Sold Out Isn't the End: A Real Kajabi Funnel That Keeps Selling After Capacity Hits Zero
Aug 19, 2026
Dianne Empeynado
Vetted Kajabi Expert | Website Designer
Where sleek design meets bulletproof tech & support.
A sold-out launch should be the best day of a business's month. For most Kajabi sites, it's actually a leak — every person who shows up after the doors close just bounces, and that interest never turns into anything.
Here's a real Kajabi funnel built to fix exactly that — not with a waitlist, but with a next offer — using Annelise McCarthy's Australian Tour 2026 as the live example, built and managed by me as her Kajabi website designer and funnel builder since 2022.
Key Takeaways
- A sold-out Kajabi checkout doesn't have to be a dead end — it can route into a bigger offer instead of just capturing emails on a waitlist.
- An application funnel qualifies leads before they get a next step, which works better for higher-ticket or selective offers than a plain opt-in.
- The entire hand-off is automated, so it keeps converting without manual follow-up.
- The same structure applies to any capacity-limited Kajabi offer: course cohorts, group coaching, retreats, and live events.
- Built and managed by a vetted Kajabi Expert with insider experience on Kajabi's own Technical Support and VIP Implementation teams.
Jump to a section:
- The Problem: What Happens When Your Checkout Sells Out
- Why Most Coaches Lose Leads Right After a Sellout
- About Annelise McCarthy
- Why a Vetted Kajabi Expert Built This Differently
- Case Study: Her Speaking Coach's Australian Tour 2026
- How the Funnel Was Structured
- Before & After: The Sellout Flow
- What This Setup Can Do for Your Launch
- FAQ: Kajabi Application Funnels
- Want a Funnel Built for Your Next Launch?
The Problem: What Happens When Your Checkout Sells Out
You built one page. It sold out. Now what?
If your answer is "nothing" — you just lost every lead who almost said yes. A sold-out checkout is good news for the business and a dead end for everyone who shows up five minutes too late. That traffic doesn't wait around. It leaves, and it doesn't come back on its own.
Here's the part most people get backwards: the fix isn't something you build after the panic sets in. It's something you build before the sellout happens — while you still have the luxury of time to do it right.
Why Most Coaches Lose Leads Right After a Sellout
Most Kajabi sites run on a single registration page with no fallback. That's the mistake. Once it's full, you've got two options, and they're both bad. Leave the page live, and people try to check out for something that's already gone — confusing, unprofessional, a bad look. Take it down, and every visitor after that just bounces into nothing.
Either way, you're throwing away the exact audience that just proved they wanted to buy. Not "maybe interested" traffic — people who clicked, read the offer, and tried to hand over their card details. If you don't have a plan for them, you're not losing random visitors. You're losing your best leads.
The easy fix is a waitlist. The better fix — the one used here — is a next offer.
About Annelise McCarthy
Some context on who this was built for, because it matters for how the funnel needed to work.
Annelise McCarthy, the director and founder of Hers Speaking Coach, is an international speaker, LinkedIn Top Voice, and communication expert who has coached professionals, leaders, and founders — from CEOs to Olympians — across 20+ industries and 15 countries. She holds a Diploma in Teaching Public Speaking and a double Bachelor's degree in Law and Mandarin, and has spent over 15 years building an audience of 300,000+ followers around helping women find and own their voice.
Her platform runs on live events, workshops, and coaching programs — which means every launch has a hard capacity limit, and every sellout is a real, recurring business problem, not a hypothetical one.
I've worked with Annelise since November 2022, when we first connected on a short Zoom call and she handed me full creative direction to rebuild her site from the ground up. Since then, the relationship has grown from a single website redesign into an ongoing build-out of funnels, email automations, and course infrastructure across her whole platform.
Why a Vetted Kajabi Expert Built This Differently
I'm Dianne Empeynado, a vetted Kajabi Expert. Before working independently, I was on Kajabi's own Technical Support team, then a VIP Implementation Specialist inside Kajabi — so the funnel logic here isn't guesswork, it's built on knowing how Kajabi's checkouts, applications, and automations actually behave under the hood.
