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SUCCESS STORIES

How Helene Psarakis Raised Her Revenue by 4x, Left Her Day Job, and Went Full-Time on ThinkBowl Agency

ThinkBowl Case Study Tile

Helene Psarakis is the owner of ThinkBowl Agency, which provides digital marketing services to connect with clients in the most effective and efficient ways. After leaving her marketing job three years ago, Helene has quadrupled her revenue and regained control of her career.

 

With the help of marketing coach Stevie V. Brown from The Change Starter®, this success story will explore how Helene managed to transition from being a corporate employee to an agency founder. This experience has helped her control her impostor syndrome and gain the courage to price her services based on the value provided.

The Problem

Helene felt underappreciated. Her marketing work translated into considerable earnings for the company, but she didn’t feel that they acknowledged her value. As she says, “my services weren't aligning to the salary that I was being paid.”

 

Helene needed a change in mindset and to overcome her impostor syndrome. She wanted to muster the courage to ask for a pay raise and, eventually, price her agency based on the value provided.

 

She had the urge for a lifestyle of freedom and financial growth. She just couldn’t risk a period of financial instability, especially as a parent of three children.

 

Helene had to find a way to align her career with her personal goals. She was initially reluctant at first to hire a coach until she found Stevie.

 

“You hear people who have been burnt by coaches,” Helene continues, “but in my case, that was definitely not the outcome. Stevie’s an extremely compassionate, empathetic person. She's a quick thinker.”

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The Solution

To be clear, The Change Starter® doesn’t have a set process for every client because, as Stevie puts it:

 

“One of my points of difference is that I build every coaching program based on the specific needs of each client, and they're all at different parts of their journey. Some of them are also needing more mindset work.”

 

Stevie’s customized plan for Helene included the following key steps.

 

Past Client Analysis

Stevie gave Helene access to her client analysis tool, which allowed Helene to evaluate past clients and understand her target clients.

 

“Helene had this one client who she thought was the greatest client because they were regularly paying a retainer. And when we looked at it, that client was causing her a lot of challenges - including massive scope creep, and not paying her enough.” - Stevie V Brown

 

That was a massive breakthrough realization for Helene, and she needed to let go of that client to free up her time to focus on building her business.

 

To Helene’s credit, she took the steps required to let go of the client that wasn’t working for her business.

 

Developing Clear Target Audience Personas

Stevie helped Helene get clear about her target audience personas and identify exactly who she was targeting.

 

Tailoring Packaged Services For Each Target Persona

The next step was to tailor Helen’s packages to each persona.

 

This included an offering for people just starting their business, and a separate offering for more established businesses wanting to take their marketing to the next level.

 

Reviewed & Improved Product Delivery

“We actually looked at her product, and we created a more streamlined approach to her product, so that she wasn't reinventing the wheel with every client and she was able to sell specific packages.”  - Stevie V Brown

 

Pricing & Sales Process Optimization

“The other thing that we did is we looked at her pricing. And this was a really important thing, and it came off the back of her having assessed those clients and seeing what they charged versus what she was charging them. As part of the pricing review, we also looked at her lead engagement process. So we looked at how she was dealing with leads, and then how she was selling to leads, and what her sales call approach was because we needed to increase her conversion rate.”  - Stevie V Brown

 

During this process, Stevie also uncovered a couple of issues with the way Helene was doing her sales proposals.

 

Firstly, she was taking too much time preparing the proposals. Secondly, she was giving her strategy away in the proposal document.

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So they built a better system that would enable Helene to streamline and shortcut the proposal process, get the client onboard faster, and then charge them for the strategy.

 

Shifting Helene’s Mindset, Value Perception & Self-belief

Stevie helped Helene to get realistic about her pricing. She wasn't charging enough for her capability, so there was a mindset shift that needed to occur.

 

If Helene was to increase her revenue, she first needed to recognize the power of the work that she produced for her clients. Helene builds a working digital marketing system for each client, so that has a significant impact on their bottom line over the long term.

 

“And so it was about understanding that she had a tremendous amount of value in what she did. She wasn't just creating a website or creating some social media marketing.” - Stevie V Brown

 

Through coaching, Stevie encouraged Helene to recognize the importance of what she does. She encouraged Helene to consider what her prospective clients would lose if they didn’t hire her. As well as what they would gain if they did hire her.

 

Understanding the real impact of her work enabled Helene to experience a critical mindset shift, and empowered her to raise her prices.

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Outcome

With Stevie’s coaching, Helene’s life has changed in several ways. Three years ago, she left her day job. Today, she works full-time on ThinkBowl Agency and has increased her revenue by 4x.

 

With Stevie’s help, Helene learned how to objectively see and communicate the value that she brings to her clients.

 

Stevie also helped Helene create processes to attract clients that were ready to pay for her services. For example, they made a script that was “a step by step guide on how to sell the service properly, and how to also deal with any sort of pushback.” This helped Helene to stop relying on discounts and slashing her prices.

 

There’s also been a radical shift in mindset. Helene has better control over her impostor syndrome after having helped so many clients successfully. She also became a role model for her kids by being someone who has successfully pursued the career and lifestyle that they wanted.

 

Helene says, “I've become a much better communicator to the market.”

 

She’s learned how to better state her offerings, her value, and the boundaries that she needs to work well. She then proudly claims:

 

“I am earning more revenue than I was definitely in that salaried job. I have learned, and I'm teaching my children that anything is possible.”

Takeaways

Helene has several takeaways from her experience with Stevie.

 

  1. Confidence in your pricing and expertise goes a long way. A mindset shift can have a lasting impact. This coaching experience has helped Helene build the necessary confidence and courage to boost her pricing and quadruple her revenue.

  2. Processes and systems are critical for growth. Through Stevie’s coaching, Helene has understood the importance of processes in business growth. From onboarding new clients to lead generation, in her words, “processes enable me to scale my business a lot more easily.”

  3. Scaling means taking in more clients and growing revenue. Growth is an investment, not an expense. Stevie mapped out specific and actionable ways to grow ThinkBowl Agency.

  4. Be clear with your messaging and value proposition. A clear message allows Helen’s marketing agency to be heard and reach potential clients.

Want Helene's Results for Yourself?

The Change Starter partners with small and medium growing businesses to provide an outsourced marketing team that builds a long-term strategy and implements their marketing; helping them to attract and nurture more of their ideal clients. Apply for a FREE Marketing Accelerator with Stevie to find out if we would be a good fit!

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