EQ Applied saves a viral moment and generates $150k in sales with Kinsta

Biggest wins with Kinsta

• Seamlessly handled viral traffic spikes from viral content
• Fast, expert support during a critical lead-gen issue
• $150K+ in course and membership revenue
• Delivered consistent uptime and peace of mind for the founder

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EQ Applied’s website is the cornerstone of its mission to help individuals and organizations understand and apply emotional intelligence.

The site serves as the central hub for EQ Applied’s educational content, newsletter signups, and online course offerings.

EQ Applied’s global audience was growing fast, and so was the traffic from viral media coverage. When articles went viral, traffic flooded the site, and any downtime meant lost leads and trust. Founder Justin Bariso knew his platform had to scale with him. That’s when Kinsta came into the picture.

Here’s how EQ Applied grew its audience, saved high-stakes leads, and scaled confidently with Kinsta.

The challenge

As EQ Applied’s audience and content grew, Justin realized his previous platform couldn’t keep up with the flexibility, performance, and reliability he needed.

• Rigid structure that couldn’t scale with audience growth
• Limited SEO control and lack of advanced customization
• Unreliable uptime during traffic surges
• Risk of lost leads from third-party plugin failures

To support a growing business and audience, Justin moved to WordPress and searched for a premium hosting provider.

The solution

During viral content moments, Kinsta’s infrastructure absorbed traffic seamlessly with no crashes or slowdowns. When third-party plugin issues impacted lead-gen forms, Kinsta support helped avoid a critical loss in leads.

Kinsta’s support team immediately helped diagnose the issue, guided a backup restore, and gave Justin actionable information to pass on to his developers.

Support is one thing. Smart, emotionally intelligent support is another. And for EQ Applied, Kinsta delivers both. That trust has made it possible to scale the business confidently.

The migration

Choosing Kinsta as the host made all the difference in reliability and peace of mind.

• The migration was seamless, and from day one, the site ran faster and more smoothly.
• With Kinsta’s tools and documentation, setting up backups, analytics, and performance monitoring was easy, even for a small team.

The results

The EQ Applied site no longer buckles under viral traffic. Instead, it becomes a powerful lead-gen engine during viral content moments.

Kinsta helped EQ Applied make the most of viral content moments, while also making it stress-free to convert those page views into revenue with zero delays or downtime.

$150K+ in course and membership sales, thousands of new leads captured

• Built-in scalability
• High-performance hosting

Since switching to Kinsta, EQ Applied has brought in over $150,000 in course and membership sales. Thousands of new leads have signed up through forms that stay live and working, even during massive spikes in traffic.

Zero downtime during viral content spikes

• Isolated container technology
• Cloudflare integration

Kinsta helped EQ Applied make the most of high-visibility moments, driving hundreds of thousands (and sometimes millions) of visitors in a single month. When articles take off, the site stays fast, stable, and ready to convert.

Expert support that solved problems before they became costly

• 24/7/365 support
• Backup restore tools
• MyKinsta dashboard

Expert support has been just as critical. When a broken plugin threatened sign-ups during a viral wave, Kinsta stepped in, restored functionality, and provided a dev-ready fix.

Conclusion: Kinsta is built for viral moments, trusted for daily growth

Beyond expert support and performance, Kinsta delivers something just as important: peace of mind and confidence. With consistent uptime and responsive support, Justin can focus fully on writing, teaching, and scaling EQ Applied without worrying about the backend.

“I can’t say enough good things about Kinsta customer service. I find their staff friendly, respectful, very knowledgeable, and helpful. They go above and beyond to help me figure out problems and make sure I’m happy. It’s some of the best customer service I’ve ever experienced with any company, across industries.”