May 6, 2025 • 31 mins
Most advice about scaling a service business means giving up the work you love or cranking your rates until clients walk away. But what if you could grow your revenue with your clients—without adding more to your plate? In this episode, Susan revisits a standout 2019 interview with business coach Lacey Sites, who doubled her revenue without taking on a single new client.
Lacey did it by shifting to a revenue-sharing compensation model—one that ties her income directly to her clients’ success. In this re-edited version, we dive into how that shift happened, what she tested first, how she vets clients to make the model work, and why it changed everything about how she runs her business.
What You’ll Learn:
- Why default pricing models for service businesses often lead to misaligned incentives
- How Lacey experimented with and validated her revenue-sharing structure before going all in
- What criteria she uses to select high-commitment, high-potential clients
- Why adding a base rate created a healthy balance between risk and reward
- How this model enabled Lacey to scale with her clients—and why it feels more equitable for everyone involved
Learn More About Lacey Sites:
Want to design your own calm-aligned pricing model?
📁 Grab the Calmer Service Design Swipe File with 60+ examples
💬 Or check out Susan’s 1:1 support options
- (00:00) - Introduction: The Problem with Traditional Pricing Models
- (01:01) - A New Approach: Revenue Sharing Model
- (01:30) - Case Study: Lacey Sites' Success Story
- (02:51) - Lacey's Journey to Revenue Sharing
- (04:44) - Implementing the Revenue Sharing Model
- (07:17) - Client Selection and Vetting Process
- (13:59) - Balancing Risk and Reward
- (20:45) - Scaling and Future Plans
- (28:19) - Conclusion: Designing a Calmer Business
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Susan Boles (00:08):
So you've built a service that gets results. When
your clients follow your plan,their revenue grows. And when
they grow, your business grows.Right? Probably not.
Even if your work createsmassive ROI for your clients,
your income will still likelydepend on those flat fees or
(00:28):
fixed retainers. And there is aceiling to how far those can
stretch. You want to scale, butwithout walking away from the
deep high impact work youactually like doing. You want a
model that feels more alignedwhere you and your clients are
on the same team and where thebetter they do, the better you
do. But most of the advice onpricing strategy is either
(00:51):
vague, so just raise your rates,or it demands a hard pivot into
one to many offers.
What if there was another path?What if you could scale by tying
your revenue to the results yourclients actually get and build a
model that reflects the trust,the impact, and the partnership
at the heart of your work?Imagine this. A client just
(01:15):
closed a hundred k launch.You've been in the trenches with
them, refining strategy,reviewing copy, helping them
ship their offer.
And when they win, you winbecause you're getting 10% of
that revenue as part of yourcompensation. That's the model
Lacey Sites built inside hercoaching business. She didn't
stop working with clients. Shedidn't add a group program. She
(01:38):
just changed how she gets paidand in doing so doubled her
revenue without adding any newclients.
I'm Susan Bowles, and you'relistening to Calm is the New
KPI, the show where we challengedefault business advice and
break down the levers you canpull to build a calmer business
that actually works for you.Today's episode is part our
(01:59):
series on scaling your clientbusiness without ditching
clients, and we're focusing onthe business design lever of the
calmer framework. If you've everwished your pricing model felt
more equitable or more you'veprofitable, this episode might
open up a new way of thinking.This is a re edited conversation
from my twenty nineteeninterview with Lacey Seitz, a
(02:21):
founder of A Lit Up Life. Thisis one of my top listened to
episodes.
Lacey and I dig into how revenuesharing actually works in
practice, how and why Laceytested her ideas before she
rolled them out, and howfiltering for the right clients
is critical when your incomedepends on their success. Before
(02:51):
Lacey shifted her pricing model,her business looked a lot yours
might. She was working withclients one on one, charging
flat fees, delivering bigresults, and getting the same
paycheck no matter how big thoseresults were. That's the
default. You get hired to helpsomeone grow their business.
You roll up your sleeves, youdig deep, and maybe even help
them hit a record breakingmilestone. And whether they make
(03:15):
10 k or a hundred k, you getpaid the same amount. It's
steady. It's familiar. And it'swhat most of us were told
success looks like as a serviceprovider.
But that's exactly the problem.The default way of doing
business says you charge foryour time, not your impact. You
scale by stepping back fromclient work. And if you want to
(03:37):
earn more, your only options areraising your rates or busting
your butt to get more clients.The math is rigid.
The incentives are misaligned.And even when you want to invest
deeply in your client's success,there's no built in reason for
your clients to see you as along term strategic partner.
It's a default model that worksuntil it doesn't. For Lacey, the
(04:00):
breaking point came when shestarted hearing the same thing
from every new lead. I've beenburned before.
Nervous. I've paid high ticketcoaches who didn't deliver. And
she realized if she wanted tobuild real trust, if she wanted
to attract smart strategicclients who are ready to do the
(04:20):
work, she needed a pricing modelthat reflected partnership she
was actually offering. So shestarted experimenting. Not with
her services, but with how shegot paid.
And the results were, well,you'll hear for yourself.
(04:44):
Alright. Hi, Lacey. Thanks somuch for being here with me
today.
Lacey Sites (04:48):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.
Susan Boles (04:50):
So give me like a quick one sentence, you know,
who you are, what you do kind ofto start the conversation off
here.
Lacey Sites (04:57):
Yeah, absolutely. I have my MBA and my master's in
mental health counseling, Ibasically put those two together
to help high achieving womengrow and scale their online
business.
Susan Boles (05:06):
You have a very unique kind of pricing
compensation structure in yourbusiness. Can you tell me a
little bit more about that? Howit works?
Lacey Sites (05:16):
Absolutely. So when clients hire me, they pay me a
base rate, but then on top ofthat, they pay me 10% of the new
revenue generated through ourwork together.
Susan Boles (05:26):
Did you always price your services that way? Or
was this something that youtransitioned to at some point?
Was there some kind of triggerthat led you down this path?
Lacey Sites (05:34):
For sure. I did not always price them this way. And
there was definitely a trigger.Initially I just priced
normally, like, you know, I justhad a flat coaching rate. That's
what you paid that kind ofthing.
But, but something I was hearingfrom people over and over again
that were coming to me to workwith me is basically like, I've
been burned before and I'mscared. Right. Another thing
that I was hearing is like, Ireally want to do this, but
(05:57):
like, it just feels like such abig leap pricing wise. My old
background is that I was in thenonprofit world and I worked a
lot on like re engineeringservice delivery models. So I
was like always asking thequestion of like, how can we do
this better?
How can we reach more people?How can this be more accessible?
Things like that. Right. And sothat really was the question I
started to apply here.
Like how can we createaccessibility? How can this be
(06:18):
done better? How can people stopbeing so scared of getting, you
know, screwed again, basically,or whatever, you know,
Susan Boles (06:25):
their thought process Right. And,
Lacey Sites (06:27):
and that's kind of where this came from. I had been
pondering it for, for quite along time. And then I like
specifically remember one day Iwas like, taking a bubble bath
as, as it would be, not thinkingabout it at all. And it
literally just hit me. Like, Iwas like, oh my God, I'm just
going to charge a revenuepercentage.
And I pretty much ran with it.Start starting right from that
moment.
