MRR or Bust: Why Recurring Revenue Beats One-Off Clients with Amanda Northcutt

Dustin: Why is monthly recurring revenue the number one metric you should be measuring in your creator business? So that is a topic that's near and dear to my heart, and I have a very special guest today. Amanda Northcutt is a friend of mine, a client of ours, and someone that I respect and I've learned a ton from lots of things specifically around monthly recurring revenue.
So, Amanda. I know this is gonna be a rich conversation. I'm really excited to be on this side of the mic with you today, and I just wanna welcome you and kind of pass the mic over and let you introduce yourself and give a little background so we can dive into this hot topic of MRR.
Amanda: Awesome. Thank you so much, Dustin. I'm a big fan. I'm, I'm glad to be here as a guest and honored and hope to drop a lot of value bombs today for your audience. , So as you said, I'm Amanda Northcott. I'm the founder and CEO of Level Up creators and, , that is a baby company. We are just about to have our second anniversary next week, and so we're recording this in early June.
And, , I have a very interesting. Totally non-linear, , path of a career that makes no sense whatsoever. And I feel like, like most professionals, , of a certain age, [00:01:00] people ask, well, how did you get here? It's like, by accident. But looking back, you know, hindsight 2020, I can see kind of how all the pieces have fit together to get to where we are today.
So, , the. Sped up version is I accidentally started, actually I started my career in online recurring revenue in 2005. I was still a student at Texas a m University, and, , selling anything online was sort of like selling air as what my father used to say, and it didn't make a lot of sense. We didn't have a lot of.
Like heuristics or mental file folders for what the heck that is. Unless you came from like the newspaper industry or the magazine industry, literally did not make sense. New paradigm. So I got thrown into the deep end. I was the second employee at this now, the world's largest collegiate media company, , techs.com, and, , built out this, cash cow for them based on recurring revenue.
So that business model had like two recurring revenue streams and I just saw from a very early age what having that foundation of that, that baseline of
revenue that is. Quite scalable, like a lot of money can be added for marginal additional effort, like [00:02:00] per new customer. And so I was like, oh my gosh, this is cool.
This totally beats project work and you know, one off and like having to reinvent the wheel for every client. And so, , I did that job for about a decade and then I had a very significant health crisis in my late twenties and had to take a little bit of a break from work, but then realized at that point, like, okay.
Medical bills are stacking up, frankly, and I've gotta get back to work. We had a young kid at that time and I was like, how in the world do I repackage my skills and sell them to the highest bidder? And so, , I took myself through what is now the first step of the MRR method, which we're, I know we're gonna talk about
more today.
, But basically it was trying to understand. What am I really, really excellent at? What do I have a demonstrable track record of success in? Where do I have receipts as the kids say now? , And then what do I love? Right? And what's the overlap between those two things? And then the third piece you gotta layer in there is like, what will people actually pay for?
And so. This was like early 2010s. Software as a service. Silicon Valley. Super, super, super hot and growth market. At that time [00:03:00] you had a lot of software engineers making really cool stuff and not a lot of people selling it right on the other side of it. And so we're all trying to figure out how to do recurring revenue at that time was software.
And I was like, oh my gosh. Well, I've been doing recurring revenue for a decade in a very similar environment. , So I was able to repackage my skill sets and the highest bidder was software as a service company. So did consulting. I've been a fractional executive half a dozen times and left Silicon Valley.
The end of 2022 to start level of creators. So that's how we are. that is still the short version of how we got here today, even though that wasn't very short. There's a lot to it, but yeah, that's the broad strokes.
Dustin: It's a beautiful synopsis. So someone who's like often asked, how did you get from, you know, engineering to marriage, to meat sticks to podcasts and all. You did a great job and you actually highlighted a few things that I think would be really interesting to talk about in the context of monthly recurring revenue.
We're just gonna say MRR from here forward. . hadn't really thought of that. Like, like, you know, today it is everything everywhere, right? Like of course you have like Netflix and you know, every [00:04:00] possible online health subscription and supplement subscription. My dentist now has a monthly, you know, plant insurance, like it's everywhere.
In 2005. Yeah, like you said, newspaper and magazines. I'm like, that's right. You know, it's like, that's why Sports Illustrated did the football phone. It's like, come, you know, order the Sports Illustrated subscription and get the free football phone is 'cause they really just wanted the monthly recurring revenue from the subscription.
But it wasn't very prevalent, you know, like growing up for you and I. What was the subscription model or what was the monthly recurring revenue model, I guess is the better, question for text ag.com, since that's where you got your start in this
whole world.
Amanda: Yeah. So back in the day, it was, , started off with. A mailed subscription letter, like a physical letter you like, put the stamp on you, lick the envelope and send it off as, , you know, 10 bucks a month or something like that. In Texas a and m, it's the largest university in the United States, you know, huge D one, , SEC school sports are everything at that university.
And so, , alumni and fans would pay [00:05:00] money to get insider information on what's going on behind the scenes at Texas a and m University. And so, there were like. A couple, one of the founders had, you know, very much inside track in the locker room, you know, level with the football team, basketball team, , so it was just re.
