117 - Creating TIME FREEDOM in Your Business with Dr. Terri Levine
Listen on Apple Podcasts / Listen on Spotify
Summary
In today’s episode, Dr. Terri Levine shares her journey from starting her own speech pathology business to becoming a successful entrepreneur and business consultant. We’re going to be diving into her journey as well as hearing more about her ACLS systemfor attracting, converting, leveraging, and systematizing in order to create time freedom in business. She also discusses the challenges of shiny object syndrome and the need for focus in entrepreneurship. Enjoy!
For show notes, head to coachellyn.com/podcast, and, of course, follow me on Instagram OR check out my YouTube Channel for more!
Keywords
entrepreneurship, time freedom, business design, ACLS system, attracting clients, converting clients, serving and creating, shiny object syndrome, focus, attract, convert, leverage, systematize, time freedom, interviewing, fit, five-question framework, boundaries, operations, finances, CRM management, social media automation, authenticity, Facebook community
Some Takeaways
Design your business to align with your values and create time freedom.
Use the ACLS system to attract and convert clients by serving and creating valuable content.
Avoid shiny object syndrome and stay focused on your main business.
Serve your clients and create a joyful, effortless way of doing business. Use an interview process to determine if potential clients are a good fit for your business
Set strong boundaries to avoid burnout and create time freedom
Systematize day-to-day operations, finances, CRM management, and social media automation
Focus on being authentic and stop comparing yourself to others
Join the Facebook community, Heart Repreneurs with Terri Levine, for valuable resources and support
Sound Bites
"I feel like I'm at home, like I'm supposed to be here."
"Create your business by design and not by default."
"I go through all my own rituals, whether it's walking on the beach, whether it's sitting in the hot tub, journaling, meditating, working out, everything."
"I already can tell within maybe the first three minutes is somebody I can work with and would love to work with."
"I like that you call it an interview because I feel like that is such a beautiful reframe for a lot of entrepreneurs"
"If you go on with any agenda, I go with no agenda. This is my agenda."
About Dr. Terri Levine
Dr. Terri Levine is the founder of Heartpreneur LLC. Known as the business mentoring expert with heart, Terri is one of the world’s top business and marketing strategists. Terri is known for consulting with business owners to help them move from ineffective traditional sales, marketing and operational methods into effective, authentic and transparent people centered communication models.
Terri has over 44 years of business, sales and marketing experience, and has helped over 7,200 business owners reach revenue goals they never thought possible. She is one of the world’s foremost experts on how to market a coaching business. She has built and sold several multi-million dollar companies. She is a best-selling author of over 40 books, and a highly requested keynote speaker at events and conventions throughout the world.
Website | www.heartrepreneur.com IG | @mentorterrilevine
FB | Dr. Terri Levine LinkedIn | Dr. Terri Levine
Resources
Take the “What’s Your Burnout Type?” Quiz
Check out my NEW program Burnout-Proof Business!
Do you have anything to add?
Drop a comment below…
RELATED POSTS:
TRANSCRIPT:
Ellyn Schinke (00:01.473)
Hello, Terry, it is so great to have you on the Burnout Proof Podcast, welcome.
Dr. Terri Levine (00:06.344)
Thank you, I'm excited to be here, it's gonna be fun.
Ellyn Schinke (00:08.897)
It's going to be very fun. I already said in the intro, you have a wealth of knowledge and I am not only personally excited to learn from you, I'm excited for everybody else to learn from you as well. So let's just start with a little bit of an intro to who is Terry? How did you get into doing this work? Because you have been doing this work for a very, very long time I saw.
Dr. Terri Levine (00:29.736)
So my journey was varied. I came out of college with a master's degree as a speech language pathologist and I started my own business. And then I realized I knew nothing about sales, business or marketing. I knew how to diagnose and treat speech disorders. And after struggling, I eventually got it up and running. And several years later, three, a gentleman literally just walked in and said, we're buying up speech pathology clinics. Would you like to sell yours?
Ellyn Schinke (00:52.193)
Hehehehe
Dr. Terri Levine (00:58.856)
And I was like, what? And literally sold my first business. Then I started business after business. I've sold eight, seven businesses along the way, all different industries. And then I have to share my one big mistake. Right before I quit this, I spent five years as CEO of National Healthcare Company and I am not an employee. So while they liked me and they wanted me to stay, I was very unhappy. So 30 something,
years ago I walked out and said the world of business has been great to me I know how to start multi -million dollar businesses and sell them I'm gonna help struggling entrepreneurs be successful and so I've been at this a long time 70 over almost 7300 clients that have worked with me it's been a long journey
Ellyn Schinke (01:47.745)
Wow. Wow. And I love that you've been able to replicate your success in so many different industries, which obviously that's just kudos to you and all of your knowledge and all of the things that you have to offer. I'm very curious. What was it like leaving and selling that first business? Because I feel like sometimes our identities can get so wrapped up in the work that we're doing.
Dr. Terri Levine (02:08.296)
Oh my God, you're like reading my mind. So, I never had any thought of selling a business. I'm like, oh, I have a master's degree in speech pathology, I'm gonna start a business. And it finally takes off, which was a hell of a struggle because I didn't know what I was doing. So this is how ignorant I was. We lived in the Midwest, my clinic was in the Midwest. Most people came, I don't know, wearing jeans or khakis or something.
So my receptionist calls me and said, a man just came in in a blue suit and he's asking for the owner. And my heart dropped. I thought, what am I in trouble with? So I come down, this very serious man is standing there and he said, we're buying speech pathology clinics and I'm interested in yours. I know nothing, right? This is how ignorant I am. Why would I sell this? I spent six years in cut rate.
Ellyn Schinke (02:43.553)
even my first thought.
Ellyn Schinke (03:00.833)
Yeah.
Dr. Terri Levine (03:01.768)
So he stuffs a business card in my hand and says, think about it. And I'm like all pissed off. So I go home later that night and I said to my husband, can you believe this? And I show him the card and my husband said, you're going to call him, schedule a meeting with him, we'll have lunch. And then my husband said, and you can't talk during the meeting. Just like forget telling me not to talk. Well, it was the best advice ever. My husband had to kick me numerous times in the meeting.
Ellyn Schinke (03:30.209)
Hehehehe!
