Meeting Sonia van de Haar over a group discussion on ‘women, money, identity, power’ was a good way to gauge a feminist founder. I was leading this discussion at a female entrepreneur circle at the University of Technology Sydney in late 2018 and Sonia and I got on like wildfire.
We’ve been working together, and trading feminist memes on Instagram, ever since.
Sonia is an architectural colour specialist – an occupation I would have loved to do myself, if only I’d known such a thing existed! Sonia’s unique cross-disciplinary approach to colour is sought out by architects, designers and private clients who want to use colour thoughtfully and for maximum impact.
Here’s Sonia’s story.
Launching architectural colour design workshop
I joined the Hustle & Heart program in March 2019 followed by Brook’s Momentum membership in December 2019, just as I was transitioning my business base from Sydney to Canberra. 2020 was a crazy year and it was great having Brook’s insight and leadership in my inbox and on calls during this time.
I decided to join Brook’s Leverage mastermind in September 2023 because I was keen to start teaching my architectural colour design methodology to architects and spatial designers. Leverage supported me throughout the process of setting up my flagship group program, and in November 2023, I ran my first ‘test’ workshop in Tasmania, for the Australian Institute of Architects.
By March 2024 I was promoting workshops to the email list I had grown during the Leverage program. By the end of 2024 I had delivered 13 CPD workshops around the country.
It was an absolute joy talking shop with talented colleagues, and the feedback has been amazing, with 96% of survey respondents giving 4/5 or 5/5 stars to their course experience.
Too many architects rely on the same limited colour palette for every project. They’re not thinking of colour in terms of its spatial effects and its interaction with the environment.
Designers are hungry for the tools to design effectively with colour, and need the language to powerfully communicate context-driven colour concepts with their clients.
30 per cent growth
After completing Leverage mid 2024, I joined Brook’s Audacious mastermind because I was growing rapidly and wanted to have Brook’s coaching and support, and a community of female solo business owners to help me navigate these changes, while continuing to make bold decisions.
In 2024, both revenue and profit margins increased by 30 per cent. I was running courses across Australia, and I needed to build my team and support structures to pick up the slack. I had hired an office admin in 2020, thanks to Brook’s coaching, and in 2024, I have brought on a junior designer to help with client work.
Brook and I identified the stress points in my business, one of which was dealing with inquiries, which was taking up a lot of time, energy and stress. We turned this into a paid endeavour; clients now pay $1500 for a site visit, scope and quotation. If they proceed with the quote, this amount is applied as credit against their fee.
This has successfully turned a time suck into a revenue earner. More than 80% of these paid quotations turn into new jobs.
Another thing I wasn’t adequately charging for is project management, which can be significant for mural projects involving multiple people, intensive planning, additional insurances, and other incidentals. I’ve changed my approach to project management, and having more support has freed up my time to make better decisions and budget more accurately.
”A completely different way of being”
Joining the Audacious mastermind has changed my day to day experience of being in business. The constant stress of making decisions is now shared. It’s easy to get overwhelmed by a never ending to-do list and to clearly see what the priorities are when you’re doing everything solo.
As much as I love my family, they’re often the worst people to talk to for support – a sentiment that’s echoed by other Audacious masterminders! Family and friends may be well meaning, but they often express doubts and advise caution, when what you need is support and a cheer squad, in order to take bold action.
After a massive 2024, this year is about consolidating and leaning into what it’s like to not be constantly stressed or struggling to cope – what does that even look like!?
The Audacious community is about supporting each of us to excel at what we do, and have a damn good time while we do it. Our shared goals are to work the way we want to work, to keep ourselves in excellent health, to stimulate our curiosity and creativity and to own our ambitions.
I’ve done everything on my own for far too long and I’m over it! It’s extremely uplifting to be amongst like-minded owners, swapping book and music recommendations, meeting Brook at the spa when I visit Sydney, and actually enjoying the freedom that working for myself provides.
I’ve travelled to far north Queensland with another Audacious masterminder, to attend Allison’s yoga retreat and Allison is now my yoga teacher, leading me through her online classes; her in Townsville, me in Canberra, or wherever I happen to be working, the yoga comes with me.
