh my gosh, I can get paid to go gamble?” It- Like, I love the reaction, and then I love seeing when people actually get their first payday, and they’re like, “Oh my gosh, I’ve been able to pay off debt.
I’ve been able to go on dates again. I’ve been able to do this and that.” It really is just life-giving.
Liz Wilcox: Oh, I love that so much. So well, you said 25,000, and I feel like I’m on a personal mission to get you 50,000 because holy crap, the market, I feel like, is hot for something like this, and especially for, for both. If I am the mystery shopper, you know, I need a little extra cash, but I have almost no time.
And then from the business owner, money is tight, consumers aren’t spending. I need to make sure my employees are doing what they need to be doing. So I feel like you’re about to blow up. Like, I’m getting so excited. I’m getting so excited for you. Okay, for, for everyone. So you said 25,000, and I know from personal experience, and I already mentioned this at the top of the hour, you have what I would call, like, a webinar funnel.
So where are you finding people to get into that funnel?
Mercedes: Well, largely we’ve done a lot of meta ads.
Liz Wilcox: Okay.
Mercedes: In the beginning it was all organic, and then we scaled by doing the ads and just email newsletter sponsorships, podcasting, those sort of things. But yeah, ads, ads are great. They, they can, uh, really help scale a business if you, if you do them right and, and you get the good, a good lead quality, yeah.
Liz Wilcox: What do you love and hate about meta ads? I gotta ask.
Mercedes: Oh, I love and hate about it. Um, you know what? What do I love? Well, I love what it’s done, right? I love that it has brung in people. That’s great. What do I hate about it? It does bring in… Sometimes it brings in not so good quality leads. ‘Cause when you’re running a business, you need people that are serious.
So even if somebody were to say, “Hey, found you guys on Facebook, I wanna be a mystery shopper,” and they, like, take our training, but then they don’t do anything. Like, we want serious people. So I think sometimes it just brings in people that really aren’t, you know, they’re just expecting, like, money to fall off trees, and they don’t have to do anything.
You know? It, it is a job. You do have to work. So with Meta Ads, I think it’s a love-hate relationship, and the thing I hate is just a mixed quality of, of lead there sometimes.
Liz Wilcox: Yeah, it’s, it’s hard to dial in. So, okay. Well, I love that candid take, ’cause I, I love Facebook ads for the time save, a long-term time save. You know, it takes a while to learn them, set them up, et cetera. But yeah, you know, it is upfront work. Yeah, sometimes they don’t work the way you want them to, et cetera, et cetera.
So why did you decide … Well, you said you were doing, like, phone seminars. So by the way, I love that. There’s a theme, I think, as I get on this podcast and interview people, like I’m g- I’m gonna say it, and I’m gonna say it over and over, like you’ve got to be willing to put in the work to see the results.
Like Mercedes just said it. Sometimes Meta brings me people that realize, oh, this isn’t a get rich quick, and they sort of drop off. And when it comes to growing a business, Mercedes was just doing the mystery shops. 50 bucks here, $150 there. But to take it and say, “Okay, enough people are asking me, I’m gonna make something of this.
I’m gonna get on a phone, pray other people are on the line, I I think they’re listening, and talk for 45 freaking minutes,” that takes a lot of tenacity. That takes a lot of, like, oomph. You, you gotta go for it. So I love that. I love, love, love that you are doing that. So we’ve evolved from the phone seminar into the webinar.
First, how long have you been doing them? Well, I guess since 2014, basically. And I guess what makes you keep up the webinar?
Mercedes: Well, the webinar was live. Like I did a, a live webinar twice a month until 2022, and then we sorta went viral on Facebook Reels when they first launched it. And so I was like, “Oh my…” I mean, we had like 2,500 people like sign up when we went viral, and I was like, “Oh my gosh, I can’t, I can’t do a, a, a, a webinar every day.
Like this is crazy,” you know? And so that’s when I switched to evergreen webinars. So we have like a hybrid webinar that runs daily. And so that’s how I keep up with the webinars. They are, they’re evergreen and they’re hybrid.
Liz Wilcox: Okay. Are they still performing? ‘Cause I mean, I hear it all the time, “Oh, webinars are dead. Emails are dead. Facebook ads are dead,” or whatever, but they’re still converting well for you.
Mercedes: Yeah. We’ve seen a little bit of a decrease in conversion with the webinars, but not enough to be like, “Oh, they’re not working anymore.” Because I know for our specific industry and the people that Meta, from the ads especially, that has… They, they brung to us, I’m gonna be honest, most of them have never sat through a webinar.