Susan Boles (06:49):
So how do you track that? Is it, you know, any
revenue that they, that comes inafter you guys start working
together or
Lacey Sites (06:55):
it's like, you pay me and hopefully it works out
for you. Right? Right. And Iwant it to feel like you pay me
and I have a vested interest inyour success. When I win, you
win, and I call it partnership.
And so basically they only payme when they're, when they're
having that win, when they'remaking that money, when their
revenue is growing. And it hasjust been incredible.
Susan Boles (07:17):
So did you transition existing clients or
you use the new model with newclients? How did you, how did
you actually implement this?
Lacey Sites (07:24):
So actually what I did at first was I, I'm like a
big tester. Like, I don't loveto like dive into anything. Like
I want to get data. I want totweak it, like stuff like that.
So what I did in the beginningwas I basically ran what I
called the partnership processand I had people apply.
And so I didn't even charge abase rate then. Was basically
like, work with me for 10% ofyour revenue. And I had so many
(07:48):
people apply. Like I think thefirst time we had maybe a
hundred to 200 applications.
Susan Boles (07:52):
Wow.
Lacey Sites (07:53):
And I took people through a really long process
because I was basically like,well, I want to vet you if and
make sure you're
Susan Boles (07:59):
Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of risk on your
part. Yeah. You know?
Lacey Sites (08:02):
Totally. So I did that. The first time I think I
took on two or three clients andI think both of them ended up
paying me more than my flatrate. And I was like, wow,
there's something to this. Andso I actually ran the
partnership process, I thinkthree more times before I took
it full scale in my business.
(08:23):
So I had a lot of data going in,which was really important. Like
I already could see how this wasworking. I think that's really
important with innovative ideas.You sometimes were so quick to
jump in and it's like, okay ifyou test it for a while. Like I
basically tested it for a yearbefore I brought it fully into
my business.
When I did, I only did it fornew clients and I grandfathered
in old clients. So I still haveclients to this day that have
(08:47):
been with me that long. I mean,maybe like one or two, right?
But like that aren't paying apercentage, but basically
everyone else is.
Susan Boles (08:53):
Interesting. So when you were vetting people to
decide whether or not they'd bea good match for this revenue
share model. What were you, whatwere you looking for? What
characteristics were youfiltering for?
Lacey Sites (09:08):
The most important to me was honestly commitment
because I think that somethinglike a revenue share like that,
where you don't have skin in thegame up front, like, if you're
lacking in commitment, that canbe a really big deterrent. So
Susan Boles (09:21):
Yeah. Especially when we're talking revenue and
it's dependent on them actuallygoing and selling things.
Lacey Sites (09:25):
Oh my god. A %. So, basically I took them, like they
had to fill out an application,then they had to make a video,
then they had to fill out anentire business plan. So that
was like a three week process.And so by that point, like they
had invested a lot in terms oflike time, energy, their own,
like, you know, digging andanswering questions and
(09:45):
everything like that.
And so I was really more likewho is willing to go through
this whole process, number one,and stay committed to it. And
then how committed are they inthose applications? Like, you
know, it's very obvious whensomeone wants to put like a one
word answer for everything.
Susan Boles (10:00):
Right. Yes.
Lacey Sites (10:00):
Right? Versus like someone that like really wants
to tell you like how they'regoing to use this to make it
work. That's a constant questionI'm always asking in that
process is like, what are youbringing to the table? Like,
this is a partnership. So like,tell me why I should pick you.
What are you going to do to makethis work? And then I kind of
just went off my gut, honestly.
Susan Boles (10:18):
Interesting. I love the idea of using the process
itself as a filter. I dosomething similar with
essentially with one of my leadsort of products or services is
I have a fairly extensivequestionnaire that's there for
the purpose of making sure thatthey're thinking about their
answers, that they're gettingready to have the conversation
(10:39):
we're going to have, and kind ofthat using that commitment as
part of the process. So I lovethat concept.
Lacey Sites (10:47):
Absolutely. I think that it's surprising how many
people aren't committed tothings like that. And so it is a
really, really helpful filter.
Susan Boles (10:57):
Yeah, and absolutely, particularly in
something where there's so muchrisk on your end in terms of,
you know, you can coach them,but you can't do the work for
them. Ultimately, they have tobe able to do the work to
generate that revenue. That'sultimately the result of your
work together. And you're takingon the risk of them not doing
(11:19):
the work that they're supposedto do.
Lacey Sites (11:21):
Totally. I think like one way that I've reframed
that is I want to stand behindmy own work and I want to put my
money where my mouth is kind ofthing. I think that is vastly
missing in our space in so manyways. Like I think we've gotten
to this point where we're askingto pay very, very, very, very
high rates without reallywanting to have any stake in
that game or put our money whereour mouth is. And like, as a
(11:43):
coach, you can't do the work,but like we also can't take no
responsibility.
And so I think it's just thisthing I like to play with of
like, what is my level ofresponsibility in this? Right.
And I guess you could say Ivalued it at 10%.
Susan Boles (11:57):
Yeah, I think that's an interesting
perspective because I agree. Andthis I can see where the revenue
share model sort of functions asa little bit of a guarantee for
them from the client'sperspective. It's an easy it's
an easy sales tool of, you know,you know, this doesn't happen
unless you actually see results.So I I love that as a both as a
(12:18):
sales tool and as your ownpersonal check to make sure that
you are still really invested inyour work with your clients.
Lacey Sites (12:25):
Absolutely. I think that's a beautiful way to say
it. Like, it is a it is like acheck on both sides, almost.
It's like a check and balancekind of thing. Right?
And something that I found to bereally interesting in doing it
is I feel like I've almost,attract, and obviously I'm like
a super biased because they'remy clients. Right. But I feel
like I attract such smartbusiness women because of that.
(12:47):
Like, I feel like they're reallythinking about it in a different
way. Like, so many of my clientsare, you know, making over the
two fifty, five hundred ks markand hiring me because they want
that because to hire someonethat's further along, so to
speak in that realm, you know,you're talking $5,000 a month
for a base rate for a coach kindof thing.
(13:08):
And they're like, I could dothat. I can afford that at this
revenue, but I want somebodywho's like literally invested in
my growth and who I pay if Igrow, who I'm not just paying a
really high rate because they'vemaybe gotten a result before.
Want someone who I'm paying areally high rate because they
can get me a result.
Susan Boles (13:24):
Absolutely. Yeah. And I could see where that kind
of model would inherentlyattract people that are more
invested and are thinking morecritically about how how their
business operates and how theyare valuing basically every
dollar that goes out and makingsure that that dollar is working
(13:46):
for them.
Lacey Sites (13:47):
Right. They were thinking about it in really
smart strategic ways. Like,what's the, what's the return on
that investment? And when theyunderstand how partnership works
and how this model works,they're like, well, that's
really obvious.
Susan Boles (13:59):
So when you started off experimenting with this new
model, you were doing just arevenue share as your
compensation. But currently,your pricing model is a flat
monthly rate plus the 10%revenue share. So what prompted
you to add back in a base rate?