My next best step
I started my business Lymesmith in 2011 and I sometimes laugh at myself about being a slow learner, because I still feel I need coaching and support.
If you just sign up for a course, it has a start and a finish date. You implement some of the things you learn, until the next crisis shows the gaps in your business. It’s impossible to implement all that you want to do, all at once.
The accountability and community inside of Audacious keeps me on track to continually implement, experiment and commit to working on my business.
At each stage of business, there are new challenges. With regular coaching support it’s easier to spot patterns of self-sabotage and with Brook’s guidance, to unpick these tendencies and move forward.
The regular check-ins from Brook, our accountability coach Kate, and the Audacious members make this far easier.
I hesitated resigning Audacious after my first six months because of the lingering feeling that I ‘should’ be able to do this all on my own. But fuck that! I juggle a million things every day; I work on multiple projects at a time, I teach, travel, market, manage staff and there’s so many creative projects I want to pursue. I don’t want to simplify or ‘give up’ any of the work I enjoy.
Audacious and Brook allow me to carry my ambitions more lightly and not ‘grind it out’. Audacious is about doing everything I want to do, but as consciously, joyfully and vibrantly as possible. Building my team, and having Audacious as my support crew has grown my capacity to take on more ambitious projects.
Creativity and business
The most difficult thing in running a ‘creative business’ is safeguarding my own creative time. It’s a constant goal, trying to get into a flow state so that I can do the design work I love most, and not get bogged down with admin, emails and to-do lists.
The work of running a business is challenging for a lot of creative people. I hate planning, schedules, Gantt charts, spreadsheets, financial reports, and as an introvert, I really do not enjoy marketing or social media, even though I am competent at all of the above and know that it’s necessary!
The ‘unstructured’ structure of Audacious helps me to prioritise creative work every day and to make good decisions – for example, what’s the best thing I can do right now?’
There’s a lot of noise on the internet and many coaches touting their wares. Brook is different! She’s genuine and unique in what she offers.
She’s also a ball of enthusiasm, and great fun to be with. Her keen intelligence and huge passion for helping female business owners to earn good money doing what they love is infectious.
Brook is continually developing and expanding her thinking and what she offers her clients. Her marketing communication gets better and better as she truly walks her talk.
While she’s witnessed my growth, I’m honoured that I’ve also witnessed her growth as a coach. We’ll be on the wild ride of business together for a while yet, and damn it if she isn’t always just up ahead, gesticulating wildly for me to catch up.
Get in touch with Sonia to discuss an in-house workshop for your design team.
Audacious Mastermind currently has two spots open. Join by March 31 to nab yourself a free spot in Ignite Visibility Accelerator. Apply now.
Women’s business group One Roof is the kind of community that makes you want to stick around, order hot chips and another drink, and open up about all your challenges, curiosities, obsessions, wins, and brain worms, safe in the knowledge that you’ve found your people.
I’ve been a member of One Roof since 2020, when they pivoted their Melbourne co-working space into a virtual membership. One Roof has kept me sane through the exponential rate of change in the online business world, and I’m proud to be a Sydney Ambassador, organising face-to-face events and get-togethers for established business women, growing owners, and those curiously flirting with business.
In 2023, One Roof launched Inner Circle, peer-led coaching circles. As all good online businesses do, they sought feedback from participants with the view to iterating and improving.
In late 2023, they engaged me for a VIP Strategy Session and together, we reimagined the program, redesigned it based on feedback and insights, and repositioned it, to relaunch in early 2024.
The necessity for change
A beta round of Inner Circle in 2023 successfully enrolled 80 One Roof participants at $200 each. Says Frances Goh, Head of Community and Growth, “We believed there was considerable value in the Inner Circle offer, substantiated by excellent feedback from participants.
“But when you’re contemplating a significant price rise, it’s normal to feel uncertain. So we engaged Brook because of her specialist skills in online business, digital marketing and premium positioning.”
The time was ripe. With so many new online businesses, online networking groups, and women’s business groups entering the market from 2020 onwards, One Roof needed to continue to differentiate themselves, especially after a sharp rebrand from Formulaik in 2023 that has elevated their perception.
