Most strategists have it easy.
They give you the same template they give everyone. Same funnel. Same offer stack. Same pricing structure. Same roadmap to seven figures.
They can work with fifty clients at once because they’re not actually building fifty different businesses. They’re selling one business model fifty times over.
I don’t do that.
My job is infinitely more complicated because I’m actually designing YOUR empire, not selling you mine.
And almost every client who comes to me is successful but miserable.
They’ve built a business that’s working. Revenue is strong. Maybe they’ve even exited. Maybe they’re running a multi-million dollar operation. From the outside, it looks like they’ve made it.
But they’re bored. Resentful. Exhausted. They’ve watered down who they are for so long that they don’t remember who they are anymore. They just know there’s something extraordinary in there that they haven’t tapped yet.
They’re sick of being the best-kept secret in their industry. They have the inner knowing that there’s more. Something bigger. Something that actually matters.
That’s where I do my best work.
Because what they’ve built was never really theirs. It was built on someone else’s concept of what success looks like. Someone else’s template. Someone else’s version of the right way to scale.
And it’s suffocating them.
THE PROBLEM WITH TEMPLATES
Here’s what most strategists won’t tell you: templates are easier for them, not better for you.
When you buy a program, a course, a coaching package from most business strategists, you’re getting their business model dressed up as yours. You’re getting the exact funnel they used. The exact offer structure. The exact pricing ladder.
“Here’s the template. Fill in your niche. Copy this script. Funnel hack that page. Follow these seven steps.”
It scales beautifully for them. They can serve hundreds of clients with the same framework. Everyone gets the same roadmap with minor variations.
But you end up with a business that’s not led by you. It’s led by someone else’s “ought to” and “should do.”
You end up building something you don’t want to live in.
I watch this happen constantly. Brilliant experts with decades of mastery, extraordinary capabilities, unique genius. They come to me running businesses that technically work but feel completely wrong.
Because they followed the template. They did what they were told. They built it the “right” way.
And now they’re trapped in someone else’s version of success.
WHAT I DO INSTEAD
When you work with me, the first 30 days is what I call “architecting legacy.”
We don’t start with offer structure. We don’t begin with pricing. We don’t jump into funnels or positioning or any of the tactical work.
We start with joy.
Deep, deep conversations for 30 days about what you actually want. Where you want to be. Where the joy lives in your work.
And I’ll be honest with you, this takes time. Because most people are so conditioned to tell people what they want to hear that we have to excavate what’s actually true.
They’ve spent years, sometimes decades, building what they thought they should build. Serving who they thought they should serve. Creating what they thought the market wanted.
Getting back to what brings them joy? That’s archaeological work.
But I always get there. I always find it. And once we’ve found it, once we’ve identified that core of what actually lights them up, then we start pulling together the commercialization strategy.
Not the commercialization strategy. THEIR commercialization strategy.
Because here’s what most people don’t understand about iconic empires: they’re multifaceted. Always.
Look at any Icon. Oprah. Shonda Rhimes. Gwyneth Paltrow. Richard Branson.
They’re not doing one thing. They’re building empires with multiple revenue streams, all built off the back of their personal brand or their role as founder.
And when it’s done really well, it’s built for joy and legacy.
THE THIRTEEN WAYS
There are thirteen primary ways to commercialize influence at the iconic level.
Coaching and consulting. Agency work. Events, workshops, retreats. Books and publishing. Speaking engagements. TV and media deals. Content and advertising divisions. Personal brand endorsements. Brand alignment campaigns. Influencer partnerships. Certifications and licensing. Products, retail, wholesale. Board and advisory positions. Investment acquisitions and assets.
Most strategists will pick one. Maybe two. They’ll say: “You’re a coach, so here’s the coaching model. Scale it with a group program, add a membership, build a funnel.”
I look at all thirteen and ask: which combination creates the empire YOU want to live in?
Maybe you want an advisory arm for wealth building. Maybe you want books and speaking for legacy. Maybe you’re building something for leverage that you can grow and sell. Maybe there’s a personal brand play that funds everything else.
Maybe it’s some of all of that.
The point is, it’s yours. Built from your joy. Architected for your vision of what the next ten, twenty, thirty years should look like.
WHY THIS ISN'T SCALABLE (AND WHY THAT'S THE POINT)
I know immediately when someone’s not a good fit for me.
They ask for the template. They want the script. They ask if they can copy what someone else did. They want to funnel hack their way to success.
And I tell them the truth: if you want that, I’m not your person.
Because an iconic strategy where YOU lead doesn’t work that way. You need to be brave enough to actually create from within. To surrender to your own instincts, your own vision, your own joy.
That’s how luxury brands operate. That’s how iconic brands operate. They don’t follow templates. They set standards.
But it requires something most people aren’t willing to give: the courage to build something that’s genuinely yours.
My way of working isn’t scalable. I can’t serve fifty clients at once because I’m not giving everyone the same thing. I’m architecting fifty completely different empires.
Every single client I work with is different. Every empire is bespoke. Every strategy is unique.
Which means my job is harder. Infinitely more complicated. It requires deep work. Long conversations. Custom architecture for every single engagement.
But it also means that when we work this way, we’re creating something where clients want to work with me forever. Because it’s not just a business. It’s their legacy.
BACKING THE FOUNDER
Here’s what I actually do: I back the founder.
You bring the mastery. You tell me what brings you joy. And if we get on like a house on fire, I’m going to back the hell out of you.
We’ll create something that feels amazing and builds an empire for the long term.
Maybe you’re in the middle of a successful business and we’re going to grow it to sell it. Maybe you’re coming off the back of an exit and you’re looking to create something that looks nothing like what you built the first time.
Maybe you’re successful but bored. Successful but resentful. Successful but suffocated by all the “should dos” that got you here.
We remove all the ought-tos. We get rid of all the conditioning. We excavate what’s actually true.
And then we build something extraordinary.
Not because I gave you my template. Because we architected YOUR empire.
THE CHOICE
So here’s where you are.
You can keep looking for the template. The script. The proven system. The seven-step framework that everyone else is using.
There are plenty of strategists who’ll give you that. It’s easier. It’s faster. It scales.
And it might even work. You might build a successful business following someone else’s roadmap.
But will you want to live in it?
Or you can do something different. Something harder. Something that requires excavating your joy, surrendering to your instincts, and building something genuinely yours.
Something multifaceted. Something that serves your vision of legacy, not someone else’s version of success.
Something that makes you iconic.
My job is harder. And that’s exactly the point.
Because I’m not selling you my business model. I’m architecting your empire.
WHERE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW?
If you’re reading this and recognizing yourself in these words, if you’re successful but know there’s something more, I want to show you something.
I’ve created the Icon Benchmark. Ten short questions that will show you exactly where you are on the scale of operating as an Icon, and where the gaps are.
It takes less than five minutes. And it could guide your entire 2026 to a completely renewed place. One filled with joy. With wealth. With rich, deep work that actually matters.
Not someone else’s version of success. Yours.
If you’re ready to architect your empire from joy, this is where we start.
Welcome home, Icon.
