The First Ninety Days

The First Ninety Days

The first ninety days of a client relationship teach a client more about working with you than anything you said to win them. In the second episode of the after-the-yes arc, Sheena reframes onboarding from paperwork to belief-building, and shows how an improvised onboarding teaches clients that everything will require the founder — building the bottleneck right into the start of the engagement. She walks through the three things a strong first ninety days does: it handles the trust handoff from sale to delivery, it sequences the early experience so the client always knows what comes next, and it delivers an early, visible signal of value. The episode includes a direct translation for product-based businesses, where onboarding is the post-purchase experience, and closes with the core challenge for this audience — taking the onboarding excellence that lives in your instincts and building it into a sequence that runs without your memory holding it up. Key Topics Covered * Why onboarding is belief-building, not paperwork * How improvised onboarding trains clients to need the founder * The trust handoff from sale to delivery * Sequencing the early experience to reduce client anxiety * Delivering an early, visible signal of value * Onboarding as the post-purchase experience for product businesses Key Takeaways * Clients grade the first ninety days on whether the experience matches the promise. * Uncertainty makes clients anxious, and anxiety makes clients high-maintenance. * The bottleneck you feel later is often built in the first ninety days. * A designed onboarding builds confidence in the structure, not just in you. Resources Mentioned * The Strategic Discovery Audit [https://thedevaincollective.com/strategic-discovery-audit/]— the diagnostic gateway to working with The DeVain Collective * The CEO Self-Assessment [https://au878tgncza.typeform.com/to/Kh5TTOb9] * Beyond Founder-Led newsletter [https://newsletter.thedevaincollective.com/] Connect with The DeVain Collective: * LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-devain-collective/] * Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/thedevaincollective] * Website: thedevaincollective.com [https://thedevaincollective.com/] Connect with Sheena: * LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheenadhunt/] * Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sheenad1] About Beyond Founder-Led Beyond Founder-Led is the podcast for mission-driven founders — primarily women scaling service-based businesses from $500K to $5M — who are ready to move beyond being the bottleneck in every decision. Hosted by Sheena Hunt, founder of The DeVain Collective, each episode delivers frameworks, honest reflection, and practical tools for building a business that grows without sacrificing the founder or the mission. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/beautifullycomplicated-podcast [http://supporter.acast.com/beautifullycomplicated-podcast]. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

After the Yes

We spend enormous energy learning how to earn a client's yes, and almost none designing what happens right after we get it. In this episode, Sheena opens a five-part arc on the part of the business most founders never systematize: the delivery experience. She names the gap between selling and serving, makes the case that the post-yes experience is the most honest marketing a business has, and reframes the sale as a starting line rather than a finish line. Whether you run a service-based or product-based business, the principle holds — the yes is where the relationship begins, and the experience you build around it determines whether a client becomes an advocate or quietly lowers their expectations. The episode closes with a diagnosis-first invitation to walk your own client handoff and find the seams before the rest of the arc shows you how to close them. Key Topics Covered * Why the sale is a starting line, not a finish line * The post-yes experience as your most honest marketing * How retention, referrals, and testimonials are built after the yes * The quiet cost of seams in your delivery * How the principle applies to product-based businesses * Diagnosing your own client handoff before fixing it Key Takeaways * Everything before the yes is a promise, and everything after it is the proof. * Clients rarely complain about a rough experience — they simply stop referring. * A seamless experience held together by founder memory and goodwill will not scale. * The after-the-yes experience is a designed thing, not a personality trait. Resources Mentioned * The Strategic Discovery Audit [https://thedevaincollective.com/strategic-discovery-audit/]— the diagnostic gateway to working with The DeVain Collective * The CEO Self-Assessment [https://au878tgncza.typeform.com/to/Kh5TTOb9] * Beyond Founder-Led newsletter [https://newsletter.thedevaincollective.com] Connect with The DeVain Collective: * LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-devain-collective/] * Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/thedevaincollective] * Website: thedevaincollective.com [https://thedevaincollective.com/] Connect with Sheena: * LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheenadhunt/] * Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sheenad1] About Beyond Founder-Led Beyond Founder-Led is the podcast for mission-driven founders — primarily women scaling service-based businesses from $500K to $5M — who are ready to move beyond being the bottleneck in every decision. Hosted by Sheena Hunt, founder of The DeVain Collective, each episode delivers frameworks, honest reflection, and practical tools for building a business that grows without sacrificing the founder or the mission. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/beautifullycomplicated-podcast [http://supporter.acast.com/beautifullycomplicated-podcast]. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Pricing Problem: Pricing as a Leadership Decision

