Why Most Businesses Stay Stuck—And How to Fix Yours

Of Level Up Creators and Level Up Creator School. I'm our Director of Operations, and Amanda Northcutt is our CEO. Thank you so much for joining us. We're going to be talking about a little bit about where our MRR Accelerator cohorts— cohort is currently, and then just some questions about the process that we're in. So thank you so much for joining us. If you have not met us before, there are 2 ways that we help thought leaders like you build rock-solid recurring revenue businesses. The first is Level Up Creators. This is our done-for-you white glove consulting firm, and this includes our MRR Accelerator program. And the second is Level Up Creator School. This is where we help a global group of thought leaders, consultants, creators, coaches build businesses with a done-with-you model. Creator School includes access to our consulting team and our methodology in a way that used to be reserved exclusively for our consulting clients. So thank you so much for joining us. First, let's start off with an update on where our MRR Accelerator cohort is currently in their process.

Yeah, so we are, let's see, what week is it? 12, 13? We started on, oh, we're like exactly 3 months in. It is April 21st, and we started on January 22nd, right? So we are We talk about in the Accelerator, plan, build, optimize is sort of like the 3 main chunks of the whole process. And we are optimizing pieces of the business that we're going to keep. Katie, our lead writer, uses the analogy a lot of renovating a house. And so the Accelerator is almost like, we're making the plans, we're starting demolition, but we're living in part of the house. We're like, we're living in this bedroom and the kitchen. And we are trying to like optimize those 2 rooms as we're renovating the rest of the house, if that kind of makes sense. There's 2 kind of parallel tracks. And the planning phase is hard. It is emotionally hard. It is physically challenging. I mean, like most of— this is my team doing the vast majority of the work, but the emotional work is primarily on the part of our Accelerator clients. And then the physical labor of like planning and then bringing these businesses into the world. is on my team. And so it is often a road that is fraught with peril. And so, um, I don't want to downplay the challenge of business building. I, I really can't stand it when people do that. I feel like icky marketers do that all the time and it's super simple. And you know what? It is logical. It's a reasonable, somewhat sort of linear path. Um, With lots of room for experimentation and iteration and learning and changing as we go. But damn, building a business is so hard. It is so hard to build something that is not— that is resilient. It is so hard to build a business that is resilient and that earns recurring revenue because your incentives have to be aligned with your customers from day one. There's no like, ah, gotcha. You know, we made the sale and we're on to the next customer or on to the next customer. In the kinds of businesses that we build, we are building businesses for creators, thought leaders, coaches, consultants who want to do right by their clients and who want to serve them and are usually in the, you know, back third of their career and are looking for building businesses with meaning, with purpose that they actually want to get up and do every day because they know that they're making a difference. They're solving problems that they're uniquely qualified to solve and that they want to solve. And they're working with an ideal customer profile clients. that they actually want to work with and can provide these incredible value outcomes and transformations. That's how we talk about, you know, package, a packet of solutions, if you will. But the mental piece of it is really, really taxing and challenging. And I think that is something that we can blow right past, or at least I can. I'm very, very Type A, Perfectionist type, Maximizer. And I also have trouble stopping at times to reflect Not on a business experiment, but on my emotional state as a whole. I'm typically just like, let's do the next thing and the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. And that is not a great way to go about running your business. And so it's— yeah, I'll stop there.

No, I love the analogy of the house because even I've gone through building phases before too. And when you look at a blueprint of a house, On paper, everything normally makes logical sense. But then there are sometimes those nuances when you get into a finished house that you're like, ooh, the dishwasher here actually is like not the best choice, you know, because life, there's so many more colors and dynamics than what you see on paper. So what looks clean on paper isn't always what translates into life. Mm-hmm. And so I really like that analogy of like, Oh my gosh, this is not, you know, the mental taxation of bringing something to actual life into fruition is a lot harder. And we kind of come across all these different dynamics. And so I really like that. So in month 1 through 3, the demolition phase, like you were talking about, it's very taxing. Why is it so important that we go through that process?