Lacey Sites (14:16):
Yeah. Great question. So initially when I
did the revenue share only, itwas, like, with two clients,
basically. I would do, like, twoat a time, and then I would have
still all my regular clients,like, just on a base rate or
just on a regular paymentstructure. I kept feeling a pull
to be like, this is somethinglike, this means something I
really want to turn my businessin this direction.
But fundamentally at the end ofthe day, like I have operating
(14:38):
expenses as a business. Right.And so I felt like I needed some
level of certainty and I neededto take some level of
responsibility there too becauseof course I have a team to pay
and all of that. So I was tryingto find that balance of like,
how can I basically make this mybusiness model but without
taking so much risk that I'mlike not putting myself in a
(14:59):
good position to actually servemy clients? Because I think
that's important too, wherelike, I want to be invested in
their success, but not soinvested that I'm like, well, if
you don't do good on thislaunch, I can't pay my team.
Susan Boles (15:09):
Right.
Lacey Sites (15:10):
Cause then we're like over invested and it gets
weird. So for me, that's wherethe base rate came in. Like, was
like, if I'm gonna transition mywhole business to this, that has
to be a non negotiable becausethat keeps me the right amount
of invested and detached with myclients. And it gives me the
right amount of certainty andability to function and operate
as a business.
Susan Boles (15:31):
That totally makes sense. And balancing kind of
where your level of risk andinvestment should ultimately be
and making that reflect how youemotionally are also invested in
their business.
Lacey Sites (15:45):
Exactly. And I think another important piece of
it is I really do think there'ssome level of energetic exchange
that's really important inhaving to pay your coach
something, right? Yeah. Like,there's a belief that comes
through that of, like, I believethis much in my business that I
am willing to put this money onthe table first kind of thing.
Susan Boles (16:04):
Yeah. There's definitely a psychological kind
of investment that comes withputting your money where your
mouth is.
Lacey Sites (16:10):
Exactly. So I feel like I'm kind of doing that
right by being like, I'm willingto like be your partner in this
and let's go all in. And then Ineed them to be able to do it a
little bit too. Like, and I'mwilling to pay your base rate.
Like, So it feels like there'sthis even exchange of us both
being like, let's put someenergy and some stake in the
game.
Susan Boles (16:28):
That totally makes sense. So when you are pitching
this nontraditional model to newclients, do you get any kind of
resistance because it's veryatypical or do you use it as a
filter or how how does that kindof conversation end up working?
Lacey Sites (16:46):
I have to tell you, when I first started doing this,
I was like, I basically preparedmyself. Like, was like, I'm
probably going to get a ton ofpushback on calls. This is
probably going to be somethingmost people aren't going to be
interested in adopting. I'm okaywith that. Like, I, I like
prepped hard.
You know what I mean? I don'tthink I've really gotten one
sincere objection around it.Mhmm. Because most people are
(17:09):
like, I freaking love that youare invested in my success in
that way.
Susan Boles (17:13):
So it's most people are viewing it more as a
positive than a negative.
Lacey Sites (17:19):
Exactly. Exactly. Like the only time I've ever
really gotten, any level ofpushback is sometimes like, so a
lot of my clients work with mefor a long time. Like I have a
six month program, but most ofmy clients stay with me for a
year or longer. And every nowand then, like as a client has
like really grown in our worktogether and they're about to
resign, they're like, oh mygosh, I realize how much money
(17:42):
I'm resigning for at this pointbasically.
Right.
Susan Boles (17:44):
Yep.
Lacey Sites (17:46):
And, and I'm like always happy to talk through
that with them, but ultimatelythe, like the conclusion most of
them come to is like, but thereason I'm making this much
money is because we've had thispartnership. So it makes sense
versus like going to someoneelse and paying them this much
money who hasn't been part of mysuccess or hasn't built this
with me, so to speak.
Susan Boles (18:04):
That totally makes sense. Yeah. The concept is just
really interesting.
Lacey Sites (18:08):
It's a lot to take in when you're like, at that
point, you're like, oh wait, Iget how much I'm making and how
much I'm resigning for at thispoint. Right?
Susan Boles (18:15):
Yeah, but it's not really any different than
something like an affiliateprogram or, you know, there's a
lot of ways where we cut apercentage of our income out to
other expenses. There's notintellectually necessarily
anything different to a revenueshare to your coach versus a
(18:35):
revenue share to a referral oran affiliate.
Lacey Sites (18:38):
A %. It's basically like an operating expense at
that point. And like, what Ialways remind people too is that
like, the thing that's so safeabout it is it's literally based
on what you make just likeaffiliate sales, right? Like,
I'm not paying out affiliates ifthey're not making sales. I'm
like, it's the same here.
So I think that's supervaluable.
Susan Boles (18:58):
Absolutely. So how do you actually execute this? So
you are like from an actualphysical exchange of invoices
and payments. How do you makethat happen? How does that kind
of exchange work?
Lacey Sites (19:16):
Yeah, great question. So in our contract, we
have the right to audit any andall of their books, basically.
That is not a practice thatfeels necessary. Most of the
time, right? Like, I feel likethat partnership mentality, like
that starts off the coachingrelationship in such a different
way.
Like, I feel like I just knowwhere my clients are at. Like,
(19:38):
they're telling me about theirsales. I know what they're
making. Like, I have aguesstimate of like where we're
ending up. So like, I neverreally feel this like deep pull
to be like, how can I like getexact specifics?
Like I, we truly form arelationship where I just
believe and totally trust inwhat they're saying. And we're
talking enough and communicatingenough. I'm like very hands on
(19:59):
with all my clients that like, Ipretty much know, right? In
terms of like the specifics,what happens is we have an
automated reminder that goes outto all of our clients on the
first Tuesday of every month,basically to say like, reconcile
your numbers for last month, letus know what they are. They have
a certain amount of days to getthat back to us, then we invoice
(20:20):
them based on their percentage,and then they have like, you
know, ten days to take care ofit.
So they're effectively gettingtwo invoices from us each month,
which is the base rate and thenthe percentage. And so instead
of paying one monthly sum, so tospeak, like in most coaching
situations, they're basicallypaying us twice a month.
Susan Boles (20:44):
Your clients are getting great results from this,
which is amazing. But what kindof impact on your business has
this had? Either with helpingyou build in some margins or
just generally feeling calmer.
Lacey Sites (20:57):
Oh my gosh. It's changed everything. So I'm I'm
someone that loves one on one.Some of my clients don't. I
could be on seven calls in a dayand be like, That was the best
day ever.
And some of my clients are like,If I was on seven calls in a
day, would jump off a bridge. Icannot with that.
Susan Boles (21:14):
Yeah, that sounds exhausting.
Lacey Sites (21:16):
Right? So it's just a matter of personal preference.
This is certainly not arecommendation I have for
everyone, but for me and mypersonality and what I love, it
has been an incredible fit andit's just changed the game
because for so long, I wasbasically told by friends and
mentors and whatever is that Iwas limiting myself and playing
(21:36):
small by not scaling with theone to many model and by not
having big group programs andwhatever. And I'll tell you that
I tried it. I remember my lastgroup program launch, it went
well.
I think we had 43 people. It wasgood. I hated it. I loved the
people. I just hated it.
I hated launching. I hatedrunning a group. I wanted to,
(21:59):
like, literally be in all oftheir businesses. I would, stay
up at night, like searching themon the Internet to try to find
out more about their biz like,it just was not a good
situation. Right?