One Roof were keen to improve, iterate, and reposition the Inner Circle program at a new, higher price that better reflected the value.
Pricing and values feasibility and implications
No business wants to alienate or annoy clients, and any time we seek to change something, we expose ourselves to this. But no matter how collaborative and client-centric our approach is, we also need to balance this with market trends, opportunities, and our personal preferences.
In other words, sometimes we need to be bold and clear with our segmentation strategy.
One Roof owner Sheree Rubinstein and Frances have a naturally collaborative, generous-spirited approach which is absolutely crucial if you’re to run and grow a networking group.
They have firm fans and excellent client retention, but change is the only constant in business (and life!). The larger One Roof has become, the more invaluable resources have been created. Ironically, for the membership business model, the more resources provided, the trickier client retention becomes as it is easier for people to become lost or overwhelmed, and to opt out.
This common issue for membership owners means that it’s not your fault, but it becomes your problem.
The Inner Circle program was a way to add additional value to members and profit to the business by focusing on the diamond of One Roof’s value proposition – its networks.
Increasing the price six-fold
Together, we created a new membership tier, which included Inner Circle in the new tier. The price was lifted from $200 to $1999, including an annual membership. Changes were introduced, including elevating the central feature of relationship-building.
While most owners know the value of their network, in practice, this is far harder to actually do — requiring time, chance (or luck!), emotional intelligence, patience, and many more attributes. One of the key features of Inner Circle, which makes it so valuable, is the curation of each small group.
Sheree and Frances spend considerable time picking individual members of each group, carefully curating the personalities, business types, and maturity levels of each. Inner Circle was restructured to rotate the groups, so that Inner Circle members would commit to a longer period of time, and rotate to different groups, which means more opportunities to meet other businesswomen and get to know, like and trust them.
Changing the program format also meant opening up a rolling enrolment, thereby expanding promotional periods and opportunities for sales — both to existing members and to attract new members to the One Roof world.
What I delivered
Alongside two in-depth strategy sessions with Sheree and Frances, our VIP Strategy Session included the new tier membership run sheet with a new profit plan for One Roof.
I delivered an in depth website analysis and suggested changes, plus a new sales page for the membership, alongside other detailed recommendations, listed in order of priority, focusing on improving membership retention and client experience.
The new Inner Circle program launched at the beginning of 2024, to a higher than anticipated response!
“People are loving the new format and getting a lot out of it, with an 85% ‘excellent’ response to our client satisfaction survey,” says Frances. “Working with Brook gave us the confidence to put it out there and her perspective brought so many little nuggets of gold that we hadn’t considered.”
(Please note, my link to One Roof is an affiliate link, which means I receive a small financial reward for any sales that eventuate. I would never recommend something that I didn’t enjoy, use myself, and genuinely recommend.)
I first met Keppie when I enrolled in a short course in song writing at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. I don’t fancy myself a song writer. But I do follow my curiosity, and when the thought bubbled up that I’d love to try writing songs, a quick Google search later, and I was enrolled in the course.
What I wasn’t to know was that this was the last face-to-face course the teacher, Keppie Coutts, would teach.
The course was brilliant and massively challenging – for reasons to be detailed in another blog post (because deliberately doing hard things regularly is a great practise for business owners, and gave me fantastic insights as a teacher, into how some of my students may feel).
But meeting Keppie was the real treasure.
Keppie Coutts and Benny Romalis together make up ‘How to Write Songs’ (HTWS), a business and YouTube channel they started together in 2021, which they have since grown to a whopping 118,000 subscribers.
Their story showcases content marketing and digital marketing in action – and this case study will highlight many savvy online business strategies, including exponential email list growth using one specific strategy, effective email funnels and sales pages, launch planning, and creating, launching and selling out a new flagship, premium group program – before it’s even open for sale.
Migrating people from socials onto your email list
When I started working with Keppie and Benny in 2023, they’d already started migrating their YouTube subscribers – numbering about 80,000 at the time (now 119,000 at the time of publishing) – onto their email list.