Yeah, it's a great question. The answer is one word, which I can elaborate on infinitely. But the answer is clarity— to achieve extraordinary clarity. Typically, the subject matter experts who come to us are coming to us after having tried to start consulting, like leave their corporate job, do consulting. They've got a little bit of a cash runway, and then are starting to panic because maybe they took, you know, a job here from someone in their network and a job here from someone in their network. But They're reinventing the wheel for each client. They are very quickly running through their network. Their revenue looks like this, and it's pretty small, typically going to be like under that $10K mark. So potentially quite a lot less than they were making at their corporate jobs. And it's incredibly frustrating. So, um, totally forgot where I was going with this, but just like I was totally getting in the— oh, clarity. That's right. Okay. Got it. So Monday morning brain. So the level of clarity that is required to run a successful business on recurring revenue, it's high. It's got to be like crystal, crystal, crystal, crystal clear. So you got to be clear about who you are and why you're here, why you're doing what you're doing, why you're showing up to do your work every day for the next decade, why you are building the types of products and services that you are. It's like, what do you have to bring to the table? For whom? And then what is your methodology? How are you getting your clients from this painful, pervasive, urgent, expensive problem space to value outcomes and transformations that are, again, specific and unique to what you are equipped to provide and what your ideal customer profile needs? So it's clarity on who you are, who they are, what your methodology is, the steps that you take people through in order to get that transformation. And then we talk about the products and services that you use to deliver those value outcomes and transformation, it's really just the packaging, right? So, or a car that takes you from, you know, problem space to solution space. It's your methodology that bridges the gap. And you can apply your methodology through 1-on-1 engagements, through coaching engagements, retainer engagements, small group cohorts, and then you can go down the product ladder from there to membership, course, challenges and things like that. But we're typically staying on the, the upmarket, higher-end, like higher-ticket, lower-volume, higher-touch side of the product ladder. So clarity in those, again, 4 areas of business is imperative to your success. Because consultants who know exactly what they do, and who they do it for, and what the exact value is that they bring to the table, you're not even selling at that point. You become the person for that thing. And everybody knows who you are that, you know, is relevant here. Like, you're known for that thing. And so your referral machine starts to spin up. It's much easier and clearer to communicate what you do and then to achieve consistently excellent results, especially because, like, we're creating productized services here for our clients. We are not reinventing the wheel. We have kind of an innovation cycle. So you're not, like, stuck doing the same products and things like that. But at the end of the day, we want to be delivering consistently excellent results through productized services because we are so freaking clear on who we are and what value we bring to the table. who our clients are and the solutions that they need, what our methodology is, and then the car we're driving in to get them from problem space to solution space. Again, that's like one-on-one coaching or consulting, small group programs.

Yeah. I'm still ruminating over this renovation, just thought process of how we compare our business. Because I also think about building from scratch, from ground up, Is a lot easier. And I think any architect will tell you this is a lot easier than going into an existing building and renovating it for like, and turning it into your dream home. And it takes a lot of expertise, a lot of precision to get it just right. And I think that is something that we do really well. Like we go through so many cycles of like not just demolition, but like planning, like dreaming of the future. Like, okay, we can rebuild your house in this way and then build it so that you can expand this way maybe in the future if you want to have that other baby or you want to, you know, you want somewhere for your parents to live as they age in 20 years. And so it's so much thought process goes into these businesses. And so I wanted to kind of ask like, what do we do as we are like going through almost the crisis mode of renovations? You know, you've heard like that if you want like to really test your marriage, like build something with someone and then that really tests your relationship and your trust and, you know, all those things. And it's kind of that same way where like that 3-month mark is like, okay, it starts getting very real for everyone. How do we support our clients when it starts getting really real for them? What do we build into our accelerator program to kind of help them mentally through this change?

Yeah. So group and individualized coaching are a huge part of the accelerator. And so we're doing sales coaching, mindset coaching, individualized coaching during one-on-ones with our accelerator clients. And then we have this group coaching program. We meet once a week for an hour together. And I like to think about the accelerator as you're getting a fish and a fishing pole. The fish is the done-for-you business in a box built for what you're describing, Erin, is optionality retention for growth or to stay smaller or to scale, to sell, to have someone else run the business and retain it. So that's a really, really important piece of this. But the ways that the group coaching program is the fishing pole. And so that's— and the individualized coaching. So that is where we are teaching you how to think and act like a top CEO. And so we're talking about all of the things that CEOs need to be thinking about and have, you know, clear line of sight on and what their role and responsibilities are. Like, literally, here's a checklist of, you know, a job description for a CEO for this type of business. You know, how are you matching up against that? And what are we doing to move forward to, like, level you up in those areas? So the impact of the cohort model has— I knew that it was going to be a big deal, but I did not realize how big. So we're really, really intentional and careful about the curation of these cohorts and We've just done one. We're working on the second right now. I've got 12 people vying for 5 spots. And it all comes down to like this curation piece that I am taking just so, so seriously. Because I've seen the magic that can happen with this first cohort and the level of support that our accelerator clients have for one another, how they have each other's backs. Yeah. Pretty much all of them can refer business to the others and doing partner marketing together, making introductions for one another. encouraging one another, getting into the weeds into each other's businesses. And so I hope that, you know, we have curated like a brain trust or a mastermind that will go on for a long time, um, that will, you know, this cohort will be a jumping off point for. So there's a lot of support, um, on a one-on-one and a small group level, to answer your question.