Packaging information, , that was fairly proprietary at the time, at least, and selling it at a pretty low price, you know, for a high volume eventually of Texas a and m sports fans. And so that was like one side of it. , And then what I built out is ended up really being the cash cow for the business and enabled a, a lot of growth was a sponsorship program. , And like literally included that 7 28 by 90 banner ad and like one 60 by 600. And, , but I was like, hmm, this kind of sucks. Everybody hates ads like this. And so I put together packages that included all these really interesting integrated elements into the website and like integrated sponsors to the website and added bonuses for users and let them interact with our, you know, paying subscribers and things like that.
And, , you know, only sold to companies. That wanted to reach [00:06:00] Texas a and m sports fans, and turns out there's a whole lot of those companies and insurance agents and apparel companies and people who sell, you know, front office tickets and , yeah, all real estate companies and things like that owned by Aggies.
Like it's a huge, huge alumni network. I've got my ring on. I was at a cooking class with my husband last week in Colorado and like saw an Aggie that graduated in 1983, like she had her reg on. So no, no matter where we are in the world, like we always see Aggie. So, that's how that works.
So it was really inexpensive subscription to, you know, a one to many, many, you know, thousands of people do that subscription now and then, you know, sponsorship program with three dozen folks that are paying a lot of money and are in a long-term commitment.
Dustin: That's awesome. Yeah, I love that. So yeah, there's a lot, there. We'll, we'll let it lie for today, but this idea of. Identity marketing and you know, this, whole like 1983, you wear the ring, you're in the club, like we're gonna connect. , And that leveraging that also for something like sponsorships or insider access or certain status within that, large alumni group.
So, so. Cool. , All right. Well, I want to, as quick [00:07:00] as possible, kind of zoom into what you guys do today. And I think a, natural question to bridge us there would be like, you had, this sounds like a really. Fun, maybe stressful, powerful, lucrative corporate career. And you got in this like really high growth industry and hit it really at a hockey stick point in technology.
, Why two years ago did you, , have the, the sort of. Proverbial second child and start this company, level up creators, , to add to the real child that you and your husband enjoy so much. So, but why level creators? Why did you leave corporate and start your own gig?
Amanda: Yeah, I think the shortest answer to that is kind of this like COVID level epiphany. You know, I think a lot of us did a lot of soul searching and kind of like, why am I doing what I'm doing? Am I going through the motion or am I actually living intentionally and doing what I want to do? And so. , Ultimately for me, I really loved the people that I was working with, , at this s firm go nimbly in Silicon Valley, and, , really, really enjoyed that.
But I did not find the work truly meaningful and purposeful. It was not the way that I wanted to spend the last third or so of my career. [00:08:00] So. I left,
took, you know, six months to again go through what is now the MRR method for myself and, , decided that we wanted to build coaching and consulting like boutique coaching and consulting firms for subject matter experts who come from the corporate world essentially.
So you've got some level of expertise that we marry with our operational methodology and make amazing businesses owned by individuals that, you know, earn. 50, 60, 70, 80, a hundred and more, you know, in MRR per month. And I cherry picked all of my favorite past people from all the past teams I've built and managed and led, , at other organizations.
And I put us like all here, , level up creators, and we just went like full throttle from day one and. Thank goodness it worked. But we're making very calculated bets here. , This not my first rodeo. So, , I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to work not only with all those individuals that I've cherry picked and brought onto our team, but I mean our clients are absolutely amazing, brilliant, [00:09:00] mature, professional experts, , who are ready to work toward legacy impact.
Generational wealth, lifestyle, architecture. You know, this is kind of like the four pillars, , that we're working toward with, everyone. And all of our clients have, , I mean really, really significant visions for philanthropy. And that's, you know, part of like the legacy and impact piece and we're really helping build, Purposeful, meaningful businesses. And so in many ways, level Up is sort of a larger version of, but a mirror of the type of businesses that we build. So we like test everything before we roll it out to our clients. And it's very interesting meta kind of like model, if you will. We're having a lot of fun doing it.
Dustin: I totally get that. Yeah. Like I try to describe sometimes like. The why. It's like podcast guessing. It's like eh, podcast guessing is like a channel, but like the why is really this idea of like guiding the guides or, leveling up to creators in your application of it, right? Where like you're doing the thing, but you're using the thing.
To have a real ripple effect and a exponential effect by helping other people with the thing while you [00:10:00] do it. So it's very authentic because you're doing it, , in the practice of helping others grow their impact in the world and their mission and, philanthropy and some of the things that you mentioned.
, I mean, one of the things I'll just say as a. Unsolicited compliment is like, I never met anyone more focused and, , sure. About what you're doing, especially when it comes to team, like I know you said it's a calculated bet, but like I've met Amanda sort of passively about a year ago. 'cause we were, she did a
workshop at Crafting Commerce and I was there and I was really impressed with, , this whole bow tie funnel and the beginnings of what I started to understand, , that we'll talk about a lot more moving forward here.