In the space of six short months, their email list had grown from approximately 800 subscribers to 18,000, using a strategy called ‘content upgrades’.
Content upgrades is the offer of additional content (typically in PDF format) that’s closely related to the topic of the free content you’re sharing (in this case, on YouTube), via a sign-up form. Content upgrades typically don’t have much of a funnel behind them, beyond delivery of the PDF, and people were joining the HTWS list from dozens of different video links, on dozens of different topics.
When an email list is growing rapidly, and through multiple entry points, it can create a haphazard experience for the subscriber, and result in higher-than-necessary levels of ‘list churn’ (when subscribers join and unsubscribe in high numbers).
Keppie and Benny engaged me to give strategic advice on email marketing and to create a mega ‘welcome funnel’ for all new subscribers.
Mapping the state-of-play and creating an email strategy
With any business that grows rapidly, it’s easy to create some chaos behind the scenes. So writing an email strategy for How to Write Songs began with mapping their current state-of-play.
Through a VIP Day session, Keppie, Benny and I discussed the ideal client profile for How to Write Songs, all the various paid and free offerings currently available, and what offerings were a match for songwriters at various different points of their journey.
Says Keppie, “Brook took the time to deeply understand our business, our vision, and what makes us tick, so that she could develop our vision, strategy, and tactics.”
From this brain-extracting session, along with data from their YouTube channel, their website, and email marketing software, I crafted the HTWS email strategy, which included recommending that they create a new, premium flagship group program for their ideal client.
Creating a mega welcome funnel
A welcome funnel can be as brief as a single email and is typically 3-5 emails. For HTWS, I crafted an eight-email sequence for all new subscribers, regardless of the email list entry point.
The welcome email funnel was diverse: some emails were based on the most popular YouTube videos and linked to relevant resources; some were pure storytelling, focusing on the relevant stories that introduced Keppie, Benny, and the common shared experiences of songwriters, musicians and music lover; and all emails was useful and valuable to the audience.
“Brook is a brilliant storyteller, seasoned wordsmith, and savvy strategist,” says Keppie.
Every email in the funnel had a different call-to-action and most emails linked to a different paid offering. For all business owners – but particularly for creators such as Keppie and Benny, who give away substantial free value regularly – it’s a smart idea to introduce paid offerings to subscribers straight away.
This could be a tripwire (the first low-cost digital product offered to increase first customer acquisition), but it doesn’t have to be.
By introducing your paid offerings right from the beginning of the email relationship, you’re signalling to your subscribers that you’re a business, not just a content creator, forever giving away highly valuable content.
In mid-December, Keppie put her (then) 20,000 email subscribers through the new welcome funnel. From that point on, any new subscriber who joins the HTWS list, through its various entry points, goes through this email sequence.
Introducing a new premium group offering
HTWS earn revenue from YouTube ads, had a close community in Patreon, a paid subscription services typically for artists and creatives. Keppie and Benny also run periodic live workshops (sold through Eventbrite), and earn regular revenue from their two on-demand courses, priced under $40, on Udemy.
I introduced the idea of a premium offering to test the market for something more substantial than a one-off live workshop or on-demand training, and Keppie and Benny were keen to explore this.
In January 2024, I began one-to-one business coaching for Keppie. Together, we focused on developing a preliminary sales page (to create a waitlist for the premium program), a proper sales page, a launch plan and a sales funnel.
“Brook’s coaching around pricing was absolutely invaluable,” says Keppie. “We initially envisioned selling this at $1000, and thought this would be an epically hard sell.
“But Brook encouraged me to consider pricing from a bunch of different perspectives, including what musicians typically spend on fairly basic guitars. She helped us to aim for a far higher, more realistic number and gave us a solid grounding on the psychology behind pricing, value, and communicating this.”
The final two emails in the welcome funnel that I had written for HTWS included invites to join the program waitlist, through the program’s preliminary sales page.
Within a few weeks, their interest list was already at 400 people, validating the idea that the HTWS audience had an appetite for a deeper, more transformative song writing experience.
But the ultimate validation of any idea in business is when people pay.
