Ep. 86: Create a Greater Impact for You and Your Clients Through VIP Days (Guest Terri Levine from Heartrepreneurs) [Stepping Into Your Authenticity Series]

In this episode, we are diving into VIP Days. As part of our authenticity series, we examine how you can monetize your unique talent. Not only does it allow you to transform your clients’ lives, but it can become a viable revenue stream. 

We are joined by Dr. Terri Levine of Heartrepreneurs and the Modern Coaching Method to discuss this topic. She teaches her clients to create six-figure incomes through VIP Days in 6 months or less. Whether you’ve considered or have offered VIP Days, you are in for a treat. Terri is the quintessential expert on this topic. She has amassed nearly 30 years of experience in business coaching and has written over 40 books.

SHOW NOTES:
Follow or contact Dr. Terri Levine: Facebook - Instagram - LinkedIn
Become a Heartrepreneur: Facebook Group - Website
Modern Coaching Method (Terri’s Podcast): Listen!
Join Terri’s FREE Master Class to grow your business by six figures in six months: Register!

For more info, see complete show notes:  https://www.getthebalanceright.net/blog/episode86

CONTACT HEATHER:
Contact Heather: Instagram - LinkedIn
Get the Balance Right Coaching: Website
Book a Discovery Call (via Zoom) - Click Here
Heather & Get the Balance Right - Link Tree
Zeitzwolfe Accounting: Website - Facebook

Contact Heather: Instagram - LinkedIn - Email: heather@GetRadBiz.com
Get Radical With Your Business: Facebook - Website
Book a Discovery Call (via Zoom) - Schedule
Zeitzwolfe Accounting: Website - Facebook

Transcript

THE INTERVIEW

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Hello and welcome to Get the Balance Right podcast! I am your host, Heather Zeitzwolfe. 

I'm so excited that you are listening to the show today. If you discovered me through Terri Levine, then you already know how awesome she is. If you are a returning listener, welcome back. And if you don't know who Terri Levine is, oh my God, you’re in for a treat. Yes, this lady is amazing.

And I want to tell you that I met this very cool, very smart, very successful woman by doing networking. 

Now, I don't think that our paths would've normally crossed, maybe on Clubhouse. Maybe I would've come across her Facebook or something like that. But I want to emphasize the importance of networking and keeping an open mind. You never know when you're going to meet someone who is going to change your life. 

Now, I just did an interview with Terri, we’re not necessarily working together right now. But since the interview I have read her book, I'm signed up for her Master Class. I've been listening to her podcast, so she is affecting my life. 

Here's what happened: you've heard me talk about Pod Pals. Adam from Podcasting Business School has a meetup called Pod Pals. Well, I went on to the Pod Pals meetup, and you know, some of the regulars were there. And Terri was there and she was talking about VIP Days. Well, my ears pricked up because this is something I'm super interested in learning about.

And I wanted to roll that out in my own business. So I hit her up in the chat and I was like, ‘I would love to have you on my podcast and blah, blah, blah’. And then she had to get going and that she was only going to be there for a few minutes then she's like, ‘here's my email address’. Well, I immediately try to send her something and her email didn't work and then she was gone. 

Rather than giving up and being like, ‘well, I guess she typed it in really fast, she had to get going’. I'm thinking, ‘she probably just missed like one letter or something’. Then I did some little searches online. Anyway, I figured it out. I figured out what the missing letter was and sent her an email. And she said yes. And it was amazing. 

So a couple of things, one is: go to networking events. Don't have any preconceived ideas of like who you're going to meet. Just go with an open mind. Put yourself out there and ask people about things and don't be shy. Don't be like, ‘oh, they might say no’. Put your feelers out. And if it feels like you can't ask them right away for an email address, at least say, ‘hey, do you mind if we connect on LinkedIn or something like that?’. 

Don't ever blow a chance like that. You meet somebody, you’re eyeball to eyeball. If you can connect with them right then and there where they're seeing you and they can remember you, then when you go to connect with them later, it will be more meaningful. 

Okay, so that's one lesson from that. The other one is if somebody gives you their contact information and there's something wrong. Don't just be like, ‘oh, well it didn't work’. No, no, no, no. Go ask somebody that, you know, that might know them, if they have their contact information. Or look online or figure it out or try a couple of things. And just do it, don’t give up. I'm so glad that I figured out her email. And again, I could have probably asked around or figured it out from someone else. Okay, so those two lessons, you got those? Okay, good.