Dr. Terri Levine (03:31.944)
In 1983, I sold that company for $1 million. In 1983, that was like so much money. It was ridiculous. And it was a difficult situation. I love that you asked me this. The first day, I was in tears. Somebody else has maybe some. And then after I started my next business, I'm like, oh no, I can go help people doing something else. So the first one was tough. Now,
Ellyn Schinke (03:50.337)
Yeah.
Ellyn Schinke (03:58.337)
Yeah.
Dr. Terri Levine (04:01.384)
This one would be tough because I'm so passionate about it. All the other ones I set them up to sell.
Ellyn Schinke (04:04.577)
Yeah.
Yeah, you know, it's like, I kind of feel like it probably falls into line of like when I was trying to find my niche as a coach and trying to figure out what I should do, it was so easy to leave the ones that weren't right. But if somebody asked me to move on from what I do now, I would have a really tough time with that. And maybe that's part of how you know that you're in the right career path and you're where you're meant to be is you're going to be able to walk away from everything else. But like your heart.
Dr. Terri Levine (04:13.704)
Yes.
Dr. Terri Levine (04:20.2)
Mm -hmm.
Dr. Terri Levine (04:26.568)
Exactly.
Ellyn Schinke (04:37.089)
is in the right thing. Yeah.
Dr. Terri Levine (04:38.056)
And that's kind of what I say when people ask me, I'm like, this is the only time that I started a company where I walk around every day going, I feel like I'm at home, like I'm supposed to be here. So it took me a while to get planted in the right thing and I'm thrilled about it.
Ellyn Schinke (04:52.353)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah, I love that you said that. I literally even said that earlier today. I was like, have you ever had a jam packed week that you were actually just like energized by and fulfilled by? Like, my week has been jam packed this week, but it feels like a good jam packed. Like I'm excited about it. Like I'm, yeah, that's, that's, I feel like the end goal is when you are energized by the work that you're doing. You can still burn out from it, but like you can, but it feels so good.
Dr. Terri Levine (05:11.4)
I got the same.
Dr. Terri Levine (05:20.072)
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Sure.
Ellyn Schinke (05:24.897)
to be in that.
Dr. Terri Levine (05:25.288)
Yeah, corporate, I have a recollection of Sunday. I used to call Sunday the Sunday night dreads. All I could think about is, oh, I gotta go to the office. I was just in a terrible mood all day Sunday. Now, my Sundays are great. They're just like any other day. And I actually look forward to Monday morning because my clients and I all meet together on Monday mornings. So when you're passionate and fulfilled, yes, we're busy.
Ellyn Schinke (05:29.505)
Mm -hmm.
Dr. Terri Levine (05:52.84)
busy making an impact, busy serving people, busy transforming lives. Like, who would want to do anything else, really?
Ellyn Schinke (05:59.073)
Yeah, yeah. And it's the beauty of the entrepreneurial path too, is you can structure your schedule and your life in the way that you want to. I think part of why I don't have any trouble waking up Monday morning anymore is I've intentionally given myself a buffer on Monday morning. I want to be able to start my week slow. I don't want to have to start my week at a frantic pace. And I've set my schedule up in that way. And I actually have to say, that's one thing I'm very proud of in terms of my boundaries, is I guard my Monday mornings.
with my life. Like if somebody wants to try to sneak in there in my schedule, nope, not going to let you. That is my time. That's the beauty of the entrepreneurial journey. I also appreciate your vulnerability and your honesty in saying you had no idea what to do to grow and build your business because I feel like that's for the imposter syndrome that comes in for a lot of entrepreneurs is they feel like...
They have to at least fake it till they make it or something to pretend like they have any clue. I've been in business for five years now. I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing, but we're figuring it out as we go. They do not teach business and biology programs. I say that all the time, but we figured out. Absolutely. So tell me a little bit about the work that you do with your clients since you have a massive, massive roster of clients that you work with.
Dr. Terri Levine (07:02.76)
I'm sorry.
Dr. Terri Levine (07:09.928)
Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Terri Levine (07:20.392)
I'm really so blessed. Like every day I just wake up and I'm really blessed. I have worked with some of the, I consider the most brilliant people on the planet. And the coolest thing about my clients is many of them have been with me 20, 25, 30 and beyond. So they stay with me. Sometimes they start another business or we scale one business or then they're looking at, well, how do I only work 20 hours a week and how do I have multiple businesses or how can I sell my business? So,
Ellyn Schinke (07:35.681)
My goodness.
Dr. Terri Levine (07:50.536)
I call them client family members because the same people are typically on the journey with me. Every month I consider accepting two people and sometimes I do and some months I don't. That's an advantage versus the way a lot of coaches and consultants do business, which is they're constantly hunting for new people. If you do a great job with the people you have and you give them results, they're not going anywhere else, right? So just to put that out there, I really serve two audiences.
Ellyn Schinke (08:09.121)
Yeah.
Dr. Terri Levine (08:19.944)
I serve coaches and consultants that are more in what I call a startup mode. They're not at a consistent 5 ,000, 10 ,000 a month. They really don't know how to get clients. They probably don't have a high ticket program, or if they do, they have very few people in it. When I look at them, it's they really don't have a business. They're very much hobbyists who need and want to make a living. So that's one set.
Second set of people are either coaches, consultants, or holistic medical practitioners who are doing at least $100 ,000 and who want to scale and be an independent business owner, which means they have massive, massive time freedom. So I work with them as well. So it's two different audiences.
Ellyn Schinke (09:04.065)
It sounds like you also serve a lot of people who are, maybe not, but it sounds like there's a lot of serial entrepreneurs in your world, like people who are starting multiple businesses, which I never thought I would be that human. I thought I would just have one, but I actually just, I do tutoring work when I'm not working in my business. And I just turned that into a business as well so that I can continue doing that work because it's very fulfilling to help.
little high schoolers work their way through very, very tough seasons of, you know, adolescence. I never thought I would be that person. Do you work with a lot of serial entrepreneurs?
Dr. Terri Levine (09:40.84)
It's so interesting that you asked that. Most of the people that come in initially have one business or one business. However, I would say entrepreneurs, we all have a little bit of ADHD, squirrel, squirrel, squirrel, right? And so they keep expanding into things. I was just talking to a client this morning. She has a really great business consulting business. She's doing around.
Ellyn Schinke (09:47.585)
Yeah.