Within a few weeks, it was clear that offering one-to-one sales calls was no longer viable due to the size of the program waitlist. Keppie was keen to ensure that people on the waitlist appreciated that this was a premium investment, especially considering the far lower price points of other HTWS offerings, including their live workshops and bootcamps.
Selling through video
I introduced Keppie to one of my favourite tools – VideoAsk – which enables you to have asynchronous sales conversations. This can be far more appealing and less intimidating for potential clients, while also enabling people to ask you any question, share concerns, and have a personal experience with you, the business owner.
Keppie had also used a casual, non-scripted sales video specifically for the program waitlist people, to talk through key aspects of the program. All details covered in this casual sales video were already on the preliminary sales page, but this video adds a personal touch, and is especially good for people who prefer video to reading.
While Keppie and I were confident that the launch strategy would work, the results exceeded our expectations.
Within 2 weeks of the first email with the VideoAsk, Keppie received approximately 100 VideoAsk responses, engaging with potential clients well before the official ‘open cart’ (when the payment buttons are live on the sales page and people can buy).
What happened next continued to outpace our expectations.
VIP spots sold out before open cart
As discussed early, the ultimate (and only real) validation of any new offering is when someone purchases.
To our great delight, HTWS sold out all 10 VIP spots of their new premium program and – at the time of publishing – had sold 7 of the remaining 20 spots.
But the best part? Open cart hasn’t even happened yet.
It looks highly likely that all 30 spots (10 VIP and 20 at the regular price) will be sold out well before close cart, and Keppie and Benny are already scheduling their next launch for their new premium program.
Says Keppie, “Brook is amazing at what she does and has been incredibly important to have in our corner while we go through this massively exciting period of change and growth.”
“I honestly would never have had the confidence, strategy, or understanding how to make this happen without her strategy and hands-on help.”
At just 25 years of age, Josh Fritz loves a challenge. He’s the owner of Patch Agency in Brisbane, as well as eSpace, a luxury event space for hire. And when he began one-to-one business coaching with me, in October 2021, he already had a successful business under his belt – Patch Pets, an app for dog lovers.
Josh initially found me through Google. He wanted help with growing, nurturing and structuring his team and was about to launch a second business, eSpace, a gorgeous venue for e-commerce photoshoots.
“I wanted to scale but had no experience working in an agency,” says Josh. “I read about your agency experience and applied to work with you.”
“I loved the questions I was asked when booking the initial call to speak with you. I know you vet your one-to-one clients closely, and I was keen to make a good impression! Ha. I needn’t have worried. We got along great, from that very first call.”
Rapid growth: from home to Brisbane CBD
In less than two years, Josh’s growth trajectory has been swift, expanding the Patch team from five people to 16 (a mix of full-time, part-time and contractors), repositioning and rebranding the business, and expanding their premises.
When we started working together, Josh had six desks in the loungeroom of his apartment, with the dining room doubling as a meeting room for his team of five.
Within a few months of working together, Josh took out a lease on premises in Adelaide Street in Brisbane CBD and was able to reclaim his living space.
A lot of our initial coaching focused on increasing Josh’s personal capacity and self-leadership skills. Together, we worked to grow Josh’s sales, pitching and leadership skills, as well as developing sales assets including proposal and briefing documents.
“You helped me implement a better onboarding process, a minimum engagement period for clients as well as tighten our processes, boundaries, and terms and conditions, which has been invaluable not just for cash flow, but for lowering stress.”
We also focused on Josh’s work/life balance and self-care rituals, to expand his energetic capacity and focus.
Repositioning Patch Agency
Josh didn’t want to niche into a particular sector or service offering, instead, Patch Agency offers a broad diversity of digital marketing services across a wide range of industries. But we needed a connecting thread to tie the Patch brand together.
Josh is a lover of the finer things in life, and it was clear that Patch’s point-of-difference was luxury. Their tagline, “where luxury brands are born” speaks to Patch’s partnership approach to working closely with clients so as to better understand their sales cycle, profit margins, goals and aspirations, in order to better craft effective digital marketing.