The MRR method. I was like, wow, this is very impressive. And I kind of asked a few people, do you know Amanda? And then, yeah, I know of Amanda, or I kind of know Amanda. And eventually, , a, very good friend of mine, a previous guest here, Tony De Lorenzo and his wife Elisa, worked with Amanda, had glory reviews, and then we connected, and Amanda and her team ended up being in my accelerator.
So I guess what I'm trying to say is, I know Amanda now, , but both [00:11:00] from an internal, like I know this person and from like. Externally, like watching your work, listening to your podcast, seeing you on LinkedIn. , Very, very impressive, , focus and especially on the team building thing. I'm like, you really have an amazing team and I know that doesn't come without a lot of effort and a lot of investment and a lot of purpose, so that's awesome.
Amanda: thank you, thank you. That's very kind of you.
Dustin: Compliment. But yeah. So I think we got a really good feel for kind of what drives you and the origin story of level of creators and kind of a, big picture idea of who you're helping and, and sort of like overall theme of the work that you do. Let's dig real deep in the MRR, right? So we'll talk about the MRR method and like the actual thing that you do with clients.
first of all, if anyone still needs convincing, , why is monthly recurring revenue so important? Like, why put so much emphasis on that metric is , the opening question that we started today's podcast with, and I'd love to get your [00:12:00] perspective on it.
Amanda: Yeah, I mean, it's kind of the holy grail of types of money. So I mean, think about with your job though, many jobs are not nearly as secure as they used to be, or we sometimes. Believe that they are, but you are earning MRR like with a job with your paycheck. It's a steady paycheck, except again, not as secure as we once hoped.
And so, , having control, autonomy and, , feeling empowered and enabled to chart your own course. And, one point of emphasis in, terms of who we serve, , I have spent, I. My entire career making one demographic wealthy. I'm married to that demographic I have. My son is that demographic , that's all good.
They're great men. And I'm gonna spend the rest of my career helping primarily women Bipoc and the LGBTQ plus community. And so it's very important that, . Those individuals are often passed over for promotions for the VP SVP [00:13:00] executive level, , certainly the CEO role. And so your income is inherently capped.
When you're in a corporate position, there is an absolute limit to what you can make. And so I am endeavoring and my team are endeavoring to provide a different pathway to where you actually do have consistency, predictability, stability, control, , incredible, you know, empowerment like. People leave our accelerator, you know what you're doing at that point.
You understand business. I mean, our accelerator model is like both the phish and the fishing pole. We're building your whole business or rebuilding it, and we're also teaching you how to think and act like a top CEO throughout the entire seven month period. So, , that feels like a big why behind MRR and behind, you know, owning your own business that earns MRR.
and I mean that really could be extrapolated out to like my full answer, but, the consultants and coaches that we work with, typically they come to us. They've been forewarned not to go and start on, on their own and they wanna start, , the
right way. But others we are doing, , very significant [00:14:00] business remodeling projects, if you will, like taking 'em down to the studs or further and, , defining kind of the why in the 10 year vision.
First, and then we do an audit. It's like a timestamp on where we're at now. And the whole work of the accelerator is how are we bridging this gap over, you know, what are we doing in the seven month period in service of this 10 year vision? And , again, it's really hard to earn enough money and to. Not spend all of your time doing marketing and sales and creating proposals and just constantly in the grind of new client acquisition.
Whereas if you had to acquire fewer clients in the first place because you were able to solve problem after problem after problem for a very specific narrow and deep niche in the business world, like we're creating businesses. For individuals that serve businesses. Okay. So we don't work in consumer packaged goods.
We work for, ,
Dustin: I wanna make that distinction, even though we had some fun talking about, , magazine subscriptions and Netflix, that's not what you're talking about.
You're talking about premium services that are [00:15:00] also recurring revenue. , Yeah. So please continue. But I think that's a really important distinction for people.
Amanda: yeah, definitely. We are selling, , coaching and consulting advisory. we're working with like author, speaker, advisors is ultimately what we're going for. And so we facilitate all those things and, and masterminds and, you know, I want people to work for equity. Like equity in business is how you actually become wealthy both in your, own.
And then if you can also get equity in other businesses, like in, have a portfolio that's really ideal and that's kind of your own like mutual fund if you will, so that you're diversified and have much better odds of success. . So, yeah, what we are building, like high ticket, high touch, typically lower volume, , productized services for coaches and consultants.
And again, coming back to like this, baseline of recurring revenue. So typically we wanna find, like, identify what I would call just a beach head or a way to get your foot in the door. And you have to have clarity on who you are. You, like, you're positioning as a consultant who your clients are. Again, narrow and deep with a specific niche.
You can always saturate another [00:16:00] vertical. Next time, right? But we wanna stick, so our messaging is really, really specific and we have a methodology and we help our clients, like they all have them inside. It's just a matter of like extracting and organizing and creating frameworks and diagrams and things like that, , to really bring it together.
