Welcome to Corporate Consulting Chronicles
This series features the Swagger School® success stories of independent consultants, industry experts, and thought leaders who are landing corporate contracts. Read our interactive case studies to explore how we helped them transform their business and amplify their impact—on their own terms.
How Layci Built Without Burnout With B2B Sales Techniques By Licensing Leadership Curriculum As An Agriculture Consultant
Swagger School® advised an Agriculture Consultant and Leadership Coach on B2B sales strategies to shift her business from time intensive workshops to licensing her leadership curriculum to creating a more scalable delivery model that allowed her to earn more revenue without adding more hours to her booked and busy calendar so she could build without burnout.
"I love that Swagger School® marries the professionalism of the corporate world with the power of owning your individual story and your swagger. Your ability to bring your full self authentically is seen as an asset and not a detriment. If you have any hesitation at all, absolutely do it. I was not afraid to invest in my business but knew I had to stop putting my money in the wrong places. Swagger School® is a fantastic investment, worth every penny. The community is great also - full of wonderful people.”
- Lacyi - Leadership Consultant in the Agriculture Sector
Opportunity
Layci is a Leadership Consultant who specializes in the agriculture sector. She is a trusted advisor to farming, manufacturing and family owned businesses on their strategic planning, leadership development and talent development needs.
In the early days of her business, the executive leadership coach found tremendous success in targeting smaller businesses and mom and pop shops with her innovative, human-centered leadership model. Her work was transformative and her clients were raving fans. However, as she set her sights on growth she knew it was time to target bigger organizations.
Before joining Swagger School back in 2022, Layci had been running live, in-person leadership workshops for agricultural leaders for several years. While these workshops were effective, she faced the common issue of burnout due to the time-intensive nature of in-person events.
As her client base grew, Layci found it increasingly challenging to scale her business without overbooking her calendar and sacrificing her work-life balance.
Her desire was clear: to continue making an impact on the agricultural sector, but in a way that allowed for more flexibility and less reliance on live events.
Before she could create new packages she needed a more effective way to engage more of her target audience to learn more about what they truly needed.
But when Layci began expanding her marketing and outreach efforts, she immediately ran into a roadblock. She burned through 30k in costly ad expenses that were designed to reach individual consumers and those campaigns did not get her any closer to reaching her target corporate buyers.
The first generation college grad was used to figuring things out on her own as she blazed trails, but knew she needed industry insights to learn the unwritten rules of sealing corporate deals.
So Layci joined Swagger School® to apply a proven roadmap to connect with, engage and convert her target corporate buyers and create a more sustainable delivery model to scale without burnout.
By focusing on pricing and packaging her expertise for larger, more established organizations in the agriculture sector, the objective was to move from selling single workshops to creating a licensing model that would allow Layci to serve more clients with less time spent on individual engagements.
In this case study, we’ll walk through Layci’s B2B sales journey, the strategies we deployed together that helped her redefine success on her own terms on the path to winning at work, wealth and well-being, and the valuable lessons she learned along the way.
Challenge
Misaligned Outreach Strategies
Layci constantly found herself getting stood up on Zoom calls after deploying costly ads and marketing tactics that were meant for reaching individual consumers rather than organizations. This approach made it increasingly difficult to reach her target C-Suite buyers and created a disconnect when using outreach strategies that were not designed with a B2B business model in mind.
Difficulty Navigating Corporate Buying Cycles
Without visibility into the buying cycles of corporate clients, which made it harder for Layci to predict when and how to reach out. Layci’s pricing and service structure weren’t optimized to appeal to larger agricultural organizations. She did not have a repeatable process for developing proposals that clearly communicated her value at scale, which made it challenging to build deeper relationships and secure larger, more lucrative contracts.
Lack of A Scalable Delivery Model
Layci’s original business model was based on one-time workshops, limiting her ability to scale. As her client base grew, she found it increasingly difficult to maintain her work-life balance while delivering high-quality services. With a lean team, Layci was overwhelmed by the constant demand to deliver in-person workshops, which were time-consuming and required extensive travel. This left her at risk for burnout with little time to grow her business or focus on higher-level strategies.