And in Slack, oh my gosh.

Yeah.

The amount of like just day-to-day support too. That

is knowledge sharing.

Like, it's just crazy. Like, there's constant communication between the participants themselves and also our team of like, oh, have you tried this? Oh, look at this. You know? And so it's just like, you're never alone. Yeah. Literally never alone through the whole process. You always have somebody like right there to be a sounding board, to help you dream, to help you think through really difficult decisions. And So yeah, it's like support through and through. Okay. For a creator, coach, or consultant that may be watching this, that's like, I'm doing all these different things in my businesses, business, but I don't know exactly what to focus on. What would you like? What little value giveaway would you give to them to help them like really just structure maybe their day, their week, their month on how to know what to focus on in their business? Right now?

Yeah, I was at an in-person mastermind event last week in Atlanta, and I got asked this question a lot. And that was great because I love answering this question because it's, I think, not what people expect ultimately. And so in the accelerator, we start with, where do you want to be in 10 years? Like, what is the change that your business is bringing to bear in the world for a specific pocket of the world? Like, what are you trying to do? And then we can work backwards once we've set that 10-year vision. And this is, again, like at the beginning of the accelerator, we set the 10-year vision. And then our team is extremely skilled at working back to the, from that 50,000-foot level to the ground floor in terms of who needs to do what, by when, with what resources, what is the definition of done today, right? So if you don't know where you're going, you're going to end up somewhere else. I love that quote. I think it's really important because we all have a very finite amount of time on this little blue globe.

Rotating sphere.

And I want, I mean, I'm on a mission to help people make it count. That's why we're here. That's why we're doing what we're doing. And we, we are a very mission-driven business, and we are building very mission-driven businesses. And so it all comes back down to that. And then when it comes down to the day-to-day level, if you have that vision set, and you're not sure what to do, make sure you've got annual goals. So we do a 3-year goal, 1-year goal, and then quarterly goals. And then those quarterly goals dictate our day-to-day. So you got to start bringing that back down to, again, additional clarity. The word of the day here is clarity, clarity, clarity, clarity. Yeah. And that, I mean, clears up a lot of things. Again, with the sales process, you're just doing matchmaking. If you know who you are and who you serve and how you serve them and the results you get, you're just doing matchmaking. And so another thing on what to do today: go make some sales. Like work on partner marketing, voice-of-customer interviews, podcast guesting. Get on LinkedIn and start engaging with people that you want to, whose radar you want to get on. So I think that's a great place to start. But some You don't have a business if you don't have sales. You can have the most amazing products and services in the world, but you're not a business if you're not bringing money in the door. And so keep your eye on that ball for sure.

Yeah. Okay. So if I had something in my mind and then it just slipped away, but that's okay. From your experience, and you don't have to give specific names or drop anything too detailed, But throughout your time of coaching people to hit their MRR goals, what is the moment that you've seen a noticeable shift in that mindset and how has it transformed their business? You don't have to drop a name or be too specific, but—

No. In this cohort, I feel like that happened when, okay, we did the North Star documentation, vision, mission, values, goals. We've got the ideal customer profile, style guide. We've got business strategy, marketing and sales strategy. And then the clarity has come with the positioning, and then going out and actually doing activities, doing voice of customer interviews or voice of prospective customer interviews, going out and being on podcasts, giving webinars and workshops, working on your network and, you know, creating leverage. And so it's like, oh, OK, we're doing things now. And then we've got these, you know, 98-day, 90-day rolling action plans for our current cohort. And it's like, oh, We're starting to see results, and so it's that the clarity, and then we start doing activity, and then results start happening. But to get to that level of clarity, to get results much, much, much, much, much faster, and work with the people you want to work with, and make the money that you want to work, it's the prep work. It's the laying the foundation and being patient through that process. And we've guaranteed outcomes here. It's not like we're doing this all for not or without like a very specific purpose. We have very complete incentive alignment with our accelerator clients. And so that is a very important part of business as well. But I would just say, yeah, it just— the more clarity and taking action is very helpful for everyone. So also, if you're feeling like you're spinning out, like, get clear and then take action every day.

Yeah. Oh, I remembered what popped in my mind. I was going to do a shameless plug for the Creator School, because we have the same, like, framework that people can work through if they are wanting to do that. So shameless plug, if you are not ready for the accelerator program, but you still kind of want those little nuggets of wisdom from Amanda and our team, you can find that very accessible to you in the Creator School. So check that out if you want to. I think that's all for our livestream today. So thank you so much for joining us. We are— Thank you. So glad that you spent a few minutes of your day with us and follow us along and hit us up next week. Bye.

Thanks. Bye.