Terri Levine, she was so nice to come on my show. She's a busy woman. Oh my God. She is living my dream. Right now, well, at least when I talked to her, she was in Playa Del Carmen. She lives there for part of the year. That is like my dream. I was like, ‘oh my God, lady, you are living my dream, let’s talk here’. 

If you are not familiar with Terri Levine, she's a doctor, and we go into what she's a doctor of. And she's got a lot of different things going on with Heartrepreneur.com, and I think she owns that trademark. She has a free Master Class, which is called 6 figures in 6 months. Gotta love that, right? 

She also has the ModernCoachingMethod.com, a free Facebook group, The Heartrepreneur with Terri Levine, which you are welcome to join. What I also found really cool about Terri was her podcast called The Modern Coaching Method and it's these little tiny snippets of wisdom. And I have links for all of these in the show notes.

On this podcast, we are talking about VIP Days and I'm telling you, Terri is the gal to tell you about it because she trains people in how to have VIP Days. Probably the most important thing that you are going to learn is: it's all about the transformation that you can bring. How can you help these people? 

How can you make their lives better? If you have an offer, whether it's a VIP Day or a group program or a one-off class or whatever it is that you are offering people, always keep in mind: how are they going to be different after they engage with your course, your group program, your VIP Day, all of that? How will it impact their life? How will they be transformed?

And I got to tell you, Terri's time is a very, very valuable. And I feel super honored that she was on my show, I got a lot of benefit out of this time with her, and you will too. This woman is amazing If you don't know Terri Levine. Please check her out in all the places. Look at the show notes because you are just going to fall in love with this woman like I did. Oh my God, and she's living the life. She's doing the Mexico thing. 

So if you've ever thought about offering a VIP Day, or maybe you already are offering a VIP Day, you are going to get so much value from this conversation. You are going to learn so many key ingredients for VIP Days.

This is also part of my Stepping into Authenticity Series that I'm doing on the podcast. So if this is your first time listening to the podcast, you can go back and listen to some of the other ones. 

I'm also going live for 45 days in a row on Instagram, as part of this sort of experiment, I might say, this part of the series. Be sure to catch me on Instagram as well. And if you would like to go live with me, please DM me. It's at @Zeitzwolfe, which is my last name. Or you can look up Vegan CPA on Instagram and I will come up. So hit me up, let me know if you want to go live with me. 

I was afraid of going live and now I'm like, ‘I love it!’. If you haven't tried it yet, do it! So, besides Terri's awesome Facebook group, I want you to also join my awesome Facebook group. So mine is called Get the Balance Right. Look for it on Facebook, I hope to see you there. And this is my interview with the talented, successful Heartrepreneur herself, Terri Levine!”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: "Terri Levine, welcome to Get the Balance Right podcast!” 

Terri Levine: “Glad to be here, Heather. Thanks for having me!”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “We are talking about something that I'm super excited about because I want to implement myself VIP Days. Oh my God. 

But before we dive into that, could you please tell the audience a little bit about yourself?

You've got a lot of things going on. You're an author, you're a coach, you’re a doctor. I don't know a doctor of what exactly, maybe we'll find out. You have a podcast. Yeah, a lot of things going on. Tell us a little bit about yourself.” 

Terri Levine: “I'm happy to! 

So I have been a coach and a business consultant for almost 30 years now, I've worked with about 6,000 client family members. And what I specialize in, primarily women, I take women, I help them figure out what their passion is. And how to turn that into a not only major cashflow business - I guarantee six figures in six months - and how to actually create a life of freedom.

So that you're serving others, you’re transforming other people's lives, and at the same time you're living the kind of life that I live. I'm here in Mexico right now, where you have a way to live freely to do what you do, work where you want and to really make a difference in the world. 

So, that's me. I am a bestselling author of over 40 books. I love to write I’m a crazy writer. I have a podcast called Modern Coaching Method, and my whole desire is just to pass forward the kind of business success I've had. I've worked with over 6,000 people and just keep helping more women.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “You are living the lifestyle that I want to live because I want to be a digital nomad. And we’re actually going to be doing another series about digital nomad-ing. And we're going to talk to some people that are experts in travel and also the idea of incorporating retreats in your business. 

So you're doing double duty for me right now, because we're talking about, you're actually part of this series where we're talking about authenticity and tapping into our passion with our business.

Can I just ask where in Mexico are you?”

Terri Levine: “So I live for about four months of the year here in Playa Del Carmen. It's beautiful.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “You’re living the life I want. Oh my God. Okay. Rub off on me lady.”

Terri Levine: “And then by the way, since you mentioned retreats, starting tomorrow and going through Monday, I have client family members that come and they do a Mexico retreat with me.