Susan Boles (22:10):
Well, I think there's a lot of messages out
there about that. That is theonly choice in terms of scaling
an online business is that youhave to start doing group
programs or you have to startdoing courses. And there's no
possible way to work one on onewith clients without either
growing an agency or figuringout an alternative. And I love
(22:34):
that you kind of said screw itto all of that. So I'll just
find a way to do it.
Lacey Sites (22:39):
Yeah. I mean, I really did feel like that. Like
I was basically just like, I'mso sick of hearing like one on
one isn't scalable. Like, I'lljust figure that out because
that's like, I mean, this soundsso cheesy, but I really feel
like this measure of like, butthis is what I'm meant to be
doing in the world kind ofthing. And so it's just changed
everything in terms of like, Ifeel like we actually have what
I can call scalable one on one.
So we started at the beginningof last year and you can imagine
(23:02):
I had like a lot of clients thatwere grandfathered in. Last year
we did nothing different in ourbusiness besides changing to
that new model. And again, a lotof people were grandfathered in,
so it wasn't like a full scalething. We added 100 ks in
revenue to our business lastyear, with that.
Susan Boles (23:18):
Just from that. Wow, that's impressive.
Lacey Sites (23:20):
Like didn't work more, didn't take on more
clients, nothing. Like it wasjust like with the new clients
and their growth, that's what wewere able to add. And so for me,
like, I might not have thebusiness model that goes 0 to a
million in a year, but just tobe able to see, like, we can add
6 figures every year throughthis thing, and I think we'll
have added 6 figures this yeartoo. It just has changed my
(23:41):
ability to be like, I can do itmy way. I can make things work
my way.
And like, there's literallynothing in the world that makes
me more proud than being able tobe like, I made an extra hundred
k because I helped my clientsmake an extra million. Like,
that is so satisfying to me.
Susan Boles (23:57):
Well, yeah. And it's great. It's a great sales
tool. I love actual numbers andsaying these are the actual
results that I got. Like, here'sthe real numbers.
Here's what happened. Here's theimpact. And I think that's
really powerful. But I also lovethe perspective that it was
really about doubling down onyour commitment to your clients
(24:18):
and your commitment to run abusiness that was the right
business for you and how youwork and how you want to work.
And I think that isunderestimated as a, I guess, a
determining factor of what kindof business you should run.
Lacey Sites (24:35):
Yeah. I always say to my clients, like making money
isn't the most important thing.It's how you make the money. I
could be making, I probablycould be making a lot more to be
perfectly honest. If I had gonethe do a big group program
thing, it just wouldn't matterbecause I wouldn't be happy.
And like, why did all of usactually start our business?
Cause we actually want to feellike happy and lit up and make
(24:58):
the money. And so the how is sofreaking important in terms of
it matching your personality.Think for some people like the
big scale launches, and so Ihave plenty of clients whose
personality that epicallymatches, but like, I think that
we just don't take into accountenough, like what is the thing
that makes this not feel like ajob? Because then the money is
like an extra bonus.
Susan Boles (25:19):
Yep. So what are you planning to do in terms of
scaling after this? How has thischanged your approach to
scaling? Are you at a you'regoing to hit capacity and stick
with your clients that you'vegot and continue to grow their
revenue? Or are there otherother ways that you're looking
(25:40):
at approaching this?
Lacey Sites (25:42):
I feel like I'm now in the practice. This is like a
little bit woo, but it'srelevant. Like, I just always
believe like a divine downloadis coming because I had such an
epic experience with being like,I will be a one on one person
and then being in the bath tuband just finding the answer.
Basically every year in mybusiness, I always tell myself,
(26:02):
it's always this time of year,it's always around now, I'm
always like, a divine downloadis coming. And I don't know what
it is yet, but something elsewill come.
Last year it was that I decidedto do my podcast. And basically
what I do on my podcast is Ijust record six months of
coaching someone. And that waslike totally divine download
idea, like, you know, just oneof those things. So anyway, like
(26:22):
TBD, but in terms of thescalability plan, obviously,
like, I could just cap it interms of, like, we're growing
because our clients' revenue isgrowing every year. Right?
And so I think that that is atrajectory that, like, is really
unlimited, but I'm also testingit and doing it in another
model, which is a mastermindmodel with percentages. So I
(26:43):
have eight people right now in amastermind where we do
percentages from that too.
Susan Boles (26:48):
Oh, interesting.
Lacey Sites (26:49):
And that's been really, really amazing too. So
in some ways it's like scalableon many levels, but the revenue
percentage is going to continueto be something that's really
present. And I think it will bethe thing that continues to grow
our revenue too.
Susan Boles (27:02):
No, I absolutely think that. And I think it does
allow you to double down on theclients that you have where so
often when we're stuck withfixed rate kind of engagements
that aren't necessarily tied tothe success or the results that
we're seeing for clients.There's this kind of tapping out
with a specific client where,you know, if, if they came in
(27:23):
fifteen years ago when yourrates were really, really low,
you know, you have to offloadthem or get them onto a new more
play. If your rates change, youare then compelled to either
find new clients or bump theclients that you have. And I
love that this kind of modelallows you to continue
reinvesting in that partnership,continue reinvesting in the
(27:45):
business and the results thatyou've already seen without
feeling that pressure toconstantly be renegotiating in
order to raise your rates or hityour revenue goals.
Lacey Sites (27:55):
I really like how you said that. I think that's a
really great point, which is Ifeel like it actually lets you
almost like put your attentionon the scale instead of on the
sale. Right. And so I feel likeI get to invest a lot of my
attention in the skill ofcoaching and growth and the
things that I'm like mostethically interested in. Right.
Because that other piece istaking care of itself in a new
(28:17):
way. So I think that's a perfectway to say it.
Susan Boles (28:19):
One of the most powerful levers in the Calmer
framework is business design.And that can look a lot of
different ways. It can be aboutdesigning the delivery of your
service to be easier for you todeliver. But like Lacey, it can
also look like thoughtfullyengineering your pricing model.
While something like revenuesharing won't necessarily work
for all industries or allbusinesses, it is a unique way
(28:42):
to grow your business withoutcreating a bigger burden.
It's kind of the perfectencapsulation of what a calmer
business could look like.Because sometimes engineering
comb isn't about recreating thewheel or burning the whole thing
down. Sometimes it's just acalibration or a tweak in the
right place that can make allthe difference. Lacey's change
(29:04):
to how she was charging for herservices is a great example of a
small tweak or a recalibrationtowards Calm, and it's one that
makes a lot of sense for bothher and her clients. Lacey
benefits because she can growher revenue without necessarily
taking on more clients andreducing her bandwidth, and her
clients get to mitigate some ofthe risk of working with a new
(29:26):
provider, which is a huge winfor them.
Maybe your business isn't quitethe right fit to do a revenue
share. It's really easiest toimplement in businesses that
help folks directly increasetheir revenue. But often, we're
really just generally settingour pricing based on a default
decision, whether that's thestandard for your industry or
(29:46):
what you think you're supposedto charge. So something to
consider is thinking morecreatively about potentially how
to align your pricing to helpyou build margins or align your
pricing so that your incentivesand your clients' incentives are
more in sync. That can be areally important aspect of more
proactively calibrating yourbusiness design lever towards
(30:09):
calm and away from the default.