Ellyn Schinke (09:54.785)
Totally agree.
Dr. Terri Levine (10:07.048)
Oh, a little over two million this year. She's doing great, right? And she has a lot of time freedom. And then she comes to me today and she's like, I really want to start this other business. I'm like, okay. So I see a lot of that with my clients. I'll give you one other. I have a naturopath who's amazing. Like I even have her working with me as one of her patients. And all of a sudden I've seen all the skincare stuff on her page and like skincare.
She's like, yeah, I started with this network marketing company's product and I like it so much, I'm selling it in my office. I'm like, okay, we could build that in too. So yeah, I think entrepreneurs are always gonna have that like serial thing just because of how we're made.
Ellyn Schinke (10:40.545)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Yeah, I like that. I always wonder how, especially people who are as tenured as you and have done as much of this work as you are, how you feel about the shiny object syndrome that I feel like so many entrepreneurs are guilty of. Because yeah, I look at my business and I don't think I will start anymore beyond what I already have because I feel like my main business in and of itself is five business in one. I have speaking, I have coaching, I have courses. I have
so many different streams of income that it feels like five businesses. Like, I don't really need another one.
Dr. Terri Levine (11:20.648)
So when I started in the industry shortly after that, because people had asked me to do this, I wasn't planning, I started a coach training school and after, I don't know, eight or nine years, I went, you know what, I teach one focus, one goal, and I'm fighting my time. And so I sold that company. And then a few years later, a very good friend of mine, we became business partners and we started a business consulting institute. And just at the height of the thing,
I said, I love you and I gotta leave because I'm not focused on my main business and because I teach one focus, one goal, I'm doing shiny object syndrome. And we've closed that and sold that business as well. So for me, it's really important. You do several things. I don't have an issue with doing several things as long as you are the type of person that can stay focused on that when you're doing that. And it's not like I'm doing this. Oh, and then I got this. You have to.
Ellyn Schinke (11:59.841)
Yeah.
Ellyn Schinke (12:05.569)
Mm -hmm.
Ellyn Schinke (12:18.081)
Yeah. Yeah. So it's very personality dependent is kind of what you're saying. Yeah. That makes a lot of sense. Okay. You talked before about time freedom, and I love that you said time freedom. You've probably said it half dozen times already since we started talking. I love that because one of my core values is freedom and how I think about how that shows up for me, it's location freedom, time freedom, financial freedom, all of those. I want the flexibility to be able to choose and to not be locked.
Dr. Terri Levine (12:19.112)
do that.
I'm going to do the first part of the nurse. Yeah.
Ellyn Schinke (12:47.873)
in to anything. How does time freedom play into what you do? How do you help your clients create time freedom? Because I would guarantee you probably 90 % of the people that are listening, that's what they want. That is why they have businesses.
Dr. Terri Levine (12:59.56)
Yeah.
So, you know, I leave corporate America miserable. And I said to my husband, I'm just going to start a little small business because I want time freedom. Okay. Because potentially we could have been retired already. We're all set. So I start this business and I get 30 clients in 30 days. And within six months, I'm like, first of all, I'm burning myself out. Second of all, it's a horrible business model. Third of all, I don't think it's productive for clients to do one -to -one. I just don't.
Ellyn Schinke (13:11.233)
Mm -hmm.
Dr. Terri Levine (13:30.44)
And so I completely shut down the model, changed it, 100 % group model, told all my clients, I'm putting you in. If you don't think it's a good idea, if you're not seeing the synergy and synchronicity, I'll just refund your money and you can go. No one left. And so that was the conclusion for me. That is when I started Time Freedom. So what does Time Freedom look like for me?
I never work on Fridays. That's a hard boundary. Saturdays or Sundays. That means no computer, no nothing. They tell people, if you see posts going up on social media, maybe transparent, it is not me on weekends. I am not there. If you're messaging me somewhere, I'm not there. So that's number one. Number two, I decided that I only wanted to work from nine to five Eastern with pretty hard boundaries.
Ellyn Schinke (14:12.289)
Yeah.
Dr. Terri Levine (14:21.064)
And the only exceptions I make, and I do make these maybe once a month, is to record a podcast or a webinar with someone if we couldn't fit into those parameters. However, I don't ever work past 6 PM because I get up super early. And if you get me after 6 PM Eastern, you're not going to get a great version.
Ellyn Schinke (14:40.545)
Yeah, I appreciate you fitting me in today because I realize it is after 5 p .m. Eastern.
Dr. Terri Levine (14:43.4)
Oh, I'm so sorry. Yeah, and I'm just totally, I wanted to do this and we couldn't get our times arranged and like, it worked for me. So the other thing is I totally changed my whole lifestyle. So while I get up in the morning, I used to just go to the computer, email, no, no, no. I go through all my own rituals, whether it's walking on the beach, whether it's sitting in the hot tub, journaling, meditating, working out, everything. And then,
Ellyn Schinke (14:50.177)
Heheheheh
Dr. Terri Levine (15:11.528)
I slowly ease into my day. I only do calls on certain days at certain times or Zooms. And the rest of the time I work on my business. I also take breaks during the day, right? I never did that in corporate. I take at least an hour for lunch. Sometimes I take an hour and I walk and I do some other things. So I constantly live in my life.
Ellyn Schinke (15:33.185)
Mm -hmm.
Dr. Terri Levine (15:34.6)
And we are very blessed. I have three different homes. I live in Mexico. I just got back four to five months of the year in my home there. And here I am in Pennsylvania, which is why I'm so excited.
Ellyn Schinke (15:45.697)
You have my ideal future set up. I live in the Pacific Northwest. I love living here. It sucks from about November to March, but November, December, I'm cool being here. I'll be here for the holidays, but my future goal life is to home base here and then take from January to March and be out of the country.
Dr. Terri Levine (15:51.976)
Yeah.
I got it.
Dr. Terri Levine (16:04.552)
Oh, it's great. This is my, I think my 15th year. And then about 10 years ago, we bought a home on the beach in New Jersey. So my husband and I did grow up in New Jersey and I always dreamed of a beach house. And so I'm going there tomorrow and then I won't stay there that long. It's still pretty cool. And I'll stay there whenever the weather's nice, come to the house a little bit and then head to Mexico. So I want people to just...
Ellyn Schinke (16:26.305)
Mm -hmm.