I do that every single year. And then part of the year I live in Philadelphia and I love the beach. So the rest of the year I live in my beach house in New Jersey on the beach. 

So I teach people: create your life by design and not by default. And this is what I figured out as I was starting this business. I wanted flexibility. I wanted freedom. I wanted time to do the things that were really important with family and friends. And at the same time, I wanted to transform a lot of people's lives. And literally that's how VIP Days came to be. So I'm excited.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “I've been to Playa Del Carmen. After being there one time I told my husband, we gotta move there and I've got all these books on being an expat kind of thing. Oh my gosh, I'm going to hope that you're like a genie, you’ll rub off on me. People can't see us, but we're doing elbow air things. 

So VIP Days, a lot of people are offering these. And when it sounds like a day VIP Day, sometimes it's not a full day, sometimes it's just a few hours. Is that correct?”

Terri Levine: “Yeah, unfortunately, I signed up for one of those about 20 years ago and it was the VIP Day and the guy said, “I'll pick you up at the hotel”. I said, “great, what time?”. He said, “noon”. I said, “noon?”. And he picked me up at 12:45 and he said, “what happened at lunch? Let’s go to lunch”. So, by 2:15, we started the day and by 4:10 he said, “oh, I have other appointments”.

I'm serious, there’s a lot of this in the industry. You have to be really careful and ask people, ‘what does the day mean to you?’, just FYI.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “I've heard like three hours to six hours. I guess people use that term loosely. Can you define what that means to you then?”

Terri Levine: “ Yeah, definitely. So when I work with a client family member on a VIP day, whether it's virtual or whether it's in person, it is approximately six hours. There are times that I've gone seven. If the client really isn't completed, I'm not going to just say, ‘your time is up’. Right?

So I make sure that the client has completed always leave an eight hour window. Most of my client family members within six, six and a half hours, we've accomplished everything we needed to accomplish.

Again, whether it's on zoom or whether it's in person.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “If someone was thinking about offering a VIP Day, I guess they could be a coach. They could run other types of businesses, but what is it that they should be trying to offer? I mean, they can't be a Jack-of-all-trades for everybody. 

Should they have sort of a set thing that they can rinse and repeat with everybody? Or how does that work? Or does it individualize? Please explain.”

Terri Levine: “Okay, so in the very beginning, when I really didn't know what I was doing like twenty-something years ago, I ran my first VIP. I realized that the person in front of me. Was not the person that I expected in terms of what they wanted and I have this whole strategy and plan.

And then as we really sat down, I thought I had to scrap this, I just gotta be in the moment. And I got to do something else. I did 11 of those within a three and a half week period. And I realized instantly it's just like coaching or consulting. I cannot have the agenda. I can have people who want a specific outcome. 

So mine is start your business, let’s come up with your pricing, your products, your programs, guarantee you six figures in six months. It’s going to look different for every single person, and I structure that with them in the moment, giving them guidance and advice. Does that make sense?”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “It's not like a rinse and repeat, but at the same time you still have a parameter of what the expectation is as far as what their end goal, what might be. Even though it might be individualized, you're still giving them an outcome that they can expect.”

Terri Levine: “100%, it's like if someone's signing up for a VIP Day, they know that I'm going to take them on a journey through what is going to be your product, what’s going to be your packaging, what’s your pricing, what’s your promotion, how do we put this together? 

So they walk away with a very, very clear action plan that’s easy to implement. To do six figures in six months, it'll look different for everyone. However, there is structure to it, there’s a framework.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “And the people that sign up for VIP Days, it seems like it takes a certain kind of individual that wants to, ‘get it done and get it done now’, rather than the people that are just like, ‘eh, maybe I'll meet with you once a month or whatever’.

So if you're going to offer these VIP Days, do you have to target those types of people? It wouldn't be a one-size-fits-all for all of your clients. Is that correct?”

Terri Levine: “I'm very selective about the VIP Days. And this is a recommendation that I have: first of all, they have to apply. Do I really want to spend eight hours, six hours with this particular human being, right?

I have to make sure. And the second thing is, can I help them? So I have to see their application. The third thing is, do they understand the commitment it takes? Forget financial, that’s not even what I'm concerned about. This is going to be so structured and so outlined, and then you've got to go home and implement.

We're going to create everything. You've got to step up. So I recommend that you have people apply and that you make sure it's a fit. And then you, when you schedule that day, that you're positive, you can accomplish what that person is coming for in their application.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Oh, okay. Cause I had thought, how would I do this in my own business? If someone comes to me and they don't even have their books in order, like how could I even look at their financials? 