“It’s been so exciting to develop and launch our new brand strategy,” says Josh. “Luxury doesn’t just call in our ideal clients, it also speaks to the care, diligence, and service we pride ourselves on.”
Patch’s refined positioning is reflected in their 2023 client calibre, which includes Brisbane’s largest LGBTQ event company, one of Australia’s leading venture capital firms, Brisbane’s largest rooftop venues and restaurant group, and one of Brisbane’s top real estate agents.
Watch out world!
Josh’s savvy development and expansion of both eSpace and Patch Agency has created synergies between both businesses. The “Insta-worthiness” of eSpace has attracted photographers, influencers and content creators while also doubling as an event space for corporate events, parties and weddings.
Recently, eSpace hosted META, the global tech powerhouse behind Instagram, Facebook and Threads, for its first-ever event in Brisbane. Queensland’s biggest influencers, with a combined following of over 16 million, gathered at META’s event at eSpace.
“The META event was a dream come true for us,” says Josh. “It was surreal to be hosting their first Brisbane’s event and to share eSpace with so many influencers.”
Josh is committed to Patch becoming one of Australia’s most sought-after agencies for young creatives. The Patch team are all digital natives, all under the age of 26, many of whom have been hired after doing internships with Patch, through Queensland University of Technology. Josh has just hired a business development manager, so he can focus more of his time on team development.
In less than two years, Patch’s growth is swift: from a team working from Josh’s home, to 16 staff in Brisbane city; more than doubling recurring monthly revenue; and, as of June 30, 2023, Patch cracked the one million turnover mark, a massive triumph for such a young company.
“One-to-one business coaching with Brook has helped me notice and seize opportunities, focus on only the most important things, anticipate problems before they occur, and prioritise my wellbeing. She gives me invaluable feedback on changes I’m considering, and her different perspective enables me to see blind spots that could otherwise become a problem.”
But Josh is not someone who rests on his laurels. He’s now got his sights set on expanding interstate – and beyond. Watch out world, Patch Agency’s star is rising.
Allison Dearling is the owner of Live and Breathe Yoga in tropical Townsville, in far northern Queensland. A former accountant who lived and worked in Scotland for a number of years, Allison started her studio when she returned to Australia (with her new husband!) in 2009.
“I wanted to see if I could teach yoga full time instead of being an accountant, so I sent a few emails to friends and taught an introductory course in my loungeroom, which only fit nine people. That first class quickly sold out and I went from there! Over the years, we’ve grown, had our studio flooded, and are now established in a beautiful studio in central Townsville.”
Allison has been on my email list for more than 10 years and had corresponded with me on and off over the years. In June 2022, she made the leap into the Hustle & Heart program and in September, we finally met face-to-face in Townsville, when I went to Magnetic Island for a creative business retreat by myself.
Changing the structure of the business
Allison engaged me for a VIP Strategy Intensive in December 2022 because she was stuck with making a big decision to change her business structure, from year-round classes, to classes on the school term, from being known as an Ashtanga Yoga studio, to theme each term on the elements and offering different yoga styles, including Pilates, while staying true to her Ashtanga lineage.
“I was sick of arguing ‘round and ‘round with myself, and not making a decision. It was a big change, and it was scary to think that I might lose clients or annoy people. I’d also watched an Insta story where she explained how much she was able to get done in one day and I was impressed!”
Allison was keen to make the transition in the new year, but first she needed to educate her students why this change was in their best interests.
Creating new sales pages, new timetable and new pricing
Allison filled out an extensive preliminary questionnaire before our first coaching session, which was an hour first thing on a Tuesday, to discuss the timeline from post-Christmas 2022 to the beginning of term one, in late January 2023.
Like most yoga studios, Allison’s pricing was overly complicated, which puts the onus on the client or prospective client, to figure out what’s what. A key principle of pricing and sales is that confused people don’t buy. The fewer pricing options you have, the easier it is for people to make a decision to become your new client.
We started by simplifying Allison’s pricing structure while encouraging clients to commit to coming regularly, while also taking a break from face-to-face classes during school holidays, and accessing Live and Breathe Yoga’s virtual studio of online classes.