Dr. Terri Levine (16:30.984)
that in. That might not be your ideal life. What is your ideal life? So the real question to me is what does designing your business look like to give you time freedom? Most entrepreneurs in my experience don't think about that. They just start a business and they go, I have no time freedom. This sucks. Do it the opposite way. Create your business by design and not by default. Those are my tips.
Ellyn Schinke (16:54.049)
Amen. Amen. Yeah. As we record this, I will be launching a program tomorrow called Burnout Proof Business. That is literally what I tell everybody when it comes to creating a Burnout Proof Business is I feel like a lot of us skip over a lot of the foundational envisioning parts of the process, not just creating a vision, but also knowing what your values are and getting aligned with your values. Does your business actually fit your values too?
Like freedom is one of my values. If I am creating a business that doesn't, you know, we're all going to have busy seasons. We're all going to have seasons. I'm in a season right now where my calendar is more overloaded than I ideally want it to be. But I'm doing that with the end goal and the vision in the future of freedom. And that is what I'm building and that is what I am creating. And I'm doing my damnedest to not sacrifice every little, like to not have every season be a sacrifice season. I think it's okay to have temporary sacrifice season.
Dr. Terri Levine (17:46.312)
Hmm.
Ellyn Schinke (17:53.153)
But like your entire business and life should not be a sacrifice season to get to that freedom. And I think that's what a lot of us get stuck in is we feel like we have to sacrifice for years and you shouldn't.
Dr. Terri Levine (17:56.936)
No.
Dr. Terri Levine (18:04.968)
Yeah, I remember somebody said to me, oh, you just have to put your head down and work hard for 10 years. And I went, I'm not going to put my head down. I'm going to live my life. And I'm not going to spend 10 years hustling and grinding. I can't stand those words. I'm going to find a joyful, easy, effortless way to do business. And I did. This is why I have 30 clients in 30 days, right? I just should have stopped getting people at some point. And then I did that.
Ellyn Schinke (18:12.993)
10 years.
Ellyn Schinke (18:18.625)
No.
Ellyn Schinke (18:22.241)
Beautiful.
Yeah. I can't imagine having 31 on one clients. I think I cap it at eight maximum.
Dr. Terri Levine (18:31.848)
It was insane. I'm telling you insane. And then the other thing I did is I developed a proprietary system called ACLS, which is what I share with my clients. And that system leverages and optimizes my time. So it's just like sprinkling magic dust in your business. And that's what most people are missing. They just start a business. They haven't got how to do it.
Ellyn Schinke (18:43.297)
Oh, I'm so excited to hear about this.
Ellyn Schinke (18:50.177)
Yeah.
Ellyn Schinke (18:58.081)
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Let's dive into that because I am so intrigued by this ACLS method. So what does this look like? How does this help entrepreneurs create that time freedom?
Dr. Terri Levine (19:10.44)
So in my first business, that speech language pathology business, I didn't know what I didn't know. I was doing everything. I was doing sales. I was doing marketing, operations, billing, treating the patients, meeting with the families, going to school, speaking, marketing, advertising, reading, I mean, I'm just a rememberer. I didn't know what I was doing. So I'm pretty bad. I really was pretty bad at all of it. I had no time freedom. And initially, I had almost no income until I finally figured it out.
Ellyn Schinke (19:26.369)
Heheheheh
Ellyn Schinke (19:39.585)
Mm -hmm.
Dr. Terri Levine (19:39.751)
And what we noticed to me, what I actually figured out was this ACLS system. I hadn't named it. I just knew what I was doing in the system. So when I started my second business, I went, hmm, wonder if I just take all that and plug it in. Well, that business grew to $12 million super fast. My next business went to $88 million. So I knew I had a repeatable formula. So A is for having the right method to attract people.
Not what most people are doing. Facebook ads, DMing people, cold DMing people, really? You think that that's how you're gonna get people to come to you? Sending out tons of emails, all these things. They spend most of their days, and see if those of you listening and watching can relate, hunting, hunting, hunting. I tell you, I'd rather have a job than sit around all day trying to get someone to hire me.
Ellyn Schinke (20:24.161)
Heheheheh
Dr. Terri Levine (20:32.04)
So the ACLS system starts with attract. What do you do to attract people? It's funny, because I wear a little bracelet every single day. It says serve and create. And at the end of the day, when I feel done serving and creating, I turn to the right handle. So I just teach my clients to do what I call reverse marketing. Basically means show up every day serving and creating the right content, which is a formula of content that you need to create. It's not very time consuming.
Ellyn Schinke (20:41.345)
Love it.
Ellyn Schinke (20:45.089)
Oh, you can flip it around? Oh, that's so cool.
Dr. Terri Levine (21:01.32)
it may be an hour to two a week. That is all that you do. And you will attract. Like today we already have, I didn't check since about 1 p .m. Eastern, we had nine qualified prospects. None of us are out there doing anything other than I did a video, I did a webinar, I did a blog post, I did a podcast, that's it. And then people raise their hands. So that is the A for attract. Once we attract them, we go to C, which is.
and not the way most people convert. The way most people...
Ellyn Schinke (21:32.289)
what not you DMed me once and then you're like, buy my program. I like, I am so sick of that. Like literally every time I get a like a very, very fake DM to a story on Instagram, I'm like, I know where you're going with this and you haven't done anything yet. Like we can snip it out. Sorry. I get very, very fired up about that one.
Dr. Terri Levine (21:36.168)
No! No!
Dr. Terri Levine (21:49.672)
is true. No. I get my blood pressure. I can't look at any messaging apps because my blood pressure goes through the roof going, could you be more intrusive? Right? It's really intrusive. And I get this all the time. I think I've been in this industry 31 years. I get this all the time. And I'm a business consultant. Hey, Terry, I see you're a new coach like me. Okay, so you can look at anything. Then they say,
Ellyn Schinke (22:02.465)
Right?
Dr. Terri Levine (22:17.48)
I can help you get 40 qualified appointments next month. I'm like, if some business needs 40 appointments, they're not a business. If they have time for 40 people, there's something wrong. And you know, I just walk and delete. Tell me the truth.
Ellyn Schinke (22:27.777)
Yeah.
I get a lot of, we could really, really work on your SEO. And I'm like, okay, when you Google burnout coach, I am number one. So you clearly did zero research on me.