You know, ahead of time, if you can really help them or not. Do you think that we should sit down and have like a discovery call first to make sure that we're a good fit? Or is it an application that they fill out? How do you figure this out?

Terri Levine: “So I don't do any kinds of calls with anyone, I get paid for my time. And that is the model that I encourage people to do. Think of yourself as an attorney with billable time. That's how you establish a company and not a business. You want to be the CEO of your company, and you always start a company with the end in mind.

Can I pass this on to my kids at some point? Can I sell it instead of let me be the busy bee, doing all of the work. So they don't get a call, there’s a pretty thorough application. And if I have questions after the application and not clear, and I'm not 100% cool with everything, I schedule a 15 minute interview.

And in my case, it's with my team and they really dig in a little bit further to make sure it's a fit.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Very interesting. I like your attitude about all of this. This is really great. And it's so great that it's coming from a woman too. I got to give you kudos. It's really awesome. 

Now, if someone's thinking like, “okay, I want to do a VIP Day”, you've reached this level where you can like weed out the riffraff and be like, “okay, I want you to fill out this document”. But some of us, maybe are, you know, a lot of the women that are probably listening to this may not have a huge amount of experience on their own. Maybe they've worked in corporate all their life, and now they're off on their own.

Maybe they don't feel like they can ask somebody to fill out a huge long thing. At what level can you start offering VIP days, you have to be in business for a certain amount of time. Do you have to have a certain amount of experience? Who can do that?”

Terri Levine: “So here's the good news, anyone can do this, if you can provide an outcome for someone during that time.

Okay? You have to know, “hey, I know how to do this”. I don't care what it is in a VIP Day. I can teach you to sew an Afghan, I don't care what you do. Right? That's kind of crazy example. What is it that you can help somebody with in a day that people would pay for and be like, “I’m thrilled”? 

I've had a client family member who's brand new, like a month into their business, and they were teaching people how to cook healthy. I said, “well, just offer VIP Day”. And they go, “what do I do?” Like I'm going to come to your house or a hotel, or are you going to come to my place? And we're going to spend all day, you're going to teach me how to shop, how to cook, how to create recipes, how to eat healthy.

So they started that. And within the first two months he did $33,000. Which is a pretty good start. So the application, I want to go back and I want to address that Heather, just go online. Just put in “VIP Day” and you're going to find literally hundreds of these. Almost everyone, who's really making money doing these, we have long applications. 

So it doesn't matter if you're brand new. It doesn't matter if you're here for a day or for year. My first few VIP Days, I wasn't that, you know, been in the business that long. I didn't have that many client family members. And when I started offering it, I realized 11 people signed up in one hour.

I'm like, ‘there was a need for this all along’.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Okay, so you're using an interesting term too, client: family members. So tell me about that, because that sounds like you're actually taking on your clients and you're putting them under your wing and treating them as family. So explain to me where this terminology came from.”

Terri Levine: “Probably 12 years ago, I was here in Mexico, our stay in the winter. And it was the Sunday and I called my aunt at the time she was in her eighties and I just wanted to see how she was. And afterwards, a client popped in my mind and I called my client and my client said, ‘why are you calling me all the way from Mexico? What what's going on?’ 

And I'm like, ‘you popped into my mind, I want to see how you are. And I just called my aunt, I check in on my family’. And that's when it dawned on me, yes. I nurture my clients, I take them under my wing, I give them all my assets, I commit to them. I've had many, many clients for 25 years that stay with me forever.

I have clients that just invest in me, long-term and like, ‘I'm going to be with you forever, Terri, you can't get rid of me’. So they're family. And that's how I think about them.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “So client families, I love that. That is so cool. I love that. Going back to the VIP thing. So I'm going to be asking you probably some silly questions and maybe I could have Googled these things and you'll be like, ‘you should just Google this, Heather’. 

So, VIP Days, when you're starting out what is a price range that you can expect to get from something like that? Should you be looking at your hourly rate and then just multiplying that by the amount of hours? Or should you be pricing it based on the outcome that you're bringing the person? How does one price this?” 

Terri Levine: “Fantastic questions. And, and this is something that we need to delve into, you can't just Google to get the answer.

So, the first thing that I say to client family members is, ‘how big is the transformation?’. If it's a smaller transformation, that silly example of we're going to create an Afghan, like you're probably not going to be able to ask people for a lot of money. And if you're changing someone's life and their eating habits, or you're literally taking their business concept and laying out their whole business for them, that’s going to be higher ticket. 