"Before Swagger School® I was lighting money on fire and burning dollar bills. I had invested over 30k in a B2C approach when I needed to be applying a B2B approach. It was a tough learning lesson. I was getting stood up again and again on Zoom. I was going after the right people but going after them the wrong way. I didn’t understand how to make that switch in a sophisticated way. I was using the wrong strategy to connect
After Swagger School®I felt amazing. I felt equipped sitting at the negotiation table. I had a better sense of how to frame things up and had a good understanding of who in the corporate structure I am actually selling. With a more sophisticated B2B sales strategy, I knew how to make my message attractive to who I have in front of me at the moment. Everything we worked on refining and tweaking together during my time in Swagger School® - my proposals, frameworks and curriculum - I am still using to close deals.”
- Lacyi - Leadership Consultant in the Agriculture Sector
About the Consulting Journey
The B2B Sales Approach We Took By Implementing Our Proprietary P.I.T.C.H. Method:
As your business grows and your calendar is filled up with one-off workshops and time intensive engagements, there’s one major thing you need to nail for greater sustainability: a more scalable delivery model.
But licensing your intellectual capital to corporate clients isn’t the easiest thing to figure out – especially when you don’t speak the corporate lingo.
Our proprietary P.I.T.C.H. Method is designed to provide consultants with actionable B2B sales strategy secure their next corporate client and tools, training and techniques to thrive at every stage of their journey.
With a proven roadmap, Layci gained strategic advisory support and concrete action steps to package her expertise into a new licensing offer, elevate her positioning to command the attention of corporate buyers and confidently guide organizations from new contact to signed contract.
The B2B Sales Approach We Took By Implementing Our Proprietary P.I.T.C.H. Method
Powerhouse Profile Positioning:
We helped Layci create a more sophisticated outreach strategy that better resonated with her target C-Suite audience so she could get in front of more of the right folks. We also focused on elevating Layci’s personal brand as an authority in the agriculture sector, with the goal of positioning her as the go-to leadership expert for agricultural organizations. This was done by refining her messaging and emphasizing the unique benefits her program provided—helping agricultural leaders reduce turnover, improve team communication, manage succession planning and increase operational efficiency.
Corporate Offer Suite Restructuring:
We guided Layci through the process of repackaging her workshops into modular, scalable content simply by leveraging her existing training curriculum. We worked with Layci to create a licensing model that allowed agricultural organizations and farming executives to offer her curriculum to their employees, thus multiplying her reach without adding additional hours to her calendar while decreasing the length of her sales cycle. One of the key aspects of corporate sales is timing. We helped Layci align her outreach with corporate buying cycles—ensuring that her messages were received when companies were looking to hire consultants. Understanding these cycles helped Layci connect with corporate buyers when they were actively seeking solutions.
Powerhouse Proposal Development & Customization:
We worked on creating highly tailored proposals with tiered services applicable for larger organizations, where Layci could present her offerings as part of a broader, long-term strategy for leadership growth. These proposals were designed to clearly communicate the ROI of leadership training, with specific benefits such as increased productivity within the agriculture sector. We also developed a streamlined proposal process, enabling Layci to quickly generate professional, high-value proposals that reflected the scale and impact of her services.
Leveraging Corporate Relationships & Strategic Partnerships:
Layci had already built strong relationships with agricultural leaders, but we helped her expand her footprint and capture greater market share more strategically by working through acquisition of another consulting firm in the same sector. By leveraging these existing relationships to streamline her delivery model, and integrating these assets she was able to present her curriculum as a turnkey solution for large agricultural organizations. This also involved targeting industry associations, government bodies, and other key stakeholders who could act as distribution partners for Layci’s curriculum.