They don’t even know. They think… They’re like, “Oh, am I gonna… You know, is this a Zoom? Am, am I gonna be on video?” Like, they ha- they, they have this… They think they’re going to a, like a, a meeting where they have to talk back. And so the quality of leads, they’re not the most tech-savvy. And so for us, that works well because they’re not like, “Oh gosh, it’s another webinar.
I gotta sit through an hour.” I think a lot of us, especially in the entrepreneur space, we’ve… How many webinars have we sat through, you know? Like, a million and we’re, you know. So I think it just depends on your client, your clientele, your, your audience. So for us, it still works.
Liz Wilcox: Love that. Yeah. Always, always being aware of the industry you’re in and taking advice from people like me through that lens of like, “Okay, Liz, that’s great for you, but I think with a little critical thinking, I can tweak it this way, or I can continue that way.” ‘Cause y’all, I always say it, like, if you get on a webinar or something and somebody says, “I’m gonna teach you everything you need to know, by the end of blah, blah,” I, just exit out.
‘Cause they don’t know you, they don’t know your capability, they don’t know your capacity, they don’t know your audience . You know? Like, they’re gonna teach you what they know and, you know, what could work. Yeah, I also always have a slide, like, “Disclaimer: You are creative. Deviate as you see fit. I don’t actually know you.”
So I love that so much. So how often… You said 2022. At the time of this recording, it’s ’26. How often are you re-recording that webinar, just from the fact that things change, you wanna make it fresh, et cetera?
Mercedes: Okay, so fun fact, we just rerecorded it two months ago, and it had been playing for two years, since 2024.
Liz Wilcox: Oh my gosh. Hang on, hang on. I got to do a round of applause. Yay. Round of applause, because this is literally called Smart Passive Income, y’all. Like, we want to work smarter, not harder. Yes, we want to work hard right now so we can reap the benefits later, but don’t fix what ain’t broke. So I love that you were able to keep it up, keep the numbers up.
Like you said, “Oh, things might be dipping. Okay, let’s re-record.” That was probably part of your process, so I love this. And how much… Did you change anything, or you just said, “Oh, we need a fresh recording”?
Mercedes: I shortened it. So it used to be, like in 20- up till ’22, so I think we started doing w- actual webinars in 2018, 2019. So from then to ’22, it was like an hour-long webinar. Well, people started complaining, like, “Oh, that’s too long. Get to the point.” So then I shortened it to, like 35 minutes, and that seemed to work fine.
But then this last time, I just shortened it again to 25. Just with like TikTok, and it, we’re just like boom, boom, boom, you know, we’re clicking out, we’re going so fast. So attention spans are so much shorter now, and so I, I did change the time. I cut the time down, and then I just try to be a little bit more intentional, like in the beginning.
Like, here’s what this is, and here’s what we’re gonna talk about, and, and be a little bit more straightforward. So it seems to… I think people just want you to be blunt and like tell them what they wanna know instead of giving them a lot of fluff. Yeah.
Liz Wilcox: Yes, amen. Hence me saying, “Well, how much do I need to work to make $1,000, lady? I need to know.” Yeah. Uh, love that. Okay. So talk to me about, so we’ve got ads running. That’s the majority of how you’re getting leads.
Mercedes: Yeah.
Liz Wilcox: Okay. So we’ve got ads running, we’ve got our 25-minute webinar that gets to the flipping point, and now what exactly are you offering, and how has that evolved over the years?
Mercedes: That’s a good one. So what we offer in the webinar is we offer a live class. So not a course, a class that is live with me for about an hour and a half to two hours. And so in that class is I, I just break everything down so that at the end of the class you’re ready to pick up your first mystery shop. So that is the offer that we make.
It has evolved. Obviously, it was over the phone back when I first started, so there was no visuals, there’s no graphics. You know, I, I don’t even know how people… I w- my assistant, she was one of the very first shoppers. She found me in a Facebook… Like, I had made a post in a Facebook group. You remember when Facebook yard sale groups were new?
Liz Wilcox: Yes
Mercedes: That was the original way. That, that was my first marketing strategy, okay? That was it, and I mean, it blew up. I mean, gosh, people were all in those sites. But I’ve got a girl, she’s now my assistant, and she was on one of those phone calls, and we just laugh all the time. We’re like, “This is hilarious,” because she’s like, “I learned this over the phone, and now you…
Like, people can actually see and, like, watch how it works.” And so it’s so funny. But it evolved from that, and the price evolved, too, ’cause I’ll be honest, my very first class that I did over the phone, you wanna know what I charged these people?
Liz Wilcox: $10.
Mercedes: Three. $3.
Liz Wilcox: You can’t even buy a Coca-Cola for $3 nowadays.