Now I want to shift, everyone's thinking away from an hourly rate. It’s the number one mistake made in coaching and consulting. And when you're trading time for money, number one, you are not the CEO. Number two, if you get sick, you can't work. Or you’re wanting to lay on a beach in Mexico or Tahiti for a month, no income comes in.

So I never ever have an hourly rate. No one can pay me an hourly rate ever. And what I recommend that you look at is: How much is this outcome going to be worth? And number two, how much do you have invested in giving the outcome? I'm going to give someone six to eight hours of my time, probably going to buy them lunch, breakfast, coffee, snacks.

I had to learn whatever it is that I'm teaching. So in my case, I'm a business consultant who has spent over a million dollars hiring other consultants in the eight businesses I've had over 43 years. I have a lot of training. I have a bachelor’s, a master’s, a PhD in clinical psychology. There's a lot of money, a lot of books, a lot of seminars.

So I look at that and say, ‘I am bringing literally like a million dollars of value to someone’. I’m not going to ask one person to pay a million. But if I'm going to spend all day with you, I'm going to ask you to pay a pretty good fee. My clients range from, and this might help people, low confidence people without really, without making a large transformation are charging about $500 to $1,500 for the day.

And I don't recommend that that’s, where they choose to start. And I allow that. Most of my client family members, about 50%, are charging $5,000 for the day. And the other 40% are charging over $10,000. I have some charging, $25,000, one charging $100,000. And one charging $57,000. That, those prices, and I really want everyone to get this that comes from confidence.

It comes from doing this with enough people who are saying to you, ‘oh my God, Heather, that day was amazing, it was so valuable’. Then, you know, okay, I'm going to go offer it to someone else and raise your price a little bit each time.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “I see., okay. So build up your confidence. So in the beginning, maybe you'll undervalue yourself just because you feel like, ‘who's going to pay me this?’. But just keep in mind that that's temporary and you've got to like build yourself up.

Maybe as you get testimonials and the price can, can increase. When you're thinking about oh someone paying like a hundred thousand dollars. If we are going after VIP clients, they don't necessarily have to be like huge earners. They're not like people that own yachts and stuff. Right? I mean, they're just regular business people.”

Terri Levine: “ Yeah. So really in this case, my client who's charging $57,000 or $100,000, they are working with, one of them is working with corporate executives. Another one is working with people who are own their own businesses, their own companies, and are doing at least $300,000 a year. Okay? 

So it might seem crazy to some people that somebody would invest $57 grand. I will tell you, I invested over $50,000 in a particular mentor coach many, many years ago. And for one idea, he gave me, I've probably added a million dollars or more to my business. So that's why people make the investment for the ROI. And the last thing I have to say, is you need to be able to guarantee something is going to happen on that day. Right?

So stand behind whatever it is. If you're going to teach someone how to cook healthy, you need to make sure by the end of the day they have that. In my case, I have to make sure they have a solid six figures in six months action plan.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “And you can have all that in place and they could be like, ‘yeah, this sounds wonderful’ but then they may not go off and actually do that? Now, maybe your people that signed up, maybe they are that committed, but a lot of people have great intentions when they sign up for a course or with a coach or whatever. 

So with your guarantee, how do you make sure that you're guaranteeing something that the ball's in their court at that point?”

Terri Levine: “Beautiful. So the way I teach my client family members to do a guarantee is just like mine. I guarantee you six figures in six months, if you implement the plan and you've got to show me that you're taking the action. I always equate it like this. Let's just say that you wanted to lose weight and you signed up for some diet program, right?

And then you got the greatest program, but you're eating cookies and candy and ice cream and pizza. ‘That diet program doesn't work’. No, you didn't work the diet program. So I'm very clear with people even on the application. You have to be an action taker and implement. You have to accountability responsibility.

I'm going to give you everything. You've got to actually show me that you're applying it. And if for any reason it doesn't work, I will refund your money. And I have an over 6,000 students. I have never had an implementer fail, not one.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Yeah, because they're following the plan. So, and you know, that plan works.

So to guarantee a plan like that, it must be something that you've actually had success with other clients than I would imagine something that either you've put in yourself and you know, that it works for yourself or you've done for your clients. Is that, I mean, you don't want to be guaranteeing something if you don’t know if it’s going to work.”

Terri Levine: “Sure. So when I did my first round of VIP Days, I know how to create multi-million dollar businesses. I've been able to do that for 40 something years. I know how to do it. I know I can take someone's business, I could see it, I could map it out. And so I'm like, ‘I'm really good at this, I want to help people do this’.