But the methodology bridges the gap between your specific icp. Problem. They're painful, pervasive, urgent, expensive problem. Like one where the knife's in, somebody turned it and they're bleeding out. They have to have a solution, right? This is not a nice to have. It is a need to have. It's a must have. , And so the methodology takes a specific ICP from a specific pain space to a solution space.
So we wanna help develop, , not just one product offering, but a product ladder. So the first one gets you in the door and that, you know, can be a workshop, a training, a keynote, an audit. A facilitated, you know, series of sessions. One, you know, a little bit of executive coaching or you know, small group coaching with the executive team.
And then once you get your foot in the door, you have the opportunity to learn so much. 'cause we teach all of our clients to ask really good [00:17:00] questions like you're mining for data so that you can be a more helpful person. And once you're in the door and they already have high affinity for you, they know, like, and trust you.
You want to be able to sell more and more and more. To your clients on like a retainer basis or, you know, six to 12 month, , productized services. Again, like we help our clients not reinvent the wheel for each of their clients. It's very important. That's why like I do X four Y, so that z if you have a firm positioning statement, and not to pigeonhole yourself, but again to get your foot in the door, there's.
Infinite expansion, revenue opportunities like once you get into a business. And then we help structure productized services that earn recurring revenue and eventually ladder up to like advisory to the board and opportunities for equity and larger partnerships and so fewer clients. Paying you lots and lots and lots more money.
And so the businesses that we build, it takes a lot to get that first couple of revolutions of the flywheel going. There's a lot of activities going on in our accelerator right now to like lay that foundation. [00:18:00] But once you're in with some clients, it's expansion revenue and referrals because you are the person who does X for Y, so that Z.
And that makes you really, really, really, really, really easy to refer. , And I I've been a consultant for dozens and dozens of business. Like I said, I've been an executive half a dozen times, and in my last executive post I worked at the premier Revenue operations, , consulting firm in Silicon Valley.
We worked with all the latest funded, VC funded, , SaaS companies. And so I've gotten the inside look at all manner of types of businesses. I don't know if it's, you know, I don't know, probably over a hundred at this point, but like in the weeds and. I mean, definitively come to the conclusion that the type of businesses that we are building at Level Up creators is the best, most resilient, stable, in control, fun business that you can possibly like create for an individual.
I.
Dustin: Very insightful. I learned a lot actually. Just again, kind of you laying the, foundation of who you work with, but like, it'll kind of, sort of open my
mind to [00:19:00] new versions of monthly recurring revenue. and I think this is kind of keeping with. Really the economy and sort of like we, we've kind of referenced back to this 2005 point a few times, but like, most people, the level
of sophistication in most people's minds is a monthly recurring revenue might as well be expensed, right?
It's like a low cost subscription like, that's what we're accustomed to doing. I think in the creator economy and like where I've been with this is more. Monthly recurring revenue for a creator is like a community, you know, it's like a, a membership site. It's a subscription, maybe up to like, it's a mastermind, right?
Where there's a monthly recurring payment for a mastermind, but. My mind kind of went to like 50 bucks to 2000 bucks a month or something, you know, where it's like, this is sort of like where the creator, , offer stack sort of lends you to a monthly of recurring revenue. But what you were sharing in the description of your ideal clients. it sounds like 2000 is maybe like the floor, it's like 2000, 20,000 or 200,000. I don't know, [00:20:00] but I'll let you expand on that. But you're talking about monthly recurring revenue, not necessarily in the sense of a subscription in air quotes, , or even a membership, but it could be a retainer, it could be, , a set. I don't know, advisory, share, distribution or whatever you'd call that. But it could also be a, Hey, for 12 months we're gonna work together and it's $10,000 a month. And, that's not a quote unquote membership, but it is monthly recurring revenue. And so I want to kind of reiterate that for the audience that I.
No matter where you're at on the spectrum of awareness of like what counts as monthly recurring revenue, we're talking more at the top end of this. There's, I'm sure there's, beyond this, there's other, , versions of this too. But yeah, can you help make that distinction about what creators would typically think of as monthly recurring revenue versus what you're describing as sort of like the new sweet spot and the way you see it with the new, , realities of our economy, I guess.
Amanda: Yeah, so MRR does not just have to be from an open-ended subscription to Kit Active campaign WordPress Pod Match Dustin's [00:21:00] amazing community by like, we don't have to, yeah, just put MRR in a box in that way. So the way that we define MRR is you have committed revenue for two plus months. Into the future, so you have some visibility into your pipeline.
And really , I have an acronym that I would love to catch on in life, but bam, bare ass minimum two months is really like the, the bam for MRR we're really
going for like three to, , 12 is realistic in terms of like achieving commitment and, inside of a contract. So. our clients are building productized service packages as that are delivered over a period of months.
Sometimes they start with one day things or you know, an event, right? keynote, a training, a workshop, something like that. , but again, that's just like to get your foot in the door. Everything beyond that on the, , product ladder is in service of earning and building up that base of MRR. And yeah, I mean, our clients, .