That background is why this funnel isn't just a nicely designed page — it's built to function correctly the first time: no broken redirects, no leads falling through the gap between "sold out" and "here's what's next."
Case Study: Her Speaking Coach's Australian Tour 2026
The Australian Tour 2026 page was built as a live event sales funnel — sales page, straight through to checkout, clear positioning, a strong offer.
It sold out.
Rather than let that be the end of the story, the checkout was set up to route overflow demand into a next step: the application for Unmute Mastermind, giving people who missed the tour a real next move instead of a dead page.
How the Funnel Was Structured
Once the tour sold out, traffic was routed toward the Unmute Mastermind application instead of hitting a wall. The structure:
- Sold-out notice — clear, on-brand messaging that the event is full (no confusion about whether it's still open)
- The next offer — instead of a plain waitlist, a path into the Unmute Mastermind application
- Application page — a dedicated page to qualify and capture the right people, not just any email
- Follow-up — automated so nothing depended on manual chasing
The goal wasn't just to "collect emails." It was to make sure the people who wanted in badly enough to try to buy had a real next step — one that could turn into a bigger yes than the one they missed.
Before & After: The Sellout Flow
Here's exactly what changed:
| Before | After |
|---|---|
| Sold-out page had no next step | Sold-out page routes directly into the Unmute Mastermind application |
| Interested buyers hit a dead end and left | Interested buyers are offered a bigger opportunity instead of nothing |
| Follow-up depended on manual outreach | Fully automated hand-off from checkout to application |
| A sellout ended the funnel | A sellout becomes the start of a new one |
That last row matters most. A launch shouldn't need someone manually watching it 24/7 to keep converting after it sells out.
What This Setup Can Do for Your Launch
This isn't specific to speaking coaches or live events. The same logic applies to:
- Course cohorts with limited enrollment windows
- Group coaching programs with capped spots
- Retreats, workshops, or in-person events
- Any Kajabi offer where demand can outpace capacity, and a bigger offer sits behind it
If your business runs on launches, a sellout should be a growth moment, not a lost one.
FAQ: Kajabi Application Funnels
What is a Kajabi application funnel?
An application funnel routes interested leads to a page where they apply for a program or offer, rather than simply opting in — useful for higher-ticket or selective offers where you want to qualify people first.
Why offer an application instead of a waitlist when something sells out?
A waitlist just captures interest for the same thing later. An application funnel turns a sold-out moment into a path toward a different, often bigger, offer — so the business isn't just waiting, it's still selling.
Can this work for something other than live events?
Yes. The same structure applies to capped course cohorts, group coaching programs, retreats, and any Kajabi offer with limited spots and a next-tier offer behind it.
Do I need custom code to build this in Kajabi?
Not typically. Most application funnels can be built using Kajabi's native pages, forms, and automations — configured correctly, which is where most DIY builds run into trouble.
Who built the Her Speaking Coach funnel?
Dianne Empeynado, a vetted Kajabi Expert and former Kajabi VIP Implementation Specialist, who has worked with Annelise McCarthy on her Kajabi website and funnels since 2022.
Want a Funnel Built for Your Next Launch?
This is one piece of the broader funnel work I build inside Kajabi — from opt-ins and applications through to full marketing funnels that carry a lead from first click to paying client.
If your next launch needs a plan for what happens after it sells out, start your project and let's build a funnel that keeps working after the "sold out" banner goes up.
The Author
Dianne Empeynado is a vetted Kajabi Expert and former member of Kajabi's own Technical Support and VIP Implementation team — she's seen the platform from the inside, not just as an outside freelancer. She's a top-rated Kajabi specialist on Contra, a Fiverr Vetted Pro, available on Upwork, and a member of the Experts Circle, a peer-vetted network of Kajabi professionals.
What began as a solo website design business has become a creative studio — built to support creators through more stages of their business, while keeping the same thoughtful, personal approach that's always mattered. It's not about getting bigger for the sake of it. It's about being better equipped to serve the creators who trust us.
Learn more at dianneempeynado.com, or start your Kajabi project here.