Mercedes: Oh my gosh, I laugh at that, ’cause I’m like, “What was I thinking?” Like, ’cause I mean, I think at the time I was scared, which a lot of us are scared. I, I mean, you’re putting something out there that you’re like, “I don’t know how people are gonna receive this, if they’re going to think about me in a certain way, if this’ll even sell.”
And so I think, like, “Let me just put this at the lowest cost and, and see what happens.” And I remember my mom called me and she goes, “Are you nuts?” She’s like, “$3?” And I ended up raising it, and over time it, it raised. And I, w- right now we’re at a price point that I, I feel is the sweet spot. It’s enough to be affordable.
It’s just, it’s not an astronomical number, right? So now we charge, with the discount, it’s like 99 bucks. So it has had that journey. But as an entrepreneur, I can look back and say, “Oh my gosh, I priced it too low.” And every increase I did since then, I, I was scared every single time. I took a course back in 2018, a- and this lady, um, I don’t know if you know who Nicole Walters is, but I took her course in 2018.
It was the first time I’d ever taken an-
Liz Wilcox: 1K a day?
Mercedes: 1K. Yes!
Liz Wilcox: Yeah, I love Nicole.
Mercedes: 1K, 1K. Yes. I was in that, okay? And so I remember her being like, “You’re, you guys aren’t charging enough.” And so I remember fighting with myself to raise the price to, like, 60-something bucks. I was scared. “Nobody’s gonna buy this. This isn’t gonna work.” And I did it, and people kept buying and, and having results. So it’s been a journey.
Liz Wilcox: That’s amazing. And you think about y’all, like she’s saying, yeah, first, maybe your first shop you make 50 bucks. But, you know, you keep going, you keep getting experience, you get those better jobs with the apartments, et cetera. You get your gamblings winnings. You’re gonna make that $99 back for sure, and it’s still, yeah, affordable.
Yeah, maybe somebody might have to say, like, look at the budget. Okay, where’s that $100 gonna come from? But when they’re motivated, like we talked about, those good leads, those people, maybe you listening right as you’re driving and looking at your gas tank like, “Okay, well maybe if I invest 100, I won’t have to worry about gas for the next six months, ’cause I’m gonna make my gas money this way.”
That’s gonna be an investment that people will spend all day. So I love that. I love that so, so much, and I, I really appreciate you telling us about every time I increase my price, I’m scared. ‘Cause I’m hearing, “Oh yeah, we’ve been in business since 2014. You know, we’ve been doing this a long, long time.” You think those butterflies would exit the building.
You know? You would think, “Yeah, you know, I got this. I… Look at all my clients’ success stories. I… My literal assistant w- used to be on the phone learning this. Like, I’m worth this.” But yes, it, the work is never done with the mindset. Would you agree?
Mercedes: Absolutely. Absolutely. It’s been a journey.
Liz Wilcox: Okay. Awesome. Awesome. So speaking of your clients and success stories, I literally wrote down, I’d, I’d love to hear like one or two of those success stories of somebody other than your assis- and maybe your assistant too. Yeah, maybe we start with them of, “Hey, I, I listened on the phone, I did X, and now my life looks like Y.”
I’d love to hear that.
Mercedes: Ooh, girl, I’ve got stories for days, so I’ll give them to you. My assistant, I can say with her, she took the class, started mystery shopping. Today, she, like I said, she is my assistant, so that’s her full-time job. However, she still mystery shops on the side, and she brings home… She gets about 5 to $700 a month in free groceries from mystery shopping grocery stores.
She does it every month like clockwork. I’m like, “What you doing, girl?” She’s like, “I’m out doing my grocery mystery shops, getting my free groceries.” So that’s, that’s a fun transformational story. We had another girl recently. We actually just got back from Vegas, ’cause we have a, a mystery shopping conference every year.
So last weekend, it was in Vegas, and we got to award our shopper of the year. And what is so cool about this girl is she is a single mama of three girls, and she’s worked in healthcare. And for the last three years, she has made it a goal to be a full-time mystery shopper, and she literally just quit her job, I think it was October 1st.
And she’s taking us on this journey with her, and we are just cheering her on. She did everything that we taught her to do. Um, you know, we’d never tell people, like, “Oh, just quit your job and mystery shop.” No, it’s a business for you, so you have to work it like one. You have to make sure that you’ve got everything in order to be able to make that switch.