Minimum of like $5,000 a month engagements. and we were looking for like the point of, , you said the word leverage earlier. I love this word. , We are always looking to identify [00:22:00] the point of exponential leverage for our clients, and that means. You cannot be an individual contributor and be a fractional, you know, CMO for five different companies and like be managing a team and hiring and like all those different things.
It's not possible. you know, you can't just like clone yourself. We can in some ways with AI now, but think about like an advisory type of retainer where you have a team that's already installed there, or maybe you work with a team of contractors and you are serving as an advisor. You're the puppeteer, you're the one up, top pulling the strings, but you're not in the weeds.
Doing sales or writing, marketing copy, you're using the highest and best of your brain, which is what they're paying for. , And there's a different heuristic in our brains for like advisor versus someone who's gonna do individual contributor work. And the people that we're working with 40. To like 65 years old, have legitimate expertise and do not need to be doing that minutiae in business anymore.
and when you don't have to have all that many clients in order to make 50 KA month, you can be very [00:23:00] selective. And when you are the person who does X four Y, so that z , you are held in very, very high regard. And if you have, again, a methodology how. That demonstrates like that. You've got proprietary intellectual property, , how you fix these problems, and then people have high affinity for you.
'cause all of our, , clients have these strong personal brands, like they're all running this founder led brand motion, if you will. So your level of specificity within your niche, combined with your methodology. Plus your , personal brand, you do not have any competitors at that point. you exclude competitors and like research has already been showing for years in the creator economy.
We all have like three to five people on like each of our favorite platforms that we really love and look forward to their content. So if you're on somebody's three to five lists, they are wearing. Psychological horse blinders for you. They have like eyes for you and you alone. , It just makes things so much easier when you have clarity, , on these levels and again, you're serving the same type of customer.
Typically, people come to us. If they've already started along the [00:24:00] like, coaching or consulting line, , line of business and like they've run through their network, they're reinventing the wheel for each client. They're spending hours and hours and hours on efficient ineffective marketing activities that they're not tracking.
Have no quantitative data, , to put behind. I. any sort of like logical decision making, and they're just tired, they're just exhausted because you know what? That's freaking exhausting. That's really, really exhausting. , To me, just feel like you're back. You're working harder than you were your job, your corporate job, and you're working, you know, half as much and you've lost your benefits.
That is not a comfortable place to be. And so, , that's the painful, pervasive, urgent, expensive problem that. Our clients see, when they meet us, when we, you know, obviously have this MR method system to like move them out of that space very, very quickly. We're looking for leverage, we're looking efficiency, we're looking for people to step into their full, , like embodiment of, they're like frankly bad assery, like all these people that we work with are brilliant and they have so much to offer.
So there's a mindset component to this as well. That's very, very, very important.
Dustin: two things I'd like to for sure [00:25:00] kind of zone in on, and then we'll talk more about sort of like how people can. Access, all your goodness and your newsletter and things like that, or wherever you wanna send them. But two areas, I think one would be methodology slash framework, , and I'll explain what I mean by that prompt.
and then marketing. You know, I think we, on this show we gotta like talk a little bit about marketing, but as I heard you, it's like your ideal clients. I think this definitely encapsulates a lot of our audience. I think this is me and it definitely was me five, seven years ago when I was leaving engineering and kind of had this weird set of knowledge and experience, but I didn't know what to do with it.
So would you say it's a common experience where you meet this brilliant person and they've got this great corporate resume and they're 50 years old and they've got like so much to offer the world. They just need like someone to kind of like package it up and put it in a, A, B, C, D, E order so that they can say, this is my methodology, like this is what I do.
What I heard you already was. Super clarification of the, value statement, kind of the one-liner and like making them the only [00:26:00] solution for the thing they do. And I guess then the next step in that process to me would be like them being able to convey that as like an order of operations. Like, here's the weird thing I do for awesome people and it's expensive and like, here's how I do it.
So like how do you help them with the methodology or framework part of this? Because it seems like a really key component.
Amanda: If you've already written a book, that's really helpful 'cause it's pretty much already there. But
as does the course building process is same, thing. , So we're looking for. Signals in stories, and then we can again, assimilate those and kind of turn back to our clients and say, okay, here's our hypothesis of how you do what you do. And then that's typically just a huge unlock just to have some of that in front of them.
And, , then the rest typically just spills out because like you do know what you're talking about and you do have a way of doing what you do. You just haven't documented it yet.
Dustin: Yes. And then you guys are able to hold a mirror up and probably for the first time in their adult life, they're like, that's it. [00:27:00] All have such a block from being able to articulate that for ourselves. But if you can kinda like spew it out,
I love that. So that's a really useful and that's been a huge unlock in my own career, I guess in, in different phases is like build to name stuff and have a framework and build a point to something, be like, that's what I do. And have people understand it. , And then the other thing I think is marketing.
So you mentioned that a lot of these folks, They've keep pushing the same boulder up the hill, or they keep kind of restarting with marketing and it's like,
every new sale is a custom proposal. And because, there's the service offerings, product size services and, that side of it.