Maximizing Revenue With A Licensing Model:
We advised Layci on developing a more robust pricing model that would appeal to larger agricultural organizations, cooperatives, and corporate clients. Rather than offering a flat rate for individual workshops, we structured tiered packages that allowed for more flexibility and scalability. This shift enabled Layci to present her services as more than just a one-time event, but as an ongoing leadership development program that could be integrated into the operations of large organizations. Layci’s transition to licensing her leadership curriculum allowed her to generate revenue from multiple streams. Instead of earning from a one-time workshop, she now collected licensing fees from agricultural organizations who used her content to train their teams. Additionally, Layci could offer coaching, consulting, and ongoing support as add-on services, creating a recurring revenue model that increased her income while reducing the need for continuous live engagements.
For busy bosses like Layci, it is rare to get a chance to carve out dedicated time and space to think strategically and work on the business rather than in it. One of the most valuable components of our program delivery format was that Layci could access the resources on-demand to prepare for active pitches and proposals on-the-go.
“You were in my ear while I was doing squats. I would listen to the on-demand B2B sales trainings during my heavy lift days at the gym and absorb it while I was in flow state. I am a very self directed learner. I love that the resources were self paced because it matched my needs. I had time to process everything before getting creative and then could come into Office Hours prepared with my questions. It was great having other folks in the program ask all the things I didn’t even think to ask!”
- Lacyi - Leadership Consultant in the Agriculture Sector
Plugging into our Swagger School® Mastermind community helped her keep her spark burning bright and stay accountable to her biggest, boldest ambitions at every step of the journey.
Outcome
After implementing this strategy, Layci experienced significant business growth in less time without the risk of burnout by decreasing the length of her sales cycle. Within 6 weeks Layci closed two corporate contracts generating more revenue in the first 60 days after graduating from Swagger School® than she had in the previous year.
Layci’s transition to licensing her leadership curriculum allowed her to generate revenue from multiple streams. Instead of earning from a one-time workshop, she now collected licensing fees from agricultural organizations who used her content to train their teams.
Additionally, Layci was able to offer coaching, consulting, and ongoing strategic planning support as add-on services, creating a recurring revenue model that increased her income while reducing the need for relying on solely live engagements.
One of the best parts about rocking your swagger to the boardroom and beyond is the impact you can make on the communities you serve, both globally and locally.
Beyond revenue growth, her B2B brand has also experienced increased reach. Her program is now being delivered to agricultural leaders across the country, and she has recently expanded internationally with a paid speaking engagement on the global stage in Tulum.
Layci is now able to focus on improving her work life harmony after significantly reducing the time spent on one-off workshops, shifting her focus to high-impact activities such as lead generation, strategic planning and business development to build deeper relationships with the agricultural partners and the communities she serves and loves.
Most notable is her increased brand authority. Layci is now recognized for spearheading one of the top leadership institutes and training programs in the agriculture sector, enhancing her reputation and opening new partnership opportunities.
In May 2024, she was awarded the Legendary Business Ownership Award by Greater Yakima Chamber of Commerce in their recent Annual Women’s Awards Ceremony honoring Yakima Valley’s female trailblazers. Layci is thrilled to say bye bye to burnout as she builds her legendary legacy with a heart-centered approach by firing up organizational leaders through her corporate consulting work.
Takeaway
Layci’s experience underscores the importance of having an aligned client acquisition strategy and streamlined delivery model for corporate consulting. With a simplified process in place, any consultant can reduce their risk factors for burnout and increase the profitability of their corporate contracts.
Conclusion
Layci’s case is a testament to the power of building without burnout by licensing her intellectual property and creating systems that allow her small but mighty team to serve clients more efficiently.
Real results
I went from being stood up to closing 50k in contracts!
Leadership Development Coach
Earnings Disclaimer:
Individual results may vary. The outcomes mentioned in this case study are based on the experiences of the client described, and do not guarantee that other clients will experience similar results. Results depend on numerous factors, including but not limited to effort, market conditions, and business strategies employed.
No Typical Results Guarantee:
There is no guarantee of success in any business endeavor. The strategies discussed are designed to assist consultants in scaling their businesses, but success is dependent on a wide range of factors unique to each business owner.