And if that's something wheremaybe you're getting a little
bit stuck and you don't have anycreative ideas in your pocket, I
can help. If you need someinspiration, you can grab my
Calmer service design swipe fileat the link in the show notes.
It's got about 60 plus differentexamples of services delivered
in different ways and priced indifferent ways that can serve
(30:32):
inspiration for you. Lacey isone of those examples. Or if you
need a little bit more supportor customized ideas, we can work
together one on one to come upwith a pricing model that works
for you and helps you buildmargins and engineer coal.
You can grab my services guideat beyondmargins.com/services or
(30:52):
at the link in the show notes toget all the details about how we
could potentially work together.And until next time, stay calm.
Hi.
So you've built a service that gets results. When
your clients follow your plan,their revenue grows. And when
they grow, your business grows.Right? Probably not.
Even if your work createsmassive ROI for your clients,
your income will still likelydepend on those flat fees or
(00:28):
fixed retainers. And there is aceiling to how far those can
stretch. You want to scale, butwithout walking away from the
deep high impact work youactually like doing. You want a
model that feels more alignedwhere you and your clients are
on the same team and where thebetter they do, the better you
do. But most of the advice onpricing strategy is either
(00:51):
vague, so just raise your rates,or it demands a hard pivot into
one to many offers.
What if there was another path?What if you could scale by tying
your revenue to the results yourclients actually get and build a
model that reflects the trust,the impact, and the partnership
at the heart of your work?Imagine this. A client just
(01:15):
closed a hundred k launch.You've been in the trenches with
them, refining strategy,reviewing copy, helping them
ship their offer.
And when they win, you winbecause you're getting 10% of
that revenue as part of yourcompensation. That's the model
Lacey Sites built inside hercoaching business. She didn't
stop working with clients. Shedidn't add a group program. She
(01:38):
just changed how she gets paidand in doing so doubled her
revenue without adding any newclients.
I'm Susan Bowles, and you'relistening to Calm is the New
KPI, the show where we challengedefault business advice and
break down the levers you canpull to build a calmer business
that actually works for you.Today's episode is part our
(01:59):
series on scaling your clientbusiness without ditching
clients, and we're focusing onthe business design lever of the
calmer framework. If you've everwished your pricing model felt
more equitable or more you'veprofitable, this episode might
open up a new way of thinking.This is a re edited conversation
from my twenty nineteeninterview with Lacey Seitz, a
(02:21):
founder of A Lit Up Life. Thisis one of my top listened to
episodes.
Lacey and I dig into how revenuesharing actually works in
practice, how and why Laceytested her ideas before she
rolled them out, and howfiltering for the right clients
is critical when your incomedepends on their success. Before
(02:51):
Lacey shifted her pricing model,her business looked a lot yours
might. She was working withclients one on one, charging
flat fees, delivering bigresults, and getting the same
paycheck no matter how big thoseresults were. That's the
default. You get hired to helpsomeone grow their business.
You roll up your sleeves, youdig deep, and maybe even help
them hit a record breakingmilestone. And whether they make
(03:15):
10 k or a hundred k, you getpaid the same amount. It's
steady. It's familiar. And it'swhat most of us were told
success looks like as a serviceprovider.
But that's exactly the problem.The default way of doing
business says you charge foryour time, not your impact. You
scale by stepping back fromclient work. And if you want to
(03:37):
earn more, your only options areraising your rates or busting
your butt to get more clients.The math is rigid.
The incentives are misaligned.And even when you want to invest
deeply in your client's success,there's no built in reason for
your clients to see you as along term strategic partner.
It's a default model that worksuntil it doesn't. For Lacey, the
(04:00):
breaking point came when shestarted hearing the same thing
from every new lead. I've beenburned before.
Nervous. I've paid high ticketcoaches who didn't deliver. And
she realized if she wanted tobuild real trust, if she wanted
to attract smart strategicclients who are ready to do the
(04:20):
work, she needed a pricing modelthat reflected partnership she
was actually offering. So shestarted experimenting. Not with
her services, but with how shegot paid.
And the results were, well,you'll hear for yourself.
(04:44):
Alright. Hi, Lacey. Thanks somuch for being here with me
today.
Lacey Sites (04:48):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.
Susan Boles (04:50):
So give me like a quick one sentence, you know,
who you are, what you do kind ofto start the conversation off
here.
Lacey Sites (04:57):
Yeah, absolutely. I have my MBA and my master's in
mental health counseling, Ibasically put those two together
to help high achieving womengrow and scale their online
business.
Susan Boles (05:06):
You have a very unique kind of pricing
compensation structure in yourbusiness. Can you tell me a
little bit more about that? Howit works?
Lacey Sites (05:16):
Absolutely. So when clients hire me, they pay me a
base rate, but then on top ofthat, they pay me 10% of the new
revenue generated through ourwork together.
Susan Boles (05:26):
Did you always price your services that way? Or
was this something that youtransitioned to at some point?
Was there some kind of triggerthat led you down this path?
Lacey Sites (05:34):
For sure. I did not always price them this way. And
there was definitely a trigger.Initially I just priced
normally, like, you know, I justhad a flat coaching rate. That's
what you paid that kind ofthing.
But, but something I was hearingfrom people over and over again
that were coming to me to workwith me is basically like, I've
been burned before and I'mscared. Right. Another thing
that I was hearing is like, Ireally want to do this, but
(05:57):
like, it just feels like such abig leap pricing wise. My old
background is that I was in thenonprofit world and I worked a
lot on like re engineeringservice delivery models. So I
was like always asking thequestion of like, how can we do
this better?
How can we reach more people?How can this be more accessible?
Things like that. Right. And sothat really was the question I
started to apply here.
Like how can we createaccessibility? How can this be
(06:18):
done better? How can people stopbeing so scared of getting, you
know, screwed again, basically,or whatever, you know,
Susan Boles (06:25):
their thought process Right. And,
Lacey Sites (06:27):
and that's kind of where this came from. I had been
pondering it for, for quite along time. And then I like
specifically remember one day Iwas like, taking a bubble bath
as, as it would be, not thinkingabout it at all. And it
literally just hit me. Like, Iwas like, oh my God, I'm just
going to charge a revenuepercentage.
And I pretty much ran with it.Start starting right from that
moment.
Susan Boles (06:49):
So how do you track that? Is it, you know, any
revenue that they, that comes inafter you guys start working
together or
Lacey Sites (06:55):
it's like, you pay me and hopefully it works out
for you. Right? Right. And Iwant it to feel like you pay me
and I have a vested interest inyour success. When I win, you
win, and I call it partnership.
And so basically they only payme when they're, when they're
having that win, when they'remaking that money, when their
revenue is growing. And it hasjust been incredible.
Susan Boles (07:17):
So did you transition existing clients or
you use the new model with newclients? How did you, how did
you actually implement this?
Lacey Sites (07:24):
So actually what I did at first was I, I'm like a
big tester. Like, I don't loveto like dive into anything. Like
I want to get data. I want totweak it, like stuff like that.
So what I did in the beginningwas I basically ran what I
called the partnership processand I had people apply.