But I think between the methodology and the product size service, there's the marketing and given that's kind of my emphasis. We talked to a lot of people with cool marketing ideas here. So what do you find for these types of clients? Tend to be effective marketing channels to leverage the good stuff they already have going on inside of them.
Amanda: Yeah, so. Achieving like 50 K or so in MRR is actually, it's quite formulaic, right? [00:28:00] And certain things must be true in order for you to get there. Again, who are you, who are your customers? What's your methodology? What's the wrapper? You're putting over your methodology and that's your product ladder, right?
you're not necessarily delivering your full methodology for, you know, every client engagement. That would not be appropriate. That is what we do in the accelerator. That's the whole point. , But we're kind of like dripping out the methodology So that our clients' clients can receive the full suite of solutions and have the best value, outcomes, and transformation possible that that individual consultant can provide.
So clarity on those four things. And then the fifth thing in businesses. Getting clarity on your go-to-market motion, like how you actually get clients, so's, that's where we're now. So everything's easier when you have clarity on the other four things. First, who are you, who are they? What's your methodology?
What's your product ladder? Once you know those things, you can, , like shoot fish in a barrel as opposed to going out and like doing deep sea fishing without a guide kind of a situation. So, , if you're trying to talk to everybody, you're actually talking to nobody. So your, your marketing needs to be very targeted and you need to.
Find where your people are online. So in the MRR method, , we start [00:29:00] with onboarding audit North Star documentation, and that delineates in a lot of lovely detail where you want to be in 10 years. And then we start working on who is your ICP, how are we validating that ICP with our specific methodology.
And then we have an updated ICP. Okay. But we're like, we have a very validated ICP by about like month or week seven in the accelerator. And so then we can go find. The, the barrels where we're gonna shoot the fish in as opposed to
the deep sea fishing. who are your customers and where are they hanging out online?
There are undoubtedly people who have curated groups of your ideal customer persona online. And so, , making sure that you are starting to build relational equity with. Whoever holds, whoever the gatekeeper is to those larger groups of your ICP. These don't need to be super famous people or anything.
Like, there's people with amazing communities, super niche communities who are not competitors of yours who look for podcast guests and webinar guests and q and a guests and panelists and uh, , keynote speakers and all those things. [00:30:00] So, , you wanna map out sort of like your ecosystem. Who owns my target audience? And then also we're wanna wanting to couple that with like, who do I already know, like who's in my network? And then how can I build a bridge for a warm introduction between the people that I know where I'm at now, and the people that I need to start building relationships with.
So you don't like. Identify Dustin and be like, oh, I definitely, I'm gonna go pitch a webinar for him. No, that's not human and, and super abnormal. You'd never do that in real life, right? Like you would identify Dustin. Okay. Where's Dustin gonna be? Like is he going to a conference or something like that?
Maybe I'm paying attention to LinkedIn. Okay. Dustin's going to Craft and Commerce Suite. Alright, I'm gonna start engaging with Dustin for two weeks on LinkedIn leading up to and Commerce and then I'm gonna DM him and ask if we can like, have, you know, 10, 15 minute chat. So that I can just learn more about his business and I have a few questions for him.
And then how can, I'm gonna ask, how can I be a helpful person to you? Right? Build a relationship before you ask for something. I talk about this concept a lot that Brene Brown uses. [00:31:00] It's like putting marbles in the jar, and that's
like building relational equity. There has to be some marbles in the jar in order for you to attempt to extract some marbles.
And so, , you cannot build a relationship from. Emptiness from nothingness. Like you have to actually go and be a human and do that. So this is not an overnight thing. , But once we have that ICP nailed down and we have firm positioning nailed down for each of our clients, like we are administering the MR method to like build out their entire business.
We build businesses again, soup to nuts, brand guide, all your funnels, all your writing, new website, , all your playbooks, SOPs, back in Notion, headquarters,
everything. But while we're doing that. We're going to find customers, right? And so it's kind of these parallel tracks in the accelerator. , So we start building relationships early with this, you know, kind of partner ecosystem.
, But again, it is quite formulaic for each business and it is unique. But there's a set number of activities and a la carte menu, if you will, , that you would engage in. So, I mean, we can talk about any number of those. I'm not a big fan of paid ads unless you're doing a pay to play for a [00:32:00] really high leverage opportunity like a.
Speaking engagement or something, you just can't get on that stage otherwise. , But I don't know anybody that hires like $80,000 consultants off of a meta ad. And so we really steer clear of that. , Even like traditional lead magnets are not like the best thing for our clients. You can be a webinar guest, a podcast guest.
You can host a masterclass, you can host a summit and pull people together. You can do a co LinkedIn post newsletter swaps or takeovers. I there's a menu of options here, right? You can build an advisory board, you can put together a mastermind. , So you gotta identify. What works, like I'm running low risk experiments that I have a hypothesis will yield a medium to high reward and I'm actually tracking my results.