Dr. Terri Levine (22:35.112)
Oh yeah.
Dr. Terri Levine (22:42.312)
They just don't bother. So we're not going to attract people that way. I hope we made that very clear. How do we convert people is now that you have shown up and you've served and you've created and reverse marketing has attracted them to where they're raising their hand. And I'll give you an example of this. I spoke to someone, she raised her hand in my Facebook group and then she messaged my team and said, is Terry taking on any more clients?
Ellyn Schinke (22:43.905)
Yeah.
No, we're gonna piss them off.
Dr. Terri Levine (23:11.656)
And my team said, you could have a quick meeting with her to see if you fit in one of her programs. We don't know. So I met with her this morning, just for 15 minutes. And I said, if I think that you're a fit, you're going to have a longer, probably hour interview with my team. Because when it's anyone's money, unless we're positive, we can help. You work too hard for your money. And so while we're on the phone and we're having this conversation,
Ellyn Schinke (23:32.225)
Yeah.
Dr. Terri Levine (23:37.032)
I already can tell within maybe the first three minutes is somebody I can work with and would love to work with. She's speaking, I'm listening. And she said, no, I really want to work with you. Can I get in your program? And we're on a Zoom. And the next thing I see, she's holding her credit card up. And I was just laughing. That's how they convert themselves. I just teach what's called a five question framework. I only ask five questions. My clients are taught the framework. We ask five questions.
People answer the questions. You can tell if they're fit or not. And then the way they convert themselves is after my team has done an interview, if my team's like, we can definitely help them and it's this program, we simply extend our hand and I'll just demonstrate. It sounds like this. You know what? Now that we've had this interview, I do believe that we can help you. In fact, I'm certain. And the program that you'd fit into is blah. And, or even tell you the parameters of it. I want you to know.
I'm extending my hand on behalf of Terry. And if you say yes, we will nurture you, embrace you, we'll have your back. That's it. Now, if they say no, or I'm not interested, or it's too much money, I have to prey on it, think about it, ask somebody who has no idea who you are and what you do. We're just done. We don't overcome objections. We don't use NLP. We don't close and we don't pitch. We also don't tell people we're going to get on the phone with you. And you know, it's not a sales call.
or we're getting on the phone with you, it's a complimentary session or a strategy session. No, we're very upfront. We're gonna see whether or not we can work together. And you're going to be interviewed and I have nothing to pitch you until we see if you fit into something. So that's the second part and that's the convert. Any questions about that before we go on?
Ellyn Schinke (25:19.841)
Mm -hmm. Okay. I would just like to say I like that you call it an interview because I feel like that is such a beautiful reframe for a lot of entrepreneurs because I feel like the strategy call, the discovery call, it feels like, oh, I'm doing this complimentary thing for you, which perhaps you are. Maybe that is how you approach this. But it feels so...
Dr. Terri Levine (25:28.136)
it's real.
Ellyn Schinke (25:45.633)
When you're interviewing somebody, it's like, it's almost in the same way. Oh my God, it makes me think of one night back when I did graduate school interviews. I was interviewing them in the same way they were interviewing me. We were literally assessing fit. And either party could decide we don't fit. And I think that's what I love about the fact that you treat it as an interview.
Dr. Terri Levine (25:54.984)
Yes.
Dr. Terri Levine (25:58.6)
Exactly.
Dr. Terri Levine (26:07.336)
And it truly is an interview and I teach people this all the time, try to surrender the outcome. I don't care if you don't have one client or, oh my God, if they don't sign up, I'm not gonna be able to eat. You'll have to find some other way. If you at all get on any call, Zoom with an intention of, I'm gonna sign somebody up. I'm just telling you that desperation to me is so obvious. I get on the phone with people just for the heck of it now to hear them. I get on with somebody this morning. Yeah.
Ellyn Schinke (26:29.793)
I agree.
Dr. Terri Levine (26:35.848)
complimentary call, three minutes into it, I'm already like, here comes the pitch. I go, dude, you can just stop. You can stop right there. This is sales pitch. I'm done. And I just hung up, right? So if you go on with any agenda, I go with no agenda. This is my agenda.
I know what areas I can help in and I know what is in my zone of genius. I don't know what this person needs. Deeply tune in. Let me really listen. Let me be honest and transparent and ask myself, can I help them? And if I can, I feel it's my duty and obligation to extend my hand. And if I can't, I feel it's my duty and obligation to either send them to a different resource or maybe send them a book, an article, whatever, to still give any help. And I...
I want people to get that for the C, the convert.
Ellyn Schinke (27:24.417)
Yeah, yeah, and I feel like it's also a different type of freedom. Yes, the end goal is to create time freedom, but you don't want to work with people you don't like.
Dr. Terri Levine (27:34.728)
Exactly, you're showing up now happy.
Ellyn Schinke (27:35.425)
Like if you're, exactly, exactly. If your business is, you have time freedom, you have financial freedom, but it's made up of people that you really don't genuinely enjoy being around, that is a completely separate type of stuckness that you're gonna feel. A completely separate type of feeling trapped that you're gonna feel in your business. Love that, love that. Okay, what's the L?
Dr. Terri Levine (27:59.368)
So the L my clients will tell you is one of my favorite words because I say this all the time the L is for leverage leverage and I'm going to give you an example of this so I wrote a story for Instagram and I took that story and I broke it in to about 10 tweets for Twitter one story I took that same story and
and I made it into a longer blog post for LinkedIn. One story. I recorded my podcast off of that one story. I did a YouTube video off of that one story. And then I sent my team the story and said, create an email based on this and send it to the list. You do something once and you have to leverage it at least three times. I can leverage things seven to 10 times now.
because I've been doing this a long time and I just see the leverage points. I find most people are wasting so much time because I have to create this content and then I gotta create this. No, one time and that's it. And it's a very easy effortless process. If you want time freedom, where do you see how much time freedom you'll get from this?
Ellyn Schinke (29:01.441)
Yeah.
Ellyn Schinke (29:17.665)
I even feel like this applies to like situations where I actually learned this from another bootcamp and challenge that I recently went through and I loved about what they did. And this is another simple way to do it. Like if you're doing a webinar, I feel like sometimes we feel like we need to almost like gatekeep or if we're doing a webinar, they have to register and they have to be on our list and we're just only the people who can get on this Zoom call at that specific time can see our webinar. And I think that's a great way to do it.