And so I didn't even charge abase rate then. Was basically
like, work with me for 10% ofyour revenue. And I had so many
(07:48):
people apply. Like I think thefirst time we had maybe a
hundred to 200 applications.
Susan Boles (07:52):
Wow.
Lacey Sites (07:53):
And I took people through a really long process
because I was basically like,well, I want to vet you if and
make sure you're
Susan Boles (07:59):
Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of risk on your
part. Yeah. You know?
Lacey Sites (08:02):
Totally. So I did that. The first time I think I
took on two or three clients andI think both of them ended up
paying me more than my flatrate. And I was like, wow,
there's something to this. Andso I actually ran the
partnership process, I thinkthree more times before I took
it full scale in my business.
(08:23):
So I had a lot of data going in,which was really important. Like
I already could see how this wasworking. I think that's really
important with innovative ideas.You sometimes were so quick to
jump in and it's like, okay ifyou test it for a while. Like I
basically tested it for a yearbefore I brought it fully into
my business.
When I did, I only did it fornew clients and I grandfathered
in old clients. So I still haveclients to this day that have
(08:47):
been with me that long. I mean,maybe like one or two, right?
But like that aren't paying apercentage, but basically
everyone else is.
Susan Boles (08:53):
Interesting. So when you were vetting people to
decide whether or not they'd bea good match for this revenue
share model. What were you, whatwere you looking for? What
characteristics were youfiltering for?
Lacey Sites (09:08):
The most important to me was honestly commitment
because I think that somethinglike a revenue share like that,
where you don't have skin in thegame up front, like, if you're
lacking in commitment, that canbe a really big deterrent. So
Susan Boles (09:21):
Yeah. Especially when we're talking revenue and
it's dependent on them actuallygoing and selling things.
Lacey Sites (09:25):
Oh my god. A %. So, basically I took them, like they
had to fill out an application,then they had to make a video,
then they had to fill out anentire business plan. So that
was like a three week process.And so by that point, like they
had invested a lot in terms oflike time, energy, their own,
like, you know, digging andanswering questions and
(09:45):
everything like that.
And so I was really more likewho is willing to go through
this whole process, number one,and stay committed to it. And
then how committed are they inthose applications? Like, you
know, it's very obvious whensomeone wants to put like a one
word answer for everything.
Susan Boles (10:00):
Right. Yes.
Lacey Sites (10:00):
Right? Versus like someone that like really wants
to tell you like how they'regoing to use this to make it
work. That's a constant questionI'm always asking in that
process is like, what are youbringing to the table? Like,
this is a partnership. So like,tell me why I should pick you.
What are you going to do to makethis work? And then I kind of
just went off my gut, honestly.
Susan Boles (10:18):
Interesting. I love the idea of using the process
itself as a filter. I dosomething similar with
essentially with one of my leadsort of products or services is
I have a fairly extensivequestionnaire that's there for
the purpose of making sure thatthey're thinking about their
answers, that they're gettingready to have the conversation
(10:39):
we're going to have, and kind ofthat using that commitment as
part of the process. So I lovethat concept.
Lacey Sites (10:47):
Absolutely. I think that it's surprising how many
people aren't committed tothings like that. And so it is a
really, really helpful filter.
Susan Boles (10:57):
Yeah, and absolutely, particularly in
something where there's so muchrisk on your end in terms of,
you know, you can coach them,but you can't do the work for
them. Ultimately, they have tobe able to do the work to
generate that revenue. That'sultimately the result of your
work together. And you're takingon the risk of them not doing
(11:19):
the work that they're supposedto do.
Lacey Sites (11:21):
Totally. I think like one way that I've reframed
that is I want to stand behindmy own work and I want to put my
money where my mouth is kind ofthing. I think that is vastly
missing in our space in so manyways. Like I think we've gotten
to this point where we're askingto pay very, very, very, very
high rates without reallywanting to have any stake in
that game or put our money whereour mouth is. And like, as a
(11:43):
coach, you can't do the work,but like we also can't take no
responsibility.
And so I think it's just thisthing I like to play with of
like, what is my level ofresponsibility in this? Right.
And I guess you could say Ivalued it at 10%.
Susan Boles (11:57):
Yeah, I think that's an interesting
perspective because I agree. Andthis I can see where the revenue
share model sort of functions asa little bit of a guarantee for
them from the client'sperspective. It's an easy it's
an easy sales tool of, you know,you know, this doesn't happen
unless you actually see results.So I I love that as a both as a
(12:18):
sales tool and as your ownpersonal check to make sure that
you are still really invested inyour work with your clients.
Lacey Sites (12:25):
Absolutely. I think that's a beautiful way to say
it. Like, it is a it is like acheck on both sides, almost.
It's like a check and balancekind of thing. Right?
And something that I found to bereally interesting in doing it
is I feel like I've almost,attract, and obviously I'm like
a super biased because they'remy clients. Right. But I feel
like I attract such smartbusiness women because of that.
(12:47):
Like, I feel like they're reallythinking about it in a different
way. Like, so many of my clientsare, you know, making over the
two fifty, five hundred ks markand hiring me because they want
that because to hire someonethat's further along, so to
speak in that realm, you know,you're talking $5,000 a month
for a base rate for a coach kindof thing.
(13:08):
And they're like, I could dothat. I can afford that at this
revenue, but I want somebodywho's like literally invested in
my growth and who I pay if Igrow, who I'm not just paying a
really high rate because they'vemaybe gotten a result before.
Want someone who I'm paying areally high rate because they
can get me a result.
Susan Boles (13:24):
Absolutely. Yeah. And I could see where that kind
of model would inherentlyattract people that are more
invested and are thinking morecritically about how how their
business operates and how theyare valuing basically every
dollar that goes out and makingsure that that dollar is working
(13:46):
for them.
Lacey Sites (13:47):
Right. They were thinking about it in really
smart strategic ways. Like,what's the, what's the return on
that investment? And when theyunderstand how partnership works
and how this model works,they're like, well, that's
really obvious.
Susan Boles (13:59):
So when you started off experimenting with this new
model, you were doing just arevenue share as your
compensation. But currently,your pricing model is a flat
monthly rate plus the 10%revenue share. So what prompted
you to add back in a base rate?
Lacey Sites (14:16):
Yeah. Great question. So initially when I
did the revenue share only, itwas, like, with two clients,
basically. I would do, like, twoat a time, and then I would have
still all my regular clients,like, just on a base rate or
just on a regular paymentstructure. I kept feeling a pull
to be like, this is somethinglike, this means something I
really want to turn my businessin this direction.
But fundamentally at the end ofthe day, like I have operating
(14:38):
expenses as a business. Right.And so I felt like I needed some
level of certainty and I neededto take some level of
responsibility there too becauseof course I have a team to pay
and all of that. So I was tryingto find that balance of like,
how can I basically make this mybusiness model but without
taking so much risk that I'mlike not putting myself in a
(14:59):
good position to actually servemy clients? Because I think
that's important too, wherelike, I want to be invested in
their success, but not soinvested that I'm like, well, if
you don't do good on thislaunch, I can't pay my team.
Susan Boles (15:09):
Right.