A founder does the hard work — she diagnoses her underpricing, she reverse-engineers better numbers, she raises her rates, and it works. And then eighteen months later, she’s drifted right back. Costs crept up. New offers got priced with old logic. The fear quietly returned. She treated pricing like a pothole to patch once and move on — but pricing was never a pothole. It’s a road you have to maintain. In the final episode of The Pricing Problem, Sheena zooms out and answers the question that decides whether everything from the first three episodes actually lasts: how do you make pricing an ongoing discipline of leadership instead of a one-time project? The episode covers why pricing is genuinely a leadership decision — because it determines who your clients are, your capacity, your team’s sustainability, and whether your business funds its mission or just barely funds itself — and then how to build a real pricing practice into your rhythm as a CEO. The second half of the episode turns to the inner game: how to keep your nerve when pricing keeps testing you. Sheena reframes the flinch as information, not a problem; explains how the work you do on calm days steadies you on hard ones; and reminds you that pricing well isn’t selfishness — it’s what lets you stay genuinely present for your clients, pay a team fairly, weather a hard quarter without panic, and fund the mission you started this business for in the first place. Profit matters. But what your business makes possible matters more. Pricing well is one of the clearest expressions of how you lead your business — and you get to make that choice again every quarter. Key Topics Covered * Why pricing belongs under leadership, not finance * The connection between pricing and the bottleneck — and why underpricing forces overcommitment * Why mission-driven businesses need healthy pricing in order to fund their missions * Four practices that turn pricing into an ongoing CEO discipline: scheduled reviews, tracked signals, deliberate pricing on new offers, and current data * Pricing signals to watch in your own business * The inner game: holding your nerve, letting your numbers carry you, and choosing the right environment * A recap of the full Pricing Problem series Key Takeaways * Pricing is one of your most powerful bottleneck levers — and the one founders most often ignore. * Anchored leadership isn’t the absence of fear. It’s holding your price because you trust your reasoning more than your feelings. * Every new offer is exactly where old pricing fears sneak back in. Price each one deliberately. * Pricing well is what lets you stay genuinely present for your clients instead of overextended across too many. * Profit matters — but what your business makes possible matters more. Both halves of that sentence are required. * Pricing is a decision you make, and re-make, for as long as you run this business. Resources Mentioned * Strategic Discovery Audit [https://thedevaincollective.com/strategic-discovery-audit/] * Full TDC service ladder [https://thedevaincollective.com/why-everything-starts-with-the-audit/]: Optimize Leadership, Optimize Operations, Elevate & Lead VIP Day, Leadership Sprint, Impact Coaching Programming Note This closes The Pricing Problem series. Next week we open a new arc focused on what happens after the yes — starting with client onboarding, and why the first thirty days quietly determine whether an engagement becomes a great one. Connect with The DeVain Collective: * LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-devain-collective/] * Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/thedevaincollective] * Website: thedevaincollective.com [https://thedevaincollective.com/] Connect with Sheena: * LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheenadhunt/] * Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sheenad1] Connect with The DeVain Collective: * LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-devain-collective/] * Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/thedevaincollective] * Website: thedevaincollective.com [https://thedevaincollective.com/] Connect with Sheena: * LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheenadhunt/] * Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sheenad1] About Beyond Founder-Led Beyond Founder-Led is the podcast for mission-driven founders — primarily women scaling service-based businesses from $500K to $5M — who are ready to move beyond being the bottleneck in every decision. Hosted by Sheena Hunt, founder of The DeVain Collective, each episode delivers frameworks, honest reflection, and practical tools for building a business that grows without sacrificing the founder or the mission. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/beautifullycomplicated-podcast [http://supporter.acast.com/beautifullycomplicated-podcast]. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Pricing Problem: How To Raise Your Rates Without Losing Your Best Clients