Dr. Terri Levine (29:35.112)
Please.
Dr. Terri Levine (29:43.88)
Oh yeah.
Ellyn Schinke (29:46.273)
What I loved about this group that I did their masterclass series is they streamed, they had their Zoom, but they had it streaming in at their Facebook group and then they had it streaming on LinkedIn. I completely forgot you could do lives on LinkedIn. So when I did, I'm currently on day four of my Burnout Proof Business Bootcamp. We have our final two days tomorrow and then I'm doing a Saturday. I usually don't work on Saturday, but I want to kind of give them a little bonus.
Dr. Terri Levine (29:53.544)
Mm -hmm.
Dr. Terri Levine (30:00.744)
Thank you.
Dr. Terri Levine (30:11.272)
Hmm.
Ellyn Schinke (30:12.289)
on Saturday. And what I've been loving about it is I found a website where I can zoom and I can stream it on LinkedIn, I can stream it on YouTube, and I'm getting so much content and so much value out of that. And then I'm probably going to go in and take the transcripts and do something with the transcripts. I love that notion of repurposing. Like, don't work, like work harder or work smarter, not harder. I almost said it the opposite way.
Dr. Terri Levine (30:27.048)
Exactly.
Dr. Terri Levine (30:32.808)
Exactly. And then on Zoom, you know, Zoom can do the AI transcript or you can bring it to read or any of those kinds of things. So now my team gets the transcripts. They just simply edit them. And now I also talk about leverage. Now I have a PDF as well. So every time I'm doing something, the first question I ask myself is how can this one action give me at least three ways of impacting people?
Ellyn Schinke (30:38.625)
Mm -hmm.
Dr. Terri Levine (31:02.504)
And I don't do anything unless I can find three ways of impacting.
Ellyn Schinke (31:06.561)
I love that being kind of a checkpoint that you use too. If there's not three ways, I'm not doing it. Done. Yeah. You have good boundaries. This is something I've already noticed in this conversation. This is a… And we'll get to S in just a second, but I have a random question that I just thought of related to this. Have you always had good boundaries in your business?
Dr. Terri Levine (31:09.352)
Yeah, and I'm very firm on that.
Dr. Terri Levine (31:24.072)
I had terrible boundaries in the beginning. So in my speech language pathology business, my first one, I was supposed to be closed at five, but then patients couldn't come till eight. Patients could only come on a Saturday. So it was like, you tell me when I should be open, okay? You set the hours. So when I get into this business and coaching and consulting, I didn't have any hours or parameters. I had 30 clients in 30 days from nine different countries. I still remember.
Ellyn Schinke (31:40.705)
Mm -hmm. Yeah.
Ellyn Schinke (31:53.249)
Oh my God.
Dr. Terri Levine (31:53.928)
I had someone from Japan, I was literally talking to him pretty much in the middle of the night. I had somebody from the UK that I was talking to normally when I'd be in bed. And I had somebody that was five o 'clock, five a .m. my time. At the end of months of this, do you want to talk burnout? I said to my husband, I just created a horrible job. I'm limited on how much money I can make because I can't see any more people. I am so burnout, I'm tired.
I can't even think straight. It's one client after the accident to have five minutes to like let one session go. I'm going to tell on her. I'm going to tell her something. This is when I knew that was the end of individual. I took one of them, named Lori. One was a teacher. One was a physical therapist. I got them confused. And during my session with the physical therapist, Lori, I was talking about teaching and she's like, what? I'm like, I can't do this anymore. Yeah.
Ellyn Schinke (32:36.001)
Yeah.
Dr. Terri Levine (32:52.744)
I don't usually share that.
Ellyn Schinke (32:55.681)
Okay, I didn't do that with my two clients, but I have two clients right now that are both named Catherine and they both spell it the exact, like there's like four different ways you can spell Catherine. I have totally pulled up the wrong notes for them. I haven't mixed them up yet. I don't think I will because they're very different, but like, yeah, I feel you. I feel you, because that freaked me out in and of itself that I would just like, wait, you're not, wrong Catherine's notes are up right now. I'm sorry, I'm very confused. Oh my God.
Dr. Terri Levine (33:16.584)
Yeah, yeah, what's my?
Dr. Terri Levine (33:23.176)
And just imagine if you were 30 and you're just literally back to back to back like all day and not sleeping. I mean, it was so crazy. And that's when I said, OK, if I were opening a store, a restaurant, I would have boundaries. And I sat down. I created boundaries. And my boundaries are like a moat around a castle. It's a fortress. It's not like a picket fence that can fall down in a storm. I have very strong boundaries. I have boundaries.
Ellyn Schinke (33:39.329)
Mm -hmm.
Ellyn Schinke (33:45.153)
Yeah.
Dr. Terri Levine (33:52.872)
with food, I have boundaries with family, health, relationships, and my business very strong. Never had them before.
Ellyn Schinke (33:58.145)
Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Yeah. Ugh. That is the definition. I've joked before about, don't trade your nine to five for 24 -seven, and it's like you did that for a season. And I can see how you would emerge from that realizing, nah, I can't have wishy -washy boundaries. They have to be. You have motes with crocodiles in it. Your boundaries are so...
Dr. Terri Levine (34:21.448)
I'm blessed because it really was a great lesson. It was just like, oh, this is something that I needed to learn. It was a bit painful at the time, yet it changed the entire structure of my life and my relationships.
Ellyn Schinke (34:27.073)
Mm -hmm.
Ellyn Schinke (34:31.745)
Mm -hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. And you know, you don't want to have to get to that point to realize you have to start setting boundaries, but sometimes you do have to get to that point to realize, okay, this is a non -negotiable now. Okay. Thank you for riffing on that for me. Okay. So now attract, convert, leverage. What's our S? Oh, the big S.
Dr. Terri Levine (34:55.56)
And the big S. Big S because out of the thousands of business owners I've worked with, I probably have seen less than 2 % that have this. And that is systematize. And I want to address that because it is a big S. Listen, my first company, the guy comes in and buys my speech pathology clinic. Honestly, I didn't have any systems. I knew how to do everything in the business and so did my receptionist. That's what we knew.