Lacey Sites (15:10):
Cause then we're like over invested and it gets
weird. So for me, that's wherethe base rate came in. Like, was
like, if I'm gonna transition mywhole business to this, that has
to be a non negotiable becausethat keeps me the right amount
of invested and detached with myclients. And it gives me the
right amount of certainty andability to function and operate
as a business.
Susan Boles (15:31):
That totally makes sense. And balancing kind of
where your level of risk andinvestment should ultimately be
and making that reflect how youemotionally are also invested in
their business.
Lacey Sites (15:45):
Exactly. And I think another important piece of
it is I really do think there'ssome level of energetic exchange
that's really important inhaving to pay your coach
something, right? Yeah. Like,there's a belief that comes
through that of, like, I believethis much in my business that I
am willing to put this money onthe table first kind of thing.
Susan Boles (16:04):
Yeah. There's definitely a psychological kind
of investment that comes withputting your money where your
mouth is.
Lacey Sites (16:10):
Exactly. So I feel like I'm kind of doing that
right by being like, I'm willingto like be your partner in this
and let's go all in. And then Ineed them to be able to do it a
little bit too. Like, and I'mwilling to pay your base rate.
Like, So it feels like there'sthis even exchange of us both
being like, let's put someenergy and some stake in the
game.
Susan Boles (16:28):
That totally makes sense. So when you are pitching
this nontraditional model to newclients, do you get any kind of
resistance because it's veryatypical or do you use it as a
filter or how how does that kindof conversation end up working?
Lacey Sites (16:46):
I have to tell you, when I first started doing this,
I was like, I basically preparedmyself. Like, was like, I'm
probably going to get a ton ofpushback on calls. This is
probably going to be somethingmost people aren't going to be
interested in adopting. I'm okaywith that. Like, I, I like
prepped hard.
You know what I mean? I don'tthink I've really gotten one
sincere objection around it.Mhmm. Because most people are
(17:09):
like, I freaking love that youare invested in my success in
that way.
Susan Boles (17:13):
So it's most people are viewing it more as a
positive than a negative.
Lacey Sites (17:19):
Exactly. Exactly. Like the only time I've ever
really gotten, any level ofpushback is sometimes like, so a
lot of my clients work with mefor a long time. Like I have a
six month program, but most ofmy clients stay with me for a
year or longer. And every nowand then, like as a client has
like really grown in our worktogether and they're about to
resign, they're like, oh mygosh, I realize how much money
(17:42):
I'm resigning for at this pointbasically.
Right.
Susan Boles (17:44):
Yep.
Lacey Sites (17:46):
And, and I'm like always happy to talk through
that with them, but ultimatelythe, like the conclusion most of
them come to is like, but thereason I'm making this much
money is because we've had thispartnership. So it makes sense
versus like going to someoneelse and paying them this much
money who hasn't been part of mysuccess or hasn't built this
with me, so to speak.
Susan Boles (18:04):
That totally makes sense. Yeah. The concept is just
really interesting.
Lacey Sites (18:08):
It's a lot to take in when you're like, at that
point, you're like, oh wait, Iget how much I'm making and how
much I'm resigning for at thispoint. Right?
Susan Boles (18:15):
Yeah, but it's not really any different than
something like an affiliateprogram or, you know, there's a
lot of ways where we cut apercentage of our income out to
other expenses. There's notintellectually necessarily
anything different to a revenueshare to your coach versus a
(18:35):
revenue share to a referral oran affiliate.
Lacey Sites (18:38):
A %. It's basically like an operating expense at
that point. And like, what Ialways remind people too is that
like, the thing that's so safeabout it is it's literally based
on what you make just likeaffiliate sales, right? Like,
I'm not paying out affiliates ifthey're not making sales. I'm
like, it's the same here.
So I think that's supervaluable.
Susan Boles (18:58):
Absolutely. So how do you actually execute this? So
you are like from an actualphysical exchange of invoices
and payments. How do you makethat happen? How does that kind
of exchange work?
Lacey Sites (19:16):
Yeah, great question. So in our contract, we
have the right to audit any andall of their books, basically.
That is not a practice thatfeels necessary. Most of the
time, right? Like, I feel likethat partnership mentality, like
that starts off the coachingrelationship in such a different
way.
Like, I feel like I just knowwhere my clients are at. Like,
(19:38):
they're telling me about theirsales. I know what they're
making. Like, I have aguesstimate of like where we're
ending up. So like, I neverreally feel this like deep pull
to be like, how can I like getexact specifics?
Like I, we truly form arelationship where I just
believe and totally trust inwhat they're saying. And we're
talking enough and communicatingenough. I'm like very hands on
(19:59):
with all my clients that like, Ipretty much know, right? In
terms of like the specifics,what happens is we have an
automated reminder that goes outto all of our clients on the
first Tuesday of every month,basically to say like, reconcile
your numbers for last month, letus know what they are. They have
a certain amount of days to getthat back to us, then we invoice
(20:20):
them based on their percentage,and then they have like, you
know, ten days to take care ofit.
So they're effectively gettingtwo invoices from us each month,
which is the base rate and thenthe percentage. And so instead
of paying one monthly sum, so tospeak, like in most coaching
situations, they're basicallypaying us twice a month.
Susan Boles (20:44):
Your clients are getting great results from this,
which is amazing. But what kindof impact on your business has
this had? Either with helpingyou build in some margins or
just generally feeling calmer.
Lacey Sites (20:57):
Oh my gosh. It's changed everything. So I'm I'm
someone that loves one on one.Some of my clients don't. I
could be on seven calls in a dayand be like, That was the best
day ever.
And some of my clients are like,If I was on seven calls in a
day, would jump off a bridge. Icannot with that.
Susan Boles (21:14):
Yeah, that sounds exhausting.
Lacey Sites (21:16):
Right? So it's just a matter of personal preference.
This is certainly not arecommendation I have for
everyone, but for me and mypersonality and what I love, it
has been an incredible fit andit's just changed the game
because for so long, I wasbasically told by friends and
mentors and whatever is that Iwas limiting myself and playing
(21:36):
small by not scaling with theone to many model and by not
having big group programs andwhatever. And I'll tell you that
I tried it. I remember my lastgroup program launch, it went
well.
I think we had 43 people. It wasgood. I hated it. I loved the
people. I just hated it.
I hated launching. I hatedrunning a group. I wanted to,
(21:59):
like, literally be in all oftheir businesses. I would, stay
up at night, like searching themon the Internet to try to find
out more about their biz like,it just was not a good
situation. Right?
Susan Boles (22:10):
Well, I think there's a lot of messages out
there about that. That is theonly choice in terms of scaling
an online business is that youhave to start doing group
programs or you have to startdoing courses. And there's no
possible way to work one on onewith clients without either
growing an agency or figuringout an alternative. And I love
(22:34):
that you kind of said screw itto all of that. So I'll just
find a way to do it.
Lacey Sites (22:39):
Yeah. I mean, I really did feel like that. Like
I was basically just like, I'mso sick of hearing like one on
one isn't scalable. Like, I'lljust figure that out because
that's like, I mean, this soundsso cheesy, but I really feel
like this measure of like, butthis is what I'm meant to be
doing in the world kind ofthing. And so it's just changed
everything in terms of like, Ifeel like we actually have what
I can call scalable one on one.