Don't ask me to do anything else. I'm very myopic. I know how to do this one thing. Only teach what you know, and what you've either done yourself or you've helped other people do. Just like you said.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Okay. Because I don't want people thinking like, 'ooh, this sounds great, I think I’ll just like implement something’ and it's like, ‘no, no, no, you don't really know’.

You see a lot of people out there and you've looked at their LinkedIn page. Why is this person teaching this? I don't understand. Now you teach this whole thing about the VIP Day people. When they sign up with you for a VIP Day, that they learn how to do a VIP dDy. Is it Meta like that?”

Terri Levine: Great question. I teach VIP Days in all my programs. So if they spend a day with me, we map it out. If they do my six figures in six months program, which is more of a, they're doing it on their own. It's a nine week program, I’m in there with them for nine weeks. They have the program for a year. In that case, it's part of the program because in that program, we structure every aspect of their business.

And VIP Days are a big piece because most of my clients have added anywhere from a hundred to two, $3 million a year doing VIP Days. It is a very solid way to run your. business.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Wow, okay. We don't have enough time to obviously to go through all of those things. So what are some tips say, like if you're thinking about having a VIP Day, obviously they can sign up with you and go through that either a VIP Day or through your workshop. 

But if they were starting to think of this, what are the things that they should put in place? Should they start brainstorming ideas? Do they research? Where do you even start with this?”

Terri Levine: “So let's make it simple so people don't feel overwhelmed. So the first thing is, start thinking about, and take a piece of paper and write this down: What are the kinds of questions people typically ask you for?

What kinds of skills or knowledge do people, they're already coming to you. You're just, haven't been paying attention over the course of your life, people are asking you. Start jotting that down. That's number one, number two, start asking yourself, ‘what would I love to teach or to help somebody? What would be fun?’. 

Like I love VIP Days when I, I actually have somebody here in Mexico tomorrow coming for VIP Day, flew in today, came a year ago and is coming again. I can't wait, I am so excited to dig into his business and this is going to be his third VIP Day. And I mean, he's just crushing it. So think about what would you like to do during that day?

What would you like to teach? What knowledge, what skills can you transfer? The third thing - very important - is who do you know? Who do you actually know? I have a client who said she wanted to teach people pour painting. I'm like, it sounds interesting. Like I like to learn. I said, ‘well, who do you know that might be interested?’

‘Well I don't really know anyone’. Well, you have to know some people, you can't just go, ‘I want to teach people this, but I don't know anybody’. So to think about who you actually know. I happened to know a lot of people who were coaches, consultants, business owners, speakers, trainers, podcasters, authors, that were like, ‘I want to learn how to do a VIP Day’. Oh, that's easy. I can put one together."

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Until you get the testimonials, you do have to get clients to sign up for this. Your clients that you currently have, if they're not interested in the VIP Day and you have to go outside, is it tapping into your network first? Or how do you market this?”

Terri Levine: “Yeah, really easy. The way that I don't like ads, Instagram, Facebook, I just don't like that. I don't like spending money. And I also don't like platforms where I have no idea if I'll get an ROI. So the way that I do it is I literally talk first to every person I know. And this is the biggest mistake that I think people make. They come up with this very small niche and then they don't have enough people in that niche.

So not a lot of people respond. People niche too soon. Sometimes you choose the market. Primarily the market chooses you. I want people to breathe that in. The market chooses you. I had no idea when I started in this industry that I'd be coaching coaches and consultants and speakers and podcasters. I had no idea, thought I was going to work with corporations and then people kept showing up and I'm like, okay, the market is saying something, pay attention.

So here's what you do. You start talking to everyone you know. Family members, colleagues, anybody you have a cell phone for, anybody you have an email address for, any friends, family members, neighbors, association members, churches, everyone you know. 

And you simply would say something like, ‘Hey Heather, can I spend five minutes chatting with you about something really exciting that I'm going to be offering in my business? And I just want to share it with you. Maybe you'll be interested. Maybe you'll know somebody who is.’. 

Doing that one of my clients who said, ‘I don't know enough people', he had 12 of those conversations and four of those people paid him $10,000 a piece to do a VIP Day. So don't prejudge, that's my lesson.” 

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “If someone's thinking about doing a VIP Day and they're starting to market it, do they need to go all in on this? Or can they be working their other coaching clients and all of that until they get this up running? And then I guess the last part of that is, once you start getting the VIP Days going, can you actually just make a business of just doing VIP Days?"