We didn't have a system for anything. In fact, and I'm telling myself again, I was so poor at managing money. I just wanted to treat the patients that when I sold the company and we're getting ready to move out, I opened my desk drawer and I can't remember how many checks that were in there that were a year to three years old that I never cashed. So they couldn't even be cashed. Now I'm not talking like, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it was so embarrassing for me to see that. And I never told my husband, he's a financial.
Why? He would kill me.
Ellyn Schinke (35:54.817)
Don't worry, we don't have to send him the podcast link.
Dr. Terri Levine (35:59.848)
That was like a stellar thing for me. So when I went into the second business, I said, okay, I now I'm going to go into a business to sell it. I'm going to start with the end in mind. Stephen Covey taught me that. So I started with the end in mind. And before I took a person and before I opened the doors, I created every system that I needed in the business. Anyone, and I do mean this, could have just come in, been plunked in and run the business. Anyone.
So every company that I started after that had systems. I was able to sell every one of them for multi -million dollars because people want to come in and go, oh, I could just take it over right there. I don't need you. Bye. When I started the coaching and consulting business, I did start systematizing from day one. And I'm not looking at some way company. People ask me all the time, thank you. No, I love what I'm doing. I've been asked this forever. However.
If I ever chose to, or if I leave the earth and I'm done, someone in my family could sell my company very easily. Why? Anybody could be plunked in, all the systems work, and they don't need me. They don't need that person. Everything is systematized. So if you have a, I'm gonna call it a company right now. If you have a company, you have systems. McDonald's has the same system in every restaurant worldwide.
Microsoft operates on one system. Companies have systems. What doesn't have systems are businesses. What's a business? Someone trading time for money has never thought about the end in mind. If they can't work or choose not to work, they are not duplicatable or replicatable, and that's the end of the company. A close friend of mine, a coach I've known for 27 years, she passed away last week.
And while her business was doing several million a year, it's just closed. Why? She never systematized it. No one could take it over. So those are pieces of advice.
Ellyn Schinke (38:08.673)
Those are beautiful. And you're speaking my language when you say systems. I always, so my Burnout for Business program has three pillars of sustainable success. And the first one is sustainable systems. So you and I are on the same wavelength. I'm actually curious, because I've been thinking about this question for myself. If you had to say, what systems do you feel like every business needs? Regardless of industry, what systems do you feel like every business needs?
Dr. Terri Levine (38:19.272)
No, I love it. I love it. I know I love it.
Dr. Terri Levine (38:26.024)
Hmm.
Dr. Terri Levine (38:36.424)
So the first one is what I'm just going to call day -to -day operations. How do things work? You know, if you owned a gym, you'd be like, OK, at 745, turn the lights on. At 722, check every treadmill. And here's a check sheet that goes, there would be doo doo doo doo doo. So that's the first thing. So that's operations. The second thing, and this is what a lot of people are missing, is finances. When I do a lot of live events, I'll say to people in the audience,
How much money does your company bring in yesterday and how much profit do you keep?
And they're looking at it. And I'm like, how do you not know this? Like, I know everything goes on in my company. I can tell you how many leads we got today. I can tell you how much income came in today. I can tell you how much money went out the door today. Why? It's my job as a business owner to know that. So financials, that's a second for systems.
Ellyn Schinke (39:32.001)
Yeah.
Dr. Terri Levine (39:33.672)
The third nowadays is obviously some kind of CRM management that's tied into email and autoresponders, having that systematized. And then the other one that's a big one is having automation for social media. I think business owners are just killing themselves spending day and night on social media. And I'd much rather personally go build real relationships with people that I can hug and eat something with and get to know.
then, you know, it's so funny. Somebody said to me, oh, I see you have like 200 ,000 followers on Instagram. How do you know that many people? I said, I don't. These numbers are vanity numbers. Who cares? I would rather have 20 people on Instagram than engage with my content. I have no idea why I have that many people. I can tell you they don't engage that much. So I could care less. Like somebody asked me, can you get me followers? Because what do you want followers for? I don't want followers.
Ellyn Schinke (40:15.841)
Yes.
Ellyn Schinke (40:31.425)
Yeah. Yeah.
Dr. Terri Levine (40:33.096)
I want people, and that's why I love my Facebook community, my heart entrepreneur community. It's 8 ,200 people that are really interested in the things I talk about so I can help them and serve them. That's a very important piece, the system, a systemization of social.
Ellyn Schinke (40:47.873)
Yeah, yeah. I have a random app that I love that I'll recommend to people. It's called Meet Edgar. I don't know if you've heard of it or use it. Do you use Meet Edgar? I love Meet Edgar. Okay, for people who don't know what Meet Edgar is, Meet Edgar basically, it repurposes, it leverages. Here, we'll use one of your words. It leverages the content that you're putting out there and it reposts it for you. So like you can attach a blog RSS feed or a podcast RSS feed and it will just funnel the stuff that you are creating already.
Dr. Terri Levine (40:55.112)
Can I use that?
Ellyn Schinke (41:16.417)
and post it and share it on your various different apps. I love Meet Edgar. As soon as I discovered that, I was like, oh, game changer.
Dr. Terri Levine (41:19.272)
Exactly.
Dr. Terri Levine (41:24.808)
A long time ago, I remember I was a friend, we're in Niagara Falls and we're walking and my friend said, oh, I have my favorite business tool, meet Edgar. And I said, like, I looked around like, who's Edgar? I swear to God. And of course he laughed hysterically and he said, we get back to my office, I'll show you. And the minute he showed me, I'm like, oh, come on, Edgar.
Ellyn Schinke (41:38.561)
Who's Edgar, yeah.
Ellyn Schinke (41:47.297)
Yeah. Yeah, Edgar, we're friends now.
Dr. Terri Levine (41:51.144)
I'm sorry.
Ellyn Schinke (41:52.993)
That's exactly how it was for me. I was in a networking group and they were like, you gotta check out Meet Edgar. I was like, who's Edgar?
Dr. Terri Levine (41:58.568)
Oh my god, I've got the same.
Ellyn Schinke (42:00.865)
Like is this a social media manager I need to know about? And she's kind of like, yeah, basically, yeah, Edgar's your social media manager.
Dr. Terri Levine (42:07.24)
Actually, good point. I would say yeah, basically.