“The whole process was quick and painless,” says Allison. “In a very short timeframe, you walked me through the crucial decisions to transform my business structure.”
After the pricing structure was streamlined, I started writing two key sales pages: the membership page (called ‘Join us’) which outlined the membership, and ‘One-to-one yoga’, which asked for more commitment than students had been giving, while going into more depth and detail.
By starting with the sales pages writing, we could use these as the basis for the marketing campaigns.
Allison and I also used our one-to-one coaching time together to brainstorm a new timetable that made more sense to both her clients, her teachers, and her lifestyle. Based on my 15 years’ experience of redesigning yoga studio timetables, we simplified the weekly times to encourage students to come along at the same time every day without needing to check to see if a class was on.
Creating the marketing campaign to introduce the new structure
We met the following morning for our second one-to-one, during which Allison approved the new sales pages, and then I moved onto creating her marketing campaign.
Within 36 hours of our first one-to-one, Allison had an overall 2023 marketing plan for each term and its corresponding element, and a breakdown of different emails to be sent, on different dates, for her five different email list segments.
Allison also received another, more detailed email marketing plan, which ran from December 27, 2022 to a week after term one began in 2023. This plan was an email funnel for each of the five different email segments, including a reactivation funnel for former members and non-members.
I migrated Allison’s email marketing software, from Mailchimp to Reach Mail, designed a new email template, and set up these five email segments for her, so all she needed to do was copy and paste each email.
“It was so valuable having all the marketing communications plan done, so I could just cut and paste without thinking, while on holidays with my family in January,” says Allison. “There were many moving parts to the changes, and this made it so easy.”
Making the change
The final asset for our VIP Strategy Intensive was her Action Plan, ordered by priority, to keep Allison focused on the most important things, including finalising terms and conditions, liaising with her website designer on a list of changes, tracking her key business metrics, and creating social media assets for use throughout the year.
So how did her students react to the changes?
Says Allison, “It was such a big change! I was scared and worried about it, but also so excited! I did have members cancel, though these tended to be students who didn’t come often anyway, but feedback from my ideal clients has been wonderful.”
“I feel so invigorated and excited by my business all over again after feeling a bit burnt out by the end of 2022. It felt so good to trust in my decision to change the way we were doing things.”
“I’ve been feeling that our community needed more from us, and I wanted to bring purpose and play back into the studio, to keep things fresh and fun. I also wanted to ensure our members are inspired to progress their practice while feeling confident, and fully supported. Our classes are far more full now, and students are reinvigorated and recommitted to their practice.”
Live and Breathe Yoga’s changes came after the successful launch of their first yoga teacher training program, which means that, although the studio has more weekly classes available, Allison has more support from her new teachers, to give her greater freedom, flexibility and time off.
In January 2023, in the midst of the studio transition, the business turned 13, celebrated by her loyal community of students and teachers. (Happy Business Birthday to you!)
Says Allison, “It felt so good to have the courage to try a new way, despite the worry and fear of negative pushback and judgment, with Brook’s practical help and coaching support. Brook always gets shit done, while reminding me that I don’t have to do it all myself.”
Louise Nealon is an award-winning Public Relations Director who specialises in supporting purpose-led organisations and campaigns. Louise started her own business, in partnership, in 2007. After 10 years, she relaunched under her own name.
When Louise began one-to-one business coaching with me in July 2021, she was already earning excellent money, with a stable of retainer clients who considered Louise as part of their team, complemented by recurring annual project work, including a boat in the Sydney to Hobart race and Queer Screen’s Mardi Gras Film Festival.
Having co-owned a PR consultancy in Sydney city and managing a team in her first business, she didn’t really want to lease a city office and hire a team, but was unclear about how she’d earn more otherwise. Louise had rebranded under her own name, with beautiful professional photography, and her business looked awesome from the outside.
But she was keen on more.
Earnings plateau
Louise had been stuck in an earnings plateau for some time, she hadn’t put her prices up for years, and was keen to redefine her relationship with money as well as her business.