Terri Levine: “Really good questions. So the very first thing that I'll say is when you're first starting, this is one of your many income streams.

You can do individual, you can do groups, you can do online, VIP, offline. I even, haven't done this in a few years, I even used to do five person VIP Days. So instead of a day costing the amount that it cost. I took that same amount and said here, we'll break it up between five people, make it super affordable. You get a little less personal time. But if I have five people who want the same result, it works. Okay? 

So that's another model then I can definitely tell you, cause I have lots of client family members who do nothing, but VIP Days. I have one client family member, she does three VIP Days a month. She's doing a little over $3.5 million and she literally works 21 hours.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Are these mainly coaches? And are they coaching top executives? Or can you give me kind of an idea of who they’re coaching?”

Terri Levine: “Great question. She takes women who want to leave corporate America and start their own business. And she helps them figure out what the business is going to be and then to create their business plan. And she's amazing at it. I refer people to her all the time. That's her little niche and she's really good at. 

You can literally coach, consult or help anyone. You just have to be able to recognize in you, how can I transform someone's life? Business, these are the four areas: life, business, health, relationships. 

That’s what people want. ‘How can I help in one of these four areas?’, look at your own life, look at your own experience. And then literally just offer that, it's that simple. I think people make this way too complicated."

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “As far as what goes on during this VIP Day, for instance, for yours, even though it's going to have an outcome that you're going to expect, there's steps that you take that.

Everybody would go through those same steps. Do you devote like an hour per step or is it, does it depend? Are you at the end, like, ‘oh crap, we need to get this in 10 minutes because we've spent so much time in the other steps’? How does that work?”

Terri Levine: “So I have an outline. These are the things that they have to be able to receive during these, let's say, six hours. They have to have this. Without all of this, they will not be able to do six figures in six months. 

I have to be the leader. Which means I can't let a client just go all over and start bringing things in that are irrelevant or we won't get it all in. So I have an outline and I tell the client, when we first start, ‘I have our framework, you're going to have to trust me and put yourself in my capable hands’.

And if I think we're spending too little time on something, I'm going to say, ‘we stay here longer’. If I think we're spending too much time or regressing, I'm going to pull you back. And then I get their buy-in. ‘Is that okay, that I step into the leader role?’. So you get their permission upfront and yes, I just have an outline.

There are some clients that in the first hour we've gone through something that was somebody else's taken three hours. It depends on that person. And then in the moment, I might add some different things in, as I'm working with them. Like, you know what, this person's pretty advanced, I can bring this in. Or this person isn't that advanced, I’m going to go over this and slow it down. I'm going to help them build it right there in the moment.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Yeah, you need to be in control and be able to speak up and make sure that the client is not sidewinding this whole thing. And you're like, ‘oh my God, this is..’. Okay, perfect. You have to have that skill to reel it in.

And when we're going to offer VIP Day, we have to have that framework in place and have that really solid. But sounds like you're going to be doing probably a lot of brainstorming and they have these ideas and you're going to be working through them. What tools do you advise using, do you have whiteboards? Are you sharing boards electronically? What do you use?”

Terri Levine: "If it's in person, I have whiteboards and markers galore and I am a big post-it note person. So I usually have the big post-it note, six different color post-it notes, some that are ideas, some that are actions, all different kinds. And when they leave at the end of the day, those are all organized and it's kind of their task board.

‘I have to do this first, this is done next’, so they actually have a plan. When I do it on Zoom, I do it using Zoom's whiteboard. So if people don't know Zoom has a built in whiteboard and I love it. So you just click on the bottom, the whiteboard comes up and I can draw on the whiteboard. I can type on the whiteboard. I can use my iPad pencil and I can write on the whiteboard. I'm literally doing the same thing. The only difference is, I have the client go get the six giant post-it notes and they're posting those notes everywhere and I'm watching and we're organizing them. And it works just as well, in-person or virtual. I charge less for virtual.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Oh, you do? If I was going to do this, I think I would just go down to Mexico. I'd be like you, write it off. It's like, ‘I'm going to my VIP Day’. 

Well, very cool. I do want to ask about when you had like five people in the class. So to me that almost sounds like a group type thing. Is that usually like a partnership or like people that are in a corporation together or are they not even related to each other that are in that group together?” 

Terri Levine: “What I typically do is take five people in a similar situation or industry. So five chiropractors, five physical therapists, five business coaches, five life coaches, or they're in the same circumstance.