So she, she now is a full-time mystery shopper. We’ve got another gal, same thing. She told me she wanted to quit her job. She worked towards it. Now she makes over $70,000 a year mystery shopping full time. Um, and then the-
Liz Wilcox: Get out of here, Mercedes. I’m ill. I’m ill. Okay. Y’all, please. Like this was, this was supposed to be about her business, but now I’m like trying to get everybody to sign up for this because it, this is so great. But I do wanna… Okay, let me pause. You said we go to Vegas, we have an event, shopper of the year.
Is this an event you are hosting?
Mercedes: Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah, we
Liz Wilcox: we’re going down this rabbit hole, y’all. Come with me. Turn up the volume. Pause, leave a five-star review ’cause we’re going deep, okay? Oh my gosh, there’s so many layers. So we, we’re not just doing a webinar funnel and getting people in. Mercedes, you have a community.
Mercedes: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Liz Wilcox: about this community. I’m so… I’m just falling in love. I’m so excited.
Mercedes: Yes, we have, we have a community of shoppers. And listen, you heard how it started from the beginning. That’s one aspect, but we also have B2B. So we also partner with mystery shopping companies because they need shoppers. And so every year at our conference, they come out, the shoppers come out. I mean, we’ve got everybody in the industry coming out for, it’s a two-day experience where they’re learning.
So we get the company owners and other industry leaders, you know, to speak on, uh, sessions. And so it’s a weekend of leveling up your mystery shopping business, and then we end it with a gala. So the last night of the conference is always a fancy gala. We get dressed up, we do awards, we have fun. Yes, it’s the best.
Liz Wilcox: I cannot stand it. This is so amazing. I, y’all, I don’t get jealous a lot, but I am jealous. I want that for SPI one day. I would love to just host this big event and just make… I’ve always had this vision. My first business was called The Virtual Campground, ’cause I love community, I love bringing people together.
See, now my Southern accent is coming out, y’all, because I’m just so excited. Like, this is so great. I’m originally from Detroit. You wouldn’t believe it. You wouldn’t believe it, I know. But I’ve been in the South a very long time. But this is, like, so cool. So what made you decide to take what is essentially, like, online or you’re doing webinars, I’m sure you’re not going to every single business that you partner with.
So what made you decide, like, yes, we’re gonna do this event for people?
Mercedes: Yeah. Well, I love community too, and I love live events. I love being in person with people. It’s fun. And another thing that I saw is, like, all my friends who were, I’m not gonna name any companies, but, like, they’re selling, they’re doing MLM, direct sales, and they were getting the Cadillacs, and they’re showing up to their big events.
And I’m like, “Okay, we need that for mystery shoppers, okay?” And so that motivated me as well. So it was my love for community, and I love to recognize people. I wanna have a good time, don’t you? You know what I mean? Like, it can’t all be work. We gotta have some play in there.
Liz Wilcox: Okay. Yes. I love this, y’all. My 2026 word of the year, I pick a word of the year every year, and this year has been PLAY, like all caps. Every time I tell people, like if I’m typing it, I all caps it. It’s like PLAY, like we’re ta- we’re taking it serious over here. So I l- I just really admire that, and just even the way you answered that, if you guys didn’t pick up on Mercedes, it was just, it was such an obvious next step.
Yes, I wanna have fun. I see my friends, yeah, you know, she didn’t name names, but I’m thinking of like Mary Kay, and they do all these things. Yeah, I mean, I know two cars just in my small town that are that light pink Mary Kay Cadillac. Oh my gosh, y’all, the sky is the freaking limit to what you can do with your ideas, with your business.
What started with just going into that gas station and asking for a pack of Pall Malls, I think she said, um, you know, is now turned into this amazing community for… Like, I’m thinking of that shopper of the year, thinking of that mom that’s able to buy her groceries. Like, what a beautiful, amazing thing.
And like, you just, so many crazy, cool things can happen when you just start saying yes to that next step that presents itself. Like, “Oh, enough people are asking me about this. Maybe I should get on the phone and charge $3. Oh, maybe I need to charge more. Now let me get a webinar. Now let me go into this event hosting. Let me connect the shoppers with the clients.” Oh, gosh, I love this so much. I’m so flipping inspired. Thank you so much for coming on. If we are feeling good and we wanna make a little extra grocery cash as well, how can w- how can we do that? How can we sign up and get started?
Mercedes: Well, we have that free, uh, free mystery shopping webinar. You can go to, uh, ishopagp.com and get signed up for that. It’s, you heard it, it’s 25 minutes. So in that training, I give you, like, what mystery shopping is, how it works, how to avoid scams. I give you enough information for you to take and, and decide whether or not this is something that you wanna give a try.
So yeah, you can find us there. And, and thanks again, Liz, so much for having me on. This has been great chatting with you.
Liz Wilcox: Yes. Thank you so much.