So we build these like custom coded, super cool metrics dashboards for each of our accelerator clients. , So you actually know what effort is reaping reward versus what is wasted effort. So, you know, your job as a founder and CEO is to reduce risk at every turn and make like the right chess moves. So you gotta have a data set from which to make the right chess [00:33:00] moves.
And so. That's where this metrics dashboard comes into play. And the other side of that is voice of customer research. And so we have our clients do a lot of, , surveying, tests, voice of customer calls. So you're, constantly like learning and iterating based on that. , But you don't have to do everything.
there's just a few things that will work to get your flywheel going, and you're going for expansion and referrals.
Dustin: couple things there. I want to confirm something before I make the point, and then you were like, that's not what I said. So to confirm, can you go through real quick the five steps in the MRR method? I think I got them in order, but I have a point. If I got this correct, so.
Amanda: Yeah. Okay. The MRR method has like 35 steps, but we're looking to achieve five points of clarity through the process of the accelerator. So it's who are you, what is your positioning? What painful, pervasive, urgent, expensive problems are you uniquely equipped to solve based on your experience and expertise and passion, who are you?
Okay, number two. Who, who's your ICP? Who are your customers real specifically? And then not just who are they, [00:34:00] but again, what's the pain they're feeling and when are they feeling that pain, and what are the symptoms of that pain because you can't just hit 'em at any point in time. Right. There's a, Certain point in that customer journey where you're hitting people. So who are you, who are they? And at what point do they need your help? That's when we're trying to arrange a meet. Cute. Right? , Number three is your methodology. How you take these very specific ICP narrow and deep niche from pain space to solution space.
What's the painkiller you're delivering what's your, you know, delivery mechanism for that? , And then. It's the wrapper that you put on number four. , How you package up your methodology into a productized service product ladder that earns MRR and also provides like recurring value in exchange for recurring, , revenue.
Like you can't. Just get more and more money from your clients over time. you have to actually have to provide revenue over and over and over. , So that's number four and number five is your go-to-market strategy. How do you effectively and efficiently acquire clients and maximize customer lifetime value?
Dustin: Love it. [00:35:00] two points about the marketing. So we talked, , you went through a lot of amazing strategies, all of which I agree with, and, , think they're fantastic.
There's two things that stood out to me about what you shared. One was they're all relationship based, right? And they're all, , effectively borrowing other people's audiences. So it's basically going to where your people are and being proactive about which pond you're gonna play in, or which barrel you're gonna shoot your fish in, versus trying to.
You know, stick a bear, hook out in the water and hope something happens to get snagged. Like you're going to a very select location and you are leveraging the relationship of the person that already like assembled the fish. Right? To
take this analogy way too far, but really based marketing for the win, which is everything I, you know, believe in and and teach.
And of course, podcast guessing is a form of that.
Two, this comes last in the sequence of events that you outlined of the five, realizing that you started early because you're gonna be building relationships throughout the accelerator. So I dunno, like procedurally in the [00:36:00] time, if they're in your accelerator, they're kind of starting it early and doing it last.
But in the sequence of events, the way Amanda outlined, like the who are you and like who are you serving Who's your ICP, your method, your ladder, go to market strategy being last. To me, it becomes so crystal clear what your go-to market strategy should be and what methodology you should apply, and which pond you should be fishing in because you have so much clarity that precedes it.
Whereas most people flip those things and they start with, how do I find clients before they ever answer the question of like, who am I? Who do I wanna serve? What do I wanna do for people?
I wholeheartedly agree with that approach. And while we're kind of operating at different altitudes, like I'm pretty zoned in on one methodology for marketing with podcast guessing we start with purpose and it always flips people up. 'cause they're like, I just wanna know what shows to be on. I'm like, I don't know what shows you should be on until I know who you are, who you want to serve, and what you're gonna talk about.
And so I just wanted to kind of point out that the sequence of events here makes so much sense to me. And [00:37:00] so anything you wanna add to that, sort of like relationship based marketing that comes after you?
Amanda: You're exactly right. I mean, your methodology is exactly right. , It's just you are going to be so frustrated so fast if you start being a yes man or a yes woman, like somebody in your network, oh, can you do this? I can do that. Yes,
I'll do that. And then you just. Get passed around. You eventually run through your network and you're at a dead end and you've done a bunch of project based work, no foundation for MRR, so you don't have any flexibility, right?
If you don't know where the next money is coming from, that's a really, really stressful place to be.
Dustin: And no enterprise value because you're, by not having a productized service and a thing you're known for, There's no like real business 'cause you're just a project doer and you might as well be a freelancer. You're not really a business owner if you don't have that methodology and that repeatable way to deliver value.
Right.
Amanda: That's exactly right. And I feel like so much skeezy, icky internet marketing is like six figures in six weeks, and here's how to do the sales piece of it, the marketing, the sales piece of it. , And again, people who, [00:38:00] the people making the money in that scenario that's the person selling the course.
Right. And so, just to be clear, it's not you. So. , There's a right way and there's a wrong way to build a business and there's a way to duct tape one together and it will fall apart and it will not serve you long term and you will end up hating your business. Mark my words.