Ellyn Schinke (42:11.585)
Oh my God, I love this so much. Yeah, now we are on the same wavelength when it comes to systems. I'm completely right there with you and I completely agree about finances, about CRMs. Yeah, absolutely. Oh, I feel like you and I could continue riffing off of this for so much longer, but let's kind of try to tie it up with a bow right now. What would you say if you had to kind of give a final tip, piece of advice, a little final kernel of wisdom for people?
to help them create that time freedom in their business, to help them kind of shift away from this hustle that I feel like so many entrepreneurs and business owners are trapped in, what would that kind of final tip be?
Dr. Terri Levine (42:50.888)
All right, so the first thing is go get News Feed Eradicator for Facebook.
Ellyn Schinke (42:57.153)
Oh my God, we have the same person. Yes, yes.
Dr. Terri Levine (42:59.016)
I swear we're so alike. Who needs to see this? My cat died, pray for my great aunt Sally, my kid just ate a peanut butter. I can't believe what people post. No, it's just, and now of course, political fighting and religious. Look, this is not the world I choose to live in. If you people want to be in that world with conspiracy theories and whatever, talk about whatever you want to talk about. Not on my news feed. So.
Ellyn Schinke (43:12.609)
I'm dying.
Yes!
Dr. Terri Levine (43:27.752)
First thing, Newsfeeder eradicator. Second thing, on social media, pick one freaking platform, just one. You don't have to be on every platform, and it's the one where your target audience hangs out, and that is different for different people. Spend 20 minutes a day serving and creating on that platform, and use a timer. I set my phone timer when I go in. I don't care if I'm in the middle of a post. When that goes off,
Ellyn Schinke (43:36.513)
Amen.
Dr. Terri Levine (43:55.72)
There you go. We are seeing rain.
Ellyn Schinke (43:56.321)
I got, well, I'll put this in the show notes too for everybody. Cause I personally, the two timers I use the most, cause I don't like to use my phone as a timer. I use my Apple watch as a, yeah, I use my Apple watch as a timer or sometimes I forget to use this and I use this little guy. Yeah.
Dr. Terri Levine (44:06.152)
Where's my watch?
Dr. Terri Levine (44:11.464)
Great, great. Yeah, so 20 minutes a day, that's literally. And if I'm in the middle of a post and the timer goes off, I just leave. Why? Social media keeps your draft. It's not like you lost anything, okay? And I'm just done. And then the other thing I would say is all related to social media is when you stop looking at what everybody else is doing, that's when you'll be successful.
Look, I never would have thought about starting a business to get 30 clients in 30 days, except that's what people were teaching. That's what people were telling me, go get clients, go get clients. So every day I was like obsessed. I got to go get clients. I got to go get clients. I took anybody. That's true. If you were breathing and you could write me a check or give me a credit card. Okay. It was ridiculous. So stop looking what everybody else is doing. Most of them are not successful. And just to give you an example, I will never give this guy's name.
Probably the most famous internet marketer that I know. He came to hire me about 15 years ago. And he said a friend was gonna pay for me because he didn't have any money. Now, this is everything you saw back then. He's in front of Lamborghinis and castles. And I'm like, what are you talking about, dude? Like I've been homeless for five years living in a car. I went, excuse me? He said, well.
Ellyn Schinke (45:24.705)
Mm -hmm.
Ellyn Schinke (45:29.921)
Also, this is completely legitimate because my ex is a marketer and he said, oh yeah, people pay for that. They'll like put the Lamborghini on credit and the private jet, they'll just like show up in an airport and be like, hey, can I fill something in front of that private jet? This is completely legitimate.
Dr. Terri Levine (45:37.704)
They do
Dr. Terri Levine (45:44.584)
Exactly. It's legit. And so I didn't take him on. I'm like, I work with people of integrity. Like, that is so not in integrity. I have gone on to see him on social media for years. I still take a look. And he's still promoting all this great success. And I know for a fact from other people, he is still not at all successful. So that's why I just want you to stop looking at what other people are doing. You know, somebody told me recently, oh, go do this because Gary V did it. I'm like,
Ellyn Schinke (45:52.065)
Yeah.
Dr. Terri Levine (46:14.408)
I am so not Gary Vee. I don't do business. I don't speak like Gary Vee. We don't have the same morals or values. And I personally know him from the wine library here in New Jersey. So no, and I don't choose, no offense to Tony Robbins. I don't choose to be Tony Robbins to talk like him or look like him. Please be an authentic version of you and stop looking at what everyone else is doing. You'll have a lot of time, freedom, a lot less stress, and I can't, we have a lot more money too.
Ellyn Schinke (46:44.033)
Reach. Oh my gosh. I love that. I love that. And I have to say, you know, we are very aligned in a lot of what we talk about. The time freedom, the systems, we're very aligned, but I feel like I'm leaving this with even a new perspective on, I do a power hour every morning and I'm leaving this even with a new perspective on how I should spend that power hour and you know, how much time I might spend on Instagram. And you know, it's causing me to reevaluate, even though I already know this stuff and I think that's the beauty of conversations like this is,
there's a very, very big difference between knowing and doing. And you're reminding me of the places in my life where I could probably make some adjustments and I could do things differently. And I just wanna say, I'm very excited to go speak to your group, but I'm so grateful for you spending this afternoon with me because I feel like this was tremendously beneficial for my own mindset. And yeah, I'm grateful for you. So if people want to hear more from you, if people are feeling the same way about you and...
Dr. Terri Levine (47:17.448)
Yes.
Ellyn Schinke (47:39.969)
your authentic self and your values and they want to be in your heart for your world, where can they find you?
Dr. Terri Levine (47:47.304)
The best place, because I'm super active and I give tons of value, we do lives, we're doing interviews like yours, there's files, templates, checklists, free resources, is a Facebook community called Heart Repreneurs with Terri Levine. And there's about 8 ,200 others in there. A lot of them are doing business together and we'll help you.
Ellyn Schinke (48:09.953)
Love that. And I love how straightforward that is. This is where you come. My, my, yeah, I'm gonna go plug in there after this shoot.
Dr. Terri Levine (48:13.352)
Yeah.
Oh, I can't wait to have you in there. You'll create so much value. And when you have your live interview in there, I just know that our audience is going to resonate with you.
Ellyn Schinke (48:28.801)
Thank you so much, Terri, I appreciate it.
Dr. Terri Levine (48:30.728)
You, it's been a pleasure. All right, bye now.