Says Louise, “I was going through the motions. I’d lost my mojo. I was keen to explore various options for redesigning my business model and what they could look like.
“I chose you because I’d been a long-time email subscriber of yours and loved what you said and the way you said it. I loved your purpose. ‘Hustle and heart’ says it all about you.”
Embracing the hustle
The first problem that Louise identified was a great reluctance to negotiate rates and talk about money. She found pricing proposals took a lot of time and energy and understood she needed to change her attitude and beliefs around money and pricing.
We set a conservative monthly revenue goal which she smashed quickly, so the second goal she set was 75% higher again. She’s exceeded this several times since. Part of this progress included speaking with long-term clients about her value and how that could be remunerated better.
Through business coaching, Louise increased her prices, started invoicing upfront, changed her terms and conditions, chased outstanding bills that were causing significant stress, and created proposals to streamline her quotation process, while improving her conversion rate.
“Brook helped me examine my revenue regularly and explore various options to leverage my expertise, cultivate more of the work that I loved, and delegate, outsource, or partner with others who could take on pieces of work that I wasn’t passionate about.”
“I can easily become overwhelmed but Brook has have a way of breaking down complex things and apply a laser focus to see beyond what I can see. She bring this infectious fun energy which changed my opinion on sales, business development and marketing. She made it fun to work on my business.”
People-centric business
Together, Louise and I looked at her innate strengths and talents, things she was deeply curious about exploring, and areas that she was competent in, but had lost interest in.
“You made it about me the business owner, not just the business. I especially enjoyed the insights I gained about designing my ideal lifestyle and how my schedule could look.”
We explored different business models and options for how to manage client work as well as work more collaboratively, to develop her professional skills as well as reduce the isolation that being in business for yourself so often means. Louise became more strategic and focused with her networking, developing a team of service professionals to complement her skill set and offer a wider array of services to clients and prospective clients.
“There was nothing we didn’t explore, from exercise and nutrition, to where I was living – I’ve since moved out of the city and bought a house by the beach with my wife! – to goals that went far beyond the business.” Louise hired an organiser to help her move into her new house, and joined the local bootcamp on the beach.
“I totally appreciate now just how important your attitude, health and wellbeing and outlook is to your business’s bottom line.”
From service provider to business owner
One of the big changes in identity Louise made was from service provider, at the beck and call of clients, to expert and owner. Instead of being paid to do the ‘grunt work’ of raising visibility and publicity on behalf of her clients, Louise is changing her approach, to being paid for her strategic ideas, for others to implement.
“You’ve definitely increased my self-belief and changed my perspective of myself, from service provider to business owner.” Louise now treats her business like one of her clients, scheduling time for regular business planning, brainstorming and creativity.
Louise has improved her decision-making abilities as an owner – which is a central skill – including not agonising about turning down less-than-ideal clients. “You have a great ability to help me find solutions very quickly that always seemd to work.”
Louise can discern between fast decisions and those requiring more consideration, and regularly carves out time making decisions, rather than rushing the process because it feels uncomfortable.
But perhaps the biggest change is the sea change, from an inner-city Sydney suburb, to a beach-side house south of Sydney.
Says Louise, “My self-trust and self-confidence have hugely increased through working with you. Work has gone from something quite stressful to really enjoyable. I see a future for my business now, whereas before my retirement plan was to win Lotto! You make business fun – like I can achieve anything.”
Hustle & Heart equips business owners in professional services to grow their business and reputation. Through business coaching, short courses, live masterclasses and peer-led masterminds, we help you to increase your profits and take-home pay, design a YOU-shaped Offerings Ecosystem, and say something worth listening to.
I joined the Hustle & Heart program in March 2019 followed by Brook’s Momentum membership in December 2019, just as I was transitioning my business base from Sydney to Canberra. 2020 was a crazy year and it was great having Brook’s insight and leadership in my inbox and on calls during this time.
The most difficult thing in running a ‘creative business’ is safeguarding my own creative time. It’s a constant goal, trying to get into a flow state so that I can do the design work I love most, and not get bogged down with admin, emails and to-do lists.
Creating new sales pages, new timetable and new pricing