You will hate it. You will hate getting up in the morning. You'll be so frustrated and so tired of beating your head up against a concrete wall over and over and over and over and over. Business building the right way takes patience. I. It takes patience. good things don't happen overnight.
Like things that are really, really good are worth working hard for. And when you're talking about the last third of your career and leaving a legacy and impact building generational , wealth and working within like lifestyle architecture parameters, you can't get there. There's no quick fix.
There's no hack. To that, , and seven months, the length of our accelerator is really, really fast. It's terrifyingly fast. , And that may not seem fast, but again, to build a sustainable business that is [00:39:00] going to build generational wealth, it's pretty freaking fast. , So I think having perspective and maturity and realistic expectations and being careful kind of who you're listening to and, and allowing to influence your decision making and how you think about things is very important.
Dustin: I love that man. This has been so good. ,
you're talking about a very professional level. Creator business that's doing really big valuable things in the world and overlaying these like best online business practices to make it like sustainable, fun and effective in a online
world. So, I don't know, I just got a ton of fulfillment personally out of this conversation.
I'm glad everyone else got to eavesdrop, , on, on here with us. So, Amanda, as we, you know, seek to close out here, I guess any gaps you wanna fill in and anything that you wanna state
Amanda: You know, the thing that keeps popping up is I'm really excited about AI and what the potential that that has for subject matter experts who have a defined methodology because that makes a licensing of your intellectual property and [00:40:00] the potential for a hyper-personalized application. For your clients of your methodology possible.
And so, you know, we talk about, or people talk about passive revenue. I want passive revenue, I want mailbox money depending on how old, old you are. , There is almost no such thing as that, just to be super, super clear. But with the way the AI is going, if you know how to use it well, and you can teach your clients how to use it well, you can license.
Like your dust in ai, you know, for instance. And so I'm talking about that on like a much higher level, like many thousands of dollars per month. But think about, you know, a consultant who, does sales training, for instance, and they've got clients who listen to their sales training, attend their calls and probably have taken their course and done workshops with them and stuff like that.
Imagine if all that knowledge was in A GPT and you could even couple that with a couple other things that I won't mention 'cause I think it's sort of proprietary. But if you can have a licensed GBT for each salesperson that you train and it helps them come up with. Handling objections, responding to emails, [00:41:00] preparing for calls, preparing for proposals.
That's a really high value GPT. And it's not just a reg, it's not just chat GPT, right? It's, you know, Dustin's sales, GPT, for instance. And We're approaching some opportunities for exponential leverage for actual passive revenue. Super long tail. MRR, you have to manage the client relationship and it has to be experiential and stuff like that.
, So it's not just a set and forget kind of situation. But I'm very excited with the way that things are going with technology right now and that we are really pushing, we're on the bleeding edge of, what's possible, , for our type of clients. And so I'm just, I'm excited for that. So I think that's total totally an aside.
It's very interesting.
Dustin: I love it. That's a great place to end it. You guys wanna leave people wanting more, right? So they're gonna be like, man, that was good. Like, so yeah, you should go find out more from Amanda. , So Amanda, you know, whether someone's like. Kind of raising their hand virtually here, and they're like, I think I am an MRR accelerator candidate.
Like, I really wanna talk specifically about that. Or they just wanna be in Amanda's universe, learn from [00:42:00] you. , Kind of, , start to put a foot in this door, , like what's the best next place for people to go on either of those routes or maybe it's the same next step for both.
Amanda: Yeah, thanks for asking. You can head over to mrr accelerator.com and hop on the wait list. So we're doing this recording at the beginning of June in 2025, and our next cohort will not start until September. Getting on the wait list though, you get to hear about it early. , We did turn down seven people for this second cohort that we just launched in May.
And so, , we will emphatically. Fill it. , So make sure that you've got your hat thrown in the ringer. , There. And then you can also just follow me, Amanda Northcut on LinkedIn. I'm on there, nearly every day and we've got, you know, a newsletter that comes out on LinkedIn as well. So that's a great place to connect and feel free to DM me there
Dustin: It's awesome. So Amanda Northcut. Just like it sounds with two T's, , over on LinkedIn or if you're like, I actually want to like be the first to know and know more about the MRR accelerator beautiful domain, mr r accelerator.com and, , that'll get you on the wait list there. So, Amanda, you know. [00:43:00] We've, , known each other for, I guess, officially a year, , since, , craft and Commerce.
We're gonna get to hang out again shortly after this recording. And, , yeah, I just wanted to, you know, thank you. A lot of gratitude for trusting me and coming over into my world, being part of the seven Figure Leap community, allowing me to, come over and be part of your world on your podcast. And we share some mutual clients.
And I think that's awesome because like, we're helping really, really cool people in slightly different ways. , And I have a ton of respect for you, a ton of respect
for the work that you do. So thank you so much for coming on, being so generous with your knowledge and your wisdom and, and your time here and being part of the Seven Figure League podcast family as well.
Amanda: Thank you. This was super fun. Really, really appreciate you having me on.