Once you’ve done the math from part two, you run straight into the fear that stops most founders cold: your best clients will leave if you raise your rates. In this episode, Sheena takes that fear apart — carefully and honestly — and replaces it with an actual process for moving your existing clients to new pricing in a way that protects the relationships that matter most. The episode opens with mindset, because clients read how you feel about your price far more than they read the number itself. A rate increase carried with calm confidence lands very differently than one delivered with apology and over-explanation. From there, Sheena walks through her four-part framework: deciding who to raise (and how to think carefully about grandfathering), deciding when (the natural anchors and the mistakes to avoid), how to communicate it clearly and personally for the clients who matter most, and how to handle the range of responses you’ll actually receive. The honest conclusion: a well-handled rate increase rarely costs you your best clients. The clients getting real transformation — the ones who respect how you run your business — very rarely walk over a respectful, well-timed increase. The clients a rate increase tends to surface are the ones who were never quite the right fit. When one of those clients leaves, what usually walks away is a mismatch that was only working because it was underpriced — opening capacity for the right fit. Key Topics Covered * Why mindset comes before mechanics — and how clients read your tone * Three groups of clients to think about: new leads, existing clients, and grandfathering candidates * How to use grandfathering as a deliberate, time-bound gift — not a fear in disguise * The natural timing anchors: renewals, quarters, year-end, and scope expansions * Timing mistakes to avoid: mid-crisis announcements and pressure-tested rollouts * The four traits of a strong rate-increase message: clear, brief, confident, and personal * How to handle the four most common responses: acceptance, questions, pushback, and departures Key Takeaways * A rate increase is a normal business decision. Every healthy business makes them. * Apology in a price announcement signals that even you don’t believe the new number is fair. * Raise new-client pricing immediately. If you do nothing else, do this. * Grandfathering should be a gift you can comfortably afford, never a silent forever. * A clear question from a client isn’t pushback — it’s diligence. Answer plainly. * A client who leaves over fair, well-communicated pricing is usually a mismatch making room for a better fit. Resources Mentioned * Strategic Discovery Audit [https://thedevaincollective.com/strategic-discovery-audit/] * Beyond Founder-Led Episode 79: Pricing for the Business You Actually Want Programming Note Next week we close the series. Part four: Pricing as a Leadership Decision — making pricing an ongoing CEO discipline instead of a one-time fix, and the inner game of holding your nerve over the long run. Connect with The DeVain Collective: * LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-devain-collective/] * Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/thedevaincollective] * Website: thedevaincollective.com [https://thedevaincollective.com/] Connect with Sheena: * LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheenadhunt/] * Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sheenad1] About Beyond Founder-Led Beyond Founder-Led is the podcast for mission-driven founders — primarily women scaling service-based businesses from $500K to $5M — who are ready to move beyond being the bottleneck in every decision. Hosted by Sheena Hunt, founder of The DeVain Collective, each episode delivers frameworks, honest reflection, and practical tools for building a business that grows without sacrificing the founder or the mission. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/beautifullycomplicated-podcast [http://supporter.acast.com/beautifullycomplicated-podcast]. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.

The Pricing Problem: Pricing For The Business You Actually Want

Most founders build pricing the wrong way around. They pick a number, find clients at that number, and let the business become whatever the math adds up to. Pricing ends up designing the business by accident — instead of pricing being a deliberate decision in service of a clear goal. In this episode, Sheena flips that pattern with a method she calls backward pricing. It starts with the destination — the business and the life you’re actually building — and works back through your real capacity, your true cost of delivery, and the margin you want. The result isn’t a guess based on what other people are charging. It’s a number that’s built to get you somewhere specific. The episode breaks down backward pricing in four layers — a fully loaded revenue target, a deliberate capacity guardrail so you don’t become the bottleneck again, your true cost of delivering each engagement, and the arithmetic that turns those into the price each engagement must carry. Sheena closes with a note on pricing models, because pricing by package or outcome — rather than by the hour — stops punishing you for getting faster and more skilled at your work. Done honestly, backward pricing tends to reveal that the price you’ve been nervously circling isn’t aggressive. It’s the floor. It’s simply what the business requires to deliver the goal at a pace you can actually sustain. Key Topics Covered * Why “what should I charge?” is the last question, not the first * Building your real, fully loaded revenue target — not the vague number in your head * Defining a capacity guardrail that protects you from becoming the bottleneck again * Calculating your true, fully loaded cost of delivering one engagement * The five-step backward pricing method, top to bottom * Why pricing models that reward your efficiency matter more than founders realize Key Takeaways * Price is not a fact you discover. It’s a decision you make in service of a goal. * Your capacity is a guardrail, not a maximum. Set it deliberately. * If you’ve never calculated your fully loaded cost of delivery, you don’t actually know your margin. * Revenue need divided by client capacity tells you what each engagement has to produce — and often makes a higher price mathematically necessary. * Hourly billing punishes you for getting better at your work. Outcome and package pricing rewards it. * The price that scared you is usually the floor, not the ceiling. Resources Mentioned * Strategic Discovery Audit [https://thedevaincollective.com/strategic-discovery-audit/] * Beyond Founder-Led Episode 78: Why You’re Underpriced (And It’s Not Your Fault) Programming Note Next week, part three of The Pricing Problem: How to Raise Your Rates Without Losing Your Best Clients — the timing, the communication, and the actual scripts for moving from your old pricing to your new one. Connect with The DeVain Collective * LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-devain-collective/] * Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/thedevaincollective] * Website: thedevaincollective.com [https://thedevaincollective.com/] Connect with Sheena: * LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheenadhunt/] * Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/sheenad1] About Beyond Founder-Led Beyond Founder-Led is the podcast for mission-driven founders — primarily women scaling service-based businesses from $500K to $5M — who are ready to move beyond being the bottleneck in every decision. Hosted by Sheena Hunt, founder of The DeVain Collective, each episode delivers frameworks, honest reflection, and practical tools for building a business that grows without sacrificing the founder or the mission. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/beautifullycomplicated-podcast [http://supporter.acast.com/beautifullycomplicated-podcast]. ---------------------------------------- Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy [https://acast.com/privacy] for more information.