So we started at the beginningof last year and you can imagine
(23:02):
I had like a lot of clients thatwere grandfathered in. Last year
we did nothing different in ourbusiness besides changing to
that new model. And again, a lotof people were grandfathered in,
so it wasn't like a full scalething. We added 100 ks in
revenue to our business lastyear, with that.
Susan Boles (23:18):
Just from that. Wow, that's impressive.
Lacey Sites (23:20):
Like didn't work more, didn't take on more
clients, nothing. Like it wasjust like with the new clients
and their growth, that's what wewere able to add. And so for me,
like, I might not have thebusiness model that goes 0 to a
million in a year, but just tobe able to see, like, we can add
6 figures every year throughthis thing, and I think we'll
have added 6 figures this yeartoo. It just has changed my
(23:41):
ability to be like, I can do itmy way. I can make things work
my way.
And like, there's literallynothing in the world that makes
me more proud than being able tobe like, I made an extra hundred
k because I helped my clientsmake an extra million. Like,
that is so satisfying to me.
Susan Boles (23:57):
Well, yeah. And it's great. It's a great sales
tool. I love actual numbers andsaying these are the actual
results that I got. Like, here'sthe real numbers.
Here's what happened. Here's theimpact. And I think that's
really powerful. But I also lovethe perspective that it was
really about doubling down onyour commitment to your clients
(24:18):
and your commitment to run abusiness that was the right
business for you and how youwork and how you want to work.
And I think that isunderestimated as a, I guess, a
determining factor of what kindof business you should run.
Lacey Sites (24:35):
Yeah. I always say to my clients, like making money
isn't the most important thing.It's how you make the money. I
could be making, I probablycould be making a lot more to be
perfectly honest. If I had gonethe do a big group program
thing, it just wouldn't matterbecause I wouldn't be happy.
And like, why did all of usactually start our business?
Cause we actually want to feellike happy and lit up and make
(24:58):
the money. And so the how is sofreaking important in terms of
it matching your personality.Think for some people like the
big scale launches, and so Ihave plenty of clients whose
personality that epicallymatches, but like, I think that
we just don't take into accountenough, like what is the thing
that makes this not feel like ajob? Because then the money is
like an extra bonus.
Susan Boles (25:19):
Yep. So what are you planning to do in terms of
scaling after this? How has thischanged your approach to
scaling? Are you at a you'regoing to hit capacity and stick
with your clients that you'vegot and continue to grow their
revenue? Or are there otherother ways that you're looking
(25:40):
at approaching this?
Lacey Sites (25:42):
I feel like I'm now in the practice. This is like a
little bit woo, but it'srelevant. Like, I just always
believe like a divine downloadis coming because I had such an
epic experience with being like,I will be a one on one person
and then being in the bath tuband just finding the answer.
Basically every year in mybusiness, I always tell myself,
(26:02):
it's always this time of year,it's always around now, I'm
always like, a divine downloadis coming. And I don't know what
it is yet, but something elsewill come.
Last year it was that I decidedto do my podcast. And basically
what I do on my podcast is Ijust record six months of
coaching someone. And that waslike totally divine download
idea, like, you know, just oneof those things. So anyway, like
(26:22):
TBD, but in terms of thescalability plan, obviously,
like, I could just cap it interms of, like, we're growing
because our clients' revenue isgrowing every year. Right?
And so I think that that is atrajectory that, like, is really
unlimited, but I'm also testingit and doing it in another
model, which is a mastermindmodel with percentages. So I
(26:43):
have eight people right now in amastermind where we do
percentages from that too.
Susan Boles (26:48):
Oh, interesting.
Lacey Sites (26:49):
And that's been really, really amazing too. So
in some ways it's like scalableon many levels, but the revenue
percentage is going to continueto be something that's really
present. And I think it will bethe thing that continues to grow
our revenue too.
Susan Boles (27:02):
No, I absolutely think that. And I think it does
allow you to double down on theclients that you have where so
often when we're stuck withfixed rate kind of engagements
that aren't necessarily tied tothe success or the results that
we're seeing for clients.There's this kind of tapping out
with a specific client where,you know, if, if they came in
(27:23):
fifteen years ago when yourrates were really, really low,
you know, you have to offloadthem or get them onto a new more
play. If your rates change, youare then compelled to either
find new clients or bump theclients that you have. And I
love that this kind of modelallows you to continue
reinvesting in that partnership,continue reinvesting in the
(27:45):
business and the results thatyou've already seen without
feeling that pressure toconstantly be renegotiating in
order to raise your rates or hityour revenue goals.
Lacey Sites (27:55):
I really like how you said that. I think that's a
really great point, which is Ifeel like it actually lets you
almost like put your attentionon the scale instead of on the
sale. Right. And so I feel likeI get to invest a lot of my
attention in the skill ofcoaching and growth and the
things that I'm like mostethically interested in. Right.
Because that other piece istaking care of itself in a new
(28:17):
way. So I think that's a perfectway to say it.
Susan Boles (28:19):
One of the most powerful levers in the Calmer
framework is business design.And that can look a lot of
different ways. It can be aboutdesigning the delivery of your
service to be easier for you todeliver. But like Lacey, it can
also look like thoughtfullyengineering your pricing model.
While something like revenuesharing won't necessarily work
for all industries or allbusinesses, it is a unique way
(28:42):
to grow your business withoutcreating a bigger burden.
It's kind of the perfectencapsulation of what a calmer
business could look like.Because sometimes engineering
comb isn't about recreating thewheel or burning the whole thing
down. Sometimes it's just acalibration or a tweak in the
right place that can make allthe difference. Lacey's change
(29:04):
to how she was charging for herservices is a great example of a
small tweak or a recalibrationtowards Calm, and it's one that
makes a lot of sense for bothher and her clients. Lacey
benefits because she can growher revenue without necessarily
taking on more clients andreducing her bandwidth, and her
clients get to mitigate some ofthe risk of working with a new
(29:26):
provider, which is a huge winfor them.
Maybe your business isn't quitethe right fit to do a revenue
share. It's really easiest toimplement in businesses that
help folks directly increasetheir revenue. But often, we're
really just generally settingour pricing based on a default
decision, whether that's thestandard for your industry or
(29:46):
what you think you're supposedto charge. So something to
consider is thinking morecreatively about potentially how
to align your pricing to helpyou build margins or align your
pricing so that your incentivesand your clients' incentives are
more in sync. That can be areally important aspect of more
proactively calibrating yourbusiness design lever towards
(30:09):
calm and away from the default.
And if that's something wheremaybe you're getting a little
bit stuck and you don't have anycreative ideas in your pocket, I
can help. If you need someinspiration, you can grab my
Calmer service design swipe fileat the link in the show notes.
It's got about 60 plus differentexamples of services delivered
in different ways and priced indifferent ways that can serve
(30:32):
inspiration for you. Lacey isone of those examples. Or if you
need a little bit more supportor customized ideas, we can work
together one on one to come upwith a pricing model that works
for you and helps you buildmargins and engineer coal.
You can grab my services guideat beyondmargins.com/services or
(30:52):
at the link in the show notes toget all the details about how we
could potentially work together.And until next time, stay calm.
Hi.
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