So I'll give you an example of that. I took five people who all wanted out of their corporate job. They all felt their corporate jobs were toxic. And I've been there, done that. I'm like, ‘yep, I remember what those days are like’. So I have a plan and a strategy for how do you transition out of corporate while starting your business on the side like I did.

So the day that you finally go ‘see ya, I'm out of here’, you've got the income rolling in. So if you look for either similar goals or similar industries.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “I hope this is going to inspire people to go out and try this, or at least contact you about this. So how do people get in contact with you?

You've talked about some of the ways that people can work with you, but tell us all the things.”

Terri Levine: “So the very first thing that I recommend, and I really recommend you do this right away: put this free masterclass together for the purpose of teaching things, just like this. And it's very simple, it’s 6 Bigs in 6 Months, number six, number six. When you go there, have a pen and paper, because I want you to take notes.

This isn't some sales pitch in disguise. This is a real class. That is your starting point. And then at the end of that, you can sign up if you would like to go through that program. That is not only my least expensive program. It's where I actually recommend everyone starts. 

You go through that program, you’ll be working with me directly for nine weeks in this very inexpensive program. At the end of the nine weeks, if you want to raise your hand and say, ‘you know what, Terri, I think I want to do VIP’ I credit the money you invested there towards VIP. So start there. 

And then the second thing that I recommend: we have a Facebook community of heartrapreneurs and heartrapreneurs are people who do business heart to heart authentically, transparently and with integrity. It's your community, right? So when you go over to the Facebook group, heartrapreneurs with Terri Levine, there's about 7,000 business owners.

You have an opportunity to meet amazing people. People who might want to put you on podcasts, people who might want to interview you, they might want to see your articles, your blog posts. We have people who you can joint venture with, and you probably have people who want to hire you right in the group. So that's the second thing.

And the third thing, my podcast, Modern Coaching Method, it's super short. Every episode is three to five minutes. You will get a golden nugget that you can implement instantaneously after you listened to this and watch it. 

So those are the three ways and we can be in touch in all those ways.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Very cool. The Facebook group, do you have to be one of your students to be in that?”

Terri Levine: “No, that's the beauty we, we have about 7,000 people. People are doing business together. People are learning from each other. They're sharing. It's a real mastermind community. It's not the typical Facebook group, where everybody’s promoting their stuff. This is really people coming together for the purpose of supporting one another’s businesses.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “That’s magical, and it's also part of that family atmosphere that you've got. 

Very cool. Well, thank you so much. This has been so inspiring. And man, any way to get down a Playa del Carmen, you know.”

Terri Levine: “We'll have to make that happen because I can totally see you rocking this whole thing out.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Oh my God. Yeah. I love this idea. All right. Well, Terri, thank you so much. Oh, so you did mention what you're a doctor of, so psychology, psychiatrist?”

Terri Levine: “Clinical Psychology, yeah.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Wow, okay.” 

Terri Levine: “Because you asked that, I weave a lot of psychology. I also have two certificates in Positive Psychology. I weave a lot of that into business.

People don't really understand that 90% of your success happens from here. Which is mind. Mindset, mind, language. And so that's all woven in, I always tell people you can't get away with, with anything with me because I've always got your back and I'm always listening.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Very cool. And I've never heard of Positive Psychology before.”

Terri Levine: “Yeah, I'll just mention that. So most psychology was based on what happened when you were five, what happened in life, right? And, you know, Sigmund Freud with, what did your mother do to you? Positive Psychology is the best movement that I believe has happened in psychology in 20 years. Positive Psychology says, ‘whatever happened in the past, whatever, that’s there. Let's take today, live in this moment and make every moment going forward count’. 

So we don't rehash all the stuff that happened and talk it out. We go, ‘okay, so how would you like your life to be and how can we design it that way?’. It's all about living your life by design, not by default. And it's amazing.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “I love that sounds almost like Law of Attraction kind of thing too.”

Terri Levine: “Similar, although Law of Attraction, while it is a law, and it does have principles, you know, if we, you and I just sit here and go million dollars is going to fall in a mill. It's not going to happen. Right? Well, if it is, that'd be a lovely surprise.

Psychology takes it further. It says, ‘okay, this is what I want to have happen. What are the things I have to do, believe, and the actions I have to take?’. And that's the one thing people forget. If you look at Law of Attraction, the word attraction has the word “action” within it. So that's the other piece that we teach.”

Heather Zeitzwolfe: “Very cool. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. And I can't wait for this to come out and share this with everybody because VIP Days sounds like a great way to make money and you are definitely the person that knows all about it. So thank you so much, Terri, for being on